“A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, 'You are mad; you are not like us.” ― St. Antony the Great
Today is the Feast of St. Andrew of Crete, the author of the Great Canon which is traditionally prayed during the Great Fast. It's also Independence Day here in the US.
As our pastor said yesterday, you can't be independent from God.
The US needs to be "appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world" (cf. Declaration of Independence) for true mercy and beg forgiveness from Him.
A depressing video. As an educator, in the 70s I was astonished at the amount of heterodoxy among those entrusted with teaching religious studies. If the religion department could have been squeezed like a sponge, all the Modernist toxins, condemned by Pope Pius X, would have come splashing out between one's fingers. It is worse now than ever. In fact, dissent is the norm. Most teachers know nothing else. The gay/straight alliance in the high schools is simply a means to affirm and celebrate the gay lifestyle. The bishops, spineless terrified wimps that they are, of course, do nothing to really defend faith and morals, if such defense will open them up to public ridicule. Bishops are little more than mouthpieces for a safe politically correct generic Catholicism, devoid of any abiding doctrinal framework. These episcopal dishrags bow to Caesar not to Jesus Christ. Now, as for the Winnipeg Statement, it will not be rescinded. Why would the bishops withdraw something with which they strongly agree? My bishop at the time (1968) Bishop Ryan of Hamilton Ontario voted against the statement. Well done good and faithful servant.
Vox, the video won't play. I even tried to watch the video at Youtube and elsewhere with the same result. Is the video is premium (paid) content at CM that they offered for free a few days ago but have just disabled?
Vox, I clicked on the arrow but received the same message: "An error occurred. Please try again later." But I just tried the Youtube video, which worked.
Incredible...at the 1:52 mark, I just heard Christine Niles state that in Quebec, an average of one parish per week closes....Mass attendance in Quebec was 85 percent years ago. Today, Sunday Mass attendance in Quebec is six percent. Six percent?
Six percent? Is that correct?
Vox, that is worse than France, where I last heard that Sunday Mass attendance was in the nine percent range. I thought that Francis had the Church's worst Sunday Mass attendance. But six percent in "Catholic" Quebec?
Mark, I think France is actually worse off. Last I read their Mass attendance is below 5%. When I saw it broken down by age group, it was as low as 2% in some demographics. I believe France does currently have the worst rate of practicing Catholics in the world.
Quebec may be a tiny bit better now, but there is an important thing to realize. France, with its huge traditional community, will eventually start to recover and improve. Give it 10 or 15 years for most of the liberal clerics to retire and be replaced by solid trad-leaning clergy (who will be literally the only priests left in France in the not too distant future). There are already small signs that the practice of the Faith is beginning to revive, at least in some of the urban parishes
However, Quebec is on the opposite trajectory. There is almost zero presence of traditionalism or even just orthodox Catholicism in the province, and even most of the Catholics who do attend Mass would be on the heterodox side, and most are also elderly. Thus, Quebec Catholicism is unlikely to even begin recovering anytime soon, and likely never, with how utterly and radically evil their culture and society is today. It's very sad what has happened to one of the most formerly faithful Catholic places in the world.
Can Vox or anyone chip in any information on the recent bishop appointed to Gaspe? 60 years ago Gaspe was perhaps the most strongly Catholic area in the world. Let us hope he can at least begin the process of reversing the damage modernism has done to the Faith there.
Mark, Vox, I hope this is not too off-topic, but I wonder about all these Catholic statistics we here bandied about, always stated as fact, but no one knows the source or the methodology or validity of the survey. This is a good example, and maybe you can enlighten me?
"6% of Catholics in Quebec attend mass." That is the stat purported as fact. So:
1. Is that number from a Church or secular source? 2. Is it self-reported from a survey? Or is it taken from parish/diocese records such as contributions, attendance, the yearly counts, or? 3. What are "Catholics", so they know it's 6% of them? People "identifying" as Catholics, and to whom? People on the parish registrar or rolls. Or what?
While surveys can identify (sometimes) general trends, they are almost never administered in a statistically valid way or a methodologically valid way, hence the results are far from accurate.
This is not true for more careful surveys such as Pew Research, but you see even there they state a margin of error, sometimes up to 5%, because they cannot get a random sample. 5% is really 10% because it's each way, so the result would be 1-11% not 6%, and that is IF it's valid, which it cannot be if taken by non-experts.
