In the Gullet of a Wolf
I know that after my departure fierce wolves will get in among
you,
and will not spare the flock.
Acts 20; 29
Two Catholics
died in January of this year. One I’d
been acquainted with for some time; the other I’d never met. Both had three things in common: 1) They kept
the Faith and served the Church throughout their lives, 2) They gave to the
Church, besides decades’ worth of tithing, a good number of children and 3) On
their deathbeds, both were shown less regard by their bishops than death row
inmates are shown by their wardens.
Their “crime”? Faithful
adherence to the Mass of their childhood.
This is their story.
Allen Cain, RIP
On the 3rd of January, 2005, Allen Francis Cain died at
the age of 89. I’d known Mr. Cain
(though not well) for many years. He was
a kind and gentle soul, well beloved by those who knew him. He’d somehow managed to raise twelve children
while working himself to the bone on a 200-acre, 100-year-old family farm in
After the constraints of old age had forced him from his fields,
Mr. Cain, by that time a widower after some five decades married to his high
school sweetheart, spent his last years making rosaries…lots of them. The local
newspaper printed the following lines as part of a glowing obituary: “Allen was a member of Our Lady’s Rosary
Makers, long ago passing his goal of making a rosary for every day of his
life...Many times every day you could find him quietly reading, reciting his
prayers, and making rosaries.”
Get
the picture? This was one of those
living saint types who comes along only every now and then but who makes the
world a better place for having been born.
Look up “faithful Catholic” in the dictionary and you might just find a
picture of Allen Cain. Trouble is, after 1965 he became increasingly
ostracized by this noisy new world of ours, and especially by the “renewed”
Catholic Church of Vatican II. Come to
think of it, family farms like his were being swallowed up during those years
about as exponentially as Catholic high altars were being bulldozed. In any
event, Mr. Cain never became a traditional Catholic; he just sort of stayed
on that way all the days of his long life.
He lived the Faith as he’d been taught it by the Catholic nuns and priests
of his childhood almost a hundred years ago.
He wasn’t interested in being “renewed”.
Over the years, small checks from Allen Cain came into The Remnant
office on a regular basis. They were always attached to handwritten orders for
a new subscription or a reprint article for this family member or that friend
or the barber or the butcher or some acquaintance who the old man was gently
leading back to Christ. He never made a
“big deal” about it; he just quietly went about the Lord’s work as best he knew
how. And so in peace his years passed.
After raising twelve children and who knows how many flocks of
turkeys, and after threading miles of wire though several hundred thousand
beads, he was quite unceremoniously called home to the God he’d well served. He
died like he’d lived—without making a fuss.
To the very end he asked nothing of anyone, except, that is, for one
final request: “Bury me in the old way,
with the old Latin Mass that I learned to love when I was a boy.”
Who could refuse such a simple request from one so guileless, and
just moments from death? For that
matter, who’d even consider refusing it, except, perhaps, a bully with
an axe to grind.
Nevertheless, someone did refuse the last request of Allen
Cain. Never mind that, even on death
row, the final wish of the most hardened criminal is respected; old Mr. Cain’s
was not. As if all the sexual abuse
cover-ups weren’t enough, yet another scandal involving an American Catholic
bishop was brewing.
A day after Mr. Cain had passed, his son, Colin Cain (a trusted
board member at a Catholic parish in So.
This is where the nightmare began.
With the help and close cooperation of a sympathetic priest in
“But,” the son pleaded, “the pastor has given his permission and
we have two priests who are willing to say the
The Vicar thought a moment and then promised that he’d take it
under advisement and pass the information along to the bishop.
“The Bishop will let you know.”
The family waited but there
was no call-back. Finally, they called the chancery office again. This time the
Vicar’s response was: “The Bishop said no.”
“May we have a reason?”
“The Bishop gave no reason; he will not give permission for a
Tridentine Requiem Mass to anyone.”
This prompted letters from the family, pleading and begging the
bishop to honor their father’s dying wish….Daughter-in-law Jane wrote to the
Bishop. Granddaughter Maria wrote to the Bishop. Daughter Catherine wrote to the Bishop.
Catherine’s coworker — a non-Catholic, scandalized by the Bishop’s refusal to
honor a deathbed request — wrote to the Bishop. Another of Catherine’s shocked
coworkers wrote to the Bishop. Daughter Patti wrote to the Bishop. Daughter Ann
wrote to the Bishop. Youngest daughter Shannon wrote to the Bishop and even
telephoned the Vicar.
