Thursday, May 26, 2011

Eucharistic "Miracle" at Medjugorje demonstrates disobedience








Is this the good fruits I keep hearing about?

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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Program for Parish Renewal (part 4)

Finally we get to the last installment in this series and come to our happy ending. Last time we looked at how our pastor introduced some traditional elements into our liturgy. This time we will be looking at the introduction of Masses ad orientam, the introduction of the Traditional Latin Mass, and some other devotions and activities introduced at the parish.

I do want to deal with one objection a reader brought up last time; I mentioned that within a month or so of the issuing of the motu proprio, there were 70 people and families who signed a petition to have the TLM at our parish requesting to have the Extraordinary Form Mass said, but that it was nevertheless three years until my pastor actually said it. One reader suggested that perhaps my pastor was disobeying the guidelines of Summorum Pontificum by not offering the Mass immediately upon its request. Although my pastor has already answered this objection in the combox to part 3, I would like to address it here as well. If so many requested the EF Mass so early on, why wasn't it said for three years?

There are several reasons why the pastor allowed this interlude, if you will allow me to defend him here. In the first place I must note my pastor's conviction that anything that is done must be done properly, deliberately and with a high degree of excellence. Just because the EF Mass was now available did not mean that he was going to rush out and say a slip-shod Mass that was hurried and without the proper training. Our pastor studied the Extraordinary Form with an admirable dedication - he attended two weekend seminars put on by the Canons of St. John Cantius for priests learning to say the EF Mass. He practiced the EF in "dry runs" weekly until he got comfortable with it; he even had a priest from the FSSP come out to observe him for a weekend and help him learn it better. All this training was in addition to his regular pastoral duties, funerals, weddings, visits from the Bishop, ect. and many medical problems that left him precious little spare time.

In addition to this was the fact that we had none of the implements of the Mass. He had to purchase vestments, which he did with much research and great care as to quality; we had to get a biretta, altar cards and purchase the Missal. More importantly was the altar servers - as you know, the EF Mass requires altar servers who know the liturgical rubrics intimately and can say the Latin responses. These servers had to be found and trained, which took a considerable amount of time. He needed to find a cantor knowledgeable of the Extraordinary Form who could commit to a weekly schedule; we never did find our own and ended up "borrowing" a guy from another parish, I think. We also had to find a "Master of Ceremonies"; we were fortunate to come across a young man who was part of Una Voce Ann Arbor who was able to fulfill this role. All of these people's schedules had to be coordinated to find out which day and what time the EF Mass could be said.

I also want to clarify that last time, when I said there was a petition circulated with 70 people and families in support of the EF at our parish, it was not as if there were 70 families demanding or asking for the EF. There was one, single gentleman who was quite intent on getting the EF said. He, on his own initiative, created a petition and circulated it, and 70 people and families signed it, saying that they would support an EF Mass at the parish and would attend it if it was made available. It was not as if there was this big group of people asking for it; rather, it was a large segment of the parish who expressed support for the idea and were open to it. I suppose you could say they asked for it passively rather than demanded it actively. You may think this is hair-splitting, but it is an important distinction.

My pastor also wanted to spend a lot of time on catechesis, for which purpose there were weekly bulletin articles on liturgy, tradition, Latin and  the EF for many months leading up to the introduction of the Extraordinary Form. He had witnessed what happened when a priest tried to rush things through without proper catechesis or preparation and was careful to not go down the same road.

Finally, with regard to this delay, I want to mention and commend the docility of the parishioners. When the EF Mass was freed up by the motu proprio and the pastor did not immediately make it available, they did not start complaining and bickering with him and puffing themselves up about their rights being violated and this and that; perhaps they would have done that if our pastor was a Latin-hating progressive, but since he is a faithful priest and one of the most orthodox in the region, they were very docile to his actions and quick to assume the best possible intentions on his part. "Our pastor is a good man who loves the Faith," we reasoned; "if he is delaying, he must have a good reason." This is rare in parishes today, where people are so quick to demand their way and start hurling accusations if they don't get it. Therefore I commend our parishioners, who were faithful enough to request the TLM but humble enough to wait patiently on the pastor's prudence for its introduction. It was finally introduced in October, 2010 to a very large and supportive congregation who was used to Latin from a year's worth of practice, used to ad orientam, accustomed to receiving at communion rails, and prepared for the TLM by a year or more of catechetical instruction from the pulpit and the bulletin. The transition was successful and flawless.

Therefore, though at some times I did not understand my pastor's reluctance or thought he was moving too slow, in hindsight I see that he was vindicated in his approach and think him to be blameless in his conduct.

But we are moving too far ahead...let's go back a bit...


