The talk around St. Blog's has been on Liturgical abuses, sparked by this post on Church of The Masses. Amy Welborn has shut down the comments at her blog to cool people off because she does not like the tone of the comments. People are wondering why people are so angry and bitter and the best explanation has been at Off the Record. When people speak of Liturgical abuse, it really does mean abuse. And, just as the anger and bitterness of some people was brought out by the sexual abuse stories in the Church, the Liturgical abuse stories raise bitterness and anger as well. For Catholics, it is simply too difficult today to find a parish where the Mass is offered in a way that is conducive to good prayer, and where the atmosphere of the parish is truly Catholic. This explains why so many are turning to traditional latin Masses, whether indult or in unapproved chapels. This is a very serious and important issue and the anger and bitterness should not be met with attitudes of "get a life" or "why so angry?" or "is it really so bad after all?". I honestly don't think there is a more serious issue in the Church today than the lack of properly celebrated, reverent, traditional , and inspirational Masses.

The Passion of The Christ (again)


On Tuesday night I attended a night of recollection that included a lecture on the biblical themes in the movie. It was given by Fr. Edward Seagriff, a great speaker and real hero in this diocese. The crowd of 80 was maximum capacity and the talk was excellent. Fr. Seagriff was funny and inspiring enough to remind me of Fr. Benedict Groeschel. The people there were regular Church goers who usually attend lectures such as these and I think they were impressed by this priest.

Tonight, I went to my parish where there must have been 200 people in the Church meeting room to hear a talk by another priest on the spirituality of The Passion of The Christ. The sliding wall partition had to be opened and another rack of chairs had to be brought out so everyone could be seated. The movie has generated great interest and it is sad to see how some of that interest is wasted. Tonight's talk was done by a priest, dressed in civies, who teaches at a nominally Catholic college. He could barely disguise his disgust at the movie and Mel Gibson's failure to "study the Bible not just read it". Many of the people at the talk were parents who I think are required to attend a couple of talks a year in order for their children to be confirmed, or to attend the school or something. Basically there might have been many semi-Churched people who just might have been reached had the talk been evangelical. The priest's point seemed to be that each Gospel writer had a different point to make and the movie could not show all of them. He made it clear that the Gospels are not to be read to provide historical facts and that it would be a mistake to try to investigate what historians of the time said about the Gospel events. Also, he said that there are many pious legends surrounding Christianity and that Jesus did not get as severe a beating as the movie depicted. I just think that this attitude of cynicism and academic pooh-poohing of "pious legends" is not exactly going to influence people who may or may not go to Church to deepen their faith. This is where the Church loses people.

A man who bashed Mother Angelica, EWTN and the traditional latin Mass now has a website for writing on various things. Do what I did, email him to tell him just how welcome he is on the web.

Old Oligarch's post on The Passion of The Christ - excellent read.

March 22nd was a great day for justice:

Joey Buttafuoco Gets Year in Jail for Insurance Fraud

Hamas Founder Killed in Israeli Strike

Pelosi to face charges in Ammon murder

Reputed mobster admits role in killings

Travel agents indicted for arranging `sex tours'

Four More Suspects Charged in Madrid Blasts

Nichols State Trial Gets Under Way

W.W.J.K: Who Would Jesus Kill?

This is the second time I've linked to Ann Coulter and both times were articles mentioning The Passion of The Christ. Again, too many great quotes, a must read!

"Like Timothy McVeigh, the Columbine killers and the editorial board of The New York Times, Hitler detested Christians."

Interesting point- I have seen McVeigh mentioned as a "Christian" even though he was on public record as an atheist.

"Hitler denounced Christianity as an "invention of the Jew" and vowed that the "organized lie (of Christianity) must be smashed" so that the state would "remain the absolute master." Interestingly, this was the approach of all the great mass murderers of the last century -- all of whom were atheists: Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot."

The column also mentioned that the movie The Sum of All Fears changed the bad guys from muslim terrorists (as they were in the book) to neo-nazis. I liked this movie and remember how everybody I saw it with agreed that the neo-nazi thing made no sense. It was unrealistic.