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

In this installment , we first hear about the recent pronouncement by the CDF about the validity of baptism using non-Trinitarian formulas.

Then I respond to a listener’s question via voicemail about the validity of Holy Orders when the post-Conciliar rites are used. 

To help us with that question we welcome the late Mr. Michael Davies, who talks to us about the substance of sacraments in his book The Order of Melchisedech. 

In case you are wondering, I add plenty of my own thoughts on the matter.




 
http://www.wdtprs.com/podcazt/08_03_06.mp3

 

In another entry someone asked about my statement that the Congregation for Divine Worship stated that confessions can be heard during Mass and, indeed, it is a good idea in some cases.

Here is the documentation translated from Latin found in Notitiae 37 (2001 – no. 419-420) pp. 259-260 with my emphases and comments:

Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (October 2001)

What are the dispositions governing the time for the celebration of the sacrament of Penance? For example, can the faithful have recourse to the sacrament of Penance during Mass?

The principal norms governing the time for the celebration of the sacrament of Penance are to be found in the Instruction Eucharisticum mysterium (25 May 1967), which states: The faithful are to be constantly encouraged to accustom themselves to going to confession outside [And this is very good.  People should ideally be focused on the sacred action of Holy Mass when they are at Holy Mass.  Also, special effort must be made to see to one’s own spiritual welface.  Moreover, depending on the way it is handled, hearing confessions during Mass might be distracting to some other people.] the celebration of Mass, and especially at the prescribed times.  [This is close to one of my 20 Tips! #3] In this way, the sacrament of Penance will be administered calmly and with genuine profit, and will not interfere with active participation inthe Mass (no. 35). The same is reiterated in the Praenotanda of the Ordo Paenitentiae (no. 13), which states that: the reconciliation of penitents can be celebrated at any time and day.  [Remember those people who claimed confessions couldn’t be heard during the Sacred Triduum?]

Nevertheless this ought to be understood as a counsel [Not an imperative, that is, that confessions should be heard at scheduled times rather than during Mass.] directed to the pastoral care of the faithful, who ought to be encouraged and helped to seek health of soul in the sacrament of Penance, and have recourse to it, as far as possible outside the place and time of the celebration of Mass. On the other hand, [Here we go…] this does not in any way prohibit priests, except the one who is celebrating Mass, from hearing confessions of the faithful who so desire, including during the celebration of Mass. [There it is, ladies and gentlemen.] Above all nowadays, when the ecclesial significance of sin and the sacrament of Penance is obscured in many people, and the desire to receive the sacrament of Penance has diminished markedly, pastors ought to do all in their power to foster frequent participation by the faithful in this sacrament. [In other words… this sacrament, and the awareness among the faithful of its importance, is really in danger.] Hence canon 986.1 of the Code of Canon law states: All to whom by virtue of office the care of souls is committed,are bound to provide for the hearing of the confessions of the faithful entrusted to them, who reasonably request confession, and they are to provide these faithful with an opportunity to make individual confession on days and at times arranged to suit them.

The celebration of the sacrament of Penance is indeed one of the ministries proper to priests. The Christian faithful, on the one hand, are not only obliged to confess their sins (cf. can. 989), but on the other hand are fully entitled to be assisted by their Pastors from the spiritual riches of the Church, especially by the word of God and the sacraments (can. 213).

Consequently, it is clearly lawful, even during the celebration of Mass, to hear confessions when one foresees that the faithful are going to ask for this ministry. In the case of concelebrations, it is earnestly to be desired that some priests would abstain from concelebrating [One a side note about concelebration, which ought to be safe, legal and rare… there are some priests who are nearly obsessed with concelebration.  They nearly impose it on other priests, in violation of their rights or judge priests badly if they choose (as is their right) not to concelebrate.  This happens quite often, as a matter of fact, and in surprising quaters.  Still, I like this advice from the CDW: confession is very important – perhaps some men could hear confessions instead of concelebrating!] so as to be available to attend to the faithful who wish to receive the sacrament of Penance. It should be borne in mind, nevertheless, that it is not permitted to unite the sacrament of Penance with the Mass, making of them both a single liturgical celebration [This is done in the Novus Ordo sometimes with baptisms, for example, or even celebrations of liturgical hours such as vespers.].