Don't panic; I mean experimental in a good way. What I mean by this term is that, as our pastor began introducing more and more traditional elements to the liturgy, he did not do them universally to every Mass. He picked one specific Mass (in our case, the Sunday 10:30) as his "experimental Mass" to try these things out in. Those who were predisposed to Tradition could attend this Mass while those who were not would not (yet) be alarmed by the introduction of Tradition into their accustomed Masses. If the changes he made to the 10:30 Mass went over well, then he would talk about them at the other Masses, tell them, "Over at the 10:30 we've been singing the Gloria in Latin and people love it!" This let the more recalcitrant of the parishioners know that the changes were already happening at other Masses and gave them a chance to get their minds settled on the idea that they may be coming to "their" Mass, though not all of the changes were introduced to every Mass. Even to this day I don't think my pastor says the 8:00 or Saturday 4:30 Mass differently than the 10:30; I suppose this is where he called a "truce" with the people, though even these two Masses are much more traditional than any others in the region.


I have already mentioned how Latin was introduced piecemeal. The next step was to get the parishioners away from "hymns" and move them towards chant. Sappy, post-Vatican II hymns had already been abolished circa 2007 and we were singing good, time-tested hymns from the 18th and 19th centuries, but still the pastor wanted to introduce the people to chant proper. The abolition of hymns in favor of chant was done in three ways:

(1) The entrance hymn was replaced with a chanted introit. It was (and is) done in English, but it is chant in a traditional mode done as a response between the congregation and the cantor. This helped dispose the people to prayer more as the Mass begun, much better than the "entrance hymn."

(2) The offertory hymn was replaced by an offertory responsorial chant, again done in a traditional mode but in English with responses between the people and the cantor.

(3) Most importantly, the communion hymn was replaced by the communion antiphon chanted a capella in Latin. I cannot tell you how much more reverent and sacred this made communion feel; I think this was the most important musical change that was made. Even now the beautiful Latin chant at this most solemn part of the Mass moves me to tears.

Thus, by these few changes, three "hymns" were eliminated and replaced by chants, two of them in the vernacular, but a step in the right direction.


Our pastor began doing Mass ad orientam in January 2009, about a year after he restored the altar rails. Ad orientam Mass was prepared for by a lengthy series of homilies on the liturgy, sometimes teaching right from the GIRM that this was the preferred manner of saying Mass. When ad orientam finally happened, some people were a little put off, but most accepted it. By this time, our priest had been there long enough and had a strong enough following to basically say, "I'm going to do this," and then do it. Nevertheless, it was great news. Father asked me to write a bulletin article on my reaction to the ad orientam Mass, and this article ended up on Fr. Z's blog (here).

Communion at the rails was introduced shortly after this. By this time, the rails had been restored for over a year and Father had preached on how to receive communion several times. People had been well catechized on the reverence due to the Eucharist and were well disposed to begin actually using the rails that had at first ostensibly been put up just for "aesthetic" reasons. In preparing people for this, our pastor preached on two themes (1) the reverence due to our Lord in the Eucharist, and (2) the fact that nowhere in Vatican II or in the post-conciliar documents was it ever commanded to remove the altar rails.

After preaching on this, he basically just made the change, although he allowed one caveat - since the bishops of the United States, and of our diocese, allowed that standing was to be the "norm" for reception, our pastor could not forbid it; that is, he could allow and encourager reception at the rails on the tongue, but could not forbid reception standing up in the hand. Therefore, he allowed that those who wanted to receive standing up could come up the middle of the aisle and receive from an EMHC. It was an awkward arrangement to have three "lines" (one at the left rail, one at the right, and one in the middle standing), one I never approved of, but I don't really know what else he was supposed to do, since he could not forbid reception standing in the Novus Ordo. This is still the practice, although the vast majority of persons still choose to receive kneeling rather than stand awkwardly in the middle line. I think this line is mainly used by visitors who have no idea what communion rails are. He also allows communion of both kinds at the rails, which is a little unusual but not particularly objectionable in my opinion.


Look at how far we have come. We have come from liturgical dancing and puppet Masses to this point. The EF of the Mass was introduced in October, 2010. By this time the parish had been receiving communion at the rails for almost a year. Mass was ad orientam at the neo-Gothic high altar. Latin permeated the liturgy, both in the ordinary parts and the changeable antiphons, which were chanted in Latin at communion by a skilled cantor. Orthodoxy was preached and Mass was reverent. To those who had been happily introduced to orthodox preaching, Latin chant, ad orientam celebrations and communion at the rail, what else was standing in the way between them and the EF?

