Butting Heads Over NFP

The butting of heads in the NFP battle goes on...and on…and on. It goes like this: I write unfavorably about NFP; I get criticism from NFP proponents who ask for justification of my views; I repeat the same line of thinking I’ve laid out here on the blog and in my book, Natural Family Planning: Trojan Horse in the Catholic Bedroom? 

[Super deal: use code XJN2V4WV to get a substantial discount on a print copy of the book at this website.]

Sometimes – often, actually – it seems to me that the two sides are talking past each other. “They” don’t seem to get what I’m saying, and I’m sure it appears to “them” that I don’t get what they’re saying.

That begs the question: why?

I think Fr. Chad Ripperger supplies at least a partial answer in his 2001 article in Christian Order entitled “Operative Points of View”.  Fr. Ripperger discusses the “bigger picture” of disagreements between “traditionalists” and “neo-conservatives” (see footnotes 1 and 2  in the article for his definitions of those labels), which he attributes to “the relationship each position holds with respect to ecclesiastical tradition”. He develops this argument quite convincingly, I think, and I encourage you to read the entire article (there’s quite an education to be had in the footnotes!). He summarizes the difference between the two positions this way (my emphases):

…[T]he fundamental difference between neo-conservatives and traditionalists is that the neo-conservative looks at the past through the eyes of the present while the traditionalist looks at the present through the eyes of the past.

In thinking about the arguments NFP-promoters have used against me, I believe that is exactly what I am seeing, time and time again. I see NFP and TOB supporters leaning heavily on post-Vatican II documents while sometimes seeming to casually dismiss Fathers and Doctors of the Church like Aquinas and Augustine. Referring to popes as recent as Pius XI and XII even meets with resistance, on occasion. Fr. Ripperger’s article shed some light on that for me. He wrote (emphasis in original):

Neo-conservatives have fallen into this way of thinking, i.e., the only standard by which they judge orthodoxy is whether or not one follows the current magisterium. Traditionalists, as a general rule, tend to be orthodox in the sense that they are obedient to the current magisterium, even though they disagree about matters of discipline and have some reservations about some aspects of current magisterial teachings which seem to contradict the previous magisterium (e.g. the role of the ecumenical movement). Traditionalists tend to take not just the current magisterium as their norm but Scripture(41), intrinsic tradition, extrinsic tradition and the current magisterium as the principles of judgment of correct Catholic thinking. This is what distinguishes traditionalists and neo-conservatives i.e. their perspectives regarding the role of ecclesiastical tradition and how the current magisterium relates to it.

It seems to me that these different “operative points of view” are very evident in just about every “discussion” that has taken place in the comment sections of any of my posts on the topic of NFP.

A supportive commenter on this blog, who has also published important articles on Humanae Vitae and other topics, used an analogy that I think illustrates Fr. Ripperger’s analysis quite well.  He was addressing in particular the question raised by another commenter: "Why alienate that 2% of people [that is, those using NFP instead of artificial contraception]who are striving to follow Church teaching albeit in a different way than might be preferred?" His answer was:

What we are told

…We all know and we all agree that the Church has lost the 98%.

Imagine that there is a great ocean liner like the Titanic. It is sinking and all the people try to get off. Unfortunately, 98% of the passengers drown, but 2% are able to get onto lifeboats. Now a generation has passed, and the passengers on the lifeboat think that being on a lifeboat is normal, and they do not remember that there ever was an ocean liner, or if they do recall the days of the liner, they are told about how horrible it was back then, and how much better off they are on the lifeboat. The fact that 98% of the passengers were lost and eaten by sharks does not dismay them as long as they are part of the 2% on the lifeboats. 

Which highlights two problems with the lifeboat approach: 1. Only a small handful are saved and the vast majority are consigned to perdition. 2. Even for the small handful, life is not normal. The passengers were never intended to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a lifeboat. But they do not realize the incongruity of their position since it seems normal to them.

To make the allegory more pertinent, we need to remember that "periodic continence" was always permitted at best as a lifeboat. It was always supposed to be an emergency escape hatch. It was never intended to constitute normal everyday practice.

To understand the view of Dr. Boyd and Fr. Gardner, one has to imagine that the ocean liner never actually sunk at all. Despite the panic of the passengers and crew which led them to abandon ship, the ocean liner is still there. The true boat, the original boat, the boat that can hold all the passengers in the world, the boat that will be able to get you across the ocean instead of wandering aimlessly, the boat that has everything that is necessary for an ocean voyage and not just a bare minimum for survival, that boat is still available for anyone who wants to avail themselves of it. 

Reality

The crew of the lifeboat will try to scare any passengers who try to return: "No, don't go back," they will say, "The ocean liner was a terrible place. There were 1st-class and 2nd-class passengers back then, but today we are all equal on the lifeboat. The captain ordered 'Abandon ship,' and you will be disobedient if you go back."

