For the Record

1. Father Laguérie on the nature and date of the document:

I do not know anything in particular on the famous "Motu Proprio", which should, for that matter, be [released] in the form of a decree. The two Cardinals who last spoke to me about it did not absolutely know its date, even though their personal conviction was that it would certainly see the light of day.

The best [thing] to say is that nobody knows anything [about this] and that the Pope decides by himself at the moment, which corresponds quite well to his way of doing [things].

2. From an article by Brian Mershon released by The Remnant:

Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro, Rome-based consultant to Una Voce America, confirmed that his Vatican sources have said the long awaited and much-rumored motu proprio easing restrictions on the Traditional Roman rite of Mass should be issued by Easter.

“I have information from a serious high level source that it is likely the motu proprio will be published before Easter,” Msgr. Barreiro said.

...

Msgr. Barreiro also said that the expected timing of the Traditional Latin Mass document’s promulgation is consistent with an opinion he heard from several other sources several months ago. He emphasized it would be important to carefully study Sacramentum Caritatis to determine if it holds any keys to understanding the expected motu proprio.

Lent with Lacordaire: Between Christ and ourselves, nothing can exist but Himself or ourselves

Porro si in digito Dei eiicio dæmonia: profecto pervenit in vos regnum Dei. Cum fortis armatus custodit atrium suum, in pace sunt ea quæ possidet. Si autem fortior eo superveniens vicerit eum, universa arma eius auferet, in quibus confidebat, et spolia eius distribuet. Qui non est mecum, contra me est: et qui non colligit mecum, dispergit. (From the Gospel for the Third Sunday in Lent, Luke xi, 20-23: But if I by the finger of God cast out devils, doubtless the kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man armed keepeth his court, those things are in peace which he possesseth. But if a stronger than he is come upon him and overcome him, he will take away all his armor wherein he trusted, and will distribute his spoils. He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth.)

Jesus Christ [did not ask] from us the sacrifice of our reason in order to establish His kingdom by faith; for He is Himself reason, and it is He who gives us ours by a reflection of His own, as it is expressly written in the Gospel of Saint John.

But He had to require from us the sacrifice of our own judgment, which is a very different thing from the sacrifice of our reason. In fact, reason does not exist in us in its pure state; were it so, enlightened as we should be by a single and an undivided light, we should advance in the most perfect unanimity. Instead of this, although participating in reason, one and universal, without which we should not be intelligent beings, we mix it up with weaknesses, obscurities, habits, resolutions, numberless mysterious obstacles which bar up its great ways, lessen its light, and make of our reason that limited and personal thing which we call private judgment. It is this judgment, the result of our servitude and liberty, which divides men in the house of their common mother, and hinders them from founding here below, by themselves, the holy republic of truth.

We cleave, in fact, to our own judgment in a twofold manner, because it is based upon reason, and nothing is more just than to hold to reason; and we cleave to it still more, perhaps, by that individuality which distinguishes us, and which is made up of the innumerable impressions which the ebb and flow of the intelligence have deposited in us from the day when we first exercised that admirable faculty of seeing, hearing, judging, reasoning, and feeling. Now, by the faith in Jesus Christ, necessary to the constitution of the kingdom of souls, we must abdicate that personal judgment which is so natural and so dear to us; we must found our reason in the superior reason of Christ, we must break in pieces the personal mold, more or less false and narrow, which makes us what we are, and enter into the wide and deep mold shaped by the Gospel, which is the very mind of Jesus Christ.

This sacrifice ... is infinitely painful to us, because, in order to tear us from ourselves, it touches the root of our spiritual being. ... Not only do we cleave to ourselves as nature and liberty have made us, but we strive also to impose ourselves upon others, to become their models, their masters, and to create a kingdom of minds in order to govern them. In whatever degree man may have received from Heaven an elevated mind, this is his inclination. In the mental order, as in all the orders of his action, the will of man is to reign. If he is favored by birth, by fortune, or by power, his will is to be supreme in them; if, however, he is gifted in the intellectual order, he thirsts to govern minds. This last royalty is the most courted of all, and its most absolute sovereigns are not satisfied if they do not bring all minds into subjection to their own.

When, therefore, Jesus Christ requires from us the sacrifice of our judgment to His supreme reason, He requires from us the abdication of the royalty which we have most at heart. He enters into a conspiracy, the object of which is to humble us before the most rightful throne to which we could aspire: for what sovereignty is more lawful than the sovereignty of the mind, that gift which does not come to us from chance or election, or the efforts of others, but from our own selves, from what is sown in us by nature and cultivated by us? And, in proportion as we possess this, whether by knowledge or philosophy, so are we the more incensed against that usurper called Christ, who pretends to nothing less than to set up His mind in the place of our own, than to cause us to think His thoughts and speak His words. This ... is the secret of that aversion which so many learned men and philosophers feel towards Jesus Christ; they are men who will not submit to be dethroned... .

Nevertheless, it has been necessary that, for eighteen centuries, all of us, whoever we may be, who are the children of Christ, should consent to be dethroned, to become little, to be taught -- not only during our childhood, but throughout our lives; and, laden with years and honours, having governed men otherwise than by the mind, in our last moments, when about to appear before God, we have again been required to abdicate that reign of the judgment, so dear to pride, in order to repose in Jesus Christ as little children, and charge Him to bear us in His blessed hands to the throne of that pure and eternal reason, who is God His Father.

None other upon earth..., none other, has obtained that supreme dictatorship of the understanding. Tyrants have oppressed human thought by hindering its manifestation, they have never governed it; it eludes all the devices of the most subtle rule. Sages have formed schools, but ephemeral schools, whose laws have been disowned even by their disciples. Should we wonder at that? The disciple of the sage is a man like himself; he idolises the idea of the master until the day comes when his own idea, ripe for an act of legitimate ingratitude, enables him to attain to the honors of teaching, and mark his place in the history of the unstable dynasties of human knowledge. The religious sects, although standing upon more solid ground, have, however, met with no better success. Heresy leaves us our own judgment, Protestantism leaves us our own judgment; all these doctrines, so far from enchaining faith, have had for object [the] emancipation [of private judgment]. Even Mohammedanism, like idolatry beforehand, was unable to constitute a doctrinal authority, and consequently it leaves its followers to the chance of their personal direction. All, save Christ, either leave to us or restore to us our judgment, and here lies the eternal charm of error.

What do we now hear around us? What does the modern age, uncertain of its course, and almost alike incapable of boldness in evil and in good, demand of Christ with supplication? Is it not to slacken the bonds of His rule, to remove certain articles of the ancient Christian constitution, to revise the primitive pact of the Gospel, to sign a compromise between time and eternity? But Christ smiles at those weak desires which do not spring from entire obedience to His adorable reason. Between Him and ourselves, nothing can exist but Himself or ourselves, the abdication of our own judgment, or the reign of our own judgment: between these we have to choose.

Henri-Dominique Lacordaire
Conférences de Notre-Dame de Paris (1846)

For the Record

1. Article by Father Ignacio Barreiro ("Affirming the Truth"), from the quarterly magazine of The Latin Mass Society of England and Wales.

2. Short Italian article including some rehashed rumors, and some rumors that publishing houses are getting ready to print new Altar Missals and lay handmissals (of the 1962 Edition of the Roman Missal). Nothing particularly solid.

Will the CDF warn Jon Sobrino?

The Spanish daily El Mundo reports that one of the most famous surviving "Liberation theologians", Jon Sobrino, SJ, will be publicly rebuked by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in a note to be published on March 15 (or some other time in the next few weeks), the first public note of the kind in years.

Sobrino was asked to clarify and rectify some concepts on the "divine conscience" of the "historical Jesus", and would have refused to do so, according to the report, referring his defense to the Superior General of the Society of Jesus.

