A Visitor Comments On The Anglicanorum Coetibus Society's Advice

A visitor sent this comment on yesterday's post:

After reading your blog today I was struck by how similar Mr. Lybrand’s advice was to the ideas promulgated by over-zealous post Vatican II folks who suffered under the impression that the reason Catholics were falling away from the Church was because it was too traditional and hadn’t changed with the times. Vatican II was just the update opportunity the people who disagreed with various social doctrines of the Church used as a catalyst to implement their social policy. These folks misunderstood the underlying causes for declining Church membership and Mr. Lybrand seems to have fallen into the same trap.

After Vatican II, no other Mass form but OF in the vernacular was allowed to be celebrated in America. None. TLM celebrations, if they occurred were considered seditious, underground and gave rise to the formerly schismatic, but now brought back into the fold, St. Pius X Society. Priests who could get the faithful in and out of the pews in less than an hour on Sunday and never gave offence in their homilies were the Holy Grail of searching Catholics (thus the overuse of EP II became acceptable and the fear of bringing up difficult doctrines became the norm).

Conventional wisdom: Do not talk about difficult subjects from the pulpit such as money, Church teaching on abortion, sex outside of marriage, heck- the definition of marriage, the sin of scandal when “Catholic” politicians openly defy or deny dogma or the flock would flee the pews (and take their money with them). Yes, a lot of Catholics left (or do continue to leave) the Church, but I would argue they were more akin to the wheat that fell on rocky soil or the grain among the thorns than the new-fangled idea, promulgated after Vatican II, that the wheat needed to be genetically modified because the old wheat could no longer be grown in regular soil.

The truth is the truth and people are hungry for it and gravitate toward it. In the 50 plus years since Vatican II, TLM has not only been re-affirmed as valid, it is even gaining popularity and attendance. OF Worship ad orientem not only started new, it also is growing. Whaaaat? Both such backward ideas-- how can that be? After full-throated defenses of Church dogma by St. Pope JP II, priests and Bishops began to slowly follow suit.

Now, in the Church in America, it is not unusual to find priests using EPs appropriately, talking about the sanctity of life, asking for money to support the parish and Church at large, and even denying communion to politicians who publicly defy Catholic teaching. Catholic schools have begun to enforce Catholic behavior standards(i.e. morality clauses) for their teachers and staff and the Church actually sued the government to keep Catholic nuns from having to purchase contraception. Yay, us!

Those things were not happening en masse in the 70’s, 80’s or even the 90’s and yet, it is happening now and becoming more and more the norm. Why? Not because the Catholic Church in America became more like the Protestants (nota bene, OCSP types) but because the Catholic Faithful began rejecting watered down theology and failed social engineering. Parishes that are successful and growing are those that embrace the hard teachings of Christ rather than down playing them.

Growing parishes have embraced the new evangelization and the ensuing personal responsibilities that come with that, and they are finding that devotion to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament increases the holiness and spiritual growth of their flocks swelling their attendance rates even more. These seemingly outdated, “Catholic” ideas are not driving people away. Truth is truth. Protestant attempts to buoy their numbers by becoming social clubs not churches and watering down their teachings have resulted in mostly falling attendance, splintering denominations, openly contradicting values and practices, and general decline.

The fact that Mr. Lybrand espouses these ideas tells me he is not really sold on Catholic dogma (which means the Church cannot err in matters of Faith and morals), but thinks “flawed” dogma or even human nature’s flaws can be papered over, and thus, the folks won’t be turned off by those pesky flaws they can’t see. People of the Ordinariate, follow Mr. Lybrand’s advice at your own peril. History and human nature are not on his side.