Defend the Faith from the Foxes in the "Henhouse!"

My husband and I go out every night to supervise our chickens while they free range for an hour. We used to let them out all day until one disappeared. When we saw a fox later prowling around the coop, we decided that poor Pidgie ended up in the fox's belly. Now we are the evening guardians while we pray our rosary and do some spiritual reading together. (Our evening activity is a metaphor for what the laity must do these days to defend the flock from the foxes and wolves invading the coop. Unfortunately, many who remain theologically true shepherds often will not act out of fear of reprisal. Thank God for the few, like Bishop Strickland, who will.)

For several months we've been focusing on St. Pio of Pietrelcina and have read several books about him including a memoir from his friend Fr. Gabriel Amorth, the famous exorcist. Currently we are reading The Last Mass of Padre Pio, which offers eyewitness testimony from close friends and spiritual sons and daughters of the padre. Much of it is new, taken from a massive dossier of information collected by Guiseppe Pagnosin. The authors, Alessandro Gnocchi and Mario Palmaro studied the material extensively like detectives evaluating a mysterious case. They take us inside the cloister walls of San Giovanni Rotondo to see and hear the saintly Capuchin's thoughts about the holy Mass, much of it first hand with additional input by others.

Padre Pio died in 1968 before the full implementation of the Novus Ordo (NO), but he was well aware of the "reform" and saw it as "a catastrophe." He asked Pope Paul VI for an indult that permitted him never to offer the NO. It was given; and from his first Mass following ordination to the last Mass the day before he died, September 22nd, 1968, he prayed the Mass of the Ages often lost in contemplation as he suffered the pains of Calvary with Jesus.

During the decades after he received the visible stigmata, Padre Pio experienced terrible persecution at the hands of Church authorities some of whom believed he was a fraud and an imposter. He was forbidden to say public Masses or hear confessions for years. He accepted all as the working out of God's Providence and bent the knee in obedience. He kept his sense of humor and never became embittered, uniting all things to the suffering of Christ. But, despite his commitment to holy obedience, he would not succumb to the desecration of the Mass. He requested the indult. 

The Last Mass of Padre Pio is based on an archive of thousands of documents which have never been reviewed before. The book was published by Angelus Press which is the media arm of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). However, the book was not an SSPX sponsored or written work as the Foreward points out. 

Nevertheless, Padre Pio could have been writing the script for Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. He shared the same concerns about Vatican II as the archbishop. As the authors relate:

Padre Pio understood the results of the reform, or saw its results much in advance. He did not like the spirit of novelty circulating within the Church and was agitated by the sight of the tumultuous ferment shaking the Vatican II Council, by now in its final moments. More than once he had lamented, speaking with sorrow about a "Church without a helmsman," explaining this concept with a juicy comparison: "The fish starts smelling from the head."[an Italian proverb] He said so also to Cardinal Bacci, who asked him, on behalf of the Pontiff, his opinion regarding the Council. "For pity's sake, finish it off quickly."[Cardinal Bacci brought him the indult from Pope Paul VI.] 

The disastrous results of the "reform" of the liturgy were anticipated by Padre Pio, but mercifully the Lord took him home before the worst abuses fell on the faithful like a tsunami:

The results became evident in the decades that followed [Vatican II]. We saw emptied convents and monasteries, decimated vocations, an infatuation for the world and sweetly anti-Christ sires, a feverish spirit of continous reforms with inevitable loss of any sense of hierarch and obedience, parish priests rebelling against their pastors, pastors revolting against their bishops, bishops dissenting with the pope, sacraments considered a minor bureaucracy to be avoided, deserted confessional, the practice of prayer annihilated, liturgical creativity to the point of parody, a fading faith in the Real Presence, empty tabernacles and tabernacles removed from the altars, the Blessed Sacrament hidden in the sacristies, altars reduced to workplace cafeteria tables, relics and sacred books sold in flea markets....All of them are the bad fruits of the abandonment of the Mass of all time ofd of the good doctrine which, naturally and supernaturally, goes along with it....[Padre Pio] knew that he could oppose what he mercilessly called "the age of catastrophe" only by remaining immersed in his Mass, the Mass of the saints.

This book is a goldmine of information and a testimony to the fidelity and wisdom of a great saint, the only priest known to receive the stigmata of Jesus Christ.

Defend the flock from the predators in the hierarchy!

I will no doubt be sharing more from this treasure house, but for today, I'm done. I will go out to guard the chickens remembering how Jesus cried over Jerusalem wanting to gather her under his outstretched arms, the shield of protection for all his children. I'll think of that while we defend our chickies from the fox of the forest, begging the Lord to save His poor silly flock from the predatory wolves in our midst.

May Jesus Christ be praised!