Charlotte priests revolt over Communion rails as Joliet’s vicar general is linked to a same sex ceremony and his boss heads for the biggest promotion in America
The Charlotte priests doing the dubia thing with Rome must be admirers of the effeminate Cardinal Burke. Bishop Martin is the teachers pet of the 2026 antichurch in Rome; nothings going to happen to change Martins carte blanche to execute Catholicism in the Diocese of Charlotte. What Charlotte Diocesan priests need to do is IGNORE Martin. They need to leave the altar rails and kneelers in place, and they need to resume ALL of the Traditional Latin Masses that Martin and Jugis cancelled. The great saints of yesteryear would be appalled at the weakness and outright cowardice of priests today who cower in fear of hirelings like Martin, Cupich and Prevost.
“A rail says the sanctuary is not a multipurpose platform. A rail says Communion is not a handshake line. A rail says the priest is not a facilitator. A rail says the Eucharist is not a symbol. A rail says God is here.”
Amen.
Church documents indicate we may kneel, but in my experience no accommodation is permitted for kneeling. No rail. No prie dieu, so the communicant who wishes to do so, must kneel on the floor.
The very same church that installs ramps and elevators for those with lesser mobility refuse to accommodate those who wish to kneel - but cannot for lack of a support rail. This becomes a matter of human rights. How hard is it to set out a half dozen prie dieus before Communion. It is a kindness, one of the fruits of the Spirit.
Instead, the bishop / priest indicates a lack of respect and gentleness with his congregants.
Dear prelates. It is not a power struggle; rather, it is a matter of love and devotion an individual heart wishes to convey to his/her Crestot and Redeemer. It is a sovereign right.
It's a horra-thon alright. So cling all the more to the Divine Office praying and appeals to Blessed Virgin Mother, the angels and the saints. I think war is coming. Spiritual and physical. Things like grid take-downs and seeing rockets in flight. We seem to be entering into the Third Secret of Fatima (unexpurgated). I have hope because of Jesus. If the RCC survived the Fall of Rome, it will survive the second Reformation of the RCC. According to Pope Benedict, we will become a "shrunken" flock for awhile. God always preserves a remnant from which He fashions a new garment. So let's keep up our spirits, pray the rosary and Divine Mercy chaplet and not despair, because Christ is on our side.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Take heart Anne, this is all a test.. hope for an "A".
Amen. I checked my "List of Popes" in front of the copy I have of the "New American Bible". I had (taking notes from some essay, no doubt) denoted with an "X" all the "bad popes" listed in the "List of Popes". Here is my "crib list" (for the interview we'll each get with Pearly Gates with St. Peter asking us "Who were the 'bad popes'?"): Popes Stephen VI (VII) 896=897, John XII (955-964), Benedict IX (1032-1044), Boniface VIII (1294-1303), Urban VI (1378-1389), Alexander VI (1492-1503), Leo X (1513-1521), Clement VII (1523-1534). That was as far as the "essay" went describing bad popes--and my Bible list ends listing popes with Pope John Paul I (who was a good pope, probably murdered). My judgment (Father, forgive me) include addition of the following "bad" Pope): Pope Francis (2013-2025).
What do I think of Pope Leo XIV? Well, it ain't over until the fat lady sings, but so far, he's a more polite, refined and seemingly smarter version of Pope Francis. But the jury is still out in my mind since he may rethink things and steer "right" if we all keep praying hard for him. Maybe if we all pray hard, Pope Leo XIV will start reading Chris Jackson's substack, for instance. That would help. Or maybe his advisors will.
Where I am going with this? If Pope Leo XIV stays on the present course (putting on sacriligous drone shows of Pope Francis in the sky over the Vatican with rock stars rockin' out below, endless synods (including nonCatholics) confusing the flock, anomalous appointments to important posts) he is at risk of becoming the SECOND bad pope in a row, which has never happened in church history and would augur very badly for the prospects of the Church and the flock. But the Holy Spirit can counsel Pope Leo XIV to correct course. Isn't that what the Holy Spirit aims for with each of us?That's a prayer cause we should all continue on for ourselves and Pope Leo XIV.
True. He'll build us if our numbers get shrunk or decimated and out of that remnant the church will regroup and regrow. I don't think God will let Christianity be wiped off the face of the earth. Jesus seem to indicate this in several of His statements.
I think what’s so sad is that “Catholics” have been dumbed down so low that they don’t even know what’s going on is not Catholic. Poor God! Poor people! Poor children! Poor grandchildren!!!