Many friends sent letters to the bishop and many more called his
office, but all of this was met with a disdainful silence from the “castle on
the hill”.
Out of options and running out of time, the “peasants” had to
settle for a burial service in Murdock, sans a Requiem. A simple burial service would have to suffice
to accommodate the old man’s many friends, neighbors, and family members,
including his last surviving sister, who wanted to say goodbye to a pillar of
their small community and join together in prayer for his soul.
And so, rather than violate the sacred last wishes of the
deceased, a faithful Catholic of 89 years was laid to rest without any Mass at
all.
A Requiem was eventually offered in
…because of our close proximity to the Archdiocese
of St. Paul Minneapolis, which does offer this possibility [to offer the old
Mass] at St. Augustine Church in South St. Paul, there would be no need to add
to the parochial responsibilities of our priests in responding to this request
[to grant Mr. Cain’s Requiem].
What the Holy Father’s document does not consider,
however, is an individual request for the Tridentine Mass in a specific
instance such as Allen Cain’s funeral. One has to understand that the Sacred
Liturgy is a communal event. Every celebration of the Mass is of and for
the whole Church, as clearly enunciated by Pope John Paul in his encyclical,
“The Eucharist in Relation to the Church.”
What Mr. Cain’s deathbed request would entail, therefore, would be
turning the Mass into a private devotion, which would be totally wrong and
diametrically opposed to the theology of the Catholic Church.
“Diametrically opposed”? Allowing a Catholic to have a
funeral Mass offered exactly as it had been for well over a thousand years is,
according to the Bishop of New Ulm, a “private devotion” that is
“diametrically opposed to the theology of the Catholic Church”? Evidently, the Holy Father never anticipated
this “diametric opposition”? I realize
that post-conciliar seminaries aren’t exactly bastions of vast intellectual
acumen, but is this man serious?!
How could a shepherd of souls develop such a transparent loathing
for the venerable Catholic liturgical heritage of the Roman Rite and those
attached to it? The Archbishop of St. Paul Minneapolis, Harry Flynn, certainly
doesn’t share this peculiar phobia of the old
Such an attitude against something so sacred—a foundational stone
of Christendom and the touchstone of the Faith itself—savors of the demonic,
whether the Bishop of New Ulm realizes it or not. This is the Mass of St. Thomas
Aquinas, Pope Pius X, St. Maximilian Kolbe, Pope Pius XII! Granting permission for that Mass—the only
Mass the saints ever knew—constitutes something that is “opposed to the
theology of the Catholic Church”? One is
reminded of the vampires of folklore cringing in horror at the sight of a
crucifix or holy water…or the
And it gets worse: it turns
out that there were Protestant observers taking all of this in, having become
privy to this apparent contempt for the Roman Catholic liturgical heritage and
for a dying man’s last request. Sensing that the Cains were getting nowhere,
one Protestant friend of the family tried to intervene, in fact. When her efforts also failed, one can only
imagine the distain for all things Catholic that she must have felt in her
heart. After all the sex and sewage and
ecclesiastical scandals of the past decade, imagine how this Protestant lady’s
worst anti-Catholic suspicions were beautifully confirmed by the
bull-in-a-china-shop antics of the Bishop of New Ulm:
Dear
Vicar
My name is Denise Stipes and I am a dear friend of
Catherine Cain (and her family) whose father, Mr. Allen Cain of
It is my understanding that one of the great
strengths of the Tridentine Mass is its uniformity. Wherever Catholics go in
the world, the Tridentine Mass is exactly the same. The movements and gestures
of the Mass are clearly prescribed, so there’s no room for “personalization” of
the liturgy. The time-honored Latin of the Mass reverently reflects the
sacrificial nature of the celebration.
The Pope approves the Tridentine Funeral
From what I understand, the parish priest has no
objections to this request. I respectfully ask that you reconsider your
decision and allow Mr. Cain his last dying wish to have a Latin Mass at his
funeral. I fully support the Cain family
and the rights of Mr. Cain. I look forward to a positive response.
Respectfully,
Denise Stipes,
In the dismal “ecclesial reality” of Vatican II, one is no longer
surprised by anything, even such previously unthinkable realities as Protestants
who are more sensitive to the will of the Pope, exemplify more compassion, and
practice greater charity than a Catholic bishop. But, there it is.
One wonders what the Bishop’s reaction might have been had the
Cain Family requested that a Buddhist monk be allowed to perform a smoking
bowls ritual at the funeral Mass in Murdock…. “Certainly! The Church
understands the great value of other faith expressions. And this would promote
greater ecumenical awareness. So long as the Buddhist reveres Vatican II, we
have no objections and we welcome him to our worship space.”
