Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Vatican II Switcheroo

First we had

LGBTQ Bad - TLM Good

Now we’ve got

LGBTQ Good - TLM Bad

Any of you catching on, yet?

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Despicable: Only 16

 

A sad commentary on the state of the Church. If we don’t lead people to heaven we’re letting them go to hell.

What is the one thing most needed to save society?

Pope St. Pius X: “What is the thing we most need, today, to save society?”

SHOCK TROOPS
KING: As Jean-Baptiste Chautard recounts in his book The Soul of the Apostolate, Pope St. Pius X was conversing with a group of his cardinals one day. The pope asked them:

“What is the thing we most need, today, to save society?”

“Build Catholic schools,” said one.

“No.”

“More churches,” said another.

“Still no.”

“Speed up the recruiting of priests,” said a third.

“No, no,” said the pope, “the most necessary thing of all, at this time, is for every parish to possess a group of laymen who will be at the same time virtuous, enlightened, resolute, and truly apostolic.”

Chautard continues, “Further details enable us to assert that this holy pope at the end of his life saw no hope for the salvation of the world unless the clergy could use their zeal to form faithful Christians full of apostolic ardor, preaching by word and example, but especially by example. In the diocese where he served before being elevated to the papacy, he attached less importance to the (count) of parishioners than to the list of Christians capable of radiating an apostolate. It was his opinion that shock troops could be formed in any environment.”

“Shock troops” (or assault troops) is actually a military term that refers to infantry formations, along with supporting units, created to lead an attack. Consider the Allied Forces of World War II moving toward the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. That first wave of men knew full well that their chances were extremely poor of ever leaving that beach alive, but they knew somebody needed to go first. It is no less than profound that the holy Pope St. Pius X would use a military term, shock troops, to describe the most necessary need of our times. The pope is resolute in acknowledging we are in spiritual warfare as he calls for an uncommon valor willing to be the tip of the spear, the vanguard, warrior saints unafraid “to lead.” (Excerpt from Church Militant Field Manual).
(Photo: Wiki)

My latest column: “On Your Wedding Day”


 

On Your Wedding Day

May 26, 2022

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK

On this splendid day, for which you have waited with joyful anticipation, you are surrounded by many of those you love, and who love you: family and friends.

We share your joy to see this moment, when your love for one another will begin a new and deeper reality: the ultimate sharing. The uniting of your bodies and souls.

Love seeks union, to be with the one who is loved.

You indeed love each other very much. It is part of loving to want to give more and more. You want to be together, for all of life, with all that entails. Love gives all. This is indeed a beautiful gift

But that of itself does not explain why we find ourselves here, in this place. Why are we gathered in this chapel which is inspired by faith, calling for a response of faith, its architecture and adornment pointing to the holy and to God, its supernatural source?

You were drawn to celebrate your nuptial ritual here by the beauty of this place. You have experienced the truth that your hearts were made to love beauty. This chapel in which we are gathered eloquently proclaims the highest beauty: of God and His love.

The arched and vaulted ceiling points upward, like hands in prayer seeking God. Love ever reaches for God by speaking with and praising Him. Stained-glass windows organize the fire of created light into a beautiful design, communicating something of the One whose power illumines it. God seeks to be one with us in all He has made and in all He does.

We are gathered in a place of prayer and worship, a place to seek and proclaim He who in love gave us the life which makes loving possible. Here, in our holy Catholic ritual we pray, proclaim the Word of God and bless. We acknowledge the Lord through faith.

From that uncreated Source, from Him who is spirit and truth, you will together receive a spiritual union necessary for a true bodily union, His love and His will for you.

Unity in the Lord is the basis of unity between all of us, and no less for man and wife.

Read the rest: https://thewandererpress.com/catholic/news/our-catholic-faith/on-your-wedding-day/

In photo: My nephew Riley and his bride Jingyi on their wedding day.

The Holy Eucharist is a grace unto grace and Confession is the Sacrament for souls dead or mortally wounded by sin

There is a Sacrament Pelosi and any obstinate public sinner can avail themselves of any time they need it and as often as they need it. It’s not the Eucharist. It’s Confession. Archbishop Cordileone covered that very well in his letter to Pelosi.

