Texas Pastor Removed Over Latin Masses

Seattle Catholic ^ | July 4, 2003 | Peter Miller

[katnip]

Poor Father Zigrang. I cannot believe he is kicked out of his parish for saying the Mass that was said for centuries.

If he would have had a teenage male lover move into the rectory, I wonder what his bishop would have done.

God bless and protect Fr. Jigrang forever.

[B Knotts]

Members of the musical band which performs at the 10:30 Mass were particularly dismayed (having no role during a Latin Mass), as were lectors and extraordinary ministers.

Yeah, I just bet they were!

I wonder why the bishop thinks this priest is insane; maybe because the priest actually believes in God?

[B Knotts]

This is interesting:

http://www.excommunication.net/News_archive/News_Jun_Aug_2001/Bishops_in_Atlanta_2001.htm

The president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Joseph A. Fiorenza, publicly denounced conservative Catholics who have created Web sites on the Internet attempting to rate colleges based on their professors' compliance with the requirement. He called such actions ''dangerous'' and ''harmful'' and said, ''it would be a serious misuse of the mandate by any member of the church if they make it a means of attack rather than of building up the church.''

[drstevej]

Topless bible readin', swirling babes around the altar, priests wearing bozo noses... no problem.

A Tridentine mass... string him up.

Pope Piel will make this priest a bishop!

[CARepubGal]

The current incumbent "bishop" is a tare. I guess he is too busy playing hide the pedophile to actually follow the Pope's orders. hmm! CC Woody and CDL have their work cut out for them.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Ping!

[ultima ratio]

Modernist Rome will never accept the traditional Mass--it is much too Catholic.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Catholics who need to travel great distances with families have requested that the early Mass time be moved or another Mass be added for more reasonable access. Some have requested daily Masses; others Masses on Holy Days of Obligation; and still others a traditional parish, going so far as to locate property and priests available for such an arrangement. These requests to Bishop Fiorenza have reportedly been ignored or denied. The attendants of the Mass also are under certain restrictions, including a prohibition from promoting or advertising the Mass.

....and then we are told the Tridentine is not wanted or well attended. It's a setup for failure.

Others who had never experienced such a Mass were struck by its simplicity and beauty

As one who falls into this camp, my first Tridentine was an educational and spiritual awakening.

[saradippity]

That was not the right way to go about it.

You are technically correct but it does point out how arbitrary and capricious these bad bishops are. On one hand they run around flapping their gums about priestless parishes yet think nothing of losing a priest for offering a Mass that was approved and encouraged by the Holy Father,granted it was conditoned upon the approval of the bishop,nonetheless. The more I think about it the more unreasonable this resistance to the Tridentine Mass becomes.

The other day on another thread you (I think it was you)suggested we start keeping book on good bishops.I think there were about twenty names of bishops that seemed to be accepted as good and it didn't reach a whole lot of Freepers. meaning there could be quite a few more.

Anyway I would be interested in how many of those considered good,orthodox Catholic Bishops do allow the Tridentine Mass in their dioceses. I would be willing to bet a great percentage of the good ones permit it.It really would be great to define the criteria and then come up with some names that passed the muster,or is it pass the mustard? Well,you know what I mean.

[JNB]

I read this priest was heading over to the SSPX and had talking to them for some time, and I suppose this was final farewell to the diocese.

One thing though, despite his supposed talks with the SSPX was how abrupt this was. Being the pastor of his parish for 6 years, he could have done a few things that were completely legal within the current missal to bring the parish closer to tradition. He could have instructed only he and the deacons assigned to his parish to be present at all masses of obligation on Sundays and hand out communion, he could have said the entire Novus Ordo in Latin, he could have even moved the altar to the back wall and said the mass "ad orientum" and even encouraged people to kneel for communion(Rome shot down the supposed ban on kneeling for communion in two strongly worded letters from the CDW). Being in your face like this is not a way to wil allies, doing what Fr Fessio encourages, restoring tradition while working within the framework, is the way to restore the church in a more rapid manner.

[JNB]

Another thing about the diocese of Houston, as with the Archdiocese of San Antonio and the diocese of Fort Worth, is that many traditional leaning Catholics go to the Anglican Use parish' there. While the Anglican Use missal is for the most part the Novus Ordo missal using the queens English, in terms of rubrics, it amounts to a Tridentine mass in the queens English, using fixed altars, use of communion rails and so on.

[ventana]

I have only been to one Tridentine Mass. In a city filled with Catholic Churches (NYC), far from being poorly attended, the Church was packed. The congregation mostly had their own latin missals and knew their role well.

A very moving experience

[Cvengr]

You picked up on that as I did. Seems as though the bishop reveals qite a bit in the nature of dead works when he first refuses to discern the Holy Spirit moving and filling one of his priests, also removes the priest after only one or two hours of conversation after a 25 year service, and then lacks the discernment to even consider the difference between spiritual and psychological patterns.

Reads as though the bishop is fallen away as a believer, but sure likes authority and human good.

[Loyalist]

PING!

And a big hearty BUMP for Fr. Zigrang, for demonstrating that the good of souls outweighs obedience to an errant bishop!

[rogator]

Where is this list of good bishops? I am amazed that there are twenty of them. If compliance with the pope's "wide and generous approval" directive (re: 1962 Roman Missal) is a criterion there must be very few good bishops.

[RobbyS]

The bishop should have prevented this. Of course the priest is being disobedient,but the bishop is abusing his discretion.

[Desdemona]

Members of the musical band which performs at the 10:30 Mass were particularly dismayed (having no role during a Latin Mass), as were lectors and extraordinary ministers. After one of the Masses, a regular guitar player was particularly vocal about the complaint that would be forthcoming to the bishop.

Hmmmmm... no role? See the casting director.

Mass is not a performance (the proponents of guitar crap tell us classical people this all the time). If it is being used as such an outlet, then the cantors and lectors are there for the wrong reason and music's purpose is not understood.

IMO, this priest did something wonderful. It's a shame some members of his flock thought of their own gratification before worshipping God. The bishop, OTOH, has USCCB disease.

[ultima ratio]

Sure, can't give the faithful information--they might find out the truth about corruption at the top. The response is always intimidate, threaten, push your weight around--when stonewalling fails--anything but live according to the Gospels. These hypocrites are the new Pharisees. They need to comprehend that the they are the very kind of "spiritual leaders" Jesus railed against.