 

There we are, folks.

I encourage priests, especially in those places where more than one priest is available in a parish or chapel, to give this consideration. 

This is not merely applicable to the older form of Mass, but also to the Novus Ordo!

UPDATE:

In Redemptionis Sacramentum 76 we read:

Furthermore, according to a most ancient tradition of the Roman Church, it is not permissible to unite the Sacrament of Penance to the Mass in such a way that they become a single liturgical celebration. This does not exclude, however, that Priests other than those celebrating or concelebrating the Mass might hear the confessions of the faithful who so desire, even in the same place where Mass is being celebrated, in order to meet the needs of those faithful. This should nevertheless be done in an appropriate manner.

Cf. Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Letter (Motu Proprio), Misericordia Dei, 7 April 2002, n. 2: AAS 94 (2002) p. 455; Cf. Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Response to Dubium: Notitiae 37 (2001) pp. 259-260.

Here is a good piece from The Catholic Spirit, from Austin, TX.

My emphases and comments.

Austin Latin Mass community finds home at Cathedral
Catholic Spirit, March 2008, In Our World


By Michele Chan Santos
Correspondent

The traditional Latin Mass celebrated on Sunday afternoons at St. Mary Cathedral in Austin is unique among the Sunday Catholic Masses around the Diocese of Austin.
Most of the women and many of the young girls are wearing black or white lace veils over their heads. As people enter, they pick up copies of a Latin-English Booklet Missal. The missal has the prayers and Gospel readings in Latin on the left and in English on the right. The songs are sung in Latin, and some portions of the service are chanted by the priest.
Parishioners receive Communion kneeling and on the tongue. Those receiving Communion do not say “Amen” because it is included when the priest says “Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi custodiat animam tuam in vitam aeternam. Amen.” (This translates as “May the body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve your soul unto life everlasting. Amen.”)
This congregation meets each week at 3:30 p.m. on Sundays. [Not exactly a convenient time, but better than nothing!] Beginning at 3 p.m., a rosary is prayed and the sacrament of penance is made available. [Very often confessions are heard during TLM celebrations.  As a matter of fact a few years ago the CDW recommended that confessions be heard during Novus Ordo Masses!  Many people think it is forbidden to hear confessions during Mass… on the contrary!] Those who regularly attend this Mass call themselves the St. Joseph Latin Mass Community. About 160 to 175 people attend regularly, with more people coming during the Christmas and Easter seasons. The Mass and sacraments are celebrated by Jesuit Father Robert Bradley.
The Latin Mass [grrr… I don’t like that term.] has brought together a diverse group of people who have formed a strong community and deep friendships as a result of their attendance at this Mass. They drive from Cedar Park, Bastrop, Round Rock and all over Austin to the downtown cathedral.
Prior to the Second Vatican Council, all Masses were celebrated in Latin. However, after the council, it was decided that Masses should be celebrated in the language of the people.  [Nooo… the Council said Latin must be retained.  Disobedience to the Council resulted in the near abolition of Latin.] After 1962, the Latin Mass was no longer permitted, [Factually untrue… we all know about the indult obtained by Card. Heenan and the permission given to older priests, etc.  But effectively is was banned, that must be admitted.] until October 1984, when Pope John Paul II gave permission for Mass to be celebrated in Latin with approval of the local bishop. In Austin, Bishop John McCarthy made arrangements for a Latin Mass for those who wished to attend one.
In July 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued “Motu Proprio,” a papal letter that made it easier for parishes to celebrate a Latin Mass [grrrrrr] and it said that priests no longer needed special permission to have this type of service. In his letter, Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too.”
