The following comes from a Jan. 5 interview on the website of the New Emangelization Project. This is the interview that provoked a feminist response covered Jan. 11 on Cal Catholic.
Recently, I had the great honor to have an audience with His Eminence Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke to discuss the state of Catholic men in the United States.
Here is the full transcript:
Matthew James Christoff of the New Emangelization Project: Your Eminence, we are delighted and blessed to be here with you. Today, we are here to talk about the state of Catholic men in the United States and how we might draw more men into the New Evangelization. Maybe to start, how would Your Eminence describe the state of men in the Catholic Church today?
Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke: I think there has been a great confusion with regard to the specific vocation of men in marriage and of men in general in the Church during the past 50 years or so. It’s due to a number of factors, but the radical feminism which has assaulted the Church and society since the 1960s has left men very marginalized.
Unfortunately, the radical feminist movement strongly influenced the Church, leading the Church to constantly address women’s issues at the expense of addressing critical issues important to men; the importance of the father, whether in the union of marriage or not; the importance of a father to children; the importance of fatherhood for priests; the critical impact of a manly character; the emphasis on the particular gifts that God gives to men for the good of the whole society.
The goodness and importance of men became very obscured, and for all practical purposes, were not emphasized at all. This is despite the fact that it was a long tradition in the Church, especially through the devotion of St. Joseph, to stress the manly character of the man who sacrifices his life for the sake of the home, who prepares with chivalry to defend his wife and his children and who works to provide the livelihood for the family. So much of this tradition of heralding the heroic nature of manhood has been lost in the Church today.
All of those virtuous characteristics of the male sex are very important for a child to observe as they grow up and mature. The healthy relationship with the father helps the child to prepare to move from the intimate love of the mother, building a discipline so that the child can avoid excessive self‑love. This ensures that the child is able to identify himself or herself properly as a person in relationship with others; this is critical for both boys and girls.
A child’s relationship with their father is key to a child’s self‑identification, which takes places when we are growing up. We need that very close and affirming relationship with the mother, but at the same time, it is the relationship with the father, which is of its nature more distant but not less loving, which disciplines our lives. It teaches a child to lead a selfless life, ready to embrace whatever sacrifices are necessary to be true to God and to one another.
I recall in the mid-1970’s, young men telling me that they were, in a certain way, frightened by marriage because of the radicalizing and self-focused attitudes of women that were emerging at that time. These young men were concerned that entering a marriage would simply not work because of a constant and insistent demanding of rights for women. These divisions between women and men have gotten worse since then.
Everyone understands that women have and can be abused by men. Men who abuse women are not true men, but false men who have violated their own manly character by being abusive to women.
The crisis between man and woman has been made much worse by a complete collapse of catechesis in the Church. Young men grew up without proper instruction with regard to their faith and to the knowledge of their vocation. Young men were not being taught that they are made in the image of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These young men were not taught to know all those virtues that are necessary in order to be a man and to fulfill the particular gifts of being male.
Making things worse, there was a very fluffy, superficial kind of catechetical approach to the question of human sexuality and the nature of the marital relationship.
At the same time, in society, there came an explosion of pornography, which is particularly corrosive for men because it terribly distorts the whole reality of human sexuality. It leads men and women to view their human sexuality apart from a relationship between a man and woman in marriage.
In truth, the gift of sexual attraction is directed toward marriage, and any kind of sexual union belongs properly only within marriage. But the whole world of pornography corrupts young people into believing that their sexual capacity is for their own entertainment and pleasure, and becomes a consuming lust, which is one of the seven capital sins.
The gift of human sexuality is turned into a means of self‑gratification often at the expense of another person, whether in heterosexual relations or in homosexual relations. A man who has not been formed with a proper identity as a man and as a father figure will ultimately become very unhappy. These poorly formed men become addicted to pornography, sexual promiscuity, alcohol, drugs, and the whole gamut of addictions. Also, in this whole mix…am I talking too much?
Matthew: No, no. [laughs]
Cardinal Burke: Worsening this sad confusion of men in the culture, there has also been a terrible loss of home life. The culture has become very materialistic and consumer-focused, the pursuit of which has led father, and often the mother, to work long hours. The consumer mentality has also led to the idea that children’s lives had to be filled with activity: school, sports and music and all kinds of activities every night of the week.
All those things are good in themselves, but there has been a loss of balance. The home life in which children spend adequate time with parents has been lost for many families. Families have stopped enjoying meals together. I remember how my father gave us lessons and taught us manners at the dinner table. To spend time talking with my parents was very important to my growing up. When I was a young priest, I was saddened that parents and children told me that fathers and children rarely talked and, when they did, it was only briefly.
Families should have at least one meal together each week where the whole family is together. A boy or young man is unlikely to build proper manly identity and the manly virtues unless he lives with a father and mother, where he can witness that unique and complementary interaction between the male and the female in a home life in which human life can be welcomed, nurtured and developed.
All these various forces have come together and grievously wounded men.
Sadly, the Church has not effectively reacted to these destructive cultural forces; instead the Church has become too influenced by radical feminism and has largely ignored the serious needs of men.
My generation has taken for granted the many blessings we were blessed with in our solid family lives and with the Church’s solid formation of us. My generation let all of this nonsense of sexual confusion, radical feminism and the breakdown of the family go on, not realizing that we were robbing the next generations of the most treasured gifts that we had been blessed to receive.
We have gravely wounded the current generations. As a bishop, young people complained bitterly to me, “Why we were not taught these things. Why we were not more clearly taught about the Mass, Confession and traditional devotions?” These things matter for they form a spiritual life and a man’s character.
Going to Confession and to Sunday Mass, praying the Rosary together as a family in the evening, eating meals together, all these things give practical direction in the Christian life. Learning that it is not manly to be vulgar or blasphemous and that a man is welcoming and courteous to others; these might seem like little things but they form a man’s character. Much of this has been lost.
Matthew: Your Eminence, what has been the impact of this Catholic “man-crisis” on the Church?
Cardinal Burke: The Church becomes very feminized. Women are wonderful, of course. They respond very naturally to the invitation to be active in the Church. Apart from the priest, the sanctuary has become full of women. The activities in the parish and even the liturgy have been influenced by women and have become so feminine in many places that men do not want to get involved.
Men are often reluctant to become active in the Church. The feminized environment and the lack of the Church’s effort to engage men has led many men to simply opt out.
