The Calumny Continues

The Volpist destruction of the FFI continues apace. Women religious are not to be spared. Here is a link to all the latest posts at Rorate-Caeli:

FFI Under Intervention

The Eponymous Flower has an interesting post, too: Universal Pastor Hands Key to Sneaky Fox

It would be good to say a daily Rosary for the Pope and the bishops.

The View from Inside

"The friends came out of the church and looked up, from the outside, at the window that they had admired while inside. They saw nothing other than the simple outline of a gloomy shadow. Nothing could be made out, not a single depiction of a saint, of an angel, or of the Savior, nor even less the complex plan and the meaning of the design. ‘All this,’ thought the sculptor, ‘is the most unsettling symbol of how different the appearance of a religious truth or a sacred story when it is seen from the warm interior of faith or from its cold and dark exterior. The Christian faith is a great cathedral, with windows divinely painted. Standing outside, you see none of the glory, nor do you get any hint of it. Standing inside, every ray of light reveals a harmony of ineffable splendor’." (From The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne, quoted in Consubstantiality Between the Mass Media and Bergoglio by Alessandro Gnocchi and Mario Palmaro)

 H/t to Rorate-Caeli

Admitting the truth is a big step forward

Rorate-Caeli and The Destruction of the Roman Rite

Here is a new interview with Bishop Fellay of the SSPX. It's in French with English subtitles, and there is a transcript link provided.

A spear thrust

Rorate-Caeli unpacks Sandro Magister's article "The Francis Transformation". To quote:

It emerges from conversations with his visitors that Ratzinger himself has seen in this restriction a "vulnus" on his 2007 motu proprio "Summorum Pontificum."

Pope Leo XIII's prayer to St. Joseph

Jay Boyd, of Philothea on Phire, has posted a very pertinent article about the St. Joseph Prayer that Pope Leo XIII gave to the Church. He is the Pope who gave us the St. Michael Prayer. Go here to read about this prayer. It is needed as much now as then.  Here's the prayer (and there are special instructions for praying it after the Rosary each day in October):


To you, O Blessed Joseph, we come in our trials, and having asked the help of your most holy spouse, we confidently ask your patronage also. Through that sacred bond of charity which united you to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and through the fatherly love with which you embraced the Child Jesus, we humbly beg you to look graciously upon the beloved inheritance which Jesus Christ purchased by his blood, and to aid us in our necessities with your power and strength. 

 O most provident guardian of the Holy Family, defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ. Most beloved father, dispel the evil of falsehood and sin. Our most mighty protector, graciously assist us from heaven in our struggle with the powers of darkness. And just as you once saved the Child Jesus from mortal danger, so now defend God's Holy Church from the snares of her enemies and from all adversity. Shield each one of us by your constant protection, so that, supported by your example and your help, we may be able to live a virtuous life, to die a holy death, and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven. Amen.

The Ugliness of Truth

It occurred to me that just now, in this moment in history, the truth seems very ugly, repulsive even. As if we were looking upon a disfigured man so hideously battered that he was unrecognizable. He was nailed to a cross and he said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me," (John 14:6).

Almost everyone abandons him, as they cannot bear the heart-wrenching scene of Someone they love so well being tortured and executed. They cannot bear the TRUTH.

 Author Louie Verrecchio writes here about Pope Francis and his recent interview. It manages to read without rancor or bitterness, but does not hide from the truth. Scroll down for the article.

St. Hildegard of Bingen, Doctor of the Church, had an apocalyptic vision that she wrote about in her Scivias.

She had a vision of five beasts, along with a woman. The woman represents the Church. She writes:

I also saw the woman I've seen many times before. She was standing as usual before the altar of God. I saw her from the waist down also, and where her femaleness was, she had eczema. I could see the black head of a monster there, too. It had fiery eyes, the ears of an ass, and the nose and mouth of a lion. This monster inside the woman opened its maw, then gnashed its hideous iron-silver teeth. From the monster's head, down to the woman's knees, she was bruised as if she'd been beaten. Below her knees, her legs were covered with blood. Look! The deformed head pulled out of the place with such force that the woman shook all over from the shock. A huge mound of defecation was stuck to that head. Then the head decided to lift itself up onto a mountain and climb towards heaven. Watch. An arm of divine lightning cracked down the sky and struck that head with such energy that it tumbled off the mountain, dead, and its spirit entered Hell.