However, God tells us in Genesis that He hears us!!! AND we know that God wills only the good for us! AND because Blessed Mother believed, God and she teach us that if we believe God will answer our prayers.
AND with you pointing out all the bad actors and bad antics they perpetrate, well…I believe souls will be saved. We must pray for Our Lady to come in her triumph AND for Our Lord to come again. And pray for perseverance!!!!
Thanks again Chris!!! Please keep up the good work!!!
Blessed be Jesus Whose mother is Mary, CoRedemptrix, Mediatrix of All Graces and Queen of all creatures!!!
“What Charlotte Diocesan priests need to do is IGNORE Martin. They need to leave the altar rails and kneelers in place, and they need to resume ALL of the Traditional Latin Masses that Martin and Jugis cancelled. The great saints of yesteryear would be appalled at the weakness and outright cowardice of priests today who cower in fear of hirelings like Martin, Cupich and Prevost.”
This👆
As someone who found the true Catholic Mass at St. Ann Catholic Church in Charlotte back in 2017, I agree wholeheartedly with the above comment.
The usurpers have no standing before God or His Christ. They have undeniably revealed themselves to be hirelings and not true shepherds. Wolves even.
So why are you obeying them?
The Charlotte priests should ignore the threats entirely and continue doing everything they have been doing since Summorum Pontificum until the local usurper requests Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s deputies to come and have them removed physically from the premises.
Then we can have the Catholic Mass in a barn somewhere or somebody’s backyard if necessary. But it should not be cancelled simply because some hireling commands it.
“Feed my sheep…Feed my lambs”.
Point? I agree with Jackson; this supplicating posture before the very regime that imposed the restrictions in the first place makes no sense at all. We don’t need their permission to be Catholic.
Did Judas Maccabeus ask permission from Antiochus to offer the sacrifice?
The loss of altar rails also demands a discussion on the ancient division between the sacred identity of the priesthood and their role in the liturgy, and the status of the ordinary faithful in liturgical worship.
In the ancient churches, originally in the Catholic church and still today in the Eastern churches, the presence of a physical division between the sanctuary and the congregation was/is the essential liturgical division between the sacred prieshood and the laity. The priesthood, trained and ordained specifically to lead the liturgical worship of the church with dedicated knowledge and skills, are not in the same role or position as the laity, whose 'vocation' has not been to join the priesthood and receive such training.
Thr difference is critically important, and its recognition in the liturgical context likewise.
Altar rails are the last vestiage of the medieval rood screen, another version of which is the iconostasis of the Eastern churches.
The Holy Rood is the beam supporting the cross of the crucifixion above the aisle at the central focus of the church's architecture, directly above the division between the sanctuary and the rest of the church. It usually incorporates arches and panels or alcoves below which contain images of Saints.
The altar rail evolved from spaces incorporated beneath the rood, either side of the entry arch into the sanctuary, where the faithful knelt for confession and to receive Holy Communion from the sanctuary.
The main functional difference between the iconostasis and the rood screen, is that these openings, at eye level, provide a view through to the Consecration, and allow for kneeling for confession and reception of communion through the screen.
The Latin Catholic Church adopted kneeling at the rood screen for its obvious symbolism of self-humiliation before Almighty God, especially to present a form of woship that justifies the reception of Christ Himself.
However, as I've said above: the physical separation of the sacred space of the sanctuary and the implicit recognition of the holiness of the priestly role is even more important to the degree of being critical for the preservation of correct order in the church, which thereby honours and obeys God.
My view is that one of the terrible failings of the V2 reform was its extraordinary blindness towards the Holiness of developments in the liturgy of the church, which it disregarded in favour of dredging up earlier, long defunct, traditions to undermine current practice.
In my understanding, this was contrary to the work of the Holy Spirit, whom Our Lord sent to lead us into all truth, with the implication that He would develop and deepen our understanding over time, developing the liturgy and our understanding of its symbolism further, but certainly not calling the Church back to former forms if worship that He had long ago led His Church beyond.
So, in short, the removal of the rood screen and it's last remaining vestage, the altar rail, is a step back to a more immature state, long since surpassed by the Holy Spirit's development of the Church.
We should have had better education, developed the Church's catechism and stood against the world's innovations, offering instead the timeless immutable Truth, but instead we capitulated to worldy fashion.
It is, sadly, hardly surprising that along with this 'bakwardist' appraoch to liturgy (ironic credit to Bergoglio for this concept), we appear to have lost more than a degree of Holiness from the Priesthood.
