Iam lucis orto sidere: Prime, The Immortal Hour

The following quasi-elegiac prose in honor of the Divine Office hour of PRIME, the hour that was killed but refused to die, is so beautiful that we had to republish it here in its entirety:

“Let the hour of Prime be suppressed”. So decreed the bishops gathered in Rome in the winter of 1963, at the dead time of the year. Of the 2,147 prelates who voted to suppress, not some local abuse or the apocryphal Acta of an obscure saint, but one of the 8 hours of the divine office, did any, I wonder, feel some slight misgivings?

And So It Begins: "FILIAL CORRECTION OF POPE FRANCIS For the Propagation of Heresies"

Update: to add your name (the public list will be moderated, i.e. the authors are looking especially for signatories with academic qualifications etc.) please email info@correctiofilialis.org or go to Change.org to support the petition.

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RORATE Note: There will many Catholics, even traditionalists, whose first defeatist reaction will be to belittle this effort. But the wise, the learned in history, will understand that this is just the first part, the first piece of the puzzle, with next steps still to come in a long and extended process.

This first step is an initiative of a theological nature that will likely lead, God willing, to an initiative of a canonical nature from those who have the mandate to act. And so it begins:

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Documents contained below:

* (1) Filial Correction on Account of the Propagation of Heresies - Delivered to the Roman Pontiff Pope Francis at his Residence in Domus Sanctae Marthae, at the Vatican, on August 11th, 2017

* (2) Summary explaining content of the Filial Correction

* (3) Press Release and Historical Precedent (Pope John XXII, A.D. 1333)

* (4) List of first signatories

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(1)

Correctio filialis de haeresibus propagatis

July 16^th, 2017

Feast of our Lady of Mt Carmel

Most Holy Father,

With profound grief, but moved by fidelity to our Lord Jesus Christ, by love for the Church and for the papacy, and by filial devotion toward yourself, we are compelled to address a correction to Your Holiness on account of the propagation of heresies effected by the apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia and by other words, deeds and omissions of Your Holiness.

We are permitted to issue this correction by natural law, by the law of Christ, and by the law of the Church, which three things Your Holiness has been appointed by divine providence to guard. By natural law: for as subjects have by nature a duty to obey their superiors in all lawful things, so they have a right to be governed according to law, and therefore to insist, where need be, that their superiors so govern. By the law of Christ: for His Spirit inspired the apostle Paul to rebuke Peter in public when the latter did not act according to the truth of the gospel (Gal. 2). St Thomas Aquinas notes that this public rebuke from a subject to a superior was licit on account of the imminent danger of scandal concerning the faith (Summa Theologiae 2a 2ae, 33, 4 ad 2), and ‘the gloss of St Augustine’ adds that on this occasion, “Peter gave an example to superiors, that if at any time they should happen to stray from the straight path, they should not disdain to be reproved by their subjects” (ibid.). The law of the Church also constrains us, since it states that “Christ’s faithful . . . have the right, indeed at times the duty, in keeping with their knowledge, competence, and position, to manifest to the sacred pastors their views on matters which concern the good of the Church” (Code of Canon Law 212:2-3; Code of Canons of Oriental Churches 15:3).

Scandal concerning faith and morals has been given to the Church and to the world by the publication of Amoris laetitia and by other acts through which Your Holiness has sufficiently made clear the scope and purpose of this document. Heresies and other errors have in consequence spread through the Church; for while some bishops and cardinals have continued to defend the divinely revealed truths about marriage, the moral law, and the reception of the sacraments, others have denied these truths, and have received from Your Holiness not rebuke but favour. Those cardinals, by contrast, who have submitted dubia to Your Holiness, in order that by this time-honoured method the truth of the gospel might be easily affirmed, have received no answer but silence.

Most Holy Father, the Petrine ministry has not been entrusted to you that you might impose strange doctrines on the faithful, but so that you may, as a faithful steward, guard the deposit against the day of the Lord’s return (Lk. 12; 1 Tim. 6:20). We adhere wholeheartedly to the doctrine of papal infallibility as defined by the First Vatican Council, and therefore we adhere to the explanation which that same council gave of this charism, which includes this declaration: “The Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter that they might, by His revelation, make known some new doctrine, but that, by His assistance, they might religiously guard and faithfully expound the revelation or deposit of faith transmitted by the apostles” (Pastor aeternus, cap. 4). For this reason, Your Predecessor, Blessed Pius IX, praised the collective declaration of the German bishops, who noted that “the opinion according to which the pope is ‘an absolute sovereign because of his infallibility’ is based on a completely false understanding of the dogma of papal infallibility.”

Monsignor Brunero Gherardini, Rest in Peace!

Monsignor Brunero Gherardini was a lion in defense of the Catholic Faith, even more so in the last years of his life, when he had to witness so much confusion. His death, on the evening of September 21st, in Rome, was another blow to the small army of defenders of orthodoxy and Tradition in Rome.

Monsignor's funeral will take place in his beloved Vatican Basilica on Monday morning.

