Another year draws to a close. While a new liturgical calendar year in both forms of the Roman Rite begins (the Novus Ordo and Extraordinary Form/Latin Mass,) another Julian Calendar year of 2018 Anno Domini (A.D.) slammed shut for the record books. As I look back on last year, I would like to reflect upon the good, the bad, and the ugly within our Church and more pertinent to this blog, what development has come within the Archdiocese of Toronto (and outside) for the Latin Mass.
TRIGGER WARNING ....
Before I begin, let me say I’m going to be blunt in this post, and my haters/enemies or blind lemmings of the Radical Traditionalist side, will not like this post, especially those responsible of the sins against Christ and I mentioned within. What I say here is on my blog, and needless to say, that includes what happens before/after the Masses are done. I do this to show what stops the EF liturgy from growing, and only further cements the already existing divisions that shouldn’t be there in the first place, especially by youth and leaders who should know better!
Let me also say, that I continue to take a cue that has now been reiterated thanks to the recent McCarick scandal of 2018: Bullies and predators have power over their victims when they continue to be silent. I will not be silent for that reason as well, to the chagrin of those who hate my friends and I. I also, will NOT be an enabler of such bullies, and hence, the works of the Devil by being an accessory to sin via silence.
Don’t like it? Go read Rorate Caeli, don’t waste your time in replying to me, and start living out the actual Gospel in your life. Or better yet, start acting civil and perhaps, working alongside your perceived enemies doing the EF liturgy. If seriously damaging retaliation occurs though, I am not afraid to contact the Office of the Archbishop as well as my legal counsel, of which the latter and I can discuss proceedings under civil and criminal codes of law in the province of Ontario, as well as the Human Rights Tribunal.
That is your “trigger warning.” COMMENTS are off, and anything in my email inbox is subject to becoming a new post and example of what I’ll describe in this post. Also your emails will be saved in case of necessity to bring them to legal, or ecclesiastical counsel (e.g. the Chancery/Office of the Archbishop.)
As for everyone else, hopefully you will be able to simply read this for what it’s worth, but do not fret ... I’ll be doing the bad and ugly first, and then the good. There are a lot of positives from this year and in future.
General Church
THE BAD AND UGLYThis has been a particularly devastating year for the Roman Catholic Church. Thanks to the clerical abuse scandal (including sexual abuse of adult seminarians and a minor) of now ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of the U.S.A., and a Pennsylvania Grand Jury report of the Catholic Church and sexual abuse, once again our Church has had to face a new wave of sex abuse scandal. From the media to parishioners at the parish level, many are angry, furious, and are using this as an excuse/opportunity/breaking point to leave the Catholic Church, shun priests in public or otherwise, and not grow their faith, being nice and complacent in Christmas and Easter land.
The Trads/Conservatives are of equal fault in this mess, cheering on shady priests and heroes who are using the scandal to attack the Holy Father, Pope Francis. Causing further scandal is none other than former Papal Nuncio of the USA Carlo Viganò, who fingered Pope Francis (with unsubstantiated evidence) of clerical cover up in the McCarick scandal. Meanwhile much of Vigano’s timeline has jarring holes in it, and his own moral and ethical character are in peril, as he even owed money to his brother after a Roman court decision over a lawsuit concerning family inheritance and assets that would make Pope Francis furious. Were one to be a Crown or government prosecutor putting Pope Francis on trial based on the Vigano testimony, too much doubt would exist that a jury would likely acquit him/declare “Not Guilty.”
In terms of the Latin Mass, the same voices on their blogs and in person, as well as some new names, continue to give the Latin Mass, Catholic "t"raditionalism, and even Catholicism, a bad reputation that detracts bodies from coming to the pews. Sadly, even more moderate conservatives/ orthodox individuals have joined the fray in spewing out tabloid fodder against the Pope Francis Papacy and/or endorsing works that sin against His Holiness by detraction and slander. Such fallen souls include Dr Taylor Marshall in his scandalous podcasts, and former Catholic Answers head and co-founder, Karl Keating, endorsing the hit piece “Lost Shepherd” by Phil Lawler. How the mighty have fallen!