Source: Periodista Digital

Lent with Lacordaire: the world contradicts the Doctrines, the Spirit, and the Church of Jesus Christ

Dicit illis Iesus: Numquam legistis in Scripturis: Lapidem quem reprobaverunt ædificantes, hic factus est in caput anguli: a Domino factum est istud, et est mirabile in oculis nostris? (From the Gospel for the Friday in the Second Week of Lent, Matthew xxi, 42: Jesus saith to them: Have you never read in the Scriptures, "The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the cornerstone, by the Lord this has been done; and it is wonderful in our eyes"?)

I ask you, princes of nations, you who command by intelligence, wealth, or power; I ask you to make a man humble and chaste, a penitent, a soul who judges his pride and his senses, who despises himself, who hates himself, who struggles against himself, and either as the proof or as the means of his conversion, humbly avows the errors of his life. I ask but this from you: can you accomplish this? Have you ever done so?

Ah, if a king, radiant in the majesty of the throne, were to call you into his cabinet, and press you to confess your faults at his feet, you would say to him: Sire, I would rather confess them to the man who makes shoes for my feet! If the most famous philosopher of his age were to use all his eloquence to persuade you to kneel and confess your sins to him, you would not even deign to turn away from laughing in his face. Pardon these expressions, ... they would be ill-placed on other occasions; here, they are just and grave.

And, yet, what kings, philosophers, and nations are unable to obtain, a poor priest, a man unknown, the most obscure among men, accomplishes daily in the name of Jesus Christ. He sees souls touched by their misery, coming to seek him who does not know them, and tell him in all sincerity the degradation of their passions. It is the door by which men enter into Jesus Christ, by which they rest in Him, by which the Church herself enters; for the Church is but the world penitent; and that single word reveals to you the whole miracle of her foundation and perpetuity, as it will also explain to you the force of active and passive contradiction which is in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ contradicts all doctrines, because His doctrine is holy and the world is corrupt; He contradicts every spirit, because His Spirit is holy and the world is corrupt; He contradicts all nations, because His Church is holy and the world is corrupt; and, for the same reason, the world contradicts the doctrines, the Spirit, and the Church of Jesus Christ.

It was then with justice (in a certain sense) that, in the first proceedings directed against Christians, by the orders of Nero, they were convicted, according to Tacitus, of "hatred against the human race". They hated, in fact, all that the world esteemed; they pursued all its ideas and all its affections, in order to destroy them utterly; and although they did this out of love for the world, the world was not bound to understand and thank them for it.

Even charity, so new as it was, clothed itself in hostile colours, and the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross, that masterpiece of love, appeared rather like an insult than devoutness.

All [of this] was contradiction, because all [of it] was God; and in order to prove that nothing of this was of man, Jesus Christ was forever to be recognized by this sign, as it was said of Him at the moment of His first appearing among men: "This Child is set up as a sign of contradiction." And He Himself, recalling the prophecies, said to His enemies: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is wonderful in our eyes." The prophecy is still accomplished daily: princes, nations, savants, sages, the experts, the builders, all reject the stone; they declare it to be unfit or worn out by time; they will accept it no longer; and yet it still is "the cornerstone, and it is wonderful in our eyes."

Henri-Dominique Lacordaire
Conférences de Notre-Dame de Paris (1846)

Fellay speaks on the eventual motu proprio

Latest "Letter to Our Friends and Benefactors" of the Superior-General of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, Bishop Bernard Fellay, signed on the First Sunday in Lent, February 25, 2007:

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

For a long time we have desired to send you this letter to give you some news of our dear Society. We have postponed sending it because we wanted to explain to you our position after the publication announced months ago of the motu proprio on permission to celebrate the Tridentine Mass. For, last October while we were gathering our spiritual bouquet for obtaining the liberation of the holy Mass, everything seemed to indicate an imminent publication of a motu proprio by Pope Benedict XVI concerning the question. But it seems that the staunch opposition of certain episcopates has constrained the Sovereign Pontiff to delay it "a little while."

This "little while" is turning into a lengthy duration, so that we shall not wait any longer to share with you our take on the situation.

Our [General] Chapter had set the goal of offering a million rosaries by the end of October. The harvest was abundant indeed, as we were finally able to send the pope a spiritual bouquet of two and a half million rosaries. In our letter [to the pope] accompanying the bouquet, we indicated that we had wanted to show by this concrete act our will to collaborate in the rebuilding of the Church and Christendom. It is obvious to us that this terrible crisis, which has afflicted the Church since the Second Vatican Council, will not come to an end without a vast effort and a very great determination on the hierarchy's part, beginning with the Vicar of Christ. For, in the circumstances, it will take overcoming the lethargy created by a bad habit; it will mean refuting errors and even heresies and other positions totally incompatible with the doctrine of the Church, the Bride of Christ, which have become embedded in the Mystical Body. A happy result cannot be hoped for without the powerful help of Heaven. That is why we turned, and are still turned, towards Our Lady and Our Lord to obtain an improvement in the Church.

Even if till now the desired result has not come about, nevertheless, in the month of October we were witness to a scene concerning the Mass of All Time that had not been seen in the last decade. For, contrary to the usual slogans, which attribute attachment to the Latin liturgy to nostalgia or a particular sensibility, this time serious arguments were being made: freedom for priests to celebrate the Tridentine Mass would create doctrinal problems, they tell us; this Mass endangers the achievements of Vatican II. How can we not rejoice over this sudden discovery?

If we closely consider the arguments advanced this time, especially by the French episcopate, but also at Rome and in Germany, one notices that the bishops in fact are afraid of this Mass. Even Rome is being extremely careful not to disavow Paul VI's reform while outlining the possibility of a return to the old Mass. The progressivists' fear is such that it is necessary [for Rome] to go to great lengths and to argue forcefully for broadening the permission for priests' to celebrate the Tridentine Mass. Certainly, that also explains why we have not yet received either thanks or a response to our letter from the Sovereign Pontiff or even the Vatican.

In the present situation, we can and we must draw some conclusions for the future, even if we do not yet know the exact terms of this much talked-about motu proprio.

1. If we consider how Roman documents have been received during the last decade by the episcopate and the faithful, we are obliged to say that what prevails is a very great indifference that has frustrated the measures recommended in them by Rome. Whether it be the place of laymen in the liturgy or, more recently, liturgical prescriptions; whether it concern the Declaration Dominus Jesus or the condemnation of abortion and euthanasia, one cannot fail to notice that the documents have had no real effect. One can well wonder even now whether the motu proprio will not have the same fate.

2. Nonetheless, since the document extends a favor rather than imposes a restriction, and since, moreover, it is addressed to persons who are very interested in the matter, it could well be that the expectations of the faithful and priests will awaken the hierarchies in some countries from their lethargy and disturb their resistance. This is what certain bishops are thinking of when they warn of a risk of liturgical anarchy in their dioceses. Considering the multiplicity of forms the New Mass has taken in reality, one might wonder where this new-found fear of "division" can be coming from. On the contrary, the traditional liturgy has always proven to be a factor of unity, especially because of its sacred language, Latin.

3. It is quite unlikely that this motu proprio will be followed by a mass movement. The priests and faithful who desire the old liturgy are proportionally few in number, and the others have lost the taste for it or the interest. It will take many serious efforts to restore to its place of honor in the whole Church the venerable and sacred rite that sanctified centuries and centuries of Christendom.

4. It will be, rather, a movement that will take off slowly, but which will slowly gain strength as the riches and beauty of the lost liturgy are rediscovered. Indeed, simply by granting the Tridentine Mass the right to exist (this Mass was never suppressed!), it will gradually impose itself since the New Mass cannot rival it.

