Rather than take the time, which I do not have, to give her screed and adequate response, I have instead decided to give you the response by the most qualified and erudite, Dr. Joseph Shaw.
As an adjunct to the above, there is always Eccles.
However, let me state this. Fletcher, Ivereigh, Faggioli and the rest of this ilk are living in fear. They know that not only faithful Latin Mass attending Catholics, but those Catholics in the "Novus Ordo" world have woken up to the horror that is Bergoglio. Fletcher and her ilk know that the mainstream church is in collapse. There goal of a church to their own ends is collapsing. They and their rotten Bergoglio have overreached. It is delightful to watch. They fear what is coming. At the Latin Mass community where I chant and lead the choir each Sunday, we have doubled in size in three years. What parish has seen that happen? Last Sunday was rather difficult to chant, it was like a nursery school. (Parents, bring your little ones, but please, show respect to everyone else and attend the vestibule when they are disturbed.) But, this is one of those things that we put up with. Zita Ballinger Fletcher is a liar, an manipulator and a pompous trollop. She has an agenda. She has already lost.
However, let me state this. Fletcher, Ivereigh, Faggioli and the rest of this ilk are living in fear. They know that not only faithful Latin Mass attending Catholics, but those Catholics in the "Novus Ordo" world have woken up to the horror that is Bergoglio. Fletcher and her ilk know that the mainstream church is in collapse. There goal of a church to their own ends is collapsing. They and their rotten Bergoglio have overreached. It is delightful to watch. They fear what is coming. At the Latin Mass community where I chant and lead the choir each Sunday, we have doubled in size in three years. What parish has seen that happen? Last Sunday was rather difficult to chant, it was like a nursery school. (Parents, bring your little ones, but please, show respect to everyone else and attend the vestibule when they are disturbed.) But, this is one of those things that we put up with. Zita Ballinger Fletcher is a liar, an manipulator and a pompous trollop. She has an agenda. She has already lost.
* * *
Zita Ballinger Fletcher portends
to be a journalist and the author of more than 10 fiction and nonfiction books
including a fictional account of the Holy Mass in Latin and according to the Roman
Missal of 1962. She writes on military history, genealogy and international
affairs and has written articles for many publications including World War II
History magazine, America's 1st Freedom magazine and the Gloucestershire Family
History Society Journal (U.K.). She is fluent in German and has reported
extensively on Germany's Catholic Church for Catholic News Service. Heretofore
unknown, this ginger pagan and probable homosexualist and Wiccan sympathizer and Marxist has written
for the National “Catholic” Reporter, a hit piece on the growing traditional
Catholic Latin Mass movement.
In a previous era, the Latin
Mass was merely a uniform and standard way of celebrating the liturgy in the
United States. In the wake of much needed
reforms instituted by the Second Vatican Council, the Latin Mass has become a
rallying point for change-resistant sects within the church. The
ultra-conservatism practiced by these Latin Mass groups is radical and
narrow-minded. They utilize the Latin Mass structure to wield control over
believers — particularly women, who are reduced to a state of discriminatory
subjugation in Latin rites. The stubbornly resistant, anti-modern practices of
these Latin Mass adherents border on cultism.
The Latin Mass fosters
clericalist structures in the church. The liturgy — spoken in an ancient
language no longer in modern vernacular usage — places all power in the hands
of the priest. The priest keeps his back turned to the people for most of the
ceremony. Aside from making occasional responses, the congregation plays no
active part in worship. All people inside the church are expected to kneel on
cue at various points. The priest is at the center of the spectacle. He is
separated from the people he is supposed to serve by an altar rail — a barrier
that gives him privileges. To receive the Eucharist, people must kneel at his
feet.
Meanwhile, the Latin tradition
oppresses women. Women are expected — indeed, in some cases commanded — to wear
skirts instead of trousers, cover themselves with long clothing and wear veils
over their heads. No such rules exist for the men. It is discrimination, and
therefore the Latin Mass actively endorses sexism. Instead of a unifying form
of worship, the Latin Mass has become an instrument of oppression and a
gathering point for Catholic fundamentalists.
In most cases, it is useless to
politely disagree with people in the Latin Mass sect. Their attitude creates
blindness — not only to true faith, but to their own behavior. They treat
others with pride and animosity, but their conscience fails to kick in because
they are convinced their way is holy and other ways are not.
Anyone who may accuse me of not
knowing what I'm talking about — a favorite indictment of the Latin Mass
ideologues — would be wrong. My opinion is based on facts and personal
experiences.
I grew up in a household of
challenged but growing faith, which grew stronger over time. My parents were
divorced. My mother was a fallen-away Catholic who hadn't been to church in
over 30 years. In the branches of my family tree were relatives who might best
be described as atheists, and others of a more traditional Christian type. My
mother decided to return to the Catholic Church when I was young. From an early
age, I believed in Christ and considered myself a Catholic — other relatives
tried in vain to convert me to atheism while I was still in elementary school.