When the EF finally came it was very well attended, both by members of our own parish and by visitors who had heard about it and wanted the blessing of attending the Extraordinary Form in Michigan's second oldest parish. The pastor had done such a good job over the past five years that, when the EF finally came, which in my opinion was the jewel in the crown of all his labors, nobody complained at all. The faithful who had come to our parish from other parishes had long anticipated it; many of the old group of parishioners had been catechized and made ready for it; and those who were extremely hostile or recalcitrant had either long ago left the parish or simply gave up complaining, seeing the restoration of Tradition as a fait accompli.

I believe I have misspoken; I said above that the saying of the EF was the crown of my pastor's labors. I take this back. The true crowning glory of this beautiful story was when, a few months after the saying of the first EF, the Bishop of our Diocese, His Excellency Earl Boyea, came to my pastor personally and asked him to continue to say the EF and make it widely available. Then, as if to place a most beautiful and glorious jewel at the pinnacle of an already glorious crown, the bishop affirmed and justified everything our pastor had done by visiting our parish in April, 2011 and himself said Mass in the Extraordinary Form (see here). Hallelujah!


Lest it seem that all this renewal was simply about liturgical changes alone, I should mention that everything coincided with a deepening of the devotion of the entire parish, both new comers and the older folks. Our pastor relentlessly promoted First Friday Adoration every month and tirelessly preached on the merit of Eucharistic Adoration, getting as many of his people as possible in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Confessions were made widely available. A guest priest of the Oblates was brought in by providence to lead small groups in the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. A vibrant homeschool co-op teaching in the classical tradition was formed there and now thrives with 70+ students. May crownings of our Lady. Beautiful Corpus Christi processions. A renewed Knights of Columbus council. Pro-Life activism by the Youth Group. Enrollments in the Brown Scapular. Enrollments in the Angelic Warfare Confraternity. Choir concerts featuring traditional Catholic music. Parish missions by excellent priests. The parish is a dynamic center of apostolic labor and intense spirituality, and all because one pastor had the courage and common sense to simply preach the truth, say the black, do the red and be faithful.

It happened at our can happen at yours!

Monday, May 23, 2011

Baptism of Blood in St. Bede

The martyrdom of St. Alban of Britain








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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Hawking: Heaven a "fairy story"












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what does stephen hawking have

Monday, May 16, 2011

Rob Bell: Stressing the Fault Lines of Protestantism


(Earth Sciences / Geological Science) Also called fault plane Geology the surface of a fault fracture along which the rocks have been displaced

a potentially disruptive division or area of contention

(Collins English Dictionary)










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Catholic Historiography

Hey everybody! I'm thoroughly enjoying myself here in Sarasota and am thoroughly impressed with the FSSP priests here at the local chapel. I have been understandably busy doing vacation stuff; I will probably post this weekend after I have time to digest the new Vatican document on the Traditional Latin Mass, which is very exciting. In the meantime, please enjoy this transcript of the talk I gave two weeks ago at the homeschool conference in New Jersey on Catholic historiography. It's a little different style from my usual writing, since it was written as a speech, of course, but hopefully you will find something useful in it:

"I’m here today to talk about history, or more specifically, historiography, or more specifically, Christian historiography. But before we dive in, I’d like to say a few words about my own background with history. I don’t recall ever being particularly turned on to history in the public schools I attended as a boy. As a teacher myself, I would love to vindicate my profession by telling you that it was some dynamic, inspiring teacher who first turned me on to history, but alas, this is not the case. My discovery of history came in a much more subtle, yet powerful way. I was about ten years old and was rummaging around my basement looking for something and I came across this book that caught my eye. It was a very thick, hardcover book with a picture of what I later learned was the city of Constantinople on the cover. It was “Civilization Past and Present”, 5th edition, copyright 1974, a college textbook from when my mom was in college and had been collecting dust in my parent’s basement for about ten years when I found it. Having nothing better to do (my Nintendo must have been broken that day), I opened the book. That was the beginning.

Everything unfolded before me: the glory of ancient Greece, the grandeur of Rome and her fall from a representative Republic into an autocratic empire; the triumph of Christianity and the life of the medieval world; popes, castles, crusades, monks, explorers, the New World, then on to Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and the dark days of the religious wars and on into the modern era. Hammurabi. Pericles. Plato. Alexander. Caesar. Constantine, they were all there. Broad vistas swept across my mind and captured my imagination. I became conscious for the first time of the real world beyond my small circle of acquaintances in my small town – aware of empires rising and falling for millennia, millions of people throughout time living, thinking, building and striving, great men and women rising up over the centuries, each making their own contribution to humanity’s effort to understand its own place in the world. An behind all of these great achievements, the power of ideas, ideas that could build up civilization or tear it down in bloodshed; ideas that could elevate and ennoble man to perform acts of heroic charity, or barbarize him into a fiend capable of horrendous acts of inhumanity; ideas that could inspire beautiful art and architecture and turn men’s hearts to the life to come, and ideas that could debase art and architecture and keep men’s minds riveted on this present life. I saw that there is nothing more life-changing, revolutionary or world-altering than an idea.

