Catholic Thanksgiving in Florida of 1565 predates Plymouth Rock: Another Catholic First!

By Taylor Marshall

When you’re sitting down for that wonderful feast on Thursday, here are 6 interesting Catholic Thanksgiving Facts you can share with your family. Print them out and read them aloud over some pumpkin (or pecan) pie!

The history books will tell you that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Protestant pilgrims of Massachusetts in 1621. Not so. There was the Catholic Thanksgiving of 1565 in Florida and another Catholic Thanksgiving of 1589 in Texas.

1. The first American Thanksgiving was actually celebrated on September 8 (feast of the birth of the Blessed Virgin) in 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida. The Native Americans and Spanish settlers held a feast and the Holy Mass was offered. This was 56 years before the Puritan pilgrims of Massachusetts.Don Pedro Menendez came ashore amid the sounding of trumpets, artillery salutes and the firing of cannons to claim the land for King Philip II and Spain. The ship chaplain Fr. Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales chanted the Te Deum and presented a crucifix that Menendez ceremoniously kissed. Then the 500 soldiers, 200 sailors and 100 families and artisans, along with the Timucuan Indians celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in gratitude to God.
2. The second American Thanksgiving happened on April 30, 1598, when Spanish explorer Don Juan de Oñate requested the friars to say a Mass of Thanksgiving, after which he formally proclaimed “La Toma”, claiming the land north of the Rio Grande for the King of Spain. The men feasted on duck, goose, and fish from the river. The actors among them dressed and presented a play. All this took place twenty-three years before the Pilgrims set sail from England on the Mayflower.
3. The Puritan pilgrims were violently anti-Catholic. They left England because they thought that the Church of England was too Catholic. These Puritans were strict Calvinists. The pilgrims also opposed celebrating Christmas, dancing, musical instruments in church, and even hymns as papistical.
   
4. Squanto, the beloved hero of Thanksgiving at Plymouth Rock, was Catholic! (Here’s my full article on the Catholicism of Squanto.) Squanto had been enslaved by the English but he was freed by Spanish Franciscans. Squanto thus received baptism and became a Catholic. So it was a baptized Catholic Native American who orchestrated what became known as Thanksgiving.

5. So while Thanksgiving may celebrate the Calvinist Separatists who fled England, Catholics might remember the same unjust laws that granted the crown of martyrdom to Thomas More, John Fisher, Edmund Campion, et al. are the same injustices that led the Pilgrims to Plymouth.
6. And let everyone remember that “Thanksgiving” in Greek is Eucharistia. Thus, the Body and Blood of Christ is the true “Thanksgiving Meal”.

And don’t forget to raise your wine glass and recite the wonderful limerick of Hilaire Belloc:

“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,
There’s always laughter and good red wine.
At least I’ve always found it so.
Benedicamus Domino!”

― Hilaire Belloc

-from an article by Taylor Marshall

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The Term “Extraordinary” in Reference to the Mass Does Not Prescribe Restricted Access

A priest on the staff of a U. S. seminary went on record recently tell­ing young seminarians that the adjective “extraordinary” in reference to the Latin Mass should be taken to imply that it should be offered only “occasionally” or “ rarely” or “ only every so often"; or at least less regularly than the ordinary form Mass, which, as we all know, means that the Mass it describes is well, the more "ordinary" of the two, right?

One could surmise easily that this was delivered in reaction to what for some is an unwanted spike of interest in the classic liturgy — as well as various other aspects of the Church’s life before the rupture predicated falsely upon the docu­ments of Vatican II — among young men seeking the priesthood.

That those who are dismissive of Catholic life before the 1960s are in a retreat and reaction mode bodes well for the life and health of the Church, because it means that even those with their heads habitually thrust deep in the sand of denial are beginning to wake up to the deep influence of the John Paul II- Benedict XVI papal orthodoxy juggernaut. That orthodoxy has been planting deep roots in the faith and life of Catholics for over two generations.

As an example of the irrationality of the prejudice that denies any value to classic Catholic life, validated by the saints from the beginning of the Church’s organic life of faith which grew into the Gregorian liturgy, this irrational speech will fall on deaf ears. The responsible, sensible, and wise voice of Benedict XVI still reverberates clear and strong in the Church for the men who understand his efforts to promote peace in the Body of Christ through promulgation of Summorum Pontificum. Those who, contrary to the responsibility and trust the Church plac­es in them and their roles of leadership, continue a tendentious invec­tive against either liturgy of the Church, ordinary or extraordinary, are violating both the spirit and letter of Summorum Pontificum which Pope Francis has already stated was a prudent measure for the benefit of the Church. Pretending that eradicating the Extraordinary Form Mass plays any part in the agenda of Pope Francis is deeply dishonest.

Let’s apply the rationale of the priest who spoke out against an en­thusiastic promotion and celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite by applying his “ logic” to another area of Catholic life.

Many of us know that the Church has sought to rein in a tendency to “ clericalize” the laity by calling for the use of the term “ extraordinary” in reference to the use of lay people in administering Holy Commun­ion, particularly at Mass and in other ordinary instances of Catholic sacramental life. As many of us also know, this measure was taken in response to abuses of the role of the laity in the distribution of the Eu­charist, which in many places continues apace. This abuse has been abet­ted by the obvious error of priests sitting in the sanctuary or in the rec­tory while lay people supplant their proper role as ordinary ministers of Holy Communion, along with deacons and instituted seminarians.

The hypocrisy is obvious: When it comes to abusing the term “ ex­traordinary” if it promotes an alien agenda or because clerics are lack­ing the constitutional fortitude to risk disappointing uneducated laity by making a needed correction, then it goes unremarked. If, however, it is the less favored Latin Mass that is involved, then the default mode can fall anywhere between inaction and continued advancement of the deeply destructive rupture agenda. Neither choice is acceptable.

Catholics can find the Ordinary Form Mass easily as it remains abun­dantly available. Promotion of the antique liturgy is a matter of pasto­ral care for every priest whether or not he chooses to celebrate it him­self. The point of Summorum Pontificum is that both forms of the Mass should be as freely available as resources and effort allow. Common sense dictates that any priest who offers either Mass should know how to do so. Stating this truth only in regard to the Extraordinary Form is petty and can be interpreted as prejudicial.

Benedict XVI’s papacy is a triumphant seal upon his lifetime of work in aiding the Church at large in advancing the arduous cause of a sane and reasonable application of the pastoral documents of Vatican II. Benedict knows young people well, given his long work as a professor. He knows well that you get no traction by insisting that the Church began with Vatican II because young people are too intelligent to fall for such a ruse. Those with a rigid agenda which insists that the light of day fall only upon their personally preferred sliver of 2,000 years of organic Catholic faith and life make themselves only more ridiculous through their ossified denial and repetitive prevarications.

(Follow Fr. Cusick on Twitter @MCITL or on Facebook at Reveren­do Padre Kevin-Michael Cusick.)