THE GOOD
However on a positive note, the Latin Mass IS becoming a driving force to liturgical and divine renewal in the Church, growing steadily in number with even occasional offerings, and more so, Pontifical Latin Masses being held by people aside from ++Burke and ++Schneider. Included in that number is Canada’s very own ++Prendergast of the diocese of Ottawa, whose diocese houses an FSSP parish and Chapter. He did this just a couple months ago for the 50th commemoration of the formation of the FSSP. See the FSSP newsletter website ``The Missive`` here.
Locally, there are more occasional and even parish offerings of the TLM. Don’t believe me, just go to New Liturgical Movement and see their photo posts for major feast days. In past they did only one post. But during major periods (E.G. Advent and Christmastide,) their number soars to 3-4 posts of multiple offerings worldwide! This is a marked difference from a year or two ago.
THE ARCHDIOCESE OF TORONTO AND OTHER DIOCESES
The Bad and the Ugly
PARISHES OFFERING THE EFAlas, we come to my own neck of the woods where I reflect of the worst and the best of the growth of the TLM. Certain problems sadly persist which stall the growth of the TLM in certain regards, but in other avenues the TLM is becoming a juggernaut, and hope in increasing ever more.
As the Core of the Archdiocese of Toronto is my main focus, I will start here. In terms of parishes that offer TLMs more than once a week, INCLUDING Sunday obligation, that number is unchanged at ... two parishes (incl. grouped parishes.) that would be the Oratorian Parishes of St Phillip Neri and St. Vincent de Paul, and St Lawrence the Martyr which is home to the EF Chaplain of Toronto, Fr Russell Asch.
Personally I think that ALL faithful who even go occasionally to the EF, should write ++Collins at the Archdiocese of Toronto and demand another parish in the Core with a Sunday obligation Mass. Two parishes in neighbourhoods not immediately accessible to the TTC, nor in areas people would normally go out to in the city, is NOT ENOUGH! Further this situation is unfair to both the Archdiocese, and to the participants in the EF, as it gives the impression of “Ghettoization” of the EF, that is purposely allowing the EF to exist in parishes in less wealthy/harder to access geographical areas to discourage attendance. This must end! It sends the wrong message, that we are not being spiritually inclusive in the Archdiocese, as Pope Francis wills for his Church (despite a lack of preference by His Holiness for the EF.)
RADICAL TRADITIONALISM AND BULLYING, A SIN AGAINST THE 5th COMMANDMENT, STILL LEADS CERTAIN AVENUES ...
Furthermore, as I’ve alluded to in my blog goals (See No. 4,) and in past reflections and postings (eg, here and here,) there is still a sick, elitist, sinful attitude among certain members of the community of Radical Traditionalism, and to boot, now includes some of the younger members of this community. These youth in particular are carrying such attitudes they would never have developed in normal parish/campus ministry life of the Church, were it not for older individuals who harbored such attitudes (who at least, have some legitimacy as they were stripped of the TLM, for the Novus Ordo at its worst back in the 1970s of wild experimentation.) Pope Francis has spoken about these young individuals before in one of his books of Argentinian homilies or notes for his homilies, where he states that behind the rigidity are personal problems and issues.
Worse, these individuals of both the older generation and the younger generation, be they clergy or laity, attack in various ways those of us who do not wish to espouse anti-Papal and anti-Catholic values they do, nor turning the EF liturgy into an idol of specific mechanical steps to be carried out like a toy robot, while denigrating the Novus Ordo, thinking of it as a `bastard rite.` For that, we suffer harassment in the form of snide comments on social media, and emails from those fanboys (and possibly, girls? hasn't happened yet to me,) of said individuals, even clergy, demeaning us and discouraging us to doing the EF.
