At LifeSite I read some quite simply shocking, and yet not really that surprising, given the source.
After the bishops of the Italian region of Umbria urged priests to continue to say Mass privately during this COVID challenge, the liberal logorheaic bomb-thrower Massimo “Beans” Faggioli – publicly on Twitter – compared priests saying Mass privately to self-abuse.
He apparently deleted the tweet, but Joseph Shaw of the UK’s Latin Mass Society posted a screenshot.
In addition to this being insulting, cruel and in bad taste, it is blasphemous, all the more grave because it was deliberate, public and about the most holy things that we have from Christ Himself, Eucharist and priesthood.
It is incredible that someone claiming to be Catholic would ever post something like that. Beans seems not to have an unpublished thought. It remains hard to grasp, however, that such a thing would even enter into the mind of someone who is Catholic. There is no way that that comparison can share space in the mind with even a fundamental grasp of the effects of every Holy Mass, private or thronged with congregants.
Pray for this poor man. Perhaps this was just an instance of a clever guy being so enamored of his own wit that he momentarily lost his his wits and posted that monumentally blasphemous comment.
This display of animus will forever be hung around his neck.
Since this was a public comment, he needs publicly to apologize. Perhaps he has done so already, but I haven’t seen it.
Meanwhile, let’s bring a positive from this disgusting event.
I suggest to all the priests out there who read this, that they begin to say this “Statement of Intention” before every Mass, if they don’t already. It is also in breviaries and in the Missale Romanum, even the Novus Ordo edition, among the priest’s preparatory prayers before Mass.
| Ego volo celebrare Missam, et conficere Corpus et Sanguinem Domini nostri Iesu Christi, iuxta ritum sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae, ad laudem omnipotentis Dei totiusque Curiae triumphantis, ad utilitatem meam totiusque Curiae militantis, pro omnibus, qui se commendaverunt orationibus meis in genere et in specie, et pro felici statu sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae. | My purpose is to celebrate Mass and to confect the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the rite of the holy Roman Church to the praise of almighty God and of all the Church Triumphant (in Heaven), for my good and for the good of all the Church Militant (on Earth), and for all who have commended themselves to my prayers in general and in particular, and for the favorable state of the holy Roman Church. |
| Gaudium cum pace, emendationem vitae, spatium verae paenitentiae, gratiam et consolationem Sancti Spiritus, perseverantiam in bonis operibus, tribuat nobis omnipotens et misericors Dominus. Amen | May the almighty and merciful Lord grant us joy with peace, amendment of life, time for true repentance, the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit and perseverance in good works. Amen. |
I’ll keep the moderation queue ON.
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He’s a jackass. Doesn’t mean I’m not one too, but that’s just what it is.
In the meantime, I want to express my personal gratitude and appreciation for all the priests who are celebrating and offering Masses for all of us. Thank you all.
Ugh. Not just another blow in the scourging but a spear aimed at the heart. Unspeakable.
That poor man. Revealing the hideous contents of his soul in such an embarrassing way.
St. Peter Damian wrote a letter, “Dominus Vobiscum,” which addresses the validity of the private Mass. Maybe Beans can take a lesson from a Doctor of the Church. Maybe.
In the Divine Liturgy, there must be at least one other person present for responses. It may never be celebrated privately. Is this true for the Latin rite as well?
[It is always better to have someone else present. However, for a good reason a priest can say Mass without another human being present. A good reason is, as John Paul underscored, he wants to say Mass. And the angels are there. They are people, too!]
So priest hermits never existed, if we believe Beans.
Besides – don’t ever let a beautiful side altar go to waste
I can remember priests fulminating against Masses without the people a quarter of a century ago, saying that they’d rather not celebrate Mass at all than celebrate without a congregation, even on a day of precept. I can even remember hearing talk about the need to cut back on “unnecessary Masses,” which presumably starts with eliminating Masses without the people.
The liberals, who think they are the wave of the future, are stuck firmly in the past.
I think that you nailed it, Father. Whether this was on purpose or not, we need to pray for him, fervently. Adding him to my Rosary intentions.
Perhaps, for those who need to have the most obvious truth explained to them, should read Pope Paul VI, who writes in his encyclical “Mysterium Fidei”:
“32. Each and every Mass is not something private, even if a priest celebrates it privately; instead, it is an act of Christ and of the Church. In offering this sacrifice, the Church learns to offer herself as a sacrifice for all and she applies the unique and infinite redemptive power of the sacrifice of the Cross to the salvation of the whole world. For every Mass that is celebrated is being offered not just for the salvation of certain people, but also for the salvation of the whole world. The conclusion from this is that even though active participation by many faithful is of its very nature particularly fitting when Mass is celebrated, still there is no reason to criticize but rather only to approve a Mass that a priest celebrates privately for a good reason in accordance with the regulations and legitimate traditions of the Church.”
Let’s hope the words of this Pope are not too outdated for some of our “progressive theologians”.
I have heard other say, and I agree, that the last few years and increasingly so, God is unmasking all of the corruption within Catholicism for all of us to see. Exhibit A.
To paraphrase H.L. Mencken:
Liberal Academic Catholicism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, is celebrating Mass without a congregation.
Well said, Anita, but it goes further back than that. I clearly remember this drivel being articulated by the sixties priests when I was in high school back then.
They are as addicts of the erroneous.
Worth recalling once in a while antidotally.
