A Resigned Priest On His Deathbed

Homiletic & Pastoral Review ^ | May, 2002 | Frederick Heuser

[livius]

I can sympathize with you. I was a little older, but not much, when the changes went into effect, and I am still stunned at how rapidly everything happened and how many things simply collapsed overnight because their structure was taken away.

I think a lot of people collapsed, too, and I suspect that priests were especially hard hit. I remember living in a parish in San Francisco where one year we had three decent priests in the parish, and the next year we had one alcoholic pastor who never left his room, one probably gay young assistant who used to smoke dope in front of the church with the local teenagers, and a slightly older assistant who was carrying on a very public affair with a woman he had met when he was saying her husband's funeral mass. The three decent priests had morphed into something nearly unrecognizeable.

I think the changes in the Mass were responsible for it all. Not the changes in the form alone, but the changes in its significance, whether this was made explicit or not. Suddenly, the priest was not a priest, offering sacrifice; he was simply the guy chairing the meeting. I think it really must have been like having one's entire world swept away, not by persecution and outside forces, but seemingly by the very Church that built that world. The only thing that amazes me is that any faithful priests managed to survive.

[Domestic Church]

"Unless you lived through this experience, it is impossible to understand. It was too much, and too sudden ... perhaps smaller changes, gradually phased in might have worked better."

Been there too, NYer, made my First Communion at St. Al's in Great Neck during the last days of the Latin Mass and then watched from a child's eye all that you mentioned occur and the scandel of a Priest leaving for marriage with one of my teachers(RSM.) Very strange days indeed. Being a child during this left a different kind of emotional wound as the local Mother Church became dysfunctional in some regards.

[Domestic Church]

"Study the counter-culture and the social processes and transformations of American culture during the 1960s and you find a lot of things which changed the Church above and beyond the documents of the council."

You can see the Gramscian roots back in the 1930's in the major colleges and universities.

[NYer]

Suddenly, the priest was not a priest, offering sacrifice; he was simply the guy chairing the meeting.

That's a good analogy. The mystique was gone; in fact, as someone posted last week, it was replaced by a team of lay people. Vatican II cannot be undone; Vatican III must be held at bay for now.

We still recall the glory of the church at that time. Once our generation passes away, who will take up the gauntlet?

Tonight, our parish priests will "christen" the newly expanded parking lot with ... kickball! They want to commune with the parishioners. Back in my childhood, the growth of a community would have been celebrated with Mass and Benediction, followed by a Eucharistic Procession.

I never thought I would ever pine for the return of those days. Despite no air conditioning in the church, incense wafting skyward, bells ringing, and stomachs grumbling, large crowds always turned out for mass.

[Claud]

Wow. Powerful.

My heart aches for the priests who for half the Mass sit behind the altar with nothing to do. Two weeks ago, a priest on Long Island even sat down for the distribution of Communion, leaving the whole thing (illicitly, I might add) to the "extraordinary" ministers.

Its like these single women nowadays getting sperm donations--who don't want love, intimacy, committment, who just want the seed implanted and to handle the rest themselves.

Men are so devalued in our society. In an era where fathers are regarded almost as a necessary vice, is it any wonder that Fathers are suffering the same problem?

Give the priests back their Mass. That is their JOB, that is their VOCATION, and if you take that away from them, you have emasculated them beyond belief. Not that that wasn't the plan all along.

[NYer]

St. Al's in Great Neck

Small world, I lived in Douglaston for a while but don't recall the name of the church on Route 25A.

Prior to that, I attended Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead. We lived in Oceanside then. Two of my former classmates "took the challenge" of post Vatican II and joined the Sisters of St. Joseph in Brentwood. One of them is now principal of our former alma mater!

[NYer]

Men are so devalued in our society.

That needs repeating ... from a woman! It began in the sixties and it simply hasn't stopped. Worse still, is the attitude in school towards boys. The schools are packed with ADHD and ADD labeled children. Since they can't sit "quietly" in the classroom, they are referred to the school psychologist for evaluation. Once diagnosed, the boys are placed on a drug called Ritalin. Ritalin decreases blood flow to the brain, and routinely causes other gross malfunctions in the developing brain of the child. If you check the numbers, you will discover that the majority of these children are boys. It's no longer okay for a boy to be "a boy". Boys must sit down in the class and not act up. Recess? A thing of the past.

