UK / Letter from the District Superior
By Father Paul Morgan - January 2006
By Father Paul Morgan - January 2006
My dear brethren,
Bishop Fellay, our Superior General, recently commented that the battle for the Mass is almost won, but that the war over Vatican II is far from over. Rome now concedes that the Traditional Mass was not suppressed, that it should be made more widely available, that the faithful can indeed fulfil their Sunday obligation by attending our Masses, that there are problems with the New Liturgy. Also, the recent appointment of Archbishop Ranjith [1] as secretary for the Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship may well be significant as he is known for his attachment to the Tridentine Mass. Headlines from The Catholic Herald newspaper frequently give the impression that moves are afoot to stem the liturgical shipwreck: ‘Gregorian Chant must be restored, orders Vatican’ (16th December 2005); ‘Did Vatican II divide the Church?’ (9th December 2004); ‘Over 200 Bishops debate...ways of stamping out liturgical abuse’ (7th October 2005), etc. Nevertheless, the authorised celebration of the true Mass remains conditional upon the acceptance of Vatican II and the New Mass, and consequently the apparent increase in numbers of Indult Masses has to be seen in context: namely that in order to receive a little bit of Catholic sustenance one must swallow a large dose of Modernist poison! Hence the Society’s insistence that Rome recognise the right of every priest to celebrate the Traditional Mass without conditions. The issue at the heart of the present crisis continues to be the Council and only time will tell if Rome is prepared to take a serious look at its revolutionary principles. Bishop Fellay reminds us that Benedict XVI is also a pope of Vatican II and that due to his perspective of things it seems impossible for him to renounce or to reject the Council. The new Pope indicated to Bishop Fellay in last August’s audience that he expected us to accept and absorb the Council ‘interpreted in the light of Tradition.’ The problem here is that conciliar tradition, which means constant novelty and the evolution of dogma, stands in opposition to Catholic Tradition, which signifies conformity to the Church's perennial teaching. Whilst we can expect something of a return to a more conservative situation under the new pope, at least compared to John Paul II’s pontificate, we ought not to imagine that everything is resolved. As it was Napoleon who introduced a certain order in to the Revolution, and then carried the revolutionary principles across Europe with his victorious armies, so now is there a real danger of a more conservative pope propagating the revolutionary principles of Vatican II. Hence the need for vigilance and for prayer: prayer for the return of Rome to Tradition, and prayer for our Superior General who has to present and to defend the cause of Tradition in Rome, making the most of the favourable wind which is, at the present time, blowing in Rome; and vigilance against compromise. With regard to Rome and the Society, please find elsewhere in this newsletter an article reprinted from The Remnant, which presents an interesting perspective on the present situation. When unable to attend Sunday Mass due to distance or infirmity, the faithful do well to follow Mass in their missals, perhaps even in conjunction with the time Mass is being offered elsewhere. "Faithful Catholics should do everything they can keep the Catholic Faith whole and intact: attending the Mass of all time when they can, even if it is just once a month. Those unable to attend Mass should read the Mass in their missals instead, preferably together with one’s family, in the much the same way as Catholics in missionary countries, who are only visited by the priest two or three times a year, and sometimes only once a year! "This is the time of heroism. Is it not a grace of God to live in these troubled times, so as to rediscover the Cross of Jesus, His redemptive sacrifice, to comprehend the true value of this source of holiness for the Church, to accord to due honour, and to better appreciate the greatness of the Priesthood? To understand better the Cross of Jesus is to be raised towards heaven and to deepen the true Catholic spirituality of sacrifice, of the meaning of suffering, of penance, of humility and of death." [Archbishop Lefebvre, 20th January 1978]
Wishing you every grace and blessing this Christmastide,
Father Paul Morgan
Superior
Note 1. Angelus 2002 “Light in the Darkness” by Fr. Schmidberger. In the article the Cardinal seems to be friendly to Tradition and prefers the old Mass.