5. At any rate, a broader permission to celebrate the old Mass is a blessing for the Church. Certainly, the publication of this document might engender a certain confusion "among us," in the sense that it will create the impression of a rapprochement between the official Church and Tradition. When it happens, an appeal by Rome for renewed unity should be expected. For the SSPX, a greater liberalization of the holy Mass is a cause for rejoicing, a step towards the restoration of Tradition; however, the distrust born of years of self-defense and combat against "those who should be our pastors" will not be easily allayed. Indeed, the New Mass should be considered an effect much more than a cause of the crisis that has afflicted the Church for nearly forty years. In other words, our situation will be practically unchanged by the return of the old Mass so long as it is not accompanied by other absolutely essential rectifications.

6. Ecumenism, liberalism, and this spirit of the world that defiles the Bride of Christ are still the principles animating the Conciliar Church. These principles kill the spirit of God, the Christian spirit. We must understand more than ever the roots of the crisis in order to keep ourselves from rushing blindly into the new situation that would be created by the motu proprio. Before thinking of the measures that will need to be taken for our canonical regularization, an in-depth discussion of these questions is indispensable. We hope that Rome at last understands our demand to see any discussions preceded by what we call our preliminaries or preconditions, one of which would be met by the motu proprio. For thirty years we have refused to take the poison; it is for this reason that we have been rejected, and it is still the condition (more or less hidden) that Rome imposes for accepting us. Ecumenism, religious liberty, and collegiality remain the points of contention over which we will not budge.

7. What we have been saying up to this point is just speculation. The concrete circumstances, that is, the actual terms of the motu proprio, may require other distinctions and clarifications.

Entering Lent, let us remember that the gifts of Heaven are obtained by purifying prayer and penance, that God listens more willingly to the prayer of a pure and humble heart. Let us continue, then, our crusade of prayer, and join to it some voluntary penances to wrest from Heaven what the Churchmen find so hard to give to our souls. Even if God does not seem to listen to our supplications, let us not be discouraged. He is putting us to the test, and wants to make us earn even more merits.

+ Bernard Fellay

Official translation provided by the website of the United States District of the FSSPX/SSPX.

Bagnasco replaces Ruini

Yes, it seems like old news, but the replacement of Cardinal Ruini at the helm of the powerful Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) -- the Archbishop of Genoa, Angelo Bagnasco-- was officially made public only today.

Ruini remains as the Cardinal Vicar of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome.

Prayers

This is Anita, daughter of Claudio Vázquez, of Radio Cristiandad in Argentina (see our sidebar), and his wife Soledad.

She is 15 months old, and four tumors have been found at the base of her brain, one of which may severely affect the medulla oblongata. They ask for everyone's prayers and for Masses.

Apostolic Exhortation, a name and a date

This morning's Bollettino gives notice of a press conference that will present the long waited -- for some -- Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation "Sacramentum Caritatis": March 13th, 2007.

The Encyclicals of March 1937: Divini Redemptoris - I

As some may have already noticed from our special masthead, this is a (Lenten) month of celebration for us, with the 70th anniversary of three encyclicals of one of the greatest pontiffs in living memory, Pius XI: in their order of publication, Mit brennender Sorge (March 14); Divini Redemptoris (March 19); and Nos es muy conocida (March 28). In very different ways, the three encyclicals deal with the same matter: how do the Church and the Catholic faithful deal with a Totalitarian regime, run by National-Socialist pagan nation-worshippers, Communist Atheists, or "Fraternal" Mexican post-Revolutionary lords?

There is no doubt that the most relevant of them is Divini Redemptoris, not because its original text was in Latin, but because, as this linguistic aspect already makes clear, it is a universal encyclical for a universal problem, which endures up to our days: Communism. In the months leading to the release of the encyclical on the Feast of Saint Joseph, 1937, the greatest concern in the mind of the Pontiff as political tensions reached feverish proportions throughout the world was undoubtedly the Spanish situation.

Pius XI is often and unjustly accused of "silence" regarding the unbelievably gruesome persecution of Catholics in the Republican-occupied territory of Spain since the early days of the Republic and particularly since the Nationalist alzamiento of July 18, 1936, which marked the beginning of the Spanish Civil War (see our ongoing series on "The Passion of Spain"). There was no silence -- but there was caution so that the slaughter of Catholics would not reach even greater proportions; this while the Holy See did all it could to protect the Spanish faithful under persecution (does this "silence libel" sound familiar?):

...the most persistent enemies of the Church, who from Moscow are directing the struggle against Christian civilization, themselves bear witness, by their unceasing attacks in word and act, that even to this hour the Papacy has continued faithfully to protect the sanctuary of the Christian religion, and that it has called public attention to the perils of Communism more frequently and more effectively than any other public authority on earth.

Pius was aware, more than any other leader of the age, of the violence perpetrated by Marxists in Spain, as he used it as a warning to all civilized nations, two years before the war and the persecutions were over:

Even where the scourge of Communism has not yet had time enough to exercise to the full its logical effects, as witness Our beloved Spain, it has, alas, found compensation in the fiercer violence of its attack. Not only this or that church or isolated monastery was sacked, but as far as possible every church and every monastery was destroyed. Every vestige of the Christian religion was eradicated, even though intimately linked with the rarest monuments of art and science. The fury of Communism has not confined itself to the indiscriminate slaughter of Bishops, of thousands of priests and religious of both sexes; it searches out above all those who have been devoting their lives to the welfare of the working classes and the poor. But the majority of its victims have been laymen of all conditions and classes. Even up to the present moment, masses of them are slain almost daily for no other offense than the fact that they are good Christians or at least opposed to atheistic Communism. And this fearful destruction has been carried out with a hatred and a savage barbarity one would not have believed possible in our age. No man of good sense, nor any statesman conscious of his responsibility can fail to shudder at the thought that what is happening today in Spain may perhaps be repeated tomorrow in other civilized countries.

From the past, Pius XI seems to warn us even today: "Catholics, never forget what Communism is, what inspires it, what Communists have done, still do, and will always do to Christians, given the opportunity! Catholic faithful, never forget '36! Always forgive, but never forget what Socialists and Communists did to you!"

And the Pian warning resonates in the tablelands of Iberia as "modern" Socialists harass and attempt to silence the Church anew.

New Archbishop of Warsaw

The Holy Father named today Bishop Kazimierz Nycz, (bishop of Koszalin-Kołobrzeg), as the new Metropolitan Archbishop of Warsaw, following the turmoil of the Wielgus Affair.

For the Record - Le Figaro: the document is on the Pope's desk

From the French daily Le Figaro:

Latin Mass: Benedict XVI takes his time

Hervé Yannou (at the Vatican)
Published March 3 2007

The project of a pontifical decree liberalizing the celebration of the Mass in Latin according to the ancient rite has not been shelved. The document is on the desk of Benedict XVI. It remains to be known when and how he will decide to publish a text which greatly interests him [lui tient à coeur] and what will be its exact content. The rebellion of the French episcopate at the time of the first news on the document last fall had deeply affected the Pope. The perception of the question of Catholic Integrists [sic] is not the same on both sides of the Alps. The diplomats of the Holy See had not always understood the parties and political divisions of this "liturgical war".

The Roman Curia is divided. ... Benedict XVI thus takes his time to prepare the publication and reception of the text. He could have therefore changed the juridical nature of the decree. He could make it public particularly following the publication of the final text of the Synod on the Eucharist, assembled in October 2005.Expected for several months, the Pope's conclusions to the reflections of the bishops of the entire world should face the question of the celebration of the Mass. The text could therefore include some indications. Benedict XVI has publicly announced that he would shortly sign this exhortation...

_______________
P.S. Post at Paix Liturgique à Reims (French only).

For the Record - Schmitz: Motu proprio "is ready"

Some excerpts of Brian Mershon's report on a recent conference by Mgr. Michael Schmitz, United States Provincial of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICRSS), published by Envoy Magazine:

On the "Motu proprio":

“I can tell you that the document is ready,” he said. “The person who is responsible for it does not want to discuss it any longer,” Schmitz added.

Msgr. Schmitz’s revelation corresponds with the February 7 Mexican daily Milenio article, although citing no sources, which reported the PCED had delivered the document to the Pope in January for his review, consideration and eventual promulgation.

