"Between the usual revolutionary current (where yesterday’s revolutionaries decide that they must conserve their changes and stop the revolution)"... I suspect you omitted 'counter-' in that last phrase, 'and stop the counter-revolution'?
Insightful as usual. Thank you. We here have the Traditional Mass <half an hour away by car, and the pastor of the NO parish is Tradition-friendly (e.g. new altar rails were installed last year) as is the bishop. Failing the wholesale re-introduction of the TM in parishes, I've always been a reform-of-the-reform sort: watching the current episcopal flailing about in your perspective gives me a fillip of hope for the ecclesiastical future. Still, as you wrote, it may well take more than one pope to recover from the present mess.
No I actually meant as is. There's always a revolutionary figure who decides it's time to end the revolution and return to normal, any further gains aren't worth it.
Think Napoleon or Washington. Both were far more concerned with building a viable post revolutionary order than furthering the revolution.
Or, as much as one hates to admit it, Stalin. He saved the Russian Revolution from itself for two generations by taking the real loonies to the basement of Lubyanka and giving them one to the back of the neck.
The Church is discovering what gamers knew long ago - when the casuals fall away, you're left with the hardcore. The "cafeteria Catholics" or "Christmas and Easter Catholics" that Francis is trying to appeal to just simply aren't coming to church anymore at all, and waving a rainbow flag isn't going to make them come back. Those left behind want tradition; they want the old ways. B16 was right about the "mustard seed" - the Church will be smaller, and stronger, without the casuals.
Now all we need is for the Boomer liberal priest bubble to finally burst.
And yet most "hardcores" don't really stick around either when they don't get anything out of it. You get some of those, but you also get the ironic stans like Mike Lewis, Mike Lofton, Austen Ivereigh and others. They mainly stick around just because it allows them to hate people who aren't into what they are.
The first thing Trump should do is to cut funding to the USCCB, which should dry them up rather good. Parishioners are giving $$ to the building and maintenance funds, in addition to just paying church expenses directly, and they are not giving to the annual appeal. So, as the queens continue to shutter and sell church buildings, Normie-land continues to shrink. The Church of The New Advent is DYING, and we can’t stick a fork in it soon enough. Don’t you just love wars of attrition?😇
Thank you, keep your faith and hold on. The crumbling edifice of progressivism is crumbling fast, as a house built on sand. Its custodians are digging into the sand with increasing desperation, but soon there won’t be much left. Scandals, dwindling congregations, and general irrelevance will be their legacy. Who now pays any attention to any pronouncements from Rome? What will be left will be a smaller, holier and better body of believers, ready to do battle. i think as well both respectful of our older traditions but not tied to them either, lest they become empty themselves. We shall see what happens, but the times will be interesting.
Pathetic that those who insist on returning to their own personal good times in the 1970s are themselves rigid and nostalgic, those very words they slap on traditionalists. They are narcissistic bundles within our Deep Church. And like our secular Deep State, even an overwhelmingly elected new leader will be fought tooth and nail by them.
Bergoglio and McElroy are NO MATCH for the Donald-nator. Seems to me I remember hearing JD saying that, Trad. Cust. just didn't feel right. Melania is Catholic (struggling a bit right now) and I doubt if she's happy with Paca-Papa. First, cut funding to the USCCB, which should dry them up rather good. Second, encourage the Italian PM, Meloni (sp?) to brainstorm sanctions against Vatican City. It doesn’t matter if it's a sovereign nation, it's completely within Rome. The Modernists love secular power. I think they are about to experience it firsthand.
The Liturgical reform was not popular, and the majority wanted the Latin Mass back in the beginning. It was only in the later 1970's as the old Liturgy was a distant memory that it became more supported.
I could be optimistic if the American bishops had had the courage to support Bishop Strickland when he was unjustly removed from his position. So for now, I am not.
Great article. I was reminded of this post on X by Fr. Dwight Longenecker about a week ago too:
Catholic prelates: "This is the age of the laity. Decisions and policies are from the ground up. No more clericalism"
The laity: "We would like traditional worship, altar rails, kneeling for communion, Gregorian chant and traditional devotions for our families"
Some prelates: "Fugeddaboudit. Do what I tell you!"
