The Bishop's Weekly Column from the Parish Bulletin

OUR LADY OF FATIMA

CATHOLIC CHURCH

"We've been 40 years in the desert..."

January 4th, 2008

Sic transit gloria mundi !

The January 2007 edition of the Catholic World Report Magazine arrived yesterday morning in the mail. Yes you read that correctly it says January 2007. I suppose like me you write checks with 2007 and change it to 2008 for a couple of weeks into the new year. Yes it was supposed to read January 2008. In any case the magazine lay on a kitchen counter until I was drying the dishes after supper last night. I casually turned the magazine the right side up so I could read the headlines on the front cover as I continued drying. My eyes scanned the titles one by one and then I read: "Schism on the Mount". "The Mount ?" I asked myself. Was that Mount Athos with the warring Greek Orthodox monasteries that periodically erupt into physical violence or was that Mount St. Michael and the former CMRI nuns who regularized with the Catholic Diocese of Spokane ? If I had to bet on it, I favored the latter choice. Needless to say by now the dishes were no longer being dried as I opened the cover to find the contents' page and then I saw the little photograph of a group of smiling sisters and I was vindicated. I lost no time in thumbing through to page 27...

Well the "story" has been told before of how the nuns came to convert - they saw John Paul II's funeral and as the author of the article put it: "they believed they were watching the funeral of a true pope." I thought to myself that it was a shame they came to believe he was a true pope when he was lying in his coffin; it seemed to me to be more appropriate to believe a man to be the pope whilst alive, because the minute he dies he is no longer "the pope" ! Actually this is a load of nonsense; some of these sisters believed John Paul II was truly the pope more than a decade ago. This, of course, begs the question as to why they continued to fit the square peg of their conscience into a round hole for so long. The answer is quite obvious if one thinks about it...

The article also gives us several tidbits of information viz their sneaking out at night to steal down to the local rectory to have their doubts answered by the new rite priest. They could do this since both the previous superior and the then current superior were part of the crew and thus they could dispense themselves from any cloister curfew. The author writes:

"Often under the cover of darkness and with their habits hidden so as not to draw attention, they would go to either the MC convent or Father B's rectory to discuss their doubts."

"Forty Years on the Mount", Matthew Gamber S.J. Catholic World Report, January 2008, p. 28

At this point I am reminded of the words of Our Divine Lord:

"Jesus answered him: I have spoken openly to the world: I have always taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither all the Jews resort; and in secret I have spoken nothing." John 18:20

Any illusion of the group being reconciled as Traditional sisters is quickly removed by the article for we read:

"While delighted with Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict's motu proprio expanding the use of the traditional Latin Mass, the sisters accept the validity of the new liturgy and their re-entry was not predicated on the motu proprio's release."

"Forty Years on the Mount", Matthew Gamber S.J. Catholic World Report, January 2008, p. 28

Indeed in the preceding paragraph we also read:

"The 15 sisters currently live in a wing of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Retreat House, which is owned by the Spokane Diocese. They are spending time learning about post-Vatican II religious life while planning to avoid the tragic mistakes made by so many orders of women over the last four decades."

"Forty Years on the Mount", Matthew Gamber S.J. Catholic World Report, January 2008, p. 28

A magic elixir being brewed in the retreat house or was that a visit to the neural neutralizer ? The empirical evidence of science teaches that if an experiment previously failed it will do so again.

The heavy-handedness of their former "superior general" isn't exactly portrayed in a flattering light, neither are the current state of affairs amongst the Sisters who didn't secede. Sister Domenica, whom the author describes as "installed as the new mother general" (I wonder if that was by order of Omaha or did the sisters have a free election?), describes the scene at MSM today amongst the nuns:

"The nuns who did not leave continue to live in a state of confusion. (No doubt ! +TF) 'We continue to pray for a true Holy Father (bizarre isn't it ? i.e. one made in their image and likeness - +TF). But we don't pretend to have an answer of how to resolve this question.'" (Well of course you don't, there isn't one ! +TF)

Then we have this interesting chestnut:

"Mother Domenica has spoken publicly about the love and esteem that the remaining CMRI sisters have for those who left them."

"Forty Years on the Mount", Matthew Gamber S.J. Catholic World Report, January 2008, p. 30

Well chestnuts are for roasting...compare that with this extract from a chat room for current and former members of the CMRI group which directly contradicts the previous quotation:

The SMMC nuns were asked not to attend MSM games. (not banned) This came directly from the mouth of Sr. Philomena. The SMMC nuns are only respecting the wishes of the CMRI nuns who live on this private property. Some of the students saw the SMMC sisters and from the mouth of one of these students, "It is so hard to see them. They seem so happy and joyful and the forget the pain they've cause and the bad feelings they left behind. It was like putting salt on a wound."

One of the other students commented on how thin the nuns look. The SMCC sisters have six months and then time will tell the paths they will take. Will there be a happy ending? I guess the best thing is just to pray for them.

Thus it transpires that some of the nuns who left went back to MSM to attend some basketball games. Until earlier this year they were the teachers of some of these children. Now they are no longer allowed to return to the Mount. Another post claims that it was "Mother" herself who said this and that the "pastor" later defended the ban because they "had to protect the children." Our Lord again comes to mind:

"Then Jesus said to those Jews, who believed him: If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

John 8:31 & 32

If sede types have the "truth" what have they to fear ?

The final quotation of interest is this:

"The sisters understand the challenges ahead. 'We've been 40 years in the desert,' says one sister. While facing such problems as no clear and stable source of income and unfamiliarity with current ecclesial documents regarding religious life, they take joy from the common proclamation, 'We have been embraced by our Mother, the Church.'"

"Forty Years on the Mount", Matthew Gamber S.J. Catholic World Report, January 2008, p. 30

The problem with the image of the "desert" is readily apparent. Whilst I agree sedevacantism is a theological wasteland of internal contradictions which have no viable solution with a perpetual NON-succession in the primacy of Peter until the end of time - a direct contradiction of a defined dogma of Vatican I - I couldn't quite begin to describe the modern church (in the mess she is in) as an "oasis of the Faith" which is precisely the image that is conjured up by the reference to the desert.

All of this makes me think of the last time CMRI threw the baby out with the bath water. When Schukhardt was ousted in 1984, the rigorous atmosphere was ditched in favor of almost total liberalism, now any semblance of Tradition is abandoned in favor of the Novus Ordo. If the Novus Ordo was all it is cracked up to be, why didn't they all roll over in 1969 ? Why wait 38 years to embrace what you resisted for so long ? Furthermore, what is Pope Benedict's intention behind the Motu Proprio ? Doesn't he kind of concede that we had a point in resisting the reforms ?

They say that the ghost of Elizabeth I roams the banks of the Thames moaning: "40 years of reign ! 40 years of woe !" Sic transit gloria mundi !

+TF