Virginia Teehan, RIP
I did not know Mrs. Virginia Teehan (who died in Maryland six days
after Allen Cain), and so her story will here be told by a compelling letter
written by her daughter and addressed to the attention of the Most Rev. Sean
Patrick O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, successor of Cardinal Bernard Law of
most unhappy memory. Though the Teehan
Family had found two priests willing to offer the Tridentine Requiem at Mrs.
Teehan’s parish church, St. Pius X Church in
The letter speaks for itself.
Read it and weep:
Your
Eminence:
Our family recently requested the Tridentine Latin
Mass for our beloved mother’s funeral. We had no problem finding a priest
willing to say it but the Archdiocese denied our request.
Virginia Teehan passed away on Sunday, January 9,
at 12 noon, as her family finished saying the rosary. She was a devout Catholic
who loved the Tridentine Latin Mass and made the trip to the South End with her
missal in hand whenever she could. When
she become ill a year ago, she attended Mass at a local church. She asked the
priest if he would say the Tridentine Latin Mass once. Again he was willing but the Archdiocese
said, “No.”
Our mother prayed hard for our Holy Father, bishops
and priests her whole life; but while she was in Brigham and Women’s Hospital
at various times throughout the year, she requested Communion from a priest.
They kept sending a layperson, and she kept requesting a priest. After many, many requests the priest came—without
Holy Communion. He told her he couldn’t
promise to bring it to her; so, basically, if she didn’t accept Communion from
a layperson that was her tough luck. He
never did come back. Oh, but before he
left, he asked our father and me to put our hands on her and gave her a
blessing?!
On January 9th at about 4 a.m., my mother
was about to be put on a ventilator and was told she may never be able to
communicate again. She requested a
priest. Eight hours later she passed
away. A priest never came.
Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident. We were calling priests all over
We find it extremely tragic that the leaders of the
Church that she devoted her life to and prayed so hard for could deny her her
right to the Tridentine Latin Mass, Communion from a priest and a priest by her
side on her deathbed. The latter two we
need for you to be aware of, but please tell us why you denied our request for
the Tridentine Latin Mass for our mother’s funeral. What could you possibly
have against that Mass? We found a
priest, actually a couple of them, willing to say it; my mother loved that
Mass, and the Archdiocese said, “No.”
Why? Our mother found parts of
the “new” Mass offensive because of irreverence and many things that were done
and said. Whether you agree with this sentiment or not, our Holy Father said
you could allow us to have the Tridentine Latin
There are problems within the Church, in case you
haven’t noticed, and we’re begging you and praying that you will do something
about them. We don’t have our mother
here anymore to set us straight according to the old Catholic teachings, so we
can only depend on you. The salvation of
our souls and others depends on you.
Enclosed are some poems by our mother that we never
really appreciated before, but they’re helping us get through this difficult
time. We’d like to share them with you
and hope that you will cherish them as much as we do.
Sincerely,
Mary Bennett
(John, Michael, Ann, Paul and Matthew Teehan).
It is said that a society can be judged by the way in which it
treats its young and its elderly. If this is so, and it certainly is, then what
can be said of the “renewed” Church which has failed to teach the Faith to its
children (most Catholic grade-schoolers have trouble with the Hail Mary, let
alone an entire rosary), which has victimized its young men (or covered for
priests who did so), and which is now in the business of denying the sick and
dying their deathbed requests? What are
they so afraid of? That their habit-less
nuns, altar-less sanctuaries, congregation-less churches, priest-less parishes,
and vocation-less seminaries are signs that the end is near for them? Is this why they resent tradition-minded
Catholics enough to lord it over them whenever possible, even those lying on
their deathbeds? It would seem so.
It’s no wonder there’s
standing room only at chapels operated by the Society of St. Pius X!
I’d like to close with one
of those little poems written by the late Mrs. Teehan. To think that it was penned by a beautiful
Catholic soul whose Bishop denied her simple request to have a Requiem Mass
just as all Catholics for centuries had been given. Shame on him and God help us all!
The Catholic Church
Where Jesus does dwell
In
To guard it well
Divine as her founder
Holy and One
The Bride of Christ
May His Kingdome come
To every nation
As He did command
The apostles who preached
In every land.
His Cross and His rock
Are the visible signs
For salvation and life
For all of mankind
Christ is the Good Shepherd
He has one flock
And none will be lost
Who cling to the Rock
…Virginia Teehan (RIP)