Changing the prayers of the Church led to the change in belief July 17, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, disaster, error, General Catholic, horror, Interior Life, Latin Mass, scandals, secularism, shocking, Society, Tradition.comments closed
From Traditional Catholic priest, a great post. When the chief prayer of the Church – the Mass – was changed, it was inevitable that the beleifs of the faithful would change. Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi – how we pray will guide/determine how we believe.
We need to do go the root of the problem of mass desertion from the church, mass distortion of the catholic teachings, and the immoral way that most catholics are living today.
My hypothesis is this: since we have stopped offering the Tridentine mass and the other Tridentine rites ( e.g. Baptism), and began offering the Novus Ordo Mass and rites, (Lex Orandi), that this change in how we pray (Lex Orandi), has caused the great exodus of catholics from the church and the dissension of most catholics with catholic teaching like birth control, same sex marriage, abortion, and divorce (Lex Credendi).
This ancient catholic saying “Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi” means “As we pray so we believe”. I think that the second part “Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi” which means “As we believe so we live”was added on later. [I have seen this presented in modern sources many times as “we pray as we believe,” but that is not what the intent of this statement really is – it really is, we beliee as we pray, which is quite different in meaning. It’s an important distinction.]
[And now, for the bloodletting…….]
So, being a stickler on empirical evidence, I want to empirically show, with statistics, that because we changed our Holy Mass and other catholic rites, that most catholics do not believe in what the catholic church teaches and therefore are not living as catholics. The other empirical statistics are abundant when it comes to catholics falling away or not practicing the catholic faith since the liturgical change to the New Mass and Rites.
Empirical statistics on the Catholic Church the United States of America from cara.Georgetown University study 2012.
Priests. In 1965, 58,632 in 2012, 38,964. By 2020 over half will be over 70.
Ordinations. In 1965, 994 new priests ordained. In 2012, 480 new priests ordained.
Parishes. In 1965, 549 parishes were without priests. Today 3,389 parishes with out.
Graduate-level Seminarians. In 1965 there were 8,325. In 2012, 3,723. In 1965 there were 600 seminaries. Today 189 seminaries.
Women Religious. In 1965 there were 179,954 sisters. In 2012, 54,018. Average age 68.
From other sources;
Mass attendence. Gallop Pole showed that 1958, 3 in 4 catholics attend Sunday Mass. Now Notre Dame Univ. found that 1 in 4 attend. [I dispute this. I think people over-report how often they assist at Mass. My own study in several dioceses, including Dallas, Boston, San Antonio, and two others, indicates to me that, based on parish size, Catholic population reports from dioceses, and weekly attendance figures, average Mass attendance is more like 10-15%. Even 70 years ago, then Archbishop Cushing of Boston was defending low Mass attendance (about 50%) by saying “if everyone came to Mass, we wouldn’t have room!” That’s even more true today, by a huge degree]
Annulments. 1968 there were 338. In 2002 there were 50,000. (Kenneth C Jones)
Catholic women make up 31% of the U.S. population and account for 31% of abortions. From Alissa J. Rubin “The Catholic Abortion Paradox”.
Marriages. I tried googling marriage statistics and only came up with older statistics that show a steep decline in catholic marriages. But as a pastor for 10 years, I witnessed a huge decline in marriages. Most couples today just live together and maybe later on will get married civilly and have a con-validation ceremony in the church.
[And now for a great conclusion:]
If the content of our catholic prayers and liturgies are correct, you will see correct catholic beliefs in the catholic people. If our catholic beliefs are correct we will see catholics living holy lives. I think we all traditional catholic agree that for the good of our beloved catholic church, we need to return to the Mass of all Ages and the other Tridentine Rites and we will see a reverse in the decline of our church and correct beliefs amongst the faithful. And the final result will be happier souls and families. God, Mary, St. Joseph will be happy too
I agree with this priest!
How do we help others grow in holiness? July 17, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in abdication of duty, Basics, catachesis, Dallas Diocese, error, General Catholic, North Deanery, priests, sadness, scandals, secularism, self-serving, Virtue.comments closed
I was at an event last night at a local parish, a sort of graduation party for a son who serves at Mass at a number of parishes. He’s only 15, yet he starts college in the fall. This is a local homeschooling family that is pretty well known. They had another son ordained to the priesthood in Dallas 2 years ago. He just finished his canon law degree in Rome, and is starting his first assignment at St. Thomas Aquinas parish in Dallas soon.
So, this family is pretty “connected” in the Diocese. I guess that explains why there were 6 priests at the Mass offered in thanksgiving for his graduation, including the current Cathedral Rector Fr. Garcia and the current vocations director for the Diocese, Fr. Szatkowski.
