[Catholic Caucus] Francis: Saint Peter's Is Now A Museum, A Ghost Church, A Desert

The brutal suppression of Holy Masses at the 45 side altars of St Peter’s went into force on Monday. The quiet prayers ascending into heaven every morning are no more.

Edward Pentin found instead two early concelebrated Eucharists with one and three concelebrants, and the main Mass at 8:30 with eight people in the pews. It was in a chapel behind a curtain.

Priests working in the Vatican are “ticked off,” a source told Pentin, “Very few of them are here joining in the concelebrated Masses this morning out of protest at the changes.”

Only, those priests are known. It's likely that Francis will pressure them to concelebrate or to face consequences.

Pentin confirms the evident fact that Francis is behind the decision. According to Pentin, he was helped by “one of his close confidants," Cardinal Beniamino Stella, the prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, and other cardinals close to him.

Obviously those cardinals who helped killing the Mass did not show up to participate in the forced concelebrations. They preach poverty but live in pompous apartments with their own private chapels.

Anonymous “Monsignor Ferrari” noticed on Twitter.com that the atmosphere in the Vatican is so repressive that even those who have celebrated Mass in St Peter for decades dare not to protest, “It is like communist China here.”

From your linked article:

"...We strolled around a bit more, me with my guidebook, him with what I presumed to be some level of equal or greater knowledge. After what might have been 30-45 minutes of casual conversation, he invited me outside to see the best view of the dome which I think must’ve been from the south side. Yes, very nice. And it just so happens his flat is a block away, would I like to come up for a drink? Now, I was 19 but not totally naive nor what I considered an easy mark. Nevertheless, it simply didn’t dawn on me at that moment that this was anything more than a friendly middle-aged guy just looking to chat with an American student abroad. Fast forward about 10 minutes and he’s pulling out some coffee table book on ancient Egypt and explaining that the obelisk in the piazza is a phallus and would I like to take off my shirt?..."

I admit, this made me laugh at a memory... '

When I was in the USN, my ship made a port call to Palma De Mallorca. A lot of the experienced guys were really talking it up as a desirable port of call, so eight of us went ashore together, and after a day walking around some of the beaches, we to a few cabs up to some fancy restaurant that was on top of some mountain somewhere. It was a circular restaurant, windows all around, with panoramic views of the surrounding rugged terrain. It was a great place, because they had these big horseshoe shaped booths where we could all fit into around the table. We were drinking pretty heavily at that point, and generally enjoying ourselves.

This is one of those places that you don't see anymore. There was a guy with an expensive camera went around to tables and took pictures of the people at the tables. Later on, he would come around with the developed pictures and attempt to sell them to you. This was actually a pretty good thing in those days, because nobody had digital cameras or cell phones, so there was a market for it. Unfortunately for this guy, It was too pricey for a bunch of sailors on liberty.

One of the guys at our table was really into photography, so he and the guy started talking cameras and things like that. It's funny, I can't remember what the guys last name was, but I remember his first name was Barney, and he actually looked a little bit like the actor Jeremy Renner, except he was only about 5'5" and not nearly as rugged looking. But you get the idea…

So, the two of them are talking cameras, and the photographer invited him to go see his set up in his darkroom on the premises. Barney jumped up, and the two of them disappeared. A few minutes later, Barney came rushing breathlessly back to the table, his blue eyes the size of dinner plates! He says to us in this panicked voice "Jesus! As soon as I walked into his darkroom, the guy dropped down on his knees and began ripping at my belt buckle trying to pull my pants down!"

I swear, we all laughed so hard, we had tears running down our faces! I remember saying "What did you expect? The invitation was just a bit too eager!"

He got so much ribbing for that, he never lived it down. He was a really good guy, but as he showed, he had little too much of the country boy in him!

That liberty call did not end well for me, but...wow. What a place...:)

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