HIS PAMPHLET was kindly emailed to us by Mrs. G.W.I. It’s title was “Discomforts Of Transition.” It appears to have been published circa 1968 by Saint Benedict’s Abbey (Benet Lake, Wisconsin). The author is one “Patricia Martin Zens.” We’d be grateful if any reader out there could determine—and share with us—the precise year this bizarre pamphlet appeared:
* PDF Download • “Discomforts Of Transition” (1968?)
—Saint Benedict’s Abbey (Benedictine Monks at Benet Lake, Wisconsin).
Non-Synodal Words • It would be difficult to find a more arrogant, less “synodal” manifesto. It’s filled with references to “a [Catholic] Church that has … become weighed down with worn-out customs.” Patricia states in no uncertain terms: the old must give way to the new. She points to “pride” and “stubbornness” (her words) as the cause of reluctance from those who had fervently loved the Church’s traditions. One is reminded of a 14 March 1964 letter to THE TABLET newspaper in England, written by Dom Gregory Murray, OSB (a monk of Downside Abbey). Dom Gregory wrote:
The plea that the laity as a body do not want liturgical change, whether in rite or in language, is, I submit, quite beside the point. … [it is] not a question of what people want; it is a question of what is good for them.
