Shortly after Vatican II one of the in phrases was “Cafeteria Catholics” this simply meant with the watering down of the faith people thought they were free to choose which doctrine they wanted to follow. You not a fan of abortion no problem, just skip it maybe take a second helping of being an extra ordinary minister of something or other. All this did was to create confusion which festers to this day.
As a trad I though we Catholics that still followed the traditional faith of the pre Vatican II era were the sole victims. I have since discovered that a portion of the Novus Ordo clergy and laymen want to remain Catholic but have no support from the church for help. All they are given is watered down liturgical services and fancy double talk from our friends in the Vatican.
As an example I think many of us trads are being forced adapt some form of Cafeteria Catholicism only I do not mean in dogma I mean in execution. To survive we have had to adapt. In a perfect world or the one I was born into in the 1950s Spiritual life revolved around the local parish. You went to mass there, went to school there, went to confession there, made your sacraments from there. Far cry from today. I go exclusively to the tridentine mass. In my case the Institute of Christ king. However that is a 65 mile ride one way from where I live. My preference is Confession in the Latin rite. Bad thing is the only time I can get there is the narrow 35 minute time slot before my 8 am mass. Canon takes a long time with each penitant so you almost have to camp out in front of the church the night before to get in. Most penitants are in there an average of roughly 5 minutes. If you do the math that only allows about 7 people to confess before mass.
In a pinch, which happens a lot more frequently these days I go to confession in a local parish about 5 minutes from the house. Confession times are at 5:30 tuesday afternoon, 9am Thursday right after the mass, and saturday after the 8:30 am mass and again at 1pm. I am lucky to have two very orthodox novus ordo priests. From both men the confession is identical to what I am used to at the institute only unfortunately the absolution is in the vernacular. The only part I do not like, BUT the absolution is sound and orthodox, the penance fits the crime, and an act of contrition is required. Again much like the Latin.
At this point I want to mention the people who attend the daily mass when I get to the N.O. church for confession. At times I get there early enough to see the end of the so called mass (Mass of Paul VI is one thing I will never go to). During holy days and like today when I can not get to Rockford there is a great traditional, more or less independent priest that I rely on. Lousy Rockford marathon is today, why they can not do that on a Saturday is beyond me. By the way when do these runners get to mass since its held on a Sunday? Today was a special treat, high mass for the Sacred heart of Jesus with my friend Fr. Brown.
Getting back to the Novus Ordo laity, who attend these daily masses. They want to be good Catholics I think but are basically stripped of their tools and fed contradictory information from Rome. Some of these people wear chapel veils, some prefer receiving communion on the tong. At the end of their mass they say the Michael prayer. Very important in these times. We don’t even say it in Rockford any more just one Hail Holy Queen. Don’t get me wrong but what is the problem with the traditional prayers after the low mass. Why does it have to be truncated. One possible answer might be signals from the bishop. That is the problem when a TLM group gets in bed with the local bishop. Its called a muzzle the real church still has to be suppressed. On low Sunday at the institute it was a split feast day, low Sunday at the 8am mass and Divine Mercy Sunday after the 10:30 mass complete with a recitation of the divine mercy chaplet. Great piece by Fr. Scott of the SSPX on this. In short although the prayers for this were determined to be orthodox it was still condemned by two popes, Pius XII and even John XXIII. It was not until the devotion was given wide spread publicity by fellow Pole JP2 on sister faustina supposed apparition. Keep in mind JP2 not only kissed the Koran but also assembled an interfaith meeting in Assisi (I am sure a slap in the face to St. Francis). So why would anyone practice a devotion recommended by this guy?
So where does that put us trads. In the cafeteria line of available TLM venues ferreting out the usable parts of the true faith. We will continues to fight for our very survival. On that note I think its a good thing if the SSPX gets excommunicated for the consecration of 4 new bishops. We need them and it would not hurt, only help to break the yolk of a corrupted Rome. I think this is all part of a bigger plan on the behalf of Leo. I think this will open the door to threatening other Ecclesia Dei groups with excommunication if they don’t recognize the farce of a mass called the mass of Paul VI among other things. They do not want the old mass, or as they said in the movie the Catholics by Father General, “This Abbott is a part of the church we left behind, Get that old fool off of the mountain James, and if he doesn’t move…………………..BITE HIM!”. The line is about at 5:18 of the movie
In the old days when we had a question or problem we went to the authority, the parish priest or one of the nuns. We no longer have that luxury. They have been replace with an army of arm chair canon lawyers and rouge apologists on line. Talk to 10 people, get 10 different answers. The only certainty are two things, wait in anticipation for July 1, and continue in the Cafeteria que.