Marini to be replaced soon:

Another notable newsworthy item that Msgr. Schmitz delivered at his February 19, hour-long presentation during the question-and-answer period was that Archbishop Piero Marini, whom many had speculated would have been removed long ago, has finally accepted another assignment.

“The Pope is before all else, a gentlemen,” ... Msgr. Schmitz did not give any details as to the nature of Archbishop Marini’s new assignment.

On the "Reform of the Reform":

...the popularly called “reform of the reform” of the Novus Ordo missal is distinct from, and “does not concern the old missal,”

On changes to the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal:

“The missal we use will be left unchanged”...

Aspects of the post-synodal exhortation:

...two specific encouragements — offering Mass ad orientem and using a Latin canon and Gregorian chant during the ordinaries of the Novus Ordo liturgy — may indeed be part of the post-Synod on the Eucharist document...

Lent with Lacordaire: Catholic doctrine cannot speak "to man only of man"

Assumpsit Iesus Petrum, et Iacobum, et Ioannem fratrem eius, et duxit illos in montem excelsum seorsum: et transfiguratus est ante eos. Et resplenduit facies eius sicut sol: vestimenta autem eius facta sunt alba sicut nix. (From the Gospel for Ember Saturday in Lent and for the Second Sunday in Lent, Matthew xvii, 1-2: "Jesus took Peter and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart: and He was transfigured before them. And His face did shine as the sun, and His garments became white as snow.")

It is easy for me... to show that Catholic doctrine enjoys a superhuman moral efficacy, even as a consequence of the interaction which it keeps between man and God. ... Now, in virtue of what does Catholic doctrine operate this superhuman transformation in the soul? Is it directly? Is it simply because it says to us, "Be humble, be chaste, be apostles, be brethren"?

Ah..., but everyone says this to us more or less earnestly: there is not a man steeped in pride who has not invoked the humility of others; not a man drowned in sensuality who was not invoked the purity of his victims; not a man who has not invoked apostleship to propagate his ideas, and fraternity to establish his empire! But the ear of man remains closed to those invitations of selfishness, or to those dreams of reason; it listens to them without hearing; it hears, without obeying.

Catholic doctrine would have succeeded no better, if it had spoken to man only of man; if it had proposed to him, as the spring of its action, only his interest, his duty even, and his dignity. To render man humble, chaste, apostle, brother, it has taken its basis outside of him: it has placed it in God.

It is in the name of God, by the power of the relationship which it has created between God and ourselves, by the efficacy of its dogmas, of its worship, and of its sacraments, that it changes within us that corpse which rebels against virtue; that it reanimates it, resuscitates it, purifies it, transforms it, clothes it with the glory of Tabor, and having thus armed it from head to toe, sends it forth into the distress of the world, as a new man, still feeble by nature, but strengthened by God, towards Whom his unceasing aspiration ascends.

It is thus ... that the miracle of our transfiguration is accomplished in Catholic doctrine: humility, chastity, charity, and all the interior elevations which result from these are but effects of a higher virtue giving the movement to all the rest. Without religion, without the interaction of soul and God, the whole Christian edifice crumbles -- consequently, that interaction, which is the keystone of the arch, is efficacious in a superhuman manner, since it bears man above humanity.

...humility, chastity, the charity of apostleship and of fraternity, obedience, penitence, voluntary poverty...are but branches of a single stream. ... There is ... a stream into which merge all those scattered virtues which I have named: and that stream is sanctity.

Henri-Dominique Lacordaire
Conférences de Notre-Dame de Paris (1844)

Anti-Christ is among us

This is an interesting report about the retreat given by Cardinal Biffi. It reminds me of some sermons of John Henry Cardinal Newman. He thought that liberalism was a figure of Anti-Christ. ( He gave these sermons before his conversion to the catholic Church and it was in the XIX Century... what would he say today? )

Father Laurent Demets, FSSP

Pope's Retreat Preacher Speaks on Antichrist as a "pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist"

By John-Henry Westen VATICAN CITY, March 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) -

Papal watchers are wondering what message Pope Benedict XVI was giving when he selected retired Bologna archbishop Cardinal Giacomo Biffi to preach the annual Lenten retreat to the Pope and the top members of the Vatican. Rocco Palmo, expert Vatican reporter for The Tablet, the international Catholic weekly published in London England has noted the significance of the selection of the Lenten retreat preacher. "Since time immemorial -- or, at least, the retreat's heightened profile over the 20th century -- the selection of the preacher has become a closely-watched indicator of the prevailing winds in the papal apartment," said Palmo on his blog.

"The choice often falling to a voice the Pope might like to tout... and not just for a higher prominence on the preaching circuit." Palmo added weight to his remarks noting that "Before their respective elections to the papacy, both Joseph Ratzinger and Karol Wojtyla were tapped to lead the annual exercises."

This year's selection when it became known created a stir since Cardinal Biffi, while he is known for orthodox faith and frank words, is most well known, at least in the secular media, for his preaching on the Antichrist. In fact, the Times of London reported in 2004 that the Cardinal described the Antichrist as "walking among us".The Lenten retreat did not disappoint. Cardinal Biffi picked up on his oft repeated theme of the Antichrist, basing his remarks on the works of Vladimir Soloviev, a Russian theologian who has received praise from Pope Benedict prior to his elevation to the pontificate.Quoting Soloviev, the Cardinal said "the Antichrist presents himself as pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist." "He will convoke an ecumenical council and will seek the consensus of all the Christian confessions, granting something to each one. The masses will follow him, with the exception of small groups of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants," he said according to a Zenit translation of a Vatican Radio summary here: http://www.radiovaticana.org/it1/Articolo.asp?c=120479 .

In his "Tale of the Antichrist" Solovyov foresees that a small group of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants will resist and will say to the Antichrist: "You give us everything, except what interests us, Jesus Christ". For Cardinal Biffi, this narrative is a warning: "Today, in fact, we run the risk of having a Christianity which puts aside Jesus with his cross and resurrection." The 78-year-old cardinal added that if Christians "limited themselves to speaking of shared values they would be more accepted on television programs and in social groups. But in this way, they will have renounced Jesus, the overwhelming reality of the resurrection." The cardinal said he believes that this is "the danger that Christians face in our days … the Son of God cannot be reduced to a series of good projects sanctioned by the prevailing worldly mentality."

The preacher of the Spiritual Exercises added that "there are relative values, such as solidarity, love of peace and respect for nature. If these become absolute, uprooting or even opposing the proclamation of the event of salvation, then these values become an instigation to idolatry and obstacles on the way of salvation." Cardinal Biffi affirmed that "if Christianity -- on opening itself to the world and dialoguing with all -- dilutes the salvific event, it closes itself to a personal relationship with Jesus and places itself on the side of the Antichrist."Cardinal Biffi's reflections, in fact, are very similar to remarks Pope Benedict made last Fall in a meeting with Swiss Bishops. While Pope Benedict did not speak of the Antichrist, he spoke of a new false or "substitute" religion, calling it also a "successor" of religion."Modern society is not simply without morality, but it has, so to speak, 'discovered' and professes a part of morality", the Pope told the Swiss bishops. "These are the great themes of peace, non-violence, justice for all, concern for the poor, and respect for creation."However, the Pope warned that these "great moral themes" have "become an ethical complex that, precisely as a political force, has great power and constitutes for many the substitute for religion, or its successor."

"It is only if human life is respected from conception to death that the ethics of peace is also possible and credible," concluded the Pope. "It is only then that non-violence can express itself in every direction; only then that we truly welcome creation, and only then that we can arrive at true justice."

For the record: news from Mexico

The following translation of a note published in the Mexican daily Milenio a couple of weeks ago is posted here only for the record (we like to publish all such news reports, if only to check how rumors get started).

