ByzCath,
The Lord is Risen!
I grant many traditionalists go overboard, and that is not good
at all. But the traditionalist position is a very subtle one that needs to be given plenty of patience.
I sometimes go to the NO where it is done respectably. But the fact is, in my state at least, abuses are the norm in the NO. And bishops don’t seem to care. The church down the street from me bakes altar bread and puts molasses in it. That
invalidates the Mass. Oh, people have complained and showed the necessary documents, only to be ignored.
ByzCath, these are common realities in the Western Church that have to be grappled with. I realize the East is in a very different place. And thank God. I also realize that some Westerns haven’t had to deal with this where they live, or don’t know the extent of it at least.
How can one describe the heartwretching sadness we’ve experienced over the past 50 years? It is as if a foreign power has come in and destroyed our churches! There has been too much tragedy in the West,
at least in my state, to dismiss the traditionalist position this way. We are not nitpicking over little abuses. We have swallowed
so much pain from the destruction of what we hold dear. I can give you plenty of astonishing examples. In our state seminary, immediately after the “reform” of the liturgy, hundreds and hundreds of costly vestments, gold vessels, statues, missals, exquisite altar cards, etc. were ripped out of the sacristy and thrown in the trash. The mound was huge. These things were payed for from
sweat and toil of hard working and oftentimes impoverished parishoners who loved their Church so much they found ways to be generous. And this is how they were repayed.
Please do not overlook these things when you feel insulted or challenged.
Usque.
ByzCath:
Who else out there is tired of the self-proclaimed “Traditionalists” out there who are attacking the Church and the Mass while supporting schismatic groups.
Who deny the validity of the Mass and seem to twist Church teaching support their distortions?
Who keep bringing up issues that have been discussed and posting links to pictures and news articles that are years old.
Who point to abuses and act like those abuses are the norm and welcomed while acting that someone the Trad Latin Mass is magically immune from abuse.