In order to leave the lifeboat and return to where he belongs, a passenger first has to overcome his shock at realizing that the ocean liner didn't sink despite everything that he has been taught his whole life. He has to trust his eyes and say, "Look, I see it right over there." Then he has to overcome the fear-mongering that will try to keep him from returning. But when he finally arrives at the ship, imagine his astonishment to see that the band is still playing, faithful passengers and crew have kept everything operational. The ship will still take him across the ocean to the other side. And it will do so with beauty and decorum and generosity in place of the ugliness, wretchedness, and deprivation that characterized life wandering aimlessly in a lifeboat.

This little allegory rings true for me! How many times have we all heard that “Latin was abolished” or that “using Latin in the Mass is taking a step backwards”! Those who “discover” the extraordinary form of the Mass discover that the ocean liner is still there. And once they discover that, they seem to open up to other “discoveries” about authentic Catholic teaching in a number of areas, such as ecumenism, the necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation…even the desirability of a large family! They discover that hell is real and Heaven is a much better place than anyone ever told them before.

Yes, turning to the EF Mass and embracing tradition opens up a whole new world: a supernatural world that has been lost to many in today’s Church with its dreadful catechesis and protestantized world view.

Maybe we will never get the two “operative points of view” to see eye-to-eye. Maybe these operative points of view were the cause of the problems with Vatican II in the first place – rather than a consequence. I’m not sure about that, but I am sure that Fr. Ripperger was on to something in that article 12 years ago, and those operative points of view continue diverging today.

Something has to change, or we’re never going to get our little lifeboats back to that ocean liner.

Cast a Longing Look Toward Heaven

This is the 4^th reading from Matins for the 14^th Sunday after Pentecost (4^th Sunday in August):

From the Book of Moral Reflections on Job, written by Pope St. Gregory the Great.
Bk. i. 10 on Job i.

Some there are who are careless concerning their true life: greedy of the things which pass away, but as to the things which are eternal, either understand them not, or, understanding them, holding them to be but of little moment, they feel no sorrow, nor know how to take wise advice, and, in forgetfulness of the heavenly possessions which they have lost, they deem themselves (alas, poor wretches) happy in their goods. They lift not up their eyes to the light of truth for which they were created; no keen desire ever maketh them to cast a longing look toward the everlasting Fatherland. Leaving alone the chief end for which they were made, they fix their affections upon the exile which they are enduring, instead of upon their home, and make merry in the blindness which they are suffering, as though it were glorious day-light.

This strikes me as such a cogent summation of what has befallen many Catholics. With the Protestantization of so many parishes, we have lost sight of the fact that there is a hell, and thus Heaven becomes cheap. And so we do not strive to achieve Heaven, because, after all, everyone goes there anyway.

This applies in many areas, but I’m going to apply it to the idea of the blessings of a large family. So many today – Catholic or not – use contraception or NFP to limit the number of children they have. The prevailing argument is that we are responsible for raising and educating the children we have; it is enough – and indeed, it is quite “prudent” – to consider the limitations of our family finances as we discern how many children we are to have.

And yet, this focus causes us to lose sight of Heaven! When we focus on our current financial situation, and the desires we have, for instance, to provide a “good education” for all of our children, then we become “greedy of the things which pass away”; because what passes for “necessary” in today’s society was considered luxurious not so long ago, and even a “good education” today usually focuses on academics at the expense of religious education. Yet, as I used to tell my religion students in the Catholic high school where I taught, when you are facing a crisis in your adult life, you will need to rely on your faith, not what you learned in history, algebra, or science class.

So often I have heard people say that the Church no longer demands that women become baby-making machines, that we are not required to have as many babies as possible. Well, the Church never demanded that. What the Church demands is an openness to life; what God provides is an opportunity to grow in virtue and holiness in this life, and thereby gain Heaven for eternity. The Cross is here to endure on earth; Jesus is our example of that.

Yes, we are poor wretches, in a Church where pastors so seldom teach sacrifice and mortification – which do not have to be all morbid and dreary, by the way! Instead, we are supposed to offer our services in the Food Bank or the soup kitchen, to give money to the next parish project, and to generally help those in need. Those are good things – corporal acts of mercy – of course! But we neglect the spiritual, and we neglect Heaven.

As St. Gregory the Great notes, we “feel no sorrow… and, in forgetfulness of the heavenly possessions which [we] have lost, [we] deem themselves…happy in [our] goods”. We are happy and self-satisfied when we limit our family size to 2 children and send them to a good private school. And yet, what greater gift could a child have than another sibling? What greater act of charity could there be than offering the gift of life to a new soul? What more efficacious path to holiness exists for a married couple than to offer themselves generously and even heroically to the procreation of children?

