Tares Among the Wheat Part 3: Sinister Inclinations

Psalm 43. Judica me, Deus.

- excerpt -

Give sentence with me, O God, and defend my cause against the ungodly people;

O deliver me from the deceitful and wicked man.

For thou art the God of my strength;

why hast thou put me from thee?

and why go I so heavily, while the enemy oppresseth me?

[The above psalm is prayed before Mass in the sacristy or at the foot of the altar.]

Sinister

• Latin sinestra - left hand

Various clutches of Boojums, fishing around for any old stick with which to beat others not deserving the brunt of their madness, should take a step back and ask themselves whether or not they are qualified to sit in judgement of a bishop or a community about which they have little or no actual experience.

If annoying online (leftist) mosquitoes amount to anything, the Ordinariate is

1. "not Catholic";
2. an attempt to "further protestantize the Church";
3. an attempt to "replace diocesan parishes";
4. an attempt "to take Catholics back to the 'dark ages'", i.e., a time before Vatican II;
5. "a cult".

To which one might respond:

1. (not Catholic) In recent times the Holy Spirit has moved groups of Anglicans to petition repeatedly and insistently to be received into full Catholic communion individually as well as corporately. The Apostolic See has responded favourably to such petitions. [...] III. Without excluding liturgical celebrations according to the Roman Rite, the Ordinariate has the faculty to celebrate the Holy Eucharist and the other Sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical celebrations according to the liturgical books proper to the Anglican tradition, which have been approved by the Holy See, so as to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared. - Anglicanorum Coetibus
2. (protestantize the Church) If bringing back to the Church a love of truth, goodness and beauty, expressed in/through orthodox theology, the reverent celebration of the sacred Liturgy, beautiful architecture, great music, an avid engagement of Holy Scripture and the writings of the Church Fathers, and an ardent love of the Church founded by Jesus is "protestant", perhaps those same critics might do well to ask themselves what they mean by 'protestant'.
3. (replace diocesan parishes) Ordinariate communities can hardly be blamed for offering orphaned Catholics a home when, due to priest shortages, their former parishes can not offer even one regular daily Mass per week.
4. (take Catholics back to the dark ages) The dark ages - "saw major technological advances, including... the invention of vertical windmills, spectacles, mechanical clocks, and greatly improved water mills, building techniques (Gothic architecture, medieval castles), and agriculture in general (three-field crop rotation). So saith Wikipedia. What is meant by the accusation of course is that orthodoxy and orthopraxy squelch the fun out of the progressive's agenda to appropriate the Liturgy and use it to their own ends. Liberal religionists don't want anyone telling them what should be, but are entirely motivated to tell everyone else what must be according to progressive ideology. When one only views the world through opaque "progressive" lenses, the real world looks really dark.
5. (A cult? Really?!) Apparently, the Ordinariate, like other Tradition-friendly movements, is a cult for encouraging its members to embrace fully the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to live in accord with Church teaching, and to "worship God in the beauty of holiness" (Ps. 96:9).

Straw

At one left-leaning (practically swimming in the septic field of progressive ideology) media outlet, a writer had the following to say.

The establishment of the ordinariate means that the new RC's will be able to use a variant liturgy that echoes the Book of Common Prayer, and of course their clergy in this generation may remain married, though future applicants to seminary must promise celibacy like regular Roman priests. My dismay is that once again the Catholic Church is defined by negation--"Don't like the idea of women in ecclesial leadership? Come join us! Don't like gay people? We're the Church for you!" Along with the US magisterium's attack on Obamacare because it might involve paying for contraception--"We're Catholic! That means we're against the Pill!"-- Catholicism is seen as summed up in negative positions. The fact that Episcopal priests need only take an on-line course to qualify for ordination underscores the idea that the point here isn't educating new clergy in the fullness of Catholic tradition (which is distinct in many ways from Anglican tradition, right??) but in welcoming in people who take the "right" position on these few issues, teach them a few things about liturgical particulars, and they're good to go. A point of curiosity is how the wives feel about being tolerated for a generation as an exception. Many, doubtless, believe that clergy should be celibate. Still, the implicit attack on their marriages must sting. "Sure, your husbands are welcome in our ranks, and we'll let you stay married to them--but no future married priests will be allowed! You wives are a distraction and obstacle!"

