KANSAS CITY--Approximately 150 parishioners from St. Vincent's (SSPX) and Blessed Sacrament's Latin Mass Community (FSSP) showed up to make reparation for the "rap concert" taking place inside Blessed Sacrament [Full Story].  Most of the major Kansas City press outlets were in attendance as well.  We knelt down on the steps leading into the church, as one of the FSSP priests led us in 15 decades of the Rosary, the Litany of Saints (in Latin) and other prayers of reparation.  At the start of the second Joyful Mystery, a storm front began to move through, accompanied by cold winds from the  North, and eventually shrouding us in dark clouds, giving quite a surreal atmosphere to the event.  As we began our second Rosary, some of the attendees inside the church began to file out.  The FSSP priest decided to wrap things up (no pun intended) before there could any mingling of concert goers and "protesters" (as the local media is calling us).  Father gave us his priestly blessing, and we departed without incident.

It should be noted that there was no "official" publicity from the FSSP or the SSPX: no announcements from the pulpit or the printed bulletin, save for a brief remark prior to the sermons at Blessed Sacrament asking the faithful "not to talk to the press".  The point is that this was very much a grassroots campaign, which relied on e-mail and word-of-mouth.  Apparently the diocesan offices were flooded with phone calls on Friday, but there was no response from the chancery (they eventually had to divert calls to a switchboard due to the overwhelming numbers).

Sociologists talk about the manifest (intended) and latent (unintended) functions of a social event.  Although the manifest function of this event was to make reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate  Heart of Mary, the unintended result was a gathering of traditional Catholics who rarely see one another.  It is my hope that the traditional faithful will continue to pray for one another, our Church, and come together as the Church Militant when our Holy Faith is attacked by the Evil One.