Previous popes and my previous, now deceased bishop, Bishop Lessard, emphasized that in Catholicism our language is always positive and more often than not, it isn’t between either/or but both/and when two good things can be chosen.
For example, we are called to be pro-life rather than anti-abortion. We say yes to life rather than no to it.
That has always formed my preaching by calling people to say yes to God, yes to his commandments and yes to our Catholic identity, morality and spirituality. A Church of “no” and either/or is not the Church that evangelizes properly. It isn’t missionary!
When it comes to both/and, this is particularly true of the Liturgy. There are two news stories in Crux this morning and both concern the liturgy.
Why in the name of God the pope and the Syro-Malabar bishops are saying “no” to their Divine Liturgy celebrated toward the people is just plain wrong headed and causes people to become entrenched in their own ideologies. Why not say yes to both, make ad orientem the norm and facing the people the exception. And when using the exception, have the “Benedictine” altar arrangement.
Pope Benedict XVI, the smartest pope ever, knew this. That is why he made the Modern Mass the norm and the TLM the exception but liberally allowed.
Pope Francis is the pope of “no!” And micromanagement. He isn’t really synodal or into subsidiaries, protests to the contrary.
If he were the pope of “yes” and of “both/and” we would have a less polarized Church under His Holiness’ regime.
13 comments:
From 2013 A.D., To 2021 A.D., Pope Francis served as the Pope of "yes" despite Summorum Pontificum's failure to produce the liturgical peace, as well as SSPX's return to full communion with Rome, as desired by Pope Benedict XVI.
Pope Francis had maintained SP despite leading "traditionalists" who insisted that SP was a flawed, muddled document, that would collapse.
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In regard to Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 A.D. Letter of Pope Benedict XVI to the Bishops of the World on Summorum Pontificum:
Although he was optimistic in regard to SP, Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged the following serious issues:
"News reports and judgments made without sufficient information have created no little confusion. There have been very divergent reactions ranging from joyful acceptance to harsh opposition..."
"We all know that, in the movement led by Archbishop Lefebvre, fidelity to the old Missal became an external mark of identity..."
"At the time, the Pope (Saint John Paul II) primarily wanted to assist the Society of Saint Pius X to recover full unity with the Successor of Peter, and sought to heal a wound experienced ever more painfully."
"Unfortunately this reconciliation has not yet come about."
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There were some separated "traditionalist" communities who, thanks to his peace plan, had entered into full communion with Pope Saint John Paul II. However, Pope Benedict XVI had tossed aside Pope Saint John Paul II's failed (overall) peace plan.
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Additional serious issues that Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged:
"It is true that there have been exaggerations and at times social aspects unduly linked to the attitude of the faithful attached to the ancient Latin liturgical tradition."
In 1988 A.D., then-Cardinal Ratzinger had also noted the following serious issues:
-- Cardinal Ratzinger Addresses Chilean Bishops
"And the fact that when the chips were down Lefebvre denounced an agreement that had already been signed,...The explanation which Msgr. Lefebvre has given, for the retraction of his agreement, is revealing."
"He declared that he has finally understood that the agreement he signed aimed only at integrating his foundation into the “Conciliar Church."
"The Catholic Church in union with the Pope is, according to him, the “Conciliar Church” which has broken with its own past."
"We must reflect on this fact: that a large number of Catholics, far beyond the narrow circle of the Fraternity of Lefebvre, see this man as a guide, in some sense, or at least as a useful ally."
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Pope Benedict XVI's optimism in regard to his liturgical peace plan is interesting given that, for decades, he had been aware of the serious problems associated with the TLM Movement.
He had known, for example, that war against Vatican II/Liturgical Reform was a serious problem within the TLM Movement. He also had identified a schismatic (Archbishop Lefebvre) as a key player within the TLM Movement.
Again, Pope Benedict XVI declared:
"We must reflect on this fact: that a large number of Catholics, far beyond the narrow circle of the Fraternity of Lefebvre, see this man as a guide, in some sense, or at least as a useful ally."
That speaks volumes in regard to the serious problems that have long plagued the TLM Movement. Pope Francis had inherited a dreadful situation in regard to the TLM Movement.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Mark Thomas is a master prevaricator, in the Joseph Goebbels mode. If Father McDonald desires to destroy his blog by chasing off the sentient, keep posting his insane lies
I love clicking that little space next to a commenter's name and collapsing the comment... it does away with 90% of the page's length and keeps me from having to read irrelevant rambling.
Nick
From LifeSiteNews:
-- UPDATE: Kentucky bishop removes two Latin Mass priests from public ministry
"LifeSiteNews emailed Laura Keener, the Diocese of Covington’s communication director, to inquire about other details related to the removal of Collins and Kopczynski and about the future of the Missionaries of St. John the Baptist."
