So It Begins: Chicago’s Fight for the Mass of the Ages

In case you missed this. Nothing in Trib or Sun-Times, however.

Bagpipes sounded on State Street, and a truck with flashing images of the Mass of the Ages rolled by. We stood shoulder to shoulder or knelt on the sidewalk and prayed the Rosary with Holy Name Cathedral looming large behind us. Men held signs aloft for the traffic to read: “Cardinal Cupich: Why are you punishing faithful Catholics?” It was the First Sunday of February.

And the citizens were restless.

Over two hundred of us gathered there. Men, women, even a few children (bundled up well against the cold). There were Chicago’s quintessential old Polish ladies in fur coats, and old men too, but the majority were millennials and gen-Zers. A mom in her third trimester walked about with an iPhone filming the livestream. A thirty-something dad led us through fifteen decades of the Rosary, interspersing the mysteries with hymns and other traditional devotions.

Indeed.

Some car horns honked, but whether friendly or hostile I couldn’t tell. Shouts rang from a passing driver or two, but they were lost in the Chicago wind. When the Cathedral’s 10:30 a.m. Mass ended and its participants picked their way through our ranks, looking embarrassed and saying nothing, I realized with a pang how Traditiones Custodes has already begun to rip apart the flock.

Not to mention the dutiful concurrence of His Eminence the archbishop.

But despite this sorrow, a spirit of joyful calm prevailed over us—joyful because we recognized the honor that was ours in taking up this cause, and calm because, well, perhaps many of us are getting rather used to this kind of thing. We have prayed in the same way in front of abortion facilities, in front of businesses with draconian mandates, in front of statues of saints threatened by raving mobs, and in front of our own churches with doors locked and barred. [In a previous assignment, then-Bishop Cupich did literally lock a church’s doors to prevent Traditional Latin services.] Now the doors are open but in a strange conditional way. All are welcome but those who love the Mass of the Ages. Hence the question—purely rhetorical—for His Eminence Cardinal Cupich.

more more more here . . . including:

The next Rosary Rally will take place Sunday, March 6th at 11AM once again outside of Holy Name Cathedral. See you there! For more details, visit the event’s Facebook page.