Short and (bitter) sweet

In accordance with the policy of His Eminence Cardinal Blase Cupich and the implementation of the motu proprio of His Holiness Pope Francis Traditionis Custodes within the Archdiocese of Chicago, there will be changes to the schedule of Masses at St John Cantius Church.

The first-Sunday rule:

Beginning on January 25, 2022, on the first Sunday of each month, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be celebrated in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Missal, both in Latin and English.

The Archdiocese also prescribes for us liturgical unity of prayer for Holy Mother Church’s major feasts of Christmas, Pentecost and Easter, including the Triduum.

The canons — priests, brothers, seminarians — will work harder than ever “to restore the sacred.”

The Canons Regular of St John Cantius are committed to serving the faithful within the Archdiocese of…

Read it here, but not here, the pastor’s parish web site, where it’s gone missing. Tsk, tsk.

A shame, because it’s rather good, a cry from the heart, cast as a letter to his vicariate bishop and dutiful in tone. Direct too, opening:

Thank you for consulting the Archbishop [Cardinal Cupich] regarding my request for permission to offer the Holy Sacrifice, “Ad Orientem.” [Facing east, or in same direction as the people, a key feature of the Traditional Latin Mass.] I will comply with his directive that this is forbidden in his Archdiocese.

Even so, the Archbishop does not provide evidence that “Ad Orientem” was abrogated at the Second Vatican Council. As I read Sacrosanctum Concilium [the council’s document on the liturgy] and the Roman Missal the implication is “Ad Orientem” was not abolished or prohibited – on the contrary.

He also makes respectful but direct…

What a picture.

“Unlikely” to be helpful.

Now the World Health Organization has waved the white flag on Covid vaccine boosters too.

WHO released a statement about Covid vaccines yesterday. It’s filled with the usual public health jargon and ass-covering, but one line stands out:

a vaccination strategy based on repeated booster doses of the original vaccine composition is unlikely to be appropriate or sustainable.

It’s over, people.

From his book, The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health (Children’s Health Defense), p. 57, Kindle Edition [emphasis added]:

During a pandemic, reliable and comprehensive data are critical for determining the behavior of the pathogen, identifying vulnerable populations, rapidly measuring the effectiveness of interventions, mobilizing the medical community around cutting-edge disease management, and inspiring cooperation from the public.

The shockingly low quality of virtually all relevant data pertinent to COVID-19, and the quackery, the obfuscation, the cherrypicking and blatant perversion would have scandalized, offended, and humiliated every prior generation of American public health officials.

Too often, Dr. Fauci was at the center of these systemic deceptions. The “mistakes” were always in the same direction—inflating the risks of coronavirus and the safety and efficacy of vaccines in order to stoke public fear of COVID and provoke…

From the Daily Sceptic, out of Blighty:

We’re publishing an excellent piece today about the risks of the booster roll-out by Dr. David Livermore, Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of East Anglia. He points out that Geert vanden Bossche, a critic of the Covid vaccines, may be right – that leaky vaccines deliver a brief adaptive protection against infection but simultaneously impair innate immunity, causing a reduction in non-specific protection once the initial protection has worn off. If that’s true, he doesn’t think it’s an argument for not boosting the over-50s or the vulnerable. But it is an argument for not boosting the young and healthy. Here are the opening few paragraphs:

The Government’s answer to Omicron is boosters, boosters and more boosters. Everyone over 18 is eligible. Early queues exceeded five hours; December 18th saw 904,000 boosted. Israel is doling out fourth shots to…

This pope has a bee in his bonnet.

VATICAN CITY, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Pope Francis took an apparent dig at conservatives resisting change in the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, lamenting those whose religion he said was self-referential and encased in a “suit of armour”.

On the Feast of the Epiphany, Francis seemed to direct specific criticism at those who have balked at his decision to restrict the traditionalist Latin Mass, saying the liturgy could not be trapped in a “dead language.”

“Have we been stuck all too long, nestled inside a conventional, external and formal religiosity that no longer warms our hearts and changes our lives?,” Francis said.

“Do our words and our liturgies ignite in people’s hearts a desire to move towards God, or are they a ‘dead language’ that speaks only of itself and to itself?”

At his pastoral best.

. . . unless he’s turned around the looking same way you are looking, at God incarnate in the tabernacle, or up to God in heaven above in a tried and true symbolic gesture — He’s everywhere, we know — God being the most important person in the room.

But no, it’s the mass of the faithful kneeling, standing, sitting together under the same room in His house, the mass of gazing on Father at the altar and what he does, hearing his voice (as prescribed) almost constantly, requiring (demanding) our attention. It’s his time to shine, whether he or we like it or not.

And He? Gets a lot of lip service, He does. Priest keeps things moving right along. Few empty (of words) moments.

Not good, not good, not good . . .

Would do 92% of it all over!

Roger Finnell ’59 has spent the past 59 years teaching math at Fenwick, which he calls “his second home. And to him, his classroom looks rather lived in.”

Mr. Finnell, who turns 80 in June, is retiring after this school year. “If I had to do it all over again, I’d repeat 92% of it …,” he tells the Oak Park Wednesday Journal.

A judicious statement!

Oak Park:

Two Oak Park District 97 schools have switched to remote learning after returning from winter break this week, citing staff absences as the main reason for the change. With school set to start Jan. 4, students from Longfellow Elementary and Percy Julian Middle schools are asked to shift to e-learning until Jan. 5, according to an email announcement sent to district families over the weekend.

Chi-town:

(Bloomberg) — Chicago schools have canceled instruction for Wednesday after the teachers’ union voted to shift to remote learning, escalating a clash with city officials.

The result of an electronic citywide ballot showed 73% of the members of the Chicago Teachers Union were in favor of the action, according to its posts on Twitter. Mayor Lori Lightfoot wanted to keep the U.S.’s third-largest district open amid nationwide staffing shortages as Covid-19 cases surge. City officials have called the step illegal…