At the Austin service, there are many people who remember services conducted in Latin from their youth. There are many young families as well, who have decided this is the service that is right for them.
Lucy Trainor and her husband brought their three children, ages 3, 2, and 9 months, to Latin Mass on Sunday, Feb. 3.
“We love the reverence and the quiet,” Trainor said.
Brooks Whitmore is the musical director for the service; his wife, Jennifer Whitmore, directs the children’s choir, which also sings in Latin.
“We love the respect for our Lord and the Eucharist, the way the priest says the Mass facing the tabernacle and facing our Lord,” Jennifer Whitmore said.
Steve Valerga and his wife, Jean, have regularly attended Latin Mass for many years.
“I just like the old traditional Mass, some of the old rites are beautiful,” Steve Valerga said. “There’s a lot of history, a lot of tradition going back 1,500 years.”
Jean Valerga said she loves this service, “the whole concept of it, the reverence of it. It’s more spiritual for me.” After Mass is over, the regular attendees gather outside to chat and talk over the events of the week. [That has been my experience everywhere I have been, whether in Bakersfield, CA, or in Rome, or in St. Paul, or in Kansas City, or in Chicago, or in England…] “There is a very bonded community,” she said.
Whitney and Pearsall clearly recall the community’s early days. Their gatherings began with the permission of Bishop John McCarthy and the appointment of their founding chaplain, the late Holy Cross Father Leon Boarman. The community’s first celebration of the traditional Latin Mass was held in the St. Joseph’s Hall chapel at St. Edward’s University, on an Advent Sunday in 1988.
The Latin Mass remained at St. Edward’s for nine years, then moved to the Our Lady’s Maronite Parish on 51st Street. From 1999 to 2002, the Mass was held at St. Ignatius Parish, and then it relocated to Sacred Heart Parish for the next five years. During this period, Jesuit Father Robert Bradley was appointed chaplain upon Father Boarman’s retirement.
“At every place, our attendance grew,” Whitney said. “The beauty of it is while we were roaming, we kept adding people and expanding.”
In April of last year, the Latin service moved to St. Mary Cathedral at the invitation of Father Bud Roland, [God bless him!] the rector of the Cathedral, and with the approval of Bishop Gregory Aymond.
Father Roland said the Latin Mass community has been a blessing to the parish community at St. Mary Cathedral.  [See Rule 4.]
“Our setting lends itself well to the Latin Mass,” [grrrr] he said. “Father Bradley has presented a series on adult education, which many of our parishioners attended. One of their members is on our parish council, so we routinely get updates about what is going on with them … the group has grown, which I think means they are happy here.”
The people who attend this Mass were grateful for the invitation from Father Roland. [To those of them reading this… be sure to tell Father that you are grateful!  And the bishop, too!]
“It’s such an appropriate place for such a beautiful liturgy,” Trainor said.
“We are truly grateful to be in the Cathedral, we really appreciate it,” Whitney said.
Pearsall is happy that so many younger families are joining their community. “It’s drawing a lot of people who didn’t grow up with it.”
This is appropriate, Pearsall said, because “the Latin Mass [grrrrr] was part of our heritage for hundreds of years.”
The traditional Latin Mass [better] is celebrated at 3:30 p.m. on Sundays at St. Mary Cathedral at 203 E. 10th St. in downtown Austin. The public is invited. For more information, visit www.austinlatinmass.org or www.saintmaryscathedral.org. The Latin Mass [grrr] is also celebrated at St. Louis Parish in Waco. For more information, contact wacolatinmass@gmail.com.

There is an interesting article in the traditional bi-monthly The Remnant by Michael Matt about the change of the Good Friday prayers for Jews in the 1962 Missale Romanum.  

The thrust of the piece is that we need to defend Pope Benedict.

The article is very long, too long for this entry really.  But here is the conclusion with my emphases and comments.