Any conversation about the banning of Pelosi from reception of holy Communion that does not refer to this fact is disingenuous and not worth anyone’s time or attention. 

The purpose of the holy Eucharist is for salvation, by giving increase of grace to those who are in a state of grace. It is useless and sacrilegious for Pelosi, and Biden as well, for that matter, to receive Our Lord as long as they persist in manifest grave sin. Archbishop Cordileone is forbidding Nancy’s reception as a medicinal matter, to aid in the salvation of her soul.

Confession and absolution is the Lord’s way of returning to a state of grace those souls who have lost the state of grace through grave or mortal sin, of which approval and support for abortion is one.


Wednesday, May 25, 2022

“Mass of the Ages” Episode 2 premiers Ascension Thursday


Visit TheLatinMass.com for YouTube channel and more info about the premier of the second episode at 3 pm on Ascension Thursday.

A Catholic Jesuit, Fr McTeigue interviews Cameron O’Hearn, the maker of the series: https://thecatholiccurrent.libsyn.com/who-improved-the-mass-cameron-ohearn?tdest_id=2263172

How did he get in the building?

I wasn’t aware that we were letting just anybody walk into schools without being identified. It’s been my experience that, if the entrance door of the school isn’t locked to begin with, visitors must identify themselves before getting buzzed in.

How did the shooter get into the Texas school where he killed 19 children and 2 teachers? If the exterior door wasn’t locked, why not? If the killer didn’t get buzzed in, why not? Certainly someone with a gun would never be permitted into a school if normal protocols were in place.

With all the commentary on this tragedy, why is no one asking these basic questions?

RIP.

Monday, May 23, 2022

On May 24 pray for Cardinal Zen and the Church in Hong Kong



 

The schism has arrived and here’s how


UPDATE: The list of bishops proclaiming Catholic Faith on this matter now number 14:

https://catholicvote.org/here-is-a-list-of-bishops-speaking-out-in-support-of-archbishop-cordileone/

Archbishop Cordileone decided that Nancy, who publicly promotes abortion, is for that reason a source of public scandal as well as personally sinful and thus unable to receive Communion in a state of grace. He requires that she abstain until publicly repentant in addition to receiving sacramental confession. 

This is a direct challenge to Pope Francis’ plan to change the Church by giving Communion to everybody, starting with adulterers.

These bishops have publicly supported Abp Cordileone:

Diocese of Oakland – Bp. Barber

Diocese of Santa Rosa – Bp. Vasa

Archdiocese of Denver – Archbp. Aquila

Diocese of Springfield – Bp. Paprocki

Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas – Archbp. Naumann

Diocese of Lincoln – Bp. Conley

Archdiocese of Oklahoma City – Archbp. Coakley

Diocese of Tyler – Bp. Strickland

Diocese of Spokane – Bp. Daly

Diocese of Green Bay – Bp. Ricken

Diocese of Madison – Bp. Hying

They, too, are pushing back against Pope Francis by doing so, making more obvious a chasm created by Pope Francis, who puts them in the position of opposing him if they would remain Catholic and teach Catholic.

Pope Francis refused to align with the Catholic canons on the matter of Biden and Pelosi receiving Communion in order to avoid undermining his previously stated position opening the way for adulterers to receive the Sacrament a la Amoris Laetitia.

The schism has now become an open breach in the Church as the faithful reassert themselves against an alien regime in control of the handles of power.

There are so many examples of the ways Pope Francis is canceling the Church it’s hard to know where to begin. Here’s another trick: claiming those who believe in the immemorial faith and morals of the Church of always are a “sect”:

https://traditioninaction.org/RevolutionPhotos/A987-Sec.htm



Parish families grow with traditions of community at worship and in fellowship

Members of my parish family on May 22d after 11 am Sunday Mass and before meeting for weekly Sunday lunch at the parish hall.