And boys grow up to become men, who "are so devalued in our society". This cycle of events has happened before in history. If you have never seen the PBS series, "I, Claudius", go rent it. You will watch the evolution, right before your eyes. It has happened in Egypt (look at Cleopatra) and Greece (don't forget Helen of Troy). Now, where are those societies today? That is the fate that awaits this country if we continue to demean and devalue our men.

[ThomasMore]

Back in my childhood, the growth of a community would have been celebrated with Mass and Benediction, followed by a Eucharistic Procession.

That's when priests didn't mind vesting in public. They were already halfway there because they wore their cassocks and birettas in public.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

the Gramscian roots back in the 1930's in the major colleges and universities. 23 posted on 7/8/02 10:45 AM Pacific by Domestic Church

True. Let's not forget 19th-century materialism, the Enlightenment, etc. Long, gradual, incremental erosion of values.

[ELS]

Once our generation passes away, who will take up the gauntlet?

Oh, please, let's not get melodramatic. OK? Many of the proponents of the Tridentine Latin Mass (including myself) never experienced it as a child. As Raymond Arroyo said, "How can we be nostalgic when we never experienced it to begin with?" Don't forget, too, that many of the dissenting agitators of the 60's and 70's are dying off and aren't being replaced.

Given that the orthodox, traditional seminaries are creating many more priests than the heterodox, dissenting seminaries, the balance will shift and Holy Mother Church will begin to recover. As a priest friend of a FReeper said, "The Lord loves His Church a lot more than you or I, and whatever He permits will be for our good. We must fight the good fight, but we must not argue with the Lord about what He permits and why."

[livius]

... many of the dissenting agitators of the 60's and 70's are dying off and aren't being replaced.

That's true; most of the meetings of dissident organizations seem to feature snow white hair, and I doubt that they have many members under 50.

Still, don't write off our experience. There was a really great moment in the Church when you actually could trust the clergy, when people really considered their lives in the light of eternity, when people took vows seriously, and when there was, oddly enough, a really great sense of Catholic cohesion. When you were at a dinner on a Friday and saw someone choosing the fish instead of the steak, silly as it sounds, you suddenly knew you had somebody who was on the same wavelength and would understand things the way you did.

I think that's going to have to be rebuilt virtually from scratch in many places. It's not going to be the same (and it shouldn't be) because times change and there are different needs and conditions. But those of us who were Catholics before Vatican II lived through something very special.

I think it fell apart for two reasons: one was the presence of modernists, who had been quietly digging away at the foundations for decades; and the other was, paradoxically, that we were too obedient, too trusting. We laypeople should have stood up on our hind legs and refused to go along with many of the things that happened, but we didn't feel we it was our place to complain or resist.

I think that's changed. And I think the resolute attitude of young traditionalists is evidence of this.

[NYer]

There was a really great moment in the Church when you actually could trust the clergy, when people really considered their lives in the light of eternity, when people took vows seriously, and when there was, oddly enough, a really great sense of Catholic cohesion.

Thanks! You phrased that so well.

[ELS]

Still, don't write off our experience.

I wasn't writing off your experience. I am still amazed that Archbishop Sheen had a prime time TV show let alone that it won an Emmy Award (and Protestants and Jews watched, too)! I was reacting to NYer's comment that when his/her generation is gone there will not be anyone "to pick up the gauntlet."

[NYer]

Bump! This would be the follow up scenario that resulted from Vatican II. (Let me know if you want on or off my ping list.)

[Domestic Church]

LOL, it is a small world...OLMA (Syosset) alumni here.

[Salvation]

Thank you for the list of prayers that the priest says while vesting.

[Dajjal]

Great testimony! Ping away! Thanks!

[Domestic Church]

"Yes, but do you believe this was coincidental or intentional?"

Is anything truly coincidence?

[Domestic Church]

"Having researched the origin of Vatican II, Pope John XXIII would have us believe that "it was completely unexpected, like a flash of heavenly light". Whereas, Paul VI observed the "smoke of satan" had entered the vestibule."

And wouldn't you expect that opposites would attract? That the flash of heavenly light would draw the smoke is underestandable but the Divine Grace will dance all the more for it.