“Leaving alone the chief end for which they were made, they fix their affections upon the exile which they are enduring…” Yes, in the excuses that are given for limiting children, there is a blindness to Heaven. Instead, there is a fixation with this earthly exile and our materialistic life in it. We must be prudent in our allocation of resources – whether within the workplace or within the community, or simply within the family.  And while there is truth in this, it does not follow that we should limit the precious resource of children – children properly raised in the Catholic faith, rather than some “good private school”; children properly prepared spiritually for and will thus “cast a longing look toward” their Heavenly fatherland; children who will perform those corporal acts of mercy, but not at the expense of the spiritual ones.

Children are a path to Heaven, not a burden to be limited here on earth. 

Bishops, REPENT: Vortex

It is hardly necessary to add anything to MV’s comments in this Vortex episode ("Blindness About Obama", August 23). I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so blunt and forceful in his comments; and I agree wholeheartedly with everything he has said.

Nonetheless, since I seem always to have something to add…I will! Here are some excerpts and my comments; the Vortex and full script are below.

MV takes as his starting point the recent announcement of Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, RI, that he was jumping the Democrat ship and switching his registration to Republican. MV adds:

The 65-year-old bishop who has been a registered democrat since 1969 says the big moment of awareness came for him when he saw the 2012 Democratic Convention and its insistence of promoting the culture of death.

While all faithful Catholics should be happy about His Excellency’s self-described “aha moment”, this should also be a HUGE indicator of just how deeply flawed things are in the Church these days. How could it possibly take SO LONG for a Catholic bishop to see the evil that the Democrats have foisted on America?

Indeed! MV is quick to note that he’s not giving the Republican Party a pass, either, because that party is also far down the slippery slope with regard to moral issues. But it is ludicrous that, according to a number of bishops who have spoken on the subject, “Obama [has] enjoyed at least 50-50 support among the US Bishops, and some said he enjoyed majority support”.

Now let me share with you what MV thinks of Obama and the Democratic Party (and I cannot agree with him more!):

It has been clear since this megalomaniac appeared on the stage of an earlier Democratic Convention out of nowhere that he is an agent of Hell. And if you think that is over the top language… actually, it’s quite tame when you look at his record.

From the slaughter of millions of pre-born innocents, to the advancement of sodomy, to the continued destruction of the family through his social and economic policies, to his almost casual race-baiting and class war agitating, and so forth, this man does the will of Satan at every turn. And so does his party. And enough already with the tired old line – well, they care for the poor. They care for the poor like Hell! Their social justice garbage and pretended war on poverty has been and is nothing more than a giant wealth re-distribution program aimed at creating an enormous underclass that they throw a few crumbs from the table to so they can get their votes every election cycle.

They have wrecked the schools, planted Planned Parenthood in their neighborhoods, backed any and all thoughts, fads and philosophies that decry any reverence or thought of God, appointed judges who dismantle whatever natural law reasoning actually was present in the founding documents and directly caused the deaths of tens of millions of Americans who were never given a chance to see daylight.

This has been their game plan and action since Lyndon Johnson and his so-called Great Society back in the 1960s. And what do we have – death, destruction, marginalizing and mockery of religion and a society rushing headlong into Hell.

And it took until the 2012 Convention for a Catholic Bishop to see this??!?!

Amen. And MV asks:

 

So here is a serious question – how on earth can a bishop who supports this agent of Satan be trusted to ensure that the Faith is being faithfully transmitted?

Simple answer…they can’t. And we have seen that they can’t. There are plenty of examples out there – some in the news, some just anecdotal – of bishops failing in their teaching office. (Yes, there are examples of bishops who do teach the faith, but they are few and far between.) MV lays it on the line for the unfaithful bishops:

You liberal bishops have helped create this culture of death directly, by the work of your own hands. Don’t think that the blood of those babies, of those souls that fall into Hell because of their evil sexual practices, will not weigh in the scales against you on your judgment day.

You are successors of the Apostles – not political operatives for an evil agenda that sounds nice and sugary on the surface, but is evil to its core on the inside.

You need to repent – all of you liberal bishops. You liberal bishops who stamp on tradition in the Church, who let the rot of horrible catechesis flourish in your own diocese, who let abuse after abuse remain unchecked in parishes under your care.

MV doesn’t stop there; he lists the sins of these bishops in no uncertain terms, and you, dear reader, need to either watch the video or read the script to get the full effect of what he is saying. I have bolded that section in the script below. Many bishops have blood on their hands, and for the sake of their own souls they need to repent. And they need to repent publicly, because their sins are public.

MV concludes:

You have abdicated your role as shepherd and let the wolves ransack the flock.

In all the sincerity it is possible to muster, with the deepest charity for your souls, you need to repent publicly. You need to say much more than “I switched parties”. You need to do much more than simply say, “We were gun shy when it came to talking about sexual morality,” as Cardinal Dolan told the Wall Street Journal last year.

You need to say, “I have been unfaithful”. And then you need to open your eyes and see the destruction of the faith that YOU have brought about, and you need to spend your remaining days trying to amends.

