The Traditional Mass in Latin America: survey from the FIUV

Recently, the FoederatioInternationalis Una Voce (FIUV), of which I am Secretary, conducted a survey of its member associations and other contacts to supply information for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: to supplement the survey of bishops the Congregation had itself initiated. We received a large number of responses, including from almost every Spanish-speaking country.

The graph illustrates the availability of the EF in the dioceses for which we had responses, and the contrast between the USA and Canada, on the one hand, and Mexico and 16 countries in Central and South America on the other. In the former, nearly 60% have at least one centre where the EF is celebrted on a more than just Sunday and Holy Day basis, labelled for convenience as ‘Full’ provision. In Latin America, only 4 of the 97 dioceses for which we received reports is there a centre offering a ‘more than Sunday and Holyday’ provision, while in 51 of them no public celebrations are taking place at all.

There are many dioceses for which we had no reports, in Latin America, where there are almost certainly no EF Masses taking place; in Canada and the USA, on the other hand, we are more likely to have missed out on places where there are celebrations. This means the graph probably understates the contrast.

Of greater value than figures, I believe, are the personal testimonies of the people filling in the survey. I offer a selection here, anonymised to protect the individuals and groups concerned. I will let them speak for themselves, from a full range of experiences, both good and bad, in seeking the Church’s ancient liturgy.

These quotations are translations from the Spanish. The original Spanish can be seen in a Spanish-language version of this blogpost at the Adelante la fe blog here

If anyone would like to join the FIUV’s list of local contacts, please email me at secretary@fiuv.org

From Argentina

We were treated with contempt on the part of the bishop.

(another diocese)

We are segregated and labelled, by the clergy and laity with positions in the diocese, as execrable traditionalist recalcitrants, when we only wish to offer our Lord the honour he deserves…

The Ordinary is totally hostile. He has forbidden kneeling for Holy Communion. He has persecuted all who want to celebrate Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

(another diocese)

RORATE EXCLUSIVE—New biography describes great influence of Fr. Joseph Ratzinger in Vatican II

Rorate is pleased to publish the following article by Dr. Maike Hickson, in which she summarizes the information on (then Father and peritus) Joseph Ratzinger’s involvement in the Council as detailed in Seewald’s magisterial biography, the first volume of which will be released in English on December 15. While some of these facts are already well-known, they have never been presented with as much detail and coherence as Seewald offers. Hickson worked from both the original German edition and the forthcoming English translation. In publishing this critique, we acknowledge at the same time how indebted we are to Ratzinger/Benedict XVI for taking crucial and countercultural steps on behalf of the restoration of the authentic Roman liturgy.

The Great Influence of Joseph Ratzinger in the Revolutionary Upheaval of the Second Vatican Council

Dr. Maike Hickson

Peter Seewald’s authoritative biography, Benedict XVI: A Life—already published in German in its entirety, and due to be published in English in two volumes, with the first volume released on December 15 from Bloomsbury—describes in detail the important role then-Professor Joseph Ratzinger played before and during the Second Vatican Council. His influence helped to bring about a revolutionary change of the Council’s direction, tone, and topics. For example, he was able to change the Church’s presentation of the concept of the sources of Revelation, he helped suppress an independent schema on Our Lady, he opposed an “anti-Modernist spirit,” and he was in favor of using the vernacular languages during Holy Mass. As Seewald himself stated in a recent interview: Ratzinger helped the “advance of Modernism in the Church,” and “was always a progressive theologian.”

TLM strength yet again recognized by New York Times

It is always encouraging to see mainstream media observe the beauty and vibrancy of the traditional Latin Mass and its communities.  The New York Times, which has previously cited the strength of the traditional Latin Mass in France, has done so again, this time within an observation that churches there are the only places to hear live music during coronavirus shutdowns:

Every Sunday, St.-Roch, known as the “church of artists,” celebrates a Tridentine Mass, the traditional Latin Mass that was standard until the introduction of services in vernacular languages in the late 1960s. The Tridentine Mass isn’t exactly audience friendly: For starters, the priests perform most of it while turned toward the altar, with their backs to the congregation.

Still, it has its aficionados. The crowd on the first Sunday of December was among the largest I’ve seen indoors since the start of the pandemic. At least 400 people filled St.-Roch, with limited social distancing and no enforcement of mask rules.

Many Plenary Indulgences available throughout the Year of Saint Joseph, starting today: Conditions (in English)

The Pope introduced the Year of Saint Joseph, to celebrate the 150 years of his Patronage over the Universal Church.

Along with the papal apostolic letter, the Major Penitentiary introduced a set of new plenary indulgences, available until December 8, 2021. The Apostolic Penitentiary letter is here (in Latin and Italian).