Saturday, May 21, 2022

Diocese of Crookston: Kneeling, bells and incense at Mass reinforced by bishop for Eucharistic reverence

In a new letter of instruction for his diocese, the bishop of Crookston strikes a blow against rupture from Catholic tradition by mandating kneeling, use of bells and incense. 

Now, priests in his diocese who desire to be Catholic in every sense will no longer have to fight myriad and perennial battles against change ancients attempting to destroy Catholic reverence from within. The pernicious fiction that Vatican II sounded a death knell for traditions of Catholic worship continues to die an agonizingly slow but needed death in order to restore true faith and practice.




Happy anniversary to Mom & Dad

On May 21 1960 Richard and Mary Cusick were joined in holy wedlock in Detroit, Michigan. I remembered them on the road at Mass offered today on my traveling altar in Kentucky.

The family also celebrates today the nuptials of their grandson Riley and his beloved Jingyi. We are indeed a blessed family. Happy anniversary and future anniversary to both couples.



Friday, May 20, 2022

My latest column: “Liturgy Unites, Gaslighting Divides”

 

Liturgy Unites, Gaslighting Divides

May 19, 2022

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK

Guns don’t kill people, people do. People are the source of division, not the things they use to bring about violence. The voice is one of the most beautiful gifts given to men, and yet men use their voices all too frequently in sinful ways to divide and to hate. This is not the fault of the voice but of the man or woman who uses it for unholy purposes. So, intentions are key in uncovering in any situation what is the cause of division, if indeed there subsists such a lack of true charity.
Just as with any weapon intended for self-defense, the things of God can be misused in a sinful way to exclude the truth or to deceive. Liturgy is not merely a defense against evil. In the Mass, the prayer of the Lord Himself and the highest form of prayer, is also brought about the greatest source of grace through our Lord Himself truly present in the Eucharist.

In recent weeks the Pope digressed on matters liturgical in an address at Rome to the pontifical liturgical institute St. Anselm on its sixtieth anniversary. He spoke of the new liturgy promulgated after Vatican II and also of the Traditional liturgy. He compared the two to the denigration of the latter.

The motives of those who attend and promote the Traditional Liturgy are of the very highest. They live with love for God and others through complete submission of intellect and will to all that the Church teaches in matters of faith and morals. This is the one necessary task of the Church for the salvation of souls. I know this is true because I have served them as pastor for nearly twelve years. Our parish has grown and flourished with new parishioners joining us nearly every week, as well as frequent Baptisms among our large and growing families.
To his credit, the Pope in his address acknowledges “legitimate differences,” which I would say nearly perfectly describes the situation of those who find that the incarnation of the liturgy in the vast majority of cases looks nothing like what was described in the documents of Vatican II. Those conciliar documents called for the use of Latin, the music of the organ, and the rich tradition of Gregorian Chant.
The liturgy in many places today has devolved to the point of resembling a badly disorganized Masonic meeting.

This is to say nothing of the open promotion of sodomy by the leading German cardinal with no known comment from the Pope in response.
A frank “family discussion” on how the postconciliar Church went wrong in the matter of the Mass is all that the people are asking for. Parrhesia, an honest airing of differences, has been hailed by this Pope as a necessary element of ecclesial life. Alas, the track record is often a dysfunctional silence in response to any who question even the most bizarre aberrations contrary to Catholic faith and morals.

The love of and belief in the Eucharist, which the Pope rightly highlights as the source and summit of our lives as Christians, encapsulates the reason for the ceaseless unease among the people of God over many years in regard to the deplorable state of liturgical affairs in many parishes. This reality is the basis for the pastoral solicitude on the part of some postconciliar Popes to concede some basis in ecclesial life for those who find the Traditional liturgy a continued source of spiritual strength.

Charity is not “above all openness and attention to others” as the Pope said in his recent address to the liturgical institute. No, charity is above all love of God for His own sake and others in Him for the sake of their salvation.

