Sunday, June 30, 2019

Dominica III post Pentecosten: "... true righteousness is merciful, and false righteousness is contemptuous..."

From the Holy Gospel according to Luke
Luke 15:1-5
At that time: the publicans and sinners drew near unto him to hear him. And so on.


Homily by Pope St. Gregory (the Great)
34th on the Gospels
Ye have heard, my brethren, from the Gospel which hath but now been read, how that the publicans and sinners drew near unto our Redeemer, and how that He received them, not only to converse, but also to eat with Him. And when the Pharisees and Scribes saw it, they murmured. From this learn ye, that true righteousness is merciful, and false righteousness is contemptuous, albeit that the righteous also oft-times feel moved with just indignation at sinners. But it is one thing to feel thus indignant through pride, and another to feel so through love of law.

The righteous indeed look down upon sinners, and yet, as not despising them; they abandon them, and yet, as not without hope; they fight against them, and yet, as loving them all the while; for if they be behoven to chasten them grievously as touching the outer man, yet is it through charity which offereth sweetness to their inner man. In their hearts they prefer before themselves them whom they are correcting; they hold as better than themselves them whom they judge. And thus doing, they watch by carefulness over them, which are committed unto their charge, and, by lowly-mindedness, over themselves.
On the other hand, they whose exaltation cometh of a false righteousness, look down upon their neighbour, but are softened by no mercy toward his misery, and are all the more sinful, because they perceive not that they themselves are sinners. Of such were those Pharisees who judged the Lord because He received sinners, and, in the dryness of their own heart, rebuked the very Fountain of mercy. They were sick of so desperate a sickness that they knew not of themselves that they were sick; but, that they might know that they were so, the Heavenly Physician applied to them His tender ointments, and, by means of a gracious parable, lanced the boil of their pride of heart.

Friday, June 28, 2019

Modesty continues trending on Catholic media

In the National Catholic Register: “Why modesty (and especially at Mass) is important” 

So bitter about getting called out for her lack of charity during a blogpost

A gentle reminder to Mary Pezzulo about the importance of the garment of charity in which all of us were clothed at our baptism. So much more important then being right when called out during a blogpost for mistranslating words in a tweet about clothing at Mass.


Mary uncharitably chose to translate “at Mass” in my tweet as “It is not appropriate for a priest to call out a woman for her immodesty while saying Mass” here https://www.patheos.com/blogs/steelmagnificat/2019/06/to-the-priest-who-embarrassed-a-woman-with-bare-shoulders/ which event never happened and which behavior I would never condone.

My admitted imprecision in a tweet does not excuse irresponsible license in her blog. She could have asked to verify before publishing and chose not to. The consequences are public as she points out in her gratuitously bitter and anti-woman blog post published in response to my request for a retraction or correction. I thank her for her grudging and negative non-apology, in which she takes swipes at the women who attend traditional Latin Mass and The Wanderer Newspaper.

I will continue to pray for her and her family as I asked others to do in a recent column. For the free advertising all of this publicity provides she is most welcome.

Here is the non-apology “apology” post:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/steelmagnificat/2019/06/9348/

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Women who seek to dress modestly now have a new source

Just received this email today:

Dear Fr. Cusick, 

I wanted to write and let you know that many Catholic women like myself want to dress modestly for Holy Mass. 

Unfortunately the vast majority of clothing sold to women today makes it very difficult not to compromise. It is discouraging and I've sometimes walked an entire mall and left with nothing. 

My sister and I are designing our own line of dresses that are modest and attractive. Many women who are not even religious have told us they are looking for dresses like ours that don't objectify them. 

We hope our dresses will help make it easier for women to find things to wear that protect their dignity. It's important for Catholics to help reform the fashion industry. 

God bless you,
Audrey




The more I see of priests the more I recognize the genius of the traditional Mass which left absolutely nothing to the imagination.

Very frequently not even the faculties to preach a homily were given to new priests, which is the reason why we had a tradition of priests asking another priest to preach for them at their first Mass. Years ago priests were not given the faculties to preach with their ordination but would be allowed to do so only after they had been proven a bit.