On top of that black tower of the devil in the kingdom of the Anti-Christ, after all those centuries of extermination, there stood a priest in amice and alb, maniple, chasuble, girdle and stole, heir in a noble line of Christ’s servants, clad in their symbols of chastity, charity, honor and faith. The figure of Christ’s cross lay on his back. The anointment of Christ was on his soul. Before him was his altar, his case topped with altar stone and missal and chalice. On it lay the corporal with the wafer he had made from the wheat he had grown. By it stood the two cruets of water and wine. He waited until first there was a streak of light across the east. Then he bowed down before his altar. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. The Mass had begun. He was keeping his promise to bring God back to earth…. The mobs surge about the base of the tower….Veni sanctificator omnipotens, aeterne Deus. Come Thou Who makest holy, almighty and eternal God… He is beseeching the blessing of the Holy Spirit….And now the priest comes to the words that shall bring Christ to earth again. His head almost touches his altar: Hoc est enim corpus meum…
Before VII, wasn’t saying mass every day compulsory, with or without a server, or congregation? Participating in a sacrament, if we are in the state of grace is sanctifying.
It was years ago, but I can remember Sister saying, that going to confession, without any sin on your conscience, was a good thing because it brought blessings on you. She even recommended, that when passing a church where there was a funeral mass, and you knew no one there, go in and pray for the dead. Doesn’t this Beans fellow realize that all sacraments were given to us by God, and it pleases Him that we use them.
I infer that the Bishops of Umbria did something right; can someone point me to what that might have been?
Blasphemy seems to make you one of The Cool Kids under the present Vatican regime.
My bishop stated that “Pastors (or a priest they designate) will celebrate Mass every day in their parish churches with only one altar server in attendance.”
So they may have someone to give the responses.
I have heard of cases of people wandering into the church during a private Mass and not being made to leave. And then I have heard of parishioners who heard about this reporting it to secular authorities. Hearsay I will admit. I hope I heard wrong.
I some how made it through a public high school, and then college, very naive. I frequently have to look up terms I don’t know, which I then regret knowing are in my search history. I guess in this case I can at least take comfort in the fact that the answer didn’t come from Urban Dictionary, for once.
That aside. Wow.
Who is his Ordinary? Mr. Faggioli published this very openly. Is there any reason we should not be collectively “encouraging” his bishop to address this promptly and without any form of ambivalence or reservation whatsoever.
Lastly, even overlooking the blasphemy, how is it possible for his theology to be so twisted? I could understand his position if access to the sacraments was being deliberately withheld. In fact, I can understand to some degree many of the heresies and heterodox positions persisting within the Church today.
I can not remotely understand even the suggestion, much less the repeated insistence, that at a time when the Mass for serious practical reasons can not be celebrated with a congregation, it is wrong to celebrate it privately.
Beans is Catholic, who knew????
Before VII, wasn’t saying mass every day compulsory, with or without a server, or congregation?
No. It was never compulsory, “only” a pious practice, but as back then noone but Protestants had told them Mass was worth nothing without a congregation, they generally (it seems) did this pious practice, though perhaps not every day.
As for compulsory, though, to those without cure of souls it was compulsory qua being priest a couple of days a year, on the highest feast days. In Venice, “the red-haired priest” Antonio Vivaldi, known for some other accomplishments of his, devoutly prayed his Breviary (according to a sermon by Pope Benedict) but having obtained a dispensation due to ill-health never said Mass at all. – As for “without a server”, that was forbidden until it was allowed in 1983 for a just cause (such as wishing to celebrate one’s daily Mass and no server being at hand). There may have been dispensations, though.
We are, I guess, the first time in history where some dioceses have obliged all of their priests to a daily Mass, as some have, until the lockdown is over. Of course, some newer developments may in fact be good developments.
Professor Robert De Mattei described Beans Faggioli as a “makeshift theologian” in his book Love for the Papacy and filial resistance to the Pope, likely because of his lack of any degree in theology and therefore any qualifications to teach theology in a Catholic University.
I think the aforesaid term describes Beans best, although the term “Onanist” comes a close second.
It is hard to understand why the libs are so worked up about private masses. Unless it is because they are worried priests will start learning Latin or even the Extraordinary Form, without Susan from the Parish Council there to complain to the bishop.
[I believe you have put your finger on the bruise.]
After decades of the Left sexualizing children, now there is Faggioli’s blasphemy.
Faggioli has strayed into the territory of Aleister Crowley, Thelema, the “Gnostic Mass” and Liber XV (No need to go into graphic details. Liber XV, the text of the “Gnostic Mass,” was written in Moscow, Russia in 1913).
Faggioli should remember that there is a Heaven and there is a Hell. Neither are empty.
If Fr Z does not mind, here is the link to the original Italian statement
http://www.chiesainumbria.it/vescovi-umbri-alla-pandemia-del-coronavirus-sostituiamo-la-pandemia-della-preghiera-e-della-tenerezza/
as requested by Marc in Eugene above.
I think there may be more to Beans’s response than JonPatrick suggests above although that is doubtless part of the concern. [Nothing can excuse his blasphemous response.]
The points made by the bishops are good I think, although I need to read it through fully as I have only skimmed towards the end. They should also be uncontroversial. But they also read a little like a rebuttal to possible claims and complaints from the more liberal that Mass without a congregation present is somehow invalid.
If I did not have to spend today working from home I would try and produce a translation but no doubt someone more skilled than I may do anyway.