Well, It Worked in 452

The Associated Press is reporting that several groups (six, to be precise) sent representatives to protest against the priesthood in St. Peter's Square today. These protesters have gathered on the day before the commencement of the three-day ceremony to close out the Year for Priests.

Do you notice a trend here? The Church does nothing to provoke these people, save bear witness to the will of Christ. However, these precious children of God stand in our midst and attack us. They stand in front of our cathedral during such a happy occasion as the recent diaconate ordinations. They stand below the pope's window and hurl hatred and viciousness towards his person. Where is the respect? You don't see me yelling at Bishop Clark for the things he's done - I just sit and type. Not too hostile, that. However, these protesters have hurled themselves at the physical dwelling places of the Lord.

When Pope St. Leo the Great rode out in 452 to meet Attila the Hun, the barbarian was convinced to spare the Eternal City, Rome. He had respect for the papacy. If a pagan warlord can recognize the sanctity and preciousness of the Church, why can't liberals and militant evangelicals? The day that Catholics show up at Protestant churches and WOC meetings yelling obscenities and hatred, that's the day when these people will be justified. The Church proves Her charity by being perpetually on the defensive. That's the mark of the true Church, folks. We don't spit in the face of sanctity. We may write down and share our displeasure, but that's it. No souls are lost, no blood spilled, no physical or emotional pain inflicted.

Pope St. Leo the Great, defender of the Church and of Rome, pray for us. May these barbarians withdraw as they did 1558 years ago.

A Nod of the Miter Goes To . . .

. . . you, the readers. Yesterday evening, we surpassed 100,000 hits. That means that we have had thousands of people, in the Diocese of Rochester and outside of it, reading of our plight and our efforts. You, dearest friends, have turned this blog into a success. We have conducted ourselves for almost a full year in the ways of light-hearted sanctity and jocularity, bringing comfort, affirmation, and an occasional smile to your besieged hearts.

We have "admonished the sinner" and "instructed the ignorant," two of the spiritual works of mercy so integral to the life of the Church. While we have our detractors, even in our own midst, their words fall on deaf ears, and are heard by individuals whose apathy and sluggishness prove their unwillingness to risk great things for the sake of the greatest, that is, the Holy Eucharist, brought to us each and every day in the Mass. Without a proper respect and zeal for the King of Kings, we can have no genuine recourse, in this life or the next.

And so, as we near our First Anniversary, and all the festivities there-upon, I want to thank you all for your continued support and readership. People always tell me, not knowing my blogging identity, "you know, all those blogs, they're run by cranky old white men who can't deal with reality." You, friends, are proof that this is not so. Just look at our followers on Facebook - almost half of them are in high school or college. The others are young parents of large families, converts, devoted single people, and those who have stayed true to the authentic teachings of the Church through the tumult of the 60's and 70's. We are the real face of diversity. The sooner these aging liberals realize that, the sooner God's will may be realized.

Your humble host and friend in orthodoxy,
Gen

The Man's a Saint - The Brother's a Foul-Tongued Cretin

For anyone who caught Brother Wease's interview with Dr. Scott Caton, you will have noticed that a little piece of you died. No one should be made to deal with such a lewd, shallow, dull-witted individual as Wease. I mean no offense to the man, but when he refers to Dr. Caton's children as "little packages" that drive him insane, and when he professes to be a Jehovah's Witness because he let them in his house, and when he says that all priests should have the ability to have a sexual outlet with their wives, he loses his veil of innocence and charity.

Dr. Caton - you have all of our sincere admiration for dealing with such an insipid and tactless man on live radio.

Brother Wease - stick to your station's celebrity bikini contests (do not click if you value your soul), and leave religion to those who actually take it as something serious, and not an amusement for communal jocularity.

This Has Been a Test of Our Emergency Preparedness System

Sorry folks - the meeting we reported on with Bishop Clark and the Irondequoit priests DID NOT occur. We still await word from the Bishop (or any discontented priests who may wish to inform us of what's going on . . . ). 

