“I think of Hagia Sophia”, said Pope Francis, “and I am very saddened.”

(Remark at the Angelus today)

And Jerusalem is next, according to Erdogan, thr supreme leader of Turkey! It’s a forceful message repudiating the post-Ottoman Western, secular course adopted by Turkey, a traumatic reopening of ancient wounds not just for the Greek Orthodox, but also for Eastern Catholics – and indeed all Catholics everywhere. In addition to the (obviously) outspoken Greek Orthodox, a wide spectrum of opinion in the West has criticized the move – but so far normally garroulous Pope Francis has remained silent. For that matter, he has also said nothing on the current takeover in Hong Kong. And the Pope has been conspicuous by his absence during the coronavirus epidemic as well.

Now, viewed legalistically, we may argue the Turks have the right to do what they want with a monument that has been theirs for many centuries. Yet seemingly unconnected events like Erdogan’s decision, the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris or the toppling of images of Catholic saints and exploreres in the United States all symbolize one thing: the receding of Western, originally Christian, civilization.

UPDATE: As does this: Mission founded by St. Junípero Serra burns in overnight fire.

Survey: 30% of German Catholics could see themselves leaving the Church “soon.”

Die Tagespost and Katholisch.de

This is the church the hierarchy of which – under Francis – has such a disproportionate influence on the Church worldwide.

Update of the Update:

Only 57 diocesan priests to be ordained this year in Germany – the second lowest number in history. The record low was 2019 with 55 ordinations. For a country with some 27 million Catholics (on paper at least) that is disastrous. For every newly ordained priest this year there are likely eleven losses for one reason or another. Not surprisingly, the first big drop in ordinations occurred between 1962 (557) and 1970 (303).

Obviously this trend is not sustainable. The first reaction of the Central Committee of the Catholic Laity is to renew the call for married priests and women priests. In other words, business as usual in Catholic Germany.

Footnote: the average number of priests ordained each year in the New York Archdiocese in relation to the Catholic population is roughly the same as in the admittedly catastrophic situation of Germany.

Katholisch.de

“20 CATHOLIC SCHOOLS IN ARCHDIOCESE OF NEW YORK WILL NOT REOPEN, THREE WILL MERGE IN WAKE OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC”

For the details see HERE. That’s about 10% of the total number. And this after years of closings and reorganizations. It will likely be just the beginning, according to Cardinal Dolan: “I am very concerned that if our elected officials in Washington don’t do the right thing and provide more assistance for our schools in the HEROES Act now making its way through Congress, we may be back here again in a few months shuttering even more of our schools.” Even in this round some other schools barely survived: “I am pleased to say that (through the efforts of the Archdiocesan offices – SC) a number of schools originally thought to be in trouble will be able to remain open this September.” Among the schools closed are those at the well-known Manhattan parishes Corpus Christi and Our Lady of Pompeii.

Of course, according to the Cardinal, it was only the fault of the Coronavirus: “Please know that none of the schools that are closing were “failing” schools.” I am not sure how many people would agree with that given the sorry story of the last decades. Cardinal Dolan himself indicates the stumbling block is the cost of the education – all the more so when so many of the “less affluent” families that are the main clients of this system today have been disproportionately harmed by the measures taken by the government against coronavirus. Today’s cost of a Catholic school education reflects the need to rely almost entreily on a lay teaching staff. Other families that would have been potential customers of the Archdiocesan schools have dropped out over the decades because of legitimate concerns about these schools’ Catholicity and competence. And obviously, if nowadays only 20% of Catholics in the Archdiocese attend Mass on Sunday, and according to anecdotal evidence, many (most?) of these are practicing contraception, that also will translate into reduced school attendance. I would view the Coronavirus as simply accelerating the effect of an unresolved profound crisis of structure, mission and faith.

The more frightening consideration is how much of the structure of the institutional Roman Catholic Church – its parishes, schools and religious orders – will actually survive this crisis. That question is being raised in Germany, France and Italy right now. Today’s announcement shows we now are facing it here.

Here is the full text of the Cardinal’s letter.

“A new solution for America’s empty churches: A change of faith.” I just found this “op-ed” posted on Crux, your K of C and diocesan-funded propaganda source for Team Francis. In addition, John Allen, its editor-in-chief, spent many years at the National Catholic Reporter; one of his main contributors just left to join up there.

In his 1/5/2020 post Ashima Krishna discusses an exciting new possibility for using closed Roman Catholic churches: converting them into mosques or temples. Obviously the reason these churches were abandoned in the first place is that a “change of faith” has already taken place – the majority of Catholics now adhere to secular modernity. And more specifically in regards to Buffalo, I probably don’t need to recall for readers of this blog the scandalous goings-on in the Buffalo diocese these last few years. Into this void steps Islam and various other non-Christian beliefs. And, our author asks regarding making churches into mosques, isn’t there good precedent in the case of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul?

“Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia famously switched from a Christian church to a mosque in 1453.“

“The same sort of conversions have been taking place in Buffalo’s East Side.“

Never mind that this innocuous-sounding “switch” or “conversion” took place amid a sack and massacre. And just recently this very subject has resurfaced. The present Islamophile Turkish regime has announced its intent to return Hagia Sofia to its pre-1935 status as a mosque. The optics indicate very clearly what is happening both in Istanbul and in Buffalo – a degenerate West (both religious and secular) ceding to a revived reinvigorated Islam.

As you may have heard, the Archdiocese of New York welcomed one new priest this year (another man was ordained for a religious order). The Archdiocese counts, at least on paper, 2.6 million Catholics. Now the newly ordained Fr. Luis Silva Cervantes is not even from the New York archdiocese but from Guadalajara, Mexico.

The last time this occured was 2012. In that case too, the new priest did not hail from the Archdiocese. It aroused quite a bit of comment, particularly when this priest celebrated his first public Mass in the Old Rite. At the time the Archdiocese sought to explain away the situation by reference to new educational mandates for the seminary. Obviously that was a grossly insufficient explanation. Probably the archdiocese ordains – for the archdiocese itself – around 5 priests each year on the average. That’s not enough to maintain even today’s diminished clerical ranks. But it’s the same story we have seen this year in the diocese of Bridgeport, in Ireland, Germany, France…

Canon Jean Marie Moreau, ICKSP, whom many of you got to know when he was pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Oratory in West Orange, NJ, is starting a new oratory of the Institute of Christ the King in Sulphur, Louisiana.  

He is seeking to raise $600,000 to restore a century-old church, and to convert the adjacent city marshal’s office into a residence for members of the Institute.  He is in urgent need of funds right now:  There is an opportunity to buy the statues and windows of the old cathedral in Houston. Big donations and small are needed.

In your charity, please consider donating to this worthy project. 

To donate by mail:

Canon Jean Marie MOREAU
Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
935 Bilbo Street
LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA 70601

Donate on-line: Go Fund Me: https://www.gofundme.com/f/st-francis-de-sales-oratory-new-sulphur-la-fund?utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link-tip

Or go to the Institute website: https://www.eservicepayments.com/cgi-bin/specialwebapp.vps?appid=eb2b05f1f0f40d1edeea4d27259defa4c95dc6cebafe577f90d5b973bb16107e5a10fdfb7f0fb15e86e6cf19f7a0045add5c3bdbf045c99f62c874ba3236dc94&bywebssid=d0523f876a08c16fe064d80d34164712681f6a77

The webpage for the Sulphur St. Francis de Sales Oratory: https://institute-christ-king.org/sulphur-home

25th Pilgrimage for Restoration in the footsteps of the martyrs to Our Blessed Lady’s Shrine at Auriesville, NY, 25-27 September — Friday to Sunday!

Journey through majestic Adirondack forests sanctified by the blood of martyrs. Traditional Roman Liturgy every day. Confession, counsel and teaching from priests of solid faith. Fellowship & fun. Shuttles & TLC for the weary. Organized by NCCL

Register by July 1 to receive a discount.

For more information and to register, go to https://pilgrimage-for-restoration.org

The results are in for Germanchurch, 2019: 400,000 fewer Catholics than in the previous year – 270,000 of that number represented those who offcially declared themselves no longer Catholic. It’s the worst result ever, a new low point after years of disastrous decline. Except for an increase of 8 permanent deacons, all other statistics are equally bad – the number of baptisms, first communions, marriages and even funerals is sinking too. 9.1% of German Catholics now attend Mass on Sunday. And all this after 55 years of Vatican II, 7 years of the “Francis Effect” and 1 year of the “Synodal Path.”

This time the German clerical establishment couldn’t conceal its shock. This time there was no scapegoat to blame. Until some very recent setbacks, hadn’t they been having things their own way under Francis – the Synodal Path, the Amazonian Synod, the takeover of the Knights of Malta? For the time being, of course, the German bishops’ only answer to the crisis is to “stay the course” of the Synodal Path: more agitation for married priests, women clergy, homosexual blessings and marriages and so on.

A more perceptive commentary in katholisch.de, the internet presence of the “German Catholic Church.” touches on more significant issues and problems. For example, that in the Coronavirus panic ( an event subsequent to the period covered by these reports), the popular perception was that the Church could be neither seen nor heard, even though those in the Church business thought they were doing a lot. And no more fantasies that downsizing is leaving a smaller but more healthy core – church atendance is declining among those who stay too. Those working in the German Church (mostly lay nowadays) describe losses not just at the edges, but in the center.

[P]erhaps the (Synodal Path) is only the latest edition (after the Council, Würzburg Synod, “discussion forums” and innumerable diocesan synods and dialogue processes) of the self-assuring of that small remnant for which the Church still matters.