What's A Traditional Catholic?

Just found this on the internets and had a good chuckle. If any of the following describes you, you might be well on your to irritating the people that work in the chancery.

A traditional Catholic is not a person who "prefers" the old Latin Mass. Neither are they people who simply passed Catechism class.

They are people who adhere to a type of spirituality that is largely lost in the 21st Century Catholic Church.

Truthfully, it's easier to describe their outward signs than their character: the old Latin Mass is the biggest identifier... though there are certainly traditional Catholics who are marooned in Novus Ordoland; there are likewise non-traditional Catholics who go to the TLM.

Trads are people who listen to Catholic Radio... skeptically. They might have a blog. They can list their "top-five" favorite Ecumenical Councils... none of which will rhyme with "Attican Shoe". Their friends think they're fuddy-duddys. They've got Holy Water fonts in all the bedrooms and by the front door.

They quote the Douay Rheims bible. They have an opinion on offering Mass in baroque vestments while in a gothic chapel. They're tired of tinfoil hat jokes. They may not like Bishop Williamson, but concede that sometimes he's right, and when he's right, he's really right. They can tell you about Assisi. When they're at a Novus Ordo Mass, they've got their hands folded like a Catholic during the Our Father.

The women have an extra mantilla in the van-- just in case. The men have an opinion on the best type of pipe tobacco for any occasion. The boys have their own cassock and surplice hanging in the closet. The girls know how to play Dies Irae on the organ. They wear a t-shirt while they go swimming so their brown scapular doesen't float away. They're willing to drive an hour to go to Mass... every Sunday.

They know the confession times of at least 4 churches. They invite priests over to play cards and smoke cigars. They pray to saints that you think may not really exist. They ask you to finish the sentence when you say "John Paul the Great"... the great what? They might own a live chicken. When they're at a Novus Ordo Mass, everyone watches them to figure out why they're hitting themselves during the "Lamb of God".

They're kneel after Mass to pray... and miss out on the fun gladhanding with Father by the parish gift shop. They scoff when they pass the Masonic Lodge. They cross themselves when they pass a Catholic church. They mutter something about the "poor souls" when they pass a cemetary. They mutter something about St. Michael when an ambulance passes them. Their girls' first names are Mary. Their boys' middle names are Mary. Cappa Magna doesn't sound like a drink at Starbucks to them. They'll tell you at length why being "charitable" isn't always being nice and friendly.

It's complicated. Trads are not easily defined. You just kind of know them when you see them.

More Dots To Connect

It seems Nidal Malik Hasan has been linked to a Mosque frequented by the 9/11 murderers. Fox News has the details. Also, these guys, before they go on their terror missions like to either hang out in strip clubs or get prostitutes, and Hasan hung out three times at a strip club 8 minutes from Fort Hood in the weeks leading up to his attack.

For the Fort Hood victims (from the introit of the Missa de defunctis):

Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. A hymn becomes you, O God in Zion, and to you shall a vow be repaid in Jerusalem. Hear my prayer, to you shall all flesh come. Eternal rest grant upon them, O lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.

Missa Pro Defunctis

Did anyone know that our own Bishop Emeritus James Timlin held a Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass?

Yes he did.

And certain people in the chancery are probably having fits.

Right Monsignor Bambera?

Anyway, this past Monday Bishop Timlin celebrated the first Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass in about 40 years. That's pretty big news.

It's too bad that Bishop Timlin had to travel to New York to do this. It's too bad that Bishop Timlin, a certified traditionalist, hasn't offered the Old Mass here in his home diocese.

I wonder why that is?

Could it be that in this diocese, which has been stuck in the 1980's liturgically, that now since there is no Bishop, the anti-trads see an opportunity?

You know, the whole cat being away thing.
Because it seems that there are those here in our diocese who are using this time to intimidate and bully priests.

Be careful Bishop Timlin! Someone might bitch about your black vestments and send ya to the principal's office.

But what I would like to see is a brave priest in our diocese offer Bishop Timlin a place to do something similar.

Since our cathedral cannot be used for traditional liturgy without some creative redecorating, we need someone with a proper church building to loan it to us for a night. I'd be willing to facilitate this, but we need a building. Any takers?

Thanks to the Society of St Hugh of Cluny for the pictures.

The Neon Mysteries

In another post I wrote that Pope John Paul II had "screwed around with the Rosary".

To understand my statement, one must view from a scholarly standpoint what the Rosary actually is. There are those who rightly say that the Rosary is a part of the small "t" tradition of the Church, and therefore can be changed. That doesn't mean to say that it should be changed.

What I mean by this is that while I feel smoking my pipe and wearing my kilt and having picnics are all fine to do, I shouldn't do these things in Church because they are wildly inappropriate. The same goes for changing the Rosary.

