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I received a fax of the norms on Summorum Pontificum issued by His Excellency Most Reverend George H. Niederauer, Archbishop of San Francisco.

There was an article in the San Francisco archdiocesan newpaper about the norms, and it wasn’t exactly pointing to a bright future for the rights of San Franciscans, lay and clerics, who want the older Mass.  But I really didn’t want to write about the norms without having seen them. 

Now I have seen them.

I don’t have the time or energy, or the desire frankly, to type all this out, so let me share the highlights. 

First, in the cover letter, the Archbishop writes: "please find attached to this letter norms which are to be adhered to throughout the Archdiocese."  The Archbishop also names two priests to whom he delegates matters concerning the implementation of the norms.  Of course, that means the Archdiocese’s local norms, not the norms for the universal Church in Summorum Ponitifcum.

Going on to the norms themselves… the more I read , the more something was familiar about them. 

For example, here are the first couple paragraphs of the Introduction section in the San Francisco norms:

 

On July 7, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued a motu proprio apostolic letter concerning the extraordinary form of the Celebration of the Mass and Sacraments. The title of this letter, Summorum Pontificum, is taken from the first two words of the original Latin text. Summorum Pontificum

At the same time, Pope Benedict XVI issued a separate letter to all the bishops on the occasion of the publication of the letter Summorum Pontificum in which the Holy Father explains the rationale for providing for and regulating liturgical celebrations according to
the 1962 Missal.

Hmmm….  a quick search of this blog and .. voila… I found something. 

Here are the first couple paragraphs of the Introduction section of norms for a different diocese:

On July 7, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued a motu proprio apostolic letter concerning the extraordinary form of the Celebration of the Mass and Sacraments. The title of this letter, Summorum Pontificum, is taken from the first two words of the original Latin text. Summorum Pontificum

At the same time, Pope Benedict XVI issued a separate letter to all the bishops on the occasion of the publication of the letter Summorum Pontificum in which the Holy Father explains the rationale for providing for and regulating liturgical celebrations according to
the 1962 Missal.

Identical, as far as I can tell.

The Archbishop of San Francisco reissued the norms Bp. Donald W. Trautman imposed on the Diocese of Erie.

However, when it comes to section 5.6, which concerns the size of the so-called "stable group"... can you believe these folks are still clinging to that bad translation? ... there is a variation.   Bp. Trautman thinks (incorrectly) that the "stable group" must consist of at least 25 people.  In the norms for San Francisco,  Archbishop Niederauer thinks the group must be  "at least 30 persons who, in the same location and in an ongoing manner…".  Etc.

 

I believe this to be contrary to the provisions of Summorum Pontificum.  I am confident this will be clarified and that the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei will say that no bishop can impose such a number, which is not determined in the Motu Proprio.  I suspect that, even now, were a group of people objected to this unreasonable restriction, they would receive a good hearing in Rome. 

At the same time it is reasonable to suppose that a parish-wide initiative cannot be easily undertaken for a very small group… or can it? 

There are all sorts of parish initiatives made for groups than smaller than 30 people.

I think we all know what this is really about.

There are other problems with the norms for San Francisco.  But since they are essentially the same as Bp. Trautman’s, you can just look at them in that other entry.

In effect, the norms issued for San Francisco represent a restriction of the rights of priests and lay people to enjoy the provisions of the Holy Father’s derestriction of the older form of Mass.

I wouldn’t worry too much about this, however.  I think they will have to be swept away fairly soon.

 

My friend the nearly ubiquitous fair-minded former Rome correspondent for the ultra-lefty National Catholic Reporter has today an op-ed piece in The New York Times.

My emphases and comments.

Let’s have a look.

December 19, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
The Vatican’s Relative Truth
By JOHN L. ALLEN Jr.

POPE BENEDICT XVI has offered a couple of recent previews of what’s likely to be his core message to the United Nations next April, the projected highlight of his first visit to the United States. Last Tuesday, the pontiff released the text of his annual statement for the Vatican’s World Day of Peace, raising typical papal concerns like poverty and disarmament, but also a defense of the family based on heterosexual marriage and, in the section reflecting Benedict’s budding environmentalism, a reminder of human supremacy over the animal kingdom.

