FATHER Z POURING FUEL UPON THE SMOLDERING FIRE OF SCHISM IN A SMALL BRANCH OF THE CHURCH

 Commenting on unfortunate developments in the Church where there is suppression of the 1962 Roman Missal, Father Z throws water on the sober suggestion (and critique of those suppressing the 1962 Roman Missal) that the modern Roman Missal be celebrated in a traditional way. 

This is what Father Z writes:

Ironically, even at Jesuit-run Amerika there are thoughts about how “excessive restrictions on the Latin Mass could push away some ordinary Catholics”. That’s an article title!  The well-intentioned author gets pretty much mired in the externals of the two Rites, Vetus and Novus, and thinks that just by dressing the Novus Ordo in traditional trappings, that ought to be enough, the answer to everything.  What he doesn’t understand is that the differences are far deeper.   But this isn’t the time or place for that.

I agree that when it came to the reform of the 1962 Roman Missal, the baby may have been thrown out with the bathwater. All that was needed would have been a modest reform. The 1965 Roman Missal would have been good enough (although the lectionary was not expanded in that edition). But that’s water under the bridge and the more radical traditionalists don’t like the 1965 Missal.

But the suppression of the 1962 Roman Missal, while wrong headed by this pope, is what it is. And to defy this pope will have pre-Vatican II authoritarian repercussions. 

Father Z is simply wrong on the pastoral level. We can’t push people to the SSPX, although many will migrate to them. In my mind, that’s better than becoming Eastern Orthodox or Protestant or Nones. 

But if we can make the Modern Missal feel and look traditional, what in the Name of God and all that is Holy is wrong with that given the unfortunate reality of what is happening?

And if traditionalists stay within the context of a dysfunctional leadership as it concerns the pastoral needs of traditionalists, perhaps a more moderate and compassionate and sympathetic pope, although progressive, will be truly liberal as Pope Emeritus Benedict is, and allow a pastoral compromise once again by reinstating Summorum Pontificum. What Pope Francis has shown is that one pope can undo what another pope or even an Ecumenical Council has taught. 

If you have your leg amputated, you will gladly accept a prosthetic even though it is no where as good as the leg removed. No one is going to wait for scientists to find a way for you to grow a new leg that is just as good as the one that was removed in the accident you experienced. 

And we are at a crossroads. Do we want traditionalists to become schismatic? Do traditionalists want to become schismatic and form yet another denomination and call it the true Church like the original Protestants did?

HAVEN’T I BEEN ADVOCATING FOR THIS ALL ALONG!

 All these photos are the Modern Roman Missal’s celebration of Mass—this is the way to go! The propers, Latin, ad orientem and kneeling for Holy Communion. Even the Jesuit Magazine, America, is suggesting this! Have they been reading my most humble blog????? Please read our Diocesan decree publish on July 15th and the Jesuit Magazine, America, and its suggestion for the modern Mass and traditionalists reeling from what Pope Francis has wrought:

In the Diocese of Savannah, the celebration of the 1962 Roman Missal will cease on May 20, 2023. However, a Novous Ordo Mass celebrated with EF sensibilities as I have done at Saint Anne Church in Richmond Hill when I was pastor there is quite possible and even the Jesuit Magazine, America, is recommending it and suggesting bishops not stop this development!

You can read the Diocese of Savannah decree HERE released July 15, 2022.

From the Jesuit Magazine, America published July 15, 2022.

How excessive restrictions on the Latin Mass could push away some ordinary Catholics

Elisha Valladares-Cormier

AD LIBS AT MASS BY THE PRIEST-CELEBRANT AND A FUNNY MEME…

 We all know that the reformed modern Roman Missal, itself reformed a few times since 1970, allows for a lot of ad libbing. “The celebrant may use these words or something similar.”

The area where so many priests and bishops ad lib is usually at the “Introductory Rite” formerly called the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar. Doing so at this point in the Mass, however, completely destroys the trajectory of prayer that the simplified Introductory Rite has if only celebrants wouldn’t destroy it with their own banal secular words. 

This is what happens. The Mass begins with the Entrance Chant, either the Introit of the Day or a hymn of some kind or both. Either way or all two combined, the Entrance Chant is prayer which leads to the Sign of the Cross and the liturgical Greeting.