I was hooked on history from that moment. It was the beginning of one of the greatest journeys of discovery in my life, one that is far from over.

In this talk, I hope to give you some theoretical knowledge and some practical advice. We’ll be looking at the philosophical assumptions that can lay dormant in history books – what we call the historiographical context – and then some advice on how to teach history in a way that upholds and reinforces a Catholic worldview.

The Problem: “I love history, but I hated history class.”

My own love of history would have always remained a private devotion, a personal hobby, had not I started pondering a paradox that I began running into when I shared my love of history with others. This was the phenomenon of people who told me, “I love history, but I hated history class.” How many of you have heard people say this? How many of you fall into this category? It struck me; if you love a subject, how can you not love learning about it? How could you hate a class on a topic you loved? This doesn’t happen with other classes – nobody says, “I love math but I hate math class.” In my case, I hated math and I hated math class. Yet this was not the case with history; what was causing this? We were hearing the same facts, reading about the same wars, same kings, same epic adventures, and yet what was sweet to me was bitter to them. The sheer number of people I ran into over the years convinced me that there was something to this. They were being exposed to all of the same information I was exposed to, and while they loved the content itself, they apparently hated its presentation. What was behind this?

As I came to see later, this was a problem of teaching rooted in historiography. That is, it was not a problem with the content of history, that is, the people, events and stories that make up the historical tapestry; most people really get into history when it is presented the right way to them. It was a problem with the presuppositions and assumptions behind the presentations of these tales and the way that it subsequently effected their presentation. You see, I taught myself history by reading books and fell in love with it; my companions learned history from listening to teachers, and they hated it, because it was presented as a slur of meaningless facts without any historiographical context.

What is Historiography?

What is historiography? There are many ways to describe it. Historiography can be said to be the history of history, the study of how people have viewed history over the course of man’s existence.

History studies people and events; historiography studies historians and their methods. History studies how ideas have influenced culture; historiography studies how ideas have influenced historians. History challenges assumptions and presuppositions we have when looking at historical persons or events; historiography challenges assumptions and presuppositions we have when reflecting upon history itself. The historian studies the content of history; the historiographer looks at the philosophy of history itself.

Just like all politicians have an ideological approach to how they do politics, so all historians have a certain historiographical approach to history; even you do, when you teach history to your kids. For example, ask yourself what do you believe really drives history? In the long drama of the ages, what has been most important? Do you tend to emphasize battles and military campaigns, or perhaps you view history in terms of economics. Some people, especially the moderns, have said that history is moved by the masses of nameless people, whose ideas and aspirations filter upward to their leaders who subsequently effect change; others have insisted that the masses are largely static, and that history is driven by the presence of powerful, charismatic leaders who remake history in their own image (the so-called "strong man" theory of history). Some people like to dwell on the role of ideas and philosophies to history, whilst others will say that factors of land, production and climate are most important. The French writer Montesquieu is famous for this latter approach, saying that the global north was prosperous because it was colder, compelling its inhabitants to work harder and avoid idleness in order to survive, while the warmer climates of the south encouraged people to lie around all day and bred laziness.

Other historiographical questions: Where is history going? Is it going anywhere? Does our history, whether of our country or our world, tend towards some end or goal, or is it drifting aimlessly like a barren rock through empty space? Or perhaps it circles around endlessly, like the pagans asserted, whose symbol for the passing of history was the Ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail.

And why do we study history at all? Is it for purely academic reasons, or do we derive some tangible benefit today from our knowledge of the past? Is history subject to laws and principles, the same way as math, chemistry and physics, and should we therefore always be searching for the most scientific, mathematical application of history? Or, since history deals with individual human beings and an infinite amount of free choices that make predictions impossible, is there nothing we can say about historical laws?

Perhaps most important from our perspective, do we believe there is a force or intelligence behind history, using the deeds of men and kingdoms to guide history to a certain point, a certain final consummation, in which the ultimate meaning of history itself will become clear, where “the mountains will fall away and the sky wind up like a scroll” before the Master of history; or are the events of history leading us nowhere – is all the striving of men and civilizations for millennia vain, ultimately as meaningless as a fistful of sand thrown into the wind?

I’m convinced that to the degree that our history is dull, uninspiring or downright boring, it is because we have tried just teaching “facts” apart from any larger historiographical context. The historiographical context is what gives the facts cohesion and makes them interesting; it is like the ship upon which all the content of history is contained – it keeps the facts together, gives them organization, and leads them somewhere. Without an historiographical framework, the facts are just out there floating in the sea, and when asked to learn these disjointed facts, the disgruntled student is likely to shrug and ask, “Why?” When presented with the great deeds of the past, he is likely to roll his eyes and say, “So what?”

