His comments strike at the heart of what the Catholic Church has always understood about the nature of the priesthood, the sacraments, and ecclesial hierarchy.
Your ‘conspiracy theory’ is completely on point: read ‘Goodbye Good Men’ by Michael Rose. He showed that the ‘vocations crisis’ was artificial, for precisely the reasons you mentioned, and that it suits those who are manoeuvring to change the Church - and don’t think, for a moment, that their motives are genuine.
This is just an affirmation of what has been happening for years. The diocese of Seattle, WA has instituted what they call family of parishes where one priest presides over 2-3 parishes. I can only imagine that much of the administrative work is done by laity. I pray for those poor priests in Washington state. Not only do they have to battle against a governor who has legislated that priests must break the seal of confession in cases of abuse or neglect, but they are tremendously overworked and have no way to get to know all their parishioners in any meaningful way.
Yes, we need to pray relentlessly for a Curé of Ars in every parish. We need to make reparations for our former tepidity, for the sins of the clergy and for all fallen away Catholics. Come, Holy Spirit, come!
Our Lady of the Good Success of the Purification, pray for us.
It seems to be happening all over. Same thing here in Illinois - shut down and consolidate parishes, a priest covering 2, 3 or 4 different churches (communities, they call them), all the while calling it “renewal.”
"Catholics who love the traditional faith must not be passive..."
Well said!! If we want change in the Church we just might want to consider the elephant jn the room. Prevost’s election may have been invalid because the cardinals violated Pope JPII papal law on elections Universi Dominici Gregis by having 133 cardinals voting when the maximum allowed is 120 and also because they elected a candidate who had made statements against catholic doctrine (Fiducia Supplicans, Amoris Laetitia etc), contrary to Pope Paul IV’s Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Oficio. Because that a man is pope is not a presumption of fact but a conclusion of the law, and the law was not followed in the election of May 8th, 2025. Jesus himself confirms the juridical nature of the Church when he tells St Peter in Matthew 18:18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heave, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heave.”
Since the cardinals failed in their duty to elect a Catholic pope, according to the Pope Nicolas II’s Bull In Nome Domine, in cases where the election is not pure, sincere and free, the faithful of Rome have the right to assemble and elect a Catholic pope.
I wish these idiot clerics who have spent their entire ecclesiastical lives gazing at their spiritual navels would just have the sheer decency to become full-fledged members of any Protestant sect - pick one - or, hop from one to another on a weekly basis. It doesn't matter, there are thousands, but in stark contrast, there simply is only one, holy Catholic church.
From my perspective the collapse of the Roman Catholic Church is a fait accompli. The tiny clutches of “faithful in the catacombs” predicted by Benedict XVI are already operating under a paradoxically shrinking number of TLM congregations with rapidly growing populations. My own TLM venue recently quietly changed all of its stationary from “Parish” to “Chapel” with no mention of it from the pulpit by the pastor. We’re sequestered on the edge of the diocese, a unicorn, drawing large families of Catholics from a vast tri-state region. I predict the final Traditiones Custodes blow will be a papal decree placing the TLM into its own separate Rite, to become “other” like the Anglican Ordinariate or the Maronites. In the context of TC, I believe Leo XIV signaled exactly this type of sequestration in Week 1 when going on at length about the beauty and majesty of the various Orthodox Rites. I continue to pray for the pope and prelates Rome, but I’m done losing sleep over them.
Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic here. I don't think it would exactly be a bad thing to place the TLM under its own Rite or even somehow establish it as its own Church. Ultimately they'd still be under Rome, like all of us various Byzantine Rite Churches are. But the Vatican largely leaves us alone. Many of the Byzantine bishops affirmed after the “blessings letter” from a couple years ago that the norms did not apply to us. As your own Church, the TLM can set itself apart, hopefully with its own bishops, fundraising, schools, etc. It may not be a completely bad thing.
The TLM (and associated traditional sacraments) is very much a different rite from the Novus Ordo despite papal efforts to obfuscate that (i.e. Ordinary vs. Extraordinary form). I have been saying for years that NO bishops should have no role directing traditional priests and parishes. It is a major conflict of interest. Trad priests should answer only to trad bishops. Modern Rome has a real dilemma in allowing such a thing to occur as it would expedite the demise of atrophying NO parishes and accelerate the growth of traditional worship which it mostly fears and loathes.