Benedict XVI decrees the return of Latin Masses.

The Pope has decided to sign and publish the text with an illustrative note written by liturgical experts and theologians

7-February-07


Pope Benedict XVI took the decision of publishing the motu proprio decree on the liberalization of the Tridentine Mass, the ceremony in Latin according to the Missal of Saint Pius V, that is, the pre-Conciliar Mass, which was celebrated up to 1962, with the priest turned towards the east, popularly defined as with the back [of the priest] turned to the people.

The Pope decided to sign and publish the text along with an illustrative note written by liturgical experts and theologians. The news comes from Rome and was confirmed yesterday in the Sacred Halls.

In fact, the definitive text of the Motu Proprio was handed to the Pope in late January by the Ecclesia Dei Commision, the Vatican organ charged with examining dealings with the Lefebvrists. Not all clerics are pleased with the measure, particularly the French Episcopal Conference.

The Tridentine Mass will not be obligatory, but the priests who wish to celebrate according to the old rite will now be able to do it, without asking permission to the diocesan bishop, as before. The decision of the Pope seems guided by common sense, because it ensures sobriety and spirituality.

Tip: reader and Angelqueen Forum.

More: The Divine Law of Penance

[1] Erat autem species gloriæ Domini, quasi ignis ardens super verticem montis, in conspectu filorum Israël. Ingressusque Moyses medium nebulæ, ascendit in montem: et fuit ibi quadraginta diebus, et quadraginta noctibus. (From the Lesson for Ember Wednesday in Lent, Exodus xxiv, 17-18: "And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a burning fire upon the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses, entering into the midst of the cloud, went up into the mountain : and he was there forty days and forty nights.")

[2] Venit Elias in Bersabee Iuda, et dimisit ibi puerum suum ... Qui cum surrexisset, comedit, et bibit, et ambulavit in fortitudine cibi illius quadraginta diebus et quadraginta noctibus, usque ad montem Dei Horeb. (From the Lesson for Ember Wednesday in Lent, III Kings xix, 3, 8: "Elias came to Bersabee of Juda, and left his servant there. ... And he arose, and ate, and drank, and walked in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights, unto the mount of God, Horeb.")

[3] Viri Ninivitæ surgent in iudicio cum generatione ista, et condemnabunt eam: quia pœnitentiam egerunt in prædicatione Ionæ. Et ecce plus quam Ionas hic. (From the Gospel for Ember Wednesday in Lent, Matthew xii, 41: "The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; because they did penance at the preaching of Jonas. And behold a greater than Jonas here.")

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VINCENT: ...When I was in Saxony these matters [of bodily penance] were but in a mammering. Luther was not then wedded yet, nor religious men out of their habits, but those that would be of the sect were suffered freely to preach what they would unto the people. And forsooth I heard a religious man there myself -- one that had been reputed and taken for very good, and who, as far as the folk perceived, was of his own living somewhat austere and sharp. But his preaching was wonderful! Methinketh I hear him yet, his voice so loud and shrill, his learning less than mean. But whereas his matter was much part against fasting and all affliction for any penance, which he called men's inventions, he ever cried out upon them to keep well the laws of Christ, let go their childish penance, and purpose then to mend and seek nothing to salvation but the death of Christ. "For he is our justice, and he is our Saviour and our whole satisfaction for all our deadly sins. He did full penance for us all upon his painful cross, he washed us there all clean with the water of his sweet side, and brought us out of the devil's danger with his dear precious blood. Leave therefore, leave, I beseech you, these inventions of men, your foolish Lenten fasts and your childish penance! ... . Leave your own fasting, therefore, and lean to Christ alone, good Christian people, for Christ's dear bitter passion!" Now, so loud and shrill he cried "Christ" in their ears, and so thick he came forth with Christ's bitter passion, and that so bitterly spoken with the sweat dropping down his cheeks, that I marvelled not that I saw the poor women weep. For he made my own hair stand up upon my head.

ANTHONY: Cousin, God amend that man, whatsoever he be, and God keep all good folk from such manner of preachers! One such preacher much more abuseth the name of Christ and of his bitter passion than do five hundred gamblers who in their idle business swear and foreswear themselves by his holy bitter passion at dice.

They carry the minds of the people from perceiving their craft by the continual naming of the name of Christ, and crying his passion so shrill into their ears that they forget that the Church hath ever taught them that all our penance without Christ's passion would not be worth a pea. And they make the people think that we wish to be saved by our own deeds, without Christ's death; whereas we confess that his passion alone meriteth incomparably more for us than all our own deeds do, but that it is his pleasure that we shall also take pain ourselves with him. And therefore he biddeth all who will be his disciples to take their crosses on their backs as he did, and with their crosses follow him.

And where they say that fasting serveth but for temperance to tame the flesh and keep it from wantonness, I would in good faith have thought that Moses had not been so wild that for the taming of his flesh he should have need to fast whole forty days together. No, not Elias either. Nor yet our Saviour himself, who began the Lenten forty-days fast -- and the apostles followed, and all Christendom hath kept it -- that these folk call now so foolish.

King Achab was not disposed to be wanton in his flesh, when he fasted and went clothed in sackcloth and all besprent with ashes. No more was the king in Nineveh and all the city, but they wailed and did painful penance for their sin to procure God to pity them and withdraw his indignation. Anna, who in her widowhood abode so many years with fasting and praying in the temple till the birth of Christ, was not, I suppose, in her old age so sore disposed to the wantonness of the flesh that she fasted for all that. Nor St. Paul, who fasted so much, fasted not all for that, neither.

The scripture is full of places that prove fasting to be not the invention of man but the institution of God, and to have many more profits than one. And that the fasting of one man may do good unto another, our Saviour showeth himself where he saith that some kind of devils cannot be cast out of one man by another "without prayer and fasting." And therefore I marvel that they take this way against fasting and other bodily penance.

And yet much more I marvel that they mislike the sorrow and heaviness and displeasure of mind that a man should take in thinking of his sin. The prophet saith, "Tear your hearts and not your clothes." And the prophet David saith, "A contrite heart and humbled"--that is to say, a heart broken, torn, and laid low under foot with tribulation of heaviness for his sins -- "shalt thou not, good Lord, despise." He saith also of his own contrition, "I have laboured in my wailing; I shall every night wash my bed with my tears, my couch will I water."

... The scripture is full of those places, by which it plainly appeareth that God looketh of duty, not only that we should amend and be better in the time to come, but also that we should be sorry and weep and bewail our sins committed before. And all the old holy doctors be full and whole of that opinion, that men must have for their sins contrition and sorrow in heart.

Saint Thomas More
A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation (1534)

Placid week

As the Pope enters his Lenten retreat week with the Curia (beginning this Sunday), expect few news items from Rome until next Saturday.

Lent with Lacordaire: "Upon what throne do they adore Him? Upon a cross!"

Iterum assumpsit eum diabolus in montem excelsum valde: et ostendit et omnia regna mundi, et gloriam eorum, et dixit ei: Hæc omnia tibi dabo, si cadens adoraveris me. Tunc dicit ei Iesus: Vade Satana: Scriptum est enim: Dominum Deum tuum adorabis, et illi soli servies. Tunc reliquit eum diabolus: et ecce Angeli accesserunt, et ministrabant ei. (From the Gospel for the First Sunday in Lent, Matthew iv, 8-11: "Again the devil took Him up into a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and said to Him: All these will I give Thee, if falling down Thou wilt adore me. Then Jesus saith to him: Begone Satan! for it is written: The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil left him; and behold angels came and ministered to him.")

Jesus Christ, being God, would not be satisfied with steadfast faith and immortal love; He must exact adoration. Adoration is the annihilation of one's self before a superior being; and this sentiment ... is not a stranger to us. It lies, like all the others, in the very depth of our nature, and plays a more important part there than you are perhaps aware of.

