Category: Ministry

What on earth is going on with the new administrator of Holy Trinity Parish in Boston?
Twice in a month, he’s replaced the Tridentine Mass Sunday at noon — the only such Mass in the Boston archdiocese — with an English Mass in the new rite, due to “scheduling errors”.
In the first case, the priest scheduled to celebrate the Sunday Mass did not arrive at the church at the appointed time, and a call to his rectory brought back the report that he was out of town. The administrator apologized and had a substitute offer Mass according to the new rite. But he (lacking any understanding of traditionalist issues) did so entirely in English, using the free-standing altar, facing versus populum, not using the Roman Canon. What a missed opportunity.
This past Sunday, the administrator knew a day in advance that he had a scheduling problem. Word reached parishioners, and half the congregation went to Mass elsewhere: that is, those who went at all.
If people have a choice between driving an hour for a reliable old-rite Mass in the next diocese and driving an hour for an unreliable one, they will choose the reliable one.
For over fifteen years, Holy Trinity parish has fulfilled its role of bringing about the reconciliation of disaffected traditionalist Catholics. Provoking the faithful of that parish to mistrust their pastor and – dare I say – their bishop gravely harms that mission.
Furthermore, there are now even more illicit Latin Mass groups operating in the city of Boston than there were fifteen years ago — some of them openly sedevacantist schismatics. This is not a time to fall down on the Archdiocese’s commitments to the Latin Mass community in Boston.

When hostile parishioners drive out their pastor, what’s a bishop to do?

9
Then he proceeded to tell the people this parable. “(A) man planted a vineyard, leased it to tenant farmers, and then went on a journey for a long time.
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At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenant farmers to receive some of the produce of the vineyard. But they beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed.
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So he proceeded to send another servant, but him also they beat and insulted and sent away empty-handed.
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Then he proceeded to send a third, but this one too they wounded and threw out.
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The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I shall send my beloved son; maybe they will respect him.’
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But when the tenant farmers saw him they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him that the inheritance may become ours.’

When the Son comes, will they respect Him?

Two encouraging actions show bishops with backbone:
The bishop of Peterborough (ON) has removed a pastor who not only vocally supported ordination for women, but declared that he had celebrated Mass with “women priests” during a visit to the US.
In Sacramento, Bp. William Weigand directed a high school to dismiss a non-Catholic teacher who was found by a local pro-lifer to be a Planned Parenthood abortion mill volunteer, directly opposing the efforts of pro-lifers to save women and their unborn children from abortion.

A few points from some of the fifty propositions offered (I paraphrase):
13: The synod Fathers suggest rethinking the order in which the Sacraments of initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, First Communion) are given. In the Latin tradition, the First Communion of children has come to be before Confirmation, but there is no dogmatic reason for this; for adults, Confirmation precedes First Communion.
23: The Fathers suggest moving the Sign of Peace to another point in the Mass.
24: New formulas for the “Ita missa est” (solemn blessing, prayer over the people, etc.) could be given to better express the sending of the faithful to their mission in the world.
36: Priests should be taught in seminary to understand and celebrate Mass in Latin, and to use Gregorian chant.
37: The Fathers suggest that the competent organizations (Episcopal Conferences, SCDW) propose regulations for concelebration when the number of concelebrants is especially high.
46: Catholic politicians should note that there is no “eucharistic coherence” when they promote laws that harm the integral good of man, which are against justice and the natural law. Bishops should apply the virtues of strength and prudence, taking into account the concrete local situation.

Usually when I hear people rant that bishops should send the sex-abuse perps away to a monastery, I figure it’s not a good idea: monastic communities aren’t a dumping ground for the Church’s problem cases.
Cardinal George is trying something similar, though, having 11 such priests relocated to a diocesan retreat house, for what one hopes will be a closely monitored life of penance and prayer. It’ll be interesting to find out how effective and fruitful this approach will prove.
(Thanks to Rocco).