Conclusion

Clearly, this controversy involves so much more than merely a prayer in the Mass of the Pre-sanctified on Good Friday. Benedict’s opponents (inside the Church and out) know very well that every day and throughout the whole world traditional Masses are being restored, and that if this trend continues there’s every possibility of the old Faith making a comeback. [As I have written many times, when Pope Benedict changed the Good Friday prayers for Jews he removed one of the possible points of objection some bishops might have against establishing "personal parishes" where the Sacred Triduum would be celebrated in its totality with the 1962 Missale Romanum.  In other words, Pope Benedict made the 1962 Missale a living liturgical book which he intends be used on the Church’s most sacred days.] Would that we traditionalists could all develop a similar appreciation for the potential ramifications of the MP! Lex orandi, lex credendi, remember? Hundreds of priests and seminarians, thousands of families, tens of thousands in number – returning to their knees [yep!] in front of the altars of Tridentine sacrifice. If you think none of that matters then perhaps you haven’t been in this fight long enough to know what it’s all about. It is not now nor has it ever been merely about us or our liturgical "preferences"! [Well said.] For forty years, traditionalists stormed heaven with prayers that a pope would one day admit the old Mass had never been abrogated and needs to be restored to the life of the Church for the life of the Church, the moral and spiritual health of our nations, and souls of our children.  Only then could all Catholics begin to understand how it is that this sublime touchstone of the old Faith is the antidote to the errors of the modern world, the bedrock of Christendom and the key to the restoration of all things in Christ.  [It will help reinvigorate Catholic identity by exerting a gravitational pull on everything we do as Catholics.]

Please, let’s not be so imperceptive as to demand the Holy Father spell everything out for us. It’s the Mass that matters, and he knows it. This is what his MP is all about. This is what he told Michael Davies ten years ago and this is what he’s trying to tell us now. Msgr. Klaus Gamber contended in The Reform of the Roman Liturgy that the New Mass was a "disaster".  [And key to his criticisms was the disaster of the turned around altars!] Let’s not forget who wrote the foreword to that monumental work—one Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. We may disagree with him here and there; we may wish he’d say and do more to recall the Novus Ordo; [Brick by brick…] but consider the storm of hell and fury roaring against him right now for making one change to one prayer to be said at one liturgy offered once a year. [Gee… I made that same point once and got raked over the coals for it in some trad sites.  o{]:¬) ] Obviously, this is going to take some time. Benedict understands that about which precious few of us know anything at all—Vatican bureaucracy.  [More on this below.] It took forty years of revolution in the Eternal City to get to this point, and it may take another forty to get back. In the meantime traditional Masses are returning en masse—a dramatic turn of events that absolutely had to happen first if, in fact, the old Faith was ever to rise again. 

My counsel, for what it’s worth: Pray for the Pope and accept the prayer. Do not let them sabotage the Motu Proprio! Do not let this divide the Catholic counterrevolution. [Perhaps "counter-reformation" is a better image.] There is nothing in the revised prayer contrary to Faith.  In fact, the Holy Father is under attack for its inherent orthodoxy.  We must, therefore, be willing to take some risks of our own—even when it comes to our “status” in the little world of traditional Catholicism—to go out and meet him halfway… and perhaps even come to his defense when no one else will.

I applaud Michael Matt for his article, which you should go to look at in its entirety.  That was just the conclusion.

Regarding the point of  "Vatican bureaucracy"...

Many people are impatient with the Pope.  I admit, I am too… sometimes.  We know what he thinks and know the direction he so obviously wants to go.

Why doesn’t he just do it?

There are a few points to keep in mind.

First, the Pope is Pope of the whole Church, and not just Pope of the Church we prefer.

Second, the Pope can’t do everything himself: he must delegate in order to get anything done.

Third, the Pope must work with the big picture.  He cannot bog down in micromanaging local issues. 

Fourth, the Pope’s workdesk is covered with things from all over the world, not just your little corrner of St. Ipsidipsy in Tall Tree Circle where you live.  Think of how complex it is to issue universal law for a vastly diverse world.