What kind of shenanigans do I mean? I’ll use myself as an example to illustrate what I’ve mentioned as barriers to the EF, from various instances last year. In terms of general promotion of the EF, I was ‘ordered’ a.k.a. ‘asked’ (albeit in a passive aggressive manner,) in the summer of 2018, not to promote a specific EF Mass offering, which had the assistance of a newly formed young adult choir of Gregorian chanters. The reasoning I was given was my blog was too political and the choir doesn’t want to be affiliated with my blog for that reason.
This reasoning was asinine to begin with as I have NO official position or representation with anyone. I even have a disclaimer HERE where by I state I represent myself and no one else here in Servimus, even if I do most of my serving with x choir or x parish. For that matter I retort that my choices of serving is so NOT to be affiliated with political malefactors, those who are anti-Francis, anti-Church, anti-Archdiocese (chancery) and anti-++Collins, etc.
However, I knew that this person has friends that are enemies of both my close friends in the EF (including the St Patrick’s Gregorian Choir) and I, who vehemently do not want us ‘Glad Trads’ around.
Despite honest or not-honest intentions, I curtly told this person NO, because I believe in (save promoting Radical Traditionalists,) in promoting offerings to allow ALL people to come and to grow interest in the EF, and that others before him told my allies of St Patrick’s Gregorian Choir and I, not to promote or invite people to their offerings. Might I add that sadly, such person is a young adult and was NOT of my known enemies at that time?
Let's turn to another example involving myself. Whenever I post my Latin Mass reports on Toronto Catholic Youth Facebook page, regardless of what I write, one of my enemies, another young man who is an example of those rigid youth and who sees me as his enemy (despite any verbal or written denials if you know the person,) leaves passive aggressive comments that either demean the offerings of my friends and I that we participate in/organize, insinuating that I am causing division in the EF, etc. I am actually fighting against the division that ALREADY EXISTS, I have been for years, and I will continue to do so (thanks to people like himself,) and such comments are a case of the “pot calling the kettle black.” Here, the adage “if you have nothing nice to say, then don’t say it at all,” would allow the individual to put to practice what we are taught in our TRUE Catholic Faith and the EF liturgy.
A more insidious, and dare I say, Satanic example, happened during my last offering of the EF I served the Holy Lord at his altar with, that of Christ the King in October 2018, organized by St Pat’s Gregorian Choir (SPGC), hosted by St Mary’s Polish Catholic Church. For the sake of this post, I will elaborate more on some of the events, to illustrate the sabotaging behaviour that certain individuals try to do to continue to wreck the TLM, and gives victory only to the Devil.
I initially reported briefly for the Mass, on the change of venue and time for the offering of the Latin mass. I did not disclose full details at that time out of the sake of charity for my colleagues and those who attended that mass.
However, I will now reveal more so you can truly see what actions only benefit the Devil and prevent this beautiful, sacred liturgy from being able to reach more souls. Before this offering, it was agreed between SPGC and I, that I would be the Master of Ceremonies (MC) after seven years of alter serving in the Archdiocese of Toronto, having served multiple positions. In short having paid my dues, it was finally time to lead in the liturgy.
Personally, I also wanted to be an MC, as I am also aware, that in today’s climate in the EF Church, MCs are playing an essential role in training not only servers, but also Priests and assisting them, as an MC must be competent in all areas of the liturgy. Also, having knowledge helps the priest and others with their roles, and should one present themselves to help get an EF going, having a knowledgeable leader would assist the priest who may not want to initially delve into it, fearing lack of knowledge/resources.
I purposely shadowed the MC at the practice for the June offering of which a number of the same people who were involved in Christ the King knew, at least those initially involved. It was known to those members that I would be MC’ing the October mass.
Initially, Christ the King was to be held as usual in the earlier afternoon of the last Sunday of October, with me debuting as MC. Those arrangements were changed suddenly, with the Mass to be moved to 530pm, but also a change in the lineup with me being replaced by another MC who has never been MC with SPGC`s organized masses (he MIGHT have served other positions in past, though this author`s recollection is hazy on that.) This change of the MC role was at someone else’s insistence. While the scheduling change had valid reasoning behind it, this change in MC was done with utter disregard to SPGC and I. Further I was furious! It was known to a number of us involved including the Choir and I that I would be debuting. This was a deliberate attempt to stop me from doing so, as I’ve found out that the change was motivated by utter hatred for me and the SPGC. Same group of enemies, but different players with direct/indirect involvement.