The details are the following:

Conditions for the plenary indulgence

The plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful under the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, and prayer for the Pope’s intentions) to Christians who, with a spirit detached from any sin, participate in the Year of St. Joseph on these occasions and manners indicated by the Apostolic Penitentiary:

Apostolic Letter PATRIS CORDE of the Holy Father, on the 150th Anniversary of the Proclamation of Saint Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church

APOSTOLIC LETTER

PATRIS CORDE

OF THE HOLY FATHER
FRANCIS

ON THE 150^th ANNIVERSARY
OF THE PROCLAMATION OF SAINT JOSEPH
AS PATRON OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH

 

WITH A FATHER’S HEART: that is how Joseph loved Jesus, whom all four Gospels refer to as “the son of Joseph”.[1]

Matthew and Luke, the two Evangelists who speak most of Joseph, tell us very little, yet enough for us to appreciate what sort of father he was, and the mission entrusted to him by God’s providence.

We know that Joseph was a lowly carpenter (cf. Mt 13:55), betrothed to Mary (cf. Mt 1:18; Lk 1:27). He was a “just man” (Mt 1:19), ever ready to carry out God’s will as revealed to him in the Law (cf. Lk 2:22.27.39) and through four dreams (cf. Mt 1:20; 2:13.19.22). After a long and tiring journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, he beheld the birth of the Messiah in a stable, since “there was no place for them” elsewhere (cf. Lk 2:7). He witnessed the adoration of the shepherds (cf. Lk 2:8-20) and the Magi (cf. Mt 2:1-12), who represented respectively the people of Israel and the pagan peoples.

Joseph had the courage to become the legal father of Jesus, to whom he gave the name revealed by the angel: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). As we know, for ancient peoples, to give a name to a person or to a thing, as Adam did in the account in the Book of Genesis (cf. 2:19-20), was to establish a relationship.

The Deafening Silence of Pope Francis on China's Persecution of Catholics

 We are praying to Immaculate Mary for the health and safety of Jimmy Lai and his family, and for all Catholic and non-Catholic victims of persecution in the most formidable tyranny of our age, Communist China.

From The Wall Street Journal's opinion page (Dec. 7, 2020), main excerpt:

Jimmy Lai has embraced his destiny. Last Wednesday the founder of one of Hong Kong’s most popular newspapers, Apple Daily, was arrested on ginned-up fraud charges. On Thursday he was clapped into jail as a national security risk. Thus did a man who started the week a Hong Kong billionaire end it a Chinese dissident.

Mr. Lai’s jailing has provoked condemnation from figures as diverse as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Soviet refusenik Natan Sharansky and New York Rep. Eliot Engel. They have been joined by journalists, activists and politicians such as the Labour Party’s Sarah Champion and other members of Parliament who on Monday raised Mr. Lai’s plight in Britain’s House of Commons.

But there is one place where China’s bullying elicits only silence: the Vatican.

The Immaculate Conception: Whoever finds the Immaculata, finds Jesus (Kolbe)

Mikołaj Zieleński 
Magnificat (1611)
________________________

We cannot take rest as long as there is in the world one soul in danger, who does not yet know the Immaculata. Our human frailty, limited resources or any other worldly difficulty must not restrain us; let us confide in the Immaculata, let us place ourselves truly in Her hands and She will continue to win the battles of God, as at Lepanto, as at Vienna. We must place our Lady in every soul so that from every soul sin be expelled and Jesus introduced. Whoever finds the Immaculata, finds Jesus.

1-Day Online Marian Conference on December 8th: Commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the Assumption

1-Day Conference on 8th December 10:00 – 18:30 GMT to commemorate this year the 70th Anniversary of the Dogma of Our Lady's Assumption into Heaven. 

The Conference will feature three talks:

1) Fr Pio M. Idowu, Liturgical and Patristic development of the Dogma of the Assumption
2) Fr Serafino M. Lanzetta, Biblical and Theological foundation of Our Lady’s Assumption
3) Fr Philomeno M. James, Did Our Lady die before her Assumption into heaven? 

The day will conclude with Holy Rosary and Solemn High Mass at 5pm in St Mary's Church.

Registration is required to view the livestreamed event. A link to the livestream will be sent to registered participants online. 

Informations how to register here: https://www.stmarysgosport.org.uk/events/symposium-immaculate-assumed-into-heaven.

Long Out-of-print Benedictine Martyrology Now Available

For obvious reasons—it has been around for much longer, and its contemplative and liturgical way of life is entirely structured for prioritizing the pursuit of sanctity—the Benedictine Order numbers more saints, blesseds, venerables, and reputed holy men and women than any other order in the Church, especially if we include the many later branches and reform movements that, called by various names, nevertheless take Benedict’s Holy Rule as their guide.