Let us not disguise this truth from ourselves; all of us, more or less, desire to be adored. It is this innate thirst for adoration which has produced every tyranny. You sometimes wonder why a prince would weave together numberless intrigues in order to free himself from human and divine laws; why he would add violence to cunning, shed streams of blood and march onward to the debasement of mankind; you ask yourselves why he does this. Ah!... for the very natural object of being adored, of seeing every thought subject to his own, every will in conformity to his will, every right, every duty emanating from him, and even the bodies of men bent like slaves before his mortal body. Such is the depth of our heart, as was Satan's.

But by a counterweight due to that frightful disease of pride, we can only desire adoration for ourselves by abhorring the adoration of others. Thence springs the execration that follows despotism. Mankind, debased by a power despising all law, concentrating its secret indignation within itself, awaits the inevitable day of the despot's weakness, and, when that day comes, it turns upon and tramples [on] the vile creature who had disdained it even demanding incense from it.

..."There is but one step from the Capitol to the Tarpeian rock." I shall say with as much truth, although in a less grand expression: There is but one step from the altar to the common sewer. Whosoever has been adored will sooner or later be hurled by the hand of the people from the lofty summit of usurped divine majesty to the execration of eternal opprobrium. Such is how we find history, [which is] that power charged with the promulgation of the judgments of God upon the pride of man.

In spite of history, however, Jesus Christ is adored. A man, mortal and dead, He has obtained adoration which still endures, and of which the world offers no other example. What emperor has held His temples and His statues? What has become of all that population of gods created by adulation? Their dust even no longer exists, and the surviving remembrance of them serves but to excite our wonder at the extravagance of men and the justice of God.

Jesus Christ alone remains standing upon His altars, not in a corner of the world, but over the whole earth... . The greatest monuments of art shelter His sacred images; the most magnificent ceremonies assemble the people under the influence of His name; poetry, music, painting, sculpture exhaust their resources to proclaim His glory and to offer Him incense worthy of the adoration which ages have consecrated to Him.

And yet, upon what throne do they adore Him? Upon a cross! Upon a cross?

They adore Him under the mean appearances of bread and wine!

Here, thought becomes altogether confounded. It would seem that this man has taken delight in abusing His strange power, and in insulting mankind by prostrating them in wonder before the most vain shadows. Having by His crucifixion descended lower than death, He made even of ignominy the throne of His divinity; and, not satisfied with this triumph, He willed that we should acknowledge His supreme essence and His eternal life by an adoration which is a startling contradiction to our senses! Can such event of such daring be in any way understood?

It is true that many have endeavored to overthrow His altars; but their powerlessness has but served to confirm His glory. At each outrage, He has seemed to grow greater; genius has protected Him against genius, science against science, empire against empire. Whatever arms have been lifted up against Him He has made His own; and, when apparently vanquished, the world has still beheld Him, calm, serene, Master, adored!

Thus has He founded the kingdom of souls: by a faith which costs us the sacrifice of our own judgment; by a love which exceeds all love; by an adoration which we have given Him alone.

Henri-Dominique Lacordaire
Conférences de Notre-Dame de Paris (1846)

The post-synodal exhortation: "shortly"

From the meeting of the Holy Father with the Parish Priests and Clergy of the Diocese of Rome (February 22):

During the Synod on the Eucharist, the bishops spoke considerably of their experiences, on how new life retuns to the communities with this [Eucharistic] adoration, even nocturnal, and of how new vocations are thus created. I can say that I will shortly [fra poco] sign the post-synodal Exhortation on the Eucharist, which will then be at the disposal of the Church. It is a document which is appropriate for meditation. It will aid on liturgical celebration, on personal reflection, on the preparation of homilies, and on the celebration of the Eucharist. And it will also help to guide, enlighten, and revitalize popular piety.

It was also officially announced today that the canonization of Blessed Antonio Galvão de França will take place on May 11, 2007 -- therefore, during the Holy Father's voyage to São Paulo, Brazil. The other ceremonies are scheduled for June 3, 2007 (in Rome).

Lent with Lacordaire: Our vocation

Pleasure is not the foundation of society, but virtue. Enjoyment is not our vocation here below, but labor and grief. God has created us expressly to produce by us a thing which He could not produce alone: that is, greatess in vileness, strength in infirmity, purity in flesh and blood, love in selfishness, good in evil, virtue in a heart which possessed each moment the liberty of being a convinced sinner. This is our vocation, our fate.

Jesus Christ conquered the world only because He knew [this fate]; and because, from His Cross, slave and God, he supremely fulfilled it. Salvation (as well as all glory and all joy) is found in following him.

This is why -- thanks be to God! -- pleasure and enjoyment shall never [be the foundation] of a society here below. Misfortune must be stronger, so that virtue may exist; there must be poor, so that alms shall be given; wounds, so that they may be bound up; tears, so that they may be accepted; disorders, so that men may aspire to order; ruins, so that pride may be humbled; ... bloodshed, so that there may be saints.

Henri-Dominique Lacordaire
Conférences à Notre-Dame de Paris (1845)

For the Record - An abbot explains why "the Tridentine Mass is the missing link"

A solid interview with Dom Christopher Zielinski, OSB Oliv., Abbot of the Olivetan Abbey of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Pecos, New Mexico (Tip: Reader).

Will the Pope restore the Tridentine Mass?

Abbot: The Tridentine Mass, the Mass of St. Pius V cannot be considered abolished by the so-called new mass of Paul VI. We must never forget that the Second Vatican Council was not a break from the past, but a renewal in continuity. That is why the question regarding the liturgy must be one of seeking the true sense of the Council and implementing it. Therefore, the question that needs to be asked is whether or not the Indult of Pope John Paul II and the creation of the Pontifical Commission of Ecclesia Dei, that gave permission to the Bishops to allow for the celebration of the Tridentine Mass, was implemented in the spirit of justice and compassion.

Well, was the Indult of John Paul II implemented in the spirit of justice and compassion?

Abbot: Unfortunately, some Bishops have not always granted the Indult. When this did happen, the conditions were often very difficult and almost impossible for its practical implementation. Therefore, if there is to be a motu proprio regarding a universal indult for the Old Mass, it means that the present one is not meeting the pastoral needs of the traditionalist world.

But is the traditionalist world so important that the Holy Father should risk his pontificate by giving them a motu proprio?

Abbot: Jesus Christ, when talking about the Good Shepherd and the lost sheep, spoke about leaving the ninety-nine in order to seek out the one. We are talking about one percent. But we are also talking about the very vocation of the Good Shepherd. It is interesting to note that some Bishops speak about the Traditionalists as a “drop in the ocean.” As a matter of fact, the traditionalist world constitute a little over one percent of the Catholic Population. How Christ-like indeed it would be to offer a gesture of pastoral love in the form of a motu proprio!

Would a motu proprio be for the intention of bringing the Lefebvrians back to Rome?

Abbot: The motu proprio would be a response of justice and compassion not only to the traditionalist world, but also to the Church as a whole. We must never think that a motu proprio would be written only for the Lefebvrians. As Archbishop A. M. Ranjith, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship stated very clearly, “The Tridentine Mass is a treasure for the entire People of God and not the private property of the Society of St. Pius X.” But I am most certain that those in the Society are praying and waiting with great hope for a motu proprio regarding a universal indult for the Old Mass.

What is your relationship with the Lefebvrian world?

Abbot: I met Bishop Bernard Fellay, the Superior of the Society of St. Pius X, more than five years ago. During that time, I have come to know many other priests, and also monks and religious who are connected with the Society. I was invited to speak at the recent Congress of “Si, Si. No, No” in Paris. And there, I spoke about my experience of the Tridentine Mass as a recovery of the sacrificial nature of the Mass. The Traditional Rite has a very important role to play in the Church. It can enhance reverence and the sense of mystery and awe before God’s action.
I am honored by their friendship and also their trust. I have been able to listen and enter deeply into not only their preoccupations and fears, but also their immense love for the Church and for the Holy Father. Their words, articles and letters can seem to some to be very strong, and therefore, cause much distress; however, what they say about the liturgy and theology is not to be overlooked or dismissed. Until there is full unity and full mutual charity, one cannot be scandalized if there is some “verbal intemperance.”

