Everywhere else in the world, statues of the mighty St. Patrick hold a shamrock symbolizing the Holy Trinity. In Kinkora, Ontario it’s a tulip.

The tulip-bearing statue of St. Patrick in Kinkora is the bold face of a smoldering battle aimed at taking down the community’s single Sunday morning Tridentine (Latin) Mass, its humble pastor and talented cantor.

Somewhat cult-like in nature, it’s a battle being raged in the most surprising of places.

In all other ways, the crossroads of Kinkora, Ontario truly lives up to its Irish Gaelic name, which translates to “a lovely place”. If Kinkora were a picture in a travel magazine, it would be ripped out and put up as framed pictures on living room walls.

Easy to give in to dreams of peace and plenty driving along pastoral roads leading to Kinkora and its hauntingly beautiful St. Patrick’s Church.

One could assume there is mostly good in the world when in postcard-perfect Kinkora, where physical threats of any kind seem so far away.

But like all who wanted to attend St. Patrick’s Tridentine Mass Sunday morning, I had to make my way to get inside the church through ‘protesters’ on the lawns and sidewalks. There was a homespun odor of horse manure at the scene, and I naively thought it was wafting from plentiful nearby farms. On hot, humid days, it’s sometimes the odor of pig or chicken excrement. Sulphur, it seems comes in many flavours.

Surely the Irish who built the neo-Gothic church in 1882 didn’t intend it as the someday scene of Occupy Wall Street-like hostilities where bad things are arranged in beautiful but off-public-radar places, too tiny to even be called villages.

No one making their way to the Tridentine Mass worries about having their best Sunday suit roughed up or their lace mantilla knocked to the ground. But most worry about physical attacks on innocent little altar boys by protesters incensed by church incense, threats of physical assault, or the threatened shooting of a 12-lb. pet mutt.

With the blessings of the Holy Father, the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite is celebrated each Sunday in only about two dozen Canadian churches.

In Kinkora, there is the ordinary 10 a.m. Mass, and two others in the nearby Town of Mitchell at St. Vincent de Paul Church.

No one is forcing anyone in Kinkora to attend the Latin Mass, but rabble rousers claim “This is our church!” and tell the Gregorian chant cantor “Go back to Toronto with your Latin Mass”.

It is worthy of note that friendly decent Kinkora people are many. The rabble rousers, who claim to represent the entire community, number only in the handful.

Even so, they create a scene more worthy of the past Black Donnellys of Canada or the Hatfields and McCoys of America than Sunday morning service celebrating the Eucharist.

Gregorian chant Cantor David Anthony Domet, who drives with his dog to Kinkora every Sunday, is also a popular blogger at Vox Cantoris. His blogged reply to asundry shouts “Go back to Toronto with your Latin Mass” is: “Well, I’ve got news friend, I’m not going anywhere.”

With great wit and passion, Domet tells the story about the ongoing Kinkora protest in an article entitled The Devil Went Down to Georgia…and other places.

“The American country-singing legend Charlie Daniels had a great hit song called The Devil Went Down to Georgia”. Well, the devil may have went down to Georgia but when he got finished there, he went up to Kinkora and he hasn’t left. You see, the devil does not go where he’s already got control; he doesn’t bother with the lukewarm, he’s read the Apocalypse and knows what Jesus will do with the lukewarm, so he’ll get them eventually. Sadly, most of them have “itchy ears” and don’t realize it. Let us hope they will respond to God’s grace and pull away from the evil one.”

If there is anything that Satan particularly hates, it is a good and devout Catholic priest. St. Patrick’s Pastor Fr. Paul Nicholson is not only a good priest, as a “fisher of men”, he’s a gem.

The unique beauty of Kinkora and the down to earth simplicity of its people should be returned to their natural state, not framed for posterity with an imposed will on others, or left simmering in hatred.

The natural beauty of the Kinkora area, like all beauty on Earth, is memorably explained in Psalm 8:1-4; Psalm 19:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Jeremiah 29:13:

“I SPEAK TO YOU CONTINUALLY. My nature is to communicate, though not always in words. I fling glorious sunsets across the sky, day after day. I speak in the faces and voices of loved ones. I caress you with a gentle breeze that refreshes and delights you. I speak softly in the depths of your spirit, where I have taken up residence.

“You can find me in each moment, when you have eyes that see and ears that hear. Ask My Spirit to sharpen your spiritual eyesight and hearing. I rejoice each time you discover My Presence. Practice looking and listening for Me during quiet intervals. Gradually you will find Me in more and more of your moments. You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me above all else.”

Soul settling to know that Satan is up against it in Kinkora. People will continue to attend St. Patrick’s Tridentine Mass no matter how foul the weather or protesters.

It will take more than horse manure, threats and taunts to turn the faithful away. To some of us, the smell of horse manure is as good as or better than the most expensive French perfume.

That’s because it comes from horses and horses, like all living things, come from the Almighty.