Great piece! Nails the vague sense of “something is wrong with BB’s series but I can’t quite put my finger on it…” reminds me of a popular fairly recent US President - gifted orator but no one ever quite sure actually what was said….!
Am very confused as I am seeing a lot of friends go to TLM or SSPX in response to the vague irreverence of the novus ordo … I know it’s a somewhat loaded question, but is SSPX a valid alternative? I worry for my friends that it is not but I also see the NO boomerism that they are reacting too … 🫣
One has to do what one has to do, in my humble opinion. At this point, it's a prudential matter. If there is irreverence, one simply must find an alternative.
Missy, the SSPX have been given permission to say Mass, hear confessions, and witness marriages. You can fulfill your Sunday obligation at their chapels. They are not in schism. I might tell your friends to be a bit cautious, however, depending on the congregation. Sometimes, I've heard, some people who attend those chapels speak against the actual validity of the NO, and sometimes question whether Vatican II was a proper ecumenical council, neither of which is open to dispute (although disputation happens!). Of course, that may the odd one-off of my experience. The TLM, where permission is given, is every bit as much the Mass as the NO down the street.
The TLM is my preferred Mass. That being said, it can be just as poorly said as a NO Mass. The Mass should not be a race, and poorly said Masses often seem to be just that. I have been blessed to find a couple of reverent NO masses local to me in case the work schedule doesn't permit the TLM attendance.
SSPX is valid but not usually licit unless they happen to have the permission of the bishop - which, if they don’t, will not stop them from doing their thing (hey! if you don’t like the bishop, just ignore and disregard them! not protestant at all.) Interesting to note I think that they often cannot complete exorcisms (no proper authority) and have to call in FSSP.
i came back to the Church through the Latin Mass so this issue is very close to me as well. Also have some friends raised SSPX and … they often are not healthy communities. I would beware.
I recently did this course with fellow parishioners. The group facilitator started the first session asking the group what the difference was between our guardian angel and the Holy Spirit becasue she didn't know. Most of our sessions were just the folks in their 60s and 70s lamenting and being angry they never learned about the Mass. I understand, but I had to ask why they never studied it on their own at some point. The whole thing was so depressing and a real exercise in patience for me. I am glad you wrote this because now I don't feel alone in not liking the series. If one has already studied the mass (Old and New) something seemed a little off.
Great article! Was there anything redeeming at all in this tale of NO? I get the sense from the bishop that he likes to hear himself talk and be dramatic (I think, I haven’t watched anything from him lately.)
I didn't really get a sense of that from your article... (Just kidding.) It sounds like I would like to see a part of it just to confirm my recollection of his style of presentation and writing. But I probably won't. Thank you for your very thoughtful critique!
Thank you so much for watching this so I don't have to! (Well, actually, I didn't intend to. Bishop Barron is an instant put-off for me, so...) What a shame for an opportunity wasted. If people are exposed to real traditional Catholicism and the truth, they would likely be caught by some concept that they lack in life and that might actually invite the Holy Spirit to move them.
Bp. Barron has a wonderful heart for the Church, and he seems to be a man of faith and hope. And with his credentials he knows very well what the the Mass is: "the re-presentation of Christ's crucifixion, the sacrifice of the new law, where Jesus Christ offers Himself to God in an unbloody way through bread and wine, with the help of a priest." (Baltimore Catechism, available even to schmucks like me in a matter of seconds.) He knows that no other worship is acceptable, including that of other Christian bodies. So if the Mass is a privileged encounter, it could only be in the sense that Moses was privileged to meet God at the burning bush, or John was privileged to stand at the foot of the cross to witness our Lord's passion and death.
In fact, perhaps the problem is that Bp. Barron is an academic right down to his roots. Ordinary pewsitters like you and me want something clear and defined. He sees so many facets of each question that his answer, which necessarily has to be short for it to be listened to in our current media, ends up wandering away into nuance.