Until Catholics reject entirely the post Conciliar false church of Vatican II, it is useless to, to beg Rome for mercy; it's not going to be given. Cut loose from these phonies and practice the genuine Catholic faith. Buy your own buildings etc and offer the authentic catholic faith to the faithful. Folks, stop believing you have to obey leadership that doesn’t believe the faith. Just do it!
Every single point Chris raises is a direct product of Vatican II, from changing the nature of the priesthood to ecumenia to a Protestant based liturgy without emphasis on Sacrifice in favor of a communal meal to a redefinition of sin, forgiveness, and mercy, all condemned by the preVatican II magisterium. Any concession to those desiring preVatican II Catholicism does nothing to address this fundamental problem. As difficult as it is to comprehend, I am coming to the same conclusion, that one must reject the Conciliar Church for it is in schism with or at least in denial of the Catholic faith and therefore has lost the authority to demand obedience, infiltrated not just with sinful corruption but heretical Modernist ideas, just as anyone raised in a Protestant sect must abandon that heresy and seek the true faith. Someone please explain to me how a Catholic steeped in the faith as taught before 1962 can claim any unity with the Conciliar church, that unity being one of the hallmarks of the Catholic faith? It may not have been entirely clear in the immediate aftermath of the Council but seems undeniably irreconcilable at this time. Rather than anger, one can only have compassion for all these potentially lost souls if we are right.
The Conciliar Church with its Cranmer tables and its NOM supper meal is not “His Church”. Here’s the good news: Cutting yourself off from the Diocesan Conciliar religion means the future growth and survival of Roman Catholicism. In the Western Hemisphere, traditionalist communities that control their own formation and clergy (SSPX, FSSP, ICK, and Sedevacantist Chapels show sustained growth, while those dependent on Conciliar diocesan structures (diocesan NOMs and diocesan TLMs) show stagnation or contraction. These long term generational shifts are inevitable. U.S. Conciliar Diocesan parishes will continue to close/consolidate and see weekly attendance fall toward 10–15% of self-identified Diocesan presenters by 2050 — effectively a roughly 40–60% reduction from current weekly participation rates. The return to Tradition is the inevitable future of His Church. Dioceses exist to propagate the one, true Roman Catholic faith, not the rotten fruit of the freemasonic religion of Vatican II.
“All that is left is to give thanks for the wonderful work of God who sees all things from above and orders them in due time. Now, after years of searching and discerning the will of God, He has made His holy will clear.”
…”sacramental life treated as the priest’s narrow specialty…”
Back in the very early 80s I sat in on the “liturgy” of a group of Sisters, meant to approximate the Mass. “Sat in” is literal, as the group was placed on the floor, in a circle (requisite for the era). There was an artfully placed and colorful cloth with many artistic folds and drapes placed in the center of the circle. There were the usual fem items placed on the cloth: a cup, and a shallow plate, both hand-thrown pottery. Wine. Unconsecrated hosts. The action took place in the Library of a then-prominent order’s Motherhouse. Soft folk music played. The atmosphere was hushed, grave. All women present but for the lone forlorn man there, a priest. Every second of the process once begun was led by the various women who’d arranged the day. Not a movement by the priest, even facially, who as he sat there was vested by the women, piece by piece. Not a word was spoken by him, as the Scriptures were pronounced by the women and reflections too. Even the ramp-up and ramp-down for the Canon were pronounced by the women. He was left with only the literal words of Consecration. Not a syllable or gesture more. His entire being sliced into, and the narrowest possible toehold left to who he was. It was literally stunning to see, a shock that imprinted on my memory to this day.
A very avant- guard moment then. The thrill of the Sisters knowing they were outré, and on the edge of outrage, was palpable. But the crestfallen face of the priest was that of a hostage, contemplating the inevitable. I cannot speak to why he allowed this. But fast-forwarding from then to now, with all that has happened in the interim, it was just one more portend of the chasm we face.
I am just so sick of Vatican weasel words. I guess what Jesus said in Matthew 5:37 no longer applies. Big surprise! The Synodal apparatus clearly ignores that which it officially claims to be one of the foundations upon which it is founded……Scripture! So is the Synodal “church” still Catholic as in one, holy, universal and apostolic? The real question? Is the Synodal “church” even Christian!
Thanks again, Chris. I am tempted to say that the collapse in Catholic sexual morality has reached the absolutely final end stage. Never mind what the Catechism or moral theology manuals say. Actions on the ground speak louder than any learned text.
Fr Jimmy Martin SJ gave a blessing of a homosexual union in front of a New York Times camera immediately after Fiducia Supplicans was published and apparently nothing has happened to him. And I suspect that nothing will happen to anyone connected with the Joliet diocese debacle.