There was a little social after the Mass. It was very nice of the family to put that on. During this social, I was able to speak with Fr. Szatkowski, and another young priest who was ordained last year. I’m not sure if I was being annoying or what, but I got a strange vibe from this other priest – as if he knew who I was, and really didn’t want to talk with me. But as far as I know, I’ve never met him before in my life. But I suppose word gets around.
Anyways, I was asking various questions about how things are going, and I learned from Fr. Szatkowski that there are now 59 men in the seminary for Dallas, and 7 priests are expected to be ordained in 2014. Even better, if the classes hold together and candidates to the priesthood don’t leave, we could have 30 men ordained in the years 2018-2020. That would be marvellous, and would go a long way towards making up the the ginormous shortfall the diocese is facing as a huge number of priests approach retirement age. I mentioned that these ordinations, if they occur, could signal a huge shift in the Diocese in terms of generations/age of priests, as well as, perhaps, the emphases these priests would hold.
That’s right, I was sort of dancing around the generational divide among priests, where younger priests are often much more orthodox in their approach and transmission of the Faith than older ones. From that topic, I sort of segued to asking this young priest what he thought was the most important, or one of the most important, areas to emphasize to the faithful in his role as priest. He answered “the universal call to holiness……….”
UPDATE AND EDIT: I had written a post wherein I doubted, or even challenged, some of what the young priest had to say. I am retracting all of that, because I think I badly misunderstood what he said, or intended to say. So, I’ll just leave this post as an update on the seminary situation and that’s it. If I misinterpreted the young priest’s words and gave a false, negative impression of his orthodoxy, I apologize and pray forgiveness.
I wish I could say more, but I cannot, unfortunately. Suffice it to say, he’s Tradition-friendly.
Fulfilling a request – Latin Rosary in McKinney on Mondays July 17, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in Admin, awesomeness, Dallas Diocese, Glory, Good St. Joseph, Grace, Interior Life, North Deanery, Our Lady.comments closed
A commenter asked me to let my readers know that the Holy Rosary is prayed in Latin at 2pm on Mondays at St. Michael’s in McKinney. That’s an interesting devotion. Even at Mater Dei we pray it in English! But I pray the Rosary some in Latin because it’s helped me learn Latin. So, I get it.
Anyhoo, if you want Latin Rosary in a group environment, check it out!
Start Novena to St. Anne today! July 17, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Dallas Diocese, Domestic Church, General Catholic, Interior Life, North Deanery, Novenas, Saints, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
All the St. Anne Novenas I found were pretty much the same. You can use the one here at EWTN. They all start with a preparatory prayer then go to a day-specific prayer
. St. Anne’s feast day, in the 1962 calendar, is July 26:
O glorious St. Ann, you are filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer! Heavily burdened with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present intention which I recommend to you in your special care.
Please recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and place it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue. Continue to intercede for me until my request is granted. But, above all, obtain for me the grace one day to see my God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the saints to praise and bless Him for all eternity. Amen.
Our Father, . . . Hail Mary . . .
O Jesus, Holy Mary, St. Ann, help me now and at the hour of my death.
Good St. Ann, intercede for me.
Then go to the day-prayer here.
Of course, silly! Of course we knew all along homosexual marriage would lead to polygamy and incest being legalized July 17, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, disaster, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, sadness, scandals, secularism, sexual depravity, Society.comments closed
A very honest assessment regarding state recognition of homosexual simulation of marriage (I need a better expression). Now that homosexual marriage looks set to be the law of the land, the radical redefitionists are discussing among themselves whether they want to support polygamy and incest, or oppose it. You can go read the article yourself if you want. I won’t quote any here. I’ll just say, the utter separation from any transcendent Truth is readily apparent.
But I think we already know what the lobby of Sodom/Gomorrah is going to do: they’re going to help advance at least polygamy, because many relationships between people of the same sex already involve multiple partners. Some of the more radical fringe have already admitted they plan to support polygamy laws so one or two partners in a large group who happen to work, can insist on benefits like health insurance, etc., for the rest. Much of this fervor comes down to money. And God will be driven from the world a little more, and a little more. The Church will be forced from the public square, if not entirely, at least effectively.
Hey, want to know what a country looks like without God? See Mexico! Oh, oh, oh, the “Mexican Marines” just arrested Trevino Morales, the leader of the demonic Zetas (the prime officianados of Santa Muerte). That means one of two things: either the Sinaloa Cartel gave the info to some faction in the Mexican armed forces to temporarily detain their chief rival (for these guys often escape), or the infighting in the Zetas over who will lead has reached a new level. The probability that the Mexican government really, honestly captured these guys with no ulterior motive is about 1 in 1000 – especially with PRI back in power. My guess is what this means is that the government, at Obama’s behest, is now decisively favoring the Sinaloa cartel. Because, they are so “reasonable.”
