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CHICAGO (LifeSiteNews) – My friend Jonathan Blevins spoke the words in the hearts and minds of many Catholics in the Archdiocese of Chicago when he recently tweeted, “Dear @CardinalBCupich, Please make it stop.”

He made the comments in reference to a video he posted from a February 13 Mass at Holy Family Church in Inverness, Illinois. The original full Mass video has since been made private.

“Loving God, rock with us as we roll with you,” Father Terry Keehan says during what is supposed to be the final blessing at the end of the Mass.

“My friends, the Lord is with you,” Keehan says, before raising the guitar and using it to “bless” the congregation. The parish is hosting a “Holy Family Gala 2022 Rock Fest” where for $350, patrons get “Mass, open bar, dinner and entertainment.”

Blevins, a former youth minister and director of evangelization and formation in the Archdiocese, could have been speaking about any number of parishes.

Or about actions taken by Cupich not to suppress guitar blessings, but to suppress the Latin Mass, such as telling the priests at the popular parish St. John Cantius they may not offer the Traditional Latin Mass on the first Sundays of the month, Christmas, the Easter Triduum, Easter Sunday, and Pentecost Sunday.

There is no such requirement to do this in Traditionis Custodes – this is a decision by Cupich. The archdiocese allows guitar “blessings” at the end of Mass – but forbids priests and parishioners from publicly saying the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel.

Chicago parish hosts female deacon advocacy group

St. Barnabas in Chicago must feel confident that it can openly promote a female “diaconate” without punishment from Cupich – it’s hosting an event March 27 with a group called “Discerning Deacons.”

“Pope Francis is asking Catholics to talk about our Church. Join us in answering that call when we welcome the national group Discerning Deacons,” the bulletin says. The parish said the conversation will be about “restoring the female diaconate [sic]” and “once again ordaining [sic] women deacons.”

This is a falsehood – the Church has never sacramentally “ordained” female deacons. Historically there were “deaconesses” who helped during baptisms or during marital violence accusations to look for bruises on the women – but they never received a sacramental “ordination.”

But that has not stopped six other Catholic parishes and eight Catholic high schools from sponsoring the event.

Please, make it stop.

What is the solution? I honestly do not know. It might just be time.

At some point the Archdiocese of Chicago may, for better or for worse, shrink so much that the next archbishop embraces tradition and cleans house.

The demographics for the archdiocese are not evident of a thriving Catholic population – it has 15 seminarians at the major Mundelein Seminary, four of whom are from St. John Cantius. It will ordain at most three new priests this year, one of those being a member of the Canons Regular.

For reference, neighboring Diocese of Joliet will also ordain three priests this year – despite being one-fourth the size of the Archdiocese of Chicago (658,000 Catholics to 2.2 million).

Meanwhile, 30 priests retired at the end of 2021 and the archdiocese plans to close 123 parishes by July of this year, NBC News reported. Just four years ago there were 344.

If the Archdiocese of Chicago realizes the problem lies with its rejection of tradition and embrace of novelty, it is not showing it.

Father Jason Malave, a spokesperson for Cupich, told NBC News that “our culture has shifted so radically, so radically, and we are no longer the church of the 1970s, the 1960s.”

With all due respect, the problem is many Chicago churches continue to be the church of the 1960s and 1970s.

Please, make it stop.

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Matt lives in northwest Indiana with his wife and son. He has a B.A. in Political Science with minors in Economics and Catholic Studies from Loyola University, Chicago. He has an M.A. in Political Science and a graduate certificate in Intelligence and National Security from the University of Nebraska, Omaha. He has worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, Turning Point USA and currently is an associate editor for The College Fix.

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