Keys to Understanding the Current Crisis in the Church

Altar prepared for "Low Mass for the Dead" this past Wednesday.

Dear Friends and Family,

Many of you have asked me about the current crisis in the Church--what is really going on? What are the practical dangers for ordinary Catholics? How to respond in a spirit of faith and charity?

Full answers to those questions would take a lot of pages, but I wanted to at least give you here two articles, the first a very brief one, that can help.

But before giving you those, let me share very briefly some of this week's blessings:

Here at Lanherne I offer several times a year a series of three votive Masses for the dead: each with nine special prayers (three collects, three secrets, and three post-communions) for friends, benefactors, family members, and others who are now in purgatory. They are beautiful, rich prayers. For those of my family reading this, I make sure to pray for all of our deceased relatives. I took the above photo a few minutes before one of those Masses this week.

This week also had two beautiful Marian Feasts. The Feast of the Annunciation was this past Monday (moved due to Holy Week), and is a wonderful occasion of graces. Below are a few photos of the vestments from that day:

Then today, the Saturday before "Good Shepherd Sunday," I offered the Mass of the Feast of Our Lady Mother of the Divine Shepherd. The Mass begins "Let us all rejoice in the Lord, celebrating a feast-day in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Divine Shepherd: in whose solemnity the Angels rejoice, and praise together the Son of God, alleluia, alleluia." A beautiful way to begin this Saturday!

Shedding some light on the crisis in the Church:

A great deal is being written about the current confusion and crisis. In the following article, by Dr. Janet Smith, explains what is at stake regarding the moral evil of contraception. But the same reasoning could be applied to any other serious sin, as you will see. The article is brief, and I think pretty clear and non-technical:

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/theologian-heres-how-popes-teaching-is-being-used-to-reject-humanae-vitae

The second article is a bit longer and more intellectually developed. Don't feel obliged to read it. But if you would like to understand some of the deeper issues in points underlying the current confusion regarding the papacy, and how to respond, I think it is helpful. It is the text of a talk given by Dr. Roberto de Mattei, a famous Church historian. I have gotten to know him personally these past few years and hold his scholarship in high esteem. The article distills in a brief space, given the meaty topics it covers, key points regarding the papacy and the love and devotion we owe to the Pope. Given how long the article is, you may wish to skip to the midway point where there is the heading "The Error of Papalotry."

https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2018/04/de-mattei-tu-es-petrus-true-devotion-to.html

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Pillari