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- To be a Catholic today -

20/1/2008 

The Catholic Church is the only thing which saves a man

from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age.

GK Chesterton

Ego vero Evangelio non crederem, nisi me

Catholicae Ecclesiae commoveret auctoritas  

(I wouldn’t believe the Gospel, had it not been given

to me by the authority of the Catholic Church.) 

Saint Augustine

(1)

Yesterday, for the third time in two years, I went to the Novus Ordo Mass, here at the local church in Scone, instead going - as I am used to for almost a year now - to the Tridentine Mass in Singleton.  Observing the people coming to Mass here [about 70 or 80 altogether], I could not help but make some comparisons.   

What a striking difference there is between these people and the people [30 or 40 people, average], who go to the Tridentine Mass!  The way they dress; their mannerism and their countenance is so different.  

Here in Scone, the Catholic people attending the Catholic parish church are noisy and garrulous.  Their few children are undisciplined and carefree.  The altar servers are female, except for a boy or two, who join in some Sundays.  The priest is always five or ten minutes late.  His sermons, although following the scriptural reading of the day is, most of the time, sugarcoated verbiage.  The Mass’s duration is about 40, or 45 minutes, at the most. 

On the contrary, the Mass in Singleton is mainly attended by three young families, with three, four and seven children respectively.  In addition, there are some elderly couples, and a few single persons attending there.  They all dress with dignity and holy countenance.  Men wear long trousers – no shorts.  Women wear long dresses and cover their hair, and children are well mannered, disciplined and respectful - within and without the church premise; but most of all to their parents.  Moreover, most of these children are home schooled by their own parents. 

The priest celebrates Mass in Latin and dresses in the traditional liturgical vestments - pre-Vatican II.  Apart from the ringing of the bell during the consecration and before the Holy Communion, during the whole liturgical celebration, there is almost total silence.  The altar servers are all males.  And the duration of Mass is at least one hour - this for a Low Mass; and one hour and a half for Missa Cantata [sung Mass]. 

After Mass, nearly everyone goes for a cup of tea or coffee, [with cakes or whatever food is available] in the hall next to the church.  

What a different world!  It is like living in two different planets.

~~~~

(2) 

I was born a Catholic in Italy.  I was raised in the pre-Vatican era, namely in the traditional way - even though, I was not aware what that meant at the time.  After my conversion in 1966 – from a sinful life back to God – I dedicated my entire life to the Catholic Church and for the establishment of the Kingdom of God. 

In the last ten years or so, however, I realized that the Church, which I believed to be Catholic, wasn’t any longer Catholic.  To simplify: the Church into which I was baptized, no longer existed.   

The Catholic Church today, the new church [or Novus Ordo], as it’s called, has lost her traditional aspect [that is, she has lost the plot].  The new church, since Vatican II, has totally embraced secularism, with its liberal and modernistic characteristics, which are nothing more than de facto, neo-paganism. 

That is the reason why - about two years ago - I started to attend the Tridentine Mass.  This is not because I am in love with Latin – I don’t even understand it much.  It is most of all because attending this Mass I truly feel that I’m receiving real sacraments; whereas I can’t say the same thing when I attend the Novus Ordo Mass. 

Historical Comparison

To make a parallel: what happened to me today happened to Jesus in His own time; though under different circumstances.  

It’s known that Jesus was a ‘Jew’ [read, Israelite].  He was raised under the Mosaic statutes and Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament; namely the traditional way.  However, Jesus did not identify Himself as a member of the Pharisee faction which, among others parties, was the most powerful in those days; because the Pharisees, albeit followers of Mosaic Laws to some extent, their doctrine was mainly based on the Talmud. Now the Talmud is the writing of the elders, which follows a different tradition, and which originates apart from Moses’ Laws. 

Paradoxically, I can say that Jesus was a “Jew” without being one.  Jesus was the son of Mary and Joseph, who, according to the Gospel of Mathew, were of the tribe of Judah.[1]  Now Judah was not a ‘Jew’, but the son of Jacob, who was the son Isaac, who was the son of Abraham, the Hebrew[2].  In short, Jesus was an Israelite [read, descendant of Israel – or Jacob]. 

Therefore, anyone can see that Jesus was not a ‘Jew’ in the sense it is understood nowadays. 

To conclude, I have to say this: today, I find myself in the same way, in the same predicament that Jesus was in His days.  I am a Catholic man, but I don’t identify myself with of most of Catholic people who go to church.  In other words, I am a traditional Catholic, in the sense that I stick to the roots of my Catholic faith that is the Apostolic Tradition, and not to what is fashionable.

Rocky road

Thus, because I’m not following the way of new church, or the current fads of the day, as most Catholic people seem to do, I find it very hard to be a traditional Catholic today.  It is as hard as going over a rocky road, if even not more so.  There are bends on the way, holes, gravel and the never-ending, unpredictable twist and strange encounters.  But I know too that am not alone in this struggle.  Many other good Catholic people went before me over this road.  All the more, was it not because of that that they became saints? 

No matter then, for Jesus said:

`Enter by the narrow gate, since the road that leads to destruction is wide and spacious, and many take it; but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”[3]

 Amen

Contact: nadir@sheddinglight.info

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