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22nd Sunday After Pentecost

Laudetur Iesus Christus! Sunday is the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost and the commemoration of the feast of St. Raphael the Archangel. For this week we include Dr. Mike Foley’s commentary on Sunday’s Collect, which continues the theme of preparing for the second judgement, as the Church traditionally focuses toward the end of the liturgical year: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/10/thinking-out-loud-collect-of-twenty.html#.YXTNb98pCHs

Feast of Christ the King and Eucharistic Procession – Next Sunday October 31

Next Sunday October 31, the last Sunday of October, is the feast of Christ the King in the traditional calendar. St. Ann and St. Thomas will both be offering Eucharistic processions after their respective Latin Masses to process the King of Kings through the streets of Charlotte.  For the St. Ann procession, as in prior years, we invite the faithful to bring and process with any images, statues, flags, standards, of saintly or blessed Catholic monarchs or rulers (St. Louis IX, St. Ferdinand, St. Isabel of Portugal, Blessed Karl, etc.). The procession is scheduled to march up to Holy Trinity High School and back.

List of Catholic saintly or blessed royals: https://charlottelatinmass.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/list-of-royal-saints.pdf

This feast was established by Pius XI in his 1925 encyclical Quas Primas, to remind the world that Christ Himself has rights and His teachings and Church need to recognized by all societies and governments – including Charlotte (which sadly ignored it again when it passed a resolution this summer affirming special rights for sexual orientation and “gender identity”). These processions are in a small way offering reparation to Our Lord for such acts that offend Him. To help prepare for this most solemn feast, Sensus Fidelium is running about 50 Christ the King sermons/talks by traditional priests over the years that you can listen to: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnftOVqh-jlavu1oQmdYcqbfqVPUO6jC8 (the Christ the King sermons start around #100 – be sure to scroll down)

TWO WEEKS AWAY: Dr. Peter Kwasniewski Coming to Charlotte – Saturday November 6

The CLMC and St. Thomas Aquinas parish will be hosting Dr. Peter Kwasniewski for a special lecture on Saturday evening November 6 at 7pm in Aquinas Hall (1400 Suther Road, Charlotte).  Dr. Kwasniewski is noted author, lecturer, and composer, who will be speaking on the topic, “Given a Choice, Why Should I Consistently Attend the Traditional Latin Mass?” A meet & greet/book signing will take place from 6-7pm (there will be no dinner). An RSVP is appreciated for headcount purposes. To RSVP you can reply to this e-mail or e-mail us at: info(at)charlottelatinmass.org A flyer is attached.

Saturday November 6 – St. Thomas Aquinas Parish

  • 6-7pm: Meet & greet/book signing
  • 7pm: Lecture

Latin Mass & Traditional News

  • The Sacraments and Emergency Services: Dr. Joseph Shaw, of the Latin Mass Society of the UK, is speaking out against a growing problem in our post-Catholic world, namely, the denying of priests the right to give last Rites – particularly in the case of crime scene. This stems from the tragic death of a pro-life and Catholic MP in England last week, David Amess, who was stabbed by a man of “Somali heritage”. Sadly, local police denied a priest entry to give last rites, saying it was a crime scene, something that was not the case just a generation or two ago: https://voiceofthefamily.com/the-sacraments-and-the-emergency-services/
  • Home Altars Update: More on the New Liturgical Movement’s series on home altars we’ve been sharing over the past few weeks. As uncertainty grows about the future public availability of the Traditional Latin Mass (judging by the state of affairs of the world and Church), more people are building home altars for the Latin Mass. Here is an article featuring elegant woodcarving altars for the private home chapel: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/10/home-altars-etc-by-mam-woodworking.html#.YXTLjd8pCHs 

Traditional Catholicism vs. Modernism: Religious Liberty and the False Right to Propagate Error

As we approach the feast of Christ the King, which was established as a call to governments to respect the rights of Christ, and His Teaching, and His Church in society, it seems timely to share another piece of Dom Pietro Leone who examines some problematic statements contained in the Vatican II document Dignitatis Humanae.  The document contains certain statements about “religious liberty” which differs from the long standing and traditional teaching of the Church. The issue is over which religions has rights to worship in the public sphere: the Catholic Church alone, or all religions (Protestantism, Islam, etc.).  Traditionally, the Church has reserved those public rights of worship to Herself alone because to allow false religions the same public rights is essentially tolerating error and heresy which can lead to the loss of souls.  Specifically, according to Dom Leone:

“Religious liberty, the belief that the State must accord equal freedom to truth and error, has been condemned frequently and forcefully by the Popes [2], for the Church teaches that the State should indeed repress falsehood and evil: In the words of Pope Leo XIII: ‘Men have a right freely and prudently to propagate throughout the State what things soever are true and honorable… but lying opinions, than which no mental plague is greater, and vices which corrupt the heart and moral life, should be diligently repressed by public authority, lest they insidiously work the ruin of the State’ [3]. It is true that the State may tolerate falsehood and evil for motives of the common good, but only to the minimal degree necessary: ‘To judge aright’, declares the Pope in the same encyclical, ‘we must acknowledge that the more a State is driven to tolerate evil, the further it is from perfection; and that the tolerance of evil which is dictated by political prudence should be strictly confined to the limits which its justifying cause, the public welfare, demands.’”

The essay goes on to identity how Dignitatis Humanae attempts to reconcile itself with not always with the traditional teachings of the Church, but with two secular documents, the U.S. Constitution, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the latter was approved by the anti-Catholic and Masonic French Revolutionary assembly:

“Father Denis Fahey points out that the Constituent Assembly of the French Revolution responsible for the Declaration, of which more than 300 members were Masons, and given ‘the naturalism of Freemasonry, the Declaration… is simply a formal renunciation of allegiance to Christ the King, of supernatural life, and membership of His Mystical Body’ [10]”

It further traces the Masonic and secularist/naturalistic principles found in the French Revolution to philosopher Jean-Jacques Rosseau, who according to both Fr. Fahey and Leone, believed power rests in the people who use it to determine their own ends. Yet this breaks with Catholic teaching which:

“According to the Catholic vision of government, by contrast, power comes from above, which the government uses to further the objective common good of the people.”

The article concludes by showing how this traditional teaching was abandoned by the Church during and after the Council, through actions of Pope Paul VI.

While much of the debate over Vatican II stems over the liturgy and the changes made afterwards, the problematic statements contained in Dignitatis Humanae is an equally important issue as it relates to how a society is to be evangelized (or not) by the Church and state. Much of the lack of progress in the Catholic evangelization of the United States is a result of the effects of such problematic beliefs such as the modern understanding of religious liberty.  Archbishop Vigano and Bishop Schneider have both noted problems with this document as well:

What Mass are you attending on Sunday?