Requiescat in pace!

Interview with Dr. Kwasniewski at O Clarim

From O Clarim:

A NOBLE BEAUTY – Exclusive interview with Dr Peter Kwasniewski

Aurelio Porfiri

We celebrate this year the 10th anniversary of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, a document released by Pope Benedict XVI that liberalized the use of the pre-Vatican II Missal.

If we want to know something more about the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (the pre-Vatican II Mass), we could read Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness (2017, Angelico Press) by Peter Kwasniewski, a very well known scholar in the field of liturgy. Dr Peter Kwasniewski, choirmaster at the Wyoming Catholic College (USA), certainly presents very strong arguments to defend his position, as can be seen in the following interview.

Porfiri: Your book uses the phrase “noble beauty” in its title. How would you describe the noble beauty of the liturgy?

Kwasniewski: There are many different kinds of beauty. There is the simple, domestic beauty we associated with well-made furniture, carpets, blankets, plates, and books. There is an austere beauty, such as one might find in the cell of a Carthusian. There is rugged beauty, such as we see in the landscapes of Iceland or Canada or Alaska. But there is a noble beauty that we associate with sovereignty, majesty, occasions of great public solemnity. The liturgy is our courtly audience with the king of heaven and earth. It should be characterized by a tremendous sense of spaciousness, elevation, dignity, and splendor. That is what I am driving at in my title.

Porfiri: What is your ideal reader? How you imagine your audience?

One reader described me as “giving old arguments new juice.” I was born well after the Second Vatican Council ended and after Paul VI had already promulgated a new Mass. All of the traditional things I love are things that almost went extinct. My friends and I had to stumble upon them and discover them anew. I see it with fresh eyes: I have no nostalgic memories. For this reason, my writings seem to speak especially to young people who are in the same boat. This book is largely an “apologia” for the ancient liturgy and the whole world-view it embodies—which is definitely not that of modernity. My ideal reader? Someone who has an open mind to the proposal that the past generations might have had more wisdom than we do.

Read the rest at "O Clarim."

Fatima, 100 Years Later: A Call for the Whole Church

Fatima 100 Years later: a Marian Call for the whole Church

by Fr. Serafino M. Lanzetta

This year the Church is particularly blessed for the celebration of the Centenary of the Fatima apparitions. The ‘White Lady’ came to speak – from May to October 1917 on the thirteenth of each month – to three little shepherds, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta. The last two were canonised last 13^th May by Pope Francis, while the process for the canonization of Lucia is progressing. Of all the private revelations approved by the Church, Fatima is one of particular significance give its theological vision of history. Our Lady not only delivered a supernatural message – a call to penance and prayer for rescuing sinners from eternal perdition in hell, but also foretold what would happen if her call were unheeded. As a celestial appeal, Fatima is not something belonging to the past, but a prophecy for the Church today.

It is extremely interesting to revisit what Pope Benedict XVI said at Fatima in his homily during the Mass on 13^th May 2010, which sounded to many like a ‘correction’ of what he had previously said as a Prefect of the Congregation for the Faith, when, in giving the official theological explication of the third part of the Secret (revealed in the year 2000), he declared that the vision of a city half in ruins with corpses of bishops, priests, religious and lay people laying on the ground was something referred to the great persecution of the Church in the 20^th century. Therefore, something already accomplished. As a pope, Benedict put forth a new scenario stating:

SSPX priest and laymen denied access to Knock Shrine

This sad news from the God does not die! blog: 

The Society of Saint Pius X annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady at Knock in Co. Mayo was disrupted yesterday, Saturday 16th September, when Shrine officials refused entry to priests and laity.

Members of Knock Shrine Security approached the SSPX priests, informing them that they were not permitted to celebrate Mass or carry out any devotions as a group. They confirmed that these were the orders which they had been instructed to convey.

For the first time in over ten years, therefore, the Society was forced to celebrate Mass outside of the Shrine grounds (heretofore, for a number of years, SSPX priests had been granted permission to celebrate Mass in various chapels on the grounds of the Shrine). And, for the first time in the entire history of the SSPX’s presence in Ireland, the pilgrimage group was not even permitted to recite the Rosary or pray the Stations of the Cross within the Shrine precincts!

Time for Worldwide Sacrifice: Ember Week in September

The equinox is coming. The Roman Church will once again remind us of the cycle of the seasons in this Ember Week in September.

We re-post, for those who are not aware of it, this article first posted by us in 2008. May you all have a fruitful week of sacrifice, remembering our suffering brethren in Mexico and the Caribbean.

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THE GLOW
OF THE EMBER DAYS

By Michael P. Foley

A potential danger of traditionalism is the stubborn defense of something about which one knows little. I once asked a priest who had just finished beautifully celebrating an Ember Saturday Mass about the meaning of the Ember days. He replied (with an impish twinkle in his eye) that he hadn’t a clue, but he was furious they had been suppressed.

