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

I received a very interesting scan (folks… if you want me to post on what you send, please send transcriptions if you send scans of documents).   

I received a letter to priests by the Bishop of Cloyne in Cork, Ireland, H.E. John Magree (whom some of you may know as a former Master of Pontifical Ceremonies).

The document I got, dated 16 November, called "Circular Letter from the Bishop to Priests engaged in Pastoral Work in the Diocese of Cloyne", and signed by the Bishop, quotes extensively from Summorum Pontificum.  That part isn’t worth reproducing.

Here is the interesting part towad the end (my emphases and comments):

It is clear [What follows is far from clear, actually.  The Holy See will be making clarifications.] from this Article 5 of the Motu Proprio, my dear follow Priest, that the request for the use of the extraordinary form of the Eucharist should come from a [BAD TRANSLATION ALERT] stable group of the faithful who adhere to the earlier liturgical tradition in a Parish to the Parish Priest.  [This leaves out other forms of communities, doesn’t it?  What about a rector of a chapel? Etc.] The spirit of the Motu Proprio does not envisgage, [Is this like the "spirit of Vatican II"?  Does a spirit envisage?] therefore, any form of campaigning or of soliciting of faithful either from within the Parish or from without. [This is wayyyyy out of bounds.  Bishops have authority, but they cannot tell people what to desire, talk about, or promote, unless it is contrary to good Catholic faith and morals.   They can’t tell priests what tooth paste to use, and they cannot stop them from favorably presenting or speaking about the Motu Proprio, the old Mass, or use of the Ritual.  There is precisely nothing wrong with Catholics of the Latin Church promoting the Roman Rite is as sacred now as it was in yesteryear.  ]  It envisages a genuine Pastoral need that must be responded to.

...

Dear Father, I wish to emphasise that I welcome the Motu Proprio of His Holiness, Pope Benedic XVI and I ask you to willingly see to its implementation in your Parish, if ever occasion arises. [! ... Now this last part is really interesting.] I shall see to it that a number of copies of the Roman Missal, promulgated in 1962 by Blessed Pope John XXIII, will be available at the Cloyne Diocesan Centre shuld any Parish Priest have need.  I enclose or you a copy of the Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum" for your own personal use. [But don’t distribute it to the faithful?  Hmmm… ]

What mixed signals.  Don’t tell anyone about it, but implement it.

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Today is the feast of St. Ambrose of Milan (+4 April 397), a titanic figure of the late 4th century who changed the shape of Church and State relations for a thousand years, who brought much of the wisdom of Greek writings to the West, and who helped to bring St. Augustine of Hippo into the fold.

I have written often about Ambrose in the past. 

Here are a few links which ought to keep your lips moving for a while (that’s a little patristiblogger joke … ).

EXSULTET

 

 The Exsultet (2002 Missale Romanum) [10:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

“Let the feet of our minds be stretched out”: Ambrose on “dew”

Jerome on Ambrose: “the black croaking raven”

St. Ambrose read without moving his lips!

Let us look today at the Collect for Friday of the 1st Week of Advent.

This prayer was in the 1962 Missale Romanum and is taken from the ancient Gregorian Sacramentary.

COLLECT:
Excita, quaesumus, Domine, potentiam tuam, et veni,
ut, ab imminentibus peccatorum nostrorum periculis,
te mereamur protegente eripi,
te liberante salvari.

A REALLY LITERAL VERSION:
Rouse up Your might, we beseech You, O Lord, and come,
that, as You are protecting us, we may merit to be snatched away
from the menacing dangers of our sins
and, as You are freeing us, be saved.

A PROPOSED VERSION:
Stir up your power, we pray, O Lord, and come,
that with you to protect us
we may find rescue
from the looming dangers of our sins,
and with you to set us free,
be found worthy of salvation.

I normally object to that whole "with" rendering of ablative absolutes. 

This is a wonderful item. 



Check out the other photos over at The New Liturgical Movement.

Bishop John Arnold of Westminster Becomes First English and Welsh Bishop to Celebrate the Traditional Rite in Westminster Cathedral Since the Liturgical Changes of 1969

Bishop John Arnold, Auxiliary Bishop in Westminster, celebrated a Pontifical High Mass of Requiem in Westminster Cathedral on Saturday 27 November. He did so at the request of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. The Mass was organised by the Latin Mass Society. Bishop Arnold’s Assistant Priest was Fr Andrew Wadsworth; the Deacon was Fr Andrew Southwell and the Sub-deacon Fr Benjamin Durham FSSP.

A large congregation of over 700 heard the men of the Cathedral Choir sing traditional plainchant.

Our friend The Roman Sacristan has sent us this!

 

"Smells & Bells"

(to the tune of "Jingle Bells")

 

Processing into church
It’s the TLM today
Doing liturgy right
Chanting all the way (Glo-ri-a!)
Bells at the sanctus ring
Raising our spirits high
Oh how great to have Mass and tradition back in line!

 

Smells & Bells
Smells & Bells
Liberals cough and fuss
Oh what fun it is to serve in cassock and surplice
Smells & Bells
Smells & Bells
Hippies start to fume
Thanks to the 16th Benedict for Summorum Pontificum!