As an example, it became politically incorrect to talk about the Knights of the Altar, an idea that is highly appealing to young men. The Knights of the Altar emphasize the idea that young men offer their chivalrous service at the altar to defend Christ in the sacred realities of the Church. This idea is not welcome in many places today.
Aspects of the Church’s life that emphasized the man‑like character of devotion and sacrifice have been deemphasized. Devotions that required time and effort were simply abandoned. Everything became so easy and when things are easy, men don’t think it is worth the effort.
There has been, and continues to be, serious liturgical abuses that turn men off.
In many places the Mass became very priest‑centered, it was like the “priest show”. This type of abuse leads to a loss of the sense of the sacred, taking the essential mystery out of the Mass. The reality of Christ Himself coming down on the altar to make present His sacrifice on Cavalry gets lost. Men are drawn to the mystery of Christ’s sacrifice but tune out when the Mass becomes a “priest show” or trite.
The rampant liturgical experimentation after Vatican II, much of which was not sanctioned by Vatican II, stripped the Rite of the Mass of much of its careful articulation of the Sacred Mysteries that had been developed over centuries. The Mass seemed to become something very familiar, performed by men; the profound supernatural sense of the Sacred Mystery became obscured.
The loss of the sacred led to a loss of participation of women and men. But I think that men were really turned off by the loss of the sacred. It seems clear that many men are not being drawn into a deeper liturgical spirituality; today, many men are not being drawn to service at the altar.
Young men and men respond to rigor and precision and excellence. When I was trained to be a server, the training lasted for several weeks and you had to memorize the prayers at the foot of the altar. It was a rigorous and a carefully executed service. All of a sudden, in the wake of Vatican II, the celebration of the liturgy became very sloppy in many places. It became less attractive to young men, for it was slipshod.
The introduction of girl servers also led many boys to abandon altar service. Young boys don’t want to do things with girls. It’s just natural. The girls were also very good at altar service. So many boys drifted away over time. I want to emphasize that the practice of having exclusively boys as altar servers has nothing to do with inequality of women in the Church.
I think that this has contributed to a loss of priestly vocations. It requires a certain manly discipline to serve as an altar boy in service at the side of priest, and most priests have their first deep experiences of the liturgy as altar boys. If we are not training young men as altar boys, giving them an experience of serving God in the liturgy, we should not be surprised that vocations have fallen dramatically.
Matthew: There is a great need for a major New Evangelization of men in the Church, to use our term, a New Emangelization. Small steps and incremental efforts are not likely to reverse the exodus of men from the Church. What kind of things have to happen within the Church to draw millions of lukewarm men back into a fervent Catholic faith life?
Cardinal Burke: First of all, the Church must make a concentrated effort to evangelize men by delivering a strong and consistent message about what it means to be a faithful Catholic man. Men need to be addressed very directly about the demanding and noble challenge of serving Jesus Christ the Eternal King and His Catholic Church. Men are hungry and thirsty for meaning beyond the everyday world.
The culture in which we live is bankrupt and young men, especially, recognize the brokenness of the culture. Young men and young women want to hear words that are directed specifically to them to use their virtues and gifts for the good of everyone.
We can see that men are hungry from the great success of Catholic men’s conferences that are beginning to expand in the United States. This is evidence that men will respond when the Church reaches out to them in a challenging way. Men are facing great temptations, particularly, as I mentioned due to pornography and confusion about sexuality and desperately need to be taught how to battle these temptations in Christ. Men need to enter into prayer and with the help of God’s Grace, men can overcome these grievous temptations and become men of strong moral character. Catholic men.
We can also see that our seminaries are beginning to attract many strong young men who desire to serve God as priests. The new crop of young men are manly and confident about their identity. This is a welcome development, for there was a period of time when men who were feminized and confused about their own sexual identity had entered the priesthood; sadly some of these disordered men sexually abused minors; a terrible tragedy for which the Church mourns.
We have to be very clear with men about purity, chastity, modesty and even the way men dress and present themselves. Men’s behaviors and dress matter, for it affects how they relate to the world and it affects the culture. Men need to dress and act like men in a way that is respectful to themselves, to women and to children.
Matthew: One of the frequent themes in the New Emangelization Project research is that large numbers of men do not understand the Mass. Men think that the Mass is feminized and they don’t really understand the powerful manliness of the Mass. This is particularly true of a majority of Catholic men who are Casual Catholic Men, men who are casual about their faith. This is critical because if a man doesn’t understand the Mass he can’t tap into the supernatural graces that occur in the Mass. A man who doesn’t understand the Mass himself certainly can’t teach his children about the Mass.
Cardinal Burke: Yes. One way to re-engage men is to restore the dignity of the liturgy. Men will respond when they see a priest reverently acting in the name of Christ. Men will not respond when the priest is putting on a show about himself. Offering the Mass in a reverent way has always attracted men throughout the history of the Church. It does today.
We need to catechize men about the profound realities of the Mass. As I mentioned, catechesis has been poor, especially the catechesis of men. Catechizing men and celebrating the Mass in a reverent way will make a big difference. It is also clear that many men will respond to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the rite celebrated before the Vatican II Council reforms.
I have been very struck by the number of young men who were attracted to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. This is not because the Extraordinary Form is more valid than the Novus Ordo, the Ordinary Form. Men are attracted because the Extraordinary Form is very highly articulated; it demands a man’s attention to what’s happening. Even the use of a hand missal where there’s a verbal accompaniment to the action of the Mass can help a man more fully enter into the Mass.
The Ordinary Form, if it’s celebrated very reverently with good music, can have the same strong positive effect on men. Men don’t go in for this kind of corny approach to the Mass when it becomes some kind of feel-good session, or where there is irreverence. Men are there to receive Jesus Christ. They need to see Him, to see His presence reflected in the reverent manner of the priest.
Matthew: The Sacrament of Reconciliation has also been abandoned by the vast majority of Catholic men. Only 1 in 50 men go to Confession on a monthly basis. Some 80 percent of men don’t get to Confession even once a year. Combined with the epidemic of pornography, especially among young men, large numbers of Catholic men are in mortal sin. How can the Church reintroduce and emphasize the need for men to go to Confession?
Cardinal Burke: Until men understand that there is Sin, and what Sin is, and that Sin offends God gravely, they will not go to Confession. Men need to have an encounter with God, with our Lord in the Sacrament of Penance to confess their Sins, express their sorrow, and receive His forgiveness.
Men are not going to Confession today because there has been a denial of Sin. There was a period after Vatican II where many were promoting the idea that there weren’t any serious sins.
