Monday, January 15, 2007

A Comment That Rings True

I received a comment today from an anonymous source, on a post I did last week: What We Have Lost & the Road to Restoration. The experience expressed here is typical of many Catholics who were catechized post Vatican II. The Baltimore Catechism is gone as a teaching tool, and many Catholics no longer believe (or know about) the Real Pesence. But, I'll just have anonymous speak about this sad state of affairs:

Anonymous said...
At my Sunday Novus Ordo Mass there was a lady reading a newspaper, I kid you not, reading a newspaper after the Gospel and during the consecration. Our Parish is so spiritually dead it's almost painful attending...

Please Please... Where is the TLM already? I'm 29 and have known nothing but Vatican II, but I honestly believe our Parish needs more orthodoxy. We have a beautiful nearly 80 year old parish that had the altar rails ripped out, side altars removed, instead of a prominent crucifix there is a risen Christ with no cross. My Pastor is a great guy, but I've heard him tell in a homily that divorce is bad, but God doesn't expect perfection that's why the Church has a means to be divorced and reconcile yourself with the church, essentially teaching divorce and remarriage is O.K.

As a product of Vatican II, I can say that I attended CCD, received my First Holy Communion, was confirmed etc... And I was NEVER taught once about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Out of all my friends and family that are Vatican II children I am the only one to turn back to my Catholic faith passionately, the rest more than 30 Catholics are all Palm's and ashes Catholics or atheists, with a smattering of nerborns in the mix. I can only thank God for never leaving me and leading me back to truth in spite of the poor examples of Catholic faith I received growing up.


There are more and more younger people desiring a return to the Tridentine Latin Mass. Is it any wonder, when they have been starved for the truth for so long? Reading this comment makes me know why I have been called to teach catechism. As St. John Vianney once said, "If you want to do something for the Church, teach the catechism". And teach it well, I might add.

6 comments:

Dr. Bombay said...

The flock asked for bread and our shepherds gave us stones. We asked for fish and our shepherds gave us serpents.

Springtime. Bah.

Terry Nelson said...

What a stunning post. Imagine reading a newspaper at Mass?

Anita Moore said...

I'm making a study of particular VII documents in order to prepare a response to the rogue deacon incident at our parish last Sunday, and I have to say that I have yet to find heretical teachings in the documents. I can, however, see where the council fathers failed to set certain limits, or to state limits without as much vigor as we might like today -- for the simple reason that they figured everybody (a) meant as well as they did; (b) would bring the same assumptions to reading the documents as they brought to writing them, and therefore (c) never took into account how far rogue elements in the Church would be prepared to take things. But the radical interpretations of VII do not find support in the text of the actual documents -- which is why the rogue elements are always citing to the non-existent "spirit of Vatican II."

Michael Leggett said...

When a K of C Past Grand Knight, I being that Person, who was taught about Transubstantiation with The Baltimore Catechism, BTW, in the 1st Grade in Brooklyn, NY, cannot get a reasonable answer from an 8th Grader about what a Sacrament is & does, it means that this is The Church In Winter & it's cold inside.

Paul Nichols said...

Somehow this doesn't surprise me. My own parish isn't nearly this bad - we still have altar rails and the tabernacle (on the orders of the Pastor) remains in the center behind the altar. (A committee of morons suggested the tabernacle be moved, so this tells me about my fellow parishoners).

But even with that, it's still a struggle to endure it sometimes. I quit going to my parish for a while last summer due to them instituting - once a month - a guitar mass.

My pastor actually called me and said "I've haven't seen you lately", and I let him know why. He stated that he understood but that he has to be "diplomatic" and that he'd told them to pipe the music down a bit.

It's too bad that we have to put up with these people that hate the Faith to such an extent that they plot and scheme to ruin the Mass at every chance they get.

It stinks sometimes, but my own kids know what's right - at the Christmas Mass, before it started, we heard a slight "twang" of a guitar, meaning the choir (up in the loft) was warming up. My 14 year old daughter looked at me and smiled and said "Offer it up, Dad".

paramedicgirl said...

That's a good one Paul. You could do a cartoon on it!