And we, the faithful, need to pray for these men.

But along with the prayers, I think it is high time that more people stand up, actually point a finger at offending bishops, and say, “You are responsible.”

Now, of course, I hear plenty of people object to “pointing fingers”; they say that “when you point your finger, there are several fingers pointing back at you”, etc. Well, I am not a bishop! I do not have the responsibilities of a bishop, and will not be held accountable by God in the same way. I am not responsible for souls in the same way a bishop is. I believe it is better to point a finger and say, “Repent!”, than to turn a blind eye to the transgressions of our shepherds. Where is the charity in agreeing with the wrong teaching of a bishop?

Rod Pead, in his powerful talk on “The Sword of Unity”, said

Look, we are kidding ourselves if we think we do well to commend what looks like duplicity in our leaders. Episcopal salvation is, to say the very least, problematic. "Many priests are lost and few bishops are saved," said St. John Chrysostom, himself a bishop. After his mother congratulated him on his appointment as Bishop of Mantua, St. Pius X told her: "Mother, you do not realise what it means to be a bishop. I shall lose my soul if I neglect my duty." So we have to stop pandering to duplicitous Shepherds and start fearing - for them, since they appear to have lost all fear of God themselves, and fearing for our complicity in their negligence.

And Rod Pead was speaking 13 years ago! A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then, and a lot of evil has been done by bishop, whether by commission of omission.

Pray. Fast.

The script:

A few days ago, Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence Rhode Island told a Rhode Island

TV station he was changing parties from Democrat to Republican.

The 65-year-old bishop who has been a registered democrat since 1969 says the big moment of awareness came for him when he saw the 2012 Democratic Convention and its insistence of promoting the culture of death.

While all faithful Catholics should be happy about His Excellency’s self-described “aha moment”, this should also be a HUGE indicator of just how deeply flawed things are in the Church these days.

How could it possibly take SO LONG for a Catholic bishop to see the evil that the Democrats have foisted on America?

And for the record – we know the Republican Party leadership in many ways, also supports many of these same evils, but just treads a little lighter because of the rank and file.

So this is no homage to the Republicans, but rather a serious questioning of what is in the minds of many American bishops.

It has been clear since this megalomaniac appeared on the stage of an earlier Democratic Convention out of nowhere that he is an agent of Hell. And if you think that is over the top language .. actually, it’s quite tame when you look at his record.

From the slaughter of millions of pre-born innocents, to the advancement of sodomy, to the continued destruction of the family through his social and economic policies, to his almost casual race-baiting and class war agitating, and so forth, this man does the will of Satan at every turn. And so does his party. And enough already with the tired old line – well, they care for the poor. They care for the poor like Hell! Their social justice garbage and pretended war on poverty has been and is nothing more than a giant wealth re-distribution program aimed at creating an enormous underclass that they throw a few crumbs from the table to so they can get their votes every election cycle.

They have wrecked the schools, planted Planned Parenthood in their neighborhoods, backed any and all thoughts, fads and philosophies that decry any reverence or thought of God, appointed judges who dismantle whatever natural law reasoning actually was present in the founding documents and directly caused the deaths of tens of millions of Americans who were never given a chance to see daylight.

This has been their game plan and action since Lyndon Johnson and his so-called Great

Society back in the 1960s. And what do we have – death, destruction, marginalizing and mockery of religion and a society rushing headlong into Hell.

And it took until the 2012 Convention for a Catholic Bishop to see this??!?!

In various interviews with a number of different bishops over the past few years, they

have each admitted that Obama enjoyed at least 50-50 support among the US Bishops

and some said he enjoyed majority support.

So here is a serious question – how on earth can a bishop who supports this agent of

Satan be trusted to ensure that the Faith is being faithfully transmitted? Seriously?

The great defense on the part of these liberal-minded bishops is: “Oh, the poor; oh, the poor… the death penalty, the death penalty”. Poverty and execution are not intrinsic evils – check the Catechism – but abortion, sodomy, euthanasia, contraception certainly are, and they are the backbone of the Democratic Party [platform], and have been for decades.

Yet, every election, we hear this liberal bishop pabulum conflating intrinsic evil with social ills as though they are the same. They will not take a stance against these things because they, in their minds, are locked in the halcyon days of the 1960s, and live in a pretend world of peace and joy and flower power.

For the liberal bishops who have contributed to such an undermining of the faith all these decades, there is much more here than coming to some dim awareness of the evil that has been staring you in the face all these years. There is a requirement to renounce your personal contribution to it – not bemoan some vague set of social circumstances that are complex and difficult to get your hands around.

You liberal bishops have helped create this culture of death directly, by the work of your own hands. Don’t think that the blood of those babies, of those souls that fall into Hell because of their evil sexual practices will not weigh in the scales against you on your judgment day.

You are successors of the Apostles – not political operatives for an evil agenda that sounds nice and sugary on the surface, but is evil to its core on the inside.

