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Many years ago, I read an interview with a famous “dissenting” theologian, as they are sometimes euphemistically called, (one who has now passed to his reward, and shall therefore remain nameless), in which he talked about the many things that had permanently disappeared from Catholic life, and of which younger Catholics would therefore never any experience or memory. As I recall it, funeral Masses in black vestments were named among them, and this was said with something of a wistful tone, since even the most obdurate revolutionaries could hardly deny the powerful sense which the tradition Requiem communicates of the...

Perhaps as a concluding post on funeral masses, this is my third post on the subject this week (omni trinum perfectum – all things are perfect in three), I would like to re-post an article I wrote over a year ago.Many of the comments these past days mentioned the Traditional Latin Requiem Mass, which I have been privileged to celebrate many times in my 25 years. It is a beautiful and gentle liturgy, so consoling and yet also sober and mindful that someone has died and that we ought to pray.And while I do not say that everyone must like...

If you go to Rome, you can visit the Piccolo Museo del Purgatorio. Google it and look at some more of the very interesting pictures. People have come back from purgatory to burn their hand prints into prayer books, and clothing. Talk about proof of the fire of purgatory. Yet most people do nothing for the souls of our loved ones suffering there. So today we had a Holy Latin Requiem Mass for All Souls.