What did I ever do to deserve a day like today? It was almost perfect. First I drove into Manhattan to attend the traditional latin mass at St. Agnes, which I found right away. I was even able to get a parking spot on the street right outside the Church! If this was not a Sunday I would have notified the Vatican because it would have been a true miracle. I was early, so I waited outside since the 10:00 Mass was still going on, and the weather was good. According to the inscription on the front of the Church, St. Agnes has completely burned down twice and been completely rebuilt twice, the last time in 1998. The facade was rebuilt thanks to Bob and Dolores Hope. Inside, the Church is bright and very new looking. There are some beautiful paintings and a large tabernacle right in the center behind the altar where it belongs. The High Mass was beautifully sung by the priest and the choir. I do not know most of the rubrics of the High Mass and it was slightly confusing. The congregation is encouraged to sing, in alternation with the choir, and a sheet with the musical notations was available at the door. This was nice, the Mass on Long Island does not have as much of this. After Mass, I hopped on the FDR drive and headed over the George Washington Bridge to the Latin Mass Magazine conference. The Managing Editor of the magazine, John Blewett introduces the speakers with very corny, and very funny jokes. The first speaker was Fr. James McLucas, a traditionalist priest from the NY archdiocese. I thought last year he was a bit depressing but that was right in the middle of the so-called scandals, this year his talk was good. He said the situation in the Church today probably has no parallel in history, the closest being the Arian heresy era. He also mentioned how he never heard a serious treatment on the subject of grace in all his years in the seminary, even though he attended one of the most “conservative” at the time. (I think he was ordained around 1979). Fr. McLucas spoke of encouraging the SSPX toward acceptance of the idea of a worldwide Apostolic Administration for traditionalists, which he sees as the best possible arrangement. Next up was Christopher Ferrara, a lawyer who is President and Chief Counsel of the American Catholic Lawyers Association, Inc. He is also the author of The Great Façade with Dr. Thomas Woods, which has caused quite a stir. He was funny and mentioned many examples of what he called a “regime of novelty” in the Church. I believe most of what he said was in his book, and it was quite scary. Last and far from least was Michael S. Rose. He gave a wonderful talk called “Goodbye, Good Men Revisited”. Again, most of what he said I remembered from his book, but it was great to hear a recap of what has happened to some of the people mentioned in the book since it was published. For example, two seminary professors mentioned have since been fired, and Archbishop Weakland, well you know. Sadly, he said that the strongest criticism he has received has been from the more conservative Catholic publications. I think Rose has done an incredible job in all his books of highlighting the errors of the past 30 years. Happily, he will have 2 books coming out, although I forget the topics of them. I got Goodbye, Good Men! and Ugly As Sin signed by him, and best of all, the great Alice Von Hildebrand signed my copy of Soul of A Lion! (Thank you Karen).