Update: I read the whole thing. I’m sorry, but what a weirdo. I thought you [Tom Darrow, of Denver, CO] made a trenchant case for why lockdowns are bad, and I definitely appreciated it. But a graduation speech is *not* the place for that.
Secondly, this is an august event. It always is. I would never address the President of the United States in this manner. Never. Even the previous president, though he deserves it, if anyone does.
Thirdly, the affirmations of Catholic identity should be more general. He has no authority to propound with specificity on all matters of great consequence. It has all the hallmarks of a culture war broadside, and again, a layman shouldn’t speak like this. The respect and reverence due the clergy is *always due,* even if they are weak, and outright wrong. We just don’t brush them aside like corrupt Mafia dons, to make a point.
Fourthly, I don’t know where anyone gets the idea that the TLM is how God demands to be worshipped. The Church doesn’t teach that. Not even close.
If you ask me as a theologian—in isolation from everything else—which form of the Roman Rite most clearly communicates all the aspects of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to both the faithful and to outsiders, I might even say the TLM. But this is again yet more proof of the necessity of its functional suppression: its advocates cannot just be Catholic; they set themselves up against their own brethren, and thus, against Christ.
I won’t even bring up the homemaker thing; I will charitably call it a flourish, and let it go. Still, the primary vocation of every Christian is holiness, and the most noble secondary or personal vocation is in fact celibacy, not parenthood.
Whew. I swear, I wanted to like it. I just can’t.
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