Tragic:

https://lesfemmes-thetruth.blogspot.com/2019/06/jesus-is-smart-guy-he-must-keep-his.html

ICE raids, threats of deportation and drownings in the Rio Grande: wouldn’t it be better to ship people back to their country alive rather than dead?

The EWTN news episode also features parishioners involved in public prayers of reparation in the face of the increasing trend of using public libraries and children story hours for grooming in homosexuality and transgender ideology.

https://youtu.be/flUCpE3MmXk

Monday, June 24, 2019

Congregation at southern Maryland traditional Latin Mass more than triples in nine years

     The traditional Latin Mass at Saint Francis de Sales in southern Maryland’s Charles County began under the Ecclesia Dei permission granted by John Paul II in the 1980s. For many years thereafter the weekly congregation hovered between 30 and 40 people. Since 2010 the numbers have swelled to a loyal following numbering more than 100 people every Sunday.

     The parish is also unusual for the fact that there’s a community lunch at the parish hall every Sunday popular with young families with children, older folks, young married couples and singles.

     The Mass is offered every Sunday at 11 am with a high or sung Mass the first Sunday each month as well as on major solemnities. Visit the Saint Francis de Sales web site here.

When the Twitter Mob Came After Me

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK

Twitter has a dark, demonic side, raging against God and the Church. That brood of vipers and braying, bloodthirsty hounds lurking in readiness was visited upon me with nearly unrelenting fury and incredible magnitude last week. Wave after wave of calumnious, blasphemous, and obscene memes, gifs, and messages were posted with comments, likes, and retweets ranging up to the tens of thousands. Those who styled themselves my enemies crowed with pleasure that I had been “ratioed” — when negative comments outnumber likes and retweets. Many called for me to delete my account when they weren’t wishing a more horrible fate upon me. Blue check mark accounts with nearly 200k followers piled on.

The vituperation descended even to the grave calumny of accusing me of pedophilia. The silliness included mocking my appearance and my Twitter handle. A self-described witch stated she put a “hex” or “curse” on me.

When my account disappeared on Wednesday, June 5, many wondered if Twitter had banned me, which was not the case. I was informed the previous evening that some of my account features would be limited for roughly twelve hours. That was not a factor in my decision, after prayer and discernment, to choose the high road as a Catholic Christian and a priest. Deactivating my account eliminated what had become the fulcrum for the demonic waves of rage targeting the faith. The good of the Church and the needs of the faithful must always come first, in particular for a priest. In the final analysis Twitter ain’t all that. It was entirely my own decision to deactivate and I was not compelled by anyone else in any way.
Twitter can be very superficial and that may be its strength. Headlines and pics can be reviewed rapidly for efficiently catching up on the news. Likes and retweets become a form of affirmation. Their lack can also do the contrary and affect our moods adversely. Twitter can also be problematic for the same reason: Rapid consumption of large volumes of data does not lend itself to reasoned discussion of sensitive subjects.
So, what was the tweet about? I touched upon a subject uncomfortable for many — modesty of dress for Mass, and my intention was to address only that: the decorum proper to praying together in the liturgy. However, regardless of my intentions otherwise, the tweet was taken to imply that I was placing the blame on women for men who cannot control themselves or telling them how to dress in general. I do not do either and never have. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The unfortunate turn of phrase, in which I implied that men’s chastity needed to be defended, was written with the best of intentions. In no way did I mean to say that men are not responsible for, or capable of, self-control. They are so capable and everything possible should be done to avoid implying otherwise. In the Church we have our own tragic history of failure to intervene and prevent crimes against the young and women. We must strive to ensure a consistent witness to the need to better protect individuals of all ages, especially children, from sexual predators. I always hope this goes without saying, but I am afraid we may not be there yet. Men and women both must exercise self-control and respect in their mutual relations.

