Sunday, September 9, 2007

Hard to get excited.

So this is the beginning of the big week. I'm reading all over the Internet how diocese all over the country are having a special Mass to celebrate Summorum Pontificum and all the celebrations as well. You want to know what is on the itinerary for our area? Let's see, it will be getting a bit cooler so the grass may finally grow with the coming rains. Yep, while many of you will be basking in the return of the sacred, we here in Cincinnati and Covington will be watching the grass grow, literally. Neat, huh? The hierarchy in our Church starts with the Holy Father. Yes, even for the bishops here in the US. I, for one, think it is such a joyous occasion to be able to watch the grass grow in Cincinnati.

While one bishop puts out loopholes galore on one side of the river and the other makes a generic statement early on and then says nothing in our diocesan newspaper further since then(other than the magic 100 # and some other nonsensical norms that I'm not sure where they came from exactly), yeah it seems to be catching here. If there is going to be fidelity to the Holy Father, I hope we start seeing signs soon. Right now it's looking dismal. I will still read the stories about the celebrations, the processions, the Masses that take place this week with joy. Because, thankfully, the Catholic Church does not begin and end in the Ohio Valley region. I have prayed so much in the past year that we could call a parish home and it looks like that home may not be here. I'm tired of fighting. Tired of politics that don't belong in the Church. I'm done. I don't want to be a downer for those excited about what is to come in their area or parish.

12 comments:

Laura The Crazy Mama said...

Eh, don't feel too bad. In our parish (fairly traditional with the usual goofiness thrown in for good measure) this weekend, to celebrate the heritage of the area (German) yesterday (the first part of the parish festival, today is the main part) we had a "polka Mass" in the historic church.

Oh my.

a thorn in the pew said...

POLKA!? German is lovely but eesh... Do you photos of this...er...event?

The Bass player said...

maybe you've talked about this before, i'm new to this, but is there not much "community" at the cathedral (covington)surrounding the Tridentine offered there? Which priests offer that Mass? What about Fr. Devous? Will he be offfering the Tridentine at his parish? This is so hard...I'm dealing with bad liturgy at my home parish and it's very draining spiritually.

a thorn in the pew said...

Most of the people who pray the Tridentine Mass in Covington are "roamin's". Not all a part of that parish and there are new people coming every week. I'm not looking to fellowship(haha...I know, so Protestant). I would like a home parish where my son can serve and we can receive the sacraments. I haven't heard anymore on Fr. DeVous and St. Bernard. Just like All Saints, it just kind of went away. I will keep praying. I will also keep trying to find a way to move somewhere warmer without so much mediocrity in a diocese.

Cathy said...

I wish you could stand the cold.
:(

Anyhow, I think it will just take a bit longer to be accepted in some dioceses, but ultimately, they can either play nicely or I think they will hear from Rome.
At least, I hope so.
I wish you were going to be here. We would rock the house.

Mrs. L said...

After reading what you are going through with your parish, I feel so very, very lucky to have my Latin Mass Community (under the Institute of Christ the King) only 15 minutes from my home. I know this form of the Mass is a completely new thing for most priests, and I'm sure they are intimated a bit by it. It's just a shame that so many priests just don't want to make an effort to at least learn how to say a Mass?! Well, one thing that might make us all feel better is knowing that from here on out all seminarians (at least in the US) will learn BOTH rites. Maybe the Institute will come to your area someday and establish a parish! I wonder how big the Latin community is there?

a thorn in the pew said...

I've been trying to make my parish work for a year and a half and I just don't have the energy anymore. If we didn't have such a liberal priest sent to us(that one is gone now), I may have never been drawn to such traditionalism. So, I suppose I should thank him for making me a traditionalist. In the same time, my brother left the faith(he went to the same parish) and many just stopped going to Mass because, as they have told me, they got tired of "hearing about money and having a hand out all the time". The parish is VERY money driven.

Since we have an indult Mass here in Covington, there is a Latin community, it's not huge and at this rate, may never be. Every week, since the release of Summorum Pontificum we have new people coming. It is very cool. It is equally as nice to see them come back again :) I know all this will take time. I am happy to see the Church, as a whole, moving in a direction that is wonderful. I'm going to try harder not to crab as much(no promises, I said I'd try) In the meantime, I will watch and be patient.

The Bass player said...

it's just weird to me, cause when Foys came one of the first things he did was start having a Tridentine Mass at the Cathedral, which to me was amazing, we certainly don't have this Mass at St. Peter in Chains, so him not allowing the SP to applied as the Holy Father intended is so strange. scratching my nogging on this...Isn't Fr. Fitzgerald attached to your diocese in some way?

a thorn in the pew said...

I have "heard" that was because many traditionals and SSPX from NKY were going over the river and it was a loss of revenue. I really hope that is not the case. It's not that it isn't being allowed, it is just that some silly roadblocks are coming about. We do have some wonderful priests in our diocese. Fr. DeVous and Fr. Fitzgerald included. They are spread thin and that is one reason why this is a problem. We may join the Cathedral. With a baby on the way and my youngest a year from first communion, we need a parish. We love the priests at the Cathedral too.

The Bass player said...

i sympathize, when we first moved to cincy, it took a long time to find a parish, even so it's VERY far from perfect...but there are times in our lives when we need a "home"

Alexander said...

I wonder if we can get the collective voices of the faithful from the Dayton to Covington area to complain to Rome if things stay the way they do..

Cathy said...

Thorn,
I think you've said before, but how come the Latin Mass parish can't be your parish?