The author of the above paragraph sets up a caricature of the Tiber-swimming Anglican which he then attacks, confident in his practiced ignorance.

"You wives are a distraction and obstacle!"

The wives of our clergy are not a distraction nor any kind of obstacle. And, by clergy we must also acknowledge (married) permanent deacons. Clergy wives are a blessing in ways that the author is probably incapable of appreciating, blinded perhaps or at least distracted by his own biases.

Clergy wives express that feminine genius spoken of by Pope Saint John Paul in a unique way that compliments their husbands' ministry. Indeed, yes - celibate priests and bishops are the norm. There is a supreme and indispensable wisdom to conserving a celibate sacerdotal priesthood patterned after the example of Jesus Himself, the One Who established the sacerdotal priesthood.

I have yet to hear a married priest express contempt for the discipline of priestly celibacy. Have critics actually spoken to a married priest and inquired as to the challenges to married life that the priesthood presents? There is wisdom in upholding the celibate priesthood as the norm while allowing exceptions in special (rare) circumstances, such as the return of our separated brethren.

Forward In The Faith

Among the many true, good and beautiful authentic reasons converts are entering the Church through one of the Personal Ordinariates is that they seek full communion with Christ and His Church. While it may be true that some leave their Anglican and other protestant communities because of perceived deficiencies, the inadequacies of their former communities hardly obscure the reasons for heading toward a home that completes them as Christians. They are, among many reasons, attracted to "worshiping God in the beauty of holiness" (Ps 96:9) which they are able to enjoy in Divine Worship. They are thirsty for authentic community that they find in the fellowship of believers and the hospitality of Christ which saturates the Ordinariate experience. They seek the Truth which Jesus entrusted to His apostles who were the first bishops of the Catholic Church.

Converts to the Ordinariate, which is to say converts to Jesus Christ, are not focused on the TV dinners behind them but upon the banquet (e.g., unchanging Apostolic teaching, and the Mass and the Real Presence) before them.

The Irrelevant Opposition

Faithful young people are leaving behind the anarchic inclinations of a previous generation, a generation which attempted to toss out the proverbial baby with the bathwater. The (c)atholic anarchists claimed or proclaimed at the time, and continue to fume in dwindling fetid pools, that:

• tradition is bad;
• progressive (c)catholics are prophets of change (...for the sake of change, one might add);
• the Church must change her doctrines and liturgies to suit the times (i.e., to agree with "progressive" ideology).

Defiance, Disruption & Denial

One such group of disruptive denizens occupying a parish and issuing demands and demanding deference to their whimsical ways, recently raised their placards in protest against liturgical integrity.

The elderly, white parishioners shouted down their black African priest after he removed unauthorized innovations from the liturgy.

https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2019/08/15/progressive-parishioners-interrupt-mass-to-protest-priest/

The Oregonian uploaded a video of the protests showing elderly parishioners dressed in white, carrying signs into the church during the Consecration, and attempting to shout down the pastor, Fr George Kuforiji. Other parishioners are shown looking visibly uncomfortable at the disturbance.

The protests reportedly concern Fr. Kuforiji’s decision to remove unauthorised changes to the liturgy which had become common in the parish over previous years, and to take down a sign at the entrance to the church saying “Immigrants & Refugees welcome.”

Fr Kuforiji, himself a Nigerian immigrant who was ordained in 2015, was installed as pastor of St Francis of Assisi in 2018.

Prior to his arrival, The Oregonian reported, St Francis was known for “progressive liturgy”(.)

After arriving at the parish, Kuforiji reportedly insisted on using only Church-approved liturgical texts during the Mass. The texts refer to God as “He,” “Lord,” or “King,” instead of the gender-neutral terms “God,” and “Creator” that had become customary replacements during parish liturgies.

Kuforiji also stopped the practice of reading a “community commitment” after the recitation of the Nicene Creed.

The video shows protesters shouting their own intercessory prayers over the pastor’s voice, and reciting the community commitment during Mass as a form of protest against Fr Kuforiji’s changes. Some parishioners have also reportedly refused to kneel during the Eucharistic consecration, in defiance of a recent instruction from Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample.