If JPII wanted the faithful to meditate on the public ministry of Jesus Christ, there are better ways to do so rather than changing traditions. But as has been poined out by a regular reader, the Pope is well within his rights to do so.

But.

The Pope is also the defender of the Catholic Church and its Traditions and traditions. He also has the duty to hand down the unadulterated Faith to others.

So now let's look at the Rosary's history a bit.

Way back in the day, the faithful prayed all 150 psalms. (Try getting some Catholics today to pray one decade of the Rosary...!) As we move into the Middle Ages, people had trouble learning all the psalms, and they longed for a way to do it, so at some point to help these folks, the tradition began of saying 150 Pater Nosters, and in time it eventually became 150 Ave Maria's.

This tradition of saying 150 Ave Maria's was already well under way for hundreds of years by the time Saint Dominic Gusman came along and was told by the Blessed Mother at the church at Prouille "Wonder not that you have obtained so little fruit by your labors, you have spent them on barren soil, not yet watered with the dew of Divine Grace. When GOD willed to renew the face of the earth, He began by sending down on it the fertilizing rain of the Angelic Salutation. Therefore preach my Psalter composed of 150 Angelic Salutations and 15 Our Fathers, and you will obtain an abundant harvest".

It was thereafter known as Our Lady's Psalter. "Psalter" because as I explained, the Rosary is modeled off of the Breviary, with it's 150 Ave Maria's in place of the 150 Psalms. But when John Paul the Innovator decided to add mysteries to the Rosary, by adding 50 Ave's, the whole structure of the traditional Rosary is screwed up.

Hence, JPII screwed with the Rosary. If you don't like my choice of words, remember it could have been much worse.

So we can see that now with the new mysteries suggested by JPII, we have 200 Ave's instead of the traditional 150. But this is no great surprise, for in this great time of Catholic awakening since Vatican II, priests and religious don't even say the 150 psalms anymore because the VII genuises omitted some of the psalms in the newer form of the Breviary.

So, let's get back to small "t" traditions in the post Vatican II era and changing the Rosary. History has shown that whenever the Novus Ordites want to attack capital "T" Tradition, they always go after the small "t" traditions, and during our post Vatican II springtime we have seen it time and again. They went after Latin, Chant, the Mass (!), the Eucharistic fast, Communion on the tongue, Communion kneeling, they removed Prime from the Breviary for whatever reason, they instituted altar girls and EMHC's, they allowed women in the Sanctuary, and they threw out saints because they claimed there wasn't enough proof they existed.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

When you attack traditions, you attack the Traditions handed down by the Apostles themselves, and you breakdown traditional devotion and piety. When you change traditions you change the religion. If you don't think that is the case, have a look around at the havoc that has been wrought in the Church the last forty years.

And that true believers, is why changing the Rosary is a bad idea.

Ok?

The Secret of Sanctity

Here is another traditional devotion for our catholic friends. I am sure my posting of these things will send the libs in the church into a tizzy, which I am happy for. We all know they do not wish for catholics to do or say such things as are outlined below. They believe that the power of men is far beyond the power of God.

Even today's priests will recommend therapy for people in the confessional before they recommend giving one' s self over to the will of God.

So without further delay, please read "The Secret of Sanctity" by Joseph Cardinal Mercier.

I am going to reveal to you the secret of sanctity and happiness. Every day for five minutes control your imagination and close your eyes to the things of sense and your ears to all the noises of the world, in order to enter into yourself.

Then in the sanctity of your Baptized soul, [which is the Temple of the Holy Spirit] speak to that Divine Spirit, saying to Him:

Oh, Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul. I adore Thee.
Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, console me.
Tell me what I should do . . . give me Thy orders.
I promise to submit myself to all that Thou desireth of me
and to accept all that Thou doth permit to happen to me.
Let me only know Thy will.


If you do this, your life will flow along happily, serenely and full of consolation, even in the midst of trials. Grace will be proportioned to the trial, giving you the strength to carry it and you will arrive at the gates of Paradise, laden with merit.


This submission to the Holy Spirit is the secret of sanctity.


Joseph Cardinal Mercier


Cardinal Mercier, a Belgian lived from 1851-1926, and was ordained in 1874 and eight years later became professor of philosophy at the University of Louvain, where, under the auspices of Pope Leo XIII, he organized an institute for the study of the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas. He was instrumental in in the 20th-century revival of interest in Thomistic scholasticism. He was made archbishop of Malines in 1906 and Cardinal a year later. Cardinal Mercier worked to secure greater cooperation between the Catholic clergy and the laity and to promote social well-being. In World War I, Cardinal Mercier became the spokesman of Belgian opposition to the German occupation, for which the Germans placed him under house arrest.