Of course, this is lethal for men, especially young men. Young men may begin to engage in the sexual sin of masturbation. Men have told me that when they were teenagers, they confessed the sin of masturbation in the confessional and priests would say, “Oh, that’s nothing you should be confessing. Everybody does that.” That’s wrong.
These are sinful acts. They need to be confessed along with other types of sins, whether the sins are foul language, lying, stealing, or whatever it might be. The denial of sin was a breakdown in the sense of what is demanded of men as men of Christ.
Confronting sin is central to being able to love one another. How does a man love? He loves by obeying the Ten Commandments. After Vatican II, that great call to love by confronting sin was lost, leading to the most horrible abuses of individuals, abusing themselves or others, the break down of family life, a precipitous drop in Mass attendance and the abandonment of the Sacrament of Penance. We must restore the sense of sin to men, for men to recognize their sins and express deep sorrow for their sins.
When this happens, Confession becomes a mysteriously beautiful experience for a man. For a man can know with certainty that he has personally expressed his sorrow for his sins to God, he can hear the freeing words of God through His minister and that his sins are forgiven and absolved.
Matthew: What concrete advice would you give to a priest to help him evangelize men and dramatically increase the involvement of men in a parish?
Cardinal Burke: First of all, be manly yourself. In other words, cultivate your own manly qualities, because the priest is first and foremost the spiritual father; he is a man. You need to have manly qualities of selflessness, chivalry and discipline to avoid situations improper for a priest. A priest must have the manly confidence and credibility to be a spiritual father to his flock, giving clear firm guidance with kindness and charity.
Secondly, I’d advise priests to give special attention to men and to look for ways to draw men into the life of the Church. It is easier to engage women because our sisters tend to be very generous and talented. But the Church and each priest needs to make a determined effort to draw good Catholic men into whatever activities there are in the Church. It is essential to the New Evangelization.
Matthew: Any parting thoughts Your Eminence?
Cardinal Burke: I very much commend your work in the New Emangelization. It’s key to the New Evangelization.
When the French government unilaterally imposed the so‑called same‑sex marriage, which of course is not marriage at all, it brought out two million people who rallied behind the simple image of fathers and mothers holding the hands of their children. Fathers are essential to the family.
Men need to reflect on their own experience, even if it was negative. If a father was missing in their lives, men need to realize what they needed in a father and a mother. Fathers and mothers are wonderful gifts that are given to us by God.
So too is the beautiful gift of our human sexuality as God intended it, not as, sadly, the many sick abuses of the gift of sexuality that are occurring in the world today. The dark confusion of gender theory deceives people into thinking that they can create their own sexual identities based on urges and emotions. We are so blessed God gave us this gift of being a man or being a woman. It’s a matter of us to respond to God’s will to develop our gifts of being a man or woman.
Matthew, I want to commend you. I believe what you are doing is key to the future strengthening of the life of the Church, and obviously to our whole society.
To read the original interview, click here.
I saw this in a video several days ago and think Raymond Cardinal Burke gave excellent answers in this interview. Much food for thought.
This is a very nice article. God bless Cardinal Burke. We need our men to be men, to protect their families, defend what is right. I like the movie Courageous, it shows how society can go wrong when men stop doing their duty. I think that feminism grew more because men chose away from God and in turn made woman vulnerable to many wicked things.
Cardinal Burke is so right. Our sick, feminized society emasculates true manhood.
What’s sad is that Russia gets it. Russia understands that it needs men, and won’t let the sickness of homosexuality and transgenderism infect other men. First, they made open recruitment illegal. Now, they have taken the wise step making illegal for these mentally sick people from driving cars.
The fact is, this country became lost when the law would no longer allow us to put people who commit these depraved acts behind bars where they belong, so that they can’t infect the rest of society. Before, employers could fire homosexuals and put them on the unemployment line where they belonged, so that all men understood how sick they were.
Now, gays want to get married, teach children, and become rich and powerful. NOw that we’ve allowed this to happen due to a morallly bankrupt culture, is it any wonder even more people are led astray?
A generation from now, America will be lost in the moral wilderness, probably suffering a compete breakdown of our former economic and moral successes. Meanwhile, Russia will be returning to the world stage as a nation filled with men, who understand the sacrifices that true men must make.
The moral fiber of America can only be save if sanity returns, and we start putting homosexuals and transgenders in prisons, and on the unemployment line, where they belong.
Well in most states, people can “put homosexuals and transgenders…on the unemployment line”. In most states it is perfectly legal to fire both. And I suppose that no one who sins should have a drivers license. That makes sense to everyone, right? So we’ll see what happens to Putin. Europe wants to have nothing to do with him, and the plummet in the price of oil is turning his country into a barren wasteland and there’s not a lot he can do about it. Soup kitchen lines will be returning to Russia long before unemployment lines are filled with gay people here.
YFC, that’s not really true. Now the sick Obama administration’s justice department allows perverts to force their employer to allow them to wear frocks and lace no matter how gender inappropriate. They call it “gender presentation” protect these sick, perverted behaviors under gender discrimination.
It’s more of the sickness we get from the crazed feminists from the 60’s maturing into full-blown perversion.
The problem is, there are too many gays, transgenders, and other perverts voting their own kind into power. Our companies won’t return to health until we get rid of these defective workers, and our government will continue to be unstable as long as these kind of people can vote.
Just watch.
Russia will take away the vote from these sickos’ and you will see an economic flowering that goes along with a return to God and devotion to Christ.
YFC, most sinners are not mentally sick like homosexuals and transgenders.
Should blind people drive as well?
LOL! Nice satire. “Me Russian. Me manly-man. Me smell like ripe cabbage.”
When I’m in prison will you visit me? It’d be a corporal work of mercy.
Thanks but not thanks C&H, I have had enough the LGBT “community”…Here’s something you and YFC could care less about Putin has rebuilt every Church destroyed by the Leftist hero Stalin.
I’d be happy to visit you, once you have repented of your sins.
You need to seek out the TLM. Once you have immersed yourself in traditional worship, it will help clear up your modern confusion and become the man God intended you to be.
You also need to pray the rosary every day, and seek out the traditional, pre-vatican II sacraments to exorcise the scourge of homosexuality.
JAV …. Somehow when Christ said to visit the imprisoned I don’t think he added all your conditions. BTW I’m a woman.
Why?? C&H you don’t believe there conditions to our salvation…things like repentance..
Admonish the sinner ( a Spiritual Work of Mercy)
and
Never Tolerate ANY Mortal Sins.
Go and sin no more.
