I wrote that phrase in the middle of the white board the first day I ever taught high school science, back in the day. In big cursive. The message did not go over well with the parents who insisted their kids be able to “express themselves.” Now their kids are adults driving down a "highway to hell."
So be it.
Everything around us is full of noise. Traffic, endless chatter, 95% of daily news headlines (secular + Catholic ones) being stupid noise. Everything must be exposed and hashed out. The unspoken rule is you must verbally promote yourself, defend yourself, describe yourself to your neighbor. Everything out in the world, and between individuals, must be discussed and analyzed like dissecting a cat in biology lab.
Our Lord was a man of great silence. Most of what we read was of his actions, and prayer, more than his actual verbal teachings. He did. Period. When necessary, he talked. Just like his foster father St. Joseph.
Our social media, narcissism, materialism, superficial status-addicted culture is addicted to all the endlessly perpetuating Noise. Which is why I try to unplug as much as possible.
I have a few YouTube channels I watch now and then, one Catholic, a few outdoors oriented. I scan very quickly the daily headlines for what really matters to God—all things pertaining to our Catholic Faith, the family, the sanctity of human life, etc—and then unplug.
I leave the Facebook and Twitter culture for the zombies. As well as Cable TV and Netflix.
Silence is Golden. I love the sobriety, mental clarity, and soul enrichment that silence brings. Like drinking black coffee early in the morning, or quietly working up a sweat chopping firewood. Which is why I don’t say much IRL in group settings, ie avoiding the noise and useless chatter of our banal, hedonistic culture. I enjoy fruitful, authentic, lively conversation, about Truth in all its kinds, an experience which is few and far between.
Which is why when I have the hard choice between silence and the Noise, I choose silence.
Praised be Jesus Christ.
Questions, constructive feedback, or just to say what’s up Okie, email me at:
My blogger pal over at the Tridentine Catholic website, put together a FREE online Latin Mass Liturgical Calendar for 2022, which you can reference there, and print off. Thanks for this.
Preface: I am not an authority on "The Old Romans" traditionalist group of Roman Catholic bishops, priests, religious, and laity. I have not read sources from the Vatican or traditionalist priests like that of the SSPX or FSSP about their Catholicity. I only recently discovered who they are.
I am going off of answers to my written questions by their chief bishop, Archbishop Jerome Lloyd, weekly videos I've been viewing lately on his Youtube channel Old Romans TV, which I find refreshingly appealing to someone like myself always looking for sources of Catholic Truth, as a traditionalist Catholic attached to the SSPX (I've noticed trads like myself liking their contribution as of late, commenting in Latin Mass Facebook groups), and their website:
1. Traditionalist Roman Catholic Bishops (I believe 4), priests (around 100), religious, and laity served in Traditional Latin Mass chapels all around the world. Not sedevacantists. They accept Pope Francis as supreme head of the Church.
2. The head bishop presiding over their Synod (based in the US), Archbishop Jerome Lloyd, is himself based in Selsey, England. Many of their priests have to work to support themselves. + Lloyd himself, to support himself, founded and runs a local restaurant that employs formerly homeless and itinerant people, and trains them in the culinary arts to give them a renewed start. He shepherds priests in England and continental Europe, while broadcasting live TLMs, sermons, talks, prayers from his Chapel on YouTube. Other "Old Roman" Bishops of their union oversee TLM Chapels on other continents.
3. Originally, they were Roman Catholics in Holland, who believed they had the right to elect their own Archbishop (despite the current pope at the time insisting otherwise) based on a standing decree by a previous pope, and likewise that of an ecumenical council. This resulted in a certain separation from Rome, and eventually branching outside of Holland after the liberal-modernist "Old Catholics" took over locally. Ever since they have been in a sort of limbo with the Holy See, though apparently not in formal schism.
The "Old Roman Catholics'" Positions:
1. They accept and believe in the all the Catholic dogmas, including the Immaculate Conception, Assumption of Mary, and Vatican I's teaching, principally the formal dogmatic teachings of "papal primacy" and "papal infallibility," according to the actual definitions as written.
2. They are not "Old Catholics." They reject the Liberalism, Modernism, and Protestantism of those called "Old Catholics."
3. The Old Romans identify as Traditionalist, opposing the Modernism of the post-Vatican II Church, but have been staunchly opposed to Modernism, and in defense of Catholic Tradition, since the 1800's.
4. They say the Tridentine Latin Mass, and are opposed to the Novus Ordo Missae, having the same positions as the SSPX on the post-Vatican II liturgical reform.
5. They accept Vatican I as a valid Council, but criticize, in their view, an Ultra-montane theology on the papacy (as did Archbishop Lefebvre).