You need to repent – all of you liberal bishops. You liberal bishops who stamp on tradition in the Church, who let the rot of horrible catechesis flourish in your own diocese, who let abuse after abuse remain unchecked in parishes under your care.

You have supported a political system which has brought morality in this country to its knees and made a virtuous life the butt of jokes. Yes, you! Do you think you will escape responsibility for your deeds and their consequences – your sins of omission and commission – what you have done and what you have failed to do?

The truth of the Faith has been strangled on your watches with your complicity. You are shepherds appointed by GOD Almighty to souls to Christ, but you have led souls right into the arms of the enemy. You have compromised with evil – you covered up the rape of children and pled ignorance afterwards.

You have allowed hordes of homosexual men to become priests and then promoted them after ordination to influential positions on the Church where they could reign down their spiritual terror on the unsuspecting faithful.

You have not just allowed but encouraged a spirit of radical feminism to run wild in the

Church, in your own ranks and in the pews, universities, parishes, seminaries, houses of formation and so forth.

You have sat atop a near total destruction of the faith unprecedented in the history of the Church that it would have made Nero blush.

You have coddled murderers and sodomites and evil men of every sort. You have rolled out the red carpet for them in your cathedrals. You have delivered Holy Communion to them as surely as Judas handed over Our Blessed Lord.

You have abdicated your role as shepherd and let the wolves ransack the flock.

In all the sincerity it is possible to muster, with the deepest charity for your souls, you need to repent publicly. You need to say much more than “I switched parties”. You need to do much more than simply say, “We were gun shy when it came to talking about sexual morality,” as Cardinal Dolan told the Wall Street Journal last year.

You need to say, “I have been unfaithful”. And then you need to open your eyes and see the destruction of the faith that YOU have brought about and you need to spend your remaining days trying to amends.

GOD Love You,

I’m Michael Voris

The Shrinking Church of Nice: Vortex

Bam, bam. Two Vortex episodes in a row that hammer away at the causes of the crisis in the Church, and how to correct them. I was going to combine them into one post, but there is much to say, and I try to keep these posts relatively short. So, consider this part one of two, and see my comments on the August 23 Vortex as a separate post.

The August 22 Vortex, “Dying on the Vine”, made me want to organize a picket line at the chancery office – at chancery offices all over the country – with signs reading, "Bishops: Teach the Faith!"

MV reports that the annual Pew Research survey shows that the percentage of Catholics who consider themselves “strong” Catholics is at an all-time low – just 27% - the lowest figure EVER in the nearly 40 years the survey has been being conducted. MV goes on to say that

Among Catholics…who count themselves as STRONG Catholics, only HALF say they attend Mass at least once a week, 53 percent. That is nearly incredible. Half of the Catholics who say “I’m a strong Catholic” don’t go to Mass [on a weekly basis]. If this doesn’t – in one glaringly blinding snapshot – prove that the leadership of the Church in America is simply out to lunch, and has been for decades, nothing does. The Church of Nice continues to shrivel up because the leaders won’t do what needs to be done.

To be certain, it has taken 40 years for these numbers to plummet to their current all-time low. This situation was inherited, not caused, by the current class of bishops and that is very unfortunate for them – a rotten position to be in.

That said – they ARE the leaders NOW and it is up to them to clean up the mess and that quite evidently, by every single measure possible – is simply not happening. What IS happening is a never-ending drumbeat of promoting social justice issues, and as is very obvious by now, this promotion is being done at the expense of spiritual concerns – and it is beyond galling for Faithful Catholics.

Promotion of social justice issues is often at the expense of fighting the evil of abortion and contraception, as well.

Again, we here at Church Militant.TV ask the question: WHY DOES THE MAINSTREAM CATHOLIC MEDIA NEVER talk about these things and call the bishops to account?

Yes; why?! Well, MV answers that question, but let me  preface his answer with an example. I appreciate much of the work of the National Catholic Register, as a faithful counterpart to the atrociously non-Catholic (and sometimes anti-Catholic) National Kathlic Fishwrap, but even the NCRegister often turns a blind eye to the crisis in the Church. For instance, I noticed a story today entitled “Looking at the Good Fruit of WYD Denver 1993”.  Look at this excerpt (my emphases):

According to Father Buelt, the effects of WYD weren't particular to Denver, but spread nationally and internationally. "Every one of those 225,000 young people returned home and reinvigorated their own churches, communities and families. I'm always concerned that Denver is made to look like some sort of kingly beneficiary. We're just a place in which the Holy Spirit touched the lives of 225,000 youth who went out and made disciples."

This is blatant propaganda. To you believe for one minute that Fr. Buelt knows for a fact what each of those 225,000 young people did? That's just plain ridiculous. And if those 225,000 young people went out and made disciples...well, where the heck are they?! The Church is shrinking, as MV has so aptly pointed out any number of times in any number of ways, and this continued pollyanna approach – that all is well in the Church, and our youth will save us – does nothing to alleviate the crisis.