Reform Now - Day Care Edition

Day Care Worker Charged with Abusing Child

By: YNN Staff

Irondequoit Police said a Marion man is facing charges for allegedly sexually abusing a child at an Irondequoit day care.

Police investigators charged Joseph Calabrese, 24, of Mill Street in Marion, with sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

Police said the arrest followed the disclosure of a 7-year-old girl that Calabrese allegedly sexually abused at Generations Early Care and Education on Empire Boulevard.

Police said Calabrese has worked at all seven Generations locations since 2007.

Police said the investigators developed information that Calabrese may have been connected to a similar incident at Generations in Fairport.

Irondequoit Police and the Monroe County District Attorney's Office are asking parents of children who may have had contact with Calabrese to call local police if they have any reason to believe there was inappropriate contact.

Police said Generations is cooperating fully with the investigation. Bridget Shumway, the president of Generations issued this statement:

"We are fully cooperating with the police and district attorney in the investigation of Mr. Joseph Calabrese, who worked until yesterday as an assistant teacher at our Irondequoit Child Care Center, and was employed by Generations for three years.

Upon hearing of his arrest late yesterday, we immediately notified the Office of Children and Family Services and Child Protective Services. We are notifying parents of children at all Generations centers today. We are able to assure our parents that because of our team teaching approach, Mr. Calabrese was very seldom alone with children, and that they already would have been contacted if the police investigation had raised a concern about their child.

Despite thorough background checks and references before being hired, along with our ongoing training and performance reviews, it appears that Mr. Calabrese was not to be trusted. This incident is personally upsetting to me, and to everyone in the Generations family."

Calabrese is being held in the Monroe County Jail on $20,000 bail.

"If only he didn't have to live with mandatory celibacy in a male-dominated daycare system."

He Had Compassion On Them

Yesterday, May 1st, was the single busiest day for Cleansing Fire in our (almost) one year of existence. It was sort of like a "perfect storm" of discovery, what with our videos embedded on sites around the internet showing the Pontifical High Mass, the link to us from Rorate Caeli, now in our side bar, and a general growing trend among Rochester readers.

1,455 people read the site yesterday. And the best part - there were no nasty comments, no "you lack charity" epistles of self-righteousness, no contemptuous people at all. 1,455 people who love orthodoxy, and who have spread knowledge of our plight throughout the world. This was a generous gift from God, and a time of humble gratification. When we have our eyes fixed on what we know to be the Truth, there's really nothing that can discourage us.

So, my dear friends on Buffalo Road, orthodoxy does pay. Your messages of "reform" and "keeping the Spirit alive" are hollow and lacking in spiritual force. Whether people know it or not, they want, or rather, they crave orthodoxy. I spoke with our new writers yesterday, and we came up with this analogy: You're giving the people too much candy. It's sweet, and looks good, but when you keep loading the people up with these sweets, they lose important nourishment. We are the vegetables, the fruits, the proteins - we are necessary to the survival of the Church. You, dear friends in dissent, are not.

Take this passage of scripture into your hearts. It will be a great comfort to us as we try to extol the virtues of metaphorical vegetables.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 9:35-37

I'll Rub Shoulders For Y'all

I'm sure many of you know that when I'm down around the Mason Dixon Line this week and weekend, I'll be in attendance for the Pontifical High Mass at the National Shrine of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

What I'm sure many of you didn't know is that I will be there with some of our Catholic blogging elite: Fr. Z will be there, along with Kat from the Crescat, along with many others.

Envious yet? So, when you're bracing yourself for another weekend of exile and dissent, I'll be at table with Fr. Z and the Crescat, along with throngs of others. I feel like a total blog-snob, and I'm loving every minute of it.

Did I mention that Choir, Sr. Emily, and I will be carousing with the New Liturgical Movement people during the Colloquium? Oh, that's right - I did.

Voice of the Faithful - STA Parishioners Speak Out

A nod of the miter goes to the parishioners of St. Thomas the Apostle, for their charitable and unrelenting defense of their parish from enemies inside and outside of the establishment. I have never seen a parish wanting so much to be kept alive, yet languishing under a seditious administration whose goals aren't the preservation of the Church, but the preservation of one church. And guess what - it's not St. Thomas the Apostle.