The Catholic Application

Thus far I have only introduced the concept of historiography; it now falls to us to see how we can make use of this concept as Catholics when teaching history to our youngsters. Not all historiographical systems are good or helpful. There is Catholic historiography, yes, but are also historiographical systems that are atheist, secular, Marxist and hostile to Christian revelation. Our goal is to organize our historical studies along Catholic lines, in a way that will be exciting (so our kids don’t remember that they “hated history class” when they get older) and that is edifying.

A Catholic historiography should present history as linear; that is, history that began somewhere and is going somewhere, tending towards a final end. This ever reminds us that the world itself is in the hands of God, is guided by His providence, and that we ourselves are pilgrims, viators, ourselves moving towards our own final end. The world is not yet what it will be, nor are we ourselves – but we are all moving towards it, and our approach to history ought to reflect this movement. 

Our teaching should also focus on all aspects of history – many people, wanting to teach Catholic history but not knowing where to begin, think that to teach Catholic history simply means to teach the history of Catholics. For example, a lot of books are passed off as U.S. history textbooks which are in reality just books on the history of Catholics in the United States. Now, our kids need to know this as Catholics, but as educators we need to realize that studying the history of Catholics in the United States is not the same as studying the history of the United States in general. Catholic history doesn’t mean just teaching about Catholics. Teaching Catholic history is really about embracing certain principles in how we approach history; once we understand this, we can teach European history, American history, Chinese history, economic history – and we can do it in a way that excites kids, that leaves the, saying, “I love history, and I love history class.” I have done this again and again with U.S. history, medieval history, ancient history, even economic history, and it works every time. 

So what are these principles? What concepts do we need to incorporate into our teaching to achieve this? To bring this over to the practical level, I want to propose for you four concepts that we should incorporate into our history lessons:

1) Teach history as a story: First and foremost, we need to get back to the idea of history as a story. This was the classical method (until the moderns messed it up like they messed up everything else that they touched) –presenting history as a series of stories about the deeds of exceptional men and women and, implicitly, how the deeds of one person can alter the life of nations. This gets kids interested in the narrative aspect of history; they can identify with the challenges faced and overcome by historical characters because they have challenges in their own lives. They learn to cheer for William Wallace, share Napoleon’s loneliness on St. Helena, and mourn with the nation at the death of Lincoln. These are all things they can easily relate to that make the characters from history come alive; it also serves to stir up interest in other historical characters as they realize that everybody from history is a person who actually lived, actually had thoughts, desires, ambitions, triumphs and losses.

To get this through, use examples from their lives. The classic example is Washington and the Cherry Tree, though it’s of questionable historical accuracy. Anything will work if it helps them remember. I was trying to get my class to remember the Roman emperor Valentinian I and succeeded in doing so by talking about his legendary temper and how, when he heard that a peace treaty he had worked for years on was broken by the Germanic barbarians, he blew such a gasket that he had a stroke and died. Now that’s the kind of things kids remember! They will not remember the intricacies of the currency problems of Rome’s economy in the late 4th century; but they will remember a guy who got so mad that he had a stroke and died. That’s the way kids are.

And, by the way, remember that all of history is ultimately the narrative of God’s saving works. All of human history is God’s narrative, Christ is the supreme hero, whose life is the center of all history. Thus, we have a context against which to view larger events, such as the rising and falling of nations – the working out of God’s providence in history.

2) Teach the power of ideas: Now that we have gotten our students interested in the characters of history, we have to get them interested in what drives these characters; that is, we need to introduce them to the world of ideas. Why did the French Revolutionaries do what they did? What ideas were in Jefferson’s head when he wrote the Declaration? Why did thousands of Europeans, nobles and commoners alike, forsake their homelands in the 11th century to go over to the Crusades?

This may be more challenging for younger kids, but even elementary age students can understand how an idea can drive somebody’s actions. My 9 year old daughter does not understand fully the Catholic concept of the evangelical counsels and how those under religious vows anticipate, even on earth, the kingdom to come where we are neither married nor given in marriage, as the Catechism says. But she does understand that St. Francis of Assisi was motivated by a love for God and a desire for poverty. Our kids need to not only know the stories, but know why men and women do what they do, especially when discussing men and women of Faith. This is so important – It shows them the transformative power of our Faith, even if they are too young to experience it themselves. It brings up, in a seed form, the concept of motivation and intention in human morality and assists them in forming judgments about the rightness or wrongness of human actions – a great story exemplifying this from the Scriptures is Jesus’ contrast between the Tax Collector and the Pharisee praying in the Temple (Luke 18). Both pray, but our Lord reveals the motivations behind their prayers and allows us to form a moral judgment based on them – the Tax Collector is justified because of his humility, the Pharisee is not because of His pride.

