Bishop Gracida: Prepare to Live like Catholics under the English Persecution

I think this is a most insightful commentary, and one that I agree with.  The persecution of Catholics in Tudor/Jacobian England in the 16th and 17th centuries gives us a very clear picture of what it is like to suffer through a Church  that allows itself to be whored out to the opinions, desires, and whims of the powers that be.  This is precisely what many feel has happened to our beautiful Holy Mother Church in recent decades (though they would probably have the decency and good sense not to use such an awful term, but I feel that is the one that is the most descriptive), and we can expect the faithful remnant – a term I was surprised to see Bishop Gracida, whom I had failed to read for many months, using over and over again on his blog – to be treated as badly or worse by the establishment church as were the “recusants” of Merrye Ol’ several centuries ago.

The tactics, liturgical changes, and theology are virtually identical to the most militant, leftist wing of the protestant revolutionaries of Elizabethan times, too.

But I’ll let Bishop Gracida make his points, and add a few comments.  This commentary was an answer to a question asked by a 70 year old Catholic regarding that septuagenarian’s sense that the Church of today is not the one he grew up in – when the Church fails, where do we go?:

Don’t you realize that you have become part of the Remnant?

Your situation, our situation, is analogous to the situation in which Catholics found themselves in 16th Century England.  All of a sudden Catholics woke up and found that the Church in which they had grown up had changed.  The head of the Church in England, the Archbishop of Canterbury had come under the influence of liberals and progressives like Martin Luther and John Calvin.  Worse, the King, Henry VIII, had become a serial adulterer and he felt it was ok for him to ‘re-marry’ and still receive Holy Communion while living in an adulterous relationship because the good of the Nation required it. [or the good of the groin -as Henry fell deeper and deeper into total incontinence, even the pretense he was doing all his adulterating for “the good of the nation” dropped away]   And to put a proper face on it the King declared himself the Head of the Church, the Liturgy of the Mass changed with the genius [“genius”] of Archbishop Cranmer and all of a sudden Catholics in England woke up and found that they had become Anglicans.

Well, not ALL Catholics.  Some, like the author of the above article still considered themselves to be Catholics, not Anglicans and because they now constituted a small number of people compared to their Anglican neighbors they became a Remnant of the Catholic Church.

That is what you are.  That is what many of us are.

And as a consequence, we are going to experience persecution.  Not the same kind of persecution that English Catholics experienced under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. [Ummm……wait and see. It might get pretty close, at least so far as being treated as heretics, schismatics, outsiders, and hateful bigots] You will cherish the Traditional Latin Mass when you can find it and you will learn to avoid the absurdities liberal priests and bishops introduce into the Novus Ordo Masses.

Just as English Catholics learned to avoid Anglican Masses celebrated by priests who were ordained not to offer the sacrifice of Jesus Christ but to set the table for a community meal, you will seek out priests, bishops (yes, and even popes) who manifest their belief in the Incarnate Lord Jesus Christ who suffered and died for us and who revealed his plan for us in the 2000 year magisterium of the Church we have possessed up to the present pontificate.

More from Bishop Gracida here, on why he signed the filial correction.

Lord, what good could be done with a few more such men.  Of course, he’s retired, and so it’s a lot easier for him to speak – and probably therein lies very much of the problem.

I’m not quite certain what the good bishop means about seeking out “popes who manifest their belief in the Incarnate Lord….” except that I’m certain he doesn’t meaning finding our own little Pope Michaels, et. al., to follow.  I am sure he means we turn to the popes of the past, the holy fathers who safely guided the Church with a far surer hand than the present trustee of the diocese of Rome.

At any rate it seems Bishop Gracida has become much more clear in his appreciation of the crisis facing the Church and the reality of the tiny number of the faithful. But our paucity of numbers is not a reason to lose hope, as I pray the next post may elucidate unsurreptitiously.

Today I can use my big boy words!