Here’s MV’s answer to why the mainstream Catholic media doesn’t address the crisis:

The reason is because they are part of the problem. They rely on the bishops for money, access, self-promotion and everything else that comes with running a business, and they aren’t about to bite the hand that feeds them. So they stay silent about the true cause of the crisis – the very leaders they all have such friendly relationships with. They would never ever say a word about horrible leadership – and let’s be clear: this is all – ALL – on the leaders.

When a situation is THIS bad, there is no way the leadership can duck responsibility. The American episcopate has acquiesced to nearly every cultural fad you can name. The liturgies range from boring and uninspiring to plain jokes. Education, authentic Catholic education hasn’t happened in Catholic schools for decades.

Religious instruction in parishes doesn’t exist except by highly opinionated Catholics who have very little knowledge about the Church’s authentic teachings and feel quite free to insert their personal views in place of those teachings.

...

This isn’t rocket science. Catholics don’t know their faith, don’t care about it, don’t identify with it, and are leaving the Church because they haven’t been taught it. And whose fault is that? Those in charge of teaching. Is this true of every single bishop in the country? No. Is it true of most? Well, it can’t be the case that most, the vast majority, are doing their jobs if these are the results. The only reasonable conclusion is that MOST are not doing what they are supposed to do.

So, back to my fantasy scenario at the beginning – picketing the chanceries across the nation, demanding that bishops do their duty and teach the faith…

Do you think they will EVER listen?! Actually, I think the answer to that is "no". The bishops entrenched in their fantasy of "all's right with the Church" are not going to change. We need new bishops – bishops who already see the problem without us telling them about it.

The key is to get Rome to appoint new bishops who fit that description, because the fact is there are priests out there who fit the bill (and even some bishops), but they are the ones like Fr. Michael Rodriguez, who get persecuted by their liberal bishops and shunted off to the hinterlands as a means of containing their orthodoxy and preventing it from “contaminating” the liberal-indoctrinated faithful.

The key, then, is prayer - although I must mention that I am aware of a letter-writing campaign in which a group of faithful have been petitioning Rome to make Fr. Rodriguez a bishop. I had never thought about that strategy before. Still, prayer is key; our actions are secondary. As MV says in concluding this Vortex:

Pray for these men my fellow Catholics. Their duties are enormous, their responsibilities enormous, but they have been given the grace of office to carry them out. Pray for them that they return to their actual duties, that they get on the ball and turn this sorry, sorry state of affairs around.

And as Rod Pead says,

Have we prayed and fasted and done penance and really begged God on our knees to convert the hearts and minds of the bishops? Have we consistently pleaded with Him to take the hirelings who will not respond to His grace to their early reward, and send us real Catholic Shepherds in their stead?

Pray and fast, friends. (And stay tuned for the sequel Vortex, "Blindness About Obama", tomorrow.)

Here's the Vortex, with the full script following.

If the Catholic Church were a business held to the same standards as any other business in America, nearly every single bishop would be summarily fired. They’d be lucky to get out the door with even half their pension intact. And all their cronies in the chanceries and Catholic media establishment would have long ago been shown the door, not letting it hit you know what on the way out.

The latest research numbers are in from Pew Research and there is simply no excuse whatsoever for the results.

A little background about the research. Every year Pew does a nationwide study it calls its General Social Survey, measuring all kinds of things.

One area is religion and in that area they take specific measure of how strongly a person identifies with his or her faith, they ask them, do you consider yourself a “strong” Catholic or Protestant or whatever.

Newsflash: the percentage of Catholics who consider themselves STRONG Catholics is at an all-time low, the lowest figure EVER in the nearly 40 years the survey has been being conducted.

And in case the argument in defense of this horrible news is offered that – well the same thing is happening to Protestants – nope!

Among various protestant groups the opposite phenomenon is occurring. 54 percent, over half of Protestants, twice as much as Catholics self-identify as STRONG Protestants.

So less and less Catholics feel any real touchstone to their faith. BUT that’s not all. If you read deeper into the numbers and do a little extrapolating, things are even worse than at first glance.

Among Catholics, remember, who count themselves as STRONG Catholics, only HALF say they attend Mass at least once a week, 53 percent. That is nearly incredible.

Half of the Catholics who say “I’m a strong Catholic” don’t go to Mass. If this doesn’t, in one glaringly blinding snapshot, prove that the leadership of the Church in America is simply out to lunch and has been for decades, nothing does. The Church of Nice continues to shrivel up because the leaders won’t do what needs to be done.

To be certain, it has taken 40 years for these numbers to plummet to their current all-time low. This situation was inherited, not caused, by the current class of bishops and that is very unfortunate for them – a rotten position to be in.