And whatever the good bishop might say, it is almost unbearably obvious that the Novus Ordo has not done what it was overtly designed to do. All the talking in the world is not going to convince people who show up on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. for an anticipatory Mass, with lackluster music and a priest who might be impersonating a very kind orthodontist, that this activity is where our Savior comes down onto the altar, surrounded by hosts of fiery angels adoring Him, to show forth our salvation from eternal damnation. No one seems to believe it! No one seems to worry that they might not be fit to stand before Him, or to be filled with gratitude for His sovereign goodness. And there is nothing about the activity at the altar that would help them understand.
As a protestant, I keep thirsting like a deer in the desert. All the confusion sowed by the sheppards (no less), makes it diabolically difficult to enter, and even more difficult to properly defend such a notion to other protestants. I have bo idea how to witness to them.
Like we say here in South Africa, Catholics are more scarce than chicken teeth. There is no Catholic culture to speak of, and the overt conviction is that it is from the devil and the Vatican is the source of much evil in the world. Literally posessed..
Thank you, Leila, for your clarity. I pray that I am not sinning through my inaction, though I have no idea what to do. There isn't really any TLM over here, and from what I have seen visiting a parish close enough to me, is more irreverance than my protestant parish.
Anel... I'm so sorry. I will keep you in my prayers, that you might be able to convert to the Catholic Church someday, and that a Traditional parish might open near you. Meanwhile, hang in there. Study the Faith through Traditional Catholic books and podcasts, but don't walk away because of what you see. We are all going through this, in one way or another, and I can tell you I have a small sense of what you feel. God bless you!
bishop barron has always struck me as a faux-intellectual. he likes to drop names but his comprehension is usually superficial. his use of the word priviledged is notorious as he told Ben Shapiro, a Jew, that Catholicism or Jesus was only a priviledged way to the Father, and that he is cool remaining a jew. But wait, B16 said that as well in Jesus of Nazareth. The truth is, the rot is complete and its everywhere, even in the supposed conservatives and trads and me and you. We are sheep without shepherds. Which is our grace and curse in this time, grace because God will help us immensely in this situation if we turn to him in humility and desperation.
BXVI quotes JPII in a general audience: "Twenty-five years after the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium Blessed Pope John Paul II, wrote: “In order to reenact his Paschal Mystery, Christ is ever present in his Church, especially in liturgical celebrations. Hence the Liturgy is the privileged place for the encounter of Christians with God and the One whom he has sent, Jesus Christ (cf. Jn 17:3)” (Vicesimus quintus annus, n. 7)"
If Bishop Barron wants to say "here at the Mass is the one place we can receive Our Lord, body, blood, soul, and divinity" then that at least starts to make some sense. But he doesn't say that. He just repeats the word!
I agree that the Council gave rise to many, many theologians being in love with their own bright ideas. Subsequently, lesser ones have taken those ideas and make them quite dim.
I applaud you for watching even one of the so-called bishop's videos. Barron is first and foremost a politician with aspirations far beyond his current episcopate. I stopped listening to a single word he had to say years ago when he praised the drivel novel The Shack. Imagine praising heresy.
Everything he says and does is suspect. Thanks for a great article!
It wasn’t easy. The photo I included here is one of the first images in the first film. To me it just radiates lameness and all the things that make me wonder why anyone bothers. And so that makes me angry…
When I have to attend a mass other than my preferred TLM (there are 2 I can attend, but one is in a much more beautiful church which affects me. The beauty reaches me where the ugliness hurts my heart.) I close my eyes through many parts of the Mass so I don't see the abuses and the lameness around me. I am there to worship the Lord and try to keep that in my mind and heart so as to not become angry in the middle of Mass. A young priest suggested the closing of the eyes and I will be forever grateful to him.
Thank you for this! Like others have said—now I don’t need to watch it. I keep thinking that one of our biggest problems now is that the church spends a lot of energy on pseudo-intellectual stuff that we call catechesis or evangelization and it does nothing to bring the everyday mind into conformity with the church. I think we need a more authoritative(?) emphasis on the precepts and the Ten Commandments. Get thyself to Mass each Sunday—the most reverent one you can find. Go to confession frequently. Fight your sin problem as best you can in your state in life. Stay married. Quit worrying about how you feel and what you think. Maybe I am being too simplistic, but at least less confusing. I am not sure how to articulate my discomfort with so many Catholic media influencers and their hot takes on the Faith—even the well intentioned, “orthodox” folks, I fear, are doing more harm than good.
