FIUV Position Paper: the Kiss of Peace

Today I can publish Positio 19, which is the twentieth in the series, counting the two parts treating Holy Week. This is on the subject of the Kiss of Peace, the Pax, which in the Novus Ordo is called the Sign of Peace.

This is an interesting topic historically, and though it may not seem of the utmost importance it illustrates two very important issues in the debate about the liturgical reform. The first is the demand, by the reformers, for more 'participation': the Peace should be exchanged, as it had been in ancient times, between all the members of the congregation. The second is the unforeseen practical difficulties which this has created, including liturgical abuses. This has reached such a pitch that, in the 2007 Synod of Bishops, it was argued that it had become so disruptive that it should no longer be part of the preparation for Communion in the Novus Ordo.

The next paper will be on the subject of Vigils and Octaves; it will be published, when it is ready, perhaps a month from now. The pace of publication has slowed, but we still have a pipeline of subjects.

The Kiss of Peace at High Mass in a small English chapel; more on this Mass here.

I give some more commentary on the paper on my own LMS Chairman blog.

This paper can be downloaded as a pdf here. The whole series can be seen on the FIUV webstie here. The collected set of papers 1-13, printed as a short book, is available from Lulu here.

Comments can be sent to

positio AT fiuv.org

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  FIUV Position Paper 19: The Kiss of Peace

   The Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite makes significant use of the osculum, the liturgical kiss, of which the amplexus, the embrace, is a variant. A number of times throughout the Mass, the celebrant kisses the Altar, turns to the congregation and says ‘Dominus vobiscum’;^[1] he also kisses the Altar before giving the blessing to the Faithful.^[2]

2        This conveying to the congregation the greeting or blessing of Our Lord, in these cases represented by the Altar, is played out in a more extended fashion at the Pax. Following the Pater Noster and its embolism, during the latter of which the celebrant signs himself with and kisses the paten, the celebrant says aloud ‘Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum’, while making the sign of the cross over the Chalice with a particle of the Host, and putting this into the Chalice. He receives the response ‘Et cum spiritu tuo’.^[3] The celebrant then says, silently, the prayer Haec commixtio, and then the Agnus Dei. In Missa Solemnis, while the Agnus Dei is being sung, the celebrant and the deacon kiss the Altar and exchange the Kiss of Peace, in the form of a light embrace, the Deacon passes it on to the Subdeacon; it is passed thence to all clergy and servers present in choir.^[4] The Pax is omitted in the Mass for the Dead and on Maundy Thursday.

             In certain circumstances the Kiss of Peace can be given using a Paxbrede, and, using this, at Missa Cantata and Low Mass: again, the Pax is conveyed to the Paxbrede from the Altar, by a kiss. The use of the Paxbrede in the Extraordinary Form today is explained in more detail in the Appendix to this paper.

        The practice of the Extraordinary Form contrasts somewhat with the ‘Sign of Peace’, most commonly an exchange of handshakes,^[5] found in the Ordinary Form, before the Agnus Dei. This paper aims to provide an explanation and rationale of the practice of the Extraordinary Form.^[6]

The Historical Development of the Pax

5         While the Pax is deeply rooted in the Latin liturgical tradition,^[7] its history is a complex one, and only a rough outline can be attempted here.^[8] Justin Martyr notes an exchange of kisses as the conclusion of the service of prayers and readings.^[9]

             Later, it is found in Gallican Rites before the Offertory. Pseudo-Germanus comments:

They offer to one other the Peace of Christ in such a way that by a mutual kiss they may maintain the affection of love for one another.^[10]

This seems naturally suggested by Matthew 5:23f.^[11]

       In the African and Roman liturgies, however, it is found immediately before the Communion Rites,^[12] a location recommended by Pope St Innocent I in a letter of the year 416:

By the peace it is clear that the people give their consent to all that has been done in the mysteries celebrated in the church. The peace is the seal that shows that these mysteries have been accomplished.^[13]

The Pater Noster coming before it, by the time of Pope Gregory the Great (d.604), suggests the mutual forgiveness enjoined in that prayer.^[14] One may, therefore, regard the Roman practice as involving both the themes of a concluding ‘seal’ for the mysteries, similar to the Amen at the end of the Canon, and the mutual forgiveness emphasised in the Gallican tradition.