Out of charity for attendees of the EF, I will not name the party directly responsible, which consists of one or more members, but what I will say is as part of leadership of the EF, for the party to do so, has allowed themselves to be seduced by Satan, to hate a family man and a father of a 9 month old son, simply because of his allies in the TLM and I choose to be loyal to my Church, my Eminence, ++Collins, and not espouse the heresies contained in Radical Traditionalism! For the new year these party members should resolve to seriously do deep penance for their sins, and I would highly advise them to read the works of one of my Patron Saints, St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, especially his Ascetic Work, “Preparation for Death,” to give them direction for their future conduct of their souls.
Regardless, my true friends of the Choir and I, were NOT going to let Satan stop us from having this Mass due to a time change and interlopers. The Choir immediately (and with my prayers, and I’m sure those of the members and choirmaster,) set about getting to work, and thankfully St Mary’s and Fr Kazimierz the pastor, were more than happy to welcome us with open arms, also having the Mass moved back to earlier afternoon, which accommodated many of us and the laity, while allowing for some rest on the Day of the Lord, before the coming work week.
Despite what our enemies tried to do, Our Lord, Christ the King, ruled once again over both Earthly and his Divine Kingdom, and allowed his reign to not be quashed by the Devil. It ceases to amaze me that despite what challenges have assailed all of us, be it email harassment, or laity and clergy befriending us and then “turning heel” on my friends and I, there has always been an offering of Christ the King in the Last Sunday of October for the Feast of Christ the King. Viva Christo Rei!
So, what do these events that have happened to me say? Plain and simple, there continues to be a sect of people in the EF community, who want to go against the spiritual discipleship and mission of Holy Mother Church and Our Eminence ++Collins wishes, and want the EF only for themselves as their elitist club of spiritual superiority. They do not want those loyal to Pope Francis and Holy Mother Church and the poor and less fortunate to provide and/or attend the EF, (including those that decry the injustices and sins that they commit,) and foolishly think they are needed to purify the Church of its crisis, rot, and evil. Hence the actions they take upon my friends and I are to stop us from holding Latin Masses, and even I as a server from playing any part in the overall growth and proliferation of the EF in the Archdiocese of Toronto. They want the whole pie and the leadership, and their enemies cast aside.
THE GOOD -Toronto and Beyond
I’ll admit that I’ve spilled a lot of red ink on the table of this post. You are asking now, what good is there in Toronto and beyond then, for the EF, after all I’ve said? Well .... MUCH!First, when you count more than Sunday/daily offerings in the Archdiocese of Toronto, we have in total 7 parishes offering the Latin Mass, as well as lay organizations and choirs helping to hold extra offering of the TLM and even now Vespers!
There are also new and exciting developments that have occurred in the past year with regards to the EF community. First, another priest in the Archdiocese, Fr Luis Calleja, at St Timothy’s in Orangeville, is offering some weekday Latin Masses early morning. Welcome Fr! Second, a new choir of young adult vocalists, the St Vincent’s Oratory has formed in Toronto, who have assisted at some extra offerings for TLM Masses, as well as offerings of vespers according to the 1962/EF liturgical guidelines.
Which brings be to point three: These monthly and/or biweekly offerings of Vespers are being held on a Sunday evening (or evenings) at the base parish for the chaplain of the EF, St Lawrence the Martyr, one of the two mainstay parishes with daily EF and Sunday obligation Mass. See here as an example in one of their past bulletins of 2018. As a final note, I will also say that the QUANTITY of extraordinary offerings at higher Mass levels of Cantata (Sung High) and Solemnis (Solemn)(outside of normal parish schedules or in addition to parish schedules,) are being held all over the Archdiocese, whether at parishes friendly to the EF, or in co-operation/organization by the lay organizations/choirs/Chaplian to the EF.