Thank you for posting the interview. Now we can discuss what he actually said, not what the press decided to report. One doesn’t have to agree with all that he said, but we now can ensure that comments are focused on the actual interview.
Bob One, do you feel marginalized in the Church?
Anonymous, I don’t feel the least bit marginalized. The thought never entered my mind Why would I feel marginalized? I have, over the years, been a Lector, an Extraordinary Eucharistic Minister, a Parish Council member, a member of the Finance Committee, served on a Diocese Pastoral Council, helped churches become more engaged with the parishioners, been a member of the Knights of Columbus, a Scout leader, raised three kids in the Church, etc. No, I don’t feel marginalized! I feel like I’m main stream which would put off some people on this site.
Bob One, thanks for your answer. I don’t know that Cardinal Burke got this one right. Of course, he was speaking off the top of his head.
Cardinal Burke is a great churchman and when he stays with the teaching of the Church, he is one of the best.
I do not believe that women are responsible for acedia in men. I wish he had talked more about temptation and the sin of missing Mass and how to hear Mass well.
Thank you for your service to the Church. I am sure that you are a good example to everyone in your family and parish.
Bob One, I agree with the entirety of what you wrote on January 14, 2015 at 10:09 pm. I do hope that when you hear a “news” (I mean propaganda) “report” of any sort from one of the “professional” talking heads on your favorite TV news station acting “outraged” by what some “powerful” person supposedly “said” or “did”, you first do a web search before making a judgement call. There are now excellent news sources which actually do report the news.
In case you haven’t heard of them, mrc.org (Media Research Center) is a great place to start. They monitor the TV news for repeated biasses, distortions, and ignoring of news they don’t want Americans to know about. http://www.mrc.org. Brent Bozell, who is the president and founder of MRC is a faithful Catholic, however, his organization is not specifically Catholic and is supported by individuals in all walks of life, who want a truthful media.
I imagine men are also turned off to seeing altars covered in fabric suitable for young girl’s fancy party dresses. I wish the women who are currently in charge of “decorating” altars in many of our parishes, would just stick to home decoration projects.
Cardinal Burke is a great leader of the Catholic Church.
Being a married man imposes the heavy moral obligation of putting food on the table for your children despite all the challenges of modern society. As a young man that was my main responsibility and it was managed satisfactorily but not without much anxiety. We need other men to learn by example how to be men and Catholics. The sch a boy how to fishor hunt or barbecue and you will have done a good deed. This is why Boy Scout leaders are so good role models for boys.
The good Cardinal also touches the third rail of the Vatican II Reformation: “there was a period of time when men who were feminized and confused about their own sexual identity had entered the priesthood; sadly some of these disordered men
sexually abused minors; a terrible tragedy for which the Church mourns”. So there you have it your fellow posters: to be a Man in full follow the 10 commandments.
Long live Cardinal Burke.
Gratias, I admire you for you dedication to your family. Did your wife work? Did you are a very large family? Was you work situation unstable?
I’m glad that Cardinal Burke has the courage to speak the truth. It was these homosexual perverts who perpetrated the child abuse scandal.
That’s what happens when you allow sickness to fester in your midst. That’s why these defective individuals need to be rooted out, so that they do not spoil the whole barrel of society. Not even the Godly community of priests could hold back their corruption.
It is so ironic that Cardinal Burke disdains “the priest show”, yet if you google the picture at the very top of this article, you will see in the uncropped image that the train on Bruke’s vestments has got to be 20 or 25 feet long. I haven’t ever seen even a bridal train that long, ever. All that red, and its only purpose is to point to the priest show. And for a man who wants things to be more manly, he surely wears a lot of white gloves and lacy garments. He is the brunt of jokes on facebook and late night television. Most people literally laugh at the man. Francis simply demoted him.
This post in in response to those who have commented on Cardinal Burke’s vestments. Cardinal Burke is based in Italy– NOT in the United States– and uses whatever the Church provides for its local priests and prelates there! He certainly does not make up his own vestment designs– no priest or bishop does such a crazy thing! You do not understand, also, that Cardinal Burke is obliged to wear a different, older set of vestments, to celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass, and related rites and ceremonies! He is often called upon, for many Catholic rites, of both the pre-Vatican II era, and post-Vatican II era! He is very much in demand! He also has ordained many priests, for religious orders, to include those that only say the old Latin Mass! In the pre-Vatican II rites, a different set of vestments is required! Everyone respects that– especially, Catholic men, who are very devout! Cardinal Burke is a Role Model, for sincere, devout, mature Catholic men! He is someone for all of you to look up to!
YFC, apparently you have not seen the Traditional Dress of Pope John Paul II including trains for formal attire or his red brimmed hat, or the red shoes of Pope Benedict XVI – secular media made fun of him also.
Cardinal Burke was wearing TRADITIONAL clothing at the very very special ORIDNATION of PRIESTS.
Just mention the name Cardinal Burke, and the homosexual fangs of YFC come out. Happens almost all the time.
Homosexual fangs? That’s a new one. As opposed to your own heterosexual fangs? I suppose you must think heterosexual fangs are the morally superior of the two?
YFC, you attack any Bishop who actively supports the teaching of the Church against homosexuality as stated in the Bible and CCC.
Yes, your unwarranted attacks show your homosexual fangs.
So called YFC (Your Fellow Counterfeit Catholic)
Yes heterosexual fangs, although possibly morally wrong, are NATURAL, homosexual fangs are NOT!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Kenneth M. Fisher.
YFC, your ignorance is only overshadowed by your support for homosexual acts and homosexual marriage.
The cappa magna (literally, “great cape”) is a voluminous ecclesiastical garment with a long train, proper to cardinals, bishops, and certain other honorary prelates. No longer mandatory, the cappa magna was never abolished and still appears in the Ceremonial of Bishops. Ordinarily scarlet for cardinals and purple for bishops, the garment dates to the first millennium and its train has varied in length over the ages.
Eva, Sandra, Linda, etc. The Cappa Magna is a very long cape as you described. It goes back to the days when everyone traveled by horseback. The train covered the horse from the saddle back. Today you see very few Bishops or Cardinals wearing this set of robes. They are not vestments needed for Mass. They are pretty much referred to as choir robes. The Archbishop of San Francisco is known to wear them from time to time as is the Archbishop of some Spanish dioceses. They are no longer the norm, and in fact, the good Cardinal Burke get a lot of snickers from fellow Priest for his wearing of Renaissance garb. Nothing wrong with it, but it does lose him some credibility among the 98%.