6. They accept Vatican II as a valid Council, but take the same general view as the SSPX as to its Modernist errors and orientation.
7. They strongly oppose abortion, birth control, homosexuality, divorce, women priests, or any form of modernism or liberalism in the Church.
8. They accept as valid the popes of Vatican II, including Francis who they pray for at Mass, though they publicly oppose his errors. Like recently his motu proprio on the TLM.
9. The "Old Romans" were in a formal discussion with the Holy See only a few years before Vatican II, to possibly become "regularized," but have backed off for now due to, in their view, the errors of the "conciliar church" (i.e. errors in VII/New Mass).
10. Yet, they accept the supremacy of the Pope, vow submission to him in matters requiring strict obedience (in the manner the SSPX does), profess the intention to one day, as soon as possible, be re-united in a normal unity to the Holy See as they once were. Based on this, I cannot see that they are in schism or heresy. These bishops and priests often minister to SSPX and other traditionalist Catholics as needed, based on the local situation, and profess communion with all Traditional Roman Catholics, including the FSSP, Institute, etc, and all orthodox Catholics attending the Novus Ordo rite.
Conclusion:
I am no theologian, but if the SSPX are Roman Catholics in full communion with the Church, albeit in a "canonically irregular" way, then my impression is “The Old Romans” are as well, but in a different kind of historical canonical irregularity. They give full acceptance to all the dogmas and doctrines Roman Catholics are required to accept for salvation. They profess submission to the Pope, as does the SSPX. They are deeply dedicated to Catholic Tradition and the fight against Modernism. They do have a controversial lineage going back to the See of Utrecht dispute with Rome over the right to select their own Archbishop, but are orthodox and traditional, and for the most part are almost identical in their doctrinal/liturgical/disciplinary stance to the SSPX.
My hope then would be that more Traditional Catholics know about this group "The Old Romans," and that somehow one day our ranks could work together, at least at times, with those of their ranks. I even suggested to their Archbishop that they could make a Profession of Faith to traditionalist Bishops like in the SSPX, or Bishop Williamson, or the like, if they cannot do so right now directly with conciliar Rome, so that there is an official recognition, even if for now it is practically impossible to approach the Vatican as it is overrun presently by Modernists.
At the very least, these Bishops and priests are offering some very edifying insights into the current, ever-evolving ecclesial situation, in a very personal, engaging, and lively manner. That is fundamentally Traditionalist Roman Catholic. Here are a few of their live stream discussions I thoroughly appreciated:
Let's pray for them.
Praised be Jesus Christ.
Questions, constructive feedback, or to just to say howdy, email me at:
"Go Ye Therefore and Baptize Nations," said Our Lord Jesus Christ.
"No, don't baptize or you will certainly be killed," said the Novus Ordo church to Priests serving in Afghanistan.
At least do it in secret. But the Novus Ordo bishop forbade this. So they obeyed. And they will have to answer to God for this grave neglect of the Great Commission, for the scandal they bring to the Church.
Baptism is necessary for salvation, whether by water, intention, or blood, despite what the Modernists teach. Get your family in secret to baptize you, Afghans.
A few days ago Taylor Marshall, who describes himself as “just a dad with a podcast,” uploaded a YouTube video, now with 87,000 views, claiming that—with no sources given or even hinted at—all the Ecclesia Dei TLM Institutes (FSSP, Institute, etc), are being summoned by Francis to Rome, next month, to receive more direction on how the new Latin Mass motu proprio will be implemented. He goes on to suggest a list of demands these Superiors will be given. LINK
I have to admit I almost fell for it, until I read yesterday this article by the National Catholic Register:
The ED Institutes are not being called to Rome by anybody, let alone to receive more directions.
They are coming together for a private meeting, to strategize how to proceed in the situation.
I left a straightforward comment on Marshall’s video, but it is now removed. I asked for a source, and then quoted the FSSP Superior in that NCR article. That was it.
So you’re hearing the Truth here folks, not from Texas, but from Oklahoma.
Pray the TLM Superiors will have the courage to confront head on the satanic abuse that is this new motu proprio. To once and for all make known publicly their reservations about Vatican II and the Novus Ordo, which undoubtably they have in private.
And pray for Taylor Marshall, that he doesn’t let his public status go to his head with more of these concocted stories.
I attended this parish for 4 years when I attended OU in Norman, when it was an off the charts haven for modernists, arch-liberals, arch-ecumenists, and heretics.
They have a new, more traditional-style church, and the pastor seems Tradition-minded, saying Mass on occasion ad Orientem, to the East.
