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Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Home from Pilgrimage, Hope for the World

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schneider(Bishop Athanasius Schneider, celebrant of the Traditional Latin Mass on Pentecost Sunday on the Pilgrimage to Chartres, stopped by to visit with the leaders of the foreign chapters, including Michael Matt, James Bogle, John Rao and friends and allies from England, Ireland, Germany and many other countries.)

Many thanks for your patience while much of The Remnant’s staff was in Europe on pilgrimage these past few weeks. Though our Facebook page featured regular video updates on the pilgrimage to France, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, I’m afraid the same can’t be said of our site as it is still somewhat cumbersome to find the necessary time, Wi-Fi, etc., to update our websites from the other side of the pond.


The Pilgrimage to Chartres, France was in many ways one of the best ever. Much larger than in previous years, it could even be said that the Francis Effect seems to be producing larger crowds and more enthusiasm for all things Traditional than ever before, the New Mass and the experiment of the Second Vatican Council having begun to sound the death rattle before the eyes and ears of the whole world. If this wasn’t abundantly obvious before, it was made so by the fall of “Catholic” Ireland last week and the impending fall of Italy and indeed all of the countries of what is left of old Christendom. 

 


The whole conciliar experiment has failed, and the fruits of the New Mass—an increasingly protestantized liturgy or, as Cardinal Ratzinger put it, an “on the spot banal product” that he as Pope Benedict XVI would later describe as having been thoroughly “trivialized”—are everywhere to be seen in formerly Catholic Europe. Having worshipped like something other than Catholics these past 50 years Catholic Europeans have begun to be believe accordingly, which means the churches are empty, the large family is no more, the nuns are gone, even Catholic schools are in the control of the secular state, and vocations to the priesthood are practically non-existent—everywhere, that is, outside of the traditional Catholic communities. Ireland having now become the first county to “legalize” homosexual “marriage” has in many people’s minds sounded the death knell for the Church of Vatican II.

From now on, only the willfully blind or hopelessly deceived will continue to defend Vatican II and its New Mass as something good and healthy for the life of the Church. When it comes to the liturgical revolution, it is clear to all who have kept the Faith that what is needed now is an undertaker. The situation is beyond crisis.

And what is left standing? Tradition! Tradition and its venerable Roman Rite are everywhere on the rise in Europe—not in massive numbers, perhaps, but everywhere entrenched and growing strong. In the next print edition of The Remnant we will be reporting very positive and hopeful news, starting with the Chartres Pilgrimage itself—which united so many thousands of Catholics and hundreds of priests and even bishops from all over the world who are no longer interested in playing “let’s pretend” when it comes to the critical condition of the our beloved Church—to a visit to Menzingen, Switzerland, to a great surprise in Liechtenstein (where the Archbishop there has ordered all of his priests to learn the Traditional Latin Mass and begin offering it on a regular basis), and to strong rumors of important countermeasures being planned in preparation for October’s Synod on the Family.

So, if you’ve not already done so, please subscribe to The Remnant in time to receive the next issue of The Remnant especially. As the world continues its downward spiral into cultural, moral and spiritual chaos, we have returned from Europe filled with hope and a renewed sense that God will not allow the madness to go on much longer.

Again, thanks for your patience as The Remnant devoted most of its time these past two weeks to walking the pilgrimage, forming young Americans for the coming crusade, and rekindling important alliances with so many Catholic brothers and sisters in the old world who are as serious as we are, not only about the necessity of keeping the old Faith no matter what, but also of holding up Tradition and the restoration of the ancient liturgy of the Church as the hope of the whole world.

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The Remnant Tours' 2015 pilgrimage group. Photo taken in Zug, Switzerland
 

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Last modified on Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Michael J. Matt | Editor

Michael J. Matt has been an editor of The Remnant since 1990. Since 1994, he has been the newspaper's editor. A graduate of Christendom College, Michael Matt has written hundreds of articles on the state of the Church and the modern world. He is the host of The Remnant Underground and Remnant TV's The Remnant Forum. He's been U.S. Coordinator for Notre Dame de Chrétienté in Paris--the organization responsible for the Pentecost Pilgrimage to Chartres, France--since 2000.  Mr. Matt has led the U.S. contingent on the Pilgrimage to Chartres for the last 24 years. He is a lecturer for the Roman Forum's Summer Symposium in Gardone Riviera, Italy. He is the author of Christian Fables, Legends of Christmas and Gods of Wasteland (Fifty Years of Rock ‘n’ Roll) and regularly delivers addresses and conferences to Catholic groups about the Mass, home-schooling, and the culture question. Together with his wife, Carol Lynn and their seven children, Mr. Matt currently resides in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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