Some squirrely, people on Fisheaters.com * engaged in name calling aimed toward Charlotte at Cheeky Pink Girl. That wasn't very gentlemanly and she has a spirited response for them, but this dust up got me to thinking. I know that many people were hurt during the Vat II era. I recall reading about a man who was a teenager at the time, who witnessed his mother being brutally insulted by a fanatical get-with-the-times priest because she was praying the "old fashioned" rosary AFTER Mass. I get why people were left with scars and bitterness.
I know traditional/orthodox (pick your term) minded Catholics have been treated badly even today. Anyone who balked at the zeitgeist-- "Why did you move the Blessed Sacrament down the hall?", " Why is the lector wearing a mini dress and why do we have to see her underwear when she bows?" "Why doesn't Fr. give communion anymore but sits and lets the EMCs do it? "Why do you want to strip my baby naked and plunk his butt in the baptismal font and wave him around like Simba in the Lion King?" "Why is the choir singing music from Phantom of the Opera?"---were told to sit down and shut up.
Some people reacted by taking the blue pill and telling themselves that as long as they stayed away from parish activities, avoided the priest outside of Mass, and stayed away from butch nuns everything would be fine. Other people either took the red pill and decided to fight or they took the red pill and realized that things weren't fine but were too damned tired and chose to fight no more forever. Yeah, there's been pain in the pews but we have sympathetic pope now. I'll repeat that. We have a sympathetic pope. He's holding his hand out; don't be fools and slap it away while you go pout in the basement. What I've said about the Sr. Chisseters, the Pelosis, Fr. Rohr's and O'Briens and the snooty Anglo Caths who say they'd be willing to convert if it wasn't for our ugly churches and lame music, goes for the SSPX as well. You can not be Catholic but with conditons. Lyndon Johnson once said it was better to have enemies inside the big tent pissing out than standing outside pissing in but I'd prefer that the SSPX and others on the left side of the spectrum stop the flow altogehter. Either you're in or you're out. Make up your minds. If you are in, welcome. We'll work things out somehow. If you're out, say so and get the heck on down the road.
I personally am grateful when I find a reverent Mass, whether it's Novus Ordo or TLM. For those who don't like the NO, that's okay. Thanks to Pope Benedict you can go to an approved TLM. Yeah, you may have to drive for hours but the Mass IS available somewhere and the numbers of TLMs are increasing. My own parish St. Rita is now going to have the TLM every Thursday evening at 7:30, plus a Holy Hour on Wednesdays.
The good Lord has handed the the SSPX and the church in general, a great opportunity. Don't listen to Bishop Williamson and blow it. I hope Pope Benedict lives a long, happy life but let's face it. He aint Methuselah. The next pope could say, "To heck with it. They're all excommunicated." Opportunity is knocking at the door. It's time to answer it or go the way of the Old Catholics a sect unknown to most of the Catholic world.
*I read Fisheaters and occasionally comment. There are good, sensible people posting and commenting at that site but there is a nutter element as well. I've read comments that made me raise my eyebrow and wonder as to whether the commenter has ever left his parents home, spoken to a woman without breaking into a nervous sweat or held a job that wasn't at a Catholic organizaion where a sympathetic friend or relative pulled strings to get him in.