But what happens then? Some celebrants step out of the trajectory of prayer and the sacred and start bantering with their own banal and secular (non sacred) words of warmth and giddiness. The Lord be with you; And with your spirit. Good morning church. I hope you are having a great day. I greet all our visitors and I am trying really, really, hard to make you feel welcome in our most inclusive parish. What a great day. The sun is shinning and we are God’s shinning priestly people reflecting that love and inclusivity. Isn’t that wonderful? Do I hear an “amen”? Well, enough of this, let’s call to mind God’s love for each and everyone one of us, a love that knows no limits and is unfathomable, so much so, I really can’t describe it, but you know what I mean. Well, anyway, let’s ask God for forgiveness. Of course, it’s not the same as the Sacrament of Penance, but it does forgive you your venial sins and if you do it with perfect contrition, it will even forgive mortal sins, I think. Well, anyway let’s get to one of the many penitential acts there are that the Church of today allows except for the prayers at the foot of the altar which isn’t allowed and really makes the Introductory Rite way too long, you know with that way too long psalm 42 and useless repetition, like the priest’s Confiteor which is longer than our new and improved shorter one and then the server’s Confiteor with its absolution, and not only that , two absolutions, but really four if you count the ones directed toward the priest after his Confiteor, as though there really needs to be this kind of clericalism at the beginning of Mass, you know the priest’s Mass and the laity’s Mass. Our new Mass gets rid of all of that, Thanks be to God, but let’s not jump the gun to the end of Mass. So, I’ll use the Confiteor. I confess…

Meme credit, Shawn Tribe

THE BEAUTY OF SOUTH CAROLINA’S LOW COUNTRY, BLUFFTON, TO BE SPECIFIC…

 

WOW! MUST READ! AN AMERICAN MEMBER OF THE COLLEGE OF BISHOPS OFFERS A FRATERNAL CORRECTION TO ANOTHER BROTHER BISHOP, WHO HAPPENS TO BE THE BISHOP OF ROME!

 Press title to read all about this great prophet:

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann says he is ‘sad’ over Pope’s handling of Biden, Pelosi on abortion

IF THESE WALLS WOULD TALK, THEY WOULD SING!

 

The ten most beautiful churches in the southeast can be viewed HERE!

 

Two of them are from the Diocese of Savannah, our Cathedral Basilica and my former parish, in which I had a hand in restoring, St. Joseph Church in Macon. Conspicuous by its absence, a true outrage, is the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Augusta, in which I had a hand restoring. It should have been #1! There are churches selected in Missouri and Arkansas. Need I remind them that these two states are not the southeast!!!!! Thus Most Holy Trinity should replace those as well as the former Catholic Church in Augusta, Sacred Heart!

 

Saint Joseph Macon, which, in my most humble opinion, is more gorgeous than our Cathedral Basilica, although it is bigger, but size doesn't matter in these cases!

 Scandalously and outrageously not chosen, The Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Augusta. It has a fabulous and quite intriguing pre-Civil War and post Civil War (War between the States) history and its story would make an academy award winning motion picture! While I shouldn't have favorites, this could be it:

 

Sacred Heart Cultural Center in Augusta, GA:

 

WE TOOK FATHER SCHILLEBEECKX AT HIS WORD IN OUR 1970’S SEMINARY AND BELIEVED THAT BY THE TURN OF THE CENTURY IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO…

Cardinal Ratzinger and Pope John Paul II put a halt to that. But with the cancellation of these two great popes of sanity and orthodoxy and a return to the ever and always spirit of constantly reforming the Church a la 1970’s mentality, will Pope Francis rehabilitate Father Schillebeeckx and his 1960’s “visionary” spirit of Vatican II theology and change doctrine to accommodate it?

Here’s a time capsule article from an edition of the 1986 Washington Post telling us about a very different Vatican and papacy than what we have today:

 Leading Dutch Theologian Given Vatican Warning

 The Washington Post

By Marjorie Hyer September 25, 1986

The Vatican, in its continuing drive to stamp out dissent, has warned Dutch theologian Edward Schillebeeckx that he is in conflict with church teaching that only ordained priests can consecrate bread and wine for the eucharist.

The rebuke to Schillebeeckx, 71, which was published Tuesday on the front page of the Vatican daily newspaper L'Osservatore Romano and broadcast by Vatican radio, involves no sanctions against the internationally known theologian. But a Vatican official who asked not to be identified told The Associated Press that it was intended as a warning that the Vatican found some of the theologian's views "erroneous." The directive, signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that the "concept of the ministry as set forth by Professor Schillebeeckx remains in discord with the teaching of the church on important points."

Schillebeeckx, a Dominican priest whose writings are widely used in theological education, wrote in a 1980 book, "Ministry, the Case for Change," that in extraordinary circumstances where an ordained priest is not available, a lay person could preside at the eucharist, or holy communion.

