Catholicism

Guest Post: The Disgrace of Our Formerly Magnificent But Now Withering Cathedrals

todayJune 23, 2016 1

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Mandeville, LAEditor’s Note: This is the first of what I hope is a growing stable of guest contributors who are Mike Church Show listeners. Please send your submissions, written under your real name here, I am happy to consider them all.

Disgraceful: Our Crumbling Cathedrals Reflect The State of Fathers This Father’s Day

by John Kirsch

This father’s day weekend provided a great opportunity to observe and discern the state of my Catholic faith and the land in which I preside. I had to laugh, lest I cry.

I attended a wedding for a relative, through marriage. I really didn’t want to attend. I didn’t really know the bride or the groom, and I could think of a hundred other things I could be doing than attending a wedding on a nice, sunny summer day.

A photo I took of the ruins of St Andrews Cathedral in Scotland
A photo I took of the ruins of St Andrews Cathedral in Scotland

My day perked up as I approached the site of the ceremony. In the distance, I could easily identify the large bell towers broadcasting a proud presence of the Cross on a towering gothic church from the turn of the last century. When we finally arrived, I could easily identify a school and rectory standing amidst an acres sized graveyard bearing tombstones of the Blessed Mother and other iconic stones. Proudly, on the front, carved in stone was inscribed the namesake of SS Peter and Paul.

The property was beautifully kept, yet it was immediately apparent that the Church was no longer used to worship the Holy Mass. It was now only a shell of what She once had been. Stripped of Her glory, art, and vestments, she stood with only a table on the plain, white grotto which formerly held the Holy tabernacle. Sold when the parish was closed in the 1990’s, she now stands as a private non-denominational wedding chapel for hire.

In my imagination, I pondered what had once been, and how this work of art (The Church was listed as one of the top 25 most beautiful churches in the greater Milwaukee area) had been abandoned to the heretical modern state, as the Holy Church retreated during the last 50 years. Following the private sale of the parish, church services were held there again by a group of heretical (married) priests proclaiming themselves as ‘Catholic’ before moving to another location.

Back to the ceremony I attended there… The groom’s father was absent. Not sure why, but obvious. The father of the bride was there, with his 4th wife, and did not have any part in the ceremony. He didn’t give his daughter away, and was simply a guest. The ‘minister’ was of no particular faith, but stated the obligatory Epistles. The ‘best man’, dressed in a tux, was actually a ‘woman’ with an apparent sexual identity challenge. Of course, the guests were more than happy to celebrate the ‘diversity’ of the bridal party (I didn’t check to see if the restrooms were gender neutral LOL).

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Humility of Heart is the book Mike Church spent 14 months editing and updating for modern readers. This book will change your life as it changed mine, order 4 copies today, you’ll WANT to give the book as a gift when you’re halfway finished.” – Mike Church

This whole event made me think about those souls, whose bodies lay in waiting not more than 50 ft from us. They had built something here many years ago, something great in Honor of Our Lord. This is where they made their stand! Today, their Holy Church, the Body of Christ is in retreat here, over run by her enemies. Today, again, our Lord stands stripped and scourged. This was easy to see from the present state of this once Holy shrine. This leaves me to consider whether the Church, the Body of Christ, must again be stripped, scourged, and crucified before rising from the dead in Glory? Pray, my brothers, Pray!

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TheKingDude
Host of the Mike Church Show on The Veritas Radio Network's CRUSADE Channel & Founder of the Veritas Radio Network. Formerly, of Sirius/XM's Patriot channel 125. The show began in March of 2003 exclusively on Sirius and remains "the longest running radio talk show in satellite radio history".

Written by: TheKingDude

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Paul Arias

So sad to see, I remember as a child my parents taking me and my brother to Spain and visiting so many grand and beautiful cathedrals that even at the age of 8 I still remember them. I grew up in Long Beach NY where we have St Ignatius Martyr Church that was built 1927 and traditional mass when I was a child in the 60′ and early 70’s It too has a school and while not as grand as a cathedral it still reminded me of how great our places of worship used to be.

https://www.google.com/search?q=st+ignatius+church+long+beach+ny&espv=2&biw=1360&bih=643&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwio9sKNyMHNAhUEwGMKHQ1HBw0Q_AUICCgD&dpr=1#imgrc=CETb0mj8zbZ33M%3A


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