Traditionalists, however, are not entirely to blame for their unfamiliarity with this important part of their patrimony. Most only have the privilege of assisting at a Sunday Tridentine Mass, and hence the Ember days—which occur on a weekday or Saturday—slip by unnoticed. And long before the opening session of the Second Vatican Council, the popularity of these observances had atrophied.

So why care about them now? To answer this question, we must first determine what they are.

The Four Seasons

The Ember days, which fall on a Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of the same week, occur in conjunction with the four natural seasons of the year. Autumn brings the September Embertide, also called the Michaelmas Embertide because of their proximity to the Feast of St. Michael on September 29.¹ Winter, on the other hand, brings the December Embertide during the third week of Advent, and spring brings the Lenten Embertide after the first Sunday of Lent. Finally, summer heralds the Whitsun Embertide, which takes place within the Octave of Pentecost.

In the 1962 Missal the Ember days are ranked as ferias of the second class, weekdays of special importance that even supersede certain saints’ feasts. Each day has its own proper Mass, all of which are quite old. One proof of their antiquity is that they are one of the few days in the Gregorian rite (as the ’62 Missal is now being called) which has as many as five lessons from the Old Testament in addition to the Epistle reading, an ancient arrangement indeed.

Fasting and partial abstinence during the Ember days were also enjoined on the faithful from time immemorial until the 1960s. It is the association of fasting and penance with the Embertides that led some to think that their peculiar name has something to do with smoldering ash, or embers. But the English name is probably derived from their Latin title, the Quatuor Tempora or “Four Seasons.”²

Call to Prayers and Sacrifices for Mexico and Puerto Rico

(Church of the Former Convent of St. James the Apostle, in Jiutepec, Morelos)

May the Virgin of Guadalupe, Patroness of Mexico and the Americas, and Saint John the Baptist, Patron of Puerto Rico, intercede for the suffering people of these dear lands in their moment of natural tragedy and suffering.

We ask our readers, as much as they can and are spiritually allowed to, to offer up prayers and sacrifices for the souls of the deceased, for their families, for the consolation and healing of the injured, and for those who have lost or will lose their homes and their livelihood.

Event: Fatima conference at Buckfast Abbey

Not sure why, but this Fatima conference hasn't been publicized elsewhere that we can find. It looks like it will be quite hard-hitting in the prophetic interpretation of our current times:

Day of Recollection with Fr. Cassian Folsom in Des Moines, September 30th

Our friends at Una Voce Des Moines have asked us to let readers know about an upcoming Day of Recollection with Fr. Cassian Folsom, OSB, founder of the Monastery of Norcia, on Saturday, September 30, 2017. His conferences will focus on presenting the structure and spirituality of the Extraordinary Form. The heart of the day will be a Missa Cantata in the Basilica of St. John.

UV Des Moines asked that participants RSVP so that they can have a number for preparing food and beverages, as well as photocopies of handouts.

For more information, visit http://unavocedsm.org/cassian/.

Ad Apostolorum Principis Sepulchrum - Summorum Pilgrimage 2017 & Vatican Basilica Pontifical Mass

The churches and basilicas of Rome, including the Vatican Basilica, were filled with pilgrims from all over the world for the 2017 Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage.

Congratulations to the organizers and to all involved!

Our friends at Messa in Latino have a long list of images, which can be viewed:

- 1) Here, for the preparatory events, in Santa Maria sopra Minerva and including Adoration at Chiesa Nuova of St. Philip Neri: 1, 2, 3

- 2) Pontifical Mass in the Vatican Basilica: 1, 2,  3, 4, 5.

"Dear Pope Francis": A Letter to the Pope -- by Fr Richard Cipolla

Dear Pope Francis:

I write this letter to you with a heavy heart full of concern for the Church and for you as the Successor of Peter.  We Catholics are called to love you and support you in your difficult ministry in the Church.

And we do.  But there are many of us who are concerned that you do not have your pulse on the state of the Church as it is in today’s world.  You seem sometimes to act arbitrarily on important matters such as the liturgical life of the Church and moral teaching in a way that suggests that you think like someone from the 1960s.  While we must respect the Second Vatican Council as an Ecumenical Council, the ways of thinking that were in place at that time are very different from those of the present time.  In many ways that Council signaled the end of modernity, at least in the Church.  We are called now to try to understand what it means to live in a post-modern age, come to terms with it and then get on with the task of evangelization in a post-modern world.

It hurts us deeply when you talk in a disparaging way about those whom you call “traditionalists” and dismiss them as obsessed with the past, narrow minded, and uncharitable.  There may be some who fit this image, but those whom I know who love the Sacred Tradition of the Church, far from being obsessed with the past, are vitally concerned with the future of the Church and have no desire to live in a golden age of the Church that never existed.  

You Suggest: Pontifical Low Mass in Chicago

From a reader:

Veritas Bonitas Pulchritas Chicago is a young, enthusiastic group committed to Tradition not based at any parish and that organizes traditional Latin Masses at various parishes, chapels and shrines. They have their own chaplain, acolytes and professional singers. 

