RORATE CÆLI: Op-Ed: “I am a Catholic, but I cannot be irrational. Bergoglio’s motu proprio asks me to be irrational, and I cannot do that.” (Juan Manuel de Prada)

Chesterton asserted that “the church asks us to take off our hats, not our heads when entering it.” Taking off one’s hat can, however, can be an act of mortification when the church lacks a roof or if its roof is leaky, not to mention when shitting pigeons nest therein. But through mortification a Catholic completes the Passion of Christ in his flesh, as St. Paul asked of us. In order to mortify myself, I have humbly endured masses that violently assault my artistic sensibility and devotional preferences: masses with revolting little ditties based on Simon & Garfunkel tunes, masses with empowered laywomen who read the epistles stumbling over every phrase, masses with thick-headed priests who stuff the liturgy with a tacky filling of improvisation till it overflows, masses with sermons that stink of forgettable politicking. And I have endured all these mortifications because I believe that a Catholic should go to mass in his parish, even if the masses he slurps leave him disgusted and sodden with their hideousness. This painful awareness of their hideousness stings even more when I compare them with the awareness of beauty I have felt in the few traditional masses I have participated in. There I have recognized myself as another link in the chain of a living tradition that has inspired the most eminent artists.

RORATE CÆLI: Op-Ed: “I am a Catholic, but I cannot be irrational. Bergoglio’s motu proprio asks me to be irrational, and I cannot do that.” (Juan Manuel de Prada)