From a reader….
QUAERITUR:
Was Pope Benedict’s Funeral really a valid Mass? or just ugly?Cardinal Re was named as Celebrant, but Pope Francis, in Cope and stole, (not Chasuble) led the entire Liturgy of the Word and everything post- Communion. The Cardinal only spoke from the Offertory through Communion.
Yes, it was a valid Mass. Cardinal Re, Dean of the College of Cardinals, celebrated the Mass. Francis “presided”. Even in the Vetus Ordo there were ways in which a bishop, such as the local ordinary, could preside at a Mass celebrated by a priest or another bishop and, as presider, would have a role at certain moments, such blessing the water for the chalice while still seated in his place.
You asked if it was valid OR just ugly? These two are not mutually exclusive. It was both valid AND ugly.
I tried NOT to watch it, but I didn’t sleep well that night. I got up and saw some of the live stream and I reviewed parts I didn’t see.
For a man like Ratzinger… a pope like Benedict… the music was underwhelming. I leave aside the shockingly generic and abbreviated homily. The choice to use the 3rd Eucharistic Prayer instead of the Roman Canon was tantamount to an insult, all the blather aside about how Benedict used it from time to time and how “wonderful” it is supposed to be. It was the first time in over a thousand years that the Roman Canon wasn’t used for the exequys of the Roman Bishop.
Some might want to interject that Benedict was humble and he wanted a humble Mass. Humble doesn’t mean insulting.
His scriptis, there have been lovely Masses celebrated elsewhere for the repose of the soul of Benedict XVI, about whose admittance to the Beatific Vision we can be reasonably confident. He surely had, in his final agony, the last sacraments and the Apostolic Blessing. He had devoted himself to prayer and penance in his last years. Yes, I think we can be confident. Furthermore, I think that fama sanctitatis will continue to grow. I hope to see many fruits in the life of the Church from his intercession.
They may have stopped him in life, but they can’t stop him now.
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At any other moment in my more than seventy years I would not have missed a moment of the events of the last week, let alone the funeral and burial.
I did not watch a second of any of it because I knew what would be dished out and I’ve ingested as much as I can over the last almost ten years. All that I have read of our farewell to Pope Benedict and our commendation of him to our Eternal Father has confirmed my fears. Among the reports and not to be missed at Rorate Caeli is a posting entitled “The Funeral Rites of Benedict XVI and the Many Petty Gestures of Francis: Francis’ Petty Heart,” a report by one Caminante Wanderer of Argentina posted January 5, 2023.
Agonizing.
Fact checkers have reported that EP III was used at the funeral of Pope John Paul I.
The final insult of the Dark One to the Doberman of the Faith.
How sad and pathetic must one be to heap insults upon one’s predecessor by intentionally belittling his funeral? We’re not quite at “dig him up and throw him in the Tiber” levels of pathetic, but not that far from it, either. Whatever the antonym for “magnanimous” is, it should be changed to “Francist.” Someone call up Ebenezer Scrooge’s ghosts – I have a Francist soul they need to try haunting. . . .
As bad as what you saw the German broadcast was worst. They talked over every part. They translated the songs.
The thing is they would not talk over an Italian opera to tell you the plot or information about the conductor and the singers.
“Some might want to interject that Benedict was humble and he wanted a humble Mass.”
This particular feature of modernity is one of the ones that agitates me to no end. Humilty, according to St. Thomas, is the virtue of knowledge of one’s own station. To prefer simplicity of ceremony as one who bears the very height of rank is actually prideful, and deeply so. We are supposed to get over ourselves for the sake of our “Munus.”
“Humble doesn’t mean insulting.”
As soon as I read the words, “he has requested simple rites,” I knew what these people would get up to. It seems to me that the great tragedy of Benedict’s pontificate was the fatal flaw of the speculative thinker dating back to Thales:
“When Thales was leaving his house to look at the stars he fell into a ditch; while he was bewailing the fact an old woman remarked to him: “You, O Thales, cannot see what is at your feet and you expect to see what is in the heavens?” – from St. Thomas’ Commentary on the Nichomachean Ethics
Father, your last sentence is the best comment I’ve read about the death of His Holiness.
Benedict was the center of attention, however inadvertently, and we can’t have that.
There is a malevolence that is completely evident. It’s all over pretty much everything that comes out of Rome, and certainly this sad funeral. I didn’t watch the funeral but it was no surprise how it went, it was very predictable, as a matter of fact. It lends a lot of credibility to the rumor that Benedict was pretty much a prisoner and now that thought is a little horrifying, when anyone can see how they really felt about him by this pathetic sendoff. How they hated him.
Ostentatious humility, it’s a joke. When you hold a high office it’s not about you as much as it is the office, Fr. Z you made that good point a few years ago. You sublimate your personal wishes for the sake of the office. That is completely contrary to how it’s going in Rome today. It’s a one-man show with a lot of scared rabbits.
Rorate-Caeli had a good recap: https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-somewhat-sad-funeral-of-benedict.html
It wasn’t ugly but it was odd. The Sistine choir looked like they were hastely summoned from their blue collar jobs. One could not tell who the heads of state or representatives were. The body was moved to St. Peter’s in a van. Barely could hear bells. The Gospel was not sung in Greek as well.