"She directed LifeSite to a diocesan statement released on January 17. In the statement, Iffert said that “Fr. Collins had preached” that the Novus Ordo “is ‘irrelevant,’ preserves ‘literally nothing of the old,’ and that the reform of the liturgy was motivated by hatred toward traditional Catholics and the ancient liturgies of Rome.”
"Iffert then said that Collins and Kopczynski “maintain these errors and refuse the opportunity to renounce them.” He then declared that this “disqualifies them from being granted permission to publicly celebrate” the Latin Mass.
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"LifeSiteNews has also learned that Collins refused to concelebrate a Novus Ordo Mass with Iffert."
I just read a statement from Father Collins. He acknowledged his refusal to have offered "the "Novus Ordo Missae."
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The "two Latin Mass priests" in question have trampled the following from Pope Benedict XVI:
"There is no contradiction between the two editions of the Roman Missal. In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but no rupture."
"Needless to say, in order to experience full communion, the priests of the communities adhering to the former usage cannot, as a matter of principle, exclude celebrating according to the new books."
"The total exclusion of the new rite would not in fact be consistent with the recognition of its value and holiness."
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May Fathers Collins and Kopczynski seek peace with Bishop John Iffert.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
When do you expect Pope Francis to remove Cardinal Fernandez for doing the same to his papacy as well as the cardinals and bishops in Germany?
Father McDonald,
You are dealing with a braindead apostate. Wake up, wake up!
Mark Thomas sides with Satan. Shockerp
These comment pages are, unfortunately, almost unreadable anymore.
Just the same "I'm gonna show you" quotes that no one is going to read. It's oppressive.
MT: If you have a job, be attentive to it, not pulling quotations all day.
If you are retired, or not otherwise employed for reasons that aren't my business, you need to break yourself away from what looks like an addiction.
No one reads this stuff. Trust me. You aren't giving the hierarchy, clergy, and what appears to be a shrinking number of commenters here a piece of your mind/setting us straight. PF has no idea who you are. No one reads this stuff. Just stop.
I do think it is disrespectful to fill up FrAJM’s blog space with so many lines of type. Mark, start your own blog; then when you post here try to keep it to a few lines, aim for five, max. When an entry here inspires a cathartic harangue use your blog to release your thoughts and post the link here.
I really wish we could have substantive discussions of what Father posts. It's disappointing when people intentionally derail the comments from the very start in order to beat a dead horse that they're riding in a completely different direction.
Nick
-- Is this the Homily that Resulted in the Cancellation of Two Kentucky Priests?
https://rumble.com/v47sr6c-is-this-the-homily-that-resulted-in-the-cancellation-of-two-kentucky-priest.html
Beginning at the 2:30 mark, we encounter the "traditional" priest's vile view of the Holy Mass of Pope Saint Paul VI. He is the type of "traditionalist" who has helped to ensure the failure of holy Pope Benedict XVI's gallant attempt to develop liturgical peace within the (Latin) Church.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
We think it is. Although we also think the sermon went too far declaring Judaism a false religion and that was used as an excuse to suppress the priests.
If various "traditionalists" are taken seriously, then the radicalization of the two "Latin Mass priests" in question is the result simply of said priests having embraced the TLM/"Tradition."
That is, such leading "traditionalists" as Father Davide Pagliarani, Superior General of the SSPX, Peter Kwasniewski, New Catholic (Rorate Caeli), Michael Matt, etc., have insisted that attachment to the TLM/"Tradition" will inspire one to wage a righteous war against NewChurch/"Modernist" Rome/Vatican II/Holy Mass of Pope Saint Paul VI.
Archbishop Lefebvre, for example, preached the above. Said message is very much alive within the TLM Movement.
Father Davide Pagliarani, Superior General of the SSPX, issued the following in line with the above:
"With Summorum Pontificum, the Tridentine Mass was then granted a much wider right."
"This allowed a certain number of priests to discover it; and by celebrating it – it must be acknowledged – many priests began to question their priesthood, and to question the Council and the New Mass."
"However, the perspective of this motu proprio (Summorum Pontificum), which remained flawed, was based on an error: two forms of the same rite of Mass, and above all, I would like to add, the illusion of improving something in the current crisis without discussing the causes of the crisis."
"This was the error of Pope Benedict XVI and the limitations of this motu proprio: it just could not work. It could work for a while, but sooner or later it would lead to what has happened."
"But let us be honest and realistic. What really made the Council, what was the backbone of the Council - the real Second Vatican Council - was the New Mass, ecumenism, the dignity of man and religious freedom. They were the essential elements and the errors that changed the Church. They are the centrepiece of the real Council that changed the Catholic Church!"
"The real Second Vatican Council, it must be rejected."
"We have the experiment of Pope Benedict XVI and it cannot work: to put truth next to error; to put the two Masses next to each other, so that one can “fertilize” the other; to have “a reform of the reform through continuity”… it is a total illusion"
Pax.
Mark Thomas
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