But some Bishops affirm that the Lefebvrians should recognize the legitimacy of the Pope.

Abbot: Unfortunately, even at high levels in the Church, there is not always full knowledge of the Society. The Society has always recognized the legitimate successor of St. Peter. There are traditionalist groups that do not recognize the last popes after Pius XII. These are called “empty throne” people. Visiting some of the Societies’ houses, I was amazed to see the photo of Benedict XVI and also to know that they pray daily for him and the Church.

Do you think that a possible motu proprio would help the Lefebvrians return to Rome?

Abbot: I believe that a motu proprio would be a first step towards full communion. However, the simple restoration of the Old Mass is not only what the Society is looking for. They are asking very serious theological and liturgical questions that we must address. Otherwise, we reduce the whole question of Monsignor Fellay and the members of the Society to a question of choreography and not to substantial questions of faith. The motu proprio, therefore, is a beginning. But also, it is the possible beginning of a reform and renewal of the sacramental character of the liturgy; and therefore, the beginning of a liturgical movement that wants for the People of God a new awakening of the faith.

Some Bishops, priests and theologians say that a motu proprio allowing broader use of the Tridentine Rite would “plunge us back into the liturgical life of another age.” What is your thought about this?

Abbot: Liturgical time is a sacred and holy time. I guess we could call it “timeless.” And the reason is that the Mass has to do with eternity and not with days, weeks, months or years.

Is there need of a new liturgical reform?

Abbot: I believe that the Dogmatic Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium was a response to a widely held conviction that the liturgy needed a reform. The Council Fathers were seeking to bring out the community aspects of the mass, as well as make it more effective in teaching the truths of the Catholic Faith. Unfortunately, the theological necessity for a continuity in the underlying doctrine and structure of the celebration of the Mass in its preconciliar and post conciliar forms had undergone a rupture or break with Tradition. That is what we are dealing with today. The Second Vatican Council clearly called for some modest reforms in the liturgy, but it intended them to be organic and clearly in continuity with the past. The Old Rite becomes a living treasure of the Church and also should provide a standard of worship, of mystery, and of catechesis toward which the celebrations of the Novus Ordo must move. In other words, the Tridentine Mass is the missing link. And unless it be re-discovered in all its faithful truth and beauty, the Novus Ordo will not respond to the organic growth and change that has characterized the liturgy from its beginning. This is what should be prompting many of us to the founding of a new liturgical movement which will be able to give back to the liturgy its sacramental and supernatural character, and awaken in us a faithful understanding of the Catholic Liturgy.

For the Record - Ranjith: regarding "timing and nature of the Motu Proprio, nothing yet is known"

From an "Inside the Vatican" interview with the Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Archbishop Albert Ranjith, which we transcribe below (courtesy of the copyright holders):

ANTHONY VALLE: Your Excellency, you have been generous in giving several interviews to the international press regarding liturgy since becoming the secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship. Some of your statements have been misinterpreted and aroused controversy rather than providing the intended clarity. Would you care to clarify anything?

ARCHBISHOP MALCOM RANJITH: What I wished to insist on in those interviews was that the post-conciliar reform of the liturgy has not been able to achieve the expected goals of spiritual and missionary renewal in the Church so that today we could be truly happy about it.

Undoubtedly there have been positive results too; but the negative effects seem to have been greater, causing much disorientation in our ranks.

The churches have become empty, liturgical free-wheeling has become the order of the day, and the true meaning and significance of that which is celebrated has been obscured.

One has to, then, begin wondering if the reform process had in fact been handled correctly. Thus, we need to take a good look at what had happened, pray and reflect about its causes and with the help of the Lord move on to make the necessary corrections.

VALLE: It seems as if Pope Benedict XVI will release a motu proprio to liberalize the use of the traditional or Tridentine Mass. Some hope that the Pope’s motu proprio will institute a juridical structure enabling priests to celebrate the traditional Mass without being unjustly harassed and persistently thwarted by, ironically, not people of other faiths or secular authorities, but by their own pastors and bishops. Is this hope for a new juridical apparatus realistic? Is such an apparatus necessary?

RANJITH: Well, there is this rising call for a restoration of the Tridentine Mass. And even certain leading figures of the elite have made public appeals for this Mass in some newspapers recently.

The Holy Father will, I am sure, take note of this and decide what is best for the Church.

You speak of the possible realization of new juridical structures for the implementation of such decisions. I do not think that this would be so much of a problem. Rather what is more important in all of this is a pastoral attitude.

Will the bishops and priests reject requests for the Tridentine Mass and so create a need for juridical structures to ensure the enforcement of a decision of the Pope? Should it go that way?

I sincerely do not hope so.

The appropriate question the shepherds have to ask themselves is: How can I as a bishop or priest bring even one person closer to Christ and to His Church?

It is not so much a matter of the Tridentine Mass or of the Novus Ordo. It is just a question of pastoral responsibility and sensitivity.

Thus, if the Tridentine Mass is the way to achieve an even better level of spiritual enrichment for the faithful, then the shepherds should allow it.

The important concern is not so much the "what" as much as the "how." The Church should always seek to help our faithful to come closer to the Lord, to feel challenged by His message and to respond to His call generously. And if that can be achieved through the celebration of the Novus Ordo Mass or the Pius V Mass, well, then space should be provided for whatever is best instead of getting down to unnecessary and divisive theological hair-splitting. Such things need to be decided through the heart and not so much through the head.

After all, Pope John Paul II did make a personal appeal in Ecclesia Dei Adflicta of 1988 to the bishops, calling upon them to be generous in this matter with those who wish to celebrate or participate in the Tridentine Mass. Besides, we should remember that the Tridentine Mass is not something that belongs to the followers of Archbishop Lefebvre only. It is part of our own heritage as members of the Catholic Church.

The Second Vatican Council, as Pope Benedict so clearly stated in his speech to the members of the Curia in December 2005, did not envisage a totally new beginning, but one of continuity with a renewed sense of enthusiasm and a new outlook that better responds to the missionary needs of the time.

Besides, we also have the serious question of the diminishing number of faithful in some of the churches in the Western world. We have to ask ourselves what happened in these churches and then take corrective steps as may be necessary. I do not think that this situation is attributable to secularization only. A deep crisis of faith coupled with a drive for meaningless liturgical experimentation and novelty have had their own impact in this matter. There is much formalism and insipidity visible at times.

Thus, we need to recover a true sense of the sacred and mystical in worship.

And if the faithful feel that the Tridentine Mass offers them that sense of the sacred and mystical more than anything else, then we should have the courage to accept their request.

With regard to the timing and nature of the motu proprio, nothing yet is known. It is the Holy Father who will decide.

And when he does, we should in all obedience accept what he indicates to us and with a genuine love for the Church strive to help him. Any counter attitude would only harm the spiritual mission of the Church and thwart the Lord’s own will.

VALLE: Like many Catholics today, my wife and I have found that we leave the celebration of the Novus Ordo Mass on Sunday exasperated and perplexed rather than spiritually invigorated. Why?

RANJITH: In the celebration of the Novus Ordo we have to be very serious about what we do on the altar. I cannot be a priest who dreams in his sleep about what I will do at the Mass the following day, walk up to the altar and start celebrating with all kinds of novel self-created rubrics and actions.

The Holy Eucharist belongs to the Church. Hence, it has a meaning of its own which cannot be left to the idiosyncrasies of the single celebrant.

Every element in the liturgy of the Church has its own long history of development and significance. It is certainly not a matter of private "traditions" and so cannot be the object of manipulation by all and sundry.