The following was distributed over the weekend by the concerned parishioners, after word got out about Fr. Tanck's less-than-pastoral approach to dealing with the anger and hurt.

Please click the image to see it larger, for ease of reading.

Who would be vicious enough to spread lies and rumors about the people of St. Thomas? We've already seen a blind hatred of the parish from liberals in our midst, saying that the people there are cold, unwelcoming, etc. ad infinitem. Is it not ecclesial treason to betray the very people entrusted to you by God?

All I can say is that most parishes would have just withered away and permitted themselves to be bullied by the forces at work. However, the people of STA have organized into an impressive body, one which definitely shows that the parish is not dying, not apathetic, not bitter or cold. The only bitterness seen in the entire STA affair is the judgmental and irrational approach of certain diocesan employees (yes, I do mean Fr. Tanck), who would rather exclude the faithful from the sacraments than to offer one kind word of comfort.

What's his reaction going to be to this? No Masses at STA this weekend? Only communion services until Pentecost? I wouldn't be surprised.

Some Sisters Get It - Others Don't

This past weekend, a copy of the Our Lady of Victory bulletin was passed to the cloistered Carmelite sisters on Jefferson Road. They were so thrilled with Fr. Antinarelli's defense of Pope Benedict, that they wrote him a warm letter of thanks, and sent a book of the pope's prayers and writings as a sign of gratitude.

I wonder if the SSJ's of the diocese were so kind.

Not One Shred of Evidence

The following comes from the EWTN blog, written by Raymond Arroyo, and posted in our circle of orthodoxy by Kelly. Nod of the miter at both of them.

The attacks leveled against Pope Benedict XVI get curiouser and curiouser.
Just so everyone is on the same page: first Benedict was accused of stopping a Church trial against a priest in Wisconsin. When that fizzled (because the priest died and the trial was apparently still ongoing) there were charges that he didn't act quickly enough to laicize priests (never mind the fact that the priests were indeed removed from ministry).
This past weekend, the AP thought they had found the smoking gun: a 1985 letter bearing Ratzinger's signature purportedly stalling the laicization of a priest. The AP got the story all wrong. Turns out the facts of the case exonerate Ratzinger entirely. For the record, Cardinal Ratzinger did not have authority over sex abuse cases until 2001. This case occurred in the late 80's. The rule of thumb on all these stories is that the local bishop is the first person responsible for punishing priestly offenders and the one charged with protecting his flock from these menaces. To imagine that the Pope has the ability or the manpower to oversee and police the actions of every cleric around the globe is an infantile delusion. He is not Santa Claus. If the Pontiff had such powers, do you actually think there would be so many teaching and liturgical lapses throughout the Church?
It should be said that mistakes were most certainly made in dealing with priestly offenders and that the process of laicization was absurdly poky. But why is the media attacking the man in the Vatican principally responsible for streamlining the laicization process? Why go after Ratzinger--one of the few high-ranking Vatican officials who vociferously pursued these sex offenders?

He goes on to explain how noted atheist is planning on arresting the Pope. I'm sure we've all heard the name "Richard Dawkins" at one point or another, so we all should all summarily know how he's one of these atheists who declares that all people should be tolerant . . . unless we're talking about Catholics. Then it's free admission day at the freak show. It truly is amazing how people get away with things that are this hate-filled. If the current scandal were with the Baptists, you would have massive demonstrations of our African-American brethren, all protesting the stereotypes that "blacks are Baptists" and (in this scenario) "Baptists are child rapers." It's ludicrous to think people would get away with that kind of slander! And yet, when it concerns the Roman Catholic Church, they do. They say these things, oppress us in society, and yet, when we lift a finger to defend ourselves, we are construed as belligerent.

Kind of makes you yearn for the days of the Inquisition, doesn't it?

 The entirety of the article is definitely worth a read, and can be accessed here.

Novena of Prayer for Pope Benedict XVI

I think we can rest assured that this prayer won't be used too much in the Diocese of Rochester, so I have decided to post it here for your use and dissemination.

