Don’t try this at home.
I used to work two full time jobs. One of them was an hour away. I was determined, after many years of experience, that I would not let my work obligations get in the way of daily Mass. (Daily Masses would have more young people if they said them when they weren’t at work or in school.)
Well, I hated my first job. It was government make-work and bickering. I had to travel to an ugly, busy part of town. I tried finding a Mass somewhere on the way because they only have one daily Mass in my hometown, and it’s too late in the morning. I had to drive several miles out of my way to sit in a cramped florescent chapel. It had unsettling priests too.
Then I found St. xxxxx. It was five minutes from the office, and they had a noon Mass! I worked five years at that job, and went out to lunch exactly once, it didn’t make me unpopular. I used to get lots of prayer requests on the way out. I used to get a lot of Catholic questions directed my way too.
This parish had signs requesting quiet, pictures of how not to dress and altar rails. The pastor said Mass facing the tabernacle. He sung most of the prayers, many of them in Latin. What a blessing! His associate was also the head of the local TLM Mass group closer to my home. The parish was full of very faithful, humble people, many from the local university.
In the past year St. xxxxx picked up a new young priest. His homilies were quite painful: loud, long and brutish. His message, from what I could tell, was about love, love, and feminism. I knew why he was there. It was now FrancisEra.
This week we’ve learned the Pastor of St. xxxxx is being ‘retired’ and removed. The younger vicar, who also says the Ancient Mass nearby, is being sent somewhere unknown. The faithful group they’ve served doesn’t know what to do. (There are really two communities involved.)
Asked by parishioners for a meeting, the bishop has scheduled something eight months out. The transfers, however are immediate. I don’t know how unusual this is. I don’t know if it was precipitated by some complaint, if there’s some pretext. I’m sure it doesn’t matter.
I have wracked my brain about how I can help personally. Sometimes when you have trouble deciding what to do, it’s because you have too many good options. This isn’t one of those times. This is FrancisChurch.
Catholic teachers can’t teach the Faith. Gay sex must be promoted. Faithless anti-Catholic people must be employed, must be admitted. Morals codes are crushed. The Ancient Mass, or even a holy modern Mass are both suppressed, illegal. The priests are all Protestants. Do you ever see a nun anywhere? Perhaps they hide in plain sight.
We must be honest with ourselves and ask, “Where is our Church?”
The reason we must ask is because we have to stop pretending it’s where it is not. People yell, ‘Schism, schism!’ I’m not calling for some break. I’m just trying to find the Church to which I should adhere. I think the Church is a real thing. As a real thing, shouldn’t it have characteristics? I think it does have characteristics; I just don’t see them anywhere.
When it’s doing Satan’s dance, will you still call it Catholic? Will you dance? Where does this end?