Strict logic does not apply in the religious area, at least not immediately. You might have thought that the Anglican doctrinal shambles had reached its absolutely, definitively, total, undeniable, final end stage back in 1963 with the publication of "Honest to God". One cruel reviewer described the "bishop" author as an atheist.
But the Church of England still lurches on in 2026, way past a visible disintegration of all sexual doctrine. The first four minutes of this video are more than enough. The former Archbishop of Canterbury was in a totally impossible position if he wanted to hold Anglicans together.
William - just wondering if I could pick your brains. I think you're older than me and I'm trying to find the dates (at least the years, if not the months) when the Mass changed in the UK. I was a child and remember it loosely - I remember going one Sunday and the Priest speaking English (horror) but can't find the details of when that would have been - ?1966ish?. Am I right in thinking we had the TLM in English then (I remember the Canon and Saints!) until 1969 and then the 'New Mass' started? Also did all the dioceses change each time on the same date? I would really appreciate any help here.
It is worth noting another curiosity in the troubled history of Mass translations. The editor of the London Times in the 1970s was a Catholic and I think it was he who upset the Great and the Good by listing the dozens of unbelievable errors in the 1969 NO mistranslation.
And I think that he also produced his own translation of the NO around 1977. It was published in "Faith" magazine. Some people really liked it. But, as it was not by the official ICEL, it went nowhere.
There was a translation of the previous Latin Mass up to 1969 when the Novus Ordo was introduced. But the first English translation of the NO was so riddled with errors and crass sounding phrases that another translation was introduced in the mid 1970s. The endless changes caused considerable outrage, not least at the expense of new prayer books, etc.
Around 2010 I found a fat envelope from around 1965 in the cupboard in our choir loft. It contained around 100 copies of sheet music for the First Mass in English. From the perfect condition of the paper, I do not think it had been used even once.
Thank you SO much for this reply. So I am remembering correctly, and now you've reminded me, I can remember the English translation farce. I thought that first change to English must have been slightly later, because on the date you've given in 1964 I would have been just 4 years and 5 months. Yet I clearly remember wondering what was going on when the Priest came out and started speaking in English, and looking (up and) around at all the adults and wondering why they weren't doing something!! I'd already fallen in love with Latin; I always say that I feel like the Church has been persecuting me since that day, so I can add another year or two on to this never-ending nightmare.
Blessed and Happy Epiphany, Chris! I always thought the diocesan chancellor was just another two legged paperweight...a make-believe job. I know better now thanks to you.
"It is no longer framed as a theological dispute over the nature of the Mass. It is enforced as interior design.."
The days of theological dispute ended with the blessing of same sex "couples". A child could easily win that argument. So too this one. Is the Eucharist Our Lord, or not?
(as horrible as this all is, pray for these "bishops", each's particular judgement they'll be alone, as will we will all, their "brothers" won't be there. the devils are so efficient with our seeking of human approval and the workings of a bureaucracy. I do not and would ever claim to know all the reasons why Our Lord set His Vicar as being only the first among many Successors.. , but that is one. .)
Love you man, but please don’t use the conciliar language of “… attached to the old mass”. I do not attend the Latin mass because of attachment, I attend for truth. Thx
"The crisis... is a system that punishes reverence, tolerates vice, markets ambiguity, and baptizes modern narratives to keep the faithful calm."
And the solution? There is no human solution. We can remind that the white smoke of the 1958 conclave meant what it was of course deliberately intended to mean, we can show that therefore Vatican II was illegitimate because it was convened by an invalid pope. But all this changes nothing.
It is not being defeatist to say that only God can fix this huge mess. It is not being defeatist to say that our only hope is the promised Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is not being defeatist to urge everyone to pray perseveringly that this Triumph come as soon as God may will it.
The Charlotte priests doing the dubia thing with Rome must be admirers of the effeminate Cardinal Burke. Bishop Martin is the teachers pet of the 2026 antichurch in Rome; nothings going to happen to change Martins carte blanche to execute Catholicism in the Diocese of Charlotte. What Charlotte Diocesan priests need to do is IGNORE Martin. They need to leave the altar rails and kneelers in place, and they need to resume ALL of the Traditional Latin Masses that Martin and Jugis cancelled. The great saints of yesteryear would be appalled at the weakness and outright cowardice of priests today who cower in fear of hirelings like Martin, Cupich and Prevost.