Those who admire or follow St. Benedict will rejoice, therefore, in the republication by Os Justi Press of A Benedictine Martyrology. Published in 1922 and long out-of-print, this book is Alexius Hoffman’s English translation and adaptation of the Rev. Peter Lechner’s Ausführliches Martyrologium des Benedictiner-Ordens und Seiner Verzweigungen [Detailed Martyrology of the Benedictine Order and its Branches], published in Munich in 1855. The original was published in cloth; this reprint is paperback, but with the simple and formal cover design displayed above.

Lefebvre: I have passed on what I received

 A new monument to the late Marcel Lefebvre.

Francis Makes Official Use of Joe "Abortion" Biden Campaign Slogan

To help our society to “build back better”, inclusion of the vulnerable must also entail efforts to promote their active participation. #IDPD https://t.co/JIIJgNx76E

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) December 3, 2020

Just... unbelievable. No comment. (Only that it doesn't matter if it's used for something else, it's closely linked with the Biden campaign and should not be used by a Pope.)

Reminder: Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society

This is our monthly reminder to please enroll Souls of the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society. The Society now stands at 109 priests saying weekly or monthly traditional Latin Masses for the Souls. 

** Click here to download a "fillable" PDF Mass Card in English to give to the loved ones of the Souls you enroll (you send these to the family and/or friends of the dead, not to us). It's free for anyone to use. CLICK HERE to download in Latin and CLICK HERE to download in Spanish. 

Priests: The Souls still need more of you saying Mass for them! Please email me to offer your services. There's nothing special involved -- all you need to do is offer a weekly or monthly TLM with the intention: "For the repose of the Souls enrolled in the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society." And we will always keep you completely anonymous unless you request otherwise. 

How to enroll souls: please email me at athanasiuscatholic@yahoo.com and submit as follows: "Name, State, Country." If you want to enroll entire families, simply write in the email: "The Jones family, Ohio, USA". Individual names are preferred. Be greedy -- send in as many as you wish and forward this posting to friends as well.

Help a hermit! Enroll loved ones in a Christmas novena

Deadline for enrollment is Dec. 17 -- CLICK HERE TO ENROLL

A Christmas Novena of Traditional Latin Masses according to the 1962 Roman Missal (extraordinary form) will be offered for the salvation and sanctification of all families (or persons) enrolled in the Novena. The nine Masses will begin with the Christmas Midnight Mass and will conclude on Jan. 1st, Solemnity of Our Lord’s Circumcision.

The suggested donation is $15 for each enrollment which includes an enrollment card. The cards will be sent to each family (or person) enrolled. The Masses for this year’s Christmas Novena will be offered by Fr. Maximilian Mary of Jesus Crucified in his hermitage and/or on the high altar of the Carmelite Monastery of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in Fairfield, PA.

Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent: Advent is not a time for killing time

From the Epistle:  “Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed; the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” (Romans 13:11-14)

“You know what hour it is”, says St. Paul.  You know the time in which you are living.  That is quite a statement.  What is the time in which we are living?  2020 Anno Domini, or the Common Era?  How is this time in which we are living defined? Well, that definition depends on your perspective, and the perspective on this First Sunday in Advent is a liturgical perspective.  The time is Advent.  This is the time of waiting.  We all know what waiting is like.  We wait for so many things in our lives, and most of this waiting time is killing time, killing time to get onto the next thing.  We wait in line at the bank. We wait in line at the infamous Motor Vehicles Office.  We wait in line at the doctor’s office, and we kill that time by looking at empty headed magazines that fill the time, that kill the time.  We wait in line for a ticket to the latest must go to concert, grasping the ticket when we get it, something to look forward to.  Killing time in order to get to the next thing in our lives.  

Building Tasmania’s First Benedictine Monastery

Our friends, the traditional Benedictines of Notre Dame Priory on the island of Tasmania, asked us to share this information with Rorate readers.

It's been four years since Tasmania’s first Benedictine Monastery was founded. In that space of time, much has been done, but there remains much to do. After living in two rented houses, the community, which counts six members, has found a permanent home on a vast sheep-grazing farm called Jerusalem Estate near Colebrook, in the Southern Midlands Region of the island of Tasmania, one of Australian's seven states. The farm was purchased thanks to loans received from the Catholic Development Fund of Tasmania and a number of private lenders. At this stage the monks are working hard towards paying off the mortgage which will then allow them to start work on a beautiful monastery for the glory of God and the honor of Our Lady, a project which they hope will become an architectural project of international interest. 

