A Sacrificial and Royal Liturgy

A Sacrificial and Royal Liturgy

Paix Liturgique

Letter 986

December 15, 2023

From December 1 to 3, 2023, 600 seminarians from all French dioceses gathered in Paris. On the occasion of this gathering, Mgr de Moulins-Beaufort answered the questions they freely put to him. One of them asked: "Does the Church in France have a problem with traditionalists?" Mgr de Moulins-Beaufort replied: "Yes, no doubt because of our turbulent history since the Revolution. If there's a central question, it's one of political theology and our relationship with the world. Vatican II's decree on religious freedom is very clear. Christ didn't come to build Catholic nations; he came to found the Church. It's not the same thing. By dint of harboring nostalgia for a Catholic state, we lose our energy for evangelization."

Resistance is never futile: An interview with Christian Marquant, founder of Paix Liturgique

We are pleased to present the text of an interview we recently conducted with Monsieur Christian Marquant of Paix Liturgique (“Liturgical Peace”). He belongs to the generation of extraordinary people who, as young men, acted decisively when their elders shrank from doing so: they resisted the imposition of liturgical novelty upon the people of God. Here, for the first time online, Christian recounts his adventures and misadventures from the mid-1960s to the present—above all, the establishment and work of Paix Liturgique, a multilingual, data-driven enterprise for the restoration of the usus antiquior all around the world. We are grateful for the many historic photos Mr. Marquant shared with us, most of which appear here for the first time. Dr. John Pepino kindly translated the interview from French into English.

 

Christian Marquant, Summorum Pontificum Conference, October 2020, Rome

The “Long March” of Paix Liturgique

Rorate Caeli: Dear Christian, you are the man who orchestrates Oremus-Paix Liturgique. Could you tell us about this movements and its activities?

 

Christian Marquant: It would hard to tell you what we are today without telling you at least some of our history as Catholic activists. It all began in the mid-1960s.

“Two ‘Forms’ of the Roman Rite: Liturgical Fact or Canonical Fiat?” — Full Text of Dr. Kwasniewski’s Norwalk Lecture

In June 2017, I gave a lecture at St. Mary’s in Norwalk, Connecticut, on the intellectual and historical incoherence of the notion of “two (equal) forms” of the Roman Rite. Given the rapid progress that has been made in liturgical discussions over the past three years, with many more people now attending the traditional Latin Mass and seeing for themselves the truth of Mosebach’s words—“No one who has eyes and ears will be persuaded to ignore what his own senses tell him: these two forms are so different that their theoretical unity appears entirely unreal”—I have decided to make the transcript of the lecture available, and have chosen this date, September 14, for the symbolic reasons one might infer. The text below has been rewritten for its inclusion as a chapter in a forthcoming book with the tentative title: “Pass on Real Gold, Not Counterfeit”: The Immemorial Roman Mass and Fifty Years of Rupture, which I hope will appear from Arouca Press in 2020.

Two “Forms” of the Roman Rite: Liturgical Fact or Canonical Fiat?

Peter A. Kwasniewski

Every Catholic in the world—where he knows it or not—is indebted to Pope Benedict XVI for “liberating” the traditional Latin Mass with the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. We may grumble about various things Pope Benedict did not do that we feel he ought to have done, but we must never fail to be grateful for the courageous steps he took, in matters in which nearly the entire hierarchy of the Church stood opposed to him. It was deeply against his nature to impose anything that would not be welcomed by at least a large number, and in this act he stood nearly alone. The motu proprio has caused innumerable flowers to flourish, countless fruits to be harvested. In this lecture, I come neither to praise nor to bury Pope Benedict, but rather, to examine an operative assumption in the motu proprio: that Paul VI’s Missale Romanum of 1969 (the “Novus Ordo”) is, or belongs to, the same rite as the Missale Romanum last codified in 1962, or, more plainly, that the Novus Ordo can be called “the Roman rite” of the Mass. This, I shall argue, cannot withstand critical scrutiny. Although I will be referring primarily to the Roman missal and the Mass, my argument would apply, mutatis mutandis, to the rites of the other sacraments, to blessings and rituals, and to the Divine Office and its substitute, the Liturgy of the Hours.

On Submission to Forms: On the Putative Equality of the “Two Forms” of the Roman Rite

Rorate is pleased to publish this guest article by a senior at a Catholic college.

On Submission to Forms: On the Putative Equality of the “Two Forms” of the Roman Rite

Anthony Jones

In recent days, both Bishop Strickland and Bishop Barron have seen fit to address the Liturgical Question, namely, the uneasy coexistence of “Ordinary” and “Extraordinary” forms of the Roman rite. Bishop Strickland praises the traditional Mass, which he learned in order to offer it for the first time on the feast of Corpus Christi, while Bishop Barron seems to say “it’s fine if you like it, but let’s remember that John Paul II and Mother Teresa got holy from the Novus Ordo”—as if to say, it’s not a big deal, like a preference for chocolate over vanilla ice cream.

BREAKING: The Questionnaire on Summorum Pontificum: what’s going on behind the scenes

The Editor

Messa in Latino 

April 24, 2020

Dearest Friends,

After publishing the translations of the CDF’s letter to the Episcopal Conferences and the attached questionnaire on theapplication of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, we would like now to add some further updating on this complex and delicate matter.  MessainLatino.it, in fact was given some [background]information that we judge reliable.

Here it is:

IMPORTANT: Texts of the 7 New Prefaces of the Traditional Latin Mass

The seven new optional prefaces, three of which are ancient and four adapted from similar prefaces in the new missal (Novus Ordo), were promulgated by the Decree Quo Magis, published on March 25, 2020.

It is relevant to recall that new optional prefaces for the 1962 Missal had been foreseen by Pope Benedict XVI on the accompanying Letter to Summorum Pontificum, published on the same day as the motu proprio, July 7, 2007: "new Saints and some of the new Prefaces can and should be inserted in the old Missal." (Benedict XVI)

The Seven optional Prefaces are the following: Preface of the Angels (feasts and votive masses of the Angels and Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel - Sep. 29); Preface of Saint John the Baptist (on the festive and votive masses of the saint); Preface of Martyrs (on the festive and votive masses of Martyrs, other than St. John the Baptist); Preface of All Saints and of Patron Saints (not covered by other prefaces); Preface of the Most Blessed Sacrament (for Corpus Christi, for votive masses of the Blessed Sacrament, and for votive masses of O.L. Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest); Preface for the Dedication of a Church; Preface for Nuptial Masses (for nuptial masses "Pro sponsis").

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PRÆFATIO DE ANGELIS

Can a Bishop Require Communion in the Hand to Prevent the Spread of the Coronavirus? (And Would This Apply to the TLM?)

The following article is intended as a follow-up on yesterday's post by Bishop Athanasius Schneider.

A friend posed this question to me: “Our bishop sent out a notice suspending communion on the tongue temporarily in response to the coronavirus, and our pastor thinks that this applies to our Latin Mass. Do you know of any legislation or magisterial statement clarifying that not even a bishop has the authority to do this?”