Five of their eight monthly Masses thus far have been at locations where the traditional Mass has not been publicly offered since 1969 -- and each Mass has averaged 100 people.

Benedict XVI, the new Nehemiah, who rekindled the hidden fire

On the 10th anniversary of the entry into force of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, we praise the heritage of Pope Benedict XVI, who recognized the grievous injustice of the attempted and impossible abolition of the Apostolic Mass of the Latin Church and freed it from the shackles of lies and of deception.

Ad multos annos, Papa Ratzinger!

From the Second Book of the Maccabees, chapter 1:

Blessed be God in all things, who hath delivered up the wicked.

Therefore whereas we purpose to keep the purification of the temple on the five and twentieth day of the month of Casleu, we thought it necessary to signify it to you: that you also may keep the day of Scenopegia, and the day of the fire, that was given when Nehemiah offered sacrifice, after the temple and the altar was built. For when our fathers were led into [Babylon], the priests that then were worshippers of God took privately the fire from the altar, and hid it in a valley where there was a deep pit without water, and there they kept it safe, so that the place was unknown to all men. But when many years had passed, and it pleased God that Nehemiah should be sent by the king of Persia, he sent some of the posterity of those priests that had hid it, to seek for the fire: and as they told us, they found no fire, but thick water.

Then he bade them draw it up, and bring it to him: and the priest Nehemiah commanded the sacrifices that were laid on, to be sprinkled with the same water, both the wood, and the things that were laid upon it. And when this was done, and the time came that the sun shone out, which before was in a cloud, there was a great fire kindled, so that all wondered. And all the priests made prayer, while the sacrifice was consuming, Jonathan beginning, and the rest answering.

And the prayer of Nehemiah was after this manner:

O Lord God,

Creator of all things,

dreadful and strong,

just and merciful, who alone art the good king,

Who alone art gracious, who alone art just, and almighty, and eternal,

Who deliverest Israel from all evil, who didst choose the fathers and didst sanctify them:

Receive the sacrifice for all thy people Israel,

and preserve thy own portion, and sanctify it.

Gather together our scattered people,

deliver them that are slaves to the Gentiles,

and look upon them that are despised and abhorred:

that the Gentiles may know that thou art our God.

Punish them that oppress us, and that treat us injuriously with pride.

Establish thy people in thy holy place, as Moses hath spoken.

And the priests sung hymns till the sacrifice was consumed.

Reminder: Pontifical Mass in Philadelphia today, live on EWTN

A reminder that EWTN will broadcast live the Pontifical Latin Mass which His Excellency Bishop Joseph Perry will celebrate at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss Peter and Paul in Philadelphia, for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and the 10th Anniversary of Summorum Pontificum. 

You can also watch on EWTN’s website: http://ewtn.com/multimedia/live.asp; the Mass begins at 7pm EDT. 

Sacred music for the Mass will include Mozart’s Missa Brevis in C-major, (the “Sparrow” Mass), Elgar’s Ecce Sacerdos Magnus, Monteverdi’s Adoramus te, and John Blow’s Salvator Mundi, in addition to the Gregorian chants.

Cardinal Carlo Caffarra: extracts from a conference he would have held in Milan on September 10th 2017

Nuova Bussola Quotidiana

September 8, 2017

If Cardinal Caffarra’s death on one hand leaves a void for those who grew to love and follow him over the years, on the other hand it calls each and all of us to an even greater responsibility, for our own and the Church’s benefit.

For “La Giornata della Bussola”, (on Sunday September 10^th) the Cardinal had prepared an intervention and sent it to us just before his death. In these extracts we publish now, we are conscious that it is a sort of spiritual testament and that we are called to continue in this defense of Truth, following the great example of Cardinal Caffarra.  

Sunday’s lesson is divided into two parts: in the first the Cardinal examines the factors of the destruction of the human and in the second he explains Who it is that rebuilds the human.

***

Woe to us if the Church should have in Her memory something other than the Resurrection of Christ

by Cardinal Carlo Caffarra

Abraham a Sancta Clara Against the Turks

On the eve of the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683, the great Augustinian preacher Abraham a Sancta Clara preached a sermon entitled “Arise, Arise, Christians!” urging Austrian Catholics to prepare for the coming battle.

Abraham a Sancta Clara, born Johann Ulrich Megerle in Kreenheinstetten near Meßkirch, Swabia, in 1644, as the eigth of ten children, was one of the most colorful and brilliant preachers of the Baroque era. His sermons are full of drastic and amusing images and word play, often he would break into rhyming verse in the middle of a sermon. His sermons are also quite long. According to the custom of the time they were generally preached outside of Mass, and could last over an hour.

In 1677 Abraham a Sancta Clara was appointed preacher to the imperial court of Vienna. But during the Turkish war itself he was stationed in Graz in Southern Austria. “Arise, Arise, Christians” was published as a pamphlet and distributed in Vienna before the Turks arrived.

We present some extracts below in a Rorate translation.