Where the most significant growth is though, this year, is outside the Archdiocese of Toronto. More and more “communities” are forming in other dioceses, and bishops are accommodating their needs by allowing certain parishes to hold at least monthly offerings of the TLM. Some bishops, such as +Crosby of London (which includes Hamilton, ...) have even assigned a priest to be an EF chaplain to administer to the faithful desiring the EF and is celebrant for their Masses. This also extends to providing sacraments in the EF Rite/according to EF books.
How much growth has happened? Well, that would be the following: 2 parishes in Peterborough in the Campbelford and Hastings area; 2 parishes under the diocese of London with 1 parish in Sarnia/Lambton under the TLM Sarnia-Lambton community; 5 parishes in the Diocese of Hamilton, with 3 alone, and 2 under the communities of the Grey Bruce Latin Mass Community and Brantford Latin Mass community; 1 offering in the Diocese of Pembroke; and 1 offering in Sudbury under the Mater Dei Latin Mass community. This makes a grand total of 10 new offerings I've discovered in 2018! This also includes 5 new communities! While I will NOT promote or list all these communities as some contain poisoned, radical traditionalist leadership and/or elements, I do include them in numbers to show the overall quantity of offerings that has soared high!
And believe me, word IS getting out to the young adults, thirsty for deep spiritual worship and the truth of the Catholic Faith, presented to them and challenging them to do Pope Francis’ “Hagan Lio” in life, even if Jorge Maria Bergoglio as Francis has his own ideas what youth should do! Social media, such as this blog, other mediums besides Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. Are spreading the news, and a good and steady, gradual influx of my generation and younger are coming out to these EF Masses. Just look at my report for Rorate Caeli 2018 when I look at demographics in the pews by sheer visuals alone for example.
Despite the climate of the Church and the still major presence of regular parish life with the Novus Ordo, young people are coming to the Traditional Mass thanks to social media! Here’s an example of one young lady (name withheld,) who, thanks to my blog was able to find an offering closest to her in her area in Ontario:
"... Hi, Julian, ... you posted that wonderful list of Latin Masses in nearby dioceses? It was a big help to me. I live about 1.5 hours west of XXXXX [city withheld], ON, and it’s such a wasteland here. I’m so happy to find 2x a month Latin Mass in Campbellford nearby! I’m going tomorrow! Prior to this, I’d only been while travelling ... thank you .... +JMJ"
Also, social media is allowing the spread of major liturgical events like never before, of which “die-hard” Traditionalists are sacrificing time, energy, vacation days at work, and their lives to attend. Examples were the Solemn Poltifical Mass in Ottawa for the FSSP, and the upcoming Sacra Liturgia 2019 conference, coming to Toronto in June, which ++Collins has welcomed with open arms, and who knows, might even be a part of in some way! SL2019 I found on Facebook, as early as Nov 2018 being promoted!
SUMMARY
So where are we at 2019? We are standing at a major point in time in the Modern Church. Between the secular culture’s forceful drive for people to be hedonistic and scandal in the everyday Church, regular Church culture, and Novus Ordo liturgy (the majority of Masses,) are becoming more and more unappealing to the average faithful in keeping them in the Church, numerous laity and youth are becoming full of contemplation of leaving the Church for good. Where will the spiritually hungry, the hurt, the needy go? Traditional Catholicism could be those beacons ... were it not for problems as I’ve glanced at in this blog, and this posting.
Either Traditonalism crashes and burn with the sins of the very participants within the Church and it’s advocates, as per Satan’s plan to decimate souls via spiritual Pride, or it matches forward like an electric train, and could be that beacon of hope, especially to those of my Xenial and younger generation(s) (TRUE Millenials, Gen Z, the Wired generation of today’s teens and kids ...)
Yes, currently there a lot of setbacks, and much evil has been committed in the Church at the highest levels with McCarick and the clerical abuse scandals. It’s only going to get worse, especially in the USA as federal investigations and local ones unearth more cover-ups by chancery offices.
