Yes, it is, but where is another Mass going to fit into the schedule of a very large parish, even if there is a priest able to celebrate a TLM? We have 8 masses per weeekend in my parish, and adding another would run into the baptisms.
Then that priest FINDS time. Priests don’t dictate to The Holy Father, but the other way around. After all, we aren’t Protestants.
As I said, I don’t agree, but people use any excuse to miss Mass. Soccer or baseball games was a big excuse when I was teaching Religious instructions. (One of the reasons I stopped)
Then those folks need to re-examine their fidelity to Holy Mother The Church. You being a former catechism teacher (as I was, also), I’m sure you’re familiar with the passage concerning cutting away of the dead limbs.
If the folks who you describe consider a sporting event as having the priority over their responsibility to obey God’s Law, then they heap condemnation upon themselves.
I admire your faith and determination, and am so sorry to hear of the abuses that you must have wittnessed, but the bottom line is it is still the Mass, and Jesus is present.
My point exactly. But in all honesty, I’ve met more than one NO priest who’s openly questioned The Real Presence. I’ve never met a TLM pries who has.
I even had a priest (with a dismissive wave of the hand) sneer to me “I don’t worship bread”, to which I responded “niether do I, Father. I worship Christ physically Present in The Holy Eucharist. Don’t you?”. As he turned and stormed away, he hissed “I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS ANYMORE!!”
I’ve even had some priests confide in me that they personally know Vicar Generals and Deans who question The Real Presence, as well as many of The Sacraments.
Scary, ain’t it?
Sadly, more inflexible than pride…they just don’t feel they need to attend, if they don’t understand it, but also more sadly …inconvenience, if the Mass is longer. No, I do not feel they question the validity, but are unwilling to change their form of worship.
Lux, “inflexibility” IS Pride! But do you see now what I was talking about earlier when I spoke of those who consider what
THEY WANT to be of supreme importance?
If there is as bad a priest shortage over there as here, or if no more people have shown an interest in the TLM, then, no, I do not think there was as much an assessment as a directive.
Directive… assessment… so? As St. Augustine once said; “Rome has spoken; the dispute is at an end”.
As I said, Rome has enough priests that they can schedule as many masses as they wish, and still have priests let over. This is not the case here.
I’m quite sure The Holy Father has given this considerable prayer and thought. You know, I mentioned the English Martyrs a few posts ago. Consider this if you would – Catholic priests back then
WILLINGLY went to England
KNOWING that if they were apprehended, they would have their intestines ripped out, their limbs hacked off, and eventually beheaded. And all the while, this torture would last for hours.
And still they went.
If a priest present day has a heavy Mass schedule as his biggest complaint, he needs to stop his whining.
As I just pointed out to Trevor, the number of priests that enroll in (for lack of a better phrase) *Novus Ordo seminaries *has dropped like a stone. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but Traditional Latin Mass seminaries, such as the FSSP, have a WAITING LIST! That’s gotta tell ya something.
Thank you for a great discussion. God bless you and your loved ones. Lux
And you as well, my friend.