No one can get a random sample except in scientific conditions, which do not exist in social or organizational settings. The church and non-scientific agencies (schools are another terrible one) almost never take surveys properly, they don't know how. So why do we believe this 6% or any vague "statistic"?
Quebec is a disaster for the Faith. The Diocese of Quebec once extended as far as Louisiana. In Canada, Quebec has the lowest birth rate, highest suicide rate and highest abortion rate and was the push behind our recent euthanasia "law." The Quiet Revolution of the 1960's was the beginning of the radical secularist, atheist, anti-Catholic masonic rebellion. Quebecers through off their past and their faith. Six percent is news to me, last I heard, it was nine percent, but it's bad regardless. It is a disaster.
The FSSP exists in Quebec City and Montreal, nowhere else. The communities are small. The SSPX is east of Montreal. Cardinal Ouellet has done a masterful job of sorting through the mess and mostly before Francis, was able to find solid orthodox men as Bishops and Auxiliaries. The Archbishop of Montreal is a deeply faithful man. Seventy percent of his priests (based on my information) want him removed. He leads processions of the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of Montreal. He loves the Sacred Heart. He, and the others, have much work to do.
The disease in Quebec has of course affected the rest of Canada which was mostly Protestant, but clearly Christian.
In contrast, the Archdiocese of Toronto has only closed one parish in the last decades and the people asked for it to happen. It should never have been built - baby boom thing a few blocks from another. Toronto is not so holy, but it is filled with Polish, African and Filipino immigrants which keep it alive and growing.
Americans should not feel smug. You are as bad and if not for Hispanic immigration, dioceses would be collapsed and folded into their Metropolitan.
What America has that we do not is the "extreme" which I mean in the most positive sense. You have many places where the faith is booming, mostly because of the work in Nebraska and the traditional movement which is in less than infancy here.
Our Prime Minsters for the last 50 years, except for ten under Harper, were all Roman Catholic. Each one betrayed the faith.
12 comments:
Vox,
I know this is off topic, but the Remnant just posted this on their website:
http://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/2612-the-mercy-impostor
Today is the Feast of St. Andrew of Crete, the author of the Great Canon which is traditionally prayed during the Great Fast. It's also Independence Day here in the US.
As our pastor said yesterday, you can't be independent from God.
The US needs to be "appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world" (cf. Declaration of Independence) for true mercy and beg forgiveness from Him.
Margaret
Vox
A depressing video. As an educator, in the 70s I was astonished at the amount of heterodoxy among those entrusted with teaching religious studies. If the religion department could have been squeezed like a sponge, all the Modernist toxins, condemned by Pope Pius X, would have come splashing out between one's fingers. It is worse now than ever. In fact, dissent is the norm. Most teachers know nothing else. The gay/straight alliance in the high schools is simply a means to affirm and celebrate the gay lifestyle. The bishops, spineless terrified wimps that they are, of course, do nothing to really defend faith and morals, if such defense will open them up to public ridicule. Bishops are little more than mouthpieces for a safe politically correct generic Catholicism, devoid of any abiding doctrinal framework. These episcopal dishrags bow to Caesar not to Jesus Christ. Now, as for the Winnipeg Statement, it will not be rescinded. Why would the bishops withdraw something with which they strongly agree? My bishop at the time (1968) Bishop Ryan of Hamilton Ontario voted against the statement. Well done good and faithful servant.
P.S. For those who are unfamiliar with the Great Canon:
https://melkite.org/tag/great-canon
Very sobering.
Vox, the video won't play. I even tried to watch the video at Youtube and elsewhere with the same result. Is the video is premium (paid) content at CM that they offered for free a few days ago but have just disabled?
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Hi Mark,
The video works fine for me. This is the "free" version roundtable. The premium version is the in depth one but mine worked fine.
They are pretty accurate on what happened here, they even got the Quebec issue right with Duplessis and the Quiet Revolution.
Vox, I clicked on the arrow but received the same message: "An error occurred. Please try again later." But I just tried the Youtube video, which worked.
Incredible...at the 1:52 mark, I just heard Christine Niles state that in Quebec, an average of one parish per week closes....Mass attendance in Quebec was 85 percent years ago. Today, Sunday Mass attendance in Quebec is six percent. Six percent?
Six percent? Is that correct?
Vox, that is worse than France, where I last heard that Sunday Mass attendance was in the nine percent range. I thought that Francis had the Church's worst Sunday Mass attendance. But six percent in "Catholic" Quebec?
