| | | OFFLINE | | Post: 32.341
Post: 14.427 | Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009 | Administratore | Utente Gold | |
|
THE UNKINDEST CUT:
Benedict XVI stabbed in the back
by faithless Italian bishops
by Steve Skojec
November 17, 2018
As has so often been the case in the past year or two, an important report has surfaced on the Italian traditionalist blog, Messa in Latino (Mass in Latin). In it, the authors reveal that at the recent Italian Bishops’ Conference meeting in Rome (Nov. 12-15), an attack was mounted on the 2007 Motu Proprio of Pope Benedict XVI, Summorum Pontificum.
That papal instruction affirmed that it is “permitted to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass following the typical edition of the Roman Missal, which was promulgated by Blessed John XXIII in 1962 and never abrogated, as an extraordinary form of the Church’s Liturgy.”
The attack was led by Archbishop RAdaelli of Gorizia, who argued that the Mass was, in fact, abrogated (in direct contradiction to Pope Benedict) and that it can thus not be considered to be universally permitted.
Earlier this week, 1P5 contributor Hilary White, who lives in Italy, offered more insight into what the liturgical landscape looks like in Italy, and how this move might be interpreted.
- She says that the Traditional Mass “is barely surviving” in Italy “due to the blind, insane hostility of the Italian bishops to the Catholic religion.”
- She also argues that Francis has effectively taken over the Italian Bishops’ Conference, imposing his own candidate in Perugia and parachuting “a bunch of his toadies into key positions around the country to start softening up the local Church to his ideological platform planks.”
Hilary continues, saying of Francis:
I’d bet money this is his idea made to look like theirs and he will acquiesce reluctantly to the overwhelmingly unified decision of the bishops – synodality, dontcha know. It will probably take a couple of years – one needs chronological distance in order to maintain plausible deniability – but it will probably show up as a “key principle” after one of the Synods. Something that one or two bishops will complain was “never talked about” in the discussions in the aula.
She expects that locally, there will be a push to kill off whatever TLMs have managed to survive the already hostile landscape. Over the past half decade, availability of traditional Masses has “plummeted,” Hilary writes, and that became clear to her when trying to find a place to live with access to the Mass after the town of Norcia, where she was an oblate at the Benedictine Monastery, was destroyed by earthquakes and she was forced to find a new home.
[QUIOTE] Twenty months ago, when I was looking for a place in Umbria my first priority was finding a place within a reasonable communing distance from a Mass. But I spent a month traveling up and down and back and forth visiting ALL the Mass centre locations listed by the traddie websites, and of the five regular Mass centres (not including SSPX) only three were barely hanging on – one of which was the monastery at Norcia. If they do manage to formally restrict the Mass again, it will be in the nature of a mop-up job.
Traditionalists are treated by the Italian clergy and hierarchy like people with a contagious mental disease.
The blow struck by the Italian Bishops against the Mass of the Ages does not appear to be decisive. To my knowledge, no concrete action has been taken to repeal Summorum Pontificum in Italy — which, if it were to happen, would begin a domino effect in hostile dioceses around the world. We may not see the next step yet, but make no mistake: this is a portentous event, and it isn’t the last we’ll hear of it.
As she so often does, Hilary cuts to the heart of the matter when she concludes:
One thing this does demonstrate, however, is that it is only the Traditionalists and the rabid revolutionaries in robes we still call bishops who fully understand the importance of the ancient liturgy. They need to kill it in order to kill the Faith it embodies.
In a followup post, she notes that Archbishop Redaelli recently refused “to back up one of his parish priests who objected to having an adult male scout leader of the parish who was in a same-sex “civil union”.” This refusal ultimately led to the priest’s resignation while the gay scout leader remained.
“I merely add all this,” she says, “as a helpful illustration of what I mean that hatred of the traditional liturgy always goes along with hatred of the Faith it embodies.”
The full translation of the Messa in Latino post is below, courtesy of 1P5’s Giuseppe Pellegrino:
Italian Bishops’ Conference:
The Traditional Mass Should be Abrogated,
Benedict XVI Was Mistaken
The reports that had come to us have been confirmed: in Rome, at the Meeting of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), an attempt has been made to attack the motu proprio of Benedict XVI [Summorum Pontificum], and also Benedict himself, he who was so fond of that reform, so much so that he fearlessly faced opposition to it.
What happened?