De Mattei: The Safest Vaccine Against The Coronavirus

 Roberto de Mattei

RadioRomaLibera

November 24, 2020

Over the last few weeks several of the world’s most important pharmaceutical companies have announced the imminent production of vaccines against Covid 19.  Commenting on this news, an esteemed Italian virologist, Professor Andrea Crisanti, issued a statement of supreme common sense. In response to the question whether he would take the vaccine or not, he replied: “Normally it takes about five to eight years to produce a vaccine. For this, without available data, I wouldn’t take the first vaccine that should be arriving in January. I’d like to be sure that this vaccine has been tested properly and that it satisfies the safety and efficacy criterion. As a citizen I have this right and I’m not willing to accept shortcuts.”

 

It is an answer of complete common sense, sound, for that matter, with the principle of precaution, invoked so much today for the protection of the environment and it is not clear why this shouldn’t be applied in the field of health as well.  Prof. Crisanti is not against vaccines, but retains correctly, that the press releases by the pharmaceutical companies are not enough to guarantee safety and so he is waiting for the scientific data, which the regulatory agencies will verify. As a result of these prudent words he’s been demonized by the mass-media and some of  his colleagues. 

 

Cristanti defended himself with a letter published in the Corriere della Sera of November 23, wherein among other things, he states: “The custodians of scientific orthodoxy do not admit hesitations or vacillations;  they demand a leap of faith from those who don’t have access to privileged information. ‘The vaccine will work’, they thunder indignantly. I’m the first to hope this is true; nonetheless, allow me to object: the vaccine is not a sacred object. Let’s leave faith to religion and doubt and discussion to science which are its stimulus and guarantee.”

 

I give space to these declarations because it seems to me they are the voice of common sense at a time when the good use of reason is often lacking. Those like us, who are neither immunologists nor microbiologists and thus incapable of making scientific predictions, can only make an effort not to renounce the good use of logic and can do nothing other than agree with Professor Crisanti. But, seeing that, in addition to reason, it is necessary to live through this pandemic in the light of faith, we can indicate the existence of a remedy against the Coronavirus which is by far the most effective since it prevents not only bodily ills - which everyone fears - but also the  much more dangerous ones, those of the soul - which nobody addresses.

Can the Catholic Church be the Champion against the forces of militant secular liberalism?

 I write as a Catholic priest who both loves this country of the United States of America and who is also alarmed and angry at the forces that proclaim their roots in “liberalism” and which  persistently  push  an agenda that is anti-religious and contrary to what most people in this country still believe:  that there is a basic moral law that can be known by all men and women and that the only real basis for civil rights of the individual is belief in a transcendent God. 

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. 

 

 

These famous words that are part of the introduction to the Declaration of Independence lie at the very heart of the foundations on which the American experiment is based.  The assertion that “these truths are self-evident” has its basis in belief in the Natural Law. The Natural Law has its roots in Western philosophy and in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.  Natural Law declares that every thinking human being understands that there is a rational moral structure underlying human interaction at all levels and that to transgress this moral law is a crime against humanity itself.  When the founders of this country proclaimed the “self-evident” nature of these truths that make up the Natural Law, they were not invoking any religion to back up this fundamental claim of a shared understanding of the truths of the Natural Law. Nor did they believe that these truths depended on one’s education or place in the social structure of society.  They were based on a firm philosophical conviction of the existence of a Moral Law that must be the basis of a truly civilized and free nation.

Sermon for the Last Sunday After Pentecost: Learning the Four Last Things with Dante Alighieri

Father Richard Cipolla

From today’s Gospel: For as the lightning comes forth from the east and shines even to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man… And he will send forth his angels with a trumpet and a great sound, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. (Matthew 24:27 ff.)

Literary critics are a prickly and opinionated group, but they have always agreed that one of the greatest works of Western Literature is Dante’s Divine Comedy, both as poetry and as human epic. A few years ago a human rights organization called Gherush 92, which acts as a consultant to the United Nations body on racism and discrimination called for the banning of Dante’s Divine Comedy, specifically the first part called the Inferno, from the classroom.  Dante’s epic is “offensive and discriminatory” and has no place in a modern classroom, said Valentina Sereni, the group’s president.  She went on to say: “We do not advocate censorship or the burning of books, but we would like it acknowledged , clearly and unambiguously, that in the Divine Comedy there  is racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic content. Art cannot be above criticism”. She goes on to say that school children who studied the work lack the “filters” to appreciate its historical context and were being fed a poisonous diet of anti-Semitism and racism.