More of those setbacks also include grievous sins in the Church such as harassment, bullying, intended ostracism which is happening in the Church on both sides of the theological-political spectrum, all for the sake of a fascist hold of the Church shaped according to what each side of “Protestants” holds dear, while being anti-Catholic.
However, this includes the local level/parish level by certain members of the EF community in Toronto, whereby it’s older members have spiritually and mentally corrupted some young impressionable minds or committed sins against others such as my friends and I. Such acts, whether by laity or clergy, old and young, on internet blogs or in person, do nothing but detract from the growth of the EF and show the guilty parties for who they really are ... exactly as opponents of the EF say. Do you wonder where Francis gets his cannon fodder for his homilies against Traditionalists from?
Also for Toronto, and other dioceses worldwide, the EF must stop being ghettoized, and a couple of more offerings must be erected in more easily accessible, and desirable (for lack of a better word,) areas, with firm oversight by parish pastors and diocesan chancery offices, to ensure radical Traditonalists/Anti-Catholic interests and personalities do not lead the “scene” or that parish’s community. Ghettoization is NOT the answer for the densest parts of the Archdiocese, the GTA core in Toronto. While I do sympathize with His Eminence’s wishes NOT to be involved with those anti-Catholic elements that attack Church discipleship (and in extension to the EF, who sympathize with Radical Traditonal leader and organizations) EF offerings MUST expand past the Oratorians and St Lawrence the Martyr, and NOT in other areas that would be “Ghettoized.” Surely aren’t their parishes with priests that are retiring that could be re-diverted to the needs of the EF, or at least with one key mass being an EF Mass?
To that I say everyone needs to be silent, pray, fast, do any other acts of reparation, and just do the EF. Clearly in 2019, we ALL could be capable of stopping the exclusion and the sniping and grow up! Are we not all baptized and professed Catholics? Work with each other on the altar and off, despite animosities, and promote each other’s Masses (save those with radical traditionalist leadership, I won’t do it on Servimus.) Seriously, if you want serving help, just ask me straight and just serve on the altar with me. I don't care for anything else before/after practice and Masses if that's what's desired. Also, plan on accusing me of hypocrisy? We’ll go ahead if you want to do that. But it will be a waste of your time that could have been spent sending an email or making a call to invite another person to the EF, or recruiting the help of myself or another young man to help serve the Latin Mass.
However, despite such acts, as demonstrated worldwide (eg NLM photoposts,) and even in Ontario, the Latin Mass IS thriving in the normal life of the Church! More and more priests are daring to take up the call of learning the EF in whatever frequency possible, be they for a first Mass after ordination, occasional, or even frequent offerings! Further, here in Toronto, and even outside the Archdiocese, more and more areas are having regular TLMs, as evidenced by the growth of numerous “communities” and parishes having them, even if it just once a month! And yes, youth are becoming more and more involved in this form of the Roman Rite, even if it’s the occasional offering. Let me also state that the quantity of higher level offerings, in general, is also increasing due to these new communities, and even new initiatives in Toronto, such as the St Vincent’s Oratory choir, and outside of Toronto by all parties and choirs involved.
Personally, I know that it is too early to call a “victory” of any sort, but when one thinks about the progress of the EF, in spite of the indifference of the Pope Francis Papacy, there is much hope we can have in our hearts and minds of a more promising liturgical future in the Church, one that touches the souls of the Church’s Faithful.
Keep “being the Mauqis,” as Fr John Zuhlsdorf always says. Keep helping out and performing those spiritual and corporal works of mercy in your parishes and personal life, while devoting as much of your time, energy, and even finances, to the EF.
There is hope here in Toronto, and even in our province, country, and world, with the Church alongside of it, but only we in this finite life, will determine how far it will go, or if the Lord’s TRUE Gospel, in liturgy and in life, will fall on deaf ears.
Pax Tibi Christi, Julian Barkin.