Archbishop Radaelli, Bishop of Gorizia (whom we know received a degree in Canon Law at the Pontifical Gregorian University) has asserted that the [1962] Missal of John XXIII was abrogated by Paul VI (contrary to what Benedict XVI said in the motu proprio), and thus, because the juridical premises on which Summorum Pontificum is based are in error, is without efficacy in the part in which it affirms the continuing validity of the [1962] Missal and its unchanged vigor today. For this reason, the motu proprio is a “nonsense” law and the “Tridentine” liturgy was not legitimately re-established by the motu proprio and it cannot presently be considered to be universally permitted.
The consequence, hoped for by the most hostile bishops, is a total cancellation (without appeal) of all of the centers where the TLM is offered and flourishing since September 14, 2007.
To which we respond, based on the opinion of professional canon lawyers, not simply doctors of the law in other matters like His Excellency [Archbishop Radaelli], even if the premise of the motu proprio that the ancient was numquam abrogata is wrong (which it is not, as is evidenced, apart from other things, by the pre-existing faculty [prior to 2007] to celebrate the TLM under the Indult), the essential datum is that Summorum Pontificum expresses an irrefutable ratio legis: namely that the Extraordinary Form is henceforward freely to be used; always permitted for private Masses, and on the request of a stable group of the faithful for public Masses.Therefore the criticism of Archbishop Radaelli, even if it was well-founded (and it is not) would have no impact at all on the force of canon law in effect since 2007.
To this unconvincing intervention is added the even more hostile intervention of Girardi, Rector of the Institute of Pastoral Liturgy of Saint Justina of Padua (one of the epicenters of post-conciliar aberrations), filled with the worst ideology of aggiornamento.
Devoid of legal knowledge but full of liturgical arrogance (the famous joke that circulates in the Vatican is that the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist is that with the latter, usually, one can negotiate…), Girardi explained that Summorum Pontificum is pernicious from the point of view of pastoral care, because it is contrary to the conciliar indications of the Fathers who demanded (according to him) a radical change to the [1962] Missal.
This is by no means true, as evidenced by the reading of the conciliar Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, which for example does not direct that the priest should be turned towards the people, and at n. 36 categorically prescribes: “The use of the Latin language, except for particular laws, is preserved in the Latin rites.”
A bishop from Puglia also spoke in support of this liturgist, Bishop Brambilla of Novara, who, although he spoke in a more elegant manner, also struck a harsh blow against the motu proprio.
Of course, after having been worried [at their meeting] about changing the long-standing translations of the Gloria and the Our Father, without anyone feeling it was necessary (and yet obviously the “for you and for all” has still not been modified, which is clearly in contrast with the original version, or rather with the very words of Our Lord, who said “for you and for many”), why would Their Excellencies waste any time analyzing the true causes of the grave crisis of faith which the Italian Church is living through (empty seminaries, abandonment of the cassock by many priests, the collapse of Catholic practice, terrible incidents of homosexual and pedophilic abuse, altars of severed heads, to cite just a few examples.)
Instead, the urgent matter of the moment was, apparently, lashing out at the ancient liturgy and calling for its banishment.
There is something sinisterly psychopathic in all this, and it is the envy of those who are bankrupt: in the collapse of their utopias, in the cold winter which the radiant ‘conciliar spring’ has turned into, it is too painful to face reality and honestly admit their mistakes.
Instead they try to destroy the little that still works, like the zeal and decorum of the celebrations of the ancient rite and the flourishing of vocations in traditional religious institutes. The case of the Franciscans of the Immaculate and the hatred of the immemorial liturgy are a clear example of this insane frenzy of crazy castaways, who try to turn over the few rafts that still float, rather than thinking of climbing into them or building new ones.
Contrast the apparent spiritual-liturgical desert presided over by the Italian bishops to a burgeoning interest in the Traditional Mass among US Catholics. (How heartwarming for me today that the Church of the Holy Innocents was full - easily 400 Massgoers- for the 10:30 High Latin Mass on Sundays and that, as usual, there were as many men as women (perhaps slightly more, even), and many more young people (40 or less) compared to the elders.)
Millennials, authenticity and the Latin Mass
by JAKE NEU
November 15, 2018
My wife and I have recently started regularly attending our local Latin Mass in the Extraordinary Form. We took our two young boys one Sunday in July, shortly after the news of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sins jumpstarted the current round of clergy sex scandals. We had previously attended about once a year just to mix it up, but since July we have gone every other week and now three weeks in four. We may switch permanently.
The antiquity of the Mass contrasts with the youth of the congregation. Numerous little children filling the nave provide a background noise of crying, cooing, crawling over pews, and scuffling into laps. These sounds of family life contrast with other parishes where children depart for children’s liturgies or cry rooms, or are simply absent.