Over time the Pax developed from a simultaneous giving of the kiss between the ministers at the Altar and neighbours in the congregation,^[15] to a more ceremonious practice in which the kiss is, as it were, passed from Our Lord Himself, in the Consecrated Host, or else represented by the Paten, the Altar, the Chalice, the Missal, or the Crucifix, or some combination of these, to the Sacred Ministers, and then to the Faithful, passing from one person to another. This adds an extra pertinence to the Pax taking place while the Agnus Dei is being sung, and after the Consecration: the effect is that the peace is radiating from the Lamb of God slain (as it were), upon the altar, not just because the Kiss begins there, but also because of the text and music which are simultaneous. As Joseph Jungmann expresses it:

Thus the kiss of peace is made to proceed from the altar and, like a message or even like a gift which comes from the Sacrament, is handed on “to the others and to the people.”^[16]

This practice is well-established in Pontificals of the 10th Century. In the context of infrequent reception of Holy Communion at that time, the symbolism of a blessing being conveyed from the Blessed Sacrament upon the Altar to the Faithful was of particular significance.

         There is, therefore, no danger of mistaking the peace at issue in this ceremony for a mere secular communal harmony: it is very specifically the Peace of Christ, radiating from the Blessed Sacrament, now present on the Altar.

     In all the Rites of the Church the Kiss underwent a process of stylisation, becoming for example a bow or a kissing of the fingers in certain Oriental churches. In the West the embrace found in the Extraordinary Form today developed, and in England, the elegant solution of the Paxbrede came into use in parish churches,^[17] which spread to continental Europe and appears in the 1570 Missale Romanum. Variations on the Paxbrede included the use of a crucifix or reliquary.

        The Paxbrede allowed the Pax to be made between the sexes, which had otherwise been forbidden (except, notably, for the couple at a nuptial Mass).^[18]

        The direct participation of the Faithful in the Pax, for which the Paxbrede was particularly well suited, began to die out in the following centuries in most countries.^[19] The liturgical scholar Polycarpus Radó suggests ‘reasons of hygiene’ for this.^[20] Another practical reason seems to have been that the practice of passing the Paxbrede among the Faithful according to their social degree led to unedifying disputes over precedence.^[21] A modern factor which reduces the time available to present the Paxbrede is the frequency of the Communion of the Faithful during Mass.^[22]

Participation and Proposals for Reform

      The possibility of the Faithful’s direct participation in the Pax causing disruption, just noted, has a modern parallel in the difficulties encountered with the practice in the Ordinary Form. This was discussed in the 2007 Synod of Bishops,^[23] and the Congregation for Divine Worship was asked to examine the proposal that it be moved to the beginning of the Offertory to mitigate this.

       However, as noted earlier, the meaning of the Pax in the Extraordinary Form is bound up, more clearly than in the Ordinary Form, with the Blessed Sacrament as the source of the peace. As St Alphonsus Ligouri expressed it:

Before giving the peace, the priest kisses the Altar to show that he cannot give peace unless he has first received it from Jesus Christ, who is represented by the Altar.^[24]

The kissing of the Altar, next to the Host Itself, as well as the Paten, is the first link of a chain conveying the Peace of Christ to the Sacred Ministers and others in the Sanctuary.

     The Extraordinary Form is able to maintain this important and ancient symbolism, without any danger of disruption, by inviting the Faithful to unite themselves spiritually with the very vivid and gracious ceremony performed in the Sanctuary by the Sacred Ministers. Any physical sign of peace is itself a symbol, and the question is whether members of the Faithful can best make truly their own a symbolic gesture made by the Sacred Ministers, or one made by themselves; there is less difference between the two than may first appear.

1      This development is an example of a very widespread twofold phenomenon in the history of the liturgy: of rites and ceremonies being reduced to a symbolically important minimum, and of ceremonies once involving the Faithful being performed solely by the clergy, on the Faithful's behalf. Some have regarded such developments as a matter of regret, but Pope Pius XII reminds us that archaic liturgical practices are not necessarily to be preferred to the more developed forms, since the development has taken place under the guidance of providence.^[25]

1      The Roman Rite frequently retains archaic ceremonies in an abbreviated or even vestigial form, allowing the meaning of the whole rite to be expressed succinctly, and reminding us of the antiquity of the Rite. The compressed meanings of the rite are a bulwark against banality: the smallest aspect of the Extraordinary Form is freighted with significance, like the details of any great work of art.

Conclusion

1    The Pax in the Extraordinary Form is the most significant of a series of occasions on which the celebrant conveys to the Faithful the peace of Christ, represented by the Altar which he kisses. It has this special significance because on this occasion the Lamb of God is present on the Altar in the consecrated Host.

