The problem with Bermudez's article is that it relies on false facts to make its point.

As a Catholic, I absolutely obey Pope Francis and I also love him dearly. He above most everyone else is not well served by falsifications of his record in Buenos Aires.

It's another case of us traditionalists being our own worst enemy. Sure we should consider What He Did As Bishop, but consider what he actually did, which was to prevent the diocese from diving into a Marxist sewer-hole never to return. He picked his battles in which, as much as I want to see a its restoration as widely as possible, the EF sat in the backlog in favor of making sure the diocese wasn't destroyed altogether. Yes, Liberals have spun a fanciful tale of "The Spirit of Pope Francis". This is thankfully starting to dissipate rapidly unlike the Spirit of Vatican II (more like the undead Nazgûl of Vatican II). Breathe into a paper bag people.

But that is my point exactly. It's as if some people think, because their rector tries to stand in the way of a popular EF, they have somehow suffered more than Karol Wojtyla and Jorge Bergoglio. I sure HOPE that is not what people mean, but it can sure come across that way.

How will it look to dismiss this?

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-surprises-40000-italian-pro-lifers-joins-rome-march-for-life

I don't at all think that HHF's liturgical philsophy or practicum will at all affect, or roll down, to the quality or expression of our rituals locally.
Friday I met our newest vicar from India. He came with our pastor and our retired monsignor to meet folks and concelebrate the culminating Mass of the 8th grade graduation retreat. We sat at lunch briefly and he charmingly asked if I could help with his chanting orations.
On Sunday, his first Mass at the mother parish (contemporary mostly. with SEP's), at the end of "Hail the day..." he takes a pregnant moment of silence, and then a beautiful and lyric (no bravura) tenor starts chanting the "In Nomine." Well knock me over with a feather and call me a slack jaw yokel! It's about formation and seminaries, mentors and musicians who care. I might have to change my evil ways and work at sticking around a little longer to find more young guys like this one!

Judas complained about money spent on worship and said that it would be better used for the poor.

What I have seen is a relaxation in places concerning Gregorian Chant, indeed in places I would never have expected to see relaxation 10 years ago. I think the younger priests in Detroit are much more open to Chant and those priests who are not enchanted with chant fall into several categories: Those who think rightly or wrongly that they cannot sing, those who have been worried they would be required to sing Latin and feel unprepared, those who worry their congregations will complain if Latin is sung and those who see all GC lovers as EF nut jobs who are always complaining and worse, sometimes actively try to impress/embarrass other less Catholic Catholics into being as "Catholic" as they are. Perhaps Pope Francis and his indifference to music is more of a boon than we think. As long as he does not ban GC and polyphony, and I do not think he will, we should be able to progress. He gives some priests breathing room while not discouraging those who would like more GC. I do not think we should choose up sides and bicker over what many consider trivial matters, most Catholics who care about good music at Mass do not care 24/7. Besides the Pope is already being criticized by the left, he is not their darling, (never was) any more.

Not ranting, ok ranting a bit but, when I look around here (Ireland) I see priorities like this: The government is about to introduce the slaughter of innocents, which will add to the 4000 who are yearly taken to England to be killed, and though our Bishops speak out against it they are not making any moves to develop a policy of Eucharistic coherence and refuse communion to the aforementioned politicians... added to the fact that the gov is also planning to impose this new law on catholic hospitals, and it refuses conscience rights to medical and non medical hospital staff. Then there is the widespread use of the pill, and other forms of contraception. Divorce rates are rising. One third of children are born without married parents, and raised without fathers. Baptisms and catholic marriages are declining slowly, but atheism is growing faster than anywhere else in the world (latest survey) and bitter anti catholic venom is everywhere, especially the media. We have great child protection policies in place now, but that has not undone the damage of sex abuse scandals. Our already watered down catholic school education (the eucharist is 'holy bread' according to our bishop-sanctioned catechisms) is under threat from the government who are demanding the immediate handover of numbers of catholic schools to become secular schools. Oh and civilk partnership is about to be bumped up to full gay marriage. School kids are accessing porn, a large portion of the clergy are out publicly in support of women priests, divorce remarriage etc etc ...

but Jesus is risen. In the face of this tsunami, where do we start?? I think we have to start in worship.
So what are the barriers to worship? Mostly people are not converted. once they are converted they need skills to pray well.
If it is your talent to teach people to pray well (ie liturgy with chant) please get on with it. Not everybody has that gift. there are other parts of the vineyard to work in, which are also of vital importance. Yes there is only one vineyard and everything is inter-related, but there are a variety of gifts, in the same Spirit.

The last Pope among his many gifts shared the gifts that draw many to this site. Seems like this current one may major in other areas. Given the dire needs mentioned above I trusting it to the Holy Spirit.

Bonnie, it's so tragic to hear how Catholicism in Ireland, the "isle of saints and scholars" (insula sanctorum et doctorum) has declined.

Hang in there, and I agree with you completely that the restoration of the Faith has to start in the way we worship. Remember that old maxim:

Legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi. (The law of prayer sets up (is) the law of belief.)

In other words, what we profess as Catholics flows from what we experience in the liturgy. The Church believes as she prays.

I do differ from my fellow alarmists in that what I fear is a "trickle-down" effect, rather than the imposition of banality that others seem to fear.

And what does the worry about this Butterfly Effect accomplish? There are no impeachment proceedings to undertake, no judicial recourse even if Francis does turn out to be a liturgical iconoclast (spoiler: he won't).

All we can do is strive for holiness and work our hardest to bring about what we know to be the strongest liturgical direction of the Church. Let the dead bury their dead; let's worry about the things we can actually control.

PoJo: Beat me to it, dagnabit.

1. If PoJo didn't want me calling him PoJo, he should have picked a Jesuit who didn't have the same last initial as he does.

2. If meloCharls didn't want me saying "dagnabit," he should take responsibility for the word and use it more often himself. I'm just trying to make up for the relatively low ratio of dagnabit to non-dagnabit words on this forum.

Don't forget about politics!

Discussing religion and politics with 5000 people on an open forum . . . what could possibly go wrong? (Not that I would mind, of course.) ; )

It's a wheel in a wheel,
way up in the middle of the air!

Adam's right. Is your son named Ezekiel?

Rather than contextualize the Pope, maybe we should read his homilies. They are electric! And they're written primarily to be delivered to Church workers of all stripes.