Read the rest: https://thewandererpress.com/catholic/news/our-catholic-faith/liturgy-unites-gaslighting-divides/

BREAKING: Archbishop Cordileone Enforces Canon 915 Against Nancy Pelosi

BREAKING: Archbishop Cordileone Enforces Canon 915

 

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone is enforcing Canon 915 against pro-abortion "Catholic" Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  

From our friends at Fox News:

"Therefore, in light of my responsibility as the Archbishop of San Francisco to be 'concerned for all the Christian faithful entrusted to [my] care" (Code of Canon Law, can. 383, §1), by means of this communication I am hereby notifying you that you are not to present yourself for Holy Communion and, should you do so, you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion, until such time as you publically repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution of this grave sin in the sacrament of Penance." he said.
 

-- Fox News (20 May 2022)

PRAISE GOD.

For over two decades, American Life League has been consistent -- and sometimes alone -- in calling for the enforcement of Canon 915.

Your confidence that we could protect and defend the Eucharist from scandal has made this day possible.  This is your win.

PRAISE BE TO JESUS AND MARY. 

Now is the time to DOUBLE DOWN and support ALL's life-saving work so together we can get the Catholic bishops to protect and defend the Eucharist from these pro-abortion politicians.


Your maximum rushed gift of $250, $500, $1,000 or even a generous $5,000 can help us strike while the iron is HOT. 

Make no mistake. Nancy Pelosi remains one of the foremost enemies of the babies and a staunch supporter of Planned Parenthood, the nation's #1 abortion chain. 

This news will certainly anger her and her pro-abortion cronies, and the same people threatening to burn our parishes and vandalizing our communities will only double down.

Which is all the more reason we need to DOUBLE DOWN and defend the Holy Eucharist against these vile pro-abortion politicians.

Let's make sure every Catholic in America knows where the Church stands when it comes protecting the Holy Eucharist and saving the babies.

CLICK HERE with a $100 or $250 gift and help me DOUBLE DOWN on this miraculous news!

Yours in the LORD Who IS Life!

Judie Brown
President
American Life League

PS:  Of course, May is the month of the Blessed Mother. 
 With so much going on, is it any coincidence that Our Lady of Fatima is helping things move?  Not in my world! 

PPS:  If you can't tell, I am still in shock.  But what a shock!!

NB: Watch for another personal papal audience for Nancy Pelosi, with plenty of resulting public photos just so nobody mistakes the news for mere rumor.

June 29th in DC: “Beyond Dobbs” conference with Sister Dede

 


Greetings from Kentucky



 

Saint Francis de Sales Church in Georgetown, Kentucky, was built in 1820 and is the second oldest church west of the Alleghenies.

The central painting was produced by a 19th century Cincinnati artist and the carved reredos was recently restored by removing overpainting and marbleizing and refinished in the vibrant red and gold you see here.

The traditional Latin Mass is offered here day and yours truly is blessed to offer the same for the faithful of the parish this morning.


Traditional Latin Mass homeschooling families with children in costume preparing for a performance of Willy Wonka tomorrow.

Monday, May 16, 2022

A beautiful life of faith is the fruit of Catholic Tradition


Pictured here are members of my parish family after the 11 AM Sunday traditional Mass. Please pray that they will not be cast out of their church home as the horror of Traditionis custodes threatens.

Our 8 am weekly Sunday traditional Latin Mass draws up to 40 persons and our 11 am TLM on Sundays has grown in just over 11 years from a weekly average of about 30 people, many elderly, to the vibrant community of all ages you see pictured here that has numbered up to 140 people.

Please pray that the local shepherds of the “Church of accompaniment”, the field hospital that treats all wounded sinners with compassion and without prejudice, will not cast these faithful out of their own church in which they have just recently unveiled a monumental new apse mural, lamps and chandeliers as pictured below.




With Tradition a parish grows

 Alex and Nikki betrothed after Mass yesterday. Congratulations to them both.


Attack on traditional Mass an attack on diversity: Our parish diversity is one reality embracing all liturgies


We offer the Mass in English as launched after Vatican II once per week on Sundays so that we do not marginalize or exclude anyone in the Church. Some parishioners attend both liturgies, new and old.