The initiative comes from the Knights of Columbus, and is as follows:

Lord, source of eternal life and truth,
give to your shepherd, Benedict, a spirit
of courage and right judgment, a spirit
of knowledge and love. By governing
with fidelity those entrusted to his care,
may he, as successor to the Apostle
Peter and Vicar of Christ, build your
Church into a sacrament of unity, love
and peace for all the world. Amen.
V/ Let us pray for Benedict, the pope.
R/ May the Lord preserve him,
give him a long life,
make him blessed upon the earth,
and not hand him over
to the power of his enemies.
V/ May your hand
be upon your holy servant.
R/ And upon your son,
whom you have anointed.
Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be…

I would encourage any priest or deacon or pastoral administrator who may be reading this to include it as a prayer for the faithful to be said before Mass begins or after Mass ends. What good is our love for the Pope if we don't act on it in a public and undeniable way?

Tomorrow's "Vibrant Worship Service"

In conjunction with Divine Mercy Sunday, there will a Mass in the Extraordinary Form at Saint Stanislaus Church at 1:30 p.m., April 11th. The celebrant will be the Reverend Dennis Bonsignore. There will be two priests to hear confessions before Mass.

The ordinary parts of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei) will be from two Masses. Missa Phrygia by Cannicciari and Missa O Magnum Mysterium by Victoria. Propers will be in the Gregorian psalm tone.

Following the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Most Blessed Sacrament will be exposed with the hymn "O Salutaris Hostia" being sung. Next the congregation will sing the Divine Mercy Chaplet, followed by the Tantum Ergo, then we will pray the Divine Praises. The recessional hymn will be "Praise My Soul the King of Heaven".

Parking is across the street from the church or behind the church. There is a handicapped elevator in the rear of the church. Roaming security is provided.

+RIP Abbot Gabriel Gibbs, OSB

A native of Hornell in Steuben County, Abbot Gabriel Gibbs was the first abbot of Saint Benedict's Abbey in Still River, Massachusetts. Abbot Gabriel was educated at the old Saint Andrews and Saint Bernard's seminaries in Rochester before joining the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He was a very, very kind and humble man

Another Missa Cantata on Easter Sunday

Our Schola Roffensis will be singing another Missa Cantata on Easter Sunday at St. Stanislaus Church at 1:30 p.m. We will be singing "Lux et origio" for the ordinary parts of the Mass and almost all full Gregorian propers.

Here is a sample of the Gloria from the Mass ordinary.



There will be a regular High Mass, with full choir,for Divine Mercy Sunday on the 11th of April.

Goodbye, Nancy - Hello Barb

From a friend of the blog comes this little bit of news: Barb Swiecki has been named the new "leader" of the Rush Henrietta cluster, which comprises Good Shepherd, Guardian Angels, and St. Joseph's in Rush. Mrs. DeRycke will be reassigned to another location. I fear deeply as to what this new location may be.

While Barb Swiecki is not as glaringly schismatic as Nancy DeRycke, the stark worship environment which she has cultivated at Guardian Angels is no shining trophy for either the loyal or the dissenting. However, I know several people at Guardian Angels who are firm, solid, orthodox Catholics who will do the right thing no matter how many women are vested and sitting in the sanctuary. Remember that Barb Swiecki is the pastoral administraitor (TM) who fired Fr. Peter Abas because it wasn't in their budget to pay a priest. If this kind of logic is what will rule the cluster, I tremble to think of how those parishes will end up.

If anyone reading this goes to any of these three parishes, please leave a comment and give us your perspective. Will this be better? Worse? Same? What horror stories have you witnessed or heard?

The cluster is still "uncertain" as to who the "Sacramental Minister" will be.

Every time I type "Sacramental Minister," a little piece of me dies. Can't we just call them "pastors"? Why hire a lay person and a priest, paying two full-time employees? Hire one priest, and have people of the parish do the rest. They will step forward - it's not as if we have an uncaring congregation in the diocese.

