BTW, if mere attendance at SSPX Masses were some sort of problem (which it is not), I have attended worse. There was an independent chapel in New Haven where the late Fr. Paul Wickens used to come from New Jersey to say Tridentine Masses. Fr. Wickens fell victim to Archbishop Peter Gerety of Newark when Fr. Wickens refused, as a long term pastor, to inflict a scandalous sex education program upon the innocent students in his parish school in direct defiance of Gerety (who, coincidentally, had once been pastor of a black parish in the New Haven ghetto). Archbishop Gerety suspended Fr. Wickens (an otherwise saintly man) and had civil authorities physically evict him from his rectory. Conservative Catholics at New Haven who were aware of the situation (via the Wanderer in my case) sympathized with Fr. Wickens. I noted that Fr. Wickens, on his trips to New Haven, said fine Masses but could not leave quickly enough thereafter. After a few Masses, I hung around to get to know those running "St. Clare's Priory" (an absolutely unauthorized institution run by a "Benedictine brother" in full regalia who turned out not to be a Benedictine brother and nuns in uniform who turned out not to be nuns, but they were all quite sure that our Archbishop John Whealon, though quite sympathetic and generous to Tridentine Masses, was a heretic and worthy of being reviled and verbally abused). Before I went to this informative social get together, I had actually contributed money (to defray some of the expenses at their request and no more). Please keep Fr. Wickens in your prayers. He died of throat cancer last year or the year before, reconciled first and left his New Jersey chapel to the Archdiocese of Newark over the verbal objections of some of his unofficial flock there. This was nearly thirty years ago.
Viva Cristo Rey and God bless the San Patricio Brigade.
Peter Gerety
Oh yes, it is a very small world. He was Bishop of Maine. The beautiful Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland, Maine experienced some, um, changes while he was there.
Here are a few examples of the astonishingly beautiful stained glass windows in the Church.
*Well, you say, those are beautiful BAC, but why no photos of the Gorgeous High Altar? You know, the one made from imported Snow-White Italian Marble and paid for by the poor and middle-class Italians who lived on Munjoy Hill? You know, the ones who heard rumors Bishop Gerety was gonna dismantle the altar because that is what Vatican Two called for and so they went to see him and he promised, "The altar will never leave the Church."
And then, the next Sunday, when the big Italian Familes walked down Munjoy Hill and walked into the Church they saw no altar because it had been jack-hammered to smithereens and placed in the basement so it would still be in the church? Is that the altar you mean?
Yeah.
But how did you know about it if you never saw it. You didn't live there when he was Bishop
Oh, the first time I went to the Indult at the Cathedral in the adjacent Chapel, I first walked into the Nave of the Cathedral and immediately fell in love with the amasing Stained Glass windows and I saw an old janitor and I told him how much I loved the windows and how beautiful I thought the Church was.
"So, how come there is no High Altar here? I would have thought there would be given the beauty of the Cathedral," I said as I was pointing to the Sanctuary.
Oh, about 20 years ago a Bishop had it torn down.
I turned to face him and tears were spilling from his eyes.
I will never forget that poor man and the pain he bore. He was the one who told me the whole story.
Oh, let's not forget it was Bishop Gerety who started "Renew". I can STILL remember the nitwit tree flags and banners that began sprouting in virtually every sanctuary in Cumberland Co, Maine.
THat was a huge success :)