The Latin Mass Lives On

The best sermon I’ve ever heard was delivered by Father James Richardson in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 2018. It was the Sunday after news broke about the proclivities of the late Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. “I’m sick of the lying,” Father Richardson began. For the next 10 minutes, he repeated “I’m sick of,” anaphora-like, with each instance followed by another scandal. Not exactly Newman, in retrospect, but for the hundred or so parishioners that afternoon, my parish priest seemed possessed of all the holy ardor of the author of “Difficulties of Anglicans.”