Two Anniversaries

From Father Greg Markey

This past Thursday, April 19, 2012 marked in important day in my life. Many will recognize this date as the 7th anniversary of the election of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, to be the 265th Vicar of Christ. I will always remember April 19, 2005, seeing Cardinal Ratzinger walk out onto the balcony, “dressed-up as the pope.” Having read much of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s writings, and having met him once as a seminarian in Rome, it gave me tremendous joy knowing that we would be led by a shepherd of such integrity and wisdom. Now, seven years later, Pope Benedict XVI still looks healthy, Deo gratias, and it is my heartfelt prayer that the Lord would give him many more years of rewarding service.

April 19, 2012 also marks a more personal anniversary, the 60th wedding anniversary of my parents. On April 19, 1952, Joseph and Gloria Markey were married at St. Joseph Church in Bogota, New Jersey, a parish run by Carmelite priests. My father had grown up in this parish where he faithfully served as an altar boy, reciting his Latin prayers at the foot of the altar: “Introibo ad altare Dei, Ad Deum qui laetificat…” My mother’s brother, Henry, was in the Jesuit seminary at that time of the wedding and was not even permitted to leave seminary to attend the marriage of his sister. These were times of more discipline within the Church.

My parents went on to have 11 children over 17 years and moved up to Ridgefield, Connecticut in 1966, after my father received a job offer from a booming optics company, Perkin Elmer. Hearing the stories and seeing the old photos of these years, it was a time filled with great hope and change. Hope because every child born is a great sign of hope. Change because the cultural revolution in the West was in full swing and the Church was attempting to implement the Second Vatican Council.

The Markey’s attended St. Mary Church in Ridgefield where many of my siblings and I received our Sacraments. It seemed like an ideal suburban parish filled with thousands of families and many children. However, my parents were unaware that they had just entered a parish that would become an icon of the post-conciliar turmoil.

In 1968, St. Mary Church in Ridgefield became a battleground. The parish received a new pastor, Msgr. Martin J. O’Connor, who would begin implementing Vatican II. As our family sat in the pews each Sunday morning, Mass became a new experiment. There were “clown Masses” with lay people miming the Gospel. There were dancing girls, including nuns in tutus, prancing around in front of the Blessed Sacrament. My father found the teaching that people should receive Holy Communion standing and in the hand offensive. He initially resisted but eventually accepted under pressure from the priests.

Showing up on Sunday mornings, my family found the beautiful colonial-gothic church slowly dismantled. Marble statues were moved out of the sanctuary and the marble high altar was pulled away from the central reredos. When one of the parishioners found the parish’s hand-carved altar rail from Italy in the town dump, it became a rallying cry. Parishioners organized with petitions and protests, demanding that the demolition of the parish treasures stop. They were successful in saving some of the marble statues and preventing the removal of the classic stain glass windows.

When some parishioners asked why this was happening, they were told that “Vatican II says we can do this,” and “We have approval from the diocese.” Some parishioners asked, “Where does it say in the Council documents that Mass should be said facing the people, and that altar rails should be removed?” but they received no answer.

Around the parish, posters of Karl Marx and Mao Tse Tung appeared on the walls, and a modern form of CCD began. Families were told that regular Confession was not healthy, and praying the rosary was no longer part of the life of the Church. Religious education texts promoted explicit sex-education. It was an insane time for Catholic families. As Pope Paul VI stated in 1972, the “smoke of Satan” had entered the Church.

When the concerns of good families at St. Mary’s were not addressed, a group of them felt they had no other alternative but to start their own catechetical program. At their first meeting they expected about 40 children to come but word had spread and 186 showed up. Many families of influence in the town pulled their children out of the parish program and joined the new group, and the Knights of Columbus let them use their hall on the other side of town. St. Mary Church was now painfully divided.

The parents who started the new program were called in for meetings with the pastor and when that did not work, representatives from the diocese came down. The parents were told that they were “not flexible enough” and that “they needed to obey the pastor.” When the situation was still unable to be resolved, the parents were threatened with interdict, being denied the Sacraments. These families travelled around for years like pilgrims around the diocese, looking for priests who would give them the Sacraments. They were preached against from the pulpits and the parishioners were forced to decide where their loyalty lay.

What were faithful Catholics supposed to do with all of this? My parents were alarmed. They saw the problems with the “feel good” catechetical program and decided to pull their children out so they could teach all of us children at home. Their loyalty ultimately fell with the local priests, reasoning that those who represent the Church should be followed.