Maybe this sounds like the
beginning of a happy story of faith and discovery. It was not. My family's
journey into the Catholic Church was a long, tumultuous and unpleasant road
punctuated by a series of awful mistreatments by Catholic clergy, religious,
schools and parishioners. (It's a miracle that I'm still Catholic and became a
Catholic journalist.)
The Latin Mass rears its veiled
head in this unholy history at several points. The last Masses my mother
remembered attending took place before the Second Vatican Council, so naturally
she started going to Latin Masses when she returned to the church because they
were familiar. The church was going to welcome us, she thought. The treatment
we got was slightly shy of the Spanish Inquisition.
Needless to say, anything in
the church looking remotely female was completely veiled. The people had the
humor of a gallows crowd and the pastor, arrayed in lavish vestments, was more
like a Renaissance baron. After over an hour spent every Sunday drowning in
incense smoke and getting sneered at, we did not feel any closer to God.
Rules, also, were a strange
issue. For example, the color red was forbidden to be worn in the church. A
confessor there hit one of my family members with a "permanent daily
penance"— a rosary every day, forever, to atone for an alleged life of
iniquity. After some while of this torture, my mother spoke with a different
priest about the unbearable situation. He advised her that genuine Catholic
faith did not forbid wearing certain colors or allow priests to inflict a
"lifetime penance" for sins. Immediately we stopped going to Mass at
that parish.
But it wasn't the last time I
would run into Latin Masses — or the Latin Mass sectarians, present today in
many Catholic organizations.
After almost leaving the church
as a teenager, I chose to stay Catholic by practicing my faith as a free agent
— belonging to no parish, attending different churches for Sunday Mass. On one
instance, a priest noticed I was showing up semi-regularly and approached me
with a persuasive speech to convert me to the Latin Mass faction — disguising
discrimination as encouragement. "You should come to the Latin Mass
instead and wear a veil. Women look the most beautiful in church when they are
veiled," he tried to persuade. "The long veils are the best kind —
the really long ones, past the shoulders. I recommend that for you — you have
such pretty red hair, but it would even look nicer if you wore a veil over it.
I think the long kind would be best for you."
Most disturbing about this
conversation was his effort to make repression sound positive. Of course it
made no sense that my hair would somehow look better if people couldn't see it.
Indignant, I asked him to explain why he thought I should consider covering my
head.
"Because it's
respectful," he replied solemnly.
When asked why it was
disrespectful to show the hair that God gave me — and why men in church did not
have to cover their hair — he was not able to answer. He reacted badly because
I challenged his authority. Anyway, I had no intention of listening. I knew I
was free to take my belief in God elsewhere. I never returned to that church
afterwards.
The priest's attitude towards
veiling women is typical of Latin Mass cultists. They seem to believe that
women look better in church when people can't see them. They try to sell the
veil to girls as a symbol of feminine piety. They hold that covering up and
hiding yourself is beautiful although such a practice is the very opposite of
natural beauty.
Ultimately, it doesn't matter
how pretty, lacy or colorful the veils may seem to potential wearers — the
veils are meant to conceal female beauty and prevent people from noticing
women. By promoting the veil, Latin Mass fundamentalists rob women of freedom,
while trying to make it seem like a liberating choice. Their attitude is not
much different from religious extremists in the Middle East and Asia.
Given such practices, it should
come as no surprise that a contingent of men active within the sectarian Latin
Mass environment have sexist worldviews. These types believe they are superior
to women simply because they are male.
I cite two examples to support
my view. One occasion that remains burned into my memory was when I attended
Mass at a Catholic university. It was a busy Sunday and my schedule demanded I
attend Mass at a particular time. I did not know it was a Latin Mass until I stumbled
over the doorstep. The atmosphere was typically medieval. I was surprised to
recognize some people there. One of them was a professor who was known to be a
chauvinistic person. When I saw his wife, I was shocked — and suddenly realized
the ugly extent of his prejudices. His wife was a mere ghost of a woman. She
was covered from head to foot. Her dress was so long that it dragged on the
floor. Even her entire neck and her hands were covered. She kept her head bowed
and always walked behind her husband. She carried a rosary and looked
physically weak — almost ill.
The professor, by contrast,
looked swaggering and hearty. He strutted around and chatted with others in
church as she followed him like a pale shadow. Seeing this, I believed I had
witnessed a very dark side to the professor's spirituality. His religion was a
mechanism of abusive control.
My second example concerns a
younger Catholic age group — many of whom are apparently falling victim to the
ultra-traditional Latin Mass ideology promoted in Catholic activity groups and
on college campuses. A female acquaintance of mine, about my age, decided to
brave the Catholic dating scene — a recipe for disaster, in my personal
opinion. Among the stories I heard from her were of traditional Catholic males
shopping for wives, asking her and other girls, "Are you willing to be
veiled?" before agreeing to date them. These men did not want to associate
with women whom they couldn't religiously dominate.