The adults also present a diverse group. A majority of those present are young families and adults under 50. Although the Catholic Church has hemorrhaged men for decades, men and women are about evenly split here. Nor is it all white people. Despite being a low overall percentage of the local population, a good number of Hispanics are present. Three or four black families and some Asian couples also attend. The congregation more obviously runs the gamut from rich to poor than your typical American parish. “Here,” in Joyce’s mocking but true words, “comes everybody.” [He could be speaking of the TLM Sunday Massgoers at Holy Innocents.]
My wife and I are Millennials. Like most of my cohort, I exclusively attended the Novus Ordo in English growing up. My wife converted from Evangelical Protestantism during college. Yet we are poised to join a puzzling trend of modern American Catholicism: the small but growing set of Millennials finding a home in the Mass of Trent.
This confuses our bishops and elders.
- Catholicism, they say, should make itself more understandable to the modern world.
- Father Thomas Reese once likened the Mass to new software versions in need of occasional upgrades — like DOS, the Extraordinary Form should be made obsolete.
- Some think Millennials are revolting against their Baby Boomer parents.
- Others see Millennials attracted to the mystery of the older form, seeing it as something new and different from their childhood.
- Many think Millennials have a false nostalgia for a Catholicism that never existed before Vatican II.
- Still others think this attraction stems from a desire for comfort, security, belief, and the ease with which to avoid the messiness of modernity.
But the young families I have met almost completely lack such pretense.
- They do not consider themselves better or seek some false comfort. - They acknowledge they are sinners living in a sinful world — indeed, that’s what makes them seek out the old rites.
- They engage the modern world around them, hold down ordinary jobs, cheer for the same sports teams, and spend their weekends doing ordinary modern things.
- But they share a particular priority: to raise children in twenty-first century America while remaining authentically Catholic.
Millennials and “authenticity” go together.
- Brand managers speak of a brand being “authentic” to itself or its corporate values to draw in Millennial consumers.
- Workplace gurus teach older generations how to be “authentic” around Millennials to attract and keep good young employees.
- Millennials themselves discuss seeking “authenticity” and meaning in their lives and often do so through their choices in consumption, such as by buying locally sourced food produced by old techniques, local craft beer and liquors, handmade products, and “artisanal” goods.
For Millennials, being authentic means that the external, public presentation corresponds to the internal, private reality.
- Marketers have learned that sales gimmicks simply meant to boost sales only turn off Millennial consumers.
- Instead, Millennials are loyal to brands that provide social value or utility, or which have a durable quality.
- Millennials also want the people producing the goods to feel invested in their products and society. This is why farmers’ markets, local butchers, and craft breweries have made a comeback. These people have not “sold out” to big farms or mass-produced meat or bland beer. The product itself comes first, and making the sale is secondary. That personal sacrifice vouches for the goods’ quality and value.
Consider now the Latin Mass.
- Most priests who celebrate the Extraordinary Form are strong in their faith and ask others to take their Catholicism seriously.
- They are not “selling” redemption on the cheap.
- They know (often from their own experience in their dioceses and religious orders) that salvation takes work, effort, and sacrifice.
- They give you Jesus Christ in his flesh and blood, because that’s why you are there. Everything else is secondary.
But because the external form of the liturgy is secondary to, yet consistent with, the internal Eucharistic reality, it is lifted up into that reality.
- The chant, the Latin, the repetition, the silence, the incense, the bells — all find their place in glorifying that moment when the priest elevates the Body and Blood.
Millennials drawn to the Latin Mass do not see these things as a pretense, but rather as a way to express most fully and consistently the Catholic teaching of the Eucharist.
In other words, Latin Mass Millennials view the liturgy as authentic in a way that the progressive stylings fashionable after Vatican II are not.
- Yes, Millennials find the Latin Mass mysterious, but in the old sense of mystery, that “revealing” of the true relationship of God and man.
- It presents order in our messy world — an order that publicly embodies the Faith we privately believe.
- The Latin Mass presents Catholicism uncompromised by trying to sell itself to the people.
- It does not try to trick you into thinking it is anything other than what it is.
If I had been allowed an intervention at last month’s Youth Synod, this is what I would have told the gathered bishops:
- Youth want to know that you, the bishops, believe and embrace the things you teach—that you are authentic.
- Embracing authentic Catholicism means not trying harder to sell the Faith through new liturgical gimmicks or pastoral compromises.
- It means presenting the Faith in full and ordering our public lives as faithful, loving, sacrificing Catholics around those internal beliefs.
- Don’t tell the youth about the Faith, show them. And there is no more beautiful, uplifting, and authentically true way to do so than by a devout presentation of the ancient Latin Mass.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 19/11/2018 02:28] |