Sorry Bob One, but Eva got it right. The Cappa Magna is being used again, but not in the OF services – of which you are familiar.
You should only write about that which you know.
Christ the King ORDINATION is the very special occasion of the Ordination of Priests into that of the Extraordinary / Traditional Form, not the everyday EF Mass,
and certainly not your OF ordinations or other services.
Those who snicker (even if you know of a few Priests) are very ignorant indeed, and are making fun of the history of the Church.
(These are usually the uneducated of the Novus Ordo era.)
Read Mt 22 about dressing properly for the occasion.
So what? Just because bishops a thousand years ago had to use ways to stand out in a crowd of people who had no idea who they were (No Jumbotrons, No TVs, no newspapers, little transportation), doesn’t mean bishops who use it today aren’t doing it purely to call attention to themselves. It is ostentation for the sake of ostentation.
YFC: It’s called Tradition, something you know nothing about.
RR, it is not Tradition, it is tradition. Big difference between Capital “T” and lower case “t”.
Oh YFC I am positive if it was Mahony or Weakland wearing the Cappa Magna you would be overwhelmed with joy…
Hardly. Some of the most high church parishes are run by gay men. Not my thing, not at all, especially when it becomes a vehicle for clericalism.
Clericalism is rampant in more modern circles, YFC, as priests who are ‘pastoral’ seem to believe they only need to answer to themselves.
YFC, you have no clue what you are talking about.
And merely want to attack a Bishop who is Faithful to all the teachings of the Church, including that HOMOSEXUAL ACTS are a Mortal Sin. – A Mortal sin that you advocate openly and actively.
You are a heretic, and your opinions mean nothing to Faithful Catholics.
Thinking a particular vestment is not a wise choice, that it wreaks of clericalism, that it demonstrates that the Bishop wants to make himself the show, is hardly a mortal sin. However, I am willing to be educated about its history and purpose. I found this lightly humorous take on them, which includes probably the best explanation about what they are all about. So while you all attack ME for not knowing what I’m talking about, none of you has tried to offer a good reason for using them except that they are Tradition with a capital T, as though they were a part of Christ’s eternal and irrevocable revelation, which clearly they are not. If you had explained the cappa magna in the way this NPR article explains it, rather than attacking me, then you might help people agree with you: https://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/understanding-cappa-magna
YFC it doesn’t matter how you feel about it, you need to show respect please. Since God almighty is merciful to you, then you must consider that a duty to respect all people who honor GOD. Just remember that its not about how you feel about it, its not about you seeing malice just because they carry beautiful traditions…..only God knows hearts and each will be judged accordingly. Just like Cardinal Burke is a holy man, even if other Cardinals do not display such holiness as he, we must be watchful that we do not cause scandal by our words when speaking of them. In this case, you are over stepping your boundaries and attacking a holy man. PAX Christi I say this in charity.
Abeca, I am stating my opinions about Cardinal Burke’s choice of vestments, and about posters who prefer to attack other posters rather than educate them. I would have hoped you of all people would understand that.
…trouble in the ‘new’ paradise it seems.
And, YFC, you don’t understand clericalism if you think it revolves around vestment choices.
And shame on you for playing Abeca again like a harp with, ” I would have hoped you of all people would understand that.” Your attempt to collect her is reprehensible. I hope she sees as much.
“…trouble in the ‘new’ paradise it seems.” Whatever that is suppose to mean. This is so like you Ann.
To correct your tone of moral relativism…..since you seem to stand on what Ann Malley believes and not on the truth, allow me to correct whatever you are trying to insinuate here. No there is NO NEW or OLD paradise with anyone here nor anywhere else! I am a devoted Catholic, mother and wife! My only paradise goal is to get to heaven to be with our Lord. My husband would not take your insult against our holy matrimony so lightly, to assume I have a paradise with anyone on the web or anything, is disrespectful to my vows and holy matrimony.
Ann with all due respect:
You provoke others in the same unholy dialogue. You want to win souls for Jesus? Then please Stop provoking people! DIALOGUE YES! but do it without instigating others! YFC sorry that she’s giving assumptions that you have that much power over me as much as playing me, this is getting old. I don’t know if you are playing games, I am not entertaining the thought. I have better things to do with my time.
Its hard to have a decent dialogue with YFC and others when people who preach to be Catholic get in the middle and say things like that! Like a harp? She may mean well, but I do not appreciate it. What sinner would convert with constant pattern of “personal” verbal attacks.
YFC Proof them wrong YFC by surrendering yourself completely to Jesus! He is all that matters and His ways. Nothing else.
Bravo to Cardinal Burke! Our morally-corrupt culture is too babyish, and too brainwashed with immature 1960’s “hippie” nonsense, idolized ignorantly by many, sadly! Manliness, and fatherhood, as well as good, manly leadership, must be well-respected! People need to respect legitimate authority— it exists for their own good! The Church, our Nation, our schools, the military and police, our Justice system, all should be doing their best job– and everyone should RESPECT them! Our Nation also should proudly and uncompromisingly uphold the Traditional Home and Family, as the very center, of all life! Our culture must SLOW DOWN– and sacrifice all, for this! That means, a stable, slower-paced, loving, nurturing, well-disciplined, wholesome home life, with the whole family gathered for all daily meals! And the eradication of sin, and the promotion of Virtue, to the highest extent possible! A strong, virtuous, womanly, dignified Mother, and a strong, virtuous, manly, dignified Father, who each take pride in their unique roles, and who are both very loving, warm, and nurturing!
I have stopped going to Church for Mass. I would go if Cardinal Burke was the celebrant.
I find this incredibly sad, Joel. I have to ask why Burke makes a difference, because you want Cardinal Burke to be the center of a priest show? Mass isn’t about the individual in the vestments, it is that Christ, victim and priest, supplies a proxy for his own priesthood. Who that man is makes no difference to Christ, why should it to you?
YFC: So, you would be fine having priests in jeans and a rock concert tshirt (like most the Novus Ordo parishoners) to say the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? After all, we wouldn’t want him to stand out any different than the lay people in the pews, right?
Find a solid Traditional priest, Joel. They are out there.
It sounds like you may be the kind of person that New Emangelization is trying to reach.
Why have you stopped going to Church?
