I’m in Pennsylvania with a group of a dozen and a half of my son’s friends who have got together to go to a special mass where one of their number is about to become a consecrated virgin in the Church. ( I’ll post the livestream tomorrow)
During my conversation with a young man named Josh concerning music we were joking and on the fly I came up with a few lines for this song just before I got to sleep.
So of course when I woke up the morning of the mass while all the 20 & 30 somethings were still snoozing after a long night with this still in my head, of course I found myself writing the rest of this.
Sung to the tune of Disney’s: Under the Sea
🎵 The vibe it seem always greener In somebody else’s faith You think about joining up there But that’s just a big mistake Just look at the faith around you At Peter’s churches door The fruits of the Spirit surround you What more is you looking for? 🎵
🎵 Under Rome’s See Under Rome’s See Don’t be departing What Jesus got started Take it from me While other churches broke away We’ve got 2000 years of faith We’re still devotin’ Rosaries totin’ Under Rome See 🎵
🎵 Right here we are in Christ presence As daily to Mass we stroll Our brothers they seek Christ elsewhere But where else could they all go The tabernacle is up there The Body of Christ enclosed If you’re spiritually hungry He’s right there at Mass you know Let’s Go! 🎵
🎵 Under Rome’s See Under Rome’s See Years they did beat us Fry us and kill us Martyrs to be For centuries they did say Rome it is all dying away We still survive us The Lord to guide us Under Rome’s See Under Rome’s See 🎵
🎵Under Rome’s See Under Rome’s See
Faith life is sweet here We got them beat here Sacramentally And if the Devil’s in our way There’s Mary and all the Saints We got the spirit You got to hear it Under Rome’s See 🎵
🎵 St. Gertrude the great Aquinas so smart St. Margaret Mary Loved the Sacred Heart St. Francis and Clare Took Christ everywhere St. Augustine of Hippo! St. Dismas came first Tom More had no fear Xavier went abroad St. Therese stayed here St. Carlo Acutis He speaks to the youth And, St. Padre Pio whoa! 🎵
🎵 Under Rome’s See Under Rome’s See When absolution The Priest gives it to us It’s music to me Magisterium in da hand Our foundation is not of sand 🎵
🎵 Each Adoration Christ comes to clam us Under Rome’s See Every communion Jesus comes to us Under Rome’s See Each Priestly blessing, Each chaplet said here Bring us much closer in our devotion Yeah, we in luck here God’s with us all here Under Rome’s See 🎵
Update: I thought I was still in draft mode when I had included the livestream of the consecration and then decided to make that a separate post. I didn’t realize that it had already been posted till after I made the change. The livestream and the video I shot at Brother Andre’s cafe will go up tomorrow.
The best non-decision my wife and I ever made still remains not moving to the Portland Oregon area after our Honeymoon there 33 years ago but I’m thinking giving Anna Maria a miss twelve years ago comes in as a pretty solid second.
We interrupt our coverage of Pintastic NE to revisit an issue from the very earliest days of this blog.
Back in 2009 my oldest son was looking at colleges. Having gone to a Catholic Grammar school and a Catholic High School the idea of attending a Catholic College like Anna Maria which offered him a scholarship seemed attractive…right up until I visited the place.
There were pictures celebrating the new president all over the place, banners celebrating diversity, announcements of the woman’s study courses but nothing on the March for Life later this month in Washington. The concert was a “holiday” concert. In the Anna Maria in the news bulletin board at the admissions office there was an article talking about protesting the pope in the US. That was the extent of any recent mention of religion.
The Chapel is downstairs at basement level, its a nice enough place and the corridor leading once one goes downstairs does feel Catholic but it seems to be hidden in order to make sure it doesn’t offend anyone. It’s Gene Robinson all over again:
Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
It’s a real question how many out of 1100 students would know this quote from Luke. Actually the question isn’t that hard, we met with the campus ministry people just before leaving, there are 10 active people in Campus ministry and about that many show up for Mass regularly.
It would be nice if there was at least one picture of the Pope displayed prominently. It would be nicer if Catholic identity actually meant something. I’ve spent much more than I can afford over the last 10 years giving my sons a Catholic education. If I’m going to spend a whole lot more for a Catholic College then I expect a Catholic College.
They were very committed to deemphasize the faith & emphasize diversity, as I wrote to the Bishop after receiving a letter from him suggesting a Catholic education at Anna Maria:
I can’t reconcile your description of Anna Maria with what I saw and I can’t believe you would make that description after visiting the college yourself. While academically I believe it would be strong I don’t believe attending would foster his faith, in fact I suspect if he choose to wear his faith proudly it would go hard on him there.
Lucky for Sam and us Fitchburg State College has offered a full scholarship which will allow him to live at home and remain in our parish as well. This would seem to be much more conducive to both his Academic and spiritual development.
Well Sam ended up attending Fitchburg State, he has a good job and I’m pleased to say his Catholic faith and his brother’s who he shares a house with remains strong. In fact this past Easter Vigil his brother was sponsor to a new Catholic who was one of 8 baptized and 14 confirmed and welcomed into the faith, the most I’ve ever seen at such a mass in my life.
A second Massachusetts liberal arts college this month has announced it will close, underscoring the mounting financial strain facing small, tuition-dependent schools.
Anna Maria College in Paxton said Thursday that it will shutter at the end of the semester after what officials described as an “exhaustive review” of its finances. The decision follows a similar announcement earlier this month from Hampshire College in Amherst.
“Like many small, tuition-dependent institutions, Anna Maria has faced structural challenges driven by declining enrollment and rising costs in the years following the pandemic,” the college said in a statement.
You see Anna Maria is or was, as it soon will be described, indistinguishable from all the other secular colleges out there competing for students. Meanwhile as faith continues to surge in America Catholic parents are seeing Catholic colleges that actually promote the faith.
It speaks volumes that the article doesn’t initially describe Anna Maria as a Catholic college but as a liberal arts college which makes these paragraphs particularly ironic:
Founded in 1946 by the Sisters of Saint Anne as a women’s college, Anna Maria later became coeducational and operated for decades as a private Catholic liberal arts institution.
“The Board of Trustees reached this decision only after pursuing every realistic alternative. We are heartbroken,” Board Chair David Trainor said in a statement. “The legacy of the Sisters of Saint Anne, and of every faculty member and staff person who carried their spirit forward, will endure in every graduate this institution has ever produced.”
The college choose to place their bet on the secular world than with the Catholic traditions of the Sisters of St. Anne and at the time of my visit with the election of Barack Obama that might have seemed a good bet.
Alas they forget that Christ’s Catholic Church has outlasted the Roman Empire, the British Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Nazi Empire, the Soviet Union and the Napoleonic Empire whose Emperor once declared to Cardinal Ercole Consal his ability to destroy the Catholic church if he wished to. The Cardinal answered thus:
Your Majesty, you would be making a useless effort. You would be defeated. We, the priests and Christians, with our weaknesses and infidelities, have not succeeded in destroying the Church! And would you like to do it?.
Now it will outlast Anna Maria College. I can’t say the college’s fate is a surprise, but I will not cheer as any time the enemy manages to compromise a Catholic institution it’s a defeat for us all. That defeat predates the closing of the institution by many years.
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