Trump’s List: The Perfect Parable of Abortion Today. A Spiritual Re-viewing of Schindler’s List (1993)

These reflections were put in writing by a young man in Italy, worried about the 2020 US Presidential Elections. They were sent for the first time to a priest, and are here extended to the rest of the world, to every man of good will who has the patience and willpower to realize what the situation in today’s world is. They are published anonymously to prevent the young man, his family, and his loved ones from repercussions, from the hatred and even physical attack from the ruthless Children of Darkness. This young man asks all those who are enriched or elevated by this reading to pray for him, his family, his friends; for the priest to whom he first sent these thoughts; for Carlo Maria Viganò and Donald Trump; for Joe Biden; for all the members of the American Supreme Court, especially the six Catholics who sit there; for this wretched world, for this unrecognizable but Holy Church. In short, that the Immaculate Heart of Mary may triumph, and soon too, against the now prevailing satanic barbarity—the daughter of that error of Russia’s that is abortion, legalized for the first time in Lenin’s Russia in November 1920, and then quickly spread throughout the world.

Trump’s List: The Perfect Parable of Abortion Today.

A Spiritual Re-viewing of Schindler’s List (1993)

A couple of weeks ago I was reminded of the film Schindler’s List, because during lunch the classical music radio playing on the TV aired the film’s main theme: so beautiful. I remembered it was a great movie, and how moved I was when I first saw it. And so I casually threw out the proposal. In the evening, after dinner, I swiftly downloaded it, said the Rosary with my family, and then asked them to try this mental exercise, perhaps difficult, probably unpleasant: imagine that every Jew they see in the film is instead a small human being in the mother’s womb.

De Mattei: The Secret Forces That Operate In History

 Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

November 18, 2020

Secret forces exist and operate in history. The simple dynamism of human passions and errors is not sufficient in fact to explain the revolutionary process that has been attacking for centuries the Church and the Christian civilization She created. This process is driven by agents – often hidden – but real.  Catholic thought of the 19^th and 20^th centuries has always investigated and documented rigorously the existence of this actuality, which can be defined as a “plot” or a “conspiracy”, if with these terms we mean the existence of forces that achieve their ends in secret and often by illicit and immoral methods.

 

Monsignor Henri Delassus (1836-1921), dedicated an important book to La conjuration antichrétienne: le temple maçonnique voulant s’élever sur les ruines de l’Eglise catholique (Paris 1910, 3 volume, with a preface written by Rafael Merry del Val). The secret societies that led the Revolution, explains Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, have as their aim, the establishing of a utopian “Universal Republic”, in which all legitimate differences among populations, families and social classes would be dissolved in an egalitarian, confused and bubbling amalgamation. (Rivoluzione e Contro-Rivoluzione, Sugarco, Milano 2009, p. 117).

 

The existence of this “plot” is confirmed in papal documents and especially in Leo XIII’s encyclical Humanum genus of April 20^th 1884, wherein the Pope denounces the diabolical plot of Freemasonry, which has as “[its] ultimate purpose the utter overthrow of that whole religious and political order of the world which the Christian teaching has produced, and the substitution of a new state of things in accordance with their ideas, of which the foundations and laws shall be drawn from mere naturalism.” (Enc. Humanum genus del 20 aprile 1884, ASS, vol. 16 (1883-1884), pp. 417-48).

EVENTS: Upcoming Lectures in Arizona by Dr. Kwasniewski - Phoenix 12/5 and Tucson 12/6

On Saturday, December 5, I will be speaking on the topic “The King’s Advent: Why the Epistle is Read to the East and the Gospel to the North” at Mater Misericordiae Catholic Church (Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter), in Phoenix, AZ. 

The lecture will explain the cosmic and anthropological symbolism of why the subdeacon faces east and the deacon north when chanting their readings at Solemn Mass, how the same symbolism is present in the Missa cantata when only the priest sings the readings, and why this detail is important, like every other detail in the traditional Mass. 

We will sing Vespers at 5:00 pm for the Second Sunday of Advent. The talk will begin at 5:30pm, with socializing and book signing afterwards. I will have copies of several books, including my new book from Sophia Institute Press: The Holy Bread of Eternal Life: Restoring Eucharistic Reverence in an Age of Impiety.

Then, on Sunday, December 6, I will speak on the topic “Why Should I Consistently Attend the Traditional Latin Mass?” at St. Gianna Oratory (Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest), in Tucson, AZ.

The lecture will go into the importance of stability, consistency, and good habits in the spiritual life; how the classical Roman rite is a superior home or environment in which to settle down; and how it can be harmful to bounce back and forth between the Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo. 

The lecture will be held at 4:00 pm, followed by socializing and book signing; the evening will conclude with sung Vespers at 6:00 pm.

More details may be found in the posters below. I look forward to meeting traditional Catholics in the Phoenix and Tucson areas!

The Urgency of Advent This Year: Light a Candle!

 Next Sunday is the Last Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel for that Sunday ends the Church Year with the “bang” of the Last Things. It is indeed fitting that the Last Sunday of the Church Year should call our attention to the consummation of all things in Jesus Christ when he will come to judge the living and the dead and usher in the triumph of the Kingdom of God. 