Next, a horrible cloud descended on that mountain, smelling worse than anything you can imagine. It covered the entire mountain, and also that head. The people standing there were frightened out of their wits. When the fog didn't move, they panicked, screaming at each other.

We're doomed! What is this? What was that? We're gonna die! Who'll help us? Who'll save us? We've been tricked and didn't know it till now! Omnipotent God, have mercy on us! Let us return to You. Take us back. Let us run to the promises of the Gospel of Christ. Ah! We've been so badly deceived!

See! Then the woman's feet shone brighter than the sun, and I heard the voice from heaven speak to me:

Everything on earth is hurrying to its end. The world's troubles and its many disasters tell you this. But my Son's bride, the Church, will never be destroyed, no matter how many times she's assaulted. At the end of time she'll be stronger, more beautiful, more magnificent than ever before. She'll enjoy the sweet embraces of her Beloved. That's what the vision you just saw means. (From Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader by Carmen Acevedo Butcher)

The Destruction of the Faith

Digging Our Own Grave

From the article:

"I am concerned about the confidences of the Virgin to the little Lucia of Fatima. The persistence of the Good Lady in face of the danger that threatens the Church is a divine warning against the suicide that the modification of the Faith, liturgy, theology, and soul of the Church would represent."

A scholarly response to the Bishop of Rome

Sandro Magister on the papal punishment of the Friars of the Immaculate:

In Defense of the Franciscans Punished by Pope Francis

There is a lot to digest and the analysis by the scholars should be read carefully. Here are a couple snippets.

The decree of the congregation for institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life of July 11, 2013 (prot. 52741/2012) […] is an act of such gravity as not to be capable of being considered of mere internal relevance for the intended recipients alone. […] 

 The decree imposes upon the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate - contrary to what is established by the bull "Quo Primum" of Saint Pius V and by the motu proprio "Summorum Pontificum" of Benedict XVI - a ban on celebrating the traditional Mass.

In doing so, it deprives of a good of incommensurable value - the Mass (celebrated in the ancient Roman rite) - both the friars and the faithful who through the ministry of the friars have been able to participate in the Tridentine Mass, as well as all of those who in the future could eventually have participated in it.

And this.

Thus the prohibition, save authorization, established by the decree objectively fails to take into account this universal legislation of the Church, deliberating - through an act evidently to be subordinated to it (in terms of both matter and form) - in a way that contrasts with the universal and permanent discipline. Which, by reason of its apostolic origins, enjoys - as illustrious scholars argue - the character of irreformability. 

 The prohibition of the celebration of the Tridentine Mass on the part of the decree is unjustly discriminatory toward the Latin-Gregorian rite, which not only dates back from the Council of Trent to St. Gregory the Great, and from these to the apostolic tradition, but according to the unequivocal appreciation of the motu proprio “Summorum Pontificum" of Benedict XVI must be "duly honoured for its venerable and ancient usage." It, in fact, is an expression of the “lex orandi" of the Church. It is therefore a good to be protected. Not an evil to be shunned.

Trusting the Church

The New Liturgical Movement's Peter Kwasniewski writes an excellent article on Gregorian chant, and why it is important to trust the Church's guidance in such matters. From the article:

It is indeed an act of trust when a Catholic layman or religious, priest or bishop, can say: “I do not know why Gregorian chant is so important, I really don’t see how it’s going to work in practice—but I believe what the Church of Jesus Christ teaches me, and I submit my intellect and my will to it. Credo. I trust that the Church’s judgment is better and wiser than my own, and I refuse to set myself up as an alternative magisterium. I will do all that I can, with patience and persistence, to follow her norms and recommendations.”
And this:

Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in 1963:

[S]teps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them. … The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services. (Sacrosanctum Concilium 54; 116)