"Between the usual revolutionary current (where yesterday’s revolutionaries decide that they must conserve their changes and stop the revolution)"... I suspect you omitted 'counter-' in that last phrase, 'and stop the counter-revolution'?
Insightful as usual. Thank you. We here have the Traditional Mass <half an hour away by car, and the pastor of the NO parish is Tradition-friendly (e.g. new altar rails were installed last year) as is the bishop. Failing the wholesale re-introduction of the TM in parishes, I've always been a reform-of-the-reform sort: watching the current episcopal flailing about in your perspective gives me a fillip of hope for the ecclesiastical future. Still, as you wrote, it may well take more than one pope to recover from the present mess.
No I actually meant as is. There's always a revolutionary figure who decides it's time to end the revolution and return to normal, any further gains aren't worth it.
Think Napoleon or Washington. Both were far more concerned with building a viable post revolutionary order than furthering the revolution.
In many ways that was John Paul II in our story.
Or, as much as one hates to admit it, Stalin. He saved the Russian Revolution from itself for two generations by taking the real loonies to the basement of Lubyanka and giving them one to the back of the neck.
The Church is discovering what gamers knew long ago - when the casuals fall away, you're left with the hardcore. The "cafeteria Catholics" or "Christmas and Easter Catholics" that Francis is trying to appeal to just simply aren't coming to church anymore at all, and waving a rainbow flag isn't going to make them come back. Those left behind want tradition; they want the old ways. B16 was right about the "mustard seed" - the Church will be smaller, and stronger, without the casuals.
Now all we need is for the Boomer liberal priest bubble to finally burst.
And yet most "hardcores" don't really stick around either when they don't get anything out of it. You get some of those, but you also get the ironic stans like Mike Lewis, Mike Lofton, Austen Ivereigh and others. They mainly stick around just because it allows them to hate people who aren't into what they are.
The first thing Trump should do is to cut funding to the USCCB, which should dry them up rather good. Parishioners are giving $$ to the building and maintenance funds, in addition to just paying church expenses directly, and they are not giving to the annual appeal. So, as the queens continue to shutter and sell church buildings, Normie-land continues to shrink. The Church of The New Advent is DYING, and we can’t stick a fork in it soon enough. Don’t you just love wars of attrition?😇
More like wait for them to die off. Unfortunately many under them may fall away before then.
Thank you, keep your faith and hold on. The crumbling edifice of progressivism is crumbling fast, as a house built on sand. Its custodians are digging into the sand with increasing desperation, but soon there won’t be much left. Scandals, dwindling congregations, and general irrelevance will be their legacy. Who now pays any attention to any pronouncements from Rome? What will be left will be a smaller, holier and better body of believers, ready to do battle. i think as well both respectful of our older traditions but not tied to them either, lest they become empty themselves. We shall see what happens, but the times will be interesting.
Pathetic that those who insist on returning to their own personal good times in the 1970s are themselves rigid and nostalgic, those very words they slap on traditionalists. They are narcissistic bundles within our Deep Church. And like our secular Deep State, even an overwhelmingly elected new leader will be fought tooth and nail by them.
Bergoglio and McElroy are NO MATCH for the Donald-nator. Seems to me I remember hearing JD saying that, Trad. Cust. just didn't feel right. Melania is Catholic (struggling a bit right now) and I doubt if she's happy with Paca-Papa. First, cut funding to the USCCB, which should dry them up rather good. Second, encourage the Italian PM, Meloni (sp?) to brainstorm sanctions against Vatican City. It doesn’t matter if it's a sovereign nation, it's completely within Rome. The Modernists love secular power. I think they are about to experience it firsthand.
The Liturgical reform was not popular, and the majority wanted the Latin Mass back in the beginning. It was only in the later 1970's as the old Liturgy was a distant memory that it became more supported.
🎵Rescue Vatican2🎵
The Ballad of Jed Clampet - Music by Paul Henning, Lyrics by Steve Kraut
https://stevekraut.substack.com/p/rescue-vatican2
I could be optimistic if the American bishops had had the courage to support Bishop Strickland when he was unjustly removed from his position. So for now, I am not.
Great article! I can smell the "synodality" from here. Also the "listening".