 This Last Sunday is followed by the First Sunday in Advent, that wonderful season of preparation of the feast of Christmas marking that event that changed history forever in the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world who is God and man. The season of Advent in the Northern hemisphere is marked by darkness as we approach the shortest day of the year. It is significant that Christmas is celebrated a few days after the winter solstice, when the night begins to yield to the light of day. The birth of the Christ Child is the beginning of the conquering of the darkness of sin and death, the essence of hope that Light will conquer darkness. 

The Four Qualities of Liturgy: Validity, Licitness, Fittingness, and Authenticity (Full Text of Dr. Kwasniewski’s Lecture)

Below is the full text of a lecture given at Queen of Peace Parish in Patton, Pennsylvania, on September 21, 2020 (video at YouTube). If we want to overcome the impoverished state of liturgical discourse, which results from focusing on only two categories (validity and licitness) and arrive at a fuller, more accurate picture, we must also consider fittingness and authenticity/legitimacy, which are two other irreducibly distinct perfections of liturgy. At the end, I offer a chart that categorizes liturgies — Eastern and Western, Catholic and Protestant, old and new, etc. — in terms of the four qualities. The text was first published at New Liturgical Movement; the chart, however, has been updated.

Los cuatro postes (Ávila)

The Four Qualities of Liturgy: Validity, Licitness, Fittingness, and Authenticity

Dr. Peter A. Kwasniewski

Queen of Peace Parish, Patton, PA

September 21, 2020

The celebration of the traditional Roman Rite Mass is becoming more and more common; it seems that its popularity has been an unintended consequence of both the chaos of the current pontificate and the disappointment of many Catholics with their pastors and parishes during the COVID pandemic. “Enough is enough!” is a frequently heard reaction. People are looking for worship that is reverent, prayerful, God-oriented, and deeply refreshing, and for priests who are truly committed to the care of souls. This, of course, is the work of the Holy Spirit, tugging at the heartstrings of baptized and confirmed Catholics, in whom there was planted the seed of Trinitarian life, which urges us to enter into the divine mystery.

However, there are certain difficulties in our situation, too. A vast amount of information, good, bad, indifferent, and inaccurate, circulates on the internet. Lay Catholics are seldom equipped to be able to understand what they’re reading about, especially when we get “into the weeds” of liturgical history and reform. How are blogs going to equip us with the ability to navigate thorny questions about the pope’s authority, the Church’s fidelity to tradition, the duty of obedience (and the limits thereof), and so on? There is a great need for careful, thoughtful, well-informed presentations on liturgical matters, so that we can deepen our understanding of the complex issues involved, without losing the simplicity of our faith, or the spontaneity of our interior life as we strive to be the saints Our Lord is calling us to be.

After many years, I have come to the realization that a lot of the time, people are talking past one another in liturgical discussions, and that is because they are talking about different aspects or properties of the liturgy, while failing to make the necessary distinctions. There are, in fact, four properties that are always supposed to belong to any liturgy: validity; licitness; fittingness; and authenticity. All of them are important, none of them is dispensable. They are meant to work together, in harmony, to bring us the fullness of divine worship intended by Christ for His Church. The problems we have experienced in recent decades have a lot to do with an exaggerated emphasis on one or another of these qualities, at the expense of the rest. I will begin by defining each one, and then talk about how they are related.

“We must love the Church more than ever”: Interview with Dr. Alice von Hildebrand (Rorate Exclusive)

Rorate is grateful to Annemarie and Thomas Thimons for providing this transcript of an interview they conducted with Dr. Alice von Hildebrand on September 3, 2018, shortly after the Viganò revelations about former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, about whom the long-delayed and long-awaited Vatican dossier is supposed to appear imminently — though it remains to be seen whether it will, in fact, expose the many actual and suspected connections, which ought to bring down many powerful members of the hierarchy. This interview with Dr. von Hildebrand has not been published until now.

The interviewers begin by sharing that McCarrick had been stripped of his red hat by Pope Francis a month prior to our meeting and required to live a life of penance.

Alice von Hildebrand [AVH]. That was a good decision.

 

De Mattei: Our place in the battlefield

 Roberto de Mattei

RadioRomaLibera

November 9, 2020

St Michael, defend us in the day of battle

A famous line from William Shakespeare’s  play As You Like It, goes like this: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players” (Act II, scene VII).

 

There is wisdom in this sentence, but we could say more precisely: “All the world is a battlefield and all the men and women are immersed in this war.”

 

This is always true, but it is particularly true today. There is no denying it.