Event: The Pilgrimage for Restoration, Sept. 29-Oct. 1

The Pilgrimage for Restoration,  a traditional walking pilgrimage, is set to take place this year September 29-October 1. The pilgrimage route goes from the Lake of the Blessed Sacrament at Lake George Village, NY, to the Shrine of the North American Martyrs at Auriesville, NY.

In its twenty-second year, the annual pilgrimage is a journey of the faithful to the place in “New France” where Saints Isaac Jogues, René Goupîl, John LaLande and numerous Native American Converts were martyred more than 375 years ago. It is conducted in honor of Christ Our King, for the restoration of new Christendom, and in reparation for sins against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Priest needed urgently in New Hampshire, for six months

Saint Benedict Center, a traditional Catholic community in New Hampshire, is in urgent need of a priest to fill a six-month position beginning immediately. 

'Job Description'

The community, located in rural southern New Hampshire, includes a small group of religious brothers and sisters, with a stable group of traditional Catholic lay faithful (between 100 and 200 on Sundays). Besides hearing confessions, the chaplain would offer two Sunday Masses (one Low, one Missa Cantata) and daily Mass in addition. The religious run a small school, engage in other youth apostolates, and do some publishing, such as the Catholicism.org web site.

The community is located in the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, and priests are granted faculties for their ministry at Saint Benedict Center by Bishop Peter A. Libasci.  

Interested priests who are able to offer the traditional Latin Mass are asked to call or send inquiries to Brother André Marie: 

• * Email: bam [at] catholicism [dot] org
• * Phone: 603-239-6485, Ext. 7 

Private chaplain’s quarters are provided, in addition to meals and a monthly salary.  

Why the Immediate Need?

Los Angeles Traditional Mass community celebrates 10 years of Summorum

To commemorate the 10th Anniversary of Summorum Pontificum, the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter in Los Angeles has created a video. In spite of not yet having their own church, the video shows the impact that the Mass and the FSSP community has made in the lives of the people of Los Angeles.

Watch the beautiful video below:

Pope Francis' False Moral Equivalence on Abortion and DACA

On his flight back from Colombia, Pope Francis was asked about Trump's decision to end the DACA program for young illegal immigrants in the United States. In his response, the Pope condemns Trump's decision and makes a false seamless-garmentesque moral equivalence between his  immigration policy preferences and the intrinsic and grave moral evil of the slaughter of innocent human life in abortion. Here is the full exchange:

Q. Whenever you meet young people you always tell them: don't lose hope, the future. President Trump in the United States has abolished the "dreamers" law, which takes away the future for 800,000 kids who illegally entered when they were minors. What do you think about this?  

Pope Francis: "I heard about the abolition of this law, but I could not read the articles, about how and why this decision was made. I don't know the situation well. But to separate young people from their families is not something that bears good fruit either for young people or for the family. This law comes from the executive and not from Parliament: if that is the case, I hope that it will be rethought a little. I spoke with the president of the United States, who presents himself as pro-life. If he is a good pro-lifer, he understands the importance of family and of life: the unity of the family must be protected. When young people feel exploited, in the end, they feel hopeless. And what takes it away from them? Drugs, other addictions, suicide, which can happen to someone when they are separated from their roots. Anything that goes against people's roots takes away hope."

Source: La Stampa

For the record: C9 Secretary claims that Curia reform proposals to be complete "within a few months".

As the "C9" (the Council of Cardinals) begins its 21st meeting today Vatican Radio has posted an interview with the Secretary of the C9, Bishop Marcello Semeraro (Pope Francis and the C9: Interview with Council Secretary). The following passage from this interview is posted here, for a record of events. (Our emphases.)

Asked about the progress of the reform, Bishop Semeraro said the reform is more than three quarters done, at least with regard to the work of the Cardinals. That is, he said, it is almost to the point where the Cardinals are able to present their proposals to the Holy Father. “I think that within a few months this revision will be more or less complete,” he said, and “then the Pope will have at his disposition the proposals that regard all the Dicasteries and I would expect him to decide how and when to actuate them.” He noted that Pope Francis has preferred, up to this point, a more gradual reform, with a kind of “breaking-in” period, which allows for corrections that are inevitably called for as the reform moves from theory to practical reality.

We can be certain that the reform of the Curia, should the Lord God in His inscrutable providence allow it to be completed and put into effect, will entail the even greater weakening and loss of authority of the Congregations (soon to be merely "Dicasteries") for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDWDS), vis-a-vis the bishops's conferences. We already saw a preview of this two days ago with regards to the CDWDS. It is highly unlikely however that Francis will stop at liturgical decentralization, when he already endorsed the very concept of the decentralization of doctrinal authority in the programmatic document of his pontificate, Evangelii Gaudium. (See our 2015 post Doctrinal "devolution" to the bishops' conferences? Francis already endorsed it in 2013.)