“A rail says the sanctuary is not a multipurpose platform. A rail says Communion is not a handshake line. A rail says the priest is not a facilitator. A rail says the Eucharist is not a symbol. A rail says God is here.”
Amen.
Church documents indicate we may kneel, but in my experience no accommodation is permitted for kneeling. No rail. No prie dieu, so the communicant who wishes to do so, must kneel on the floor.
The very same church that installs ramps and elevators for those with lesser mobility refuse to accommodate those who wish to kneel - but cannot for lack of a support rail. This becomes a matter of human rights. How hard is it to set out a half dozen prie dieus before Communion. It is a kindness, one of the fruits of the Spirit.
Instead, the bishop / priest indicates a lack of respect and gentleness with his congregants.
Dear prelates. It is not a power struggle; rather, it is a matter of love and devotion an individual heart wishes to convey to his/her Crestot and Redeemer. It is a sovereign right.
It's a horra-thon alright. So cling all the more to the Divine Office praying and appeals to Blessed Virgin Mother, the angels and the saints. I think war is coming. Spiritual and physical. Things like grid take-downs and seeing rockets in flight. We seem to be entering into the Third Secret of Fatima (unexpurgated). I have hope because of Jesus. If the RCC survived the Fall of Rome, it will survive the second Reformation of the RCC. According to Pope Benedict, we will become a "shrunken" flock for awhile. God always preserves a remnant from which He fashions a new garment. So let's keep up our spirits, pray the rosary and Divine Mercy chaplet and not despair, because Christ is on our side.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Take heart Anne, this is all a test.. hope for an "A".
Amen. I checked my "List of Popes" in front of the copy I have of the "New American Bible". I had (taking notes from some essay, no doubt) denoted with an "X" all the "bad popes" listed in the "List of Popes". Here is my "crib list" (for the interview we'll each get with Pearly Gates with St. Peter asking us "Who were the 'bad popes'?"): Popes Stephen VI (VII) 896=897, John XII (955-964), Benedict IX (1032-1044), Boniface VIII (1294-1303), Urban VI (1378-1389), Alexander VI (1492-1503), Leo X (1513-1521), Clement VII (1523-1534). That was as far as the "essay" went describing bad popes--and my Bible list ends listing popes with Pope John Paul I (who was a good pope, probably murdered). My judgment (Father, forgive me) include addition of the following "bad" Pope): Pope Francis (2013-2025).
What do I think of Pope Leo XIV? Well, it ain't over until the fat lady sings, but so far, he's a more polite, refined and seemingly smarter version of Pope Francis. But the jury is still out in my mind since he may rethink things and steer "right" if we all keep praying hard for him. Maybe if we all pray hard, Pope Leo XIV will start reading Chris Jackson's substack, for instance. That would help. Or maybe his advisors will.
Where I am going with this? If Pope Leo XIV stays on the present course (putting on sacriligous drone shows of Pope Francis in the sky over the Vatican with rock stars rockin' out below, endless synods (including nonCatholics) confusing the flock, anomalous appointments to important posts) he is at risk of becoming the SECOND bad pope in a row, which has never happened in church history and would augur very badly for the prospects of the Church and the flock. But the Holy Spirit can counsel Pope Leo XIV to correct course. Isn't that what the Holy Spirit aims for with each of us?That's a prayer cause we should all continue on for ourselves and Pope Leo XIV.
Pray for priests… we are going to need priests.. tough times ahead.
Yes I agree.
Smiling Faces Sometimes by The Undisputed Truth. Early 70s hit song. Very appropriate for these times. It’s on YouTube
Aha. I like that song, but worry if it fits a Pope.
I expect God will re-fashion the old garment. There was nothing wrong with it.
True. He'll build us if our numbers get shrunk or decimated and out of that remnant the church will regroup and regrow. I don't think God will let Christianity be wiped off the face of the earth. Jesus seem to indicate this in several of His statements.
I think what’s so sad is that “Catholics” have been dumbed down so low that they don’t even know what’s going on is not Catholic. Poor God! Poor people! Poor children! Poor grandchildren!!!
However, God tells us in Genesis that He hears us!!! AND we know that God wills only the good for us! AND because Blessed Mother believed, God and she teach us that if we believe God will answer our prayers.
AND with you pointing out all the bad actors and bad antics they perpetrate, well…I believe souls will be saved. We must pray for Our Lady to come in her triumph AND for Our Lord to come again. And pray for perseverance!!!!
Thanks again Chris!!! Please keep up the good work!!!
Blessed be Jesus Whose mother is Mary, CoRedemptrix, Mediatrix of All Graces and Queen of all creatures!!!