If a priest (or bishop) has zero interest in saying Mass in a sacrificial posture, in my book he is already suspect of the Protestant heresy on The Holy Sacrifice.
The priest laments frequent very immodest dress in church.
Recently a woman brought her dog to Mass in a dog carrier. At Communion, she asked the priest to give Holy Communion to…her DOG.
He corrected her.
The result? She became so angry she reported him to the diocesan “sex abuse hotline” for being “mean,” which implies she took him refusing Communion to her dog as sexist towards her.
Thank God for this faithful priest. Prayers he turns away from the Novus Ordo Missae which itself in its very design, encourages Eucharistic sacrilege. He should say the Traditional Latin Mass. Since he is a lawyer, he knows this can’t be restricted, and has a right to say the True Mass.
A Priest Life Blog reports suppression of the TLM in the Pittsburgh diocese, including even a ban on private TLMs: LINK.
The unfolding of the "Guardians of the Faith" document suppressing the TLM continues each week, which any faithful Catholic spiritually armed with their childhood catechism and right reason is able to determine to be an invalid edict directly from Lucifer himself.
In Costa Rica last week, a priest who up until recently was the actual Chancellor, second in charge, over his Diocese, having been now forbidden to continue his TLM for a community attending it for a long time, opted to say the New Mass in Latin facing the altar, ad orientem. For this he is suspended for six months, sent home to live with his parents, and ordered to receive psychiatric treatment.
By his Modernist bishop.
Let's face the facts. No conciliar bishop is going to allow you to say a public TLM if you publicly question the legitimacy of the Protestant reform of the Mass, or Vatican II; or choose to only use the Missal of Pius V which is your canonical right.
But this is not only your right but duty to God. Therefore, Fathers, disobey these evil, null and void restrictions of your Modernist Bishop.
Facing the fact of the situation, instead of wasting time waiting to get suspended and persecuted, just write the bishop your declaration you intend to exercise your authority as a Priest, given to you by the Church directly through Canon Law itself, to refuse the Novus Ordo Missae and VII novelties.
In the odd chance of 1 in 1,000,000,000,000 that he accepts your stance and supports you, then continue in your parish.
But absolute common sense dictates he will not, and you should act as if you are already outside the Diocese, and then in a matter of days or weeks, 99.9999999999999999999999% chance he will suspend you formally, then smile and continue the work of Traditional Catholicism as you are already doing.
Start a GoFundMe fundraiser, build a home and Chapel outside the city on some land, and hunker down until you die. Affiliate with the SSPX for support. Word will get out, and a flock will come.
And screw your pension. Deliver pizzas, update your resume, teach English online to kids in China, whatever. Set aside enough social security so you can retire one day, with enough money to buy a sack of potatoes every week. Like the Cure of Ars did.
But continue the Traditional Catholic Priesthood Jesus Christ Himself gave to you, until your last dying breath.
Folks, for every truly Traditionalist diocesan priest out there---and I suspect there are many hundreds if not thousands in the world---from a birds eye view, facing the facts, this is the course all of you must follow, according to natural and divine law. All facts considered, as presumptuous as it might sound to say this, common sense dictates this. No one needs clerical training or ordination to figure out the hard fact of the situation.
You must refuse to be a part of the New Religion, period. As every Catholic must do. And virtually all conciliar bishops now more than ever requires you to be a part of it.
Praise be to Jesus Christ.
Questions, constructive feedback, or to just say hello, email me at:
I don’t know about you all, but I’m looking forward to some relief soon from the summer heat. Literally…and metaphorically.
It’s been a hot one in the deep heat of July/August here in Oklahoma, which parallels the deep heat of the current Crisis in the Catholic Church, this summer to be exact.
Excessive heat does something to the brain. Increased heat leads to increased blood pressure and inflammation, which causes some level of brain swelling, albeit at safe enough levels, yet still having an affect on brain chemistry and as a result the psyche. The remedy of course being cooler temps.
Bullying and gaslighting from current Church authorities, who hold the sacraments, the liturgy, the very Magisterium in their hands, which we need for salvation itself, is enough to inflame our psyches, and cause spiritual trauma, even if only temporarily. And seasonally.
The effects of the new nuclear bomb Motu Proprio on the TLM are still being spread/experienced in many dioceses where the bishop in the past was not supportive of the plain and simple universal right to the True Mass.
If the Pollyanna Optimists are really honest about it, most bishops have fit that description.
And then there’s these many “cancelled priests” like Fr. Altman from the LaCrosse diocese, or for example Fr. Benedict Andersen from his Irish diocese, placed in a kind of ecclesiastical gulag.
