BACK AND ENERGIZED

There's no place like home. L. Frank Baum

Thanks to hurricane Sandy and last week's storm, the Readers got to spend a few extra days abroad. We can confidently report that there is indeed something very conservative going on in the Novus Ordo Church. Oh, sure, once glorious churches still show the damage wrought by tasteless Vatican II experimenters, like the weird modernistic cube-mensa in the otherwise splendid Gesù. The majority of female religious are from the third world. The clergy on the street are generally unkempt and of apparent low breeding.  And, as ever, JPII's ghoulish image, wrapped in clouds, seems to peer down menacingly from every tacky souvenir shop display and disorderly church bulletin board. But the people themselves want to return to tradition.

Noon and evening masses were well attended. Persons of all ages could be found lighting candles or meditating in chapels where the Blessed Sacrament was reverently exposed for veneration (something we didn't see too often in past travels). In conversations with many different people, we heard bitter complaints about the policies and practices of the conciliar Church and its liberal leaders. (No one we talked to believes B16 is a genuine conservative; many even resent the fact that he's a German, who despite his years in the Curia doesn't really know how things operate in Rome.)  Well-informed Italians now know the council was wrong. Most encouraging were the words of praise for the Latin Mass. Furthermore, more than a few of our new acquaintances expressed a desire for the return of classical studies to the school curriculum. They see Europe fading, and they understand her eclipse is the result of abandoning Western culture, the center of which is the Roman Catholic Church.

Accordingly, when the Readers stepped off the plane, we all felt renewed despite the jet lag and stress of getting a flight back to a city other than New York. The union is off to a great start, and our conversations with everyday folks confirmed that aliquid-pravi Catholicism is a real alternative to the divisive and cultist ways of malformed sedevacantist adventurers. It's time Traddies in the 'States face up to the fact that "One-Hand Dan," the Blunderer, the rector, and all their associates are just plain wrong. It's the right time to tell these characters that Catholic principles, not narrow self-interest, count. It's time to show them the door.

Start by starving the Beast this coming holiday season.