🎄♥️🎄♥️🎄♥️🎄♥️🎄♥️🎄
Happy and Blessed Epiphany!!!🌟
[From Andrew Dunn’s Comment at 6:25 AM]:
“What Charlotte Diocesan priests need to do is IGNORE Martin. They need to leave the altar rails and kneelers in place, and they need to resume ALL of the Traditional Latin Masses that Martin and Jugis cancelled. The great saints of yesteryear would be appalled at the weakness and outright cowardice of priests today who cower in fear of hirelings like Martin, Cupich and Prevost.”
This👆
As someone who found the true Catholic Mass at St. Ann Catholic Church in Charlotte back in 2017, I agree wholeheartedly with the above comment.
The usurpers have no standing before God or His Christ. They have undeniably revealed themselves to be hirelings and not true shepherds. Wolves even.
So why are you obeying them?
The Charlotte priests should ignore the threats entirely and continue doing everything they have been doing since Summorum Pontificum until the local usurper requests Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s deputies to come and have them removed physically from the premises.
Then we can have the Catholic Mass in a barn somewhere or somebody’s backyard if necessary. But it should not be cancelled simply because some hireling commands it.
“Feed my sheep…Feed my lambs”.
Point? I agree with Jackson; this supplicating posture before the very regime that imposed the restrictions in the first place makes no sense at all. We don’t need their permission to be Catholic.
Did Judas Maccabeus ask permission from Antiochus to offer the sacrifice?
Happy Feast Chris, and your readers.
The loss of altar rails also demands a discussion on the ancient division between the sacred identity of the priesthood and their role in the liturgy, and the status of the ordinary faithful in liturgical worship.
In the ancient churches, originally in the Catholic church and still today in the Eastern churches, the presence of a physical division between the sanctuary and the congregation was/is the essential liturgical division between the sacred prieshood and the laity. The priesthood, trained and ordained specifically to lead the liturgical worship of the church with dedicated knowledge and skills, are not in the same role or position as the laity, whose 'vocation' has not been to join the priesthood and receive such training.
Thr difference is critically important, and its recognition in the liturgical context likewise.
Altar rails are the last vestiage of the medieval rood screen, another version of which is the iconostasis of the Eastern churches.
The Holy Rood is the beam supporting the cross of the crucifixion above the aisle at the central focus of the church's architecture, directly above the division between the sanctuary and the rest of the church. It usually incorporates arches and panels or alcoves below which contain images of Saints.
The altar rail evolved from spaces incorporated beneath the rood, either side of the entry arch into the sanctuary, where the faithful knelt for confession and to receive Holy Communion from the sanctuary.
The main functional difference between the iconostasis and the rood screen, is that these openings, at eye level, provide a view through to the Consecration, and allow for kneeling for confession and reception of communion through the screen.
The Latin Catholic Church adopted kneeling at the rood screen for its obvious symbolism of self-humiliation before Almighty God, especially to present a form of woship that justifies the reception of Christ Himself.
However, as I've said above: the physical separation of the sacred space of the sanctuary and the implicit recognition of the holiness of the priestly role is even more important to the degree of being critical for the preservation of correct order in the church, which thereby honours and obeys God.
My view is that one of the terrible failings of the V2 reform was its extraordinary blindness towards the Holiness of developments in the liturgy of the church, which it disregarded in favour of dredging up earlier, long defunct, traditions to undermine current practice.
In my understanding, this was contrary to the work of the Holy Spirit, whom Our Lord sent to lead us into all truth, with the implication that He would develop and deepen our understanding over time, developing the liturgy and our understanding of its symbolism further, but certainly not calling the Church back to former forms if worship that He had long ago led His Church beyond.
So, in short, the removal of the rood screen and it's last remaining vestage, the altar rail, is a step back to a more immature state, long since surpassed by the Holy Spirit's development of the Church.
We should have had better education, developed the Church's catechism and stood against the world's innovations, offering instead the timeless immutable Truth, but instead we capitulated to worldy fashion.
It is, sadly, hardly surprising that along with this 'bakwardist' appraoch to liturgy (ironic credit to Bergoglio for this concept), we appear to have lost more than a degree of Holiness from the Priesthood.
May God restore His Church!
V2 was not blind...that's why they invited Protestants! V2 wanted a more protestant religion...a new synodal religion.
Until Catholics reject entirely the post Conciliar false church of Vatican II, it is useless to, to beg Rome for mercy; it's not going to be given. Cut loose from these phonies and practice the genuine Catholic faith. Buy your own buildings etc and offer the authentic catholic faith to the faithful. Folks, stop believing you have to obey leadership that doesn’t believe the faith. Just do it!
