What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

For forty days we have done penance. We participated at the anniversary of Holy Mass and the Priesthood on Holy Thursday with the mandatum and the procession to the altar of repose, Christ in agony in Gethsemane. On Good Friday, the day with no Mass, after our humble prostration before the Crucified Lord we stood for the singing of the Passion. Now we are in a dark church. The fire was kindled and the “Light of Christ” was thrice announced. The faithful have little candles sparked to life from the single flame of the Paschal candle, the “Christ candle”, now lighted as the symbol of His resurrection.

The candle is incensed and then the deacon sings:

    Exult now O ye angelic throngs of the heavens:
    Exult O ye divine mysteries:
    and let the saving trumpet resound for the victory of so great a King.
    Let the earthly realm also be joyful, made radiant by such flashings like lightning:
    and, made bright with the splendor of the eternal King,
    let it perceive that it has dismissed the entire world’s gloom.
    Let Mother Church rejoice as well,
    adorned with the blazes of so great a light:
    and let this royal hall ring with the great voices of the peoples.
    Wherefore, most beloved brothers and sisters,
    you here present to such a wondrous brightness of this holy light,
    I beseech you, together with me
    invoke the mercy of Almighty God.
    Let Him who deigned to gather me in among the number of the Levites,
    by no merits of mine,
    while pouring forth the glory of His own light
    enable me to bring to fullness the praise of this waxen candle.

    Deacon: The Lord be with you!
    Response: And with your spirit!
    D: Raise your hearts on high!
    R: We now have them present to the Lord!
    D: Let us then give thanks to the Lord our God!
    R: This is worthy and just!

    Truly it is worthy and just
    to resound forth with the whole of the heart,
    disposition of mind,
    and by the ministry of the voice,
    the invisible God the Father Almighty,
    and His Only-begotten Son
    our Lord Jesus Christ,
    Who, on our behalf, resolved Adam’s debt to the Eternal Father
    and cleansed with dutiful bloodshed the bond of the ancient crime.
    For these are the Paschal holy days,
    in which that true Lamb is slain,
    by Whose Blood the doorposts of the faithful are consecrated.
    This is the night
    in which first of all You caused our forefathers,
    the children of Israel brought forth from Egypt,
    to pass dry shod through the Red Sea.
    This is the night
    which purged the darkness of sins by the illumination of the pillar.
    This is the night
    which today restores to grace and unites in sanctity throughout the world Christ’s believers,
    separated from the vices of the world and the darkness of sins.
    This is the night
    in which, once the chains of death were undone,
    Christ the victor arose from the nether realm.
    For it would have profited us nothing to have been born,
    unless it had been fitting for us to be redeemed.
    O wondrous condescension of Your dutiful concern for us!
    O inestimable affection of sacrificial love:
    You delivered up Your Son that You might redeem the slave!
    O truly needful sin of Adam,
    that was blotted out by the death of Christ!
    O happy fault,
    that merited to have such and so great a Redeemer!
    O truly blessed night,
    that alone deserved to know the time and hour
    in which Christ rose again from the nether world!
    This is the night about which it was written:
    And night shall be made as bright as day:
    and night is as my brightness for me.
    Therefore the sanctification of this night puts to flight all wickedness, cleanses sins,
    and restores innocence to the fallen and gladness to the sorrowful.
    It drives away hatreds, procures concord, and makes dominions bend.
    Therefore, in this night of grace,
    accept, O Holy Father, the evening sacrifice of this praise,
    which Holy Church renders to You
    in the solemn offering of this waxen candle
    by the hands of Your ministers from the work of bees.
    We are knowing now the proclamations of this column,
    which glowing fire kindles in honor of God.
    Which fire, although it is divided into parts,
    is knowing no loss from its light being lent out.
    For it is nourished by the melting streams of wax,
    which the mother bee produced for the substance of this precious torch.
    O truly blessed night,
    in which heavenly things are joined to those of earth,
    the divine to the human!
    Therefore, we beseech You, O Lord,
    that this waxen candle, consecrated in honor of Your name,
    may continue unfailing to dispel the darkness of this night.
    And once it is accepted as a placating sacrifice,
    may it be mingled with the heavenly lights.
    Let the morning star meet with its flame:
    that very star, I say, which knows no setting:
    Who, having returned from the nether realm,
    broke serene like the dawn upon the human race,
    and now lives and reigns forever and ever.

 

According to some I have apparently now drifted from Rome into a strange "Dukes of Hazard" parallel universe.  

A few things console me here. 

1. I am in the Bugatti I was promised.
2. The license plates are correct. 
3. I am sure to win any race I am in.  In this thing the bleeping Batmobile couldn’t catch me, much less that Charger.
4. John Schneider is Clark Kent’s father Jonathan in a far more gratifying show Smallville.
5. On my planet "the General" refers to use of the Latin in the liturgy and never to absolution.
6. The only people sliding across my hood will be liturgists I find walking near the road.  They’re soft enough not to do any damage, though I’d Hazard a scratch or two.

You are wondering about the Motu Proprio, I am sure.

There are factors in Italy and in the Church at large which are probably influencing the release date.

Let’s move toward this with a not irrelevant tangent.

In the Italian daily Libero there is today an article by Marcello Veneziani in Latin.  It isn’t good Latin, but it’s readable Latin.  There is a rather amusing typo of the name Caesar in the very first sentence, for example.  First, and second part.

Veneziani argues for the return of the use of Latin in two phases, first, in his Latin letter, then, in a postscript in Italian.  The former for the use of Latin to help Italians understand who they are, recover what they have lost, and to help Europe be whole.  The latter, argues for Latin in church.  I will focus on the latter.

In the second part, the postscript in "the vulgar tongue", Veneziani shares memories of a solemn Mass he attended as a child.  He has never forgotten.

    "Seeing as this is Easter, I would like to call to mind a Mass in Latin during my childhood, in the cathedral of my city, with an offering of 20 lire to sit in the choir with my father.  I still have it before my eyes, in my nose, in my ears, the beauty of the rite, the scent of incense, the mystery of the words.  It seemed to me I was truly linked to the Lord’s own network.  The priest addressed himself to God and didn’t turn his back on Him in order to humor the faithful.  The words, whispered and ancient, the mystery of those phrases, exuded the sacred and drew you closer to God.

    Because Mass is not a soap opera, it in not necessary to understand the words; it is a rite of communion with God and not an instruction sheet for installing a washing machine.  Whoever says that the mystery of those words only made power inaccessible to the people, isn’t taking into account all the obscure, esoteric, incomprehensible jargon used today in the fields of technology, economy, and physics to make them impenetrable and necessitate a caste of mediators.  No.  Better to have Latin, which above all wouldn’t be obligatory, but a free choice, as if by a democratic committee (the request of 30 devout souls, the Cobas* of the faith, would be enough).  And so it is wonderful to think about the Resurrection of Latin at Easter of 2007, 30 years after the savage attacks on it by "Cursore Vespertino"’s (alias Corriere della Sera’s) Giorgio Manganelli, now reprinted in the book Mammifero Italiano (Adelphi, 2007).  Let’s reinstate Latin also in view of the dies familiae – which sounds better than "family day"** (though "gay pride" sounds bad even if you translate it as idem sexus amator superbia)."

* "Cobas" – "Comitati di base" are radical trade unions which control nearly everything in Italy.
** "Family day" is a demonstration, a confrontation really, schedule for May about legislation proposed on civil unions, homosexual marriage, taxation rates for families, etc.  

Veneziani deftly slides into the discussion of Italian politics and the influence of the Church in public life.  There are references to Italian political life all through the pieces he wrote.  For example, the reference to "mani pulite", or "clean hands" isn’t just about what the Pope told young people in his homily on Palm Sunday.  It is also a reference to the Italian political scandal in the 90’s (and still going on) of corrupt government officials receiving kick-backs for favors.  When the Pope speaks about anything, it has a big impact on the press in Italy, and the intertwining of Church and state here is more tangled than a plate of long spaghetti.

These factors are of huge importance to anyone who wants to understand how decisions are being made about the life in the Church, both in Italy and abroad.  Remember, the Pope is the Bishop of Rome.  He has the good of the whole Church to consider, but he is also a bishop here in Italy, the Primate of Italy.  As I have tried to explain to people for years, you have to grasp what is going on in Italian Church/State relations to really get what is happening even with decisions and documents of global importance.

The "Family Day" reference is crucial right now even, I think, for the date of the Motu Proprio.

Very bad legislation has been introduced in Italy about homosexual marriage, taxation rates for families, etc.  The Pope and CEI (Italian Bishops Conference) have said clearly and repeatedly that Catholics must oppose this bad legislation every way possible.  They have been very vocal about this and the lefties all going completely bananas.  In their view of things, the Church is supposed to be a silent partner in reshaping society (after all… that’s the purpose of the Church, right? an instrument of social activism and change?).

Various Catholic groups suggested a demonstration, against these legislative projects, in favor of the family properly understood.  Tension is building.  The simmering hostility toward Benedict and the Church is starting to boil.  I posted in another entry about posters put up in Genova, which is where the new president of the CEI, the Italian Bishops Conference is the Archbishop and soon to be cardinal.