While doing some backgroung research, I stumbled across this on the website for St. Joseph's:

Beginning in 2007, our Three Parishes will work together to: •Continue those ministries described above, and look for ways to strengthen these and other ministries in which only two parishes currently collaborate. •Begin work on a joint Social Ministry Committee to study the documents and promote the Diocese of Rochester annual agenda, as well as to coordinate and facilitate social ministry programs/outreach currently offered by the three parishes. •Explore other needed social ministries. •Work toward a ministry to alienated Catholics. •Work toward greater collaboration with CYO (Catholic Youth Organization – Grades 5-12 ) programs.. •Share Pre-Cana Ministry. •Continued collaboration on Lenten Retreats beginning in 2008. •Explore ministry to Young Adults (18-35). •Make Vocation Awareness a priority.

Does anyone else notice the absolutely massive flaw here? The cluster states that they need to strengthen and maintain their "social ministries," participate more in CYO athetlics, collaborate on Lenten retreats, and "explore ministry" to young adults. Oh, and "Vocations Awareness" is a priority. Obviously not, if you list it after CYO and various other UNNECESSARY ministries. Sure, they're wonderful. But the priesthood is necessary. Maybe if these clusters put more emphasis on that, we wouldn't be in such a mess. Young men will answer the call if they're not treated like afterthoughts.

Also on their website is this projection for what, exactly, will happen in this year's assignments:

Number of Priests and Mass Schedules
2006-2010 There will continue to be 3 weekend Masses at each parish site.
2010: There will be two priests serving the three parishes.

•Before the reduction in the number of priests takes place in approximately June of 2010, all three parishes will reduce their Mass schedule to two Masses per weekend at each church site. •The times of the Masses will be determined by the pastoral planning team using consensus (Yeah . . . like that will happen) with input of all three parishes. •Daily Mass schedules will be determined in the same way at that time as well.

Anyone who has gone through a clustering process will know and agree that the debate over which Masses go and which Masses stay does two things: it serves to create a bitter and disunited congregation, and it breaks the resolve of those who fight tirelessly. By the end of this, there is too little steam left to actually push through any non-pastoral-administrator related matters. Do not waste your time bickering about Mass times - take what you get and save your strength for the coming fight, the future of your parishes.

---

Update 3/29/10 (Dr. K): Good Shepherd parishioners have contacted us with information claiming that Ms. DeRycke referred to Ms. Swiecki as the new "Pastoral Leader" and the to-be-named priests who will serve the parishes as "Assisting Priests." Her departure is their gain.

Missa Cantata

There will be a Gregorian Missa Cantata on Palm Sunday at Saint Stanislaus Church at 1:30 p.m. A Missa Cantata is a sung Mass without using the full Roman ritual that would include the Asperges. The use of the organ is very limited in keeping with the solemn nature of the Lenten season.

Update on Sacred Music Colloquium XX

When I posted last week about the Sacred Music Colloquium, I was planning on doing a lot of smiling and nodding, not really knowing anyone there, but knowing that we're all basking in the radiance of the true spirit of Vatican II. Remember, "principum locum."

From Sacrosanctum Concilium:

36. 1. Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites.
2. But since the use of the mother tongue, whether in the Mass, the administration of the sacraments, or other parts of the liturgy, frequently may be of great advantage to the people, the limits of its employment may be extended. This will apply in the first place to the readings and directives, and to some of the prayers and chants, according to the regulations on this matter to be laid down separately in subsequent chapters.
3. These norms being observed, it is for the competent territorial ecclesiastical authority mentioned in Art. 22, 2, to decide whether, and to what extent, the vernacular language is to be used; their decrees are to be approved, that is, confirmed, by the Apostolic See. And, whenever it seems to be called for, this authority is to consult with bishops of neighboring regions which have the same language.
4. Translations from the Latin text into the mother tongue intended for use in the liturgy must be approved by the competent territorial ecclesiastical authority mentioned above.

