This is interesting. His Excellency Most Reverend Salvatore Cordileone arranged for multiple Masses to be celebrated simultaneously on the plaza in front of the Cathedral of San Francisco. Alas, these Masses were versus populum, but they were Masses in what I call authentic concelebration.
San Francisco has strict orders limiting worship services, so Archbishop Cordileone has begun offering simultaneous Masses on the cathedral plaza. https://t.co/KjmHZxvcO8 Our story from @catholic_sf via @AngelusNews pic.twitter.com/idfZVw1PK9
— Catholic News Service (@CatholicNewsSvc) August 19, 2020
It is interesting that as COVID-1984 mania is still being weaponized against the people, some in the Church are figuring out that the old ways have value.
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This pictures of individual priests celebrating mass is exactly the reason VII was wise to reform the liturgy. The photos leave the impression that the liturgy is the work of the priest and not the whole Church. Priests are of the order of Melchizedek not Levi. The mass is not the same thing as traditional Jewish temple worship. The liturgy is not the priests’ own solipsistic show – that is in’s private prayer and contemplation.
There is a place for private masses of course as when a priest is on vacation, unable to celebrate in public. But these displays are liturgically problematic and is why the reform of the liturgy needed to happen so people have a better understanding of what the liturgy is.
[Top to very bottom, absurd in every syllable.]
“It is interesting that as COVID-1984 mania is still being weaponized against the people, some in the Church are figuring out that the old ways have value.” Possibly the value of Acts 4:19 is looming into view.
From the standpoint of authentic Catholic moral theology, I am wondering just how obedient we have to be to the secular authorities. As things stand, the bishop obeys the governor, the priests obey the bishop, and the people have been deprived of the sacraments, or at least receiving them has been made very difficult. The result, I fear, is that when things open up, many who were weak in faith to begin with will not be coming back, nor those who needed inaccessible grace and were swallowed up by some moral calamity. Almost certainly there will be loss, and it may be great loss.
Now in the days of the Roman empire, this or that person would receive a message from the Emperor commanding him to commit suicide. Was he morally obliged to commit suicide? Obviously not. Yet he would do so, of course, on the grounds that slitting one’s wrists is less painful than crucifixion.
Now, if we receive a message from the governor to, in effect, commit ecclesial suicide, how great is our obligation? The governor may not at all be aware, as we are, of what she is really asking, nor have the least intent to suffocate the Church. Yet, we ARE aware of the implications of these possibly well-intended commands. If we obey, we (that is, too many of us) suffocate as spiritual suicides. If we disobey, our churches may be (will be) shut down and we will be “killed.”
In all of this, where is the thread of God’s will to be found? We are commanded to worship God. Surely at some point we can say in good conscience, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge” (Acts 4:19).
Maybe things will open up soon, after all. If not, at what point does our obedience to the state become disobedience to God? Surely we are not obliged to obey to the point of self-extinction.
Is there any discussion of this quandry in the learned journals of the Church? What does traditional moral theology have to say to us about all this?
While I appreciate much of what the bishop said, and what he tried to give the faithful, I still am greatly disappointed that all the bishops in this country, or as a group in each state, rise up and fight the injustice, not just bemoan it. Get lawsuits, or simply say, our churches will be open, and our faithful should come.
They can’t arrest everyone.
Call it a peaceful protest.
What is happening is just wrong, and I feel like so many are just bowing before these unjust rulers.
Should say “don’t rise up …”