Every single point Chris raises is a direct product of Vatican II, from changing the nature of the priesthood to ecumenia to a Protestant based liturgy without emphasis on Sacrifice in favor of a communal meal to a redefinition of sin, forgiveness, and mercy, all condemned by the preVatican II magisterium. Any concession to those desiring preVatican II Catholicism does nothing to address this fundamental problem. As difficult as it is to comprehend, I am coming to the same conclusion, that one must reject the Conciliar Church for it is in schism with or at least in denial of the Catholic faith and therefore has lost the authority to demand obedience, infiltrated not just with sinful corruption but heretical Modernist ideas, just as anyone raised in a Protestant sect must abandon that heresy and seek the true faith. Someone please explain to me how a Catholic steeped in the faith as taught before 1962 can claim any unity with the Conciliar church, that unity being one of the hallmarks of the Catholic faith? It may not have been entirely clear in the immediate aftermath of the Council but seems undeniably irreconcilable at this time. Rather than anger, one can only have compassion for all these potentially lost souls if we are right.
Buy your own buildings??
Cut yourself off from your Ordinary - your bishop??
Then you have cut yourself off from the diocese.
You have cut yourself off from His Church.
Risky business.
A crapshoot with very poor odds.
The Conciliar Church with its Cranmer tables and its NOM supper meal is not “His Church”. Here’s the good news: Cutting yourself off from the Diocesan Conciliar religion means the future growth and survival of Roman Catholicism. In the Western Hemisphere, traditionalist communities that control their own formation and clergy (SSPX, FSSP, ICK, and Sedevacantist Chapels show sustained growth, while those dependent on Conciliar diocesan structures (diocesan NOMs and diocesan TLMs) show stagnation or contraction. These long term generational shifts are inevitable. U.S. Conciliar Diocesan parishes will continue to close/consolidate and see weekly attendance fall toward 10–15% of self-identified Diocesan presenters by 2050 — effectively a roughly 40–60% reduction from current weekly participation rates. The return to Tradition is the inevitable future of His Church. Dioceses exist to propagate the one, true Roman Catholic faith, not the rotten fruit of the freemasonic religion of Vatican II.
😔 Russian roulette.
“All that is left is to give thanks for the wonderful work of God who sees all things from above and orders them in due time. Now, after years of searching and discerning the will of God, He has made His holy will clear.”
https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2014/08/prayer-patience-perseverance-sspx-gets.html?m=1
Spot on! The fact that USCCB mentioning Kwanza is absolutely joking and shameful.
…”sacramental life treated as the priest’s narrow specialty…”
Back in the very early 80s I sat in on the “liturgy” of a group of Sisters, meant to approximate the Mass. “Sat in” is literal, as the group was placed on the floor, in a circle (requisite for the era). There was an artfully placed and colorful cloth with many artistic folds and drapes placed in the center of the circle. There were the usual fem items placed on the cloth: a cup, and a shallow plate, both hand-thrown pottery. Wine. Unconsecrated hosts. The action took place in the Library of a then-prominent order’s Motherhouse. Soft folk music played. The atmosphere was hushed, grave. All women present but for the lone forlorn man there, a priest. Every second of the process once begun was led by the various women who’d arranged the day. Not a movement by the priest, even facially, who as he sat there was vested by the women, piece by piece. Not a word was spoken by him, as the Scriptures were pronounced by the women and reflections too. Even the ramp-up and ramp-down for the Canon were pronounced by the women. He was left with only the literal words of Consecration. Not a syllable or gesture more. His entire being sliced into, and the narrowest possible toehold left to who he was. It was literally stunning to see, a shock that imprinted on my memory to this day.
A very avant- guard moment then. The thrill of the Sisters knowing they were outré, and on the edge of outrage, was palpable. But the crestfallen face of the priest was that of a hostage, contemplating the inevitable. I cannot speak to why he allowed this. But fast-forwarding from then to now, with all that has happened in the interim, it was just one more portend of the chasm we face.
Thank you, Chris, for my daily lesson in truth and what it means to be Catholic. You are the best of catechist. Learning so much.
I am just so sick of Vatican weasel words. I guess what Jesus said in Matthew 5:37 no longer applies. Big surprise! The Synodal apparatus clearly ignores that which it officially claims to be one of the foundations upon which it is founded……Scripture! So is the Synodal “church” still Catholic as in one, holy, universal and apostolic? The real question? Is the Synodal “church” even Christian!