In light of the importance of "Family Day" in resisting the evil legislation, it was decided by the Pope and the CEI that bishops should not participate in the May demonstration, though priests could. 

"But Father! But Father!" you are saying with furrowed brow, "Why no bishops?  Shouldn’t they be out there in the front lines?" 

This is probably a good decision.  In Spain on a similar occasion the leftists emphasized the conflict among the bishops on these matters, and that seriously undermined the Church in Spain, took away it’s voice.  They are trying to rebuild their moral capital there.  So, in Italy it was decided that LAY PEOPLE had to make themselves the force for change in the public square.  The Family Day demonstration would not be led by clergy.  It is better than lay people do this themselves, to test the wil of lay movements.  Having bishops step aside is not going to be the best scenario in all social issues, but on this one, in ITALY, it probably is.  People are divided on this, but there it is.

In Italy, Pope Benedict is making a huge splash.  Since he was elected, the left-wing has gone nearly insane with confusion and rage.  The main-stream press is waging a bitter campaign against him and the Church.  The problem is that he is hugely popular especially among young people who are beginning to ask questions of their teachers and others about things they are not supposed to question (the left-wing agenda).   Since the education system in Italy has been run by Communists for decades, this question asking trend is a very bad development.  And… it is the Pope’s fault!  If John Paul captured the imagination of young people and drew them in, they are now listening to Benedict with rapt attention.  He is the only great public figure saying anything new or that makes sense.  While the secularists are all shrieking about "thinking outside the box", the Pope is the only one really doing it.

Benedict XVI is handling a great number of very difficult issues both in Italy itself, in larger Europe, and within the Church.  There is huge tension now because he just isn’t doing what every splinter group thinks he ought to be doing.  Instead the Pope is being the Pope.  When you thnk about why we haven’t seen the Motu Proprio yet, consider that when he released Sacramentum caritatis it wasn’t enough for some people and it was ignored by others.  He increases the use of Latin and it isn’t enough.  If he releases the MP, it won’t be enough for many who will be the chief beneficiaries of what the Pope is trying to accomplish.  I think if I were the Pope, I too would be very careful with the release of this document. 

The Motu Proprio will be interpreted in a larger context of what Benedict is doing on many levels in Italy and Europe. 

When Benedict does this, he must get it as right as he possibly can.  The stakes are high in other sectors of the life of the Church.

With a sad biretta tip to Nihil obstat:

On FattiSentire  there is a report of the placards put up in Genova by those who oppose the Church, atheistic anarchist and homosexual activist types.   This one from Il Giornale ...

 

...says, "Thank God I am an atheist".  It depicts a photoshoped image of partisans shooting the Pope and some muslim men at prayer.  Another poster depicts Benedict XVI shaking hands with Adolf Hitler with the title: "From Hitler’s soldier to God’s soldier". 

Christ died and rose for these people too.

Meantime, on the evening of the Easter Vigil in Modena there will be a public concert in the square in front of the cathedral by a manifestly anti-clerical band.  In one of their their oft-repeated songs we are entertained by the lyrics,

 

"«Bruceremo le chiese e gli altari (...) con le budella dell’ultimo prete impiccheremo il Papa (...) Rivoluzione sia guerra alla società (...) Il Vaticano brucerà con dentro il Papa e se il governo si opporrà rivoluzione» ... "We will burn the churches and altars … we will hang the Pope with the entrails of the last priest … Let revolution be a war on society… The Vatican will burn with the Pope inside if the government opposes the revolution." 

 

"Crucifige! Crucifige eum!"

In Italy, in small and very subtle ways you will encounter anticlericalism, not usually of this vitriolic nature, but it is deeply entrenched in some strata of society.  It could be fanned into a flame with some effort. 

At the heart of this business is the concept of the "lay state".  The concept of the "lay state" in Europe is based on the same state envision in the French Revolution, which resulted in the Terror.  The idea of "separation of Church and state" in the USA is a far cry from this European lay state vision.

In the meantime, here are comments of the aforementioned Nihil Obstat (in Italian):

"Behold the fruits of the ‘lay’ state and the campaign of hatred against the Church … Will there ever come a day when the Bishops grasp that the true enemies of the Church are not after all the supporters of the Tridentine liturgy, but rather those who hate Our Lord and struggle against His Kingdom?  Is this the highly extolled laicality?  Shouldn’t these be the ventures to boycot rather than dig in the heels against the Motu Proprio?"

We have all seen the wrong people hammered into the floor by authorities of different kinds, whether of the First or the other Estates.  N’est-ce pa?

"Know thy enemy" might be as critical as "Know thyself".  They often overlap.