 Note that this document of Vatican II, dealing with the liturgy, verified by myriads of bishops and cardinals, let alone the pope, uses the phrases, "some of the prayers and chants" and "whether, an to what extent." This is not the Vatican saying, "We need people music." No, it is saying that we must open up the gift of sacred music in the mother tongue, Latin, to everyone. We weren't supposed to dive into folk songs and guitars, but rather, educate ourselves and others about what the chant really means.

And this is why I was so excited to go to the Colloquium - it's a group of 250 musicians who have the right idea.

However, I'm even more excited now because two of our dearest contributors to this blog are joining me in this quest to rediscover the Novus Ordo, done right. Aside from a handful of priests whom we all know and love, I think we can all agree that the Mass we have no in many churches is not what was envisioned by the Council. Choir Loft and Sr. Emily will be joining me for the trip, from June 21 through June 27. Oh, we're a rowdy bunch. Watch out Pittsburgh - here comes trouble.

Pope Benedict to Beatify Cardinal Newman

This is the official press release from England -

PRESS RELEASE
16 MARCH 2010, 12 noon

BEATIFICATION OF CARDINAL NEWMAN
BY POPE BENEDICT XVI CONFIRMED

The Fathers and many friends of the English Oratories are delighted by the official announcement that our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI will beatify our founder, the Venerable John Henry Newman, in the Archdiocese of Birmingham during his visit to Britain in September. Newman made his home in the Archdiocese for all his adult life, first in Oxford, where he lived as an Anglican and was received into the Catholic Church, and later in Birmingham itself where he founded and worked in the Birmingham Oratory for over forty years.

The Holy Father's life-long devotion to Newman has made a profound contribution to understanding the depth and significance of our founder's legacy. His decision to beatify Newman in person confers a unique blessing upon the English Oratories and all who have drawn inspiration from Newman's life and work.

We joyfully look forward to welcoming the Holy Father, as well as the many pilgrims and visitors who will come to the Beatification ceremony and visit Newman's shrine at the Birmingham Oratory.

We also look forward to the challenging work of preparing for the Beatification in conjunction with Church and civil authorities. We pray that the Beatification will fittingly reflect both Newman's significance for the Universal Church and the honour paid to our Archdiocese and our country by the Holy Father's presence among us.

Very Rev. Richard Duffield
Provost of the Birmingham Oratory
and Actor of the Cause of John Henry Newman

This great man's biography can be found at this link, and is definitely worth a read.

Cardinal Newman's writings have been cataloged at http://www.newmanreader.org/ I put the introduction of "Sermon 20" below for your perusal.

SHEEP are defenceless, wolves are strong and fierce. How prompt, how frightful, how resistless, how decisive, would be the attack of a troop of wolves on a few straggling sheep which fell in with them! and how lively, then, is the image which our Lord uses to express the treatment which His followers were to receive from the world! He Himself was the great Exemplar of all such sufferings. When He was in the hands of His enemies, surrounded by a mad multitude, gazed on by relentless enemies, jeered at, struck, hurried along, tormented by rude soldiers, and at length nailed to the cross, what was He emphatically but a sheep among wolves? "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth." And what He foretold of His followers, that the Psalmist had declared of them at an earlier time, and His Apostle {294} applies it to them on its fulfilment. "As it is written," says St. Paul, "For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." [Rom. viii. 36.] Such was the Church of Christ in its beginnings, and such has it been in every age in proportion to its purity. The purer it has been, the more defenceless; whenever it has been pure, it has, in one way or another, been defenceless. The less worldly it has been, and the more it has cultivated its proper gifts, and the less it has relied upon sword and bow, chariots and horses, and arm of man, the more it has been exposed to ill-usage; the more it has invited oppression, the more it has irritated the proud and powerful. This, I say, is exemplified in every age. Seasons of peace, indeed, have been vouchsafed to it from the first, and in the most fearful times; but not an age of peace. A reign of temporal peace it can hardly enjoy, except under the reign of corruption, and in an age of faithlessness. Peace and rest are future.

Priests Should Be "Men Not Subject to Ephemeral Cultural Fashions"

So declared Pope Benedict XVI today at his noonday address. There has been a tone here lately among some commenters that we should give up - "the pope doesn't care about us, and he can't or won't do anything." This address should illustrate that the pope knows absolutely and precisely what is occurring in our diocese and other like it. My emphasis added.

