A Treasure To Be Shared

[12 minute read] The liturgy is the action of Jesus Christ. How, then, can it be anything other than the answer to our divisions and also the most fundamental source of the renewal of the Church? - Pope Benedict XVI Catholics of the Latin Rite have for decades endured something of a slurry of strange practices - liturgical experiments and gooey devotions - to a degree that many parishes appear to trap people in superficial religion. The most unsettling symptom of a pseudo-faith is that the very source and summit of the life of the Church, the Holy Eucharist, Jesus Himself present among us, is treated with casual indifference, like a snack or mere treat. While there are pockets of zealous disciples in Europe and the Americas, the mission to bring the Faith to the heart of every society and culture has been significantly inhibited by an abundance of timid witnesses who lack a clear identity, a Eucharistic identity in Christ. Catholic politicians, a rather obvious cohort manifesting the ...

Attribution at The Philadelphia Inquirer: remnants of the disassemble altar rail at St. Michael's From the Philadelphia Inquirer : For the last 12 years, Donna Panno, who leads the singing for Sunday Mass at St. Michael Roman Catholic Church in North Philadelphia, sat in the first pew. [...] But while St. Michael was closed because of the pandemic between March and early June, that pew, along with many others, was ripped from the historic church’s hardwood floors, the altar rails removed. The center-aisle marble floor — down which members and their parents before them had marched to be married — as well as the hardwood floors beneath the remaining pews were covered in bright red carpeting. Covering over hardwood? marble floors covered with carpet? Have the wreckovators no sense of acoustic? Rhetorical question, granted. Was the choir ever consulted? Probably not, given that the organist was handed a pink slip in the days leading up to the wreckovation. Little consultation was done,...

Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, "prolific writer, (...) one of the most prominent living theologians (and) member of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission", wrote an essay posted at The Catholic Thing wherein he cites several areas of serious concern. https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/10/08/pope-francis-and-schism/ What Francis does not realize (and his close associates fail to grasp) is that the overwhelming majority of his American critics would never initiate a schism. They recognize that he is the pope and thus the successor of Peter, and that to remain within the Catholic Church is to remain faithful to the pope, even if it entails being critical of the pope in one’s faithfulness to him. Some may wish that an actual schism will take place in America in order to get rid of the obdurate conservative element and so demonstrate that they were not really Catholic all along. But that is not going to happen, because those critical bishops, priests, theolo...

CWR Image Catholic World Report (Joanna Bogle) has the story: A story of restoration: An Anglican community finds home in the Catholic Church https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2019/05/18/a-story-of-restoration-an-anglican-community-finds-home-in-the-catholic-church/ The renovations include a new marble floor and a new font, an exact replica of the original one that was removed some years ago. The marble floor is in grey and red, the latter honouring Christ’s blood. The sanctuary with its notable baldachino has been completely cleaned and the baldachino freshly repainted. A new heating system—one of the first items to be installed—lies beneath the gleaming new floor. The sacristy with its Victorian panelling and unusual “lantern” window has been restored to its original use and holds an array of good vestments. Weekday Masses, restored to their place in church, are well-attended, as the church stands just across the river from the City of London with its teeming crowds o...