This is a wonderful article, Mrs. Lawler. I myself am so tired of this --- priests and bishops responding with nothing but words and expensive solutions when they ought to be taking action. If you ask me, I believe belief in the Eucharist was lost not so much because of what the clergy said, but rather more because of what they did, and if explanations and expensive films or documentaries have not worked up until now, they never will. I can't understand our bishops, or how they fail to see this. But in a way it seems to me that their actions speak of an inveterate trust in the material --- looking to expensive documentaries and books --- instead of actually bowing their knee to Christ the King (through reverence to the Real Presence) to solve their problem.
(P.S. I feel the same way as you about how the collection baskets are emphasized at the Novus Ordo, and just to let you know this article won you a new subscriber.)
Bishop Barron gives me the creeps. He is, as you say here, a highly educated and intelligent man, yet he bends the truth deliberately. He wants very badly to be in the limelight, and to be all things to all men, perhaps as St. Paul tried to be, and I am being uncharitable. Perhaps his intentions are good. But you will see him on YouTube in discussions with leading intellectuals of the day, Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Pageau, etc. he holds his own but it all seems very performative and hollow. He is in the end promoting himself, ignoring the logical inconsistencies in the post Vatican II church, selling Catholicism short by pretending the heart hasn’t been cut out of it, that church in the round, white, dry walled building down the street with clear class windows, a white sanctuary lamp next to the tabernacle located behind the pews, the priest in a hideous polyester chausable and elderly ladies pompously bowing to the altar, ignoring the tabernacle and stepping up to the podium to deliver the readings, then playing tea party with the chalices, is a deep and mysterious encounter with God. It requires a great deal more imagination than most of us have to buy what he is selling.
Great piece! Nails the vague sense of “something is wrong with BB’s series but I can’t quite put my finger on it…” reminds me of a popular fairly recent US President - gifted orator but no one ever quite sure actually what was said….!
Am very confused as I am seeing a lot of friends go to TLM or SSPX in response to the vague irreverence of the novus ordo … I know it’s a somewhat loaded question, but is SSPX a valid alternative? I worry for my friends that it is not but I also see the NO boomerism that they are reacting too … 🫣
One has to do what one has to do, in my humble opinion. At this point, it's a prudential matter. If there is irreverence, one simply must find an alternative.
Missy, the SSPX have been given permission to say Mass, hear confessions, and witness marriages. You can fulfill your Sunday obligation at their chapels. They are not in schism. I might tell your friends to be a bit cautious, however, depending on the congregation. Sometimes, I've heard, some people who attend those chapels speak against the actual validity of the NO, and sometimes question whether Vatican II was a proper ecumenical council, neither of which is open to dispute (although disputation happens!). Of course, that may the odd one-off of my experience. The TLM, where permission is given, is every bit as much the Mass as the NO down the street.
The TLM is my preferred Mass. That being said, it can be just as poorly said as a NO Mass. The Mass should not be a race, and poorly said Masses often seem to be just that. I have been blessed to find a couple of reverent NO masses local to me in case the work schedule doesn't permit the TLM attendance.
SSPX is valid but not usually licit unless they happen to have the permission of the bishop - which, if they don’t, will not stop them from doing their thing (hey! if you don’t like the bishop, just ignore and disregard them! not protestant at all.) Interesting to note I think that they often cannot complete exorcisms (no proper authority) and have to call in FSSP.
i came back to the Church through the Latin Mass so this issue is very close to me as well. Also have some friends raised SSPX and … they often are not healthy communities. I would beware.
I recently did this course with fellow parishioners. The group facilitator started the first session asking the group what the difference was between our guardian angel and the Holy Spirit becasue she didn't know. Most of our sessions were just the folks in their 60s and 70s lamenting and being angry they never learned about the Mass. I understand, but I had to ask why they never studied it on their own at some point. The whole thing was so depressing and a real exercise in patience for me. I am glad you wrote this because now I don't feel alone in not liking the series. If one has already studied the mass (Old and New) something seemed a little off.
And then that begs the question -- is there *teaching* in this course? I don't see it!