As the division in Ridgefield continued, a group of priests began to offer the Traditional Latin Mass in the next town over, in Brewster, NY. Some of these families who had formed their own catechetical program began to attend. However, homilies at these Masses spoke out against the Pope which caused some of these same people to decide this was not the answer. Good Catholics were still unable to find a home and the Body of Christ was continuing to splinter.

Eventually this Traditional Latin Mass group would be led by the Society of St. Pius X and they purchased the Jesuit Retreat House in Ridgefield which became a successful retreat center. In 1988, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the Society’s superior, ordained bishops without the express permission of Rome and incurred automatic excommunication.

During the 1970’s, many in the separate catechetical program reconciled with the parish, but St. Mary Church continued with various liturgical abuses and being soft on doctrine. The parish school closed. While most families like my parents stayed in the parish, other families drifted over to the Society of St. Pius X. St. Mary Church was not immune from numerous clergy scandals and when they finally became public my family felt both betrayed and terribly saddened.

It is worth noting that in the first 25 years of post-Vatican II period, St. Mary Church produced three vocations to the priesthood: Fr. Peter Short, Fr. Greg Short, and Fr. James Farfaglia. All three of these young men were sons of the families that refused to submit to parish’s modern catechetical program in the early 1970’s. None of them were ordained for the Diocese of Bridgeport, but to orthodox religious orders.

I was the fourth priestly vocation to come out of Ridgefield’s St. Mary Church during the post-conciliar period, and the first to be ordained for the Diocese of Bridgeport. I can in no way boast of my own merit, as if somehow I took the right course in this time of confusion. My teenage years had their share of rebellion and I was almost expelled from the parish Confirmation program for disrespecting CCD teachers. Like so many Catholics of my generation from Ridgefield, by the time I had got to college I had drifted away from the Church and lost my way. The secular version of Catholicism that my generation learned at St. Mary’s in Ridgefield did not prepare us to live the faith. It was only by a mysterious infusion of grace (which I attribute to Our Lady) that I came back to the Church, and ultimately became a priest. Certainly, the unwavering faith of my parents was an enormous influence on me.

Fifty years after the Council, now is the time for forgiveness and reconciliation: Forgiveness for the priests and lay people who led people astray with false doctrine; forgiveness for the scandal of some of the clergy’s behavior; and forgiveness for harsh words spoken against one another. We are facing an increasingly hostile secular culture, and if we are divided we are surely going to be defeated.

Those who carried the banner of change need to have the humility to recognize that many things done during this period were contrary to the Church documents and to the Tradition. A tree is known by its fruits, and statistical destruction after the Council is all too well documented. The path forward means a “religious submission of will and intellect” to the authentic teachings of the Church, and interpreting Vatican II documents, including the liturgy documents, in continuity with the Tradition the Church.

It is time for the Society of St. Pius X to come home, to be fully reconciled to the Church. As the history of St. Mary Church in Ridgefield shows, they too have suffered much and have a story to tell. To ignore their perspective is to ignore the reality of what has happened during this period. Pope Benedict XVI has lifted the excommunication and if the internet reports are to be believed, is about to receive them back into juridical union with the Church. The Holy Father has spent much of moral capital on this reconciliation, and by doing so is showing us that the voice of Society of St. Pius X has a role to play in the path forward for the Church.

One of the most memorable parts of my First Mass in 1999 was when I encountered one of my old teachers to whom I had been disrespectful. She had heard that her former student was becoming a priest and came to the Mass. Afterwards I went out of my way to find her and to apologize for the way I treated her many years ago. I also thanked her for her faithfulness. She was most gracious. Yes, forgiveness is the way forward.

For me, April 19, 2012 is an anniversary that marks the time of heroes: Catholics who kept their faith over the turmoil of the past 50 years. Pope Benedict XVI is a hero who is calling the sheep to gather around the Good Shepherd while being patient with those who are slow to respond. He knows human nature and he knows that there has been much suffering during this period. This will take time. My parents are heroes because they still have their Catholic faith intact after having lived through all the chaos and confusion. To Pope Benedict XVI and to my parents – Happy Anniversary and ad multos annos!

Sincerely in Christ,

Fr. Greg J. Markey

SOURCE: “FROM THE PASTOR” April 29. 2012