Even if Pope Benedict was no longer Pope he was at one time a Head of State.
At the end of the Mass it felt like I had just witnessed a weekday Mass at a Parish and an old gentleman who had no family was being buried.
The whole feeling was very strange and that was just from watching it.
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I was infuriated over what I had read about the funeral and Pope Francis’ behavior. When I told my wife about it she asked why would he behave that way and I said because he is a b…. , also that he is so mean. I’m troubled as to whether that was a grave sin. I confessed it to God personally. I’m hesitant to confess it to a priest. Must I?
I have been wondering how many lovely TLM’s he has had said for his soul. What a beautiful blessing. What a legacy he leaves behind. May God reward him!
Interesting that Vaclav Klaus although an atheist seems to “get it” more than many Catholics do, sadly.
We had an accidental canonization for him at Mass yesterday. The guy doing the Prayer of the Faithful accidentally called him, “Pope St. Benedict XVI”. We had a visiting priest who was very orthodox and didn’t look too impressed, but I could see it was an accident. A Freudian slip, perhaps.
First off I didn’t watch as I expected I would be disappointed and annoyed. Fortunately I don’t think the world was subjected to pious appearances by Biden, Pelosi and the like. If they were in attendance surely it would have been front page news that I have not seen.
Having watched almost all the ceremonies for my Queen last September, I thought it would be remiss of me not to watch Benedict’s funeral. I had to work at the time of the live stream but the following day I watched EWTN’s broadcast on YouTube.
One of the commentators noted the “beautiful liturgy”. Well, ok…I know it is inappropriate for commentators to make critical remarks during the live broadcast of a funeral. I guess it was quite beautiful as the NO goes. I know from my own experience that when you’ve grown used to hearing EP2 or EP10 at almost every mass, the use of EP3 can feel like water in the desert. I would have liked, say, a traditional requiem mass with the music of Benedict’s beloved Mozart, as in this FSSP video:
https://youtu.be/CPGx76vR414
Per Fr. Z’s last, “You can’t win Darth – if you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”
I watched the funeral of the late Queen but I knew better than to watch the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI. We had three proper Requiem Masses at our parish on the day and will have the Month’s Mind Mass towards the end of January. There’s a high probability that Pope Benedict XVI is praying for the conversion of the Pope, Bishops and priests, as we all should do. The current pontificate is in a very sad state and needs our prayers.
Fredi, I confess that same thing with great regularity. My confessor was not the least shocked, why he acted as if he heard that all the time.
And communion time was an undignified disaster. Not only the thousands of concelebrating priests clumsily self-inticting, but the chaotic free-for-all of communion lines, the times when people were DENIED communion on the tongue, while others were doing the Covid-era mask-and-host trick:
https://i.postimg.cc/KjMYfNfV/B1-C97-DB9-2002-4-C37-BAC1-D3-B46-F57-D7-C8.jpg
Thank you dear Kathleen10 and God bless you.
For those dealing with a troubled conscience regarding their antipathy toward the abuse of the Petrine Office…it is rather the he who should have qualms of conscience. As Pope Benedict is reported to have said regarding papal conclaves long before his election to the Chair of Saint Peter, “…the Holy Spirit always inspires, men do not always listen.”
The tree is known by its fruit.
I stopped confessing what would normally be considered at least a troublesome attitude sometime back. As my confessor said to me, “…there is such a thing as righteous anger.” We do have a responsibility to admonish the sinner. Court protocols are not a substitute for the Gospel. Any man holding the Chair of Saint Peter is not a magician. He cannot make black white. His authority and righteousness are measured against Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the perennial Magisterium of the Church. The only facet of Roman Catholic spiritual life untouched by the post-conciliar iconoclasm is this obsessive insistence upon obedience. Evangelical obedience weaponized is no less a sacrilege than any other deliberate misuse of the sacred.
You can’t unhear the bell. You can’t not see what is before your eyes. You can lie to yourself about it but it remains what it is.
Today we shoulder a bitter cross. Let us offer it up for the salvation of souls in jeopardy due to this situation.
I was hoping for a touch of class by the Vatican on the passing of Holy Benedict.
I guess not. Seems not in its jesuit DNA.
Much respect to the President of Poland who clearly understood what was going on.
I must dissent from other’s judgment on the music. I heard the entrance rites on the radio and have read the order of worship. The music appears to be entirely Gregorian chant. Admittedly, the verses between the Requiem introit appear to have been harmonized in some way. But the music in the published order is all chant. That is the music of our rites.
I’ll be a dissenting voice here: I thought that the funeral Mass was beautiful. Now, was it the most beautiful Mass I have ever witnessed? No, not even close. But I just didn’t perceive the ugliness that many others here did. I perceived it as being a very reverent liturgy. I thought they used the right approach by using Latin for many of the prayers, but also having certain parts of the Mass (e.g., readings, prayers of the faithful) in various vernacular languages. And the homily didn’t bother me, because my understanding (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) is that a funeral Mass homily is not supposed to be focused on the deceased person. In other words, it’s a homily, not a eulogy.