KILROY M., who lives in Australia, writes: 

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Thomas F. Bertonneau writes:

Effeminate priests, sickly-sweet “guitar masses,” and sermons informed by “liberation theology” have also alienated me from the Sunday Service. The last straw was when the new parish priest began arbitrarily altering the words of Scripture so that Holy Writ might accord itself with “gender-neutral” vocabulary. Jesus, who was God, was also what Yiddish speakers call a mensch – an actual male person with discernible masculine qualities, and so should priests be. The septuagenarian priest of one of the neighboring parishes was a woodsman and a hunter in youth and still is. His language is working-class and he has the capacity to be ironic about himself. He belongs to a vanishing breed.

Laura writes:

There are no guitars, women on the altar or gender-neutral language at the Traditional Latin Mass. It is possible to emerge from what the priests at Traditio refer to as the “black hole of the Liturgical ‘New Order.'” Here is a directory of North American traditional masses.

John E. writes:

I think it is important to at least point out a real danger in using the directory of Latin Masses that you referenced, at least for a Catholic who considers it important to submit himself in obedience to his bishop in communion with the Pope. Many of the Masses offered, and the only ones recommended by the directory, are said at “independent” parishes or churches. The directory is very long, so I cannot speak for the entire thing, but simply looking at the Masses referenced in my state of Kentucky, the “independent” sites are either unknown to me, or known to be in schism with the local Roman Catholic ordinary, and Rome. In fact, the Latin Mass is said at an independent location which is presumably only a mile or two away from where I live, according to the address given, but is a location I was entirely unaware of until looking at the directory. In contrast, the Latin Masses offered by diocesan parishes, while still referenced in the directory, are belittled, and qualified as not the most desirable. To follow the directives offered in this publication is to place oneself in disobedience to the diocesan bishop.

Such matters of obedience are not trivial, but have a direct bearing on the state of one’s soul. To suffer through a wishy-washy liturgy (and I do not deny that it is indeed suffering) in order to submit in obedience to divinely-ordained authority is not to be compared to suffering the fires of hell for all eternity because I insisted on only going to a Mass that didn’t offend my sensibilities.

Michael S. writes:

John E. makes an important point. And the deprecation of diocesan parishes in that directory is juvenile in its means: a smiley face icon next to “independent” and “Society of St. Pius V” entries, and a growly-face icon next to diocesan and SSPX entries.

(I always thought the SSPV was either a rumor or a joke; perhaps not.)

At our (cathedral) parish we are, for the most part, spared some of the worst of the worst — aside from minor details like the rector emeritus who uses his own Eucharistic prayer, the ignorant, touchy-feely General Intercessions written with utter disregard for the GIRM, and the bishop’s refusal to speak the word “men” in the Creed.

I know leadership isn’t easy, but too many in the hierarchy — and too many of those fed up with its refusal to lead — seem to forgotten about The Four Last Things.

Laura writes:

I have to admit I have not looked at the directory in a couple of years, since the time when I used it to find the diocesan Latin Mass in our area. Anyone can also contact diocesan offices and find out if there are any Traditional Latin masses in their state.

Kilroy M. writes:

Something else I thought would be interesting to mention on this thread: When I was traveling through Central Europe about three years ago, I stopped over at a Church in Poland and found a large advertisement at the entrance. It had two parts to it. The first was Jesus ushering in a boy and a girl into the building. The boy held his cap in his hand, the girl had her head covered and was wearing a skirt. The second part was the same scene, but Jesus held out his hand stopping a rather surprised girl and boy. The boy was wearing a hat and t-shirt, the girl had a mini skirt and long flowing hair. Seeing that really made my day! How deliciously discriminating!

A reader writes:

The blight on the Catholic Church in America of the use of modern music during the mass and politically oriented and politically correct sermons is lamentable. I have not observed this in the Eastern Orthodox Churches which I have attended in America. Despite the socialism and liberalism of the majority of the parishioners at our Greek-Orthodox church, the liturgy and sermons are given by men and focussed on Christ. The bishops, priests, deacons, and cantors are men, and the altar servers are boys. 

Whenever parishioners suggest that we should have female deacons, my husband points out to them that if they think there is a dearth of men entering those positions, they should encourage their sons to become deacons; he phrases it thus, “Do you think the deaconate is good enough for your daughter but not good enough for your son?” 

We shall pray for the return of masculinity and moral realism to those Catholic churches which are suffering from the disease of modernism. And pray, too, that the Orthodox churches do not follow suit. In the meantime, you might try to find a Byzantine-Rights Catholic chuch to attend in your area. With an hour-and-a-half of liturgy, there is little time for a sermon.

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