YOU CAN READ THE LONG ELOCUTION OF THE VERY PRECISE AND CLEAR PREFECT FOR THE CONGREGATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH IN THE YEAR. 1988 HERE.
Here are a couple of excerpts:
While there are many motives that might have led a great number of people to seek a refuge in the traditional liturgy, the chief one is that they find the dignity of the sacred preserved there. After the Council there were many priests who deliberately raised “desacralization” to the level of a program, on the plea that the New Testament abolished the cult of the Temple: the veil of the Temple which was torn from top to bottom at the moment of Christ’s death on the cross is, according to certain people, the sign of the end of the sacred. The death of Jesus, outside the City walls, that is to say, in the public world, is now the true religion. Religion, if it has any being at all, must have it in the nonsacredness of daily life, in love that is lived. Inspired by such reasoning, they put aside the sacred vestments; they have despoiled the churches as much as they could of that splendor which brings to mind the sacred; and they have reduced the liturgy to the language and the gestures of ordinary life, by means of greetings, common signs of friendship, and such things.
The Second Vatican Council has not been treated as a part of the entire living Tradition of the Church, but as an end of Tradition, a new start from zero. The truth is that this particular Council defined no dogma at all, and deliberately chose to remain on a modest level, as a merely pastoral council; and yet many treat it as though it had made itself into a sort of “super-dogma” which takes away the importance of all the rest.
This idea is made stronger by things that are now happening. That which previously was considered most holy—the form in which the liturgy was handed down—suddenly appears as the most forbidden of all things, the one thing that can safely be prohibited. It is intolerable to criticize decisions which have been taken since the Council; on the other hand, if men make question of ancient rules, or even of the great truths of the Faith—for instance, the corporal virginity of Mary, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the immortality of the soul, etc.—nobody complains or only does so with the greatest moderation. I myself, when I was a professor, have seen how the very same bishop who, before the Council, ad fired a teacher who was really irreproachable, for a certain crudeness of speech, was not prepared, after the Council, to dismiss a professor who openly denied certain fundamental truths of the Faith.
7 comments:
All true.
I received some sad news this weekend. Our fabulous pastor in his mid-thirties is moving on to a larger parish with more responsibility. During his 5 years with us, he has restored the sanctuary to a place of dignity and has VASTLY improved the banal Novus Ordo Masses we had before with proper vestments, gregorian chant, the organ, the propers, etc. He also says the TLM. I asked what to expect and he said we would be in good hands. Our new pastor who went to one of the nation's military academies and served in Afghanistan before entering the seminary, is also in his mid-thirties and can celebrate the TLM. Roche and his buddies are delusional if they think the TLM is going away no matter what they might try. Strange, almost every young priest I met is not hostile to our liturgical tradition and a fair number can celebrate the TLM. The Holy Spirit at work? I would like to think so.
TJM,
It will be better days for the Church when at least some of such young men, young priests, become American bishops.
By the way, can anyone inform me just who is Joe Biden's bishop and pastor?
Whoever he is: what a farce, what a scandal he, apparently, remains silent!
I was just reading a good article on LifeSite News on the Biden Administration's belief, stance and policies on "gender fluid" and "non binary" children and "trans kids" - a speech in Washington re "America's children belong to us"...Really? Do they?
To be more precise:
Biden Press Secretary - "America's children belong to all of us".
Really? Do they?
If I was a citizen of the USA and not just an occasional visitor - I would not permit any children of my extended family to ever be in the same room as Joe Biden or many members of his Administration.
Paul,
You’re wasting your time - the Archbishop of DC is a corrupt, Democrat operative, and so is his bishop in Delaware - and they wonder why Catholics continue to vote with their feet.
Sophia here: TLM, I have great compassion for you as you prepare to say goodbye to your wonderfully devoted, orthodox (vs heterodox) Pastor/Friend and also rejoice with you that his "replacement" sounds as if he is very similar in orthodoxy- Deo Gratias- as the one you are losing. But even though he may be similar in the solidity of his fidelity to the traditional Teaching of the Church as well as of course, Biblical Teaching, nonetheless he will be a different person with his own personality and way of doing things. Therefore, there will still be an adjustment which needs to be made both on your/the parish's part, as well as on his. Nobody can fully replace another-we are all individuals!
I shall be praying for you, the parishioners, as well as for your new Pastor as you go through your adjustment. I know that you and the rest of the Parish will make a big effort to help him feel very welcome and therefore make the transition go as smoothly for him as you can. It will be more difficult for him than for the parishioners-you already know each other- he is the "outsider"! I shall also be praying for your current Pastor and his new Parishioners as they get to know each other. I hope your current Pastor will not be going so far away that you cannot keep in touch.
Vatican II did the Eastern Churches a wonderful favor by encouraging us to re-embrace our traditions. As a Byzantine Ruthenian, our Church has removed Latinizations that crept in, and reintroduced Byzantine praxis where it had been removed. We are aligned with our ancestral Orthodox Church from which we came. Some good did come from that Council.
"What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred..."
Does that apply to the ancient Good Friday prayer for Jews that Pope Benedict XVI had rejected?
Pope Benedict XVI had employed his awesome authority over the Roman Liturgy to reject that which, for centuries, the Church had held as sacred.
In his Encyclical Mediator Dei, Pope Venerable Pius XII declared that "the Sovereign Pontiff alone enjoys the right to recognize and establish any practice touching the worship of God, to introduce and approve new rites, as also to modify those he judges to require modification."
However, there are "traditionalists" who employed Pope Benedict XVI's very words — "What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred..." — to reject, in turn, Pope Benedict XVI's rejection of the ancient Good Friday prayer in question.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
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