BEYOND THE BROKEN ALTAR
- Jul 22
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 26
by Chris Jackson @BigModernism
THE HIRAETH EXILES
Beyond The Broken Altar is the music side of Hiraeth in Exile: original traditional Catholic songs and commentary rooted in pre–Vatican II faith. Marian hymns, protest ballads, and devotional pieces defending the Latin Mass, Our Lady, and the perennial magisterium, plus occasional videos, clips, and memes. Lyrics, concept, and direction by Chris Jackson, produced with digital studio tools and virtual session players so the focus stays on the message, not the budget.
Chris conveys that he is a traditional Catholic writer and commentator. No compromise. No quietism. Standing for the Faith when others fall silent.
Gee, sounds like yours truly, Nich Flüe. I like this guy!
Beyond The Broken Altar produced of this wonderful Catholic song by Chris Johnson:
Why Hiraeth in Exile?
Hiraeth is a Welsh word with no direct English translation. It speaks of a deep, aching longing — not just for a place, but for a home that seemingly has been lost beyond return. It’s nostalgia sharpened by absence. A grief for what ought to be. A yearning for something once known, half-remembered, and now seemingly unreachable.
This song is written from within the ruins of a Church that once formed saints; a Church many Catholics cannot recognize in the pages of old missals and forgotten encyclicals, but rarely in the bulletins or pulpits of today. This is not a blog of despair, but of longing. Not of retreat, but of remembrance — and resistance.
Hiraeth in Exile is for those who feel out of place in the postconciliar desert, who still remember what the Church is supposed to be, and who refuse to pretend that this long twilight is normal. It’s a place to name what has been lost, to mourn it honestly, and to hope; not with naïve optimism, but with clarity, courage, and the faith that exile is not forever.If that resonates with you, you’re not alone.
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The article that inspired Beyond The Broken Altar:
Pride Mass in Cathedral, LGBT Activists Invited to Leo Event, Leo Appoints Gay Blessing Bishop, Archbishop Defends a Mosque, and French and Jesuit Vocations Vanish. Meanwhile the SSPX is in "Schism."
From Munich and Seville to Arlington and Écône, the hierarchy’s latest decisions expose the practical creed of the postconciliar settlement.
Transcript of the lyrics:
[Verse 1]
They hung a rainbow in the nave
Where kings once knelt and martyrs prayed.
The youth brigade came marching through
With slogans Christ had never used.
“Love is holy,” banners cried,
As sin and love were neatly tied.
A counterfeit Christ led the show
And danced through Munich streets below.
[Chorus]
Open the doors, invite them in,
Rename the doctrine, bless the sin.
Give every movement room to speak
While altars crumble, orders shrink.
The mosque gets rights,
the Pride march cheers,
The Jesuits close more doors each year.
Then Rome turns north toward old Écône
And finds the keys, the law, the throne.
[Verse 2]
Thirteen tickets, front-row seats
For activists with marriage pleas.
A cardinal waved the group right through;
The cameras caught their grand debut.
No word of censure from the chair;
The cameras flashed while Leo sat there. T
he guest list did the work instead.
The quiet revolution spread.
[Chorus]
Open the doors, invite them in,
Rename the doctrine, bless the sin.
Give every movement room to speak
While altars crumble, orders shrink.
The mosque gets rights,
the Pride march cheers,
The Jesuits close more doors each year.
Then Rome turns north toward old Écône
And finds the keys, the law, the throne.
[Verse 3]
A German mitre found a head
Where synodal roads had gently led.
Gay blessings here, lay preaching there,
Celibacy hangs in the air.
“Keep on walking, keep reforming;
Listen while the truth is forming.”
Every dogma may be revised
Except the creed they improvised.
[Verse 4]
In Seville’s streets the bishop praised
The claims that modern charters raised.
A mosque could claim the public square
While Christ the King went unnamed there.
Saint Isidore beneath the stone
Might ask where Spain’s old faith had gone.
The Cross that once had crowned the land
Now yields to every creed’s demand.
[Chorus]
Open the doors, invite them in,
Rename the doctrine, bless the sin.
Give every movement room to speak
While altars crumble, orders shrink.
The mosque gets rights, the Pride march cheers,
The Jesuits close more doors each year.
Then Rome turns north toward old Écône
And finds the keys, the law, the throne.
[Verse 5]
France counts her churches, counts the years.
France counts empty seminaries.
Twelve years here, and nineteen there;
No young priest climbs the chapel stair.
Committees meet; the minutes grow.
Their carbon pledges overflow.
A man may give his life for Christ;
No merger merits such a price.
[Verse 6]
Five novitiates become two.
The Jesuit remnant marches through
With grants and schools and buildings vast,
And fewer sons than in the past.
The martyrs crossed an angry sea;
Their heirs now preach ecology.
The coffers hold, the callings cease.
The ledgers call the silence peace.
[Bridge]
Six bishops kneel in robes of white;
Then Rome remembers black and white.
The canon books fly off the shelf.
Each prelate finds his sterner self.
“Invalid! Illicit! Stay away!
Your schools and chapels lead astray!”
The men who smiled through error’s reign
Now thunder canons once again.
[Verse 7]
In Arlington the warning came:
Avoid the priests who guard the same
Old Roman words, the ancient rite,
The faith once learned by candlelight.
Yet schism dressed in Eastern gold
Receives embraces warm and bold.
A patriarch may smile and pose,
While Rome keeps Écône’s chapels closed.
[Verse 8]
Covington called the Mass abuse;
Old prayers, he said, divided pews.
Yet rainbow rites still passed the test,
With every conscience counted blessed.
Palm Beach spoke of “full communion”
While Martin’s gospel charmed them all.
The moral law may bend and sway;
The Council’s throne must firmly stay.
[Final Chorus]
Open the doors, invite them in,
Rename the doctrine, bless the sin.
Give every movement room to speak
While altars crumble, orders shrink.
The mosque gets rights, the Pride march cheers,
The Jesuits close more doors each year.
Then Rome turns north toward old Écône—
And finds the keys, the law, the throne.
[Outro]
The banners wave. The chancery smiles.
The dialogue rolls on for miles.
The seminaries gather dust.
The ancient worship earns distrust.
Their hidden creed is plainly shown
By whom they praise—and whom disown.
Now every road may enter Rome...
Except the road
through old Écône.