2      The Pax exchanged among the Sacred Ministers and others is a visually eloquent expression of what happens on each of these occasions, of this peace radiating out to the Faithful. The themes of approving and sealing the foregoing mysteries, and of mutual reconciliation and preparation for the reception of Communion, are, in this context, dependent upon this central idea, of the Peace which comes from Christ.

2     The continued use of the Paxbrede in certain places and in certain Orders, discussed in more detail in the Appendix, illustrates the legitimate diversity of the Extraordinary Form, and the preservation of older customs in particular contexts. Such customs are part of the authentic liturgical culture of their proper regions or orders, and should be preserved and fostered whenever possible.

Appendix: The Paxbrede

Liberazione di Roma Words of Pope Pius XII upon the Liberation of Rome, 70 years ago

WORDS OF HIS HOLINESS PIUS XII

TO THE ROMAN PEOPLE

Tuesday, June 6, 1944

Rome, just yesterday trembling for the lives of her sons and daughters, for the fate of her incomparable treasures of religion and culture, having before her eyes the terrifying spectre of war and unimaginable destruction, looks today with new hope and reinforced confidence at her salvation.

So, with a deeply grateful heart, We raise up our mind and soul in praise and adoration to the Triune God, to the Father to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, on this solemn feast day, Divine mercy having inspired the two belligerent sides intent on peace and not affliction (cfr. Jer.29,11), The Eternal City has been preserved from immeasurable danger.

With unutterable gratitude we venerate the Most Holy Mother of God and our Mother, Mary, Who to the title and glory of Salus populi romani has attained new proof of Her maternal benignity, which will remain a perennial memory in the annals of the Eternal City.

We bow reverently before the Apostles Peter and Paul, whose powerful hands have protected the ground that was already impregnated by the sweat of their apostolic efforts and the blood of their glorious martyrdom.

You, however, children of Saints and heirs of a past that is unique in history, do show yourselves worthy of the grace received and conform your lives and your customs to the seriousness and gravity of the present hour and to the formidable tasks which await you in the years to come.

Overcome internal and external impulses of discord with the magnanimous spirit of fraternal love.

Restrain instincts of resentment, vengeance and selfishness with the sentiments of noble and wise moderation and of increased helpful solicitude towards the poor and suffering.

Sursum corda! Lift up your hearts: We cry out to you! And we are certain that your hearts together, without exception, will respond: Habemus ad Dominum: We have lifted them up to the Lord!

With such hope We impart to all of you, beloved sons and daughters, to your families, to your dear ones, near and far, healthy and sick, Our paternal Apostolic Blessing, as a token of the most abundant heavenly favours.

[Translation: contributor Francesca Romana. 1st image: Multitudes in Saint Peter's Square, 1944. On June 4/5, 1944, Rome became de facto an "open city" (città aperta) and its abandonment by the occupying troops. / 2nd image: Pope Pius XII's visit to the neighborhood of San Lorenzo following its bombing, in 1943 - previous post here. / 3rd image: June 11, 1944 - Pope Pius XII goes to the Sant'Ignazio church, to where the image of the Madonna del Divino Amore had been moved for the vow of protection over the city to thank the Virgin.]

Two Solemn High Masses in D.C. on Saturday

This Saturday, 7 June, is the Vigil of Pentecost, a first class rank Mass. The Mass itself is offered not in violet, but with red vestments.  Based on the Easter vigil, the Pentecost vigil contains several Old Testament prophecies.

In Washington, D.C., there will be two Solemn High Masses on Saturday afternoon for the Vigil of Pentecost.

At 4:30 p.m., Monsignor Charles Pope will offer a Missa Solemnis at Holy Comforter church (where he is pastor).  This will be the first High Mass there in six years. The musical setting of the Mass will be Palestrina's "Missa Dum Complerentur."

At 5:30 p.m., Father James Buckley, FSSP, will offer a High Mass in the crypt of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The Mass concludes the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter's annual three-day pilgrimage from the shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Barnesville, Maryland, along the C&O Canal into Washington, D.C.  A local schola of men will sing Gregorian chant for the Mass.

A Return to Sacrifice, in order to Save the Sacrament

Tintoretto, The Crucifixion (Scuola Grande di San Rocco)

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Editorial: Radicati nella fede, June 2014

Newsletter of the Catholic community of

Domodossola and Vocogno, Diocese of Novara, Italy

June is the month of Corpus Christi. It is the month of the great feast dedicated entirely to Our Eucharistic Jesus. As in all parishes, we too are preparing to celebrate it on Sunday 22nd of June, seeing that the Thursday of the Solemnity is no longer a feast day in Italy. We will celebrate it mainly, with a solemn procession after the sung Mass, by carrying the Most Sacred Host through the streets of the town.

