YE BROOD OF VIPERS

Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for your tradition?  The Gospel According to St. Matthew

Ed. Note: Here's an email we received from one of the reading-challenged cultlings in response to our posts of January 19 and 26:

You are the HYPOCRITES. You slam Father McKenna for studying first with one priest and then with Father Cekada and not at Most Holy Trinity Seminary but last year you pushed a 2 year crash program for new priests in your stupid lay governance program. Your hate blog has done nothing but trash Most Holy Trinity Seminary, so how dare you say that future priests should study there!! You Readers talk out of both sides of your mouths.

Such unprovoked venom! Tsk, tsk. In the name of charity, let's set the record and this poor soul straight:

We are not opposed to the private tutorial method as an emergency means of training priests throughout the on-going ecclesial crisis. We stated so in the footnote of the January 26 post ("Unprincipled Interest"). Actually, the Readers affirm the tutorial method can be superior to the empty formation on offer at the jokingly styled seminaries (LOL) of Trad World U.S.A., provided the tutors have been suitably educated in real, accredited academic institutions. Moreover, we have never suggested that any young man study for the priesthood at Most Holy Trinity Seminary. In fact, our unwavering policy has been to discourage decent aspirants to the priesthood from entering the pesthouse.

Our objective, which we thought had been made clear, was to publish the cult-masters' flagrant hypocrisy. You see, the McNewbie was "trained" outside a formal seminary, in part by Tony Baloney himself, the author of the article "Untrained and Un-Tridentine: Holy Orders and the Canonically Unfit."  Wee Dannie, the McNewbie's ordaining bishop (?), celebrated that drivel as a "landmark study" in his reprehensible nasty-gram to a lay association abroad ("The Poison Pen"). You'll recall we reported Dannie's fuming that a young priest "never completed a seminary program." We'll add here that he spitefully observed, "Had he [the young priest] settled down to seminary life, he would be a valid priest today, rather than the dubious character he has become."

The Blunderer's article, at its core a rent-seeking screed for MHT and a shamelessly self-promotional (and undeserved) valentine to himself, makes a very big deal over what he calls the "Tridentine system," which he squarely associates with seminary attendance. Witness this passage:

The seminary system established by the Council of Trent and prescribed by canon law provides candidates for ordination with a proper spiritual formation (through the seminary rule, daily schedule, regular spiritual direction, observation and correction, and faculty evaluation) and the required ecclesiastical education (knowledge and understanding of Latin, two years philosophy, four years theology). The Tridentine system insures that ordinands are “properly judged” (rite probati) over a long period of time on both their conduct and their knowledge, and that they are therefore indeed canonically fit for ordination.

And this one:

The decrees of the Council of Trent prescribed that “those who are to be ordained must live in a seminary, and there be formed in ecclesiastical discipline, and receive Holy Orders after having been properly judged.”

And again:

Canon 972.1 states the general rule: “All candidates for sacred orders … are obliged to live a (sic) seminary at least throughout the entire course of their theological studies.”

And again and again:

 The seminary program insures that ordinands are “properly judged” (rite probati) on basis (sic) of their conduct and their knowledge, and therefore canonically fit for ordination.

Pius XI warns: “Anyone who undertakes the sacred ministry without training or competence should tremble for his own fate, for the Lord will not suffer his ignorance to go unpunished… If ever there was an obligation on priests to be men of learning, it is even more pressing at the present time.” (Blunderer's emphasis. He actually cites the first part of this quotation twice in the article.)

and AGAIN:

...the law prescribes that your (sic) must live in the seminary: “The obligation affecting the course of theology requires not merely study in a seminary, but actual residence, and the obligation is a grave one.” (Blunderer's emphasis.)

 In his summary, the Cheeseball hoped that "this discussion will help the lay reader better understand and appreciate the traditional seminary formation received by Catholic priests."

O.K., O.K., O.K., already! We got the message: If you want to be a Tridentine priest, then you've got to do your training in a seminary.

 But if that's still true today, then why didn't the Bonehead defend the "Tridentine system" when Li'l Dan maneuvered to bring in the McNewbie to study privately at the Ohio cult center after the man had been studying privately with another priest out West? Why didn't the Cheeseball bring Dannie up to speed about the necessity of a "proper academic formation" in a seminary where "seminary superiors will observe, form and judge the seminarian’s character and behavior — something very difficult to do if he does not live in community with them"? Why, we ask, didn't the Blunderer insist upon the McNewbie's attending Most Holy Trinity Seminary, at least for two years, maybe even for three or four, if the obligation is really so grave? Why would the Blunderer allow fast-tracking that, based on the content of his article, would seem to be injurious to  "[t]he dignity of Christ’s priesthood and the general good of the Church"?

If Checkie had read his article aloud and slowly to Dannie, he surely could have warned Deacon Dan "that an unschooled, unformed priest is a time-bomb waiting to go off. When the explosion comes, scandal follows and souls are driven away from the traditional Mass." Maybe "One Hand" just might have gotten the message, especially where the Blunderer quotes canon law: “'The theological course of studies must be taken, not privately, but in schools instituted for this purpose according to the prescribed course of studies laid down in canon 1365.'” * Maybe "One-Hand Dan" would have seen the error of his ways if only the Checkmeister had warned him that "the Church’s norms are exacting, and those who do not meet them are unfit to receive, exercise or confer the sacrament of Holy Orders. The ministrations of such clergy, therefore, should be avoided by traditional Catholics everywhere." Checkie failed his bishop (?) for sure.

By now, we hope our overly exercised correspondent has learned what Pistrina advocates and who the real hypocrites are.  Certainly at this juncture he knows who "speaks with forked tongue" in this matter. Over the twisted arc of their failed apostolate, the self-righteous cult masters  have demanded rigid adherence to the law, yet here we see they refuse to observe the strict obligations they endeavor to impose on all others. Undoubtedly they think they don't need to concern themselves with external formalities: the intolerable rigor of the law is intended for suckers, certainly not for the "special" Poobahs and Panjandrums of Tradistan along with their undereducated sycophants, who can't be faithful to the tradition they publicly embrace.

No, the high-and-mighty cult masters  mustn't be bothered about such a trifle as faithfully adhering to one's announced principles.  That's why "One Hand" didn't think twice about conveniently ignoring the Blunderer's "landmark study," and that's why the Blunderer didn't feel bound to defend his own opinions either, or to throw a bone to the rector, whom the McNewbie's ordination has effectively turned into the Rodney Dangerfield of Trad World. 

No matter how much whitewash these whited sepulchers slather on, they always manage to leave the pentimento of Pharisaism, don't they? 

* * * * * * * * * 

Admittedly, reading anything the Blunderer writes makes an educated Catholic cringe. Luckily, his editorial sloppiness and aggressive ignorance of Latin provide a comic relief from all the dire hypocrisy and cant. The article "Untrained and Un-Tridentine," like his irreparably shoddy, error-crammed Work of Human Hands, gives us a chance to laugh ourselves silly at this ridiculous driveler playing the scholar. (Psst! Anthony boy! Nobody's fooled.) For our fans' enjoyment, in addition to the blunders quietly noted in three passages above, here is another pair of howlers (color emphases ours):

1. The Cheeseball quotes Pius XI but cannot get the correct English form of the verb for a line of Scripture:

Anyone who undertakes the sacred ministry without training or competence should tremble for his own fate, for the Lord will not suffer his ignorance to go unpunished; it is the Lord who has uttered the dire warning: "Because thou has rejected knowledge, I will reject thee, that thou shalt not do the office of priesthood to me".

Every schoolboy knows it should be "hast."

2. Like everything else we've exposed since 2010, the Bonehead's article spotlights his irremediable problems with the Latin language. In footnote 16, Tony Baloney prints Nemo sive saecularis sive religiosus ad primam tonsuram promoveatur ante inceptum cursum theologicam.  Anyone with an ounce of Latin would have known the adjective must be theologicum; this gross boo-boo proves that the Blunderer has no feel for Latin concord, after so many years. A Latinless but conscientious transcriber would have at least cross-checked the text with a printed copy of the Code of Canon Law. Apparently the Blunderer "has 'had' some Latin, or has 'passed' a Latin course or two" but doesn't understand "the language sufficiently."

 * N.B. The word "privately" (in the Latin of the CJC, privatim) not only means "at home" but also "individually, separately, as a private person and not as a member of a public body." Hence, a single individual who studies theology under a tutor (or a succession of tutors) takes his course of studies privately.

Private study a definite no-no, as long as you believe the 1917 Code of Canon Law is in force. We don't, so, as we said, we've no objection. But Wee Dan and the Cheeseball keep appealing to the code, so we wonder how they can justify their flouting its strictures. Apparently they don't have to worry in Traddielandia, where the insentient culties let these two clowns (three, if you count the disrespected rector) get away with all manner of absurdities.

We interject, as an aside, that all "training" in the substandard U.S. Traddie "seminaries" ought to be considered private inasmuch as these unregulated priest mills have no connection to the visible institutional Church.