Finally, teaching the power of ideas lays the groundwork for the later study of philosophy. Philosophical knowledge is so important these days, and ultimately the understanding our kids get of ideas will help them sort out the life-giving ones from the poisonous ones. But it can all start it in history class.

3) Emphasize the rewards of virtue and the punishments of vice: This point logically flows from the first two. Once we have gotten our students interested in the lives of men and women, and once we have helped them understand how ideas motivate them and drive their actions, we can lead them on to reflect the temporal rewards and punishments that are consequent upon following certain ideas to the end. For all Caesar’s ambition, where did it ultimately get him? An excellent opportunity to reflect on the principle of He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword. How is this different from the fate of St. Joan of Arc, who also suffered death, but for different reasons and in a different manner? In this case, the lesson is He who confesses me before men I will confess before My Father in heaven, and If the world hates you, know that it hated Me first. What about the peaceful end of George Washington and the honor subsequently heaped upon him by an ever-grateful nation for his sacrifice? He will keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that walk in simplicity. How do the various paths chosen by historical characters, for whatever reason, lead us on to contemplate the rewards of virtue and the penalties of vice? These are great discussions to have with kids, and very much in the classical tradition going right back to Cicero and Herodotus, who said that the primary reason for studying history is to be edified by the examples of moral men and to be appalled by the wickedness of the evil. In this manner, our kids not only learn history, but see how different actions lead to different consequences. History becomes an occasion for practical moral instruction.

4) Bring up the coincidences: Finally, history is so full of “coincidences”, freak accidents, dare we say, “Acts of God”, that changed the fate of nations that it is astonishing; these really should really be a distinctargument for God’s existence, in my opinion. I’m talking about the miraculous wind that aided the Christian armies at Lepanto; The bloody-nose that caused King James II to retreat from, and lose, the Battle of Naseby; the accidental and tragic killing of Stonewall Jackson by his own men that did the South irreparable harm; the dream of Constantine that altered the course of world history; the one Carthaginian ship that the Romans happened to find washed up on the shores of Italy, studied, copied, and used as a prototype to build an entire navy that would defeat Carthage and shift the balance of power in the ancient Mediterranean; Pope Innocent’s dream of the falling Church that led him to approve the formation of the Franciscan order; the cannon wound that sent Ignatius Loyola to the sickbed, and to a new life as founder of the Jesuits. These are the astonishing tales from history where we can look at them and truly say, “History would have been entirely different had this one event not happened or happened otherwise.”

We could go on and on. In my own life I have a tale of my grandfather who was shot in World War II in Italy by a German sniper. The sniper was aiming for his head, but as the sniper fired the shot, my grandpa, tired of carrying his weapon on his shoulder, swung his gun around and placed upon his opposing shoulder, thus blocking his head with his forearm. He was thus struck in the arm with the bullet, but had he not been tired and thought to do something as simple as shifting the burden of the gun to the other shoulder, the bullet would have struck his head, and I would not exist.

Even if skeptical adults have trained themselves to write off such occurrences as mere chance, children are not yet so cynical; they love this sort of things because they see God’s hand behind them, and stories like this remind them that there is more at work in the world than what they see; that history is not the product of blind forces of economics, culture, climate or politics. History is made up of the free-will actions of men and women, driven by ideas, and sometimes helped along by providential “Acts of God” that can change the course of whole civilizations. This is a truly Catholic approach to history, one that will not only not be “boring” to your kids, but will enthrall them and draw them in deeper to historical study.


History is the most fascinating of all subjects, and kids should find it so. In history are all the lessons of virtue and vice played out before us in a million examples across thousands of years and a multitude of kingdoms, the most accurate study of human nature one could undertake. In history is the knowledge to understand the problems of the world, both past and present. In history is seen the working out of God’s providence across time, from the gathering of peoples into civilizations in remote antiquity to the classical cultures of Greece and Rome to the coming of Christ at the center of history to call all men unto Himself; history is the canvas of God’s drama, in which everybody has a part. In history is the ultimate inspiration for young boys and girls to look up to their heroes for imitation, especially in the saints. If we keep in mind the bigger picture, and remember that history is not about the movements of blind forces of economics and class warfare (as the moderns would have us believe), but is rather one great story, then kids will be both edified and educated, because after all, who doesn’t like a great story? I’ve found it to be true in my life and my teaching experience, both as a Youth Director and as a tutor for Homeschool Connections, as well as a homeschool parent myself."

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Unam Sanctam Catholicam now on Facebook!