Fifth, timing and support are everything.  If the Pope has a plan (and he does) but acts too soon or with too little support, he risks not only failure but crippling failure.  When the Pope does something, it has to work.  It cannot not work.  If something fails, the Pope’s authority and ability to get anything done is weakened.  Look how the liturgy continued to errode even when document after document came out.  Issuing something as huge as Summorum Pontificum was bold beyond the ability of most to understand.  Thus, calls for support are exactly what are needed.

Sixth, Benedict XVI might be Pope right now, but there are still a lot of curial officials who would rather have that old portrait of Paul VI on their office walls.  The Vatican Curia is an incredibly lean machine… a bureaucracy, yes, but a very spare one.  It is very firmly entrenched, difficult to pull in another direction. 

Some time ago I wrote that Pope Benedict had chosen one of WDTPRS’s favorite Cardinals, His Eminence Joseph Card. Zen Ze-Kiun to write the Good Friday meditations for the Popes Station of the Cross held yearly at the Colosseum.  Clearly this is a matter of great favor and importance, given how the evocative Good Friday Stations is one of the most viewed papal events of the whole year.  The choice of Cardinal Zen is packed with possibilities.

To say I look forward to these meditations smacks of understatement.

Let’s have a look at a piece posted by Paolo Rodari of Il Riformista about this fascinating choice.

Here is Rodari’s article in my translation.

The Pope Realpolitick toward China passes to the Via Crucis at the Colosseum

Paolo Rodari

Facts support that Benedict XVI, with his hallmark political pragmatism, values especially relations with Beijing in an attempt to safeguard as much as possible the difficult lot of the Catholic Chinese.

Beyond sending, in May of last year, a historic letter to Catholics in that country, in which for the first time important openings were made by the Holy See to Beijing and to the Church taking the governments line (in addition to this Church, in China there lives in the midst of a thousand difficulties another, underground Church), it is foreseen for the upcoming Stations of the Cross on Good Friday at the Colosseum that Benedict XVI will send  beyond the Great Wall another signal worthy of note.

To pen the meditations, in fact – and this choice is obviously entirely Ratzinger’s – will be the Bishop of Hong Kong, Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun, 76, born Yang King-pang in the Diocese of Shanghai.

Zen became bishop of the Diocese of Hong Kong in 2002, after being in Hong Kong as Coadjutor since September 1996, a year before the return of the city to Chinese mainland control.

And when, on 22 February 2006, Benedict XVI announced the surprising intention to give him the Cardinal’s biretta, it was well understood that the Pope was counting on the new Cardinal to work amidst the difficult relations between the Holy See and Beijing.  Zen’s words after the announcement of the Pope, in fact, demonstrate this desire: "This nomination", the Chinese Cardinal said, "is a sign of good will and of the Pope’s affection for all of China.  And if I accept it, I accept it for all China.  I am already nearly 75 and I was thinking to retire.  Now I don’t know what will happen to me.  But we stand at attention and obey our orders.  Perhaps the Pope will have need for advice once in a while.  There is a great deal to be done regarding China."

It is beyond question too much to say that the choice of Zen to pen the Good Friday meditations is a hand extended by the Holy See to a country that, in all ways, seeks to show to the West a democratic face (included in this attempt is also the difficult organization of the Olympics).

Still, a Chinese bishop coming after the illustrious names of Angelo Comastri (2006) and Gianfranco Ravasi (2007) offers his own reflections for one of the papal events most closely followed by the world, remains a publicity opportunity that China can in some way play with on the level of image.  [In other words, China has no choice but to ‘spin’ this in as positive light as possible.]

Still, on balance among Chinese prelates Zen is the one characterized by a line of greater realism regarding Beijing.  A line, namely, that absolutely does not want to hide the sufferings of so-called underground Catholics. Zen, in fact, from the position of strength he has earned in this issue, has often chosen openly to criticize Beijing.   Even though in Hong Kong Catholics are only 5 percent of the population, the Cardinal has often shown, as faithful son of St. John Bosco he is, a courageous social commitment, thanks to which he has become one of the most respected and influential figures – and even feared – in the city.  It wasn’t by chance that in 2002 he was voted to be "person of the year", receiving in the newspapers the singular place of "the moral conscience" of Hong Kong.