These cartel types love to prey on the innocent, especially migrants who are essentially defenseless. There have been numerous massacres of migrants, probably for refusing to either carry drugs for the cartels (especially the Zetas) or surrendering their daughters to lives of drug-addicted prostitution. It’s hell on earth. As one priest notes:
For the group most terrorized by Trevino Morales, Central American migrants who were kidnapped, beaten and extorted by the tens of thousands, the arrest “will certainly be a relief,” said the Rev. Alejandro Solalinde. The Roman Catholic priest runs a migrant shelter in the state of Oaxaca and has spent much of the last decade living under death threats from the Zetas.
“This was a blow, but it’s only skin deep,” Solalinde said. “The Zetas operate in almost 20 states of Mexico. They have a lot of public servants on their payroll, a lot of police.” [And the anti-Catholic PRI – “Institutional Revolutionary Party” – has always been tight with the cartels. This arrest almost certainly is intended to benefit the Sinaloa cartel]
Solalinde said that in southern Mexico, the Zetas have used their ties in Honduras and Guatemala, where they also ship cocaine and grow opium, to recruit street gang members to kidnap and kill Central American migrants in Mexico.
The Zetas forcibly recruit some migrants, kill those who won’t join and increasingly kidnap young girls, who are forced into prostitution at Zeta-run bars or are made to distribute Zeta drugs.
“We’re talking about human trafficking, organ trafficking, kidnappings, forced recruitment, everything,” Solalinde said.
Poor Mexico! Once perhaps the most thoroughly Catholic country in the world, now prostrate, broken, largely bereft of Faith. The Church is broken, as well, but much of that has been self-inflicted due to embrace of progressive ideals in the past 50 years. But the unrelenting war the French Revolution inspired governments of Mexico waged against the Church for 150 years or more played a huge part in driving the Church from the lives of Mexicans. And now they are reaping the hideous fruit of that radical secularism.
God forbid such ever happen here, but if we keep heading in the direction we’ve been on, it will.
Pope to offer indulgences – including plenary indulgences – to those who follow WYD online July 17, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, Basics, contraception, episcopate, General Catholic, Interior Life, Papa, pr stunts, secularism, self-serving, sexual depravity, shocking, the return.comments closed
It’s a strange new world in the 21st century. I guess, whatever gets people to cooperate with Grace is good:
In its latest attempt to keep up with the times the Vatican has married one of its oldest traditions to the world of social media by offering “indulgences” to followers of
Pope Francis‘ tweets…..
…..But attendance at events such as the Catholic World Youth Day, in Rio de Janeiro, a week-long event starting on 22 July, can also win an indulgence.
Mindful of the faithful who cannot afford to fly to Brazil, the Vatican’s sacred apostolic penitentiary, a court which handles the forgiveness of sins, has also extended the privilege to those following the “rites and pious exercises” of the event on television, radio and through social media.
“That includes following Twitter,” said a source at the penitentiary, referring to Pope Francis’ Twitter account, which has gathered seven million followers. “But you must be following the events live. It is not as if you can get an indulgence by chatting on the internet.” [Isn’t a twitter pretty sporadic? I mean, it’s not quite like television, where one really can follow along, second to second, moment to moment. People twitter every few minutes or so, or less frequently than that, right? So, it’s not entirely “live?” But it “counts” nonetheless?]
In its decree, the penitentiary said that getting an indulgence would hinge on the beneficiary having previously confessed and being “truly penitent and contrite”. [There are also usually requirements to say certain prayers, like the Pater Noster, Ave Maria, and Gloria for the intentions of the Holy Father, no? And plenary indulgences require no attachment to sin, even venial sin]
Praying while following events in Rio online would need to be carried out with “requisite devotion”, it suggested. [I’m not sure how well praying and twittering go together. Recently, a local priest chided those of us who claimed to pray while we drive. He indicated such a split focus undermined the efficacy of our prayers, at least to a degree. But I suppose anything is possible…..]
Apart from the papal Twitter account, the Vatican has launched an online news portal supported by an app, a Facebook page, and it plans to use the online social networking site Pinterest.
“What really counts is that the tweets the Pope sends from Brazil or the photos of the Catholic World Youth Day that go up on Pinterest produce authentic spiritual fruit in the hearts of everyone,” said Celli.
Well, I certainly hope they do. But the souls moved by World Youth Day will first have to overcome the distraction of the Fortress of Solitude:
And on a side note, as a special show of how much they love the Holy Father, the government of Brazil is seeking to sneak abortion legalizing legislation through right on the cusp of the Pope’s visit – and the Brazilian bishop’s conference seems to be playing along. Will the Pope address the legalization of abortion in the world’s largest – nominally – Catholic country in his visit?
We must keep in mind that the secular press frequently gets things like this very, very wrong. I looked briefly for some coverage on some mainstream Catholic sites but did not find any, yet. So, I went with the Guardian article. Pewsitter is also pointing at the Guardian article, for now.
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