Monday Morning Musings
I've been writing over the weekend, on something I had hoped to post by Friday, but... well, one thing leads to another, you know?
When Bishop Loverde was appointed to Arlington, I got a lot of questions about what he'd do about two things in particular. Now, of course, the whole world knows the answer. Less well known is what will come of them. I'm preparing to respond to one now, the other later.
Meanwhile, "Don Jim" Tucker observes that he gets fewer complaints from the pro-altar-girl crowd, and plenty from the Latin-Mass-or-die crowd. "I would also point out the instructive fact that, although the right wing has been very loud and at times quite savage about the altar-girl permission, I have yet to see or hear a single negative comment from the left wing about the permission for the Old Mass. In fact, the only negative comments I've heard about it have come from conservatives." Implicit is the notion is that this represents the "sensus fidelum" of Catholics in northern Virginia. Oh yeah, like the white-wine-and-brie-cheese-New-York-Times-reading-Volvo-driving set would come running for counsel to a good Father with the audacity to run around in a cassock with some regularity, and speak with a distinct sense of Catholicity. (Sorry, Padre, the universe doesn't work that way. All in good time...)
I do enjoy his work, though, inasmuch as he is one of the few true "renaissance men" in the Catholic blogosphere, other than... well, moi!
That's all for now. Stay tuned, and stay in touch.
3 comments:
Fr. Jim fails to grasp that most Catholics, even most orthodox Catholics, don't really care whether the Tridentine Mass is offered. The Bishop's Latin Mass decision affects only two parishes in the diocese, one of them too far away to be convenient for most Arlington Catholics. The altar girl decision affects every single parish in the diocese. Not surprising that most comments concerned the latter rather than the former.
I'd write the good Father and tell him myself, but he finds it hard to answer all his e-mail. Including mine. He did thank me publicly once, though, for retouching one of his photos (getting rid of that nasty time/date stamp on a baptism picture), as I am an up-and-coming wiz with Photoshop.
Fr. Jim has got to be joking. I hear complaints about the Latin Mass all the time. Try being a member of an Indult parish like I used to be. Not only were we barely tolerated I swear the liberals in the parish would concoct events just to make our blood boil. For example there was a "progressive" Stations of the Cross. One of the sins being nailed to the Cross was Sexism and another was Ignorance. Naturally there were some complaints because the Sexism was obviously an attack on the male priesthood.
What Fr. is saying is that only Traditionalists are obnoxious. Personally I've met plenty of obnoxious liberals, but I guess that is just me. I think what happens is when you give the liberals everything they want (a.k.a. being pastoral) you don't get any complaints. When you give the Traditionalists the crumbs of the feast you may hear about it. Boo hoo.
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