With My Own Eyes
Hello everyone and welcome to the Vortex where lies and falsehoods are trapped and
exposed. I’m Michael Voris coming to you from Rome.
As 2011 draws to a close and 2012 appears on the horizon .. many will begin to reflect
back on a hugely significant event that occurred here in Rome 50 years ago. The opening
of the Second Vatican Council.
Yep. 50 years have passed since Blessed Pope John XXIII gave his introduction before
the Council Fathers.
Which for me personally is kind of significant .. because I just recently turned 50 so I and
many other Catholics can rightly be called .. literally the children of Vatican II. We were
born when the Council began and now we have come to full bloom.
So I’d actually like to do some personal reflection as a Catholic who was born as the
Council began and grew up in the Catholic world which developed in its shadow.
I have no recollection .. no living memory of the Church before Vatican II. While I was
an infant in my father’s arms at the traditional Latin Mass .. I spent most of my time AT it
being carried out FROM it for wailing and fussing and crying .. at least that’s what my
Mom and Dad tell me.
My brother however who was exactly 7 years older than me .. same birthday seven years
apart .. was an altar boy .. not an altar server .. but an altar BOY who never served
anything OTHER THAN the latin Mass.
So in the 7 short years between us .. an enormous change occurred. By the time I came to
serve as an altar boy .. the Mass looked almost NOTHING like what my brother had
grown up with.
There were some holdover elements that hadn’t totally been gotten rid of yet .. incense ..
cassock and surplice .. reception of the Body and Blood of Our Blessed Lord on the
tongue.
We altar boys who are now fifty remember that fact clearly because we had to hold the
patens under the people’s chins. And almost every genuflected going in and out of the
pews. And so did we every time .. and I mean EVERYTIME we crossed in front of the
tabernacle .. which by the way was in the center of the sanctuary.
But during my time as an altar boy .. the “change” was in full force. First .. Sr. Bernadette
.. a lovely and demanding nun .. who was in her habit .. began teaching us .. the altar boys
about the sign of peace. This was when I was in 3rd grade.
We were told that when the time came for the sign of peace .. the priest would turn to us ..
extend the sign to us individually .. then we were to go into the main aisle and pew by
pew processing from front back .. very orderly .. extend the shake. Then that person
would turn to the person next to them and pass it on and so forth. That way .. it was very
clear that the “peace” originated from the sanctuary .. from Christ.
Ah .. well it took about 6 months before that went out the window and the sign of peace
had devolved into the near chaos that it is today where the peace comes not from the
sanctuary .. but EACH OTHER .. not from God .. but from man.
And I know .. because I was there. I saw it with my own two eyes.
By the time us 50 year olds had matriculated from 3rd grade to high school .. we saw the
nuns’ habits go from near the floor to above the knees to out in the trash. Of course we
also saw them leave in droves. I know. I was there. I saw it with my own two eyes.
Then there were the stories that were being whispered about Fr. Jim and Fr. Walsh
running off and getting married to some women after just not showing up one day for
morning Mass. I know. I was there. I saw it with my own two eyes.
This Vortex is not about listing a series of woes that occurred after Vatican II. It’s about
showing how what happened after Vatican II began paving the way for the deeply
wounded Church we see today.
These first small changes were nothing more than pre-cursors of a huge storm that had
already begun to break upon the Church. Within a few short years of that sign of peace
stuff .. our cassocks and surplices had been switched out one Sunday for those droll
unceremonious white bedsheets with hoods and a little rope around the middle.
We just stopped using incense one Sunday. Suddenly .. a few Sundays later .. half the
people were sticking their hands out to “get the bread” and our job with the patens
became virtually unnecessary. We were down-sized as altar boys before being downsized
was fashionable .. and this all happened before having reached puberty.
Of course .. what was happening to us altar boys was one symptom of the larger darkness
that was descending on the Church .. a darkness that robbed us of our heritage .. took it
away from us as we were essentially babies.These modernists literally took the candy of
the Catholic Faith out of the mouth of babies.
Before my time on the altar was over .. we had gone from singing Immaculate Mary and
Holy God we Praise Thy Name to .. hit numbers from GodSpell and Jesus Christ
Superstar and of course the Protestant National Anthem .. Amazing Grace. If it was
Catholic it was out the door and anything else was welcome .. Protestant .. secular ..
whatever .. just not Catholic. Talk about Irish need not apply!
All the while .. our heads were spinning. Organs were out .. guitars and tambourines
were in. I know. I was there. I saw it with my own two eyes. I .. like everyone else who
is 50 .. were actual witnesses to this in the sense that we grew up with them .. right along
beside them. People older than fifty .. saw the so-called Old Church. People under 50
have no understanding of those former days for the most part .. and that includes
converts .. GOD Bless ‘em .. but we “roughly 50 years olds” are the actual witnesses to
it .. the first children of Vatican II .. the eldest sons and daughters of the Second Vatican
Council.
And we have some things to say .. and we will be saying them all this week from Rome ..
where the eve of the 50th anniversary of Vatican II is about to descend.
GOD Love You.
I’m Michael Voris(seen on www.realcatholictv.com )