This photo taken May 15th after the weekly 9 am Sunday English-language Mass. The diversity of people in the parish is inseparable from the diversity of liturgies. Take away the traditional liturgy and the lives of these faithful, who more often attend Mass in English, are negatively impacted as well. Each is always part of the whole.

     If the traditional Masses at the parish are eliminated, as has been proposed, these diverse parishioners will be disadvantaged because unable to alone support the parish monthly budget.

Sunday, May 15, 2022

Sunday 8 am Traditional Latin Mass at SDDS


 “Diverse” means containing variety. That describes well the faithful group of old, young and every age in between who attend the weekly Sunday TLM.

Saturday, May 14, 2022

The culpable silence of Rome and betrayal of Christ in the Chinese Church

Featured Image
Cdl. Joseph Zen in Hong Kong, China, Aug. 18, 2018.Paul Yeung/Bloomberg via Getty Images

0:00 / 4:54
BeyondWords

You’re invited! Join LifeSite in celebrating 25 years of pro-life and pro-family reporting at our anniversary Gala August 17th in Naples, Florida. Tickets and sponsorships can be purchased by clicking here.

(LifeSiteNews) –  On Wednesday it was announced that Cardinal Joseph Zen had been arrested by the authorities in Hong Kong. The investigation and arrest was made by the special police section set up by the government of Beijing to watch over Chinese national security, that is, to suppress any form of dissent or protest over the violations of human rights committed by the Chinese dictatorship.


The elderly Cardinal – who in the past has expressed strong criticism of the secret agreement signed between the Chinese regime and the Holy See – was interrogated and then released on bail. His passport was also confiscated. What has happened is a very grave violation of the freedoms and rights enjoyed by every human person, all the more deplorable in the case of a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church. The Vatican Press Office, with obvious embarrassment, limited itself to expressing “concern” without making any formal protest to the Beijing government. Only a few days earlier, ten other priests of the Baoding community, who belong to the clandestine Church, were abducted and sent to forced “re-education” by the Chinese Communist Party because they were unwilling to join the patriotic sect, adding to the list of abuses and oppression against Catholics who are faithful to the underground Church.

The poisoned fruits of the Sino-Vatican Agreement are now apparent. The Bergoglian church prefers to remain silent about the persecution of Catholics who belong to the clandestine Church after having handed them over to retaliations at the hands of the patriotic sect and the Chinese Communist Party. In exchange, Beijing rewards the Holy See for its services with substantial annual funding: the mercenaries allow themselves to be bought with thirty pieces of silver that are dripping with the blood of the martyrs of the Church of silence.


In September 2020, on the eve of the renewal of that infamous agreement, Cardinal Zen came to Rome to meet Bergoglio, who humiliated him with an indignant refusal to meet with him because of the Chinese Cardinal’s well-known position on the Sino-Vatican Agreement and its repeated violations. This affront against a Prince of the Church gave a clear signal to the Chinese dictatorship, which then felt free to act without fearing consequences or that the Vatican would take a position. The tenant of the Vatican, however, finds time to receive high-ranking representatives of the New World Order, representatives of globalism and usurious finance, dictators and war criminals, and even the wives of the soldiers fighting in the neo-Nazi Azov battalion, which in the past few days used civilians as human shields during the Russian siege of the Azovstal steel plant. Someone pointed out that the Russian-Canadian activist Pyotr Verzilov accompanied two Ukrainian wives to the papal audience: he is the founder and spokesman of the feminist group Pussy Riot, known for carrying out profanations and sacrileges against Orthodox churches in Russia, following the model of Femen in the West. It leaves us disconcerted that the representative of an anti-Christian movement that has made blasphemy the heart of its subversive action has been admitted to an audience at the Vatican.

This attitude of unequalled duplicity, that is anything but ambiguous, shows how Bergoglio’s deep church is totally aligned not only with the psycho-pandemic narrative but also with the insane management of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis by the deep state. Cardinal Zen is added to the dubia Cardinals in the list of those to whom Bergoglio has never responded to or received in audience, even as he has personally handwritten a letter of support to James Martin, S.J. With that umpteenth endorsement, Bergoglio confirms that he intends to normalize the pan-sexualism of the infamous LGBTQ ideology within the Catholic Church, and along with it the consequent eternal perdition of many souls.

