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

Just when the Catholic Cathedral in Cardiff hits the LMS from the blind side, over in Winchester, at the Anglican Cathedral, something very different is happening.

I got this e-mail from a kind reader:

It is reported that this is how the forthcoming Mass at Winchester Cathedral on Saturday 21st June
at 11 a.m. came about:
 
It seems that some Anglican members of the Choir at Winchester Cathedral are particularly interested in the liturgy and they wanted to have a Mass in thanksgiving for the Motu Proprio. One is an acquaintance of the people who organise Masses for the Latin Mass Society in Canterbury Cathedral.  [Did you get that?  Anglicans are thankful for Summo[]rum Pontificum and want to celebrate it.]

The Dean and Chapter were all in favour and agreed.  So the Cathedral Choir will be singing a Polyphonic Mass with Gregorian Chant. Bishop Hollis was consulted and apparently agreed to the plan as long as it was a one-off.  [Bp. Hollis of Portsmouth is definitely not known as a strong conservative, but my friends in the Portsmouth diocese tell me that even before Summorum Pontificum he never said no to celebrations of the older form of Mass. ] The Celebrant is the former Abbot of Belmont, the Rev Dr laurence Hemming from London will be Deacon and a priest from Marlborough will be Sub Deacon.

This is what I call true ecumenical dialogue!
 

The inimitable Amy Welborn   o{]:¬)   gave me the heads up on this entry at The Bovina Bloviator.

The writer is a recent convert, from last Easter.

Sunday, May 18, 2008Is it Possible to be More Catholic than This?
Image from the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny.

Permit me to answer that question: No, especially when the Mass is the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Latin), celebrated, as it has been every Sunday (10 A.M.) since 1988, at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Shrine on East 115th Street in East Harlem. Your Bloviator had the pleasure of attending Low Mass (server only, no deacon) there this morning and was awestruck by it all. The church is in superb condition and while the attendance was low, it was heartening to see a contingent of about thirty teenagers, students from the church’s nearby school who, it was explained to me, are brought to the Latin Mass twice a month by their teacher (may God richly reward that man for what he is doing). Considering their age and attendant energy, they behaved like lambs; they even got the kneeling, standing and sitting right. The only thing lacking from this exquisite scene was a nun in traditional habit wielding the clicker.

Following the Mass, your Bloviator had the additional pleasure of meeting Professor William Tighe and the celebrant, Fr. John Halborg. Over coffee, the three of us did damage to a box of donuts and discussed matters churchy and theological although your Bloviator felt a bit out of his league among those two learned men.

It would be a good thing if more people attended the Tridentine Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Fr. Halborg told me on a good Sunday around fifty people show up but the Church can probably accommodate twenty times that many. The neighborhood, formerly Italian, went through a wretched stretch from the ‘seventies through the ‘nineties and fear of crime may still keep people away; indeed, I was last in that part of town a dozen years ago and it was a scary experience. That is no longer the case, nowadays things are considerably improved. I walked a good part of the way to the church and found a peaceful, stable Hispanic neighborhood with mothers and fathers and kids in strollers enjoying the fine May morning. Former Mayor Giuliani’s war on crime has reaped rich dividends for the good people of East Harlem.

So if you live in the New York area, take in the Tridentine Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel (and while you’re at it, drop some bucks into the basket, I’m sure they can use it). The experience of praying the Mass in the proper language, in such a glorious and inspiring venue, was a precious gift to this newly-minted Catholic. For those veteran fisheaters who rightfully feel discouraged at times by the banalities of modern worship, I urge you: go be refreshed by Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

(To learn more about the shrine visit this marvelous site.)

The next time I am in NYC, perhaps it would be possible to visit there.

I got a question from a reader. This comes up once in a while.  I guess I really need a better blog template with a search feature.

Dear Father,

First of all, I want to say that I love your blog.  It’s really informative and a great source of Latin Mass information!