Pope Francis and the Franciscans of the Immaculate

A round up of blog posts and articles regarding Pope Francis' instruction to the Franciscans of the Immaculate:

Canterbury Tales

Father Z's Blog

Rorate Caeli

The Eponymous Flower

Catholic News Agency

The New Liturgical Movement (text of Pope's letter to the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate)

Unam Sanctam Catholicam

Participation in Mass

From the New Liturgical Movement comes an article that delves into what it means to participate in Mass. The deficient understanding that constitutes so much of what is seen in the Novus Ordo Mass today is rebuked here. It seems as if the NO Mass has been infantilized, as if the laity has been determined to be unwilling or unable to understand what must be understood if full participation is to be achieved; and, as if participation has come to mean something entirely different than it meant before. Do set aside a little time to read it all. From the article:

The difference between participation in the liturgy that can be called activa and participation that can be labelled actuosa rests in the presence in the soul of the baptismal character, the seal that grants one the right to participate. Without the baptismal mark, all the actions of singing, walking, kneeling or anything else can be termed "active," but they do not constitute participatio actuosa. Only the baptismal character can make any actions truly participatory. Let us use an example. Let us say that a pious Hindu attends Mass, takes part in the singing and even walks in a procession with great piety. In the same church is also a Catholic who is blind and deaf and who is unable to leave his chair; he can neither sing nor hear the readings nor walk in the procession. Which one has truly participated, the one who is very active, or the one who has confined himself solely to his thoughts of adoration? Obviously, it is the baptized Catholic who has exercised participatio actuosa despite his lack of external, physical movement. The Hindu even with his many actions has not been capable of it, since he lacks the baptismal character.

A Meditation

For more of the above see below:

July 21, 2013 at St. Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Church, Corning.

Upcoming: July 21 Traditional Mass in Corning

For more information go here.

The 1962 Roman Missal

One thing that Latin Mass Societies might want to consider is to procure copies of the 1962 Roman Missal for use and sale when they have Mass in the EO in their parishes.

The Daily Missal and Liturgical Manual is a treasure trove for Catholics who might be surprised to know how much information about their Faith they've been missing, let alone the EF of the Mass.

Included in the Table of Contents:

BVXI's letter Summorum Pontificum
Feasts and Fasts throughout the Year
Table of Moveable Feasts
Liturgical Calendar
On the Liturgical Year (a great book excerpt)
The Most Necessary Prayers (Acts of Faith, Hope, Charity, and Contrition)
An Abridgment of Christian Doctrine:
  The Ten Commandments
  The Six Precepts of the Church
  The Seven Sacraments
  The Three Theological Virtues
  The Four Cardinal Virtues
  The Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost
  The Twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost
  The Spiritual Works of Mercy
  The Corporal Works of Mercy
  The Eight Beatitudes
  The Seven Deadly Sins
  Contrary Virtues
  Sins against the Holy Ghost
  Sins crying to Heaven for Vengeance
  Nine Ways of being accessory to another's Sin
  Three Eminently Good Works
  Three Evangelical Counsels
  Subjects for Daily Meditation
General Prayers
  The Angelus
  The Regina coeli
  Veni Sancte Spiritus
  Sub tuum presidium
  Litany of the Most Sacred Heart
  The Way of the Cross
  Litany of the Most Holy Name of Jesus
  The Holy Rosary
  Fatima Prayers
  The Memorare
  Litany of Saint Joseph
  Divine Mercy Chaplet
  Blessing before Meals
  Grace after Meals

And this is all before page 60. There are morning prayers, evening prayers, devotions. There's an explanation of the Liturgy in the Roman Catholic Church. There are prayers for whatever situation you might find yourself in (in Time of Tribulation, Famine, Earthquake, Against Evil Thoughts...). There is a complete explanation of the Mass and all cycles therein; the Common of Saints, Martyrs, Virgins, Holy Women, Feasts of the Blessed Virgin; Proper of the Saints; Marriage services; Masses for the Dead; Feasts of Our Lord; Feasts of Our Lady; Alphabetical index of Feasts of the Saints; Index of the Psalms, Hymns, Sequences, Canticles. The Mass in Latin (and English) begins on page 900, and it guides the person step-by-step through the Mass.