Is no one else seeing the irony here? Cardinal Burke opines that “Men’s behaviors and dress matter, for it affects how they relate to the world and it affects the culture. ” Yet the photo used is of him draped in watered silk and an ermine mozzetta — and that is one of his more understated looks. Maybe men are put off by clerics like Cardinal “Doubtfire” swanning about the sanctuary in brocaded vestments, lace albs and other finery and would rather serve a Church more in the mold of Pope Francis who dresses simply and appropriately. Even more ironic is Burke’s claim that “n many places the Mass became very priest‑centered, it was like the “priest show” This from a Bishop who parades down the center aisle in a silk cappa magna with a ten foot train? That is not priest centered? Please – no wonder Francis demoted the delusional Burke.
Could it be that you liberals fear a Pope Burke?
“Martin Daly”: You are completely wrong. The Novus Ordo Mass was intended to take away the entire notion of priestly centrality, with its focus on the “priest show”. The Tabernacle is often placed to the side of the sanctuary (or not in it), with people looking at the priest, instead of the Tabernacle, which holds the object of their worship.
Cardinal Burke is doing things precisely right by insisting on maintaining Tradition, the life’s blood of the Church. Post-Vatican II “liturgists” have ruined the entire concept of the Mass, and the notion of the priest and his role as in persona Christi. In fact, the moder “progressive” of the “trained liturists” pretty much want to get rid of the priest’s role altogether, focusing on the laity assuming more of those responsibilities. Thanks to Pope Benedict, that drift was halted, but under Francis it has started again.
Finally, one key point of C. Burke’s message is that theTLM is a masculine event, one that requires dedicated Catholic Warriors, not the prancing, effeminized men that very often pass for priests nowadays. It is no wonder that the elimination of the Traditional sacraments brought on an avalanche of homosexual clergy. Sodomites can have no meaningful role in the TLM and Traditional sacraments. Cardinal Burke says it pretty plainly, the Catholic Church needs Men as priests and as key administrators. Women have an important role in the Church, but not in the Sanctuary, nor in the Seminary.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Women who spend their lives working harder at their jobs than their male counterparts, often for less pay, are not going to take their daughters to a Church in which women are shut out of the Sanctuary and maleness is held up as an object of worship. Husbands who support their wives won’t go either. It was one thing to support the church when progress was being made, but when Benedict and folks like Burke shut it down, women stopped bringing their families. That is why attendance is down 30% since John Paul got too sick to function and Ratzinger essentially became de-facto pope. SInce Francis has taken over, the slide has stopped. If Burke keeps up his nonsense, pews once again will be abandoned apace.
…maleness is not being worshiped, YFC, not should it be. But it is the height of the truly masculine to worship God and bow to His nature in following proper order. Worshiping the manufactured need for women to compete with men – which causes confusion and undue exhaustion – is worshiping man, that is what is ‘man’made.
This is why Cardinal Burke will continue to promote proper order and what the Church teaches. And ‘manly’ men will follow. So will the women who aren’t so insecure as to feel they must be at war with a male to be worthy. Your focus on the numbers is telling, however, YFC, as if Truth and God are concerned with that kind of bottom line.
But in your fervor, I notice that you’ve dropped your pretense of heightened sanctity, referring to Popes and Cardinals by their last name only and relegating the Saint you insist should always be referred to as ‘Pope Saint John Paul II’ to a simple, John Paul.
How many people are working at the YFC posting mecca?
OK, “Your Fellow Catholic”, you’ve said it, as wrong as it is. Your refrain is nothing more than a refrain from the tired 1970’s Zombie-Liberal canon about the need to “be more modern” and “to change this, or else”. None of what you say is true.
People have left the Church because, in effect, the Church left them decades ago. Sure some groups demand the right for women to be priests, for more sexual license to be given to sodomites and lesbians and fornicators and adulterers and abortionists, but this does not change the Faith. Feckless bishops and priests gave the impression of changes to the Faith some time ago.
Traditionalists seem to be doing fine, and will do fine in the future. Notwithstanding this, the Francis Resurrected People — a/k/a Zombie-Liberals — scream all the louder for people not to look behind the curtain, but to “do more to implement Vatican II”. Yep, that’s what we need, something like the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which really worked out well, didn’t it? Your comments are painfully incorrect, and reflect nothing more than that Liberals simply do not give up their quest for power. And they smell blood in the water now.
YFC you would have no idea what authentic masculinity is or means. In my parish YFC it is packed with entire families, yes as God meant them to be father, mother and children..proudly gender specific, where the sexual chaos your crowd has caused is crushed
For those who keep commenting on the lace in some of the vestments some Traditional Latin Mass priests wear, that lace is only used on certain vestments at certain times. These men use other vestments at times without the lace and do not wear it when not serving Mass. They wear the same or similar attire that all Catholic priests wear outside the Mass. The sisters or nuns of the order make those beautiful vestments to offer their and our best to the Lord.
“The new crop of young men are MANLY and confident about their identity. This is a welcome development, for there was a period of time when men who were FEMINIZED and confused about their own sexual identity had entered the priesthood; sadly some of these DISORDERED MEN [i.e., homos] sexually abused minors; a terrible tragedy for which the Church mourns.”
I hope this means homos are being kept out of the seminaries. Keeping them out will instantly reduce priest sex abuse cases by 90%, as 90% of the priest sex abuse was homosexual.
I find it very strange, to see Catholic men criticizing Cardinal Burke for proudly wearing traditional Church vestments– he is a very dedicated prelate! Do these same men ignorantly make fun of police officers, judges in the courtroom, doctors, professional athletes, or military men, as well as many other dedicated professionals— who proudly wear traditional uniforms, and special clothing too, for special ceremonies and events?? It is very, very ignorant, and BAD MANNERS— to criticize someone for his profession, and his pride to wear appropriate professional attire! Instead, one should look up to these Role Models, and admire them greatly! Especially, young Catholic men, should look up to, and greatly admire, the great priests and prelates, of their Church! Why not proudly go put on the cassock and surplice– and learn to be an Altar Server, for a very fine priest, of your local parish church? Especially, learn to serve, for the old Latin Tridentine Mass! Then, learn to assist Father, with ceremonies like Benediction, and Eucharistic Processions! Be PROUD of your Catholic faith!
His Grace Cardinal Burke will and has been persecuted by Novus Ordonarians, the secular press, and non-Catholics as well, he is simply doing what a Prince of the Church is supposed to do TEACH the Roman Catholic faith and a staunch supporter of the Traditional Latin Mass which is the real reason his enemies hate him. It all boils down to His Grace offering the Mass of Times and donning the vestments for the TLM, lace, richly embroidered Roman vestments, the Magna Cappa etc. Funny how the liberals are the first to call His Grace and all other priests who celebrate the TLM wearing lace, and beautiful vestments “girlie” and feminine. The Left are a bunch of hypocrites. One day Cardinal Burke will be our next Holy Father and save The Holy Roman Catholic Church and restore the TLM to Rome and all of our altars. God bless you your Grace!!
