What follows is an email I sent to a family member:
_________

I thought you might be interested in reading Harrison Butker’s speech instead of what gets filtered through various media or friends who report what they read in the media. I found it to be harsh, off-putting, and uninformed regarding a number of topics. While the media zoned in on his comments that seem to say women are happiest as wives and mothers (he doesn’t put it quite like that), I found his judgments of priests and bishops to be far worse, undermining (in some minds) what credibility they have left since the sex abuse scandals. No one, it seems, is too strict or traditional for the 28 year-old place-kicker.
- see https://www.today.com/news/har...ript-full-rcna153074

It’s one thing for someone to prefer the Latin Mass as a small percentage of Catholics do, but with Butker:
I attend the TLM because I believe, just as the God of the Old Testament was pretty particular in how he wanted to be worshipped, the same holds true for us today.

So, for him, the Tridentine Mass developed in the 17th C. is when, finally, God’s preferred manner of worship was revealed. But back in the 1960s, the Tridentine Mass was dropped in favor of Mass in the vernacular. Pope Paul VI later allowed a non-Tridentine version of the Latin Mass, and Pope John Paul II allowed the Tridentine form to be used with restrictions. Pope Francis has tightened these, explaining in a document why that is so:
"Pope Francis said he acted “in defense of the unity of the Body of Christ,” on the grounds that there was “distorted use” of the ability for priests to say Mass according to the 1962 missal. The opportunities provided by St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI were “exploited to widen the gaps, reinforce the divergences, and encourage disagreements that injure the Church, block her path, and expose her to the peril of division.”
The pope said he was saddened that the celebration of the extraordinary form was now characterized by a rejection of the Second Vatican Council and its liturgical reforms. To doubt the Council, he said, is “to doubt the Holy Spirit himself who guides the Church.”
- see https://www.catholicnewsagency...in-mass-restrictions

Butker is a perfect case in point of the Pope’s concern. I find nothing in his speech that indicates knowledge of the teachings of Vatican II nor why the liturgical reforms were made. We see splits happening in our own diocese, with some priests reverting to TLM, celebrating with their back to the people, Communion rails, Communion on the tongue, lots of Latin songs, etc. Vatican Council II and its recognition of Christ in the gathered community is de-emphasized, even though such is rooted in sound biblical theology (“where two or more are gathered in My name . . .” and “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?”).

His comments about pride as a deadly sin with a whole month dedicated to it also seemed tasteless to me. There were, no doubt, LGBTQ people in that graduating class, and they didn’t need to hear that on their graduation day. They know from their education at Benedictine what the Church teaches about that.

There are more points that could be critiqued, but in the end, it’s all mostly his personal opinions that he’s promoting with great confidence and assurance (i.e., arrogance). In a sense, who cares, only he got a standing ovation and it’s prompted a lot of discussion across the country, with many non-Catholics mistakenly thinking that what he said was what the Church teaches.

So that’s my take on this issue, and I hope it helps to awaken a deepening appreciation of Vatican II, which is the most authoritative body of teaching in the Church during the past century. It’s what the the Catechism of the Catholic Church sets forth in a different kind of format; Butker doesn’t seem to know much about that, either.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Phil,