Years ago, when I was a member of the Novus Ordo religion, our pastor explained that having lay administrators was the plan, as "pastoral associates" would be traveling between parishes. At the time, the diocese had 40 parishes...and 6 seminarians. Now, it's much, much worse.
The Catholic chapel I attend now has 30 chapels spread throughout the US, with 9 seminarians.
I don't think God will fix things for us. But he will give us the grace to solve the problems in the church. For this reason I support the Save Rome project, which is the denunciation of Prevost's invalid election by the cardinals and as a result the election of a Catholic pope by the faithful of Rome, as was done in the first millenium. Both actions can be supported juridically by the infallible teaching of past popes. So we stear clear of the common protestant sin of personal opinion.
There is so much I could say most of which has already been said .
If there was ever a time to stand up and be counted it’s now.
My own experience with laity led N.O. parish led to my conversation to the Jewish sect ! Yes I know……now 25 years later that I played right into the hands of the NWO agenda .
These people need to start defining what they mean by "administrative work," because there is a huge difference between doing accounting or sorting paperwork in an office and celebrating the sacraments. Lay employees can do the former but should not be usurping the latter function. In fact, an argument could be made that there is just too much office paperwork and other red-tape-related things that occupy your average parish priest today to the point where he can't even pray properly. I would rather every priest be praying the real, true Roman Office every day than wasting his time answering every phone call in the office from the electric company or the insurance company.
The Church cannot be destroyed. It is either indefectible as Christ promised or He is a liar. If the latter, then He is not God and everything, EVERYTHING is a lie.
True, but don't misconstrue things like a false pope [just as an example] as equivalent to the Church defecting and tgen short circuiting your own ability to make a proper response. God did not call any of us to be mere fanatics without any reasoning ability.
Read In Nomine Domini by Nicholas II, and I think either the hair my atand up on your neck, or you will have the biggest relief and hope of your life. Or perhaps your zeal and outrage are totally a performance and it will have no effect whatsoever
Your ‘conspiracy theory’ is completely on point: read ‘Goodbye Good Men’ by Michael Rose. He showed that the ‘vocations crisis’ was artificial, for precisely the reasons you mentioned, and that it suits those who are manoeuvring to change the Church - and don’t think, for a moment, that their motives are genuine.
Topical reflections here too:
https://www.fromrome.info/2025/06/16/the-juridical-is-the-most-certain-sign-of-the-true-church/
This is just an affirmation of what has been happening for years. The diocese of Seattle, WA has instituted what they call family of parishes where one priest presides over 2-3 parishes. I can only imagine that much of the administrative work is done by laity. I pray for those poor priests in Washington state. Not only do they have to battle against a governor who has legislated that priests must break the seal of confession in cases of abuse or neglect, but they are tremendously overworked and have no way to get to know all their parishioners in any meaningful way.
Yes, we need to pray relentlessly for a Curé of Ars in every parish. We need to make reparations for our former tepidity, for the sins of the clergy and for all fallen away Catholics. Come, Holy Spirit, come!
Our Lady of the Good Success of the Purification, pray for us.
It seems to be happening all over. Same thing here in Illinois - shut down and consolidate parishes, a priest covering 2, 3 or 4 different churches (communities, they call them), all the while calling it “renewal.”
"Catholics who love the traditional faith must not be passive..."
Well said!! If we want change in the Church we just might want to consider the elephant jn the room. Prevost’s election may have been invalid because the cardinals violated Pope JPII papal law on elections Universi Dominici Gregis by having 133 cardinals voting when the maximum allowed is 120 and also because they elected a candidate who had made statements against catholic doctrine (Fiducia Supplicans, Amoris Laetitia etc), contrary to Pope Paul IV’s Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Oficio. Because that a man is pope is not a presumption of fact but a conclusion of the law, and the law was not followed in the election of May 8th, 2025. Jesus himself confirms the juridical nature of the Church when he tells St Peter in Matthew 18:18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heave, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heave.”
https://www.fromrome.info/2025/06/12/catholics-of-rome-denounce-prevost-as-an-anti-pope/
https://www.fromrome.info/2025/05/09/cardinal-prevost-is-an-anti-pope-his-election-is-invalidated-by-paul-iv/
Since the cardinals failed in their duty to elect a Catholic pope, according to the Pope Nicolas II’s Bull In Nome Domine, in cases where the election is not pure, sincere and free, the faithful of Rome have the right to assemble and elect a Catholic pope.
https://www.fromrome.info/2025/06/11/pope-nicholas-iii-infallibly-taught-that-faithful-can-elect-a-catholic-pope/
I wish these idiot clerics who have spent their entire ecclesiastical lives gazing at their spiritual navels would just have the sheer decency to become full-fledged members of any Protestant sect - pick one - or, hop from one to another on a weekly basis. It doesn't matter, there are thousands, but in stark contrast, there simply is only one, holy Catholic church.