So much hate for a great Prince of the Church and truly a MAN who is not afraid to defend the teachings of the Church, I hear nothing from fellow prelates in any way or form doing what Cardinal Burke is doing, all of them are scared to death of OFFENDING people.
Pray for His Grace Cardinal Burke, the F.S.S.P., Institute of Christ the King and yes pray for the S.S.P.X. that they come home to Rome, can you imagine how much good could come from that? They would increase our priests who offer the TLM and then bishops can no longer ignore them or their chapels.
“Janek”: You and “Linda Maria” and “Juergensen” are entirely correct. Your collective comments are powerful, and well said.
Certainly pray for all Traditional groups, including especially the SSPX (and the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate). These are men, true men. They pay a heavy price under the New Church administration of Pope Francis. The Vatican and many, many bishops simply despise them, and their growth is a cause for great anxiety, distress, and anger (as they are seen as wrong-headed and divisive).
We have now, and it will get far, far worse, at least three, and likely four Catholic Churches: (1) Institutional Church (this is what the Zombie-Liberals control; as they “took back” the Church, in their minds, after Benedict, who was the Pope truly inspired by the Holy Ghost); (2) conservative Church (where the tolerably good bishops and priests are; they try to say a respectful N.O., and to permit an occasional TLM); (3) liberal Church (they sing Protestant hymns, baptize by immersion, like hand-holding, have no real idea of the Catholic Catechism, except to “be nice to all”); and (4) Traditionalists (they believe in the “Faith of Our Fathers” and try, at all times, to engage in the “Traditional” sacraments; this would also include separate orders and societies). These mostly separate churches are loosely held together by the Vatican. The October Synod may well cause a complete breach with at least one of them.
Yes St. Christopher I did leave out The Franciscans of The Immaculate who were utterly destroyed by Rome for one thing and one thing only, they celebrated The Traditional Latin Mass and that my dear friends was their demise. How ironic that an order that was filled to the brim with men and women was smited in a single blow by Bergoglio. Yet lesbian nuns in America who advocate killing of the unborn, same sex marriage, peace and social justice and other left wing and anti-Catholic issues are coddled and told all is well with them, just plain sick!!!
Oh good Lord! Lesbian nuns..again? Please tell us the name of one nun who is 1) a lesbian (and how do you know..her hair style?) and 2) Has said she favors abortion. Inquiring minds want to know.
Yeah C&H, again because facts are facts even if you do not like them
Are we talking about facts or Janek’s speculation? It doesn’t look like either of you can quote where a nun has both come out (while keeping her vow of chastity) and said she’s in favor of abortion.
I will take educated guess that many of the older clipped haired, feminist type, pant suited, man hating harridans are lesbians and support abortion, they are leftist to their core so it is not a big leap. Leftist are leftist first before they are anything else…that includes being a bride of Christ, since feminist hate men why would they want to marry the ultimate man Christ the King …
And still the S.S.P.X. is out of communion with Rome why? Because they practice the Roman Catholic Faith.
Wrong learn your facts. Would you want me to rehash this topic again?
Learn your facts, dear lady, or else your threatening to rehash the topic is merely that – a threat to obfuscate and confuse and push your own misunderstanding of reality based on what you find in Eye of the Tiber. Not that of the Faith. You know absolutely nothing on the subject.
You still haven’t answered for your unmitigated gall in comparing Pope Francis to one you consider a schismatic. Let’s chat about that, friend :)
Abeca, don’t let her bait you.
She is trying to do to you what Catherine does to people.
It is unfair, uncharitable, unchristian and mean.
She is a proud, angry, disgruntled former Catholic.
Leave it up to God to handle her.
She will post as long as God allows it, then she will disappear.
We know you did not smear the Pope. We know you are a faithful Catholic. And you are not the first poster to not realize that site was satirical. OOOPS. So what? A decent person would not rub your nose in it.
Everything she writes indicts herself. Ignore her.
OK, let’s be clear and not obfuscate. Let’s reiterate the clear position of the Roman Pontiff and therefore of the Catholic Church: The SPPX is not in communion with Rome and its priests and bishops exercise no legitimate ministry within the Church. Is that clear enough for you Ann Malley? You like clarity, so let’s be clear about the schismatic nature of the Society.
YFC because of your heretical position on sodomy and homosexual marriage, people will not believe you. So here is the OFFICIAL Link.
Do not embellish what Pope Benedict stated.
https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/letters/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20090310_remissione-scomunica_en.html
YFC, because of your heretical and schismatic postings in favor of SODOMY and Same-Sex Marriage, no one will believe you on anything.
Also do not embellish what Pope Benedict actually stated about the SSPX.
Here is a link to the OFFICIAL Statement.
https://www.vaticanAs long as the Society does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church. There needs to be a distinction, then, between the disciplinary level, which deals with individuals as such, and the doctrinal level, at which ministry and institution are involved. In order to make this clear once again: until the doctrinal questions are clarified, the Society has no canonical status in the Church, and its ministers – even though they have been freed of the ecclesiastical penalty – do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church..va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/letters/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20090310_remissione-scomunica_en.html
QUOTE: ” As long as the Society does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church.
There needs to be a distinction, then, between the disciplinary level, which deals with individuals as such, and the doctrinal level, at which ministry and institution are involved.
No YFC, you are the last person in the Church who should be preaching anything to anybody. You attack the SSPX but march in gay pride so called parades..I am so tired of you progressives that I almost want to leave the Church and join the SSPX especially under this Pope. But the hope is that the next Pope will regularized the SSPX and excommunicate the entire progressive wing of the Church. A dream worth dreaming
Canisius, please do not leave the Church. You have come so far. Do not give up now. There are always going to be people who do not conform to the entirety of the Catholic Faith. There will always be people where you will have to fight a feeling of aversion to love them. God wants you to be holy and he sends tests and trials and crucibles. Stay with Him. It is good to stand up to error; you are not the kind of person who runs away when the going gets tough.
At some point you make a decision that you are not going to let the progressives have the Church. Then comes the hard part-staying in the fight. (And it is really God who inspires the decision and gives you the gift of fortitude to do as He wills.)
