Pentecost XVIII
✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
Just a short note for a grand and glorious Rosary Sunday. “The clouds hung thick o’er Israel’s camp,” but out we went, Rosary in hand and dry shod for our annual procession. Actually, the sun came out during Mass, and shone brightly for the Gloria. Our new choir is coalescing nicely and honored Our Lady with a beautiful Mass. Afterwards a record crowd of 106 Rosarians and guests from all over crowded Helfta Hall for a sweet breakfast of St. Gertrude traditionals. Afterwards Fr. Sons gave a short account of his long road to the priesthood. We’re glad he persevered! I know everyone appreciated the chance to ask questions. Many went to church to finish the day with Fr. Sons’ “first blessing.” May God bless his priestly zeal, and render fruitful his first months’ apostolate. Keep all your priests in your prayers!
I could not conclude without a word of thanks to “the committee” of Rosary ladies, and to our young people and all of you who helped make Rosary Sunday this year to be such a success.
Now, let us turn out tonight for the Candlelight procession. Let’s shed a little “Lady Light” from the Rosary on this dark world of ours!
– Bishop Dolan
FATHER’S CORNER
The children of Fr. McKenna’s mission in North Dakota were enjoying the climate change. They got their first snow two weeks ago, and were excitedly running to see it fall. They were so eager to go out to watch that did not even put their shoes on, and left trails of bare footprints in the snow. It reminded me of St. Norbert, who even in the middle of winter walked barefoot through the snow. He was so inflamed with the love of God that he seemed insensible to the rigors of the cold season.
The love of God creates happiness and stability, which the world seems to be so much lacking now. Last month the Swedish 16-year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg arrived on her preaching tour in America. When she addressed the big crowd of schoolchildren in Manhattan, she said: “We are not in school today, and we have some adults who are not at work today either. And why? Because this is an emergency. Our house is on fire.”
Oh yes, when the house is burning around you, it’s time to pass the torch.
Because the adults are not acting any better. At least kids have the excuse of being kids. The circus act of impeachment inquiry against the president is now in full swing. One of our political commissars, Senator Amy Klobuchar (whom our high-schoolers heard to praise the pop-star Prince on their DC visit last year), said of the president: “He’s acting like a global gangster, going to one leader after another trying to get dirt on his political opponent.” Here, just like in the Brexit mess in Great Britain, we see that for the political leaders, democracy is laudable only as long it brings the desired result.
The worst thing is that the spirit of rebellion is spreading among the Traditional Catholics as well. Recently there was a big battle-cry raised by The Remnant and its editor to “unite the clans,” namely to make all traditionalists to fight against the common enemy, the Modernists. The editor then published a tweet saying: “You know what? To h–l with the pontificate of Pope Francis!” A man so filled with sadness and despair. He might learn a lot from Cardinal John Henry Newman, whom his pope attempts to canonize today. My latest book publication is the reprint “Cardinal Newman and the Encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis,” written in 1908. In his letter to the author of the book, St. Pius X condemned sharply the Modernists who were falsely trying to draw with them to the mud the name of this “most illustrious man” [Newman] and said: “From so great a master they may learn many noble things: in the first place, to hold the magisterium of the Church sacred, to preserve inviolate the doctrine handed down by the Fathers, and, what is the chief thing for the preservation of Catholic truth, to honor and obey with the utmost fidelity the successor of the Blessed Peter.”
Therefore, any battle, which calls for unity within a “church” which recognizes the very enemy of Catholicism as the successor of St. Peter, is doomed to fail. It might result in fiercely passionate congresses and seminars, or even in a harshly worded denunciation letter delivered to Rome (of course addressed to “the Holy Father,”) but it will then fall flat to the ground and everything continues as before. This battle will be in the lines of the proverb coming from Ms. Thunberg’s home country Sweden: Upp som en sol, ner som en pannkaka. (“Up like the sun, down like a pancake.”)
No school tomorrow. Our students are protesting the lack of love of God and the Catholic Faith in the world, and remembering how Christopher Columbus brought them with him to this continent.
Yours in Christ and Mary,
Fr. Lehtoranta