Beijing is a government that tends to respect tough figures, intransigent in certain issues, like Zen.  And even though the day in which he received the Cardinal’s red various observers saw in his controversial character an obstacle to relations with Beijing, Benedict XVI instead red precisely in the fine points of this not easy character that authority which Beijing requires from every interlocutor.

In was in 1999 that Zen’s line toward Beijing came to the fore in way evident to all.  At that time there were arrested various exponents of a movement for "residence rights" for children of residents of Hong Kong born in China.  Zen took a public position against these arrests and actually got to the point of encouraging hunger strikes and sit-in demonstrations.  No religious leader had ever dared so much.

Zen has many times expressed his favor about the letter sent by the Pope to Chinese Catholics.  In particular, he saw as positive the desire of Pope Benedict XVI to welcome, after long years of forced separation, the very large majority of bishops of the official Church into the one Catholic Church.  "The Church in China", he said on the occasion of the 2005 Synod of Bishops, "apparently divide in two, one official recognize by the government and one clandestine which refuses to be independent from Rome, is in reality only one Church, because all want to be in unity with the Pope".  It is hoped, then, that also Beijing will accept this desire for unity "even if" he said, "the ‘conservative’ elements in the official Church resisting it, for obvious motives of self-interest."

I find it really interesting that the Pope chose Card. Zen for this globally visible role on the even of the Beijing Olympics. 

Rodari dismisses the idea that this choice is actually a positive extension of a hand to Beijing. 

Having Zen in the spotlight at Good Friday, which underscores Christ’s suffering, will automatically also underscore suffering and human rights in China. 

No matter what, China must put a positive spin on this choice, given the need to present the very best face to the West, including especially the Holy See, before the Summer Olympics.

A statue Galileo is being set up in the grounds of the Vatican Gardens.  The idea is to "close the Galileo affair".   Right.  That’s gonna work.

Still, this is an interesting development.

Galileo statue to be installed at the Vatican

Galileo Galilei

Vatican City, Mar 6, 2008 / 07:10 am (CNA).- The Vatican plans to erect a statue of the 15th century scientist Galileo in the Vatican gardens, the Times reports.

The statue will stand near the apartment in which the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was incarcerated while awaiting trial in 1633.  He was charged with advocating heliocentrism, the theory of Copernicus that the Earth revolves around the Sun.  Though he was not tortured or executed, as some believe, he was forced to recant by the Roman Inquisition.

Nicola Cabibbo, a nuclear physicist who heads the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, explained the motive for the statue. “The Church wants to close the Galileo affair and reach a definitive understanding not only of his great legacy but also of the relationship between science and faith,” he said.

Professor Cabibbo said that the statue was appropriate because Galileo had been one of the founders of the Lincei Academy, a forerunner of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, in 1603.

The statue installation, which is being privately funded, precedes a series of celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s invention of the telescope.  Events include a Vatican conference on Galileo to be attended by 40 international scientists and a re-examination of the Galileo trial at a Florence institute run by the Society of Jesus, some of whose members were on the tribunal that declared Galileo suspect of heresy.
 
In January of this year, Pope Benedict XVI canceled a visit to La Sapienza University in Rome after faculty and students accused him of defending the condemnation of Galileo.  They cited a speech he made at La Sapienza in 1990, where as a cardinal he discussed how modernity had begun to doubt itself.  The then-Cardinal Ratzinger cited as evidence of this self-doubt the philosopher Paul Feyerabend, who called Galileo’s prosecution for heresy “rational and just.”

The Vatican insisted the protesters had misquoted the Pope, and later research suggested the protesters used an erroneous article posted on the internet encyclopedia Wikipedia as their source.  The protesters were widely condemned across Italy, with 200,000 people rallying behind the Pope on the Sunday following the canceled speech.

If, by the way, you are interested in learning something about Galilieo, you might try reading Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel.