![]() To my shame, I proceeded to lead my lovely wife down the wrong path. ![]() (Side note: I find it interesting that many/most of today’s bishops and priests are telling us we don’t have conscience rights to object to an experimental abortion-tainted “vaccine”). Nor did they suggest that I read Casti Connubi or Humanae Vitae (which I didn’t know existed at the time) or even the Catechism to form my conscience about such an important matter. None of them mentioned the importance of a well-formed conscience. All used the “primacy of conscience” argument to assure me that if my conscience said it was okay to use artificial contraception to delay children, it was okay in the eyes of the Church. I subsequently sought counsel from two priests and a deacon. What I heard (and perhaps what I didn’t hear) that day left me somehow empty and confused although at the time I really couldn’t put my finger on what it was that was troubling me. Our marriage prep classes in a suburban Boston parish (under then-Cardinal Bernard Law) consisted of a morning with other engaged couples sitting around a table led by a lay person who didn’t know much more than we did about Church teaching regarding marriage and family. However, in retrospect, we were both poorly catechized and didn’t know the true teachings of the Catholic Church or what was expected of us as Catholic spouses and parents. We were married in the Church and excited about our new life together. I was blessed to meet a beautiful practicing Catholic woman shortly after attending graduate school in Boston. The Work of Graceīy God’s grace (and mom’s example), I managed to hang in there living a nominally Catholic life. My siblings all fell away from the faith after high school – all of them married outside the church to non-Catholic spouses. Despite all of this, and having nowhere else to turn, my mother suffered through and stood strong in her faith. My mother hung on, eventually becoming involved in (falling prey to?) the “Catholic” charismatic movement in the early 1970’s. He hasn’t set foot in a Catholic church (other than a few Baptisms, First Communions, Confirmations, weddings, and funerals) since. This and all the other changes were the last straw for my dad. Dad’s pleas fell on deaf ears as he was told (incredible as it sounds) that the Church had decided it would be better to focus its efforts and resources on Catholic colleges (we now know how that turned out since the notorious 1967 Land O’Lakes Statement). Of course, communion in the hand, girl “altar boys,” “eucharistic ministers,” female lectors and various other novelties soon followed.Īt the time, my dad, also a cradle Catholic and World War II era Marine, protested these things (primarily the closing of our school) rather firmly with our local pastor and our then-Bishop Raymond Hunthausen (who later became notorious as the very liberal Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle). Catechism classes, previously taught by priests and religious sisters, were relegated to lay volunteers – the Baltimore Catechism was out, new “modern” texts that often watered down or deviated from Catholic doctrine became the norm. In the end, our beautiful Catholic church looked more like a Protestant gathering place or community hall than a Catholic church. Parish life seemed vibrant and stable until 1970 when it was announced that our Catholic school would be closing (after my 3rd grade year).Īt about the same time, our beautiful Gothic-style Church fell to the Vatican II “wreckovation.” The beautiful high altar was replaced by a table, the communion rail ripped out, the tabernacle moved to a corner, the statues removed, the walls whitewashed. Our small parish had a K-6 Catholic school and a convent staffed by faithful nuns in habits. What if They Restrict the TLM Even More?īorn a “cradle Catholic” just as the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) was underway in 1962, I was blessed to grow up in a small Western Montana town that was home to the first Catholic Parish established in Montana Territory. ![]()
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