Guest Op-Ed: Cultic Charity in the Church (and a note about yesterday's Motu Proprio)

Cultic Charity in the Church:

Returning to a Full Celebration of the Ancient Roman Rite

By Veronica A. Arntz

The liturgical treasures of the Church are perhaps her greatest and most sublime. These beautiful treasures, from Gregorian chant to vestments to the language of the ancient rite itself, are to be reverenced and preserved, just as the many great saints of antiquity have done before us. As we are all very well aware, the preservation of the liturgical treasures of the Church has been in decline since the Second Vatican Council, in many, if not most, parishes and dioceses. With Pope Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum, which declared that the ancient rite was never abrogated, we have seen an increase in the celebration of the ancient Roman liturgy—many within the Church have been given the spiritual boldness to preserve this liturgical rite. In the tenth anniversary year of Benedict’s Summorum Pontificum, it is worth meditating on why it is important to maintain with reverence and encourage the celebration of the ancient Roman Rite. Namely, if we look to Cardinal Charles Journet’s theological perspective on charity within the Church, we will have a better understanding of why it is necessary to uphold the ancient liturgical traditions of the Church.

In his work Theology of the Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), Journet explains that charity is the created soul of the Church; he argues that this soul is cultic, sacramental, and directed (p. 170). For the purposes of this essay, I shall focus on the cultic aspect of charity. With regards to charity as the soul of the Church, Journet explains, “We can define this soul by saying that it is a charity that is Christic and Christ-conforming, which has come, under the New Law, to full birth” (Ibid.). Through charity, we are fully conformed to Christ, for we are willing to be united to him. To those who would argue against charity as the created soul of the Church, Journet explains that membership in the Church involves two elements: theological faith and the will to remain in the Church (p. 171). For this reason, a sinner is personally deprived of charity, but charity can never be completely absent from the Church herself (Ibid.). As Journet further describes, “Where the charity of Christ is in its fullness, that is, where it is cultic, sacramental, and directed, the soul of the Church is whole; the Church, composed of the just and sinners is in perfect, or complete, act” (p. 172). This is a remarkable statement: the charity of the Church is in perfect act where the liturgy (her cult) and her sacraments are thriving. Charity is not primarily bound up with humanitarian efforts, social justice activities, ecumenism, or any other external activity. Rather, charity and liturgy are intimately linked, as Journet understands it.

Breaking: Motu Proprio "Magnum Principium" granting authority on liturgical translations to Bishops' Conferences

UPDATE IN ENGLISH:

APOSTOLIC LETTER

 ISSUED MOTU PROPRIO

OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF

FRANCIS

MAGNUM PRINCIPIUM

BY WHICH CAN. 838 OF THE CODE OF CANON LAW IS MODIFIED

The great principle, established by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, according to which liturgical prayer be accommodated to the comprehension of the people so that it might be understood, required the weighty task of introducing the vernacular language into the liturgy and of preparing and approving the versions of the liturgical books, a charge that was entrusted to the Bishops.

The Latin Church was aware of the attendant sacrifice involved in the partial loss of liturgical Latin, which had been in use throughout the world over the course of centuries.  However it willingly opened the door so that these versions, as part of the rites themselves, might become the voice of the Church celebrating the divine mysteries along with the Latin language.

At the same time, especially given the various clearly expressed views of the Council Fathers with regard to the use of the vernacular language in the liturgy, the Church was aware of the difficulties that might present themselves in this regard.  On the one hand it was necessary to unite the good of the faithful of a given time and culture and their right to a conscious and active participation in liturgical celebrations with the substantial unity of the Roman Rite.  On the other hand the vernacular languages themselves, often only in a progressive manner, would be able to become liturgical languages, standing out in a not dissimilar way to liturgical Latin for their elegance of style and the profundity of their concepts with the aim of nourishing the faith.

This was the aim of various Liturgical Laws, Instructions, Circular Letters, indications and confirmations of liturgical books in the various vernacular languages issued by the Apostolic See from the time of the Council which was true both before as well as after the laws established by the Code of Canon Law.

The criteria indicated were and remain at the level of general guidelines and, as far as possible, must be followed by Liturgical Commissions as the most suitable instruments so that, across the great variety of languages, the liturgical community can arrive at an expressive style suitable and appropriate to the individual parts, maintaining integrity and accurate faithfulness especially in translating some texts of major importance in each liturgical book.

Because the liturgical text is a ritual sign it is a means of oral communication.  However, for the believers who celebrate the sacred rites the word is also a mystery.  Indeed when words are uttered, in particular when the Sacred Scriptures are read, God speaks to us.  In the Gospel Christ himself speaks to his people who respond either themselves or through the celebrant by prayer to the Lord in the Holy Spirit.

The goal of the translation of liturgical texts and of biblical texts for the Liturgy of the Word is to announce the word of salvation to the faithful in obedience to the faith and to express the prayer of the Church to the Lord.  For this purpose it is necessary to communicate to a given people using its own language all that the Church intended to communicate to other people through the Latin language.  While fidelity cannot always be judged by individual words but must be sought in the context of the whole communicative act and according to its literary genre, nevertheless some particular terms must also be considered in the context of the entire Catholic faith because each translation of texts must be congruent with sound doctrine.