In short, it is an excellent catechism for Catholics to learn about their Faith. It contributes to the hermeneutic of continuity. It helps to heal the rupture that has occurred in previous decades.

The specter (and spectacle) of anti-semitism

So apparently there is a streak of anti-semitism among those who promote a traditional liturgy, specifically in the SSPX and apparently at Rorate Caeli. Dawn Eden, a Jewish convert to Catholicism, has brought attention to the issue. And, of course, has been roundly attacked for it.

It's important to read up on it. It's important to denounce anti-semitism when you come across it.

Lots of info here and here and here and here.

EF Mass in Corning, NY on April 14

The Latin Mass Society of Corning announces Mass in the Extraordinary Form at 1 p.m., April 14 at St. Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Church in Corning, NY.

The LMS also has a website: LMS in Corning. It gives a few more details about the Mass.

The final blow?

The AP is apparently ecstatic. They believe that Pope Francis' foot washing of females is "the final blow for traditionalists."

They forget...the catacombs.

An interesting comment

Fr. Z's is the blog to keep up with. In his recent post "Liberals will soon turn on Pope Francis," one comment stands out:

Traductora says:

17 March 2013 at 3:17 pm

Orthodox Chick, don’t worry. I think Pope Francis is very sound, I think he’s a somewhat unusual person (which would probably have been necessary to have survived as a Jesuit for so long!), and I think he will broaden his understanding of the role that has suddenly and probably unexpectedly fallen to him. If you speak or understand Spanish, go to the link I posted above (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ1ZczyyKwM).
But I think traditionalists have to do something, too. Why not have some big public mass of thanksgiving somewhere, celebrated in the traditional form? Why not lead a procession through some miserable part of town and preach to the people. I can tell you, if anybody in the Church in my town cared about the wretched (morally and materially) black population and went out and showed it, those people would be at mass tomorrow, despite the traditional Protestant-instilled hostility of African Americans to Catholicism. Traditional rite people have been in a ghetto, talking only to each other, for way too many years and perhaps now it’s time to go out and show how beauty and splendor, coupled with moral and theological orthodoxy, really can attract and convert people.

Something to think about...

The Holy Spirit is Working

This is the Year of Faith. Let us express it!

Pope Francis promotes Summorum Pontificum of Pope Benedict XVI

God bless our Pope.

Gold and more gold!

Check out this chasuble-in-progress. The local Latin Mass Society is busy sewing vestments for upcoming masses in the Extraordinary Form at All Saints Parish. Since 2007, when Pope Benedict XVI issued his Summorum Pontificum, an apostolic letter supporting the Traditional Latin Mass, many faithful have rejoiced. In our own parish, the Chant Schola formed and parishioners can hear them at the 7:30 a.m. mass on the first Sunday of each month. Additionally, on Ash Wednesday, the Schola will participate at the 10 a.m. mass at St. Mary's.

According to Summorum Pontificum:

Art. 5. § 1 In parishes, where there is a stable group of faithful who adhere to the earlier liturgical tradition, the pastor should willingly accept their requests to celebrate the Mass according to the rite of the Roman Missal published in 1962, and ensure that the welfare of these faithful harmonises with the ordinary pastoral care of the parish, under the guidance of the bishop in accordance with canon 392, avoiding discord and favouring the unity of the whole Church.

Thus, mass in the Extraordinary Form brings continuity with the Universal Church to parishes who celebrate the two forms of the Latin Rite, the Ordinary and the Extraordinary.

Unfortunately, there is at times, a resistance by some to the truth that both forms are eminently desired. In fact, in his letter to the bishops regarding Summorum Pontifcum, the Holy Father wrote:

In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but no rupture. What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place. 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.

Here the Holy Father lovingly supports a continuity with the Universal Church (past, present, and future), thus avoiding ruptures with the faithful, no matter which form of the mass is celebrated. Both are valid and to be desired as authentic expressions of Catholic worship.

(Cross-posted at Saving Our Parish.)