[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!

[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.

[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.

[Loyalist]

PING!

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

[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]

from Traditio.com:

____________________________________________________________

Dear Fr. Moderator:

The latest spin from the diocese is that this presbyter pastor, who stopped saying the Novus Ordo service and went exclusively to the Traditional Latin Mass, has been put on "medical leave." The implication is that the presbyter must be mentally ill, or he would not being celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass. Nothing original about that. The Communists have used that tactic for decades. Anyone who doesn't follow the party line must be insane. Send them to Siberia for life.

Fr. Moderator Replies.

Indeed, it is an old tactic. Shortly after Vatican II, when nuns were given the "option" to wear their traditional habits or not, there was a noted case of one nun who chose to stay with her traditional habit. Her sisters taunted her mercilessly, but she stuck to her guns. Eventually, they had her committed.

A few years ago there was a case in Boston, in which a presbyter informed the bishop about some morally objectionable activities going on at the seminary where he taught. He thought (foolish man that he was!) that the bishop would take responsible action. Instead, he himself was illegally committed to an asylum until he had a court hearing and was freed by the judge. Some woman purporting to be a psychologist from the diocese signed the commitment papers; it turned out that she had no degree and no authority to do so. The presbyter entered a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the diocese.

These cases simply confirm the fact that the Novus Ordo cannot be negotiated with, compromised with, or even recognized as Catholic (which it is not). There are some conservative Novus Ordinarians around who delude themselves by saying: "If only the bishop knew." "If only the pope knew." They know: they're behind it all!

[Maximilian]

Prompted by years of liturgical research and studies which drew him toward the Traditional Latin Mass, Fr. Zigrang had requested on multiple occasions for the opportunity to offer a public Tridentine Mass in a parish. His most recent request came in January of this year when he sent a letter to Bishop Fiorenza requesting permission to convert St. Andrew's parish in to a traditional parish (dedicated to the practice of the Tridentine Mass and other sacraments) or start such a parish in another location. Six months later, he had still not received a reply.

Several posters said that Fr. Zigrang went about it the wrong way and shouldn't "have been in the bishop's face." But reading the article tells you that he tried for a long time, apparently for years, to get permission to offer the Latin Mass. Notice that the bishop didn't find time in 6 months to respond the priest's latest request, but somehow he found time the SAME DAY to kick the pastor out of his parish when he committed the unforgivable sin of believing and practicing the Catholic faith.

A few other points worth mentioning: 1. Decades are not too long a time for responding to the crisis of priestly pederasts. But a priest who dares to say the Latin Mass finds himself out on his ear the SAME DAY.

2. The "psychiatric evaluation" theme recurs in a large number of these stories. Anyone who won't go along with the program must obviously be crazy. Remember Fr. Haley, the priest from Arlington VA who blew the whistle on 3 consecutive pastors he served under? They tried to have him indefinitely committed to a mental hospital. He only got out by getting his own private psychiatrist to come down to the hospital and get him released.

Regarding Fiorenza's remarkable speed in dealing with a priest who dares to say the Latin Mass, in comparison with his speed in dealing with sexual predators, here are some excerpts from a 1997 article (apparently Fiorenza was on the cutting edge before the abuse scandal became big news):

Documents show bishops transferred known abuser

"In 1982, Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza wrote that he knew of Father Holley's "past difficulties" and stated: "With our shortage of priests, I am willing to risk incardinating him" - which means formally making him a priest of the Diocese of San Angelo, Texas.

At the time, Bishop Fiorenza headed that diocese. Today, he governs the Diocese of Galveston-Houston and, as vice president of the national bishops group, is expected to become president next year.

Bishop Fiorenza, 66, declined interview requests, saying through spokesman Ron Regan that he didn't want to revisit old traumas. "The church needs to move beyond this," Mr. Regan said Thursday .

Father Holley isn't the only child molester whom Bishop Fiorenza has allowed to continue working. After going to Houston in 1985, the bishop reassigned a priest caught in the act of abusing a girl and offered her no help, according to published reports that his spokesman doesn't dispute. The woman who discovered the abuse said the diocese pressured her not to tell police.

Here's another story from just last month:
Houston priest still working despite abuse accusation

The Rev. John T. Keller had allegedly let a deacon's teenage son drink wine on a trip two decades ago, then called the intoxicated boy into bed and fondled him. Questioned by the diocese, Father Keller denied abusing the youth but acknowledged he "crossed a proper boundary by holding you in a manner inappropriate for a priest," Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza wrote the deacon's now-grown son in January. For his actions, Father Keller would have to undergo counseling "to ensure he is not at risk for any future inappropriate behavior," the bishop wrote. His job was safe, though.

[BlackElk]

Ping. Have to go to confession with kids. Be back soon.

[BlackElk]

Thanks for this informative post. Fiorenza is below the bottom of the barrel.

[narses]

Well, we can see the real world intruding again. While Deacon Sinkspur insists that the Novus Ordo corrected the mistakes of the Church Liturgy in the Tridentine Mass (that is your position Sink, yes?) the Good Bishop protects his flock from those errors with vigor. If you see the Tridentine Rite as HARMFUL or EVIL, then this Bishop acted correctly and with speed. But then to believe that, you have to believe that for centuries the Indefectable Bride of Christ taught evil. Can it be?

[Cicero]

The pastor behaved foolishly and disobediently, although I sympathize with his desire to use the Tridentine Mass.

What gets my goat, however, is that if a liberal priest breaks 79 rules and sleeps with the altar boys, the bishop looks the other way, but if a conservative priest gets uppity, he lowers the boom on him. There's no one more tyrannical than a powerdrunk liberal.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

I see the SSPX has a new Priest ...

[St.Chuck]

If Fr. Zigrang had been telling the bishop some of the things you and your ilk have been saying on this thread, such as the NO being intrinsically evil, then the bishop was right to question his mental health.

Seattle Catholic is way too sympathetic to the schismatic cause to be taken seriously. There is probably more to this story than what their myopic viewpoint would be able to see.

[welfareworker]

Whats crazy about this whole thing is not that the bishop came down on Fr. Zig, it was how quickly and how hard he came down on him.

At Chicago's St. Sabina parish, the pastor had a Al Sharpton give the homily at Sunday Mass earlier this year. St. Joan's in Minneapolis had Senator Dayton give it once last year.

Both individuals, Sharpton and Dayton, are protestants, politicians, laymen and pro-abortion. Against every canon and GIRM in the book.

Yet, the pastors of those parishes continue on in their posts with mild reprimands.

I guess the Latin mass is the unforgivable sin.

[Antoninus]

Shocking how quick these bishops are to remove priests who dare to celebrate the Tridentine Mass, particularly when compared with how slow they are to move against every other liturgical abuse.... not to mention the lavendars.