This should be the most important procession of the year, since here we are not carrying a venerated statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary nor a saint or relic, but Jesus Himself, living and real in the Most Blessed Sacrament; living and real with His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. This procession should be the most solemn, filled with adoration and holy respect for Our Lord Who is passing by.

Certainly many will sense distinct melancholic thoughts arising: “it is no longer like this in our towns now, Corpus Christi can’t be celebrated as it once was; the streets used to be adorned and the sides along the way used to be covered with the most beautiful drapes; and do you remember the altar- stops? There was a competition to see who could make the most beautiful altar! And the people – how they used to kneel…! Yes, it’s no longer like that. Today, if all goes well, Corpus Christi is the procession of a small remnant of believers who still adore the Most Holy Eucharist. For Our Lady’s procession we can hope for one or two more Catholics – but for Corpus Christi…!”

These are all realistic considerations, but we would be wrong if we only complained without thinking about it all more deeply.

Why has the spirit of adoration been lost? Why do so many baptized souls not recognize the Lord passing by in the Sacred Host anymore?

Among the “conservatives” many will say that it was all caused by certain factors: a) the moving of the tabernacles in churches – from the altars they were relegated into some corner; b) genuflections are no longer made; c) receiving Communion standing and in the hand; d) the reduction if not the disappearance of Eucharistic fasting, etc...

All of which are true, but these are not the main causes – the real one is deeper.

It all began with the disastrous reform to the Rite of the Mass which followed the Second Vatican Council.

With the pretext of translating the Mass into the vernacular in 1969 - it was changed radically, practically re-made and purged of all the explicit references to the Propitiatory Sacrifice – in order to please the Protestants.

In fact, the Mass was increasingly transformed into a Holy Supper and this was done basically, so that the priests and the faithful [could] be nurtured at the “two tables” of the Word and the Body of Christ; in short, the Mass was done so as to have Communion.

So the central and determining factor of the Sacrifice of Christ disappeared from the everyday life of Catholics. It was for this Jesus instituted the Eucharist so that His sacrifice on the Cross be perpetuated - the sacrifice, which alone cancels sins and placates Divine Justice.

It is essential that each day in all the churches of the world, the Sacrifice of Christ be offered, so that the world may be saved from the abyss. What has this all got to do with the presence of Jesus in the Host, Adoration and Corpus Domini? It is simple. If the Mass is no longer intended as the oblation of Christ on the altar of the Cross, but is intended merely as a holy meal, the presence of Christ Himself is put at risk.

A great writer wrote:

“There are two great realities in the Mass, the sacrifice and the sacrament. These two great realities are fulfilled at the same instant, at the moment when the priest pronounces the words of consecration over the bread and wine. When he finishes the words of consecration of the Precious Blood, the Sacrifice of Our Lord is fulfilled and Our Lord is also present at the that moment, as is the Sacrament of Our Lord as well. […] This mystical separation of the species in the bread and wine fulfills the sacrifice of the Mass. Thus, these two realities are achieved at the consecration. They cannot be separated. And this is what the Protestants did; they simply wanted the sacrament without the sacrifice. This is the danger of the new Masses. Sacrifice is no longer spoken of; it seems that sacrifice has been set aside. You only hear talk about the Eucharist, and having a “Eucharist” as if it were merely a meal. The risk is present that we have neither one nor the other. It is very dangerous. In the measure that the sacrifice disappears, the Sacrament also disappears, since it is the Victim Who has been presented in the Sacrament. If there is no sacrifice there is no Victim.”

“If there is no sacrifice there is no Victim.” These are strong but very logical words which conform to the faith. Without entering into extremely delicate sacramentary reflections we can easily say, that what has happened in the lives of Catholics is this: the obscuring of the sacrificial character of the Mass has caused the loss of awareness of Christ’s substantial presence in the Sacrament.

The Old Mass meets the emphasis of the propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ’s substantial presence in the Sacred Host.

The New Mass meets the emphasis of the Eucharistic banquet, Holy Communion, and – strangely enough – the almost complete disappearance of the spirit of adoration.

It is not a coincidence: if there is no Sacrifice, there is not even a Victim – and Jesus is not present.