VATICAN CITY, 12 MAR 2010 (VIS) - At midday today, the Holy Father received participants in a theological congress promoted by the Congregation for the Clergy, and which is being held on 11 and 12 March in the Pontifical Lateran University on the theme: "Faithfulness of Christ, faithfulness of Priests". (Note the Holy Father's clear parallel - a priest  is not just "one of the guys." He is the "alter Christi.")

In a time such as our own, said the Pope, "it is important clearly to bear in mind the theological specificity of ordained ministry, in order not to surrender to the temptation of reducing it to predominant cultural models. ("Predominant cultural models." This means that we should always hold priests as priests, not these "sacramental ministers" heralded by the Diocese of Rochester. To have lay people running the Church in a time of prosperity, not persecution, is unnatural and ungodly.) In the context of widespread secularisation which progressively tends to exclude God from the public sphere and from the shared social conscience, the priest often appears 'removed' from common sense". Yet , the Pope went on, "it is important to avoid a dangerous reductionism which, over recent decades ... has presented the priest almost as a 'social worker', with the risk of betraying the very Priesthood of Christ. (This risk of "betraying the very Priesthood of Christ" is fully realized in Rochester. We see this in these numerous lay people, men and women, who claim to be leading a parish over a priest. Handle the business, and stay out of the sanctuary - that is what these lay administrators are called to do. They are not called by God to relegate the priest to a chair to pop up and say prayers on command.)

"Just as the hermeneutic of continuity is revealing itself to be ever more important for an adequate understanding of the texts of Vatican Council II", he added, "in the same way we see the need for a hermeneutic we could describe as 'of priestly continuity', one which, starting from Jesus of Nazareth, Lord and Christ, and over the two thousand years of history, greatness, sanctity, culture and piety which the Priesthood has given the world, comes down to our own day".

Benedict XVI affirmed that "it is particularly important that the call to participate in the one Priesthood of Christ in ordained Ministry should flower from the 'charism of prophecy'. There is great need for priests who speak of God to the world and who present the world to God; men not subject to ephemeral cultural fashions, (Priests are not supposed to be these counter-cultural rebels that we see here in many parishes. They are called, not to enforce a new social order, but to lead souls to God. How can one do this by playing fast and loose with the very teachings God gave His Church through Scripture and Tradition?) but capable of authentically living the freedom that only the certainty of belonging to God can give. ... And the prophecy most necessary today is that of faithfulness" which "leads us to live our priesthood in complete adherence to Christ and the Church". (Complete adherence, folks. Not "I feel called to do _____, even though there is no provision for it in Canon Law or Scripture, or Tradition." No - you follow the Church (which, through the Holy Spirit, follows God). You cannot let yourself be swayed by such notions as self-importance. These come from Satan, who seeks the ruin of souls. Surely countless souls have been dashed on the jagged rocks on the coast that is "Rochester.")

Priests, the Holy Father continued, "must be careful to distance themselves from the predominant mentality which tends to associate the value of Ministry not with its being, but with its function". (A priest is more than a Sacramental Minister. The pope has said it - why can't Bishop Clark?)

Laetare Sunday - Tridentine High Mass

Again this Sunday, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be celebrated in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite at beautiful Saint Stanislaus Church. Mass is at 1:30 and the church is on the corner of Hudson Avenue and Norton Street.

Everyone is very welcomed to attend. That includes the whole family: Moms, Dads, kids, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, half-brothers and half-sisters (no matter how many times removed), etc.

Only Catholics, who are spiritually prepared, may receive Holy Communion. Holy Communion is received only on the tongue and kneeling, unless you can't kneel. No need to say "Amen".

We have handicapped elevator in the rear of the church, security guards, separate bathroom access, and a most excellent selection of books at the book table.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, leave them in the combox and I will respond asap.

Oremus pro invicem!

PS. Turn your clocks ahead one hour early this Sunday morning.