Below is full text from the
Pastor's Descant in today's Grotto News. Fr. Perrone reflects on Mother Angelica and remembers some personal encounters.
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A Pastor’s Descant
Mother Angelica
R.I.P.
God often
accomplishes His finest works with humblest means. This is a theme running
throughout Sacred Scripture. The prodigious accomplishments of Mother Angelica
in propagating, defending and preserving the Catholic faith have changed the
course of the Church in our time, in the USA, and over the whole globe. That’s saying
an awful lot, I know, but I can’t refrain from asserting it. One would have had
to live through those dark, uncertain, and even frightening days after Vatican
Council II to appreciate fully the recovery of theological sanity, doctrinal
stability, reverence and piety that began to emerge from the rubble of those
distressing times. While Mother Angelica and her works were not the only
factors enabling the revival of real Catholicism–a work, we might add, yet in
progress–yet she was indeed a mighty force that helped cut through the thick,
multi-layered controls which had prohibited the reforms intended by Vatican II.
Dissidents were in
charge of nearly everything–seminaries and religious education, liturgical
movements and publications, chancery bureaucracies and priests’ councils, social
media, Catholic schools and universities, local parish staffs. The clergy had made
a general turn towards a destructive modernism which manifested itself in every
aspect of Catholic life. The sufferers of all this, constrained to keep a
respectful silence, were Catholic laity who struggled to keep faith,
confidently trusting–in a laudable, if misplaced, loyalty–that they were being led
aright. They had been told that this strange, new kind of Catholicism had been
officially mandated by Christ’s Church. Thus the tension arose: fidelity and
obedience to a Church which was manifestly odd and erroneous. Strong voices
were raised in protest. I remember Catholics United for the Faith which
valiantly tried to hold back dissent and teach truth. Father John Hardon’s
great Catholic Catechism cleared much of the theological air that had infected
doctrinal studies. It was, however, the emergence of the great pontificate of
(Saint) John Paul II over the whole Church along with the apostolate of Mother
Angelica in the communications media that turned things around towards a
recovery of authentic Catholic faith and practice.
My association with
Mother came about this way. As the newly installed pastor of Assumption Grotto
Church, I had been invited to appear on Mother
Angelica Live because our outdoors Lourdes Grotto somehow came to her
attention. This was back in 1994. Although I had heard much about this bold and
influential nun, I had never seen her TV program. After a brief introduction
and prayer in the studio, we were to go onto the set and speak about
heaven-knows-what. Mother and I got along fabulously, as they say. Immediately
I felt comfortable in her presence because of the one thing we held most dear:
love for the Catholic faith. An unexpected upshot of this TV appearance was a
big boost in the prominence of our parish nationally and locally.
Our next
great meeting was in regard to the formation of the first Call To Holiness Conference in 1996. For those who do not know, the
story runs that the major dissident national ‘Catholic’ organization at the
time was Call To Action, a wealthy, pestiferous monster born in our own
Archdiocese in the later 1960s. It had graciously moved out of Detroit and into
Chicago but had now planned to make a comeback to its native Detroit for a
homecoming. Wondering over what to do about this troubling prospect, and rather
confident that nothing would be done to stop it from our diocesan bureaucrats,
I decided to hold a day of reparation in our church before the exposed Blessed
Sacrament. I mentioned my idea to Fr. Hardon who was delighted with the proposal.
Contact was then made with Fr. Joseph Fessio of Ignatius Press who said that
this local countermove was far too little but that I should “go big” with the whole
thing. I asked Fr. Hardon if he would invite Mother Angelica to come to the
event and speak (Father had been her
spiritual advisor). After prayer, Mother agreed to come. She made
the day. Our Conference was a major
anti-dote to the toxic offerings of Call
To Action. It was, I would say, a great hit. Mother was
to return to
Detroit twice more for
CTH Conferences, making
a great impact on the people of the Archdiocese and
of the whole
country as well.
 |
| Fr. Perrone conducting on Easter Sunday 2016 |
My last involvement
with Mother came upon the dedication of her ‘temple,’ the new monastery church
she had built for her Order in Alabama. When the dedication date for opening the
new chapel had to be delayed due
to construction set-backs, Mother found
that the musical program she
wanted for the
dedication Mass couldn’t go
ahead. Alabama’s local choirs and orchestral musicians had made other commitments for
the new opening date.
Mother appealed to her TV
audience for help. Was there a choir out there that could sing Mozart’s
Coronation Mass for the dedication? Briefly put, we were able to fill the bill.
Mother flew our parish choir down to Alabama, put us up in a motel, fed us and
carted us about on a chartered bus. Our part was to have a single rehearsal
with local orchestral musicians and to sing the opening Mass. It was a
memorable event, of course, and Mother,
with all that must have been on her mind those days,
gave us a generous amount of personal attention. My favorite moment was
during the singing of the Agnus Dei when I saw Mother’s head peeking out
behind us to see what she was hearing. Evidently she was pleased. After Mass
she met with us to thank us personally. Needless to say, we were overcome with
gratitude ourselves.
Following the days of
her increasing debilitation I had often thought of inviting her back to
Detroit, if only to be seen once again (she could no longer speak) and receive a
warm and generous public thanks for all she had done for the Church in her
ever-so fruitful religious life. I realized that this would not have been
possible. She was perhaps doing more than ever by her silent prayer and personal
suffering than she had done in active apostolate. News of her death brought me
the happiness of thinking that she had finally finished the work God had asked
of her and was moving towards reaping the harvest of her tireless labors. You
must pardon me for mentioning only these select things
about this remarkable woman of faith. I’m aware that she did a great deal more in
her writings (her inspiring pamphlets were loaded with sound doctrine), in her
radio and TV network (which today, as EWTN, did so much to brighten the face of
a depressed Catholicism worldwide), and in the founding of her religious
communities which continue to steady, purify and strengthen the Church through the
sacrificial lives of her many spiritual children.
Mother Angelica, may
your warm and lovely smile glow with the heavenly radiance of the One you
served so well on earth. We thank Him for your inspiring and inspired religious
life. Rest, Mother, but do not neglect to pray for us.
Fr. Perrone
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The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church;
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