Riding my bike around Denver as a 12 year old boy, I got good at maps. These were obviously the days before cell-phones and GPS, so I studied my maps as a hobby. I studied city maps of Denver and Chicago, state maps of Colorado and the Eisenhower Interstate System. I would look at globes for hours, memorizing countries all over the world. For me, my map study was always about both location and meaning.
The current return to tradition that Catholics are making across the globe is strong, especially places like France and the United States. As I mentioned above, for people obsessed with geography like me, I often find meaning in location. What is the meaning behind France having such a high percentage of her still-practicing Catholics attending the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)?
I do not know, but I suspect this it is because France had the first Western European king turn Catholic (around 500 AD) due to the influence of his wife, St. Clotilda. History tends to repeat itself. Unfortunately, L’hexagon was also the first country to rebel in a proto-communistic way against her Catholic roots in the “French Revolution” which happened 130 years before Our Lady would even coin the term “errors of Russia” in her apparition in Fatima. Still, that “eldest daughter of the Church,” may be the first European country return to tradition if she is not first overrun—or at least outbred—by Muslims. Time will tell.
Here in America, we have many heroic Apostolic Catholics. But it recently hit me on a hike with my Roman Breviary a couple days ago that Kansas City seems to be the heartbeat of some very astonishing people in the traditional world. First of all, the top left is a picture I snapped of Sr. Mary Wilhelmena. She was a saintly (but feisty) African American nun who lived and died less than an hour outside Kansas City. Her incorrupt body (a total miracle!) remains there in her Missouri Monastery about 45 minutes from downtown Kansas City. She worshipped at exclusively the TLM, at least after being called to the foundress of a new congregation of Benedictine nuns.
The top right picture is that of Harrison Butker, traditional Catholic, husband, father and Super Bowl winner. Recently he made news by lifting up the TLM and motherhood, while putting-down Joe Biden and other pro-aborts who destroy families. Butker courageously spoke the truth, inspiring millions of conservatives (not just Catholics) while knocking down one “sacred cow” after another. He toppled in that Commencement Speech at Benedictine College (now with over 2M views on YT alone) nearly every sacred cow of the leftists, and even a few belonging to neo-con non-trads.
More is happening in the Kansas City than just people. The above sanctuary is a picture I snapped in the new SSPX Church in St. Mary’s, Kansas called the Immaculata. The Immaculata is one of the largest Churches in the world, constructed at $42M. It too features priests who offer exclusively the TLM. This too is only 1 hour and 23 minutes from downtown Kansas City. God is clearly doing something great in Kansas City. What is the meaning of KC? Probably people from Kansas and Missouri have better ideas than me, but I just see it as God blessing the heart of this country with saintly and courageous Catholics. God is blessing this country by making the center of it the center of the renewal of true, Apostolic Catholicism (aka “traditionalism.”)
The Immaculata at night.
–Donate: https://www.padreperegrino.org/donate/
–Telegram: https://t.me/padreperegrino
–STV: https://spiritustv.com/@padreperegrino