It is no surprise that difficulties have arisen between the Episcopal Conferences and the Apostolic See in the course of this long passage of work.  In order that the decisions of the Council about the use of vernacular languages in the liturgy can also be of value in the future a vigilant and creative collaboration full of reciprocal trust between the Episcopal Conferences and the Dicastery of the Apostolic See that exercises the task of promoting the Scared Liturgy, i.e. the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, is absolutely necessary.  For this reason, in order that the renewal of the whole liturgical life might continue, it seemed opportune that some principles handed on since the time of the Council should be more clearly reaffirmed and put into practice.

Without doubt, attention must be paid to the benefit and good of the faithful, nor must the right and duty of Episcopal Conferences be forgotten who, together with Episcopal Conferences from regions sharing the same language and with the Apostolic See, must ensure and establish that, while the character of each language is safeguarded, the sense of the original text is fully and faithfully rendered and that even after adaptations the translated liturgical books always illuminate the unity of the Roman Rite.

To make collaboration in this service to the faithful between the Apostolic See and Episcopal Conferences easier and more fruitful, and having listened to the advice of the Commission of Bishops and Experts that I established, I order, with the authority entrusted to me, that the canonical discipline currently in force in can. 838 of the C.I.C. be made clearer so that, according to what is stated in the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, in particular in articles 36 §§3.4, 40 and 63, and in the Apostolic Letter Motu Proprio Sacram Liturgiam, n. IX, the competency of the Apostolic See surrounding the translation of liturgical books and the more radical adaptations established and approved by Episcopal Conferences be made clearer, among which can also be numbered eventual new texts to be inserted into these books.

Therefore, in the future can. 838 will read as follows:

Can. 838 - §1. The ordering and guidance of the sacred liturgy depends solely upon the authority of the Church, namely, that of the Apostolic See and, as provided by law, that of the diocesan Bishop.

§2. It is for the Apostolic See to order the sacred liturgy of the universal Church, publish liturgical books, recognise adaptations approved by the Episcopal Conference according to the norm of law, and exercise vigilance that liturgical regulations are observed faithfully everywhere.

§3. It pertains to the Episcopal Conferences to faithfully prepare versions of the liturgical books in vernacular languages, suitably accommodated within defined limits, and to approve and publish the liturgical books for the regions for which they are responsible after the confirmation of the Apostolic See.

§4. Within the limits of his competence, it belongs to the diocesan Bishop to lay down in the Church entrusted to his care, liturgical regulations which are binding on all.

Consequently this is how art. 64 §3 of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus as well as other laws are to be interpreted, particularly those contained in the liturgical books concerning their revision.  Likewise I order that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments modify its own “Regulations” on the basis of the new discipline and help the Episcopal Conferences to fulfil their task as well as working to promote ever more the liturgical life of the Latin Church.

Everything that I have decreed in this Apostolic Letter issued Motu Proprio must be observed in all its parts, notwithstanding anything to the contrary, even if it be worthy of particular mention, and I hereby set forth and I dispose that it be promulgated by publication in the daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, that it enter into force on 1 October 2017, and thereafter be published in Acta Apostolicae Sedis.

Given in Rome, at St. Peter’s, on 3 September of the year 2017, the fifth of my Pontificate

FRANCISCUS P.P.

Breathtakingly Beautiful Christianity

Santa Croce, Florence

"No religion has ever expressed as much beauty as the Christian religion with its infinite quantity of wonders."

Vittorio Sgarbi

Italy's most famous, most brilliant and most controversial art historian and critic

The Seifert Case: Who is separating themselves from the Church?

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

September 6, 2017

The news was reported by Maike Hickson.

On August 31^st, Monsignor Javier Martínez Fernández, Archbishop of Granada, after having suspended the Austrian philosopher Josef Seifert from teaching, he expelled him from the International Academy of Philosophy of which he is one of the founders, but today comes under the authority of the Archdiocese.

It should be borne in mind that Professor Josef Seifert is considered one of the most important Catholic philosophers of our time. His curriculum and his bibliography fills numerous pages. However, he is noted most of all for his fidelity to the Papal Magisterium, which earned him the nomination as a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Any Catholic university would be honoured to have him among their teaching staff. What is the reason for the drastic measures taken against him? According to a communiqué from the Archdiocese the motive for his latest dismissal is an article in which Professor Seifert made a plea with regard to Pope Francis’ Post-Synod Exhortation Amoris laetitia. *

Irina Ratushinskaya, Soviet dissident poet, RIP

First photo smuggled to the West

The below is a guest post by James Bogle, who campaigned for the release from the Soviet Gulag of Irina Ratushinskaya, who died on 5 July 2017. Her obituary in The Guardian can be read here.

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IRINA RATUSHINSKAYA, THE RUSSIAN CHRISTIAN POETESS, AND HEROIC RESISTER OF SOVIET EVIL, HAS DIED…

By James Bogle

IRINA RATUSHINSKAYA, the Russian dissident scientist and poetess, has died at the early age of 63.