Prayer is the only real way that things change. Sometimes people who are in error just won’t even look at themselves long enough to even say “What if I am wrong? Should I pray over this and read what the church has to say?” Prayer, the Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be and prayer to St. Joseph
https://www.ewtn.com/Devotionals/prayers/stjoe2.htm
And St. Michael
https://www.ewtn.com/Devotionals/prayers/michael.htm
Also, next to Holy Mass, the Rosary is the most powerful prayer.
Offer your communion for every errant soul.
Ned, I believe I accurately stated the position of the Church regarding the status of SSPX and the schismatic acts undertaken by its founder. I also think that when you say that you won’t believe anything I say since I’m gay, then that tells us more about you than it does me. In case you didn’t know, your position is contrary to the teachings in the Catechism.
Ann: I wish they had a thumbs up button because I would have given you one here!
Thanks, RR. I just hate idiocy parading itself as the full communion police. It makes the Catholic Church out to look similarly ill informed and illogical. As if the threat of ‘Henny Penny’, full beak ablazing, would be enough to forestall adult conversation.
Those are your own words Ann Malley…you deceive and not a pretty sight from someone who prides herself in being traditional. Your own words…Ann Malley’s, show the truth and read the whole thread leading to it…just because you do not understand it does not mean you are interpreting correctly.
keep bickering about nothing…just your made up “trouble in New Paradise” analogy. Choose Christ and His church…
Choose the Logos, Abeca, that is the Word which is logic and reason. And try owning up to your own lack of both. Then perhaps there would be a basis for actual discussion. Until then you do nothing but toot your own holy horn.
As to not a pretty sight, your example is exactly that. Much like cut rate polyester tent vestments that are too often the norm in parishes that can afford and should offer better.
Do not confuse the SSPX with Faithful Traditional Orders such as the FSSP or others.
Here is the OFFICIAL position of Pope Benedict regarding the SSPX which is still in effect today, and given AFTER the excommunication of the SSPX Bishops was lifted.
https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/letters/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20090310_remissione-scomunica_en.html
” The fact that the Society of Saint Pius X does not possess a canonical status in the Church is not, in the end, based on disciplinary but on doctrinal reasons. As long as the Society does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church.
There needs to be a distinction, then, between the disciplinary level, which deals with individuals as such, and the doctrinal level, at which ministry and institution are involved.
In order to make this clear once again: until the doctrinal questions are clarified, the Society has no canonical status in the Church, and its ministers – even though they have been freed of the ecclesiastical penalty – do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church. ” – Pope Benedict.
Any Catholic who says differently is a heretic.
I would rather see lace than cheap polyester vestments.
Maybe that’s all the parish can afford.
Personally, would rather see cheap polyester than $5000 worth of hand tailored silk that looks like a princess bridal train and requires a manservant’s assistance to navigate a room.
That may be traditional, but in all the wrong ways. Whatever symbolic value it has is overshadowed by what everyone else on earth sees: excess. It recalls the era when the Church held all the political power and most of the wealth in Europe, and was mired in corruption and lavish displays of earthly riches to the serfdom of lay folk.
If all you’re seeing in Cardinal Burke’s vestments are symbols of tradition, you’re missing the fact that a lot of more elaborate get ups are also material objects costing tens of thousands of dollars from high end ecclesiastical outfits like Gammarelli and Ars-Regia. And he has quite a lot of them.
Where does the money come from, and is regal gilt really the best use of Church resources?
There’s a reason more ascetic ecclesiastical vestments are the standard these days. They’re much more humble and less in conflict with the gospel message that bling trappings are supposedly glorifying.
“…There’s a reason more ascetic ecclesiastical vestments are the standard these days. They’re much more humble and less in conflict with the gospel message that bling trappings are supposedly glorifying.”
Supposedly is key, friend. The vestments and lace and gold and pomp are visible signs of the faithful giving their best to God. (Like the expensive jar of Nard in the Gospel.) And that is precisely what has been lost because the ‘best’ is now reserved for ourselves and our leisure activities. Folks don’t even want to acknowledge Christ’s True Presence in the Blessed Sacrament anymore because the whole world is bent on leveling all hierarchy. Why? So we can do what ‘we’ will and not acknowledge that which is above.
You say, “Where does the money come from, and is regal gilt really the best use of Church resources?” Sounds practical, but such a statement also sounds very much like Judas, too.
I had to read this article again. I am glad that our men are asked to be manly. In the past years I have seen men abandon their holy moral obligations. I have seen a traditional family torn apart because the husband changed during his midlife crises, as they call it today. He started to treat his wife really bad and did things that caused her great sadness. His wife, a stay at home wife, was left vulnerable, trying to find a place to live with their kids. Another woman who, praise God survived breast cancer, then had to deal with her husband’s infidelity. She was a school teacher, so she was able to protect herself. She did not find enough support, the answer she got was “maybe you should please your husband more often in bed” or similar comments like that. Traditional women try to follow God and be holy but sometimes the men are excused of their behaviors. It seems that they get more compassion. So this article is great to hold them accountable. To remind them to be manly, to not commit adultery, to protect their families etc.
I enjoyed the movie Courageous and Fireproof. I know that they are protestant movies but they do have good values to help men take responsibility. I am traditional but I also believe that because today, in these modern days, there are many temptations out there for men, that woman do need to protect themselves by maintaining security to protect themselves.
https://www.focus.org/blog/posts/the-secret-sufferings-of-catholic-manhood.html
Loved this. # 21 reminded me of the time a woman was pouring out her heart to me about problems at work and said “I should be absolved” from creating the problem.
Awhile later I asked where she went to college and she answered “CUA”
I know I have had conversations with people and they will suddenly “What religion are you?”
Abeca … two of my friends from college had their dads had a “midlife crisis,” abandoned the family and..as one of them put it when she was really angry “wanted to be a %&#@*)^ bohemian with a sports car.” I thank God that none of my brothers would ever do such a thing
“Unfortunately, the radical feminist movement strongly influenced the Church, leading the Church to constantly address women’s issues at the expense of addressing critical issues important to men; the importance of the father, whether in the union of marriage or not; the importance of a father to children; the importance of fatherhood for priests; the critical impact of a manly character; the emphasis on the particular gifts that God gives to men for the good of the whole society.”
Putting aside for the moment whether the cause of this was radical feminism, I question whether these things were ever taught at Church. I would think that the family was the place or maybe Catholic schools (boys school?)
I know there are new efforts to promote Catholic manhood on the internet and in some parishes. As well as efforts in other Christian denominations.
https://thosecatholicmen.com/leisure-the-basis-of-manliness-1/
An example of a website for Catholic men.