In a 1985 letter, the Vatican ordered Schillebeeckx to acknowledge publicly the official church teaching that only ordained priests can consecrate the bread and wine, which Catholics believe become the body and blood of Christ.

The theologian replied that his next book would respond to criticisms and not conflict with church teachings.

In "A Case for People in the Church: Christian Identity and Offices in the Church," published in 1985, he sidestepped the issue by stating neither his view nor the official teaching.

It was his failure to make a formal public retraction in the 1985 work that drew the warning from Ratzinger, who last month rescinded the teaching credentials of Catholic University theologian Charles E. Curran.

In 1979, Schillebeeckx was summoned by Ratzinger to the Vatican for secret hearings on his understanding of Christ's divinity. He was formally cleared of doctrinal error in that case in 1981, but three years later the questions about his doctrine of the priesthood were raised.

The Rev. David Power, who said he uses some of Schillebeeckx's writings in his classes at Catholic University, characterized the conflict as a difference in frames of reference.

THIS POPE ALWAYS CONDEMNS WHAT HE RELISHES DOING, WHICH IS AN INTERESTING STUDY IN MORALIZING BY CERTAIN CLERICS

 One of the things the pope has complained about and moralized about is talking too much. The term in Italian that he uses and in a way Italians understand it, is Chiacchierare. The way you pronounce it in Italian is what too much chatting or talking sounds like if you were to symbolize it in a cartoon. There’s a name for this kind of word, but it slips my aging mind at the moment. (UPDATE AS IT JUST CAME TO MY AGING MIND, ONOMATOPOEIA:

1. the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g. cuckoo, sizzle ).

   • the use of onomatopoeia for rhetorical effect.)

This pope gives interview after interview. At one time when the Supreme Pontiff gave an interview, the fact of the interview made news as well as its well reasoned content. There was no chiacchiere. But today, if Pope Francis isn’t talking (chiacchiere) about something formally or informally, that makes news. 

Pope Francis gives interview after interview and evidently two in a row. Each interview, no matter where, formal or informal, creates head-scratching moments of wondering what did he mean, could it be this, that or the other.

Crux reports on another interview of chiacchiere of this pontiff who protests too much about this Italian word.

You can read it here, but here is a sound byte from the Crux article. Implicit in His Holiness comments about Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is a begrudging resentment of the pope emeritus, his solicitude in a monastery as a contemplative who doesn’t visit the sick, lives in the Vatican and takes the name pope emeritus.

If there is any pope who is the anti-Benedict, it is this pope and we all know it from what is implied in this pope’s papacy and since day one. And the chiacchiere of this pope is not only in words and decrees, but his many gestures too.

Pope: ‘If I resign one day, I’ll hear confessions and visit the sick’

ROME – In yet another wide-ranging interview…

EVEN THOUGH RETIRED, I AM STILL WORKING MY PRIESTLY HANDS TO THE BONE! I’M EXHAUSTED!

Updated photos of pre-Vatican II and initial renovation, photo of glass frame photos:

 Celebrated Tuesday’s 12:15 Mass at Saint Gregory the Great in Bluffton at their original church, Saint Andrew’s Chapel for a little over 100 or so. Beautiful location,  kind of in the country but not really. Low tide at the marsh behind the chapel. The rectory is next to the old church. The new church is about 2 miles away. The parish is about 4,800 families. My diocese has nothing that large. 

IN LIEU OF THE 1962 ROMAN MISSAL, WHAT ARE TRADITIONALISTS TO DO?

 

I don’t know how realistic it is to think that the 1970’s Reformed Roman Missal with all of its various reforms of the reform leading to a reform of the reformed 2011 English Roman Missal will be greatly changed any time soon.

It is possible that the 1962 Roman Missal will be suppressed as this is what Pope Francis wants, except maybe for the FSSP who will not be able to expand their parishes beyond what they already have. 

Thus, what John Nolan describes in a comment on another post is the only way forward for the vast majority of Catholics who celebrate the 1962 Roman Missal now:

The Solemn OF Mass I attend most Sundays is about as 'traditional' as you can get - only the scripture readings are in English, the 'bidding prayers' were recently and quietly dropped - but this is achieved without papal or episcopal mandate, and without straying too far from the NO's rubrics which are pretty flexible anyway (ask any progressive!) 

Back in the 1970s, and having experienced the splendours of Brompton Oratory, I saw little point in retaining the Tridentine Mass. Far more important was the retention of Latin, dignified ceremonial and decent music.