Need it be said that when the left cannot win an argument through reasoned debate they behave like petulant children who, because they cannot have their way, attempt by any means to intimidate and manipulate others into accepting their ideas.

We have seen the progressive's worst imaginings played out when sanctuaries were stripped and brutalized, tacky vestments replaced works of art, muzak trumped sacred music, Catholic high school programs were designed to mirror public school (secular) social experiments, and so on.

Screenshot/YouTube: Lord of the Rings

Whom do you serve?

Sinisterian blogsmiths are little different from their polar opposite dexterians. Dexterian curmudgeons such as the Train Man, so nicknamed because of his fondness for model trains (though his train of thought often presents as derailed...), routinely hates on the Ordinariate.

Down there he is (a) god.

The Train Man, no more accurate than a broken clock that is accurate twice a day - and wrong for the other 23.9999+ hours - seems to enjoy coughing up ill melodies. Secure in his own Orthanc, the contrarian Saruman froths aimlessly, comfortably housed at his blogdom, promoting fiction distilled from idle banter. His blog - a cold place if not a case full of verbal diarrhea - is little more than a toxic waste dump of gossip and innuendo, "a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust. The very air you breathe is a poisonous fume." So saith Boromir.

At journey's end, or at the beginning as the case may be, dexterians and sinisterians are part of the problem facing Tradition-minded communities. Dexterian and sinisterian mutineers that seek to dominate the mission of the Church had best refer to the mission that all Catholics must share, and get on board the Barque of Peter to enjoy safe passage to the Undying Lands.

A home for the dis-possessed.

The Ordinariate is a home for all Catholics who are seeking the same authentic identity and communion with Jesus Christ as former-Anglicans, former Methodists, the unchurched, etc., have discovered by becoming members of a Tradition-minded Catholic community. Unlike their brethren possessed by the spirit of this age, those walking through Ordinariate parish doors are possessed by the Spirit of God showing them a mustard seed growing into a tree in which all the birds of the air may find shelter.

All-comers are finding in the Ordinariate Form of the Mass - Divine Worship - the full meaning and realization of the phrase the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. They are choosing the Ordinariate Form of the Mass because it is clearly oriented to God. As is commonly heard from voices new to Divine Worship, having shed former biases, one can imagine that "Divine Worship is the Mass intended by the fathers of the Second Vatican Council" (08AUG2019).

The Ordinariate returns to the Church the English Catholic patrimony preserved in Anglicanism for centuries. That patrimony, purified of anything that contradicts Catholic doctrine, is a treasure to be shared with the whole Church.

To conclude... a word from Charles Coulombe

[...] I discovered Church history, Belloc, and Chesterton at an early age. The course of my life has led me to contact with Anglo-Catholics, traditionalists of every stripe, all the Eastern Rites, ethnic parishes, contemplative nuns, Catholic Workers, and a wide range of European Catholic monarchists.

Shrines in North America and Europe are my particularly favored haunts. I was privileged to know such luminaries of Triumph magazine as Gary Potter, Thomas Molnar, Farley Clinton, and Fritz Wilhelmsen—to say nothing of other figures, such as John and Hereward Senior, Fr. John Hardon, and Richard Cowden-Guido. The result of all of these varieties of Catholic experience is that, when in Los Angeles, I attend two parishes every Sunday: Our Lady of Grace, Covina, which is a parish of the Anglican Ordinariate; and St. Therese in Alhambra, a Carmelite parish offering both the traditional Latin Mass and a classical academy. I belong to the Knights of Columbus (4th Degree), the Knights of Peter Claver, the Confraternity of the Precious Blood, and the Honor Guard of the Sacred Heart.

The point of rehearsing this eclectic farrago is to re-emphasize the point: my Catholic life has been and is lived on the margins.

Apart from their attachment to various aspects of Catholic tradition, these wildly different elements have one thing in common—one thing that separates them from what passes for the mainstream of the Church: for the most part, they are at once joyful and growing. Happy with the Faith once vouchsafed to the Saints, in their wildly differing way they all reflect or reflected that continuity so beloved of Benedict XVI—not out of mere nostalgia, but a realization that that Faith is, quite simply, true.

Once the elderly excitement with such things as the Amazon Synod fades with its perpetrators, Pope Francis shall be proven right: the Church will have to go to these margins to retain its credibility.