Link to article about church in Madison, WI - assigned three orthodox priests and giving is down - may have to close school.

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/article_1b804b84-e86b-11df-9abf-001cc4c03286.html

"Fay Stone, a 25-year St. Mary's member, said the priests' decision-making approach seems heavy handed to her. While the Catholic church is not a democracy, some degree of collaboration with parishioners would be nice, she said.

"I know they probably have church law on their side, but just because you have the right to do something doesn't make it the right thing to do," she said.
People are leaving and taking their money with them, she said."

For sure! Great answer Paul-named-for-a-favorite-instrument.

Years ago I studied piano in NYC with Viola Lang.

Thanks - I am changing the title.

This is amazing. I'll pray for those brave priests and the wonderful Bishop Morlino who stood up for them who were persecuted by the ingnorant. His letter is very enlightening. I hope people who read the letter open their hearts and listen to the truths spoken to them.

In too many diocese, a letter would have been sent to the priests, who would be told exactly the opposite.

There are diocese in which priests are only able to say Mass Ad Orientem in secret.

Daniel,

My cup runneth over. Would that more of us in this diocese come to realize the gem of a bishop that we have. Regularly portrayed negatively by the local press, he is actually one of the gentlest, humblest, and genuinely joyful prelates I have had the opportunity to meet. Of course he has faults — he is the first to admit them — but he genuinely makes the effort to be faithful.

It's a shame that the itchy ears in our congregations would give the local media a pass and basically leave Bp. Morlino alone to face the wolves; in this way the Diocese of Madison is no different from most others. There is a small but growing number of laypeople who "get it" and rally to his defense however, speaking the truth in charity (which is a hard thing to do, and a task at which I've often failed in person, on my own blog, and my FB wall).

I worked briefly with one of the society's priests at a former parish assignment of his, and was at a daylong retreat led by another society priest, and based on my experience, these guys are gems. Extremely pastoral, level-headed, charitable, and thoroughly orthodox. This doesn't mean they are perfect — who is? — but they at least strive for holiness.

My pastor's homily tied today's first reading with the situation in Platteville. The question posed was: How did we get from these seven brothers — who would rather die than eat pork — to today, where the word "orthodox" is hurled around as an epithet?

How indeed?…

FNJ,
That's what I told my parents just after Vat. II. They more than we had just had the carpet pulled from under them with all these changes. They said that they had fought all their fights just getting the three of us through school, and didn't have any fight left in them. But the deeper problem is that most GOOD Catholics simply do what they're told. If the priests says, from the pulpit, "This is your last Latin Mass. We'll have something in the pews for you in English next week." that is taken as pure Gospel! It has always been the dissenters who have built up the power underground, and then are not afraid to speak out to get their way. The times are changing, though. More and more conservative Catholics ARE speaking up, and many putting money where their mouth is.

People don't want to hear truths will feel unconfortible with those who speak truths and criticise them as 'uncharitible'. No one is perfect, that doesn't mean we stop speaking and listening to truths. Those who criticise them as 'uncharitible' are the ones who actually judge others personally, and not seeing the stick in their eyes, not the ones who speack objective truths. We live in such a confusing world. People who speak only half truth, not the whole truth and often times go back and forth, are good enough as long as they speak with elelgant and frienldy manner.

This following is a good article that's related to this.

http://blog.adw.org/2010/10/holiness-is-more-than-being-nice/

"Too many Christians have substituted niceness for holiness"

It is obvious that she does not believe she is receiving the actual Body of Christ. How sad. Her predecessors were so devout!

So we should not be surprised when we hear the official hymn of WYD in spain?

http://www.madrid11.com/en

She was up on a platform with her husband, because it's an ancient privilege of the Spanish monarchs to have Communion brought to their seating area.

We ran over this yesterday at Father Z's. Those who saw the complete footage basically seem to think that she got confused and awkwardly did the wrong thing, especially since the cameras were rolling hard but Spanish media never film the royal family receiving Communion on grounds that it's an intimate moment. She knelt before the Pope to receive his blessing later, so it's not like she has anything against kneeling. And nobody in the royal family wore their mantillas, because the protocol for this visit was that all of them wear modern business dress. They wear mantillas with gowns and such. Nobody non-Spanish seems to know why it was modern-dress-only, but it probably was some political statement by the Spanish government that they had to go along with. That alone may have made the poor queen feel awkward.

She became the focus of all eyes because the king didn't receive Communion. Apparently he's notoriously the type to decide in the middle of Mass that he's not in a state of grace or a suitable frame of mind, and he even refrained from receiving at his father's funeral until he could hurriedly go to Confession right afterward. Which is meritorious, obviously, but also a bit hard on the queen's focus.

I wish we'd reserve anger for people who are actively trying to torque off the Holy Father, instead of attacking little old ladies who might not be perfectly perfect.

Americans do have to make that choice of deferring to local custom or retaining our insistence of not recognizing aristocracy through ritual groveling. If the queen was truly confused, I offer my apology, but it does stretch believability a bit. I have a fondness for Spain, but not for the Bourbons.