This letter is a time capsule from 1978. Archbishop Sheen is calling out the SSPX for what they were in 1978 but also promoting the Bugnini Mass out of obedience to an Ecumenical Council that gave directions on how to revise the Mass and that the Bugnini Mass, despite the fact it did not do what Vatican II requested, is nonetheless the one Mass of the Roman Rite at that time and to be respected, especially its vernacular.
Archbishop Sheen uses the apologetic that I heard over and over and over again from 1965 onward and throughout the 70’s that Vatican II did not change doctrine or Divine Teaching but only discipline and human laws that could be changed.
But, but, but, even then, there were those promoting the changing of doctrines and morals, especially sexual morality, as is still continuing today and from the cabal still living today and still influential.
Somehow, I think Archbishop Sheen would have embraced Pope Benedict’s reform in continuity and that there can be two expressions of the one Roman Rite (although there are others too, like the Ordinariate’s).
But this is a fascinating letter to say the least given what we know today, not just about the SSPX but also the Bugnini Mass:
5 comments:
This is not Fulton Sheen's finest hour. But for Lefebrve and like-minded people we would not be recovering our liturgical heritage today. The Novus Bogus has been a flop.
I think it's very important to read what soon-to-be Bl. Fulton Sheen is saying here, and what he *isn't* saying here. He isn't saying that the way the reformed mass was done was perfect, or even ideal. Rather, he is saying that the Church has the authority to reform the mass, and that it has done so, and that of its nature the reformed mass cannot contradict the faith. Because of this, there can be no justification for breaking with the Church or supporting the SSPX. And he's right. And his claim that the Council did not change the faith is also true. Listen to his audio tapes from the 70s. He spent the last years of his life defending the orthodoxy of the Council and denouncing all of the abuses that were resulting from its misinterpretation. He was a true precursor of St. John Paul II in this regard.
It is very disturbing to read some saying we should praise Lefebvre because without him we wouldn't have the TLM. Aside from being speculative, this is saying the ends justify the means. That's like saying that we should be grateful to heretics who preached against the Real Presence because, without them, we would never have had the developments in theology about the Real Presence in the first place. The elevation of the host at mass, for example, arose because a priest in late-11th century Paris argued the host was not consecrated until after the consecratory words were said over the chalice. To refute this, the Archbishop of Paris ordered his clergy to elevate the host after the consecratory words were spoken over the host but before they were spoken over the chalice, to show the Real Presence already existed in the host. Under the rationale of SSPX defenders, we should be grateful to the heretical priest because, without him, we wouldn't have the elevation of the host in mass. It doesn't work like that.
Thank you for this, excellent points all.
The fact of the matter is that whilst Rome has not lost its teaching authority, it has lost its moral authority, because whilst it comes down on Traditionalists like a tonne of bricks it winks and nods at heretical Priests and Bishops
- Father Marcel Marcel and Bishop Rembrandt Weakland (an apt name if ever there was one) both of whom were antithetical to the religious vows they took.
- Somehow despite their aforementioned founder being everything a religious should not, the Legionaries of Christ / Reginum Christi managed to escape dissolution.
- Three Generations of German Bishops have mangled the Faith in that country beyond recognition, yet compel the faithful to pay the Kirchensteuer under pain of being bared from the sacraments. (not that I'd trust them to validly ordain a Priest / Consecrate a Bishop).
I do not attend SSPX Masses myself (sadly the distance is too great) but I have strong sympathies with them. The idea of the SSPX being in schism whilst you have the Bishop Martin's of this world running around is laughable.
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Amen!! It’s like Alice in Wonderland
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