Trads, it's time to face facts

 I think it's long past time for traditional minded Catholics to face three facts. First, no matter how much you grovel and plead, if you go to a diocesan traditional Latin Mass you are living on borrowed time.

 Second, while you still have that Mass it is an act of utter folly to spend money on restoration projects. Yes, fix the roof if there's danger, and get  the boiler tended to but don't go beyond maintenance. Two times now I've seen good people  take a run down church and lovingly restore it only to have a Cardinal, in one case, and a bishop in the other decide that they aren't allowed to have the TLM anymore. Essentially, these dear folks spent their time and treasure fattening frogs for snakes. 

The third fact, may hurt the most. Your Novus Ordo attending acquaintances and family, be they wild liberals or do nothing conservatives will mock you in your grief at losing the Mass and the community you found at the TLM. They will also tell you to be silent.

Even if you have a benign bishop, and you can go to the TLM daily, he will retire or die one day and the next man up could gut you. Don't despair and don't become bitter. Talk to your spouse and friends about the worst case scenario now. If you were planning on moving across multiple states to be near a particular parish you might want to hold off and watch how the winds are blowing. You should take a road trip and see how far you can reasonably travel to get to Mass. You may have to content yourself to traveling to the TLM once or twice a year and going to the best Novus Ordo you can find for the rest of the time. This is what Rocky and I are doing and no, I'm not satisfied with it but it is the best we can do right now.

 Admittedly this is going to be hard or impossible for people with small children at home  or  for those who can't drive anymore. While none of this is a fun mental exercise, it will keep you from being blindsided when one day your priest announces that the bishop is forbidding the TLM to be celebrated anymore.  Like Our Lord set your face like flint and go forward. 

Random thoughts on a humid Sunday afternoon

• Some very bad storms swept though my area this weekend and we lost power from Friday evening to Sunday morning. When the power did come back Rocky and I both woke up and I sang a verse from "Witchita Lineman". The freezer thermometer read 40 degrees and the fridge thermometer showed it was in  the danger zone. I had throw everything out. Modern life is very fragile. 
  
  
  
•  I am very cautious about Leo XIV. He's not Francis, I mean he's polite, dresses like the pope and I'm sure he won't be smacking women in public but c'mon, you know the pope is more than optics. Time will tell if he's going to be okay. What will he actually teach? Will he get laicize Rupnik? Will he make an effort to get the bishops in Germany to act remotely Catholic?  I don't blame anybody who's wary and I don't take the hosanas from the Trad Inc. folks seriously either. 

• The Vatican is reportedly in bad financial shape. I read one report that claimed donations were down by 50%. Since most of the money comes from American Catholics, this means that even the Catholic who just comes to Mass on Sunday and not much else, even these folks were sick of the Francis show and ignored the usher when the Peter's Pence collection was being taken up. Possibly, Leo XIV, a middle of the road company man technically from America will be just the ticket for getting the coffers filled again.
  
  
  
  
• Speaking of money, after Sunday Mass, a member of the Finance Committee made a speech. She came to the point quickly, thank goodness. Unless offerings increase cuts are going to have to be made. A lot of people did not come back to the parish after Covid. You can insult them by calling them  lazy and weak but they were coming to Mass before and after being told that their spiritual lives would be just fine without Mass, I guess they believed it. Those live streamed Masses just didn't cut it. I remember feeling abandoned when my plea for a written religious exemption from the vaccine was ignored. How do all the people who had to watch their loved ones die with no priest to offer to  Last Rites feel? Every time I hear a member of the clergy or a parish official chide, however gently the people who didn't come back I feel myself becoming furious. 
  
  
  
  
• I try to buy from small Catholic businesses but some business owners don't make it easy. A while ago I bought a veil that, when I received it, did not look like what I ordered. The customer service was so bad it was insulting. I won't buy from that woman ever again. Two weeks ago, I bought a rosary and what I got was a disappointment. Whoever made it strung all the beads closely together with nothing to distinguish the Pater Noster beads from the Ave beads so if you pray in bed with the lights off you can't tell where the decade ends unless you were keeping count. Instead of metal the crucifix is very cheap and plastic. When I answered their survey and said that no, I'm not thrilled with their product and sent photos, they offered me no refund but did say I'd get 20% off my next purchase. No thanks. I think I would have done better if I'd purchased from a secular company that gets rosaries from China. 

Habemus Papam

 Okay, white smoke just came out of the chimney. I remember sitting at work when Benedict was elected and letting out a cheer. Now I actually feel my stomach clinch. I don't have any great expectations. I just pray, Dear God let this man be actually Catholic. 

................And it's Cardinal Prevost, Leo XIV. If it's true that Fr. James Martin was rooting for him then we are cooked.