However, I’ve been wondering about receiving Communion at SSPX Masses—I saw your blog post from a while back where you basically said you’d advise anyone attending an SSPX chapel for Mass not to receive Holy Communion.  I agree with this.  But you also seemed to say that ultimately, the choice to receive Holy Communion was up to the individual.  I apologize if I misunderstood, though.  At any rate, I know a lot of people who think that it’s ok to receive Holy Communion there (these individuals might go to SSPX chapels on very rare occasions).  But even so, since their Masses are illicit, that would make their sacraments sacrilegious (despite their validity), wouldn’t it?  And so wouldn’t anyone receiving Communion from an SSPX priest (unless in danger of death) objectively be committing sacrilege?  Why don’t people seem to be aware of that?  Would it reduce their culpability by not knowing?  And I guess the bottom line here is, why don’t things seem to be so cut-and-dry regarding this situation?

The choice to receive Communion is always an individual choice, even if a person is under censure or in the state of mortal sin.  Only in rare circumstances is it up to the minister of Communion not to administer It.

Under normal circumstances if people attend Mass at a chapel which not in explicit union with Rome, or which Rome has identified as okay for inter-Communion, I advise that they do not receive Communion.

Yes, even if the Mass is valid.  Manifest unity with the Bishop of Rome is very important.  The SSPX, if it is not a schismatic group – and we are told by high authority they are not – does not have manifest unity with Rome.

However, there may be those circumstances in which a person is impeded, physically or morally, from attending an approved Catholic church or chapel and from receiving Holy Communion. By a "moral" impediment I can envision that either there is a personal reason why a person can’t go to parish X, or that the Mass there is celebrated with so many abuses that one can’t overcome repugnance, etc.  By physical impediment I mean something like distance.   In any event the impediment must be real, not just an excuse.  God cannot be fooled.

In those cases, when a person has been without Holy Communion for a grave reason, and for a long time, and it is a burden, or there is the obligation to receive Communion according to the Church’s law (at least once a year), then a person could receive at such a chapel.  This would be similar to a person in a country where there are few or no Catholic churches, such as in Greece, where one would have a preponderance of Orthodox churches.  Optimal? No.  But the good of one’s soul requires some leeway.

I hope and pray for greater manifest unity between Rome and the SSPX.  These folks can do a great deal to accelerate the good changes which will occur as a result of Summorum Pontificum and the efforts of our Holy Father.  It is time to start effecting change from within.

Are their Masses "sacrilegious" because they are not celebrated in perfect union with the Roman Pontiff?

No, I don’t think they are.  They are certainly irregular.  But in most cases I think they want, they tend to unity with Pope even if they don’t manifest that desire through obedience.   If they were sacrilegious, I would say no one could ever go.  So, I think we have to set aside the category of "sacrilege".  Not everything done in disobedience is automatically sacrilegious.

It is far more likely that you could find a Mass celebrated in a sacrilegious manner, because of liturgical abuses, where the Novus Ordo is being twisted beyond recognition.  And there are such Masses, as that video from Call To Action demonstrated. 

There just aren’t easy answers to any of this.  Indeed, so much could be cleared up by a softening of hearts, an opening of minds, and clear, unequivocal submission to the Roman Pontiff.

Here is a little promotion.  I got some new via e-mail:

Hello Fr. Z!

Things continue to form well on our upcoming inaugural Tridentine Latin Mass.  It will be held on Sunday, June 8th, 2 pm (Eastern Time) at the Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Tallahassee, Florida.  It is a one-time mass, but if successful will lead to other TLMs in the future, and then hopefully a permanent one for our eastern section of the Diocese.

If you are within striking distance of Tallahassee you might consider participating in this Holy Mass according to the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

I got this question from a reader in Alaska:

Father Z,

I’ve been reading your blog in the effort to find this myself and it sounds like the Portland, OR area might work out for me (?)  I still pray for the return of the tra