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

I got this by e-mail:

A well-substantiated rumor has it that a petition for the implementation of Summorum Pontificum bearing 155 names of students and faculty has been denied by the plenary council of T.O.R friars on the grounds that the motu proprio does not apply to Catholic universities.  You can certainly see what the implications are.  Keep this one on your radar; it’s going to be huge.

UPDATE: 1308 GMT 23 Oct 07

I received another bit of information about what is going on.  Slightly edited:

In response to your blog post on FUS denying the TLM—-it is more than just a rumor.  I am a student at FUS and personally know the people organizing this petition drive.  They truly were told "no" after submitting the signatures.  As a matter of fact, the person organizing this petition was told by a priest in the chapel to seek professional counseling (evidently a love for the TLM is a mental illness).  [Evidently, this claim is untrue.  Check the updates, below.  Someone organizing the petition sent me a note saying that that comment was never made.]

What is strange in all of this is that a couple of years ago the folks running the chapel bent over backwards to bring a French Novus Ordo Mass on campus in order to accommodate roughly 15 French-language students.  Ten times that amount request a TLM and we are told to seek counseling.  [Again, see the updates, below.]

Pray for us father,

Even though the claim made, above, is probably not true, for decades this has been the standard reaction from the aging hippies and the intellectually lazy: if you want our traditional Catholic patrimony, you need psychological counseling.   At the basis of this is a true clash of world views.

UPDATE: 1443 GMT 23 Oct 07

This also from e-mail (slightly edited) with my emphases and comments:

 

Dear Fr. Zuhlsdorf,

 

I have to say I was disappointed, but not terribly surprised when I read your post on FUS’s reaction to students’ request for the Tridentine Liturgy. When I was a Freshman at the University (13 years ago), Fr. Michael Scanlan  gave a homily on the Feast of Christ the King in which he railed about how awful the days of the Traditional Latin Mass were; he emphatically declared that he never wanted them back. He gave all the usual reasons [read: cliches]: old women would just prayed their rosaries; no one understood what was going on, the priest offered Mass with his back to the people, etc. The Charismatic Movement was, in his opinion, a Spirit-given remedy to bring people back into the Church. It was the only Mass on campus that Sunday, so anyone who couldn’t get off campus was forced to listen to that homily. 

 

Yet, when the Holy Father permitted females to serve at the altar, we were told (again at Mass) that the University had to implement this permission, because while we never wanted to be a step ahead of the Holy Father, we never wanted to be a step behind either. We were to embrace "dynamic orthodoxy" in its fullness (whatever that means). Of the entire student body, one female signed up to serve. When a male friend of mine told the head of chapel ministries (a lay woman) that he was fine with having female altar servers, but asked that he just not be scheduled to serve with them, he was immediately dismissed from serving.

 

Thank you, Fr. Zuhlsdorf, for making the situation at the University public. Parents considering the University for their need to be aware of exactly how unfriendly the campus is to the TLM. And, the current students definitely need our prayers. If the situation is anything like it was when I was there, they are also persecuted for their love of the TLM in some of the theology classes.

 

I would only remind the readers that the Rector of the Pontifical Lateran University warned his faculty in no uncertain terms that no student would be treated differently because of an interest in the older form of Mass.

UPDATE: 18:47 GMT 23 Oct 07

Here is a little different perspective on the whole issue, again, via e-mail (edited):

In light of the subsequent email you posted on the blog from an alumnus, I wanted to make two remarks: 1) his comments are correct and that has been my experience here both when I was a student and now on the faculty; but 2) there are a good number of faculty and staff (including myself – in theology!) who are not only attached to the TLM, but promote and defend it here on campus.  I sincerely believe that if this situation makes it to Ecclesia Dei commission or the CDW, we will have a favorable outcome.

 

It is nice to have a different view.  What I read here shows me that the place is not monolithic (no place is).  There are faculty who are supportive.   

UPDATE: 13:33 GMT 24 Oct 07 

Here is another note from a reader, with a new perspective (edited):

My daughter, _ , attends FUS, too. She was one of the petition signers.  There were actually two petitions – one asking the friars to allow TLM and the other promising to attend the Mass regularly.  [She] signed the first, because she lives at home …. Not knowing what time the Mass would be, she could not commit to being at the Mass regularly. 

As a mother of a student there, who could not be happier with the education and faithful and orthodox Catholic teachings my child is receiving at FUS ... I do plan to write a very respectful letter to the friars asking them to reconsider.  I do know some of them … .  I wouldn’t call any of them ‘aging hippies’, but really aging Charismatics who cannot see that that movement, which kept so many young Catholics (including me)  in the Church at a very bad time in our history, is now being replaced by a new movement of embracing our Catholic heritage and traditional prayer.  I am also in that ‘movement’ toward traditional prayer now.  I think the Charismatic movement served a purpose in its day but was just ‘for a season’.  Many of the friars don’t know yet that the season has really come to an end. Yet it is a very Catholic institute – one sees large groups of students at Adoration and vespers, walking about campus praying the Rosary in groups, going to pray before the Pittsburgh Planned parenthood, going out and feeding the homeless and doing so many wonderful missions to the poor and destitute in the US and abroad – real ‘social justice’ and not the stuff spouted by the progressives. While Mass may be ‘Charismatic’, it isn’t heretical and the Lord and His Mother are obviously loved greatly by the Friars, students, faculty and staff. It is astonishing to see the numbers that attend daily Mass and to hear real, loving and enthusiastic responses and singing (even if the music selection is contemporarily dreadful).  The love of Our Lord and His Mother, the Holy Father, the Church and Her Sacred Traditions and Teachings abounds there, especially among the faculty, staff and students that I know through the home schooling group.   It isn’t as though it were a hotbed of progressive dissent. I think the initial rejection of the friars to the petition of the faculty, staff and students will be overcome through the usual means; prayer, fasting and penance, and a real persistence.  Last Sunday, that was the theme of the homily on campus (I was there for a women’s conference) and the friar spoke with real passion about tenacity and persistence.  I hope the faculty and students present at that Holy Mass heard that message and take it up in this cause, and that the students get busy getting their parents in on the action, too, with respectful letters, prayer and  sacrifices.

This sounds like a well-balanced and well-informed letter.  I found the observation about the charismatic movement giving way to a more traditional movement very interesting.  I wonder if that is right?  Food for thought.

UPDATE: 13:47 GMT 24 Oct 07

And about that report that students who wanted the older Mass were told they needed pschological help (something which strikes me as plausible, since I’ve heard that aimed many times at myself and others), there is this, for the sake of fairness.

 

It was brought to my attention that your blog was posting information about the recent student petition for the Tridentine Mass at Franciscan University. I am the president of the student organization (Dom Gueranger Society) that officially organized the petition. Your info is correct about the number of signatures and the administration’s position. But I have checked into the other rumor concerning the alleged "counseling" remark. As far as I can tell, no one associated with the petition drive was told this by a member of the administration. I hope you will remove this unsubstantiated rumor. Thank you.

I sure hope that it is true that no one ever said that.  I sincerely do.  I am sure no one will even think to take that line now, or even breathe a suggestion of it.

UPDATE: 13:51 GMT 24 Oct 07

We have heard from students, parents, student organizers.  Now here is something from someone who works for FSU.  The author drives a long distance to attend the older form of Mass also and is happy that the local parish will be offering this opportunity soon. (Edited):

 

In all these discussions about the friars’ decision (which I disagree with completely and strongly), it’s still important to note that technically there is no violation because the University is part of St. Peter’s parish.

That’s where the priests get their faculties through, that’s where all baptismal and marriage records are kept, that’s how it’s legally arranged in this diocese. St. Pete’s is less than a mile away (maybe a two minute drive) from campus, and the Univeristy has agreed to provide transportation to the Traditional Latin Mass there for students who don’t have their own cars. [That is pretty good, no?]

Would it be better to have a Mass on campus? Yes, definitely, and I hope and pray one day that is the case. But, it is important to note that it seems the students are being accomodated according to the terms of SP.  [Or at least they are moving …or driving… in the right direction!]

As more information comes in, we get a more complete picture.

UPDATE: 20:45 GMT 24 Oct 07

Someone is reacting to the question raised about the Charismatic/Traditional dynamic earlier: 

I just wanted to quickly provide my input on your comment as to whether the Charismatic movement was giving way to a traditional movement.  As one involved in both aspects of the Church, I would describe it as the charismatic movement is revealing itself TO BE the traditional movement.  Rather than one replacing the other, it is a continuous development.
 
Too often, I think, the charismatic movement is confused as being synonymous with a Praise and Worship spirituality.  I see the charismatic movement as a two-fold devotion to the Holy Spirit: A seeking of freedom to pray as the Spirit moves, and an openness to the gifts He provides.  At one time, the Spirit whetted the spiritual appetite through a focus on praise and worship.  Now, however, the Spirit is maturing the faithful to a focus on restoring the gifts present in tradition to the Church.  Having taught the faithful to pray in freedom, He is now seeking to let the Church pray in freedom—according to the sacred, mystical liturgy as She desires.

Hmmmm…. I wonder. 

UPDATE: 22:08 GMT 24 Oct 07

This rather long comment came in, longer actually than I prefer to post, but it had some good items in it which flesh out a little some aspects of liturgical formation and attitudes at FSU.   They seem to be backed up fairly well.  Edited, but still long.

I am an FUS alumnus. I was there between 1998 and 2002, plus some summer semesters.  [That dates the impressions a little.]  I double majored in Theology and Philosophy and minored in Latin and Greek.