Context is important. That was lacking in part due to the very limited number of words available for expression on that platform and my choice to not create a thread for expanding the discussion’s breadth. I was speaking only to the norms of dress within the Traditional Latin Mass community. I have absolutely no opinion on how women choose to dress. That’s their business. I’ve always felt that way. It would be very inappropriate for a priest to touch on that subject except in the one specific case I highlighted.

I can describe my parish situation best. The women at our Traditional Latin Mass have their own dress code which they have corporately decided upon for themselves without any direction from me. I prefer it that way. It largely involves having shoulders covered in exactly the same manner as expected for visitors to St. Peter’s Basilica and other religious monuments around the world. However, when new folks start attending the Mass, they might be working out of a different mindset based on previous experiences at Mass where different dress codes may have been in force. I think that may have been what was involved in the case I described. The person in question had been attending Traditional Mass for a few weeks while continuing to stand out in stark contrast to the pre-established norm for women in the congregation, a potential source of distraction for regulars at the Mass.
It is true that the priest was not “forced” to say something as described in the tweet. It might be better said that he felt impelled to address the matter because sufficient time had gone by for the individual involved to feel comfortable with the suggestion of accommodating the majority’s norms and she was not thus far making the adjustment unaided.

wandererprint(ad)2
I posted on Monday, June 3 and by that evening the swarm was already gathering. Even, sadly, Catholics on Twitter used the situation to draw attention to themselves with mocking jokes about shoulders causing distraction during prayer. One priest posted a pic of a gingerbread cookie sporting a bikini and asked, “Does this bother you because she has shoulders or because seminarians made it?” These divisive jumps into the fray only attract the Church’s enemies.

Which brings me to another less salutary aspect of Twitter. We are not converting those who agree with us. But we can be holding the faith up to ridicule when Catholics themselves try to wring a joke out of the most sacred things. At the same time I have been most edified by the many faithful Catholics on Twitter who beautifully and lovingly express faith and invite others to also experience our covenant love in Christ.

Will the demons howl victory? Will they be left unsated as they prowl around to devour more victims? Probably so. But we who share the faith know that this is merely a minor battle in a great war in which our triumphant Lord has already secured the greatest victory, over sin and death. We always have much more effective means at our disposal for disseminating the faith, converting and saving souls, than an Internet platform controlled by declared enemies of Christ.

I pray for all of those who choose to remain on social media. It can be advantageous, but at the same time often also quite dangerous when we are forced to encounter those suffering from Internet derangement syndrome. Perhaps with the ensuing conversation about shoulders the goal posts were moved into a more protective position of the human person in the ongoing war against Internet porn so deadly for souls.

Will the Twitter storm rage on? Unfortunately the next target of the Twitter mob may be even now pressing the “send” button which will unwittingly bring them out in malicious force. In the final hours of the account good people were coming forward as reinforcements in numbers that swelled to nearly 27,000 followers. I have received many more emails of support than otherwise.

Sincere thanks to all of you. Please pray for me as I do for you.

Editor’s  Note: Today Father Cusick celebrates his 27th year anniversary of his ordination. We thank him for all of the wonderful work he has done for The Wanderer. His column can be read weekly in https://thewandererpress.com/.  May God bless him and give him many more years in his service to God.

Contact with retired BXVI says he is “filled with crushing regret and bitterness” at present state of the Church


Sunday, June 23, 2019

Rosary Rally in Reparation for Homosexual and Transgender Grooming of Kids in “Drag Queen Story Hour” at Public Library in Md

A small group ranging from ten to 15 LGBTQ-obedient bots danced and played loud gay anthems like “YMCA” and “We are Family”, and holding a sign which read “Toleration is Godly”, sequestered behind yellow tape on one side of the library entrance. Catholics and other Christians prayed in reparation for the violation of childhood innocence and for conversion of parents who betrayed their God-given role as protectors, similarly corralled on the lawn to the right of the entrance.

According to the library 100 children were registered for the “Drag Queen Story Hour” today although it was not possible to verify how many attended. Up to a hundred protested and prayed in reaction to the perversion of imposed depravity on the innocent throughout the day.







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