CAPG's Blog 

"Pope Pius X is convinced that on the character of the clergy mainly depend the present welfare and the future hopes of religion. He is convinced that in modern times the Church needs ministers of more than ordinary virtue, men who are ever ready to spend themselves for Christ and to suffer hard things for His sake. Hence he observes with alarm the growth of a worldly spirit in some of the clergy - disregard for mental prayer, indifference to spiritual reading, neglect of self-examination - and he foretells with sorrow what will be the bitter fruits of such worldliness. Sacred duties will be callously performed, the light of the faith will be darkened, dangerous novelties will be preferred to sound doctrine, human wisdom will be substituted for the Word of God, and pride and contumacy will take the place of the humility and meekness of Christ."

Source: The Priest of Today, His Ideals and His duties, by Thomas O'Donnell C.M. 1910

"St. Thomas Aquinas thus defines man's duties towards God: "Man is bound to render homage to God for these four reasons: because of God's supreme Majesty, of blessings received, of sins committed, of benefits hoped for." When dying on the Cross, Christ rendered this fourfold homage to His Eternal Father. This homage, being the homage of God to God, is of infinite value, but man's homage, the homage of limited, sinful man, is by itself insufficient to render to God what is due to Him. Man's only hope of making his homage acceptable to God, is in the merits of the Cross, and so of Holy Mass; it is in the union of his homage to the homage of the God-Man to the Eternal Father. A Christian is by baptism a member of the Church, but the Church is the Spouse of Jesus, the Royal Prince: Regina Formosissima Christo jugata Principi.

Christ and His Church always act together. Whatever is done by the Church, it is Christ who does it; whatever Christ does in the faithful, He does through the instrumentality of His Church. Christ is one with the Church by bearing her sins; the Church is one with Christ by bearing His Cross. Everything in the Church points to the Altar, to the Sacrifice of the Mass. Holy Mass is the great action of the Church, and through Holy Mass, man is able to pay his fourfold duty to God, to pay full homage to God. These duties, defined by St. Thomas, are summed up in these four words: "Adoration, Thanksgiving, Propitiation, Supplication." These are also four ends as well as the four fruits of Mass."

Source: Report of the Nineteenth Eucharistic Congress, Held at Westminster, London  from 9th to 13th September 1908

Traditional Roman Rite, Sacred Heart Downtown Raleigh (Former Cathedral)

It is "Contrary to reason and to sound liturgical theology to assert that a form of the Roman Rite celebrated uninterruptedly for some 15 centuries is no longer a valid form of the Roman Rite" Cardinal Raymond Burke

Jerome (...) wrote (...) a famous letter in which he enumerated the austere duties of the sacerdotal life. Amongst many other lessons to be found in it is the following, which applies to all preachers, and which Fenelon has inserted in his third " Dialogue upon Eloquence":

"When teaching in the church do not excite the applause but rather the lamentations of the people; let the tears of your auditors be your commendation. The sermons of a priest should overflow with Holy Scripture. Be not an orator, but a sincere expounder of the mysteries of your God."

Source: Saint Jerome by Father Largent, translated by Hester Davenport 1913

Kneelers at Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Raleigh NC

“The practice of kneeling for Holy Communion has in its favor a centuries-old tradition, and it is a particularly expressive sign of adoration, completely appropriate in light of the true, real and substantial presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ under the consecrated species.” Cardinal Ratzinger

"The Council also said nothing about moving the Tabernacle. It said nothing about removing altar rails. It said nothing about taking out kneelers. It said nothing about turning the altar around. It said nothing about multiple canons. That, too, is an invention; a pure invention." Father Fessio, SJ 1999

“The Church from Rome never said to remove the altar rails.” Cardinal Arinze

“It distinguishes between the sanctuary and the nave and the priest from the people. It harkens back to the Jewish understanding of the Holy of Holies where the people are invited to confidently step up to the very edge of the Holy of Holies in reverence.” Without an altar rail, he wrote, “the people approach the Communion station and, after receiving Communion, hurriedly depart. A panoramic devotional view of a beautiful sanctuary, like the splendor of decorations adorning a wedding feast, is thus unlikely. The reception of Communion is individualistic, not communal.” The Magic of the Altar Rail