Amen !
From my perspective the collapse of the Roman Catholic Church is a fait accompli. The tiny clutches of “faithful in the catacombs” predicted by Benedict XVI are already operating under a paradoxically shrinking number of TLM congregations with rapidly growing populations. My own TLM venue recently quietly changed all of its stationary from “Parish” to “Chapel” with no mention of it from the pulpit by the pastor. We’re sequestered on the edge of the diocese, a unicorn, drawing large families of Catholics from a vast tri-state region. I predict the final Traditiones Custodes blow will be a papal decree placing the TLM into its own separate Rite, to become “other” like the Anglican Ordinariate or the Maronites. In the context of TC, I believe Leo XIV signaled exactly this type of sequestration in Week 1 when going on at length about the beauty and majesty of the various Orthodox Rites. I continue to pray for the pope and prelates Rome, but I’m done losing sleep over them.
Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic here. I don't think it would exactly be a bad thing to place the TLM under its own Rite or even somehow establish it as its own Church. Ultimately they'd still be under Rome, like all of us various Byzantine Rite Churches are. But the Vatican largely leaves us alone. Many of the Byzantine bishops affirmed after the “blessings letter” from a couple years ago that the norms did not apply to us. As your own Church, the TLM can set itself apart, hopefully with its own bishops, fundraising, schools, etc. It may not be a completely bad thing.
The TLM (and associated traditional sacraments) is very much a different rite from the Novus Ordo despite papal efforts to obfuscate that (i.e. Ordinary vs. Extraordinary form). I have been saying for years that NO bishops should have no role directing traditional priests and parishes. It is a major conflict of interest. Trad priests should answer only to trad bishops. Modern Rome has a real dilemma in allowing such a thing to occur as it would expedite the demise of atrophying NO parishes and accelerate the growth of traditional worship which it mostly fears and loathes.
Years ago, when I was a member of the Novus Ordo religion, our pastor explained that having lay administrators was the plan, as "pastoral associates" would be traveling between parishes. At the time, the diocese had 40 parishes...and 6 seminarians. Now, it's much, much worse.
The Catholic chapel I attend now has 30 chapels spread throughout the US, with 9 seminarians.
Never ever ever give up .
Not ever .
How long, O Lord? How long?
I don't think God will fix things for us. But he will give us the grace to solve the problems in the church. For this reason I support the Save Rome project, which is the denunciation of Prevost's invalid election by the cardinals and as a result the election of a Catholic pope by the faithful of Rome, as was done in the first millenium. Both actions can be supported juridically by the infallible teaching of past popes. So we stear clear of the common protestant sin of personal opinion.
There is so much I could say most of which has already been said .
If there was ever a time to stand up and be counted it’s now.
My own experience with laity led N.O. parish led to my conversation to the Jewish sect ! Yes I know……now 25 years later that I played right into the hands of the NWO agenda .
God in His mercy reclaimed His own….
These people need to start defining what they mean by "administrative work," because there is a huge difference between doing accounting or sorting paperwork in an office and celebrating the sacraments. Lay employees can do the former but should not be usurping the latter function. In fact, an argument could be made that there is just too much office paperwork and other red-tape-related things that occupy your average parish priest today to the point where he can't even pray properly. I would rather every priest be praying the real, true Roman Office every day than wasting his time answering every phone call in the office from the electric company or the insurance company.
The Church cannot be destroyed. It is either indefectible as Christ promised or He is a liar. If the latter, then He is not God and everything, EVERYTHING is a lie.
True, but don't misconstrue things like a false pope [just as an example] as equivalent to the Church defecting and tgen short circuiting your own ability to make a proper response. God did not call any of us to be mere fanatics without any reasoning ability.
Read In Nomine Domini by Nicholas II, and I think either the hair my atand up on your neck, or you will have the biggest relief and hope of your life. Or perhaps your zeal and outrage are totally a performance and it will have no effect whatsoever
https://www.fromrome.info/2021/02/25/the-bull-of-pope-nicholas-ii-in-nomine-domini-april-13-1059-2/