She was born in Odessa in 1954 and was educated at Odessa University graduating with a Master’s degree in Physics.

On 17 September 1982, Irina was arrested for anti-Soviet agitation and, in April 1983, was convicted and sentenced to 7 years in a labour camp, to be followed by 5 years of internal exile.

So began the sufferings of yet another innocent victim of the Soviet labour camps.

Breaking news: Cardinal Caffarra dies, 79.

 Cardinal Caffarra celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass in 2010. (Source)

Various news agencies are now reporting that Carlo Cardinal Caffarra, Archbishop Emeritus of Bologna, has died. He was 79.

He was one of the four Cardinal signatories to the "dubia" to Pope Francis regarding Amoris Laetitia. With his death, the only signatories still alive are Cardinals Walter Brandmuller (nearly 89) and Raymond Burke, 69.

Caffarra was the founder the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family, and will always be identified with the attempts of the John Paul II papacy to shore up Catholic teaching on family and life.

He was also one of the very few Italian Cardinals to publicly celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass [and not just to assist at one]; he had been scheduled to celebrate a Solemn Pontifical Mass according to the 1962 Missal in St. Peter's Basilica on September 16, for the international Traditional Catholic pilgrimage to Rome next week.

May he rest in peace.

Worth reading now: Cardinal Caffarra's testimony on the letter Sr. Lucia of Fatima sent to her regarding the "final confrontation" between the devil and the family:

Cardinal: "What Sister Lucia told me: Final Confrontation between the Lord and Satan will be over Family and Marriage."

Traditionalist Blogger Condemned to Imprisonment in Austria for Criticizing Homosexuals

As reported by kath.net and others, G. Schneeweiß-Arnoldstein, who runs the Austrian traditionalist blog kreuz-net.info, has been found guilty of inciting hatred against homosexuals and conditionally sentenced to four months in prison. 

Note: more on Josef Seifert's "retirement" for Amoris Laetitia critiques.

A few days ago, as reported by various Catholic websites such as Infovaticana, One Peter Five and LifeSite News, a notification was posted on the website of the Archdiocese of Granada denouncing Dr. Josef Seifert for his recent article "Does pure logic threaten to destroy the entire moral doctrine of the Catholic Church?". (Rorate was one of the websites that published it.) Dr. Seifert's positions are listed at the bottom of Rorate's repost:

Josef Seifert is the founding Rector of the The International Academy of Philosophy in the Principality of Liechtenstein, holder of the Dietrich von Hildebrand Chair for Realist Phenomenology at the IAP-IFES, Granada, Spain, and elected by Saint Pope John Paul II as ordinary (life-long) member of the Pontifical Academy for Life (a charge that ended with the dismissal of all PAV members by Pope Francis in 2016, and the failure to be re-elected as member of, a profoundly changed, PAV in 2017)

IAP-IFES stands for "International Academy of Philosophy -  Instituto de Filosofia Edith Stein". IFES, founded in 2005 and owned by the Archdiocese of Granada, notes on its website that it has acted as the Granada campus of IAP since 2009. In listing the IAP's faculty, the IFES website still starts, with evident pride, with Seifert: "The IAP has a permanent faculty of high quality professors, guest professors and friends who frequently teach at their campuses. Notable among them is the renowned phenomenologist Professor Josef Seifert, as well as figures such as ..."

However, the Granada Archdiocesan notification reveals that Seifert had already stopped (or, as is more likely, been stopped from) teaching in IFES since September last year, shortly after his much-longer critique of AL (Amoris Laetitia: Joy, Sadness and Hopes) was published. The same notification also speaks of Seifert's impending "retirement" from the International Academy of Philosophy because of his criticisms of AL. (It is not sufficiently clear from the actual notification if he is being retired only from IAP-IFES, or from IAP itself.)

For the Record - Samizdat - Full Text of Archbishop Tucho Fernandez's "Heal Me with Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing"

Archbishop Víctor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández, rector of the the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina in Buenos Aires and ghostwriter for Pope Francis, has a long track record of modernist theological writings that stretch long before he penned Amoris Laetitia, Evangelii Gaudium, or Laudato Sii for the Argentine pontiff. We recently published a translation of Tucho's latest defense of the most heterodox assertions that can be derived from Amoris Laetitia. Besides his articles in the 1990s criticizing John Paul II's teachings about intrinsic evils, which it appears he sloppily copy-pasted into Amoris Laetitia, Tucho's perhaps most revealing writing is his infamous 1995 book, whose contents are as sleazy, inappropriate, and absurd as its title: Heal Me with your Mouth: The Art of Kissing. 

A friend of Rorate has translated into English the full text of Archbishop "Tucho" Fernandez' Heal Me with Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing, and we now publish this full translation below, with a disclaimer for some disturbing images and content, especially considering that the author is an ordained minister of the Church bound by a vow of celibacy.