This is why it is a mistake to curtail the liturgical disaster with some simple work of “maquillage”, by perhaps bringing the exterior signs of adoration back – incense, candles, altar rails and kneelers, nocturnal adoration, but with no concern [however] of a return to the correct rite of the Mass i.e. the Mass of Tradition.

Those who stop at exterior signs are making a mistake, when they occupy themselves with a vague sentiment of tradition and play merely with aesthetics which deceive.

The answer is a return to the complete Catholic clarity of the Propitiatory Sacrifice expressed in the right Mass.

A return to the right Mass will rectify the procession of Corpus Christi as well and [even] before that, it will rectify the lives of Christians who are called to participate in the Sacrifice of Christ with every fiber of their being.

[Translation: Contributor Francesca Romana]

The Power of Prayer

About a month ago, we asked our readers to join us in prayer for the health of a great French friend of this blog, Ennemond.

He is now much better, and recovering, after the timely intervention of God and men. He tells us: "I would like to thank you for your message in Rorate caeli, for your prayers, and for those of the blog's readers. They were essential."

Thank you.

The Ancient Mass returns to Denmark

Readers will be pleased to know of the existence of the Society of Saint Canute, which promotes the traditional Mass in Denmark.

May their work bear plentiful fruit.

For previous posts on the Traditional Mass in Denmark, see here (2009), here (2011), and here (2012), among others.

The power of the cassock at all times: "My brother, pass me the ball!"

Agence France Presse's photographer Fabrice Coffrini wanted some special football/soccer images now that the quadrennial world tournament of the sport is at hand. He found them in Écône (Riddes, Valais, Switzerland), at the International Seminary of Saint Pius X.

RIDDES (Switzerland), June 3, 2014 [AFP] - The Society of Saint Pius X is a traditionalist Catholic society founded by Abp. Marcel Lefebvre. They are known above all for their ultra-conservative positions and their disagreements with the Vatican. They are less known for their football talents.

Every Sunday, the priests and future priests of the Society seminary in Écône, Switzerland, rest at the end of an intense week of studies and prayer. Some go hiking, others play basketball, still others play football. They always practice their sporting activities in cassock because, for traditionalists, a priest must keep his distinctive habit in all life circumstances in order to show that, "he lives in the world without being of the world"... But cleats are tolerated.

It has been several years that I wanted to photograph them. As the football World Cup approaches, it was the ideal moment. After having easily obtained the agreement of the seminary, I went to the Valais to watch the Sunday match at Riddes, the neighboring village to Écône.

The field is located below an overpass. Many drivers who pass by honk at the sight of the unusual display of these priests in cassocks running after a ball. But, other than them, there is no public. There is also no referee (other than God, naturally).

The match is very physical, the players tackle and collide as in any other football match. The only difference, other than the outfit, is the language. No name-calling, no cursing, no altercation other than at offsides or fouls. The players use the vous [formal 2nd person] and remain very polite amongst themselves: "My brother, pass me [passez-moi] the ball!"

At halftime, I would like to take a posed picture of all seminarians while raising their arms enthusiastically, as a regular team. But they refused. Even on a soccer field, the cassock compels a demeanor...

[Image above by Fabrice Coffrini for AFP hosted at original website. The complete set of images available at the original post, available in French here.]

Truth be told: the Traditional Catholic position on the Economy is not Libertarian (and the Pope is close to it)

Today, we will do something unusual for us: we will mention three other blogs in a row, and "label" them in the Catholic spectrum so that we can make our point.

Liberal Catholic blogger Rocco Palmo had, unsurprisingly, firsthand access to the address given by Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga, the head of the Council of Cardinals, to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) today at an event titled Erroneous Autonomy: The Catholic Case Against Libertarianism, at the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America (Washington).

Right at the beginning of his talk, the Cardinal mentions two bloggers that could be considered, in the American scene, on "opposing" fields -- an ultra-liberal blogger, and a conservative blogger:

I would like to start quoting Michael Sean Winters’s recent article in NCR:

“Last week, the Holy Father addressed leaders of United Nations who called on him in Rome. He gave a short talk, which included these words calling for ‘the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the State.’ Then, America's conservative chattering classes went ballistic. John Moody, executive vice president at Fox News and a former Vatican correspondent, might be expected from his time covering the Holy See to have rendered a nuanced appraisal of what Pope Francis said. Nah. The title of the piece -- and I know writers do not usually choose their own titles -- is: ‘Pope Francis should stick to doctrine, stay away from economic 'redistribution.' Of course, Pope Francis was speaking from the social doctrine of the Church. The Church's teachings on social justice are as firmly rooted in our theological doctrines as are the teachings on any other issues.”