The rumors are very believable, and likely true. [I am not sure which rumors he is talking about.] First, it is important to note that the campus has a Dr. Jekyl Mr. Hyde split between the theology faculty and the chapel hierarchy run by Fr. Dominic Scotto, TOR and Cathy Heck, a third order Dominican. When I was requesting more Novus Ordo Masses in Latin and referenced the then Cardinal Ratzinger, Ms. Heck (who apart from her liturgical modernism is a nice lady) described Ratzinger as "reactionary". Fr. Scotto, taught a class on liturgy in the spring semesters, and on 13 March of 2000, said concerning the Traditional Mass (I wrote it down verbatim in my notebook because I was so shocked, being a neophyte to these issues):

"They should have never allowed the old Mass. The only reason anyone cares about it is because of a man named Lefebvre who taught that any Mass but the 1962 Missal is a heresy[!]. The Pope made a big mistake in allowing it again because it was abrogated, it is no longer a Mass of the Catholic Church. We have left behind Mass with back to the people for good and gone back to the early Church."

Furthermore Fr. Scotto has a book on the Mass called "The Table of the Lord" which he used to give to his liturgy students. I don’t know what he does now. In that book, he describes the most visible fruit of Vatican II on liturgy as turning the altar around so the priest now faces the people, which demonstrates how closely he has read Vatican II. Ms. Heck promotes the "music ministry" and the obscene violation of Church regulations on extraordinary ministers of communion, to the point where there are armies of them at each Mass. If extraordinary were applied to the Traditional Mass the way she applies it to EMHC there would be a Mass in the extraordinary form every other minute. Again, as of 2002, I have only been back to Steubenville twice in that time, and the last was in 2004.

It is important to understand that Ms. Heck and Fr. Scotto (who are nice people apart from this issue, I don’t wish to poison the well) have the final decision on what goes on in the chapels of FUS, and they strongly dislike the ancient rite, and view devotion to it as anti-Vatican II sentiments. Before I was a student there a petition was given to Bishop Sheldon, the former Bishop in Steubenville, with 250 signatures on it for the Traditional Liturgy to be established in the diocese under the indult, preferably at St. Peter’s Church on 4th street which is gorgeous and eminently suited to the ancient use. The TORs, represented by Fr. Scotto signed a letter asking him not to do it. [If that is true, that is dreadful.] I’ve heard the contents paraphrased but I have never seen it, I just know it happened because Bishop Sheldon confirmed it to me when I asked him.  They view anyone who likes the ancient rite at best as being confused and missing Jesus because they are looking for the smells and bells, and at worst as I said denying Vatican II. If they can stop it they will, MP or no MP, unless they have changed dramatically.

On the other hand many faculty, if not supportive of it are open to it. I knew three professors who were switched to the Byzantine rite because they could not get to a TLM.

I noticed you had an update from those working for the petition saying that no one was told to seek counseling for wishing to have a TLM. I hope to heaven that this is not true, and with any luck it isn’t. However in 1999 I was told this by Fr. Joe Lehman, TOR, who I was seeking spiritual direction from at the time. He refused to see me after he found out I went to St. Boniface Church in Pittsburgh, PA for what was formerly known as the "indult", and described my fascination with it as mystification over something I "did not understand", and he recommended I see the campus counselor to get over this. It is a sin to bear false witness and I assure you I am not doing any such thing. I would not be surprised if someone was told that.

I suspect that none of the faculty at FSU was so uncharitable or stupid enough to tell student that his or her desire to participate at the older, traditional Mass of the Roman Rite suggested the need for psychological help. 

However, I know from personal experience that this has been the attitude of many in the past. 

The very idea angers me.

Were someone on a university or seminary faculty to state this publicly to students, and in such a way that it could be verified, I would be inclined to give those comments, and the person who made them, a great deal of vigorous and enduring attention on this blog.

With apologies to the Bard, those of us who have a little clout in the Catholic blogsosphere are rather like the players who come to Elsinore Castle in Hamlet II,ii:

HAMLET (to Polonius):

Good my lord, will you see the [bloggers] well
bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used; for
they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the
time: after your death you were better have a bad
epitaph than their ill report while you live.

UPDATE: 03:59 GMT 25 Oct 07

Reactions are coming in about the Charismatic/Traditional "synergy".  This just in from a member of the Order of Preachers:

I found the comment about the charismatic movement giving way to the traditional interesting.  When I was at another Catholic college in the East (1996-2000), I was a part of the choir.  We sang mostly Renaissance polyphony and Gregorian chant for our Sunday Mass.  A very high percentage of us were the children of parish musicians/music directors and we had grown up in or in the atmosphere of the charismatic movement.  And we all moved away from it toward a more traditional expression of the faith.  With time, so have the parents of many of these people, but their children moved first.  It was and remains an interesting phenomenon to me.
 
I have doubts about the charismatic movement revealing itself to be the traditional mov