Ten days earlier in Rome, Pope Benedict offered a more targeted message in a meeting with Catholic nongovernmental groups that work with the United Nations, delivering a stern warning against the “bitter fruits” of “relativistic logic” and a “refusal to admit the truth about man and his dignity.” Given the titanic battles the Vatican has waged against certain United Nations agencies over abortion and birth control, his comments were quickly spun by the Italian press as a major papal “attack” ahead of next year’s General Assembly address.

But if the pope’s words have fed expectations of a “High Noon”-style showdown, they are likely to be dashed. Benedict had no intention of making an anti-United Nations jeremiad. Like every pope since the birth of the United Nations in 1945, Benedict supports robust global governance, in a fashion that has long bewildered neoconservative critics of the United Nations in the United States and elsewhere. If there was anything remarkable in what he said, it’s only that the Vatican’s public-relations crew still hasn’t found a way to keep the pope from making cosmetic missteps that distract attention from his message.

While the Vatican may have its differences with United Nations agencies over sex, [Though I wouldn’t say "sex", it is not to be disputed that the key issues concern UN support of abortion and contraception.] it also sees the organization as the lone realistic possibility for putting a human face on international politics and economics — what Pope John Paul II called a “globalization of solidarity.”

Moreover, Benedict undeniably has a point about relativism. From China to Iran to Zimbabwe, it’s common for authoritarian regimes to argue that rights like freedom of the press, religion and dissent represent Western — or even Anglo-American — traditions. If human rights are to be protected in a 21st century increasingly shaped by non-Western actors like China and the so-called Shiite axis from Lebanon to Central Asia, then a belief in objective truth grounded in universal human nature is critical. That’s hardly just a Catholic concern, but no one on the global scene is making the argument with the clarity of Benedict XVI.

Part of the problem is that so far, this cerebral pope has a track record of blurring such compelling arguments during his biggest turns on stage. When he visited Auschwitz in May 2006, for example, he offended some Jews by asserting that the Nazis tried to destroy Christianity too. Four months later, he set off a firestorm among Muslims with a lecture at the University of Regensburg by quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor to the effect that Muhammad brought “things only evil and inhuman,” such as “his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” And in Brazil last May, the pope incensed indigenous people in Latin America by suggesting that Christianity was not imposed on them.

In each case, Benedict was actually trying to make a deeper point worth hearing. In Auschwitz, his contention was that objective truth grounded in God is the only bulwark against the blind will to power; his Regensburg address was devoted to reason and faith, arguing that reason shorn of faith becomes nihilism, while faith without reason ends in fanaticism and violence; and in Brazil, he argued that since Christ embraces all humanity, he cannot be foreign to anyone’s spiritual experience.  [Go back and read Pope Benedict’s first Message for the World Day of Peace.]

Those ideas, however, were overshadowed by a few throwaway phrases that betray a worrying insensitivity to how unfamiliar audiences are likely to hear what he says. One would think that by now the lesson would have been learned, but all evidence is to the contrary. While it was intended to strike a tone of sympathy and common human concern, the speech to the nongovernmental groups instead came off as a screed.

Benedict’s trip to the United Nations in April will be his most important voyage to date, and his best opportunity to address the community of nations. He clearly has something valuable to say, a message that focuses on what he has termed a “dictatorship of relativism” menacing not just the Catholic Church or institutional religion, but everyone, especially the most vulnerable. The question is whether he’ll be able to find a language to ensure that what he pitches is also what people catch.

At this stage, the odds that he’ll succeed seem, well, only relatively good.

John L. Allen Jr. is the senior correspondent for The National Catholic Reporter and author of “The Rise of Benedict XVI.”

 

This is a basically excellent analysis.  I am not in synch with all of his conclusions.

Allen is exactly correct in his understanding of what the Pope was trying to say at Regensburg, in Latin America, in his speech to the NGO’s.

However, I think he is wrong about the Pope making "gaffs" which then obscure the Pope’s message.  

I don’t think the Pope is making mistakes.  While I am ready to admit that sometimes the negative reactions surprise Pope Benedict, I think he knows exactly what he is doing.  It may be that Mr. Allen is trying to explain away things Pope Benedict says with which he does not agree.  Nor are Benedict’s speech writers and screeners incompetent or plotting to undermine the Pope. 

