FROM THE POST OFFICE
Reader Praises Priest Who Says the TLM
As usual I read your newsletter cover to cover as soon as it arrived….When [our former parochial vicar] celebrated his 10th anniversary as a priest, he said a traditional Latin Mass (TLM) and even had older vestments for himself and a priest friend who concelebrated…. Father is only 42 which means that he never experienced the TLM as a child…Yet he loves it and will celebrate it for me when I give him a stipend for a Mass for the deceased. Please add him to your subscription list.
Ed’s note: Gladly! In many cases it is the younger generation who are embracing Gregorian Chant and the Latin Mass. It offers much hope for renewal of the liturgy.
Richmond Diocese: No Fix in our Lifetime!
Thank you for the article on the Richmond diocese [When a Priest Massacres the Liturgy]. I have been tracking the problem [of clerical homosexuality] for about 32 years mostly under Walter Sullivan and Francis DiLorenzo while he served in Hawaii. Many homo priests were transferred to the Diocese of Richmond from other dioceses under Sullivan. I was hoping he would retire when a replacement came in until I discovered it would be DiLorenzo who had a horrible record in Hawaii when he relieved another bishop with a horrible record. Under Dilorenzo it remained a cesspool up until he was transferred to Richmond. Sullivan was kept on as his assistant.
I worked for a Senator from Hawaii for 32 years and was very involved fighting the homosexual movement in the U.S. and have about 2 feet of letters to prove it. I have been getting the Diocese of Richmond’s newspaper for years and find that DiLorenzo makes a trip up to his home in Pennsylvania about once a month where a Cardinal presides and I suspect he hopes to replace the Cardinal there. He surely is not the leader we need to head any diocese. Correcting all the scandalous conditions in Richmond, I am convinced, will not happen sufficiently in our life time. Thanks again for your wonderful work.
F.K. via e-mail
The Reader’s Dilemma: To Laugh or Cry
Two subjects: 1) Your sad recounting of liturgical abuse is familiar enough. In Vermont I have seen the same things occur: glass chalice, Protestant version of the Pater Noster, priest sans chasuble. When the laity speak up sometimes there is a positive response, usually not. When I wrote to the bishop of Burlington some years ago (i.e., Bishop Angel - I am not making up his name!), I was condescendingly told to expect change. When I told a priest after Mass, who had been adlibbing his own changes to avoid masculine pronouns, that I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, e.g., at having Christ speak ungrammatically), he invited me to go elsewhere for Mass. 2) The diocesan paper seems to be in a downward spiral - into trivia and worse. You mentioned the ad for a lecture by dissenter, Sr. Sandra Schneiders. The folding of WTU (Washington Theological Union) is, of course, good news for orthodox Christians but, lo, there's an ad for a WTU program by Fr. Coriden. (I've met Fr. Coriden, a canon lawyer, who seems to have a problem wearing a Roman collar!). Even more peculiarly, the current issue (Aug. 10) also has an article on p. 2 for Father Tobin's CCDI and a quarter page ad for the same programs on p. 19. What's the story here? A few years back, didn't Father DeLadurantaye advise pastors, in the name of the bishop, that Father Tobin's programs were NOT to be supported?Then there is the quite incomplete story of the soi-disant "Cultural Center" (white elephant might also be appropriate) but no mention is made of the fact that this project was the idea of Archbishop Maida who then foisted the cost onto his own diocese. The numbers are staggering. Now his successor, Abp. Vigneron is trying to recoup a part of the disastrous loss and the Knights of Columbus are, for some reason, riding to his rescue. There follow in this issue articles on Miss Teen and on identity theft and some CNS stuff. Not too inspiring when the call is for the Catholic media to be evangelizing.
Ora for the Church, unled in the US.
Charles Molineaux via e-mail