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Program for Parish Renewal (part 3)

Last time I recounted how our pastor had begun reforming our parish by implementing the right staff in some strategic positions and making some other important changes that would give him the leverage he needed to bring our once-liberal parish back in line with orthodoxy and even get the Traditional Latin Mass said there monthly. But before we get to that happy conclusion, we need to go through a few more vital steps the pastor took to bring the parish in this direction.

Some have asked about the bishop and how he reacted to all of this. Well, initially the bishop put our pastor there at this parish for two reasons (1) to get rid of a priest whom he disagreed with on certain things by, as it were, "banishing" him to an obscure rural parish (2) and as the parish was heavily in debt and on the chop block to be closed or clustered, the thinking was that he wouldn't be able to do much "damage" there anyway. Once the pastor started reforming things, complaints did come up to the diocese, but they were largely ignored by the bishop - the only time our pastor was seriously censured by the bishop was when he once preached a homily that condemned the politics of President Obama too strongly. One parishioner, I believe, once complained about him using the Catechism during his preaching, but it went nowhere. None of his liturgical reforms were  complained against. It was not that this bishop supported our pastor, per se, but that despite the complaints, our pastor was doing one thing that the bishop really appreciated, which was getting the parish out of debt and shoring up the finances. The bishop was apparently willing to overlook a lot in exchange for this. More on this later.

However, more providentially, this bishop retired and was replaced in February, 2008 by His Excellency Earl Boyea, a scholar and historian, who favored liturgical precision and had regularly said Mass in the Extraordinary Form as Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit. While Boyea did not formally endorse what our pastor was doing, as far as I know, his appointment gave the pastor more breathing room, as he knew that the man on the episcopal throne was apt to be more sympathetic to his reforms than the outgoing bishop had been. It was not until the appointment of Boyea in 2008 that the second phase of the reforms really began to take off.


I mentioned the finances several times. When our pastor took over in 2005, the parish finances were in such disarray that the parish would have had to close in January 2008 due to financial insolvency. From day one, my pastor ruthlessly cut wasteful spending by consolidating staff (four positions were consolidated into one - a DRE, his secretary and two youth directors became one DRE/Youth Director, i.e., me). Expensive programs that had little faith-building value were cut, while expenditures on other high-profile events (Labor Day Festivl) were scaled back to more modest amounts.

But cuts were only one third of the process, as you can't "cut" your way to financial solvency. The second part was getting the books in order. While we had an excellent accountant, each individual committee and staff member who had a budget had been remiss in keeping track of things for years; hence, there was really no clear idea of expenditures vs. income. As the parish changed demographically and the old committee members were replaced with more steward-minded persons, the books slowly got into better shape, aided by the urging of our pastor. One of the first things I did when hired in June 2007 was have a meeting with the accountant, learn how the book-keeping system worked and set a frugal budget ($5000 for a year) that I stuck with and even came in below. Within a year or so, most committees had gotten their budgets in order (with the exception of the cemetery committee, whose records remained in such a state of disarray that the Bishop, on his pastoral visit in 2010, personally ordered them to be organized). The accounts of these committees were further regularized by the abolition of several of them. When the parish council was undermining the pastor's plans, our pastor actually abolished it, reminding them that according to Canon Law, a parish council was not mandatory.

The third component of restoring our parish to fiscal solvency was the demographic shift. As more faithful individuals began attending, persons who took the faith more seriously and appreciated solid preaching, contributions went up. People care about a good parish and will pay to support it. Thus, while many families were leaving (our "active" families went down from 600 to around 400), contributions either remained stable or actually rose. We regularly met and beat our Diocesan Services Appeal quotas, bills were paid promptly, funds handled responsibly, money set aside for important and neglected parish repairs, with the result that the finances of the parish were sound enough to where Bishop Boyea canceled the previous bishop's tentative clustering of our parish and told our pastor that there were no longer any immediate plans to cluster or close our parish. It was becoming vibrant and self-sustaining, and most importantly, in 2008, our pastor announced that in his three year tenure he had completely paid off the parish debt and put us "in the black." We alone of every parish in our region could boast that we were both debt free and fiscally solvent due to steady and increasing contributions.