Great article! Was there anything redeeming at all in this tale of NO? I get the sense from the bishop that he likes to hear himself talk and be dramatic (I think, I haven’t watched anything from him lately.)
I appreciate your perspective and analysis!
I didn't like it. It is not actually good!
I didn't really get a sense of that from your article... (Just kidding.) It sounds like I would like to see a part of it just to confirm my recollection of his style of presentation and writing. But I probably won't. Thank you for your very thoughtful critique!
Thank you so much for watching this so I don't have to! (Well, actually, I didn't intend to. Bishop Barron is an instant put-off for me, so...) What a shame for an opportunity wasted. If people are exposed to real traditional Catholicism and the truth, they would likely be caught by some concept that they lack in life and that might actually invite the Holy Spirit to move them.
Bp. Barron has a wonderful heart for the Church, and he seems to be a man of faith and hope. And with his credentials he knows very well what the the Mass is: "the re-presentation of Christ's crucifixion, the sacrifice of the new law, where Jesus Christ offers Himself to God in an unbloody way through bread and wine, with the help of a priest." (Baltimore Catechism, available even to schmucks like me in a matter of seconds.) He knows that no other worship is acceptable, including that of other Christian bodies. So if the Mass is a privileged encounter, it could only be in the sense that Moses was privileged to meet God at the burning bush, or John was privileged to stand at the foot of the cross to witness our Lord's passion and death.
In fact, perhaps the problem is that Bp. Barron is an academic right down to his roots. Ordinary pewsitters like you and me want something clear and defined. He sees so many facets of each question that his answer, which necessarily has to be short for it to be listened to in our current media, ends up wandering away into nuance.
And whatever the good bishop might say, it is almost unbearably obvious that the Novus Ordo has not done what it was overtly designed to do. All the talking in the world is not going to convince people who show up on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. for an anticipatory Mass, with lackluster music and a priest who might be impersonating a very kind orthodontist, that this activity is where our Savior comes down onto the altar, surrounded by hosts of fiery angels adoring Him, to show forth our salvation from eternal damnation. No one seems to believe it! No one seems to worry that they might not be fit to stand before Him, or to be filled with gratitude for His sovereign goodness. And there is nothing about the activity at the altar that would help them understand.
The nuance though... it's rather incoherent. Not that he even tries (you'd have to watch to see what I mean)
Yeah. Thanks for doing it for us, so we don't have to. I'm still sad over the Ben Shapiro thing...
As a protestant, I keep thirsting like a deer in the desert. All the confusion sowed by the sheppards (no less), makes it diabolically difficult to enter, and even more difficult to properly defend such a notion to other protestants. I have bo idea how to witness to them.
Like we say here in South Africa, Catholics are more scarce than chicken teeth. There is no Catholic culture to speak of, and the overt conviction is that it is from the devil and the Vatican is the source of much evil in the world. Literally posessed..
Thank you, Leila, for your clarity. I pray that I am not sinning through my inaction, though I have no idea what to do. There isn't really any TLM over here, and from what I have seen visiting a parish close enough to me, is more irreverance than my protestant parish.
Please pray for me..
Anel... I'm so sorry. I will keep you in my prayers, that you might be able to convert to the Catholic Church someday, and that a Traditional parish might open near you. Meanwhile, hang in there. Study the Faith through Traditional Catholic books and podcasts, but don't walk away because of what you see. We are all going through this, in one way or another, and I can tell you I have a small sense of what you feel. God bless you!
Hi Anel which part of SA are you in? X
I am in the Western Cape province. X
bishop barron has always struck me as a faux-intellectual. he likes to drop names but his comprehension is usually superficial. his use of the word priviledged is notorious as he told Ben Shapiro, a Jew, that Catholicism or Jesus was only a priviledged way to the Father, and that he is cool remaining a jew. But wait, B16 said that as well in Jesus of Nazareth. The truth is, the rot is complete and its everywhere, even in the supposed conservatives and trads and me and you. We are sheep without shepherds. Which is our grace and curse in this time, grace because God will help us immensely in this situation if we turn to him in humility and desperation.