In fact, Sacrosanctum Concilium does state that other than the Apostolic See and the bishops, where this is allowed to the latter by the former, "absolutely no other person, not even a priest, may add or remove or change anything on his own authority" (SC 22). Even then, we note much free-wheeling in liturgical matters in some areas of the Church today, basically due to an incorrect understanding of liturgical theology.

For example, the mystery of the Holy Eucharist has often been misunderstood or partially understood, leaving thus the door open to all kinds of liturgical abuses.

In the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, some place too much accent on the presidential role of the priest. But we know that the priest is really not the main agent of what happens on the altar.

It is Jesus Himself.

Besides, every liturgical celebration has also a heavenly dimension "which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem towards which we journey as pilgrims" (SC 8).

Others explain the Eucharist in a way that places the accent on its banquet/meal dimension, linking it to "communion." This too is an important consideration, but we should remember that it is not so much a communion created by those taking part in the Eucharist as much as by the Lord Himself.

Through the Eucharist, the Lord assumes us unto Himself and in Him we are placed in communion with all the others who unite themselves to Him. It is thus not so much a sociological experience as much as a mystical one. Hence even as "communion" the Eucharist is a heavenly experience.

What is more important is the sacrificial dimension of the Eucharist. Each time we celebrate the Eucharist we relive the sacrifice of Calvary, celebrating it as the moment of our salvation.

And this very fact also constitutes the unique dignity and font of identity of the priest. He has been instituted by Christ to celebrate the wonderful mystery of turning this corruptible piece of bread into the very glorified Body of Christ and this little bit of wine into the Blood of Christ, enacting the sacrifice of Calvary for the salvation of the world. And this has to be lived, understood and believed by the priest each time he celebrates the Eucharist.

Indeed, Sacrosanctum Concilium placed accent on the sacrificial and salvific effectivity of the Mass. The priest thus becomes another Christ, so to say. What a great vocation! And so, if we celebrate the Eucharist devoutly, then the faithful will reap immense spiritual benefit and return again and again in search of that heavenly nourishment.

VALLE: Some have contended that the solution to the liturgical crisis -- and at bottom the crisis of faith -- afflicting the Catholic Church today would be to implement the exclusive use of the Tridentine Mass, while others maintain that all we really need is a "reform of the reform," in other words, a reform of the Novus Ordo. What do you think?

RANJITH: An "either-or" attitude would unnecessarily polarize the Church, whereas charity and pastoral concern should be the motivating factors.

If the Holy Father so desires, both could co-exist.

That would not mean that we would have to give up the Novus Ordo. But in the interaction of the two Roman traditions, it is possible that the one may influence the other eventually.

We can’t say everything is completed and finished, that nothing new could happen. In fact, Vatican II never advocated immediate change in the liturgy. Rather it preferred change to "grow organically from forms already existing" (SC 23). As Cardinal Antonelli, a much revered member of the Concilium that undertook the revision of the liturgy after the Council, noted in his diaries, some of the liturgical changes after the Council had been introduced without much reflection, haphazardly, and made later to become accepted practice.

For example, Communion in the hand had not been something that was first properly studied and reflected upon before its acceptance by the Holy See. It had been haphazardly introduced in some countries of Northern Europe and later become accepted practice, eventually spreading into many other places. Now that is a situation that should have been avoided. The Second Vatican Council never advocated such an approach to liturgical reform.

VALLE: Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi ("The law of praying (is) the law of believing, (is) the law of living"). Is it true that how we worship and pray influences what we believe, and that what we believe influences how we live? In other words, liturgy ultimately influences our moral life, does it not?

RANJITH: Yes. How can we convince the faithful to make sacrifices in their ethical and moral options, unless they are first touched and inspired by the grace of God profoundly? And such happens especially in worship when the human soul is made to experience the salvific grace of God most intimately. In worship, faith becomes interiorized and brims over with inspiration and strength, enabling one to take the moral options that are in consonance with that faith. In the liturgy, we should experience the closeness of God to our heart so intensely that we in turn begin to believe fervently and are compelled to act justly.

VALLE: What are some contemporary liturgical trends or problems that need correction?

RANJITH: One of these, as I see, is the trend to go for ecumenical liturgies in replacement of the Sunday Mass in some countries, during which Catholic lay leaders and Protestant ministers celebrate together and the latter are invited to preach the homily. Sunday Liturgies of the Word with the distribution of Holy Communion, which form is allowed in cases where a priest cannot be present, if turned into ecumenical events can give the faithful the wrong signal. They may get used to the idea of the Sunday without the Eucharist.

The Eucharist, as you know, makes the Church (Ed E. 21) and this is central to us Catholics. If it is so easily replaced by Liturgies of the Word, or worse still by so-called ecumenical prayer services, the very identity of the Catholic Church would be in question. Unfortunately, we hear also of cases whereby the Eucharist itself is being celebrated under various guises along with the Protestant pastors. This is totally unacceptable and constitutes a graviora delicta ("more grave offense") (RM 172).

Ecumenism is not something left to the ad hoc choice of individual priests. True ecumenism, such as the one espoused by Vatican II, comes from the heart of the Church. For example, the path to true ecumenism begins with serious reflection on the part of those who are deemed competent to engage in that type of reflection, such as the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity and the Holy Father himself. Not everyone has the competence to know in what way this delicate search for unity is to be perceived. It needs much reflection and prayer. Hence, liturgical novelty in the name of ecumenism should not be tried out individually.

A second disturbing trend is the gradual replacement of the Mass celebrated by a priest with a paraliturgical service conducted by a lay person. This of course can legitimately happen when no priest is available and facilities for the fulfillment of Sunday obligation are scarce. However, this is an exception, not the rule. What is dangerous is to marginalize the priest even when he is available and some lay pastoral leader team arrogates to itself tasks that are reserved for the priests. I mean by this the trend to get the lay leader to preach the homily instead of the priest, even when he is present, or to distribute Holy Communion, leaving the priest to sit idle at the altar.

We have to stress here that, as the Second Vatican Council affirmed, the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood "differ from one another in essence and not only in degree" (LG 10). And so it is gravely abusive to relegate to the laity the sacred obligations reserved to the priest.

What is unfortunate is the increasing tendency worldwide to laicize the priest and to clericalize the laity. This too is contra mentem ("against the mind" or "against the intention") of the Council.

There is also an increasing trend to shift the Sunday Mass to Saturdays almost as a "normal" practice. Rather than Sunday being the true day of the Lord, and so a day of spiritual and physical rest, there is a move to reduce its importance, making it become a day of worldly distractions. In Dies Domini, Pope John Paul II warned against this disturbing trend.

A final point I wish to make here concerns some practices introduced in mission territories, for example, in Asia, in the name of change, which are counter to its cultural heritage.

In some Asian countries we see a trend to introduce Communion in the hand which is received standing. This is not at all consonant with Asian culture. The Buddhists worship prostrate on the floor with their forehead touching the ground. Moslems take off their shoes and wash their feet before entering the mosque for worship. The Hindus enter the temple bare-chested as a sign of submission. When people approach the king of Thailand or the emperor of Japan, they do so on their knees as a sign of respect. But in many Asian countries the Church has introduced practices like just a simple bow to the Blessed Sacrament instead of kneeling, standing while receiving Holy Communion, and receiving Communion on the hand. And we know that these cannot be considered practices congruent with Asian culture.

Besides, the laity whose role today is being enhanced in the Church are not even consulted when such decisions are made.

All these situations do not augur well for the Church and we need to correct these trends, if the Eucharist we celebrate is to become, as St. Ignatius of Antioch affirmed, "medicine of immortality and antidote against death" (Eph. 20).

Anthony Valle is a theologian and writer who lives in Rome.

There are other interesting liturgical affirmations by the archbishop, but some events remain incomprehensible: for instance, his view on communion in the hand and past actions ("perlibenter concedimus") undersigned by Ranjith himself.