"The Catholics are bigoted." But, which, I ask, is the greater bigot, the catholic, who, perhaps quietly dropping his beads, and insulting no one, is yet indeed forcibly attached to his religion, because it is the religion of the saints, and the faith of every age, or the protestant, who, although, it may be, he is not attached to any peculiar creed, still, with relentless animosity, insults his catholic brethren; misrepresenting their tenets, vilifying their characters; casting suspicion upon their sincerity; and calling down upon them, not merely the ill will of the state; but, what is worse, the ill will of their fellow-citizens; which of these, I ask, is the greater bigot! No doubt, it is the latter.

Well; and if so, then it is likewise true, that the bigots of the latter description are, I do not say, general, but exceedingly common, even in the best educated ranks of Protestantism."

Source: The Catholic's Manual. Jacques Bossuet  1817

"Unless a Priest esteem the Holy Sacrifice as it deserves, he can never celebrate it with suitable devotion. Assuredly there is no action, which man can perform, so sublime, so sacred, as the celebration of Mass.

God Himself could not enable a man to perform anything greater than the celebration of Mass."

Source: Sacerdos sanctificatus; or, Discourses on the Mass and Office, St. Alphonsus Liguori 1861

“The Catholic Church is not a loose federation where different national synods or gatherings and prominent leaders are able to reject essential elements of the Apostolic Tradition”. Cardinal Pell

"Oh, how sad would be the state of society were the Popes, the bishops and priests to be banished from the earth! The bonds that unite the husband and wife, the child and the parent, the friend and the friend would be broken. Peace and justice would flee from the earth. Robbery, murder, hatred, lust, and all the other crimes condemned by the Gospel, would prevail. Faith would no longer elevate the souls of men to heaven. Hope, the sweet consoler of the afflicted, of the widow and the orphan, would flee away, and in he stead would reign black despair, terror, and suicide. Where would we find the sweet virtue of charity, if the Popes, the bishops and priests were to disappear forever? Where would we find that charity which consoles the poor and forsaken, which lovingly dies the tears of the widow and the orphan; that charity which soothes the sick man in his sufferings, and binds up the wounds of the bleeding defender of his country? Where would we find that charity which casts a spark of divine fire into the hearts of so many religious, bidding them abandon home, friends, and everything that is near and dear to them in this world , to go among strangers, among savage tribes, and gain there, in return for their heroism, nothing but outrage, suffering and death?

Where, I ask, would we find this charity, if the Popes, the bishops and priests were to disappear forever?

Leave a parish for many years without a priest, and the people thereof will become the blind victims of error, of superstition, and of all kinds of vices.

Show me an age, a country, a nation without priests, and I will show you an age, a country, a nation without morals, without virtue. Yes, if "Religion, Science, Liberty, and Justice, Principle and Right, " are not empty sounds - if they have a meaning, they owe their energetic existence in the world to the "salt of the earth" to the Popes, bishops and priests."

Source: The Catholic Priest, Rev. Michael Muller C.S.S.R

Prayer for Zealous Priests

Sanctify to Thyself, O my Lord, the hearts of Thy priests, that, by the merits of Thy sacred humanity, they may become living images of Thee, children of Mary, and full of the fire of the Holy Ghost, that they may guard Thy house, and defend Thy glory, and that through their ministry the face of the earth may be renewed, and they may save those souls which have costs Thee all Thy blood. Amen

Queen of the Apostles, pray thy Son, the Lord of the Harvest, to send laborers into His harvest, and to spare His people. Amen.

The Prayer Book. Imprimatur Samuel Cardinal Stritch Archbishop of Chicago, May 10, 1954.

The Bishop is the principal teacher in the faith community. As such, he must be devoted to preaching the Gospel constantly. That preaching aims at illuminating to the faithful what they must believe and put into practice, while steering them away from every error that is life-threatening to the spirit.

Source: The Duties of the Bishop, Most Rev. Robert James Carlson