 

The elections are just over in the U.S.A.  But are they really over? The President in office until January 20 is officially Donald Trump, who has not conceded the victory to his adversary, already enthroned as the new president by the mainstream media.  What will happen from now until January 20?  In addition to the pending legal battles, America is split in half into two political parts which have become two visions of the world, wherein it will be difficult to find ground for compromise. The electoral result probably gave the victory to  Biden, but Trump appeared more solid and Biden weaker than everyone expected. The political system in the U.S.A., considered a model since the time Alexis de Tocqueville described it in Democracy in America (1831), today, manifests all its fragility, and a scenario of  civil war  (raised a number of times by the British historian Neil Ferguson) appears less far-fetched than may first seem.

The McCarrick Report is here -- But First, Remember This Video Where McCarrick Boasted of Helping to Elect Cardinal Bergoglio

 First things first.

In a speech at the liberal Villanova University in 2013, then-cardinal Ted McCarrick boasted of his decisive influence in the election of Cardinal Bergoglio as Pope. Other actors confirm that McCarrick's support was very important for the election:

 

 ***

The full text of the Report released today by the Vatican (461 pages long!) is here.

Some initial observations:

1) The mainstream media has copied and pasted the Vatican's spin on McCarrick, that it was all Pope John Paul II's fault.  While traditional Catholics were certainly no fans of the late pontiff, isn't there more to the story?

2) Jorge Bergoglio, McCarrick's friend, was -- according to McCarrick in the above video -- identified as a liberal cardinal who could be elected pope.  McCarrick urged others in the college of cardinals to talk him up.  No mention of this, mainstream media?  Reading the early press reports, it seems as if Bergoglio had never heard of Uncle Ted.

3)  The JPII cult -- from George Weigel to Opus Dei -- has some serious explaining to do.

4) JPII's canonization is now a textbook example of why several decades should pass before even thinking about canonizing a pope -- or most anyone, for that matter.

The Abortion President -- and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops welcomes him

 From the official Biden website:

The Affordable Care Act made historic progress ensuring access to free preventive care, including contraception. The Biden Plan will build on that progress. Vice President Biden supports repealing the Hyde Amendment because health care is a right that should not be dependent on one’s zip code or income.

 

And, the public option will cover contraception and a woman’s constitutional right under Roe v. Wade.

 

Biden will also:

 

Stop state laws violating Roe v. Wade. Biden will work to codify Roe v. Wade, and his Justice Department will do everything in its power to stop the rash of state laws that so blatantly violate Roe v. Wade.

 

Restore federal funding for Planned Parenthood. The Obama-Biden Administration fought Republican attacks on funding for Planned Parenthood again and again. As President, Biden will reissue guidance specifying that states cannot refuse Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood and other providers and reverse the Trump Administration’s rule preventing these organizations from obtaining Title X funds.

 

Just as the Obama-Biden Administration did, rescind the Mexico City Policy (also referred to as the global gag rule) that President Trump reinstated and expanded. This rule currently bars the U.S. federal government from supporting important global health efforts — including for malaria and HIV/AIDS — in developing countries simply because the organizations providing that aid also offer information on abortion services.

 

Restore the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate in place before the U.S. Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision. The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision makes it easier for the Trump-Pence Administration to continue to strip health care from women — attempting to carve out broad exemptions to the Affordable Care Act’s commitment to giving all women free access to recommended contraception. Biden will restore the Obama-Biden policy that existed before the Hobby Lobby ruling: providing an exemption for houses of worship and an accommodation for nonprofit organizations with religious missions. The accommodation will allow women at these organizations to access contraceptive coverage, not through their employer-provided plan, but instead through their insurance company or a third-party administrator.

The Mexico City Policy rescission is the most blatant move, because we know it will be the very first action of the Biden administration (as it was in the Obama years), and its effects are worldwide in reach (that is, "catholic" effects), and depend solely on the discretion of the President. U.S. tax dollars will be used from day one to fund abortion throughout the world. 

 

*** 

So how does the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops welcome these literally bloody developments? 

 “We congratulate Mr. Biden and acknowledge that he joins the late President John F. Kennedy as the second United States president to profess the Catholic faith." (CNA)

The next few years will be a great struggle for faithful Catholics in the U.S., since most of the Catholic hierarchy in the nation will try to "normalize" abortionist pseudo-Catholics as exemplary men and women. 

Bishops Report to the CDF on the TLM: the Una Voce Federation responds

Want a break from the US election?

You can read a good dal about the response of the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce (FIUV) to the survey of the world's bishops on the Traditional Mass carried out by the CDF in the newly published magazine of the FIUV: Gregorius Magnus 10.

