V
_veritas
Guest
On our way home from the Defending the Faith conference, my group stopped at the Fr. Solanus Casey Center at St. Bonaventure’s in Detroit (a Capuchin order church) for Mass and a tour around the center, and too see Fr. Casey’s tomb.
To go from joining Cardinal Arinze for Mass on Saturday to the Mass at the Capuchin’s church was like going from a Tridentine Mass to a Pizza Consecration Party.
I knew the CFRs split from the main Capuchin order for a reason, but whoa…
In the “state-of-the-art” Center itself, which Fr. Casey would NOT have approved of I am certain – all Mother Earth and Sister Bodily Death… and not the way St. Francis meant in his poem – it was sadly ironic to see all the references to the Franciscan poverty and then see the millions they spent on this Center, at the cost of destroying anything that Fr. Casey may have actually touched. It appears that these Capuchins are not financially poor, they are spiritually and historically poor and do not know it 
)
The Mass was very sad as well, the first clue was that the beautiful pews had been removed from the chapel, and the plush chairs in place there were arranged so that there was an oval, with the altar at one end, the ambo at the other, and the tabernacle as far from the altar as it could be. The priest didn’t wash his hands, which wasn’t a HUGE deal (but bad, yes) but it shocked us all to hear him say, after the Consecration, “We have both wine and grape juice, wine on this side and grape juice on that”
And then, the EMHCs (two of them for a Mass attendance of about 15-20 people, in order to distribute the “wine and grape juice”) stood on either side of the altar, received the Hosts in their hands from the priest and stood there while he did the Lamb of God etc… they ate at the same time as the priest
Immediately after Mass everyone started standing around yammering to each other, very distracting.
Anyway, I know that these kinds of abuses happen all over the place, but to go from a Mass with Cardinal Arinze to THIS was just horrible… I know our Lord was still present (Unless the addition of the grape juice invalidates the whole thing?) and the people seemed very sincere and really THINKING they were doing what was right…
SO sad. Our group is writing a letter to the Center, CC’d to Cardinal Maida and the Prefect for the Congration of Religious. I don’t know what else to do…
The Center’s website is solanuscasey.org/solcnter.htm
Mother Mary, pray for us!!
+veritas+
To go from joining Cardinal Arinze for Mass on Saturday to the Mass at the Capuchin’s church was like going from a Tridentine Mass to a Pizza Consecration Party.
I knew the CFRs split from the main Capuchin order for a reason, but whoa…
In the “state-of-the-art” Center itself, which Fr. Casey would NOT have approved of I am certain
– all Mother Earth and Sister Bodily Death… and not the way St. Francis meant in his poem – it was sadly ironic to see all the references to the Franciscan poverty and then see the millions they spent on this Center, at the cost of destroying anything that Fr. Casey may have actually touched. It appears that these Capuchins are not financially poor, they are spiritually and historically poor and do not know it )The Mass was very sad as well, the first clue was that the beautiful pews had been removed from the chapel, and the plush chairs in place there were arranged so that there was an oval, with the altar at one end, the ambo at the other, and the tabernacle as far from the altar as it could be. The priest didn’t wash his hands, which wasn’t a HUGE deal (but bad, yes) but it shocked us all to hear him say, after the Consecration, “We have both wine and grape juice, wine on this side and grape juice on that”
And then, the EMHCs (two of them for a Mass attendance of about 15-20 people, in order to distribute the “wine and grape juice”) stood on either side of the altar, received the Hosts in their hands from the priest and stood there while he did the Lamb of God etc… they ate at the same time as the priest Immediately after Mass everyone started standing around yammering to each other, very distracting.
Anyway, I know that these kinds of abuses happen all over the place, but to go from a Mass with Cardinal Arinze to THIS was just horrible…
I know our Lord was still present (Unless the addition of the grape juice invalidates the whole thing?) and the people seemed very sincere and really THINKING they were doing what was right…SO sad.
Our group is writing a letter to the Center, CC’d to Cardinal Maida and the Prefect for the Congration of Religious. I don’t know what else to do… The Center’s website is solanuscasey.org/solcnter.htm
Mother Mary, pray for us!!
+veritas+