BXVI quotes JPII in a general audience: "Twenty-five years after the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium Blessed Pope John Paul II, wrote: “In order to reenact his Paschal Mystery, Christ is ever present in his Church, especially in liturgical celebrations. Hence the Liturgy is the privileged place for the encounter of Christians with God and the One whom he has sent, Jesus Christ (cf. Jn 17:3)” (Vicesimus quintus annus, n. 7)"
If Bishop Barron wants to say "here at the Mass is the one place we can receive Our Lord, body, blood, soul, and divinity" then that at least starts to make some sense. But he doesn't say that. He just repeats the word!
I agree that the Council gave rise to many, many theologians being in love with their own bright ideas. Subsequently, lesser ones have taken those ideas and make them quite dim.
It's ridiculous.
People are waking up to the fake conciliar doctrines and liturgy and are finding the ancient faith and liturgy.
I applaud you for watching even one of the so-called bishop's videos. Barron is first and foremost a politician with aspirations far beyond his current episcopate. I stopped listening to a single word he had to say years ago when he praised the drivel novel The Shack. Imagine praising heresy.
Everything he says and does is suspect. Thanks for a great article!
It wasn’t easy. The photo I included here is one of the first images in the first film. To me it just radiates lameness and all the things that make me wonder why anyone bothers. And so that makes me angry…
When I have to attend a mass other than my preferred TLM (there are 2 I can attend, but one is in a much more beautiful church which affects me. The beauty reaches me where the ugliness hurts my heart.) I close my eyes through many parts of the Mass so I don't see the abuses and the lameness around me. I am there to worship the Lord and try to keep that in my mind and heart so as to not become angry in the middle of Mass. A young priest suggested the closing of the eyes and I will be forever grateful to him.
Thank you for this! Like others have said—now I don’t need to watch it. I keep thinking that one of our biggest problems now is that the church spends a lot of energy on pseudo-intellectual stuff that we call catechesis or evangelization and it does nothing to bring the everyday mind into conformity with the church. I think we need a more authoritative(?) emphasis on the precepts and the Ten Commandments. Get thyself to Mass each Sunday—the most reverent one you can find. Go to confession frequently. Fight your sin problem as best you can in your state in life. Stay married. Quit worrying about how you feel and what you think. Maybe I am being too simplistic, but at least less confusing. I am not sure how to articulate my discomfort with so many Catholic media influencers and their hot takes on the Faith—even the well intentioned, “orthodox” folks, I fear, are doing more harm than good.
This is a wonderful article, Mrs. Lawler. I myself am so tired of this --- priests and bishops responding with nothing but words and expensive solutions when they ought to be taking action. If you ask me, I believe belief in the Eucharist was lost not so much because of what the clergy said, but rather more because of what they did, and if explanations and expensive films or documentaries have not worked up until now, they never will. I can't understand our bishops, or how they fail to see this. But in a way it seems to me that their actions speak of an inveterate trust in the material --- looking to expensive documentaries and books --- instead of actually bowing their knee to Christ the King (through reverence to the Real Presence) to solve their problem.
(P.S. I feel the same way as you about how the collection baskets are emphasized at the Novus Ordo, and just to let you know this article won you a new subscriber.)
Bishop Barron gives me the creeps. He is, as you say here, a highly educated and intelligent man, yet he bends the truth deliberately. He wants very badly to be in the limelight, and to be all things to all men, perhaps as St. Paul tried to be, and I am being uncharitable. Perhaps his intentions are good. But you will see him on YouTube in discussions with leading intellectuals of the day, Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Pageau, etc. he holds his own but it all seems very performative and hollow. He is in the end promoting himself, ignoring the logical inconsistencies in the post Vatican II church, selling Catholicism short by pretending the heart hasn’t been cut out of it, that church in the round, white, dry walled building down the street with clear class windows, a white sanctuary lamp next to the tabernacle located behind the pews, the priest in a hideous polyester chausable and elderly ladies pompously bowing to the altar, ignoring the tabernacle and stepping up to the podium to deliver the readings, then playing tea party with the chalices, is a deep and mysterious encounter with God. It requires a great deal more imagination than most of us have to buy what he is selling.