The wisdom and prudence of Vatican diplomacy, a precious legacy of centuries of experience that was once admired by all the chanceries of the world, is today under the guidance of Pietro Parolin but a distant memory: courtly interests, economic profits, and criminal connivances all shamelessly prevail right before the eyes of both God and men. The faithful look on scandalized at the transformation of the Holy See into a den of thieves (Lk 19:46).

I exhort my brother bishops and priests as well as faithful laity to support His Eminence with prayer, expressing your closeness and solidarity with him at this difficult time. May the trials to which Cardinal Zen is being subjected merit from Heaven that reward which the Lord has promised to those who serve the Holy Church with fidelity and who remain steadfast in the Faith, without allowing themselves to be contaminated by the spirit of the world.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

13 May 2022

https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/declaration-on-the-arrest-of-his-eminence-cardinal-joseph-zen/

Sancta Missa: Santa Maria in Sabbato





My parish family at Mass on Saturday morning. Top with sacristan Jamie at center and bottom with yours truly. 



Men’s Confraternity meeting after Saturday morning Mass.

Divisive liturgy? Cardinal Marx uses novus ordo to promote violation of Church moral teaching

There are widespread claims, promoted and fueled by the pope in Traditionis custodes, that the traditional Latin language liturgy of the Church is divisive. Where is the evidence? My parish family, with traditional Latin Mass daily, gives full assent of intellect and will to all that the Church teaches in matters of faith and morals. That sounds a lot like unity to me.

There is evidence, however, that the novus ordo Mass of Vatican II is used to divide the Church. And this thanks to no less than a leading Cardinal of the German church.

Here is Cardinal Marx, a well-known ally of the pope, promoting sodomy as a Christian good in the context of the new Mass created after Vatican II. 

Why, you might ask, are we being gaslighted on this issue? Why is the truth denied and replaced with a lie? Usually the most obvious answer is the correct one. The traditional Latin Mass cannot be twisted to promote the godless and satanic agenda of unnatural sexual activity dear to the heart of so many bishops today.


 


Friday, May 13, 2022

My latest column: “Liturgical and Cultural Diversity”

Liturgical And Cultural Diversity

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK

The same Church leaders calling for cultural diversity are proposing to injure it through a plan to eliminate the liturgical diversity which underlies it.

Cultural diversity is a current touchstone in the Church. The Archdiocese of Washington has planned a high visibility meeting about the matter this month. Each parish in the archdiocese has been tasked with sending a priest, religious, or deacon to the meeting as a representative. An auxiliary bishop is representing the archbishop as head of the proceedings. Expectations are high for attendance and participation.

The concern for cultural diversity underlying this extraordinary effort to draw attention to the matter is no doubt fueled in part by the huge influx of immigrants, many of them illegal, in recent years. The social turbulence and economic strain of this phenomenon is impacting the Washington region and the local Church more intensely as the state of Texas sends a series of busloads of illegal immigrants to D.C. in recent weeks.

Some of the immigrants immediately ask for assistance in reaching the state of Florida, destination of many legal citizens seeking to escape the draconian eclipse of human rights in many areas of the country. Others of these newcomers, however, will seek to stay locally, becoming a concern for the social justice apostolate of local citizens and faithful of the archdiocese.

The Church of Washington, D.C., encompassing as it does the international capital of the same name, is by its nature a culturally diverse region of diplomatic, governmental, media, and other aspects of a significant global informational, political, and economic hub. Ethnic diversity is both a blessing and a challenge. Every culture brings enrichment while persons with their needs each present challenges. Poverty, joblessness, homelessness, and communication challenges and the lack of other basic needs call for a compassionate response.

The Church by her nature as both one and universal is culturally diverse. This is God’s plan and it is good. Many different languages and nations make up the universal Body of Christ. This is true also of our local Church, which encompasses the city of Washington, D.C., and the surrounding five counties within the state of Maryland.