I posted entries on the travails of the University of St. Thomas where the freshmen have been assigned The Handmaid’s Tale as obligatory reading, the chapel is about to be "renovated", and the new Archbishop has been effectively kicked off the Board as an ex officio member so they won’t have to deal with his Catholicism.

I have been alerted to an article in the Star/Tribune which may be of interest.

My emphases and comments:

Katherine Kersten: Battle for soul of St. Thomas takes a turn for the worse

By Katherine Kersten, Star Tribune

Last update: December 5, 2007 – 11:47 PM

A decade ago, Prof. Frank Mach of the University of St. Thomas made a startling prediction in a paper he wrote for a conference on the institution’s Roman Catholic identity. He suggested the university was on course to largely sever its ties with the church.

By the time St. Thomas’ bicentennial rolls around in 2085, Mach wrote, any remaining link between St. Thomas and its Catholic roots "is likely to be vague and mostly symbolic."

In fact, events seem ahead of schedule.

Since St. Thomas’ founding in 1885, the archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has held the position of chairman of its board of trustees. But Mach noted that "a vote of the trustees and a subsequent stroke of the pen," could make such connections with the church "vestiges of the past."

On Oct. 25, 2007, the vote that Mach foresaw took place.

St. Thomas’ trustees voted to eliminate the archbishop’s automatic position on the board. As a result, come next spring, for the first time since Archbishop John Ireland founded the institution, a sitting archbishop will not chair the St. Thomas board.

Moreover, he may not even have a seat on it.

In future years, the trustees can elect as chair whomever they wish: a layperson, technically even a Buddhist.

The vote severing this legal link with the archdiocese [This is a key point.  The question must be asked now: Since this is/was a Catholic institution, directly connected with the Archdiocese, and if it is no longer such, then did the break have the consent of the Holy See?] is the latest development in a long-running struggle for St. Thomas’ soul.

Some of the institution’s strongest programs, such as the Catholic Studies department and the law school, still maintain a strong Catholic identity. But external pressures and internal inclinations to secularize abound.

Some speculate that Archbishop Harry Flynn’s upcoming retirement was a major factor in the board’s vote. During Flynn’s 12 years as chair, little has been done to resist the slide to secularization. He will be succeeded in 2008 by Coadjutor Archbishop John Nienstedt, who has a reputation for orthodoxy.

Keeping up appearances

In an apparent attempt to preserve the appearance of a relationship with the archdiocese, the board reelected the retiring Flynn—as an individual—to a five-year term as chairman. [NB: The term is for five years.  But the Coadjutor Archbp Nienstedt will become the ordinary before then.] But when his tenure as archbishop expires next spring, nothing in the university’s bylaws will require that the leader of the Catholic church in this region have any official role at the university.

"I found this action very, very disturbing—it was clearly directed at Archbishop Nienstedt," said Tom Mooney of St. Paul, a St. Thomas alumnus and donor. Many St. Thomas alums are concerned about the "erosion" of the institution’s Catholic identity, he said.

"I think there’s a problem, and a lot of priests do," said the Rev. Paul LaFontaine of St. Charles Borromeo parish in St. Anthony. "The archbishop is the chief teacher of the faith in the diocese. He ought to be part of the academic community, and respected and regarded as such."

St. Thomas "always has been and always will be a Catholic university," said archdiocesan spokesman Dennis McGrath in a statement.  [Oh yah? Making such a statement won’t make it reality.]

St. Thomas spokesman Doug Hennes said that a secular organization that reviews governing boards recommended the by-laws change in 2002. He added that the trustees were concerned that the new archbishop would be too busy to perform the chairman’s role.  [Isn’t there a musical with the song "We’re only thinking of him!"]

Did trustees ask Nienstedt if he would be too busy? Hennes referred the question to the archdiocese, and McGrath said he didn’t know.  [No surprise there.]

St. Thomas may now be poised to continue quickly down the path to secularization that other once-Christian institutions of higher education blazed years ago.

Who remembers that Macalester and Carleton colleges were founded, respectively, by the Presbyterian and Congregational churches? Harvard, Yale and the University of Chicago were also originally church-affiliated institutions. But academics often view religious affiliation as incompatible with elite university status, and believe that it interferes with their "academic freedom."  [I seem to remember claims that the Holy See’s Ex corde Ecclesiae would interfere with "academic freedom".  What they really wanted, however, was freedom from Catholic teaching on faith and morals, and no obligation to stick with Catholic Tradition…. unless it is fund raising time, of course.  That is when the slick pamphlets are printed with old photos of stained glass windows, bishops with gloves and miters, and priests teaching in cassocks.]

Rapid escalation

The pace of secularization at St. Thomas could escalate rapidly if two archdiocesan seminaries affiliated with the university—St. Paul Seminary and St. John Vianney College Seminary—move to cut ties. Both are independent archdiocesan corporations. St. Paul Seminary was once a separate organization and could possibly be again.

Why should St. Thomas’ fate interest anyone who isn’t Catholic? Because the widespread secularization of religiously affiliated colleges destroys true diversity in education. [A very good argument.] There are plenty of schools where students can learn professional skills and how to look out for Number One (and planet Earth).

We need a few places where they can be called to pursue something higher: a transcendent vision of faith and morality.