That said – they ARE the leaders NOW and it is up to them to clean up the mess and that quite evidently, by every single measure possible – is simply not happening. What IS happening is a never-ending drumbeat of promoting social justice issues, and as is very obvious by now, this promotion is being done at the expense of spiritual concerns – and it is beyond galling for Faithful Catholics.

Again, we here at Church Militant.TV ask the question: WHY DOES THE MAINSTREAM CATHOLIC MEDIA NEVER talk about these things and call the bishops to account?

The reason is because they are part of the problem. They rely on the bishops for money, access, self-promotion and everything else that comes with running a business and they aren’t about to bite the hand that feeds them. So they stay silent about the true cause of the crisis – the very leaders they all have such friendly relationships with.

They would never ever say a word about horrible leadership – and let’s be clear – this is all – ALL – on the leaders.

When a situation is THIS bad, there is no way the leadership can duck responsibility. The American episcopate has acquiesced to nearly every cultural fad you can name. The liturgies range from boring and uninspiring to plain jokes. Education, authentic Catholic education hasn’t happened in Catholic schools for decades.

Religious instruction in parishes doesn’t exist except by highly opinionated Catholics who have very little knowledge about the Church’s authentic teachings and feel quite free to insert their personal views in place of those teachings.

Many of the clergy themselves, MANY of them, either don’t know the faith or don’t care about it, suffering from the effects of not only horrible catechesis they got as children, but also further proof of the rotten formation they got in seminary.

This isn’t rocket science, Catholics don’t know their faith, don’t care about, don’t identify with it and are leaving the Church because they haven’t been taught it. And whose fault is that?

Those in charge of teaching. Is this true of every single bishop in the country? No. Is it true of most? Well, it can’t the case that most, the vast majority are doing their jobs if these are the results. The only reasonable conclusion is that MOST are not doing what they are supposed to do.

A bishop is the chief teacher in his diocese. He is the chief liturgist in his diocese. If the teachings and the Mass are in shambles – it falls on him.

For once and for all – stop telling us to contact our congressmen about this liberal policy platform of which good men can disagree and get to work on what you are supposed to be concerned about – saving souls and strengthening the faith – over which no good men can disagree.

Scoring personal goodie points for backing various initiatives with some degree of popular support won’t count for a thing when you stand before Our Lord in a few years, if not sooner and have to explain why so many souls went to Hell on your watch.

Pray for these men my fellow Catholics. Their duties are enormous, their responsibilities enormous, but they have been given the grace of office to carry them out. Pray for them that return to their actual duties they get on the ball and turn this sorry sorry state of affairs around. 

Gregorian Chant Conference in the Diocese of Baker

The Diocese of Baker hosted a Gregorian Chant Conference recently (August 15-17), which, by all accounts, was a rousing success! (I think that the vast majority of the participants were from outside the diocese, but no matter: success is success, and maybe next year’s conference will be better-advertised in the Baker Diocese.)

 

The Catholic Sentinel ran an article about the conference, noting that:

Portland’s Schola Cantus Angelorum led the gathering, which was sponsored by the Diocese of Baker and the diocesan association of Mother Mary's Daughters.

… Masses celebrated during the conference were in the form of the Missa Cantata, with all the parts of the Mass sung in Gregorian chant…

Four lectures on chant were given by Dr. Lynne Bissonnette-Pitre [who leads the Schola Cantus Angelorum]. The lectures covered what Dr. Bissonnette-Pitre called the "intelligent design" of the ancient music and its relationship with the liturgy. The lectures covered the origin and development of Gregorian chant, including the church and papal documents. [See the full article here]

The event was well-photographed by Marc Salvatore, who has kindly allowed me to use his photos in this post. Please visit this website to see the entire collection; photos are available for purchase there, as well. 

My friend Barbara Etter attended the conference, and kindly provided me with this report of her experience:

 Bishop Liam Cary celebrated Mass at
the conference

What more beautiful day and way to begin the Gregorian Chant Conference than on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a Mass, and having our Bishop Liam Cary as principle celebrant?  We were off to a very good start. Of course, nothing of this nature could begin without prayer, so Friday began with a 7:30AM breakfast followed by Morning Prayer, the Rosary, and the Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart.

Then began the real learning process, with the first lecture presented by Dr. Lynne Bissonnette on “What is Gregorian Chant: Its Origins, and How It is Processed by the Brain”. If someone didn’t know before, it was made very clear what chant is: beautiful, wave-like melody produced by the human voice.  It is meant to be sung a cappella (unaccompanied by instruments).  The document of the Second Vatican Council Sacrosanctum Concilium states that Gregorian chant should have pride of place in the Liturgy of the Catholic Church.  It was interesting to note that modern music sprang from Gregorian chant---the Solfege method using DO-RE-MI-FA-SOL-LA-TI-DO. Dr. Bissonnette also presented a lecture entitled “The Form and Function of Gregorian Chant – Intrinsic to the Sung Roman Mass”.  