 

We have to ratchet up our ability to listen closely, intensely, to this Pope.  His worldview is more complicated than pundits would like it to be.

It may be that Mr. Allen is arguing that the Pope should go to the UN and be supportive without committing a "gaff" – like criticising the UN’s support of abortion.  "Don’t blow it like you did at Regensburg, Auschwitz, Latin American and with the NGO’s.  Holy Father, you’re real message is so important, so don’t obscure it by making your discourse too complicated.  Dumb it down so people won’t misunderstand it and avoid the really hard issue."

Some things need to be kept in mind.

First, it is hard to tell what the Holy Father really thinks about certain issues of social doctrine.  We just don’t know yet.  We are going to have to see what his social encyclical says.  Unitl we have more focused texts from him, we are just reading tea leaves, such as snippets from Deus caritas est or the speech to the NGO’s.

Second, the Vatican has always had a nearly desparate desire that the UN succeed in certain spheres, such as peace-keeping, poverty, hunger, etc.  To a certain extent, the Holy See has tip-toed around elements of the UN that are simply bad.   Yes, they have fought the good fight at key moments, but there is still a lot of tip-toeing.  In my view, this is a mistaken strategy.  There are those who desire a bigger, more influential UN, even world government.  If the Holy See thinks (if Pope Benedict thinks) there is a problem in the heart of the EU, then wait until the UN gets stronger. The negatives of the EU would be magnified a thousand times in a stronger UN.

Third, a huge slice of the progressvist Catholic left still cling to the New York Times.

I think the Holy See, the Pope especially, must take the UN to the woodshed over the bad points. 

A lot of people are very worried Pope Benedict might actually do that.

I am not by this that I am sure this was was John Allen’s intent in writing his op-ed piece.  He highlights issues which are useful for provoking discussion.  At the same time, I am pretty sure some people will use his points to argue that the Pope shouldn’t bring to strong an agenda to the UN.

Here is the O Antiphon for 19 December: O Radix Jesse

LATIN: O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem gentes deprecabuntur: veni ad liberandum nos, iam noli tardare.

ENGLISH: O Root of Jesse, that stands for an ensign of the people, before whom the kings keep silence and unto whom the Gentiles shall make supplication: come, to deliver us, and tarry not.

Scripture References:

Isaiah 11:10
Romans 15:12
Revelation 5:5

Relevant verse of  Veni, Veni Emmanuel:

O come, O Rod of Jesse free,
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory o’er the grave.

What urgency there is in this antiphon.

Something that lies below the earth (a root) stands high unto the heavens like a banner! 

Vexilia Regis Prodeunt we sing in Lent. The little root of Advent becomes by Lent grows into the Tree of our salvation. 

Isaiah 11:10 gives us imagery for our reflection today. The great prophet of Advent tells us that the kingdom of David would be destroyed, but not entirely destroyed. A root would remain. Jesse is David’s father. David is Jesse’s root. David leads to Christ. After the destruction there remains a root.  No matter what the exigencies of life present to us or how turbulent the vicissitudes of the passing world may be, when we cling to the root we are sure to be victorious in the end.

 

Here is the Collect for 19 December in the 2002MR, duing this period of intense preparation before Christmas:

COLLECT:
Deus, qui splendorem gloriae tuae
per sacrae Virginis partum mundo dignatus es revelare,
tribue, quaesumus, ut tantae incarnationis mysterium
et fidei integratate colamus,
et devotio semper obsequio frequentemus.

This is from Rotulus 2 published together with the Veronese Sacramentary. It is not in any previous edition of the Missale Romanum.

The vocabulary is loaded here. First, remember that mysterium is interchangable with sacramentum, and it stands not only for our salvation, but also the celebration of Holy Mass, the Eucharist. Frequento is used to describe the participation of Christians in the sacred mysteries.

LITERAL VERSION:
O God, who deigned to reveal to the world the splendor of Your glory,
through the holy Virgin’s giving birth,
grant, we entreat You, that we both may reverence the mystery of the great incarnation
with integrity of faith,
and we may attend it always with obedient devotion.

A PROPOSAL:
O God, who in the Offspring of the holy Virgin
graciously revealed to the world
the radiance of your glory,
grant, we pray,
that we may cherish with sound faith
and always celebrate with due reverence
the mystery of so wondrous an incarnation.

Do any of you have your own version?