In the Wall Street Journal today…
Pope Francis, the Latin Mass and My Family
We are loyal children of the church on the receiving end of a harsh punishment.
By Matthew Walther[…]
When Benedict issued “Summorum pontificum,” those attached to the old rite had been treated as pariahs for nearly 40 years. Since then it has become common for traditionally minded priests to be put in charge of vocations or diocesan marriage tribunals.
This explains why so many of us who have come of age during the “Summorum pontificum” era feel as if the sun has fallen from the sky. Dozens of people have told me that last Friday was the worst day of their lives. My wife was one of them.
My family and thousands like us are obedient sons and daughters of the church. We cheerfully make sacrifices for the faith, but now we are on the receiving end of a harsh punishment that would never be meted out to those who openly defy papal teaching on abortion, for instance. As liberal Catholics gloated, these words from St. John Henry Newman came to mind: “Why should an aggressive and insolent faction be allowed to make the hearts of the just to mourn whom the Lord hath not made sorrowful? Why can’t we be let alone when we have pursued peace and thought no evil?”
[…]
I want to know…
In Westminster Archdiocese things are taking immediate effect. Cardinal Vincent Nichols has written to all priests of the Archdiocese stating that if any wish to offer the TLM they must write to him seeking permission and give reasons for their request.
I imagine few requests will be granted.
Sorry Maximillian but what you say is incorrect. Cardinal Nichols has given a general consent for all existing Latin Masses and their priests to continue as before without seeking new permission. New Priests who want to say the TLM must ask for leave but that is because of TC and is not the fault of Cardinal Nichols
St. John Henry Newman’s poignant question mirrors our daily prayer, which I’ve had cause to ponder far more immediately in recent days than ever before:
–>”I want to know…”
It is a second chance.
If one has Faith, one knows that Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition exist(s) as source(s) of Revelation; that is to say they are given by God the Father to man as a means of disclosing to us things that pertain to Himself, and ultimately Himself in the giving of the Incarnate Son of the Father, Jesus, whose very person is the fullness of the revelation of the Father. Now whether or not one goes along with Ratzinger’s famous statement that the Liturgy is an independent stream of Revelation, or it is a subcategory of Sacred Tradition, the Liturgy still exists as the work not made by human hands which man is PERMITTED to participate in. The Liturgy of the Mass is the Divine act of the Son, through the Spirit, to the Father, an act of total love and glorification of the Father. Through the Incarnation, this act of the Son has become both Divine Sacrifice for man’s sins and the Mystical Marriage by which the human soul is united with God.
Therefore, and wholly independently of any discussion on the legitimacy of the NO Mass and its supporting theology, the attempted rejection, suppression, and elimination of that which is the very beating heart of the Faith (with the dispersion that it leads to bad theology) is truly a rejection of God’s very own gift of Himself to man.
TC is not just an attack on the ancient Liturgy of the Roman people but it is an attack on a principle of Faith that the Liturgy (independently of the Rite that it is expressed in) comes to us from God and is His activity not our activity.
TC’s hot wind exists not as punishment but as a second chance. Independently of any discussion on the NO and supporting theology, a generation ago the Melchizedek Priesthood of the Roman Church, by and large, walked away from God’s gift, and with large sectors of the episcopate/presbyterate seeking to void the very Deposit of Faith, lex orandi lex credendi lex vivendi, that consists of the Sacred Liturgy (the heart), the Sacred Theology (the mind), and the action of Faith (the body) by refusing to hand on God’s Revelation and instead “sing a new VII church into being”.
So TC exists as a second chance, a “Peter do you love me?”, if I might. Does the Liturgy come from God, or does it not? Wrong answer. Because I love you, choose again.
It all seems like yet another “pest” during which we should continue to pray the Stella caeli extirpavit.
One humble priest’s pain. Fr Sergio, a young priest but with holy gravitas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERvEkLmA4zU
Did Father Z use a pun to reference a CCR song?
[The lyrics fit.]
Between articles such as this and Dorothy Rabinowitz’ reporting on Father MacRae, the Wall Street Journal has become an oddly reliable source of news for Catholics.
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