Men she met in this traditional
Catholic peer group would interview girls about theology before deciding to
spend time with them — they were arrogant and believed they were somehow
morally superior to the women. Instead of standing up for her own dignity, she
decided to cave into the pressure — go to traditional services and start
wearing veils. I still don't understand why she wanted to associate with that
group, or why she decided to give in to oppression.
It is very unfortunate that
younger generations of Catholics seeking to deepen their faith are getting
sucked into this vortex of toxic, traditional radicalism. I saw many young
families at a Latin Mass recently when I was invited to attend a speaking
engagement at a traditional church. I happened to arrive before Mass was quite
over — having nowhere else to go before the event, and wishing to receive
Communion, I decided to sit in on the Mass. Unsurprisingly I found myself
surrounded by veiled women who entertained themselves in between kneeling bouts
by casting disapproving glances at my leggings and earrings.
Looking around, I was
astonished to see many college-aged men and women among the crowd. The priests
seemed to be in their 30s. Clearly these people were too young to remember
times before Vatican II. Yet something had drawn them here. Parental influence?
Doubtful. It seemed to be a shared spirit of ultra-conservatism. I found it
frightening to reflect on how the closed, Latin Mass mindset had managed to
replicate itself over time and spread like a virus.
Unsurprisingly, while there I
had another memorably bad experience. I asked to receive Communion in the
hands. Most traditional-type priests I'd encountered in my lifetime would give
me the Eucharist in the hands. Not this pastor. He literally made a scene at
the altar and jerked the Eucharist away from me when I reached out to receive
it — as if my hands would contaminate the very Jesus who, according to the
Catholic faith, seeks Communion with my soul. I seriously considered walking
out of the church at that point, but decided to receive the Eucharist instead
since I wanted to pray. After Mass I gave the priests a piece of my mind.
Clericalism defined the
response I received. When I informed an assisting priest that the pastor had
been very rude to me at the altar and asked that my views be relayed, he
replied: "I won't throw our pastor under the bus. He's the pastor. I
refuse to tell him to correct his behavior," the priest said.
I reminded him that, as a
priest, he was supposed to be of service and value my feedback as a believer.
The priest took a step back and looked at me in astonishment, as if the notion
of service had never occurred to him. "Very well. I'll tell the pastor
what you said," he said condescendingly. "But I don't think he did
anything wrong."
His attitude was a trademark
example of the culture within the Catholic Church that encourages abuse. His
first reaction was to default to absolute loyalty to his pastor, then dismiss
my views. When pressed further, he flat-out denied all wrongdoing. To
clericalists, complainers are always the problem — not those who belong to the
herd, and certainly not clergy.
With feudalistic rigidity, the
priest argued in defense of his pastor against the traditions of the
"novus ordo"—a derogatory term used by Latin Mass cultists to denote
regular English-language Masses. He said the Masses I regularly attended were
invented "only 40 years ago" — as if that devalued them somehow —and
insisted they were only "allowed to exist, but not standardly
recommended." He claimed the church only allowed Communion in the hands
"in extreme cases." Of course, I know this is not true. He capped his
radical fundamentalist arguments by saying the Latin Mass is a solemn rite
equal to Byzantine and Coptic rites and that rules cannot be changed for
anyone. He accused me of being "rude" by expecting them "to
change their rites."
I feel it necessary to point
out — lest readers be confused by his illogicality — that the Byzantine and
Coptic rites originate in the traditions of distinct Catholic churches in
foreign countries. The Latin Mass, by contrast, is merely an extinct model of
tradition practiced in the United States and other countries, and was never a
separate church nor imported from a foreign country. Therefore the Latin Mass
can be compared to Coptic and Byzantine churches as much as apples can be
compared to oranges. No ancient Romans or native Latin speakers will be disenfranchised
by changes made to the Latin Mass — just hardliners unable to let go of their
particular ideology.
What I gained from this
experience was a deeper recognition of how the Latin Mass foments the
clericalist culture within the Catholic Church that Pope Francis is actively
working to change.
In his homily earlier last
month, Pope Francis warned Catholics against hypocrisy. He described hypocrisy
as "appearing one way, but acting in another," and said that a
hypocritical attitude "always kills."
Jesus did not tolerate
hypocrisy, according to Pope Francis, but enjoyed unmasking it. "A
Christian who does not know how to accuse himself is not a good
Christian," the pope said.
The intolerant atmosphere of
the Latin Mass stands in stark contrast to Pope Francis's description of what
the Catholic Church is supposed to be. "The church is not a fortress, but
a tent capable of expanding and offering access to everyone," said Pope
Francis. "The church is 'going out' or it is not church, either it is
walking, always widening its room so that all may enter or else it is not
church."
Compassion defines true
Catholicism. Radical traditionalists who cling to the pomp, ceremony and
narrow-minded rituals of outdated Latin practices would do well to follow the
advice of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 9: "Go and learn the
meaning of the words, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'"