And for good measure, certain very large dioceses have set precedent they will not support religious exemptions for pro-life Catholics not wanting to participate in—even remotely—an Abortion-linked vaccine. Likewise, “Catholic” Biden is starting to force the jab on all Americans, starting soon with all nursing home workers under threat Medicare be otherwise withheld from nursing facilities not in full compliance of the new mandate.. All backed up by weekly admonitions from Francis-Church for everyone to get the jab.
To even have to face the threat of losing your livelihood for refusing the Abortion-linked vaccine is itself an ongoing soft martyrdom.
Oh, and for a summer ice cream treat, we get treated to weekly headlines about Francis spouting, almost comically, yet more heresies in his General Audiences. The last couple times literally contradicting the Council of Trent on the Ten Commandments and Justification. Hello.
The tensions of what to do, what to believe, where to go, how to mentally process the unfolding, exponentially more dystopic situation, have torn at many Catholic laity and priests alike.
We have entered the eye of the tornado, and we can only expect more persecution in the weeks and months ahead .
At least though in a few weeks, we can look forward to subsiding temps, and the promise of all things Fall. Campfires, hiking, fishing, hunting, and the like. The Lord saying “My yoke is easy, my burden is light.” At least we have some small things to sustain us, the jam in our bread as they say, and of course His Grace.
Have a good weekend.
Questions, constructive feedback, or just to say what’s up Okie Trad, email me at:
It's a long story, so I will break it down for you.
1. The former Sub-Prior, second in charge, of the Latin Mass Silverstream Monastery in Ireland, Fr. Benedict Andersen, wrote his Bishop his concerns of an alleged decade long pattern of sexual/spiritual/pscyhological abuse by the monastery's founder.
Ever since Francis-Bergoglio issued his ironically named Apostolic Letter Traditiones Custodes (Guardians of the Tradition), it has been on my mind continually whether the majority of Catholics even care about this decree. To be sure, members of the Magisterium like Cardinal Burke, Cardinal Mueller, Archbishop Vigano, etc have shown great interest in it, however does the average Novus Ordo Catholic even know about this restrictive order? Has their parish addressed it at all? Have they read it?
Most secular (and Catholic) news headlines are distractions. To drive up site stats and revenue. Understandably. So you have to sift the wheat from the chaff in your daily news glimpse. So be it.
It’s scorching hot here in Oklahoma this mid August. We’ve managed three Blue Hole Springs trips this summer, for relief, hoping to get at least one more in before Fall. And as I am this time of year, I eagerly anticipate the cooling temperatures in the weeks ahead.
Western society has been overcome by a flood of anti-Christs. Everywhere we look, we see a social war of anti-Christs persecuting Christians, in our neighborhoods, marketplace, and workplace, an anti-Christ mainstream ending what is left of Christendom.
I've known Jeff for 20 years. It was my sad shock to learn recently of his passing. A husband, father, real estate salesman, long term parishioner of the local FSSP parish, and a devout, traditional Catholic, he will be greatly missed. Please pray for him, and have Masses offered for the repose of his soul.
Whenever I ran into Jeff, he was always an exceptionally friendly man, with a rock hard hand shake, beaming genuine smile, and always willing to give of his time for others. I've actually ran into his wife a couple times outside of Mass, who has the same charisma for going out of her way to show friendship.
When my father passed away some thirteen years ago, Jeff came to his funeral and burial, even though my dad did not attend the Latin Mass at the FSSP. I wish Jeff had more years on this Earth, but God called him at his appointed time. You will be missed by the local Catholic community, Jeff. Requiescat in pace, may he rest in peace.
1. In general, they will not win their canonical battles, nor be re-inserted back into public ministry under a Novus Ordo Bishop. May as well come to terms with that now.
After a couple weeks of prayer and study, Tulsa Bishop Konderla is now officially implementing the new Motu Proprio on the Latin Mass here in this diocese. The two diocesan Latin Masses will be allowed to continue in the parish church. No need to find an alternative location. Deo gratias for these two individual dispensations. The Traditional Mass in those two locations continues! As expected, the two already existing TLM "groups," Clear Creek abbey and the FSSP parish, are permitted for now to continue with the TLM.
There are plenty of newer books and articles out there by lay Catholics giving their own ideas about Catholic manhood, or masculinity. Here are my own thoughts the essential Catholic teachings and practices, according to traditional priests, spiritual directors, catechisms, Catholic conferences, approved works by priests or theologians, and the dogmatic/moral teachings of Holy Mother the Church. All for FREE! These are habits I myself work on daily, too often falling short, but to develop Catholic manly virtue in myself, until the day I die.