Posted on 08/14/2014 8:21:29 PM PDT by marshmallow
Down the street from the lights and sounds of Times Square stands the oldest building in the Garment District, the Church of the Holy Innocents. Over the decades the neighborhood has evolved into the tangle of chain stores and litter that it is today while the almost 150 year-old church has remained mostly the same since the day it was built. Step inside and the din is somehow lost, replaced by the last quiet, peaceful haven for New Yorks traditional Catholics.
Yet what makes Holy Innocents truly unique is that it is the last Catholic church in the city to offer the mass in Latin. The Latin, or Tridentine, Mass has been performed since the 6th century, and this rare service seems to have the effect of transporting one back through time. In the same way that the mass is a testament to the past, the building itself is a landmark in New York history: giving last rites to those in the plane that crashed into the Empire State Building during WWII, baptizing Nobel laureate Eugene ONeill, officiating the marriage of performer Jimmy Durante, and overseeing the conversion of poet Joyce Kilmer.
Nowadays, however, the very thing that makes this place so extraordinary is also the thing putting it in danger. Despite the artistic, cultural, and financial strengths of Holy Innocents the church was recommended for closure in April as part of New Yorks Making All Things New initiative (a title one parishioner called Orwellian) to consolidate superfluous church spaces.
The reasons cited for the potential closure were that the church is not considered by the advisory board to be an active, vibrant community of faith, according to a letter from Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, sent in response to concerned parishioner and Frick Institute employee........
(Excerpt) Read more at observer.com ...
I am greatly saddened to read this. I pray Archbp. Dolan changes his mind.
we’ve got 3 in Kansas City
I pray Archbp. Dolan takes an intimate trip to Liberia or Sierra Leone.
Just how dumbed down must the great Holy Sacrifice of the Mass go, to please the Catholic Church in the West? What will ever be enough?
Only when the Church is no longer counter cultural will it be enough, until she ceases to be a “peculiar people”.
If ever “less is more”, then this is one more chief example of defiance against centuries of tradition and the killing of ever remembering it.
A disaster.
The best way for traditional Catholics to protect the Latin Mass is to keep it out of diocesan churches in the first place. The Latin Mass has flourished for years through orders like the Fraternity of St. Peter (who often maintains ties to a local bishop that are loose at best) and the Society of Pius X (who don’t give a sh!t about local bishops at all).
This jackass only renders unto Caesar now.
I am not a Catholic, but I have great respect for the many Catholics who seem to be represented on FR. I would just say that a church is made up of people. The building is important but can (and someday must be) replaced. Try and save the building - yes. But carry on with or without it driven by your faith.
I don't get why people want bondage.
It’s much less about the building than about the Mass itself. However, the beautiful churches are part of the heritage of Western Civilization and were built to glorify God. The workmanship that but them is hard to find today.
When I was little I complained to my parents that I couldn’t understand Latin and it was too hot in church.
My father,who was driving pulled the car over,turned around and said:
“Honey there is one God,one people,one prayer,one tongue and all over the world 24 hours a day,7 days a week people are telling God how much they love Him. I think it is a beautiful way to honor and worship God and I believe if you think about it you will too. I can’t think of a better way to show God how we love Him and that we love Him before and more than anyone or anything else.”
I think my dad was right!!!
- I cant imagine a more ignorant jerk -
OR are you just a TROLL ?????????????
My parents, who were not Catholic, were smart enough to know that KNOWING LATIN is the way to get ahead in the world.
Does that go over your head ?
” The best way for traditional Catholics to protect the Latin Mass is to keep it out of diocesan churches in the first place. The Latin Mass has flourished for years through orders like the Fraternity of St. Peter (who often maintains ties to a local bishop that are loose at best) and the Society of Pius X (who dont give a sh!t about local bishops at all). “
The Fraternity of StPeter has a good number of churches around the country that they staff - offering exlusively the Latin Mass. There are plenty of churches needing staffing and Bishops request them to staff churches. Last I heard, there is a waiting list for their Priests, as they are ordained - and they sure are ordaining them.
If someone wants to move to an area with one of their churches, just see their list of the churches they staff. They have a newsletter with lots of good info. Never tried their website but it probably has lots of info too.
That was a measure, insightful response. Thank you for your edifying remarks that added to the conversation.
What good is Scripture, or preaching if you can't understand it? Do we find any evidence in Scripture supporting this? Was St Paul using hyperbole?
If God chose the written word for us to know him, and Paul expounds on the necessity of the preaching of the word (all through the New Testament), what are we doing? What is the genesis of this and how do you reconcile it?
Are we relying on the typical Pelosi-like tactic of ignoring reason and grasping onto emotion? Just thinking though the premise, and I can't reconcile the need, use, and practicality of preaching that is in a language I can't use. If God's Word cannot be applied to your life, then what good is it? Just asking.
Understand the events at Pentecost. Read Job. It is the Spirit that gives understanding.
While we're on the subject of obeying the Word of God:
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
These people at the Latin mass that you find such fault with: they eat Christ's Body and drink His blood, as He commanded.
Do you eat His Body and drink His blood?
If not, why not?
Could it be because the poster that you had asked the question is a “once saved always saved” Christian?
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