Now, I will watch the remainder of the video.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Mark, I think France is actually worse off. Last I read their Mass attendance is below 5%. When I saw it broken down by age group, it was as low as 2% in some demographics. I believe France does currently have the worst rate of practicing Catholics in the world.
Quebec may be a tiny bit better now, but there is an important thing to realize. France, with its huge traditional community, will eventually start to recover and improve. Give it 10 or 15 years for most of the liberal clerics to retire and be replaced by solid trad-leaning clergy (who will be literally the only priests left in France in the not too distant future). There are already small signs that the practice of the Faith is beginning to revive, at least in some of the urban parishes
However, Quebec is on the opposite trajectory. There is almost zero presence of traditionalism or even just orthodox Catholicism in the province, and even most of the Catholics who do attend Mass would be on the heterodox side, and most are also elderly. Thus, Quebec Catholicism is unlikely to even begin recovering anytime soon, and likely never, with how utterly and radically evil their culture and society is today. It's very sad what has happened to one of the most formerly faithful Catholic places in the world.
Can Vox or anyone chip in any information on the recent bishop appointed to Gaspe? 60 years ago Gaspe was perhaps the most strongly Catholic area in the world. Let us hope he can at least begin the process of reversing the damage modernism has done to the Faith there.
Mark, Vox, I hope this is not too off-topic, but I wonder about all these Catholic statistics we here bandied about, always stated as fact, but no one knows the source or the methodology or validity of the survey. This is a good example, and maybe you can enlighten me?
"6% of Catholics in Quebec attend mass." That is the stat purported as fact. So:
1. Is that number from a Church or secular source?
2. Is it self-reported from a survey? Or is it taken from parish/diocese records such as contributions, attendance, the yearly counts, or?
3. What are "Catholics", so they know it's 6% of them? People "identifying" as Catholics, and to whom? People on the parish registrar or rolls. Or what?
While surveys can identify (sometimes) general trends, they are almost never administered in a statistically valid way or a methodologically valid way, hence the results are far from accurate.
This is not true for more careful surveys such as Pew Research, but you see even there they state a margin of error, sometimes up to 5%, because they cannot get a random sample. 5% is really 10% because it's each way, so the result would be 1-11% not 6%, and that is IF it's valid, which it cannot be if taken by non-experts.
No one can get a random sample except in scientific conditions, which do not exist in social or organizational settings. The church and non-scientific agencies (schools are another terrible one) almost never take surveys properly, they don't know how. So why do we believe this 6% or any vague "statistic"?
They just skimmed the surface.
Vox a previous comment did not go through today?
I think everything is fine now, some did not seem to release through my BlackBerry.
I am not sure what sources they used.
Quebec is a disaster for the Faith. The Diocese of Quebec once extended as far as Louisiana. In Canada, Quebec has the lowest birth rate, highest suicide rate and highest abortion rate and was the push behind our recent euthanasia "law." The Quiet Revolution of the 1960's was the beginning of the radical secularist, atheist, anti-Catholic masonic rebellion. Quebecers through off their past and their faith. Six percent is news to me, last I heard, it was nine percent, but it's bad regardless. It is a disaster.
The FSSP exists in Quebec City and Montreal, nowhere else. The communities are small. The SSPX is east of Montreal. Cardinal Ouellet has done a masterful job of sorting through the mess and mostly before Francis, was able to find solid orthodox men as Bishops and Auxiliaries. The Archbishop of Montreal is a deeply faithful man. Seventy percent of his priests (based on my information) want him removed. He leads processions of the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of Montreal. He loves the Sacred Heart. He, and the others, have much work to do.
The disease in Quebec has of course affected the rest of Canada which was mostly Protestant, but clearly Christian.
In contrast, the Archdiocese of Toronto has only closed one parish in the last decades and the people asked for it to happen. It should never have been built - baby boom thing a few blocks from another. Toronto is not so holy, but it is filled with Polish, African and Filipino immigrants which keep it alive and growing.
Americans should not feel smug. You are as bad and if not for Hispanic immigration, dioceses would be collapsed and folded into their Metropolitan.
What America has that we do not is the "extreme" which I mean in the most positive sense. You have many places where the faith is booming, mostly because of the work in Nebraska and the traditional movement which is in less than infancy here.
Our Prime Minsters for the last 50 years, except for ten under Harper, were all Roman Catholic. Each one betrayed the faith.
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