From the perspective of faith, however, spurred as it is by the love of Christ, an intercultural approach will treasure the gifts of each while at the same time being in a sense blind to differences, upholding uppermost as is necessary the human dignity of each that subsists regardless of ethnicity, language, origin, or religion.

The mission of the Church for the glory of God and the salvation of souls should influence all that we do. Our Catholic Christian faith, holding as it does love of God as the defining principle of our lives, stipulates that our love of others finds its basis and motivation in love of God. In fact, these form the two greatest Commandments as handed down by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Ethnic diversity can provide unique challenges in matters of basic human needs, and the Church rightly calls for her members to join efforts in generously meeting them, but the mission of the Church is, in the first place, to offer to each the greatest wealth that is possible for any human being in this world. As St. Peter, the first Pope, responded when challenged to assist another in poverty, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk” (Acts 3:6).

However impoverished the Church may be in worldly means, whatever the material needs of those who approach her in a culturally diverse social environment, she must never lose sight of the perspective of faith, her greatest “treasure,” and must never fail to offer this greatest treasure to all of humanity.

In this Easter season we recount once again the sending of the apostles, commissioned by the Lord, to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ (Matt. 28:19). The Church is therefore by her nature universal, potentially encompassing all ethnicities, destined to embrace the entire human race. Our identity as Catholics calls for each of us to embrace a fundamental option for the other, no matter his or her language, origin, or ethnicity.

Genetic origin within the one human race, however, is not the only criterion for cultural diversity. We will impoverish ourselves intellectually and spiritually if we define terms down in order to speak to the surrounding zeitgeist while neglecting to uplift the conversation by enriching it with unique insights possible from the perspective of faith.

Culture finds its root in the word “cultus,” which helps us to understand that true culture is an outgrowth or fruit of religion or faith. The culture of the West, born of Christianity and specifically the Catholic Church, now under ferocious assault in many places, is one such outgrowth made possible by millennia of life in tandem with the worship which many of us already share.

Cultural diversity must, therefore, be found in the different kinds of cult, or worship. If it is asserted that the Mass of Vatican II, since it was created in the 1960’s, is one authentic source of cultus, or religious faith, both in the worship which expresses it and the daily life it upholds, how much more so the missa antiquior, the Traditional Latin Mass, from which the missa recentior comes, with its vast treasury of musical and other arts that both support it and express its spirit.

Cultural diversity in the Church is upheld by different forms of prayer, all of them legitimate and none of them taking away from the unity of the Church, any more than people from different languages or cultures need by that reason be divided.

Unity is never threatened by diversity of any kind. That unity brought by God through Catholic worship old or new is not threatened by liturgical diversity any more than political, intellectual, or economic society is threatened by immigrants old or new from wherever they might come. The only threat to diversity is hatred of another people or another culture’s gifts or legitimate expressions, however different from one’s own.

Cultural diversity in the Church depends upon acceptance and flourishing of many different kinds of worship, if in conformity with revealed truth and thus equally helpful for religious faith and the fruits of love of God through public prayer. There have always existed a diversity of rites within the universal Church.

My own parish is a rich melting pot of cultures, no matter how distant we may be from the metropolitan center of our local Church. We offer both forms of the liturgy, the old and the new that was born from it a little more than fifty years ago. The Traditional liturgy draws Asian, Black, and Native American Catholics as well as those of European descent.

Because there is no diversity of culture without diversity of cultus one could say that acting with prejudice toward any cult of worship, whether old or new, is harming or wounding the true sources of both diversity and culture. At the same time unity is wounded and weakened and, with it, the reflection of God which is found where all sources of division are put aside.

Cultural diversity calls for diversity of cultus, or religious expression, for a Church enriched by different ways of praying no matter the differences or ethnicity of those who pray. Unity will be wounded and harmed in a Church which artificially discriminates against her own richness of variety in liturgical patrimony.

Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever. Support faithful Catholic journalism by subscribing to The Wanderer Catholic Newspaper today.
apriestlife.blogspot.com

Source: https://thewandererpress.com/catholic/news/our-catholic-faith/liturgical-and-cultural-diversity/ 


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