For the “hands-on” learning, the chant was demonstrated in the first workshop with Yumiko Rinta.  The use of square notes on a four line staff was clearly explained.  We were taught about the usage of the DO clef and the FA clef and the Solfege naming of the lines and spaces on the four line staff. There is only one note that is flatted in chant; TI becomes TE. There is only one basic square note called the punctum that receives one beat; a dotted punctum receives two beats.  There are basic nuems such as the podatus, clivis, scandicus, tristropha, etc.. which are combinations of two or three notes, and special nuems such as the liquescent, pressus, quilisma, etc.   There are no ‘rests’ in chant, but breathing is determined by bar lines: quarter bar, half bar, full bar, and double bar. 

Then came the hard part: the eight modes. However, we did not go into those very deeply.  It was time to move on to a pronunciation on vowels, diphthongs, and consonants. A very helpful hand-out packet was given to help us and as a reminder of all that we learned.   This workshop made it clear that Gregorian chant is much easier to sing than music in modern notation.

After dinner and Vespers, another workshop was taught by Fr. Daniel Maxwell; he covered the formulas for chanting the Old and New Testament readings.  Concurrent with this workshop, the priests and deacons had a session on the formulas for chanting the Gospels, which was taught by Fr. Eric Andersen.  It was surprising how easy it is to chant the readings using the given formulas.  We had the experience of actually chanting the introduction to the readings, some lines, and the conclusion to the readings, and the peoples’ responses.

The day was completed as we chanted the Office of Compline at 9:00PM.  It was a very full and informative day.

Saturday was another full day beginning with 7:00AM breakfast, Morning Prayer, the Rosary, and a Votive Mass in Honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Dr. Bissonnette presented a lecture on “The Sung Liturgy”; she emphasized the importance of singing the Liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church to experience the beauty, mystery, and awe of the Sacrifice of the Mass.  The peoples’ parts of the Mass that are meant to be sung are: the propers (usually sung by the schola or choir), including: the Introit or the entrance antiphon with its psalm verses; the gradual (Responsorial Psalm); the Alleluia with its psalm verses, the Offertory antiphon and psalm verses; and the Communion antiphon with its psalm verses. For a properly sung Mass, the readings should be chanted by the reader (lector) or deacon; also to be sung are: the ordinary, which includes the Kyrie (Lord have mercy), Gloria, Credo, Preface dialog, Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy), and Agnus Dei (Lamb of God); the acclamation after the Consecration; the great Amen; the Pater Noster (Our Father), and he dismissal.  The priest is to sing the parts proper to his priestly duties: Preface, Eucharistic Prayer, and Post-communion prayer.  The workshop content emphasized that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass needs to be sung, not that we should just have singing at Mass.

Dr. Bissonnette also gave the final lecture of for this Conference: “The Documents of the Church Pertaining to Gregorian Chant”.  The documents of Pope (St.) Pius X, Pope Pius XI, and Pope Pius XII set a foundation for our Catholic Church use of Gregorian chant.  Documents of the Second Vatican Council, especially Sacrosanctum Concilium, very much expected the use of the chant in our Liturgy to continue, as it has pride of place. No document from Vatican II dismissed the use of Latin or chant.  The post-Vatican II years saw Pope Paul VI issuing “Jubilate Deo”, which was sent to all bishops as a guideline indicating the minimum chant that all Catholics must be able to sing.  Blessed John Paul II also encouraged the use of chant. Our Pope (emeritus) Benedict XVI in his moto proprio Summorum Pontificum issued July 7, 2007 also permitted all priests to be able to celebrate the Extraordinary Form Mass as well as chant.  This was followed up in May, 2011 by Universae Ecclesiae which is a further explanation of Summorum Pontificum.  The Document “Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship” (2007) continues to declare the primacy of place for Gregorian chant. This document was issued by the Roman Catholic bishops of the Latin Church in the United States.

The final workshop was “Chanting the Ordinary of the Mass”.  Here we put into practice what was learned in the previous workshops. We sang the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei for both Mass IX (Cum Jubilo) in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Mass XI (Orbis Factor) for Sundays of Ordinary Time.  We also sang Credo I.  It was amazing how beautiful we all sounded together in the praise of the Lord!

Fr. Eric Andersen 

Following this workshop, we celebrated the Mass for the 20^th Sunday of Ordinary Time.  It was a beautiful Liturgy with everything being sung.  Oh, if only we could have such music in our parishes! The Mass would truly be more appreciated, and we would really have active as well as actual participation of our congregations.

The entire conference ended Saturday night with the Office of Compline at 8:30PM.

Overall the chant conference was wonderful. The lectures were very informative and the workshops were a “hands-on experience to use what was taught---for all levels of experience – beginner, intermediate, or advanced.  The Masses were not only beautiful and reverent, but also examples of how the Mass should be sung.

Plan to attend next year’s Gregorian Chant Conference!