The U.S. churches Francis will visit

Pope Francis is currently in the United States, for the first time in his life.

During his visit in America, he will step inside five churches (not including chapels): the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and Saint Patrick's church, all in Washington, D.C.; the Cathedral of Saint Patrick in New York City; and the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.

Remarkably, four of the five churches still have altar rails, which of course will not be used during any of the liturgies with this pope.  All of the churches were built before the Second Vatican Council, and three of them have seen traditional Latin Masses offered at their main altars since the motu proprio Ecclesia Dei in 1988.

Having visited each of these churches, we thought it may be of interest to present a brief summary, from a traditional viewpoint, of the sacred spaces the Holy Father will encounter.

1) The Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle started out as a parish church when Washington, D.C. was part of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. It is most known for the Requiem Low Mass offered by Richard Cardinal Cushing, archbishop of Boston, for President John F. Kennedy's funeral in 1963.

Today, in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, it is considered one of the most liberal parishes in the region, with a notable portion of its congregation opposed to Church teachings and natural law (to put it kindly). Although the cathedral offers a Sunday morning novus ordo partially in Latin (except when something more important bumps it) attempts to offer traditional Latin Masses have been denied.  The cardinal-archbishop lives at another parish, not at the cathedral.

And he was in the Sistine Chapel in March 2013!

Special Guest-Post: "Behind the Scenes: How Francis Personally Picked Cupich for Chicago" by Don Pio Pace

We are very honored to post this third guest-post by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of don Pio Pace.

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A Highly Troubling Sign: How Cupich was Chosen for Chicago

a guest-post by Fr. Pio Pace

It is very necessary to understand the full measure of the nomination of the extreme liberal bishop Blase Cupich to the see of Chicago, replacing Cardinal Francis George.

Cupich's promotion to this particularly important position, that usually entails the elevation to the cardinalatial red, was a personal decision of Pope Francis himself. More precisely, the Pope imposed his candidate on Cardinal Ouellet and the Congregation for Bishops, under the desperate suggestion of the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Abp. Carlo Maria Viganò. We know well that those men who are particularly authoritarian, such as Francis, also are, in many cases, easily manipulated by those who learn how to read them. Moreover, it is enough to waggle before the eyes of the Pope the scarecrow called Cardinal Burke to lead him in one direction or another, because he has kept against the Prefect of the Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura an extremely strong rancor after the 2013 conclave, in which the American Cardinal was one of those who tried to thwart his path to the pontificate.

The Franciscan RevolutionThe winds of change blow across the US ChurchTime to stop denying the obvious.

As reported by the Associated Press and a growing number of secular media outlets, the appointment of the Bishop of Spokane, Blase Cupich, 65, as the next Archbishop of Chicago is set to be formally announced by Rome. 

It is worth noting that the "National Catholic Reporter" is celebrating the appointment of this "good model for how bishops should conduct themselves in the public square" with an article (to which we will not link here) based on the very real actions and tone that he set as Bishop of Spokane -- on the issues of homosexual "marriage", on evangelization, on Obamacare (the system as implemented, with all its anti-faith inclusions), on "lay ministry" and, most importantly, on the upcoming Synod of Bishops.

Vatican II at 50: Graph of the Day

By the Pew Research Center (article: "U.S. nuns face shrinking numbers and tensions with the Vatican")

Three pertinent pieces of information:

-The Second Vatican Council ended in 1965, its implementation began already during the Council, as the documents were approved.

-The US population in 1965 was of approximately 194 million people; in 2014, of 317 million.

-The self-identified Catholic population in the United States was of 48.5 million people in 1965; of 76.7 million in 2014.

Wisconsin, circa 1973

Deacon Sandy

"Good Shepherd Catholic Church" 

Parish Church of the Good Shepherd, Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin

Archdiocese of Milwaukee

Circa 1973*

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What does it mean to be a traditional Catholic? It means something quite unlike what is meant by "catholic" above.

[Tip: Creative Minority Report. *Actual date of video: Dec. 18, 2013.]

[Feb. 23 Update: the original video, located at this URL, was removed. Copy made available by Mr. Patrick Archbold.]

[Feb. 25 Update: the first copy having also been removed, we embedded this exact second copy, which is now available above, courtesy of GloriaTV. We believe this video is a historical document of the highest value for future students of the evolution of the liturgy of the Latin Church that indicates the way the liturgy of the Rite of Paul VI is lived and practiced by a portion of the faithful of the Latin Church in this day and age throughout the world. As a historical document we feel it must be known and accessible to future generations for impartial historical analysis. Since it reflects reality as it is lived by many Catholics in their liturgical life, it is a document that must remain publicly accessible, since that is the way it was first made available - public and to the general public worldwide. Note: the video had already been uploaded by a user unknown to us to the international platform of GloriaTV at the time of this update - it was not downloaded nor uploaded by us.]