Having recently returned from Rome, I can say from multiple sources that what the bishops have said about the EF in their dioceses is not all negative by any means, and no one seems to expect any bad outcomes from this survey. Nevertheless, the FIUV has also presented the CDF with a report, covering 364 dioceses from 52 countries, of the experiences of the traditional faithful, whether in enjoying the Traditional Mass or merely asking for it, to supplement the perspective of the world's bishops.

Gregorius Magnus also has much else of interest which I hope readers will appreciate, including extracts from traditional Catholic magazines from around the world, some published in English for the first time.

It is now available as a pdf here.

For the first time, and thanks to sponsorship by the Latin Mass Society (England and Wales), it is also available to read on ISSUU, which optimises the content for display on mobile devices. You can download the app, or look at it on the web.

Direct link to Gregorius Magnus 10 on ISSUU here.

Link to Gregorius Magnus on ISSUU with the last three editions here.

De Mattei: November: the Month of the Communion of Saints

 

Roberto de Mattei

RadioRomaLibera

November 2, 2020

The month of November began with two important liturgical feasts: All Saints and All Souls.  

 

On November 1st, the Church celebrated the Feast of All Saints - those of whom the Apocalypse sings: “After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands: [10] And they cried with a loud voice, saying: Salvation to our God” (Apocalypse, 7, 9-10).  This is the Church Triumphant in Heaven, the Church of the Saints, our models and intercessors.

 

On November 2nd the Church commemorated the deceased, of whom St. Paul says: “And we will not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep, that you be not sorrowful, even as others who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4,12). This is the Church Penitent, of the souls suffering in Purgatory waiting to enter Heaven. And the Faith teaches us that the liberation from their sufferings is in our hands, through prayer.

 

The Church Triumphant in Heaven and the Penitent Church in Purgatory are united to the Church Militant, made up of Christians living on Earth and together form the One Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, the Communion of Saints.

(Volo mori, o Deus in Te.)

In 2020, as in 2016 | Fr. Rutler: In this presidential election, we cannot be indifferent - one side is pro-life, the other is EVIL

 In  November 2016, we posted the column below by Fr. George Rutler -- and it is even more pertinent today. After almost 4 years in the White House, President Donald J. Trump rewarded the confidence pro-lifers placed in him. In every possible measure that the Executive Branch can further (from discretionary funding to judicial appointments), President Trump has been the most pro-life president ever.

With a fake pro-abortion "Catholic" on the other side, faithful Christians have no choice other than voting for the reelection of the President.

***

FROM THE PASTOR

October 30, 2016

by Fr. George W. Rutler

On the Election

Exactly eight years ago [2008] I wrote a column titled “The One We Were Waiting For” in which I referred to a book by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson, The Lord of the World. That dystopian novel has been cited by Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis said he has read it several times. The protagonist, if one can apply that term to an Anti-Christ, imposed a new world religion with Man himself as god. His one foe was Christianity, which he thwarted in part by using “compromised Catholics” and compliant priests to persuade timid Catholics.

Reminder: Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society #AllSoulsDay

NOTE: Today is All Souls Day 2020. Get those names in and, Fathers, there's no better day to sign up as a member of the Society!

This is our monthly reminder to please enroll Souls of the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society. The Society now stands at 109 priests saying weekly or monthly traditional Latin Masses for the Souls. 

** Click here to download a "fillable" PDF Mass Card in English to give to the loved ones of the Souls you enroll (you send these to the family and/or friends of the dead, not to us). It's free for anyone to use. CLICK HERE to download in Latin and CLICK HERE to download in Spanish. 

Priests: The Souls still need more of you saying Mass for them! Please email me to offer your services. There's nothing special involved -- all you need to do is offer a weekly or monthly TLM with the intention: "For the repose of the Souls enrolled in the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society." And we will always keep you completely anonymous unless you request otherwise. 

How to enroll souls: please email me at athanasiuscatholic@yahoo.com and submit as follows: "Name, State, Country." If you want to enroll entire families, simply write in the email: "The Jones family, Ohio, USA". Individual names are preferred. Be greedy -- send in as many as you wish and forward this posting to friends as well.

Sermon for All Saints: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus

Fr. Richard G. Cipolla

After this I saw a great multitude which no man could number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and with palms in their hands: and they cried out with a loud voice saying: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb”.  

This is the heart of the book of Revelation, the eternal worship of God in heaven by the saints.  How disabused is this the last book of the New Testament by those who are looking for special numbers and signs, looking for clues to times and dates, looking for arcane and Gnostic messages, treating this book as if it were a sequel to a trashy novel about angels and demons.   Yes, there is war in heaven, yes there is the dragon who seeks to destroy the woman and the child, but at the very heart of the book of Revelation, the Apocalypse is the worship of God by the saints in heaven, and what we do here today is the earthly reflection of this worship in heaven by the saints of God.