Thanks again, Chris. I am tempted to say that the collapse in Catholic sexual morality has reached the absolutely final end stage. Never mind what the Catechism or moral theology manuals say. Actions on the ground speak louder than any learned text.
Fr Jimmy Martin SJ gave a blessing of a homosexual union in front of a New York Times camera immediately after Fiducia Supplicans was published and apparently nothing has happened to him. And I suspect that nothing will happen to anyone connected with the Joliet diocese debacle.
Strict logic does not apply in the religious area, at least not immediately. You might have thought that the Anglican doctrinal shambles had reached its absolutely, definitively, total, undeniable, final end stage back in 1963 with the publication of "Honest to God". One cruel reviewer described the "bishop" author as an atheist.
But the Church of England still lurches on in 2026, way past a visible disintegration of all sexual doctrine. The first four minutes of this video are more than enough. The former Archbishop of Canterbury was in a totally impossible position if he wanted to hold Anglicans together.
https://youtu.be/owiEFofrHIg?si=WNUBeF26pc9hQALl
So do we similarly keep lurching on as more and more parishioners lapse and more breakaway groups keep advertising themselves as true Catholics?
William - just wondering if I could pick your brains. I think you're older than me and I'm trying to find the dates (at least the years, if not the months) when the Mass changed in the UK. I was a child and remember it loosely - I remember going one Sunday and the Priest speaking English (horror) but can't find the details of when that would have been - ?1966ish?. Am I right in thinking we had the TLM in English then (I remember the Canon and Saints!) until 1969 and then the 'New Mass' started? Also did all the dioceses change each time on the same date? I would really appreciate any help here.
It is worth noting another curiosity in the troubled history of Mass translations. The editor of the London Times in the 1970s was a Catholic and I think it was he who upset the Great and the Good by listing the dozens of unbelievable errors in the 1969 NO mistranslation.
And I think that he also produced his own translation of the NO around 1977. It was published in "Faith" magazine. Some people really liked it. But, as it was not by the official ICEL, it went nowhere.
It was the 1st Sunday of Advent, 29th November 1964.
https://adoremus.org/2010/02/the-day-the-mass-changed/
There was a translation of the previous Latin Mass up to 1969 when the Novus Ordo was introduced. But the first English translation of the NO was so riddled with errors and crass sounding phrases that another translation was introduced in the mid 1970s. The endless changes caused considerable outrage, not least at the expense of new prayer books, etc.
Around 2010 I found a fat envelope from around 1965 in the cupboard in our choir loft. It contained around 100 copies of sheet music for the First Mass in English. From the perfect condition of the paper, I do not think it had been used even once.
Thank you SO much for this reply. So I am remembering correctly, and now you've reminded me, I can remember the English translation farce. I thought that first change to English must have been slightly later, because on the date you've given in 1964 I would have been just 4 years and 5 months. Yet I clearly remember wondering what was going on when the Priest came out and started speaking in English, and looking (up and) around at all the adults and wondering why they weren't doing something!! I'd already fallen in love with Latin; I always say that I feel like the Church has been persecuting me since that day, so I can add another year or two on to this never-ending nightmare.
Blessed and Happy Epiphany, Chris! I always thought the diocesan chancellor was just another two legged paperweight...a make-believe job. I know better now thanks to you.
"It is no longer framed as a theological dispute over the nature of the Mass. It is enforced as interior design.."
The days of theological dispute ended with the blessing of same sex "couples". A child could easily win that argument. So too this one. Is the Eucharist Our Lord, or not?
(as horrible as this all is, pray for these "bishops", each's particular judgement they'll be alone, as will we will all, their "brothers" won't be there. the devils are so efficient with our seeking of human approval and the workings of a bureaucracy. I do not and would ever claim to know all the reasons why Our Lord set His Vicar as being only the first among many Successors.. , but that is one. .)
Love you man, but please don’t use the conciliar language of “… attached to the old mass”. I do not attend the Latin mass because of attachment, I attend for truth. Thx
"The crisis... is a system that punishes reverence, tolerates vice, markets ambiguity, and baptizes modern narratives to keep the faithful calm."
And the solution? There is no human solution. We can remind that the white smoke of the 1958 conclave meant what it was of course deliberately intended to mean, we can show that therefore Vatican II was illegitimate because it was convened by an invalid pope. But all this changes nothing.
It is not being defeatist to say that only God can fix this huge mess. It is not being defeatist to say that our only hope is the promised Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is not being defeatist to urge everyone to pray perseveringly that this Triumph come as soon as God may will it.