The Latin 1970 Reformed Latin Mass can accomplish just about all that John Nolan describes as the scola uses chants from the 1974 Graduale Romanum. 

In the Sung 1962 Roman Missal, the PATFOTA are prayed quietly by the priests and servers, as are the offertory prayers, thus using the impoverished Offertory Prayers during a chanted 1970’s Reformed Latin Roman Missal would not be noticed by the congregation, except for the liturgical geeks present. 

But simply allowing the PATFOTA, the Gradual/Alleluia from the Graduale Romanum, 1974, the older Offertory Prayers, the trice said “Lord I am not worthy”, the Last Gospel and the rubrics for the Roman Canon from the Ordinariate’s, Divine Worship, the Missal, would be a wonderful way to be ecclesially united with Pope Francis and Cardinal Elect Roche as it concerns the only Liturgy they seem to profess.

But as John Nolan points out, even without the 1962 elements added to the 1970 Latin Roman Missal, one can still have a very reverent Latin High Mass celebrating the Reformed Roman Missal. Let’s make dO with that as it isn’t unreasonable. 

And remember, we don’t worship the form of the Mass but the Most Holy Trinity, His One Sacrifice on the Cross, His Word and His Real presence in Word, Sacrament and clergy and laity. And the most important part the the Mass is “Ite Missa est” go, you are sent to follow the Most Holy Trinity at home, work, play and the public square. 

Rather than just being liturgical geeks we can be disciple geeks too!

PRESS HERE TO SEE SAINT ANNE’S CHURCH REFORMED ALL SOULS DAY SUNG LATIN MASS FROM ST. ANNE’S FACEBOOK PAGE.

FORGET ABOUT LITURGICAL UNITY IN THE ROMAN RITE, LET'S LOOK AT THE TWO FORMS THAT REMAIN OF THE ONE ROMAN RITE AND HOW MUCH RICHER AND SUPERIOR THE ORDINARIATE'S ROMAN MISSAL, DIVINE WORSHIP, IS, WHICH IS COMPLETELY UNFAIR TO THE REFORMED MISSAL MOST CATHOLICS USE TODAY:

 The first two images are from this past Sunday's Mass. The Ordinariate's Roman Missal goes by after Trinity (not Pentecost for some reason) and the Reformed Roman Missal of most Catholics has a revised/reformed way to number the Sundays far inferior from the Ordinariate's way!

But look at how the pages are printed and what is and what isn't included. The Reformed Missal of most Catholics is truncated and not complete (read on below).

 

Please note how the Ordinariate's Roman Missal is fuller and richer. It includes the full Introit with the Gloria Patri as it would be in the 1962 unreformed Missal. The Gradual, Alleluia and Offertory antiphon are included, but completely gone from the Reformed Roman Missal of most Catholics.

Let's look at the offertory prayers. The older form found in our unreformed 1962 Roman Missal are in the Ordinariate's Roman Missal but in English, archaic as it is. It also includes the prayer for incensing the altar, completely gone in the Reformed Roman Missal of the majority of Catholics. Please note the longer version from the 1962 Roman Missal for the blessing of the water to be mixed with the wine, completely missing in the Reformed Roman Missal of the majority of Catholics. Please note too, the calling down of the Holy Spirit, completely absent in the normal Roman Missal.

Please note the longer version of the lavabo and the Suscipe, not to be found in the Reformed Roman Missal of most Catholics.

This is the Offertory from the Reformed Roman Missal of the majority of Catholics, truncated and impoverished with no traditional option!

This is the Ordinariate's Roman Missal with the prayer following the "Our Father." Please note who is included in this prayer which is expunged from the Reformed Roman Missal of the majority of Catholics:

 And the Last Gospel! Guess who has it and guess who doesn't! SAD!

Why in the Name of God and all that is Holy can't the majority of Catholics have included in their Reformed Roman Missal what the Ordinariate Catholics get to have? Isn't it a bit unfair and completely wrong for the Pope to indicate that having only the Reformed Missal for the majority of Catholics establishes liturgical unity that isn't present when the 1962 Unreformed Missal is used but it does exist when the Ordinariate's Missal which follows the 1962 unreformed Roman Missal more closely, does???

DINNER AT BLUFFTON RECTORY SUNDAY NIGHT

 Thank you to Msgr. Ron Celinni for inviting me to St. Gregory the Great Church rectory in Bluffton for a fabulous meal with several other priests of his area and Hilton Head. The rectory’s backyard has a marsh view and it was high tide when I took the photos.