More sensitive hand-wringing by '60s 'new church' Caths

The latest episode of defensive whining by Catholics who think the Church began in the 1960s concerns the "pain and suffering" some have alleged over photographs of Bishop Alain Castet of Luçon, in the Vendée -- photos that "rocked the diocese" by picturing him wearing traditional vestments and ordaining six deacons according to the extraordinary form of the Roman rite.

Get a grip, folks. This isn't child pornography. The daily "Ouest France" laments the ordination as an even "that hurts a part of the Church in Vendée." A priest is quoted as saying: "Too much, this is too much, it is a return to a past that the Bishop proposes to us, we turn our backs to the Vatican II Council." Oh, please. Grow up. (A full account via Rorate Caeli today.)

I personally remember parishioners at St. Aloysius Church in North Carolina up in arms over a new priest's use of a Chalice Veil during his Masses, as well as the hue and cry they raised when he had the choir sing Ave Verum Corpus during Communion on the Feast of Corpus Christi. The pain and suffering was just too much, apparently, for those accustomed to a diet of Marty Haugen and David Haas; and the poor priest never used anything in Latin again.

I even remember a faculty member walking out of a guest lecture by a visiting European philosopher at Duquesne University specifically because the reality of the Devil was asserted in the course of the lecture. O medieval horror! What would these sensitive souls fare if they knew that their gentle, meek and mild Jesus spoke more about the frightening torments of hell than anyone in the Bible?

Amazing. Simply amazing.

You know, it strikes me that we have here a new sort of Integrism, Fundamentalism, or even Traditionalism. Call it 1960s Integrism, 1960s Fundamentalism, 1960s Traditionalim. It's the kind of outlook that will give you a nosebleed if you see a priest wearing a biretta, indigestion if you happen to glimpse liturgical lace, and a heart attack if anyone seriously mentions the Devil.

Good gracious! Haven't any of these folks heard a word spoken by the Holy Father? Can they even spell "H-e-r-m-e-n-e-u-t-i-c o-f C-o-n-t-i-n-u-i-t-y"?