Here is where my part in the story begins. I was hired in mid-2007 to take over Anselm's DRE job, supervising CCD and teaching RCIA (see here for my reforms to RCIA). In addition to this, I was to take over the Youth Director position from the two older folks who were leaving the parish in protest against our pastor's actions (the old director had once come in to the office literally trembling in anger at the pastor's suggestion to put the communion rails back up). I could probably make a separate series out of what I did with the Youth, but I will try to summarize it here: (1) I was resolved to give them substantial doctrinal formation coupled with opportunities for spiritual advancement as well as social time. This was the three-fold approach I stuck to throughout my time at the parish (2) I was resolved not to let social activities or expensive trips take away from the substance of the Faith, so my program was always very frugal (3) most importantly, I resolved that I would not talk down to the kids - I would not patronize them, treat them like babies and act like they were to ignorant to understand the Faith. I told it to them in basically the same words I would use with adults, though embellished with a few more stories to help explain difficult points. I started with the assumption that the kids wanted to know the truth and were capable of receiving it. I did not try to dress it up by making it "relevant." You know what? It worked - when I began, my Youth Group was about 8 kids. When I left three and half years later, it had reached a high point of around 55  (see picture at the head of this post) with about five of the boys expressing a desire to go on to seminary and at least three girls discerning a religious vocation(4) almost equally as important, I served them food every week; not junk food, but real food (chicken, chili, etc.); stuff I came in an hour or two before and laboriously prepared. I do not attribute this success to myself or my own efforts, but to our Lord Jesus Christ; this is simply what happens whenever the Faith is preached and lived. The Faith itself has a power that reforms lives, if we get out of the way and let God work. It has an intrinsic evangelical power.

Click here for some statistical information on what I did with my Youth Group, what kind of kids I attracted, etc.


The changes I have mentioned so far laid the ground work for the changes in the liturgy; and by "changes", I mean restoring the liturgy to the way it was meant to be celebrated. The first change was in replacing the music director with a competent, classically trained and faithful Catholic woman who gave us some solid music, though nothing like chant as of yet.

When Summorum Pontificum was enacted in July 2007, the Traditional Latin Mass became a possibility. The pastor was eager to say this Mass, but he did not think the congregation was ready for it yet. Nevertheless, a petition circulated within a week of the motu proprio gathered signatures from about 70 families, from our parish and nearby parishes, who expressed their desire for our pastor to say the TLM and promised to attend a monthly TLM Mass. The pastor hung on to this petition, but it would be three years until he felt the congregation was ripe for the TLM.

In the meantime, he introduced two other reforms (1) the altar rails, which had been removed years before but remained on the grounds, were restored. The pastor explained this in terms of Church restoration and did not propose using them for at least another year and a half. His goal, he told me, was to just get people used to seeing the altar rails up there; and since it was done as part of a historical restoration and not as a liturgical function, nobody really had any grounds to object (which didn't stop some, of course). He also was always ready with Sacrosanctum Concilium on hand to challenge the nay-sayers: "Show me one place in this document where it says we are supposed to get rid of our altar rails." Once he restored them, even those who initially opposed their replacement admitted that the parish was much more beautiful with them.

(2) The introduction of Latin. Our pastor began introducing Latin in late 2007 by teaching the congregation various Mass parts before Mass, using the music director to instruct them (again, citing SC that "the Latin language is to be preserved"). This was done by preaching occasionally about Latin, printing little articles about it now and then in the bulletin (not too frequently) and in general trying to educate people until they were at least open to learning. He didn't overreach - in the beginning, I think it was the "Memorial Acclamation" that was taught. The congregation would say this in Latin for a few months, and then he would go back to English and then teach them another part, the Sanctus, for example. The result was that, while only one particular Mass part at any given time was being said in Latin, by the end of a year or two the congregation had familiarized themselves with all the Mass parts in Latin. The Gloria (Misse de Angelis) came last because it was longest, but by then the congregation was very open and learned it after only a few weeks. With the timid introduction of Latin, mantillas began to appear here and there, and this was followed by the gradual introduction of Latin hymns at communion (Panis Angelicus, Adore te Devote, etc.) Latin was being slowly introduced into the Novus Ordo, which was getting more and more reverent month by month.

This was all coupled by solid, instructional preaching every week, which continued to draw more faithful persons, convert the unconverted, and give even more impetus to the reform that was in full-swing by mid-2008.

That's enough for our final essay we'll see how Ad Orientam was introduced, the replacing of hymns with chant, extra-liturgical devotions and activities at the parish and, finally, the long-awaited introduction of the TLM in Fall of 2010.

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Friday, May 06, 2011

Vacation in Sarasota

Tonight I am leaving with my family for along anticipated vacation to Sarasota, Florida to stay with some family. My wife has been begging to go somewhere warm for years; instead, I keep dragging her up to places like Petoskey and Paradise in northern Michigan! We'll be in Sarasota for about two weeks and will be attending Christ the King F.S.S.P. Parish for daily and Sunday Mass. If you attend Christ the King and read this blog, come up and introduce yourself to us - it would be nice to meet some good Catholic folks while we're down there. We will stick out like a sore thumb since our family is 67% red head.

I am taking my laptop and may blog while I'm down there, but don't be surprised if I don't.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Program for Parish Renewal (part 2)






















MID 2007