And the following day he wrote: “Here comes Father Zuhlsdorf, who runs a popular conservative blog. ‘I wonder how many people are still listening to him seriously on this issue,’ opines Reverend Father. Not content to take a swipe at the Pope, he goes after a few cardinals, adding, ‘I suspect other people might have the same reaction that I have when hearing/reading this stuff. It comes across as naive, out of step with history. Has any nation successfully dealt with poverty through redistribution? I don't think so. Moreover, who would supervise this process of global redistribution? Angels? EU bureaucrats? The UN? Card. Rodriguez Maradiaga? Card. Kasper?’.”

As you see, the theme of today is very actual. [Source]

Once again, the Traditional Catholic voice went unheeded. Very few indeed have been making the case, a case that is true, that the positions stated by Pope Francis on economic and social matters are much closer to the Traditional Catholic position on the economy and the State than not. Indeed, it can be said unhesitatingly that this is one area in which the Pope will find mostly allies in Traditional Catholics. They know by heart, also as victims of injustice (including within the Church), that the doctrine of the Church regarding people, society and economic relations, and individuals faced with government, is one which privileges "justice" as its foundational aspect.

As Pope John Paul II recalled:

The Church's social doctrine is not a "third way" between liberal capitalism and Marxist collectivism, nor even a possible alternative to other solutions less radically opposed to one another: rather, it constitutes a category of its own. Nor is it an ideology, but rather the accurate formulation of the results of a careful reflection on the complex realities of human existence, in society and in the international order, in the light of faith and of the Church's tradition. Its main aim is to interpret these realities, determining their conformity with or divergence from the lines of the Gospel teaching on man and his vocation, a vocation which is at once earthly and transcendent; its aim is thus to guide Christian behavior. It therefore belongs to the field, not of ideology, but of theology and particularly of moral theology.

The teaching and spreading of her social doctrine are part of the Church's evangelizing mission. And since it is a doctrine aimed at guiding people's behavior, it consequently gives rise to a "commitment to justice," according to each individual's role, vocation and circumstances. [Sollicitudo rei socialis, 41]

Now, there are few things that are less traditional in Catholic doctrine on Church, State, Society and the Economy than Libertarianism. The Church was always adamantly against what was classically defined as "Liberalism" (confusingly often defined as a kind of "Conservatism" in much of American thought, precisely because there is much to "conserve", or preserve, in the American experience that is essentially "Liberal" in the classical sense), so the Church should naturally be against Libertarianism.We have always tried to avoid alienating any specific group of readers. We know that a considerable and respectable group of those who attend the Traditional Mass and support it have a position on economic and political matters close to what would be deemed classical "Liberalism" (or, mistakenly, "Conservatism"). We deeply respect these readers. But it is undeniable that in economic matters, the traditional Catholic positions (adapted to the circumstances of the liberal and post-liberal world by carefully crafted foundational documents such as Rerum novarum and Quagragesimo anno) are much closer to the socio-economic positions defended by Pope Francis than those defended by "Libertarians" or those who mistakenly identify themselves as "Conservative" when they actually mean "Liberal" in the classical sense.

For instance, in the specific matter of the redistribution of wealth, Catholic social doctrine has always defended the possibility of some regulation for the common good of what is deemed superfluous. Let us leave the specific words to Pius XI:

[T]he wise Pontiff [Leo XIII] declared that it is grossly unjust for a State to exhaust private wealth through the weight of imposts and taxes. "For since the right of possessing goods privately has been conferred not by man's law, but by nature, public authority cannot abolish it, but can only control its exercise and bring it into conformity with the common weal." Yet when the State brings private ownership into harmony with the needs of the common good, it does not commit a hostile act against private owners but rather does them a friendly service; for it thereby effectively prevents the private possession of goods, which the Author of nature in His most wise providence ordained for the support of human life, from causing intolerable evils and thus rushing to its own destruction; it does not destroy private possessions, but safeguards them; and it does not weaken private property rights, but strengthens them.

Furthermore, a person's superfluous income, that is, income which he does not need to sustain life fittingly and with dignity, is not left wholly to his own free determination. Rather the Sacred Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church constantly declare in the most explicit language that the rich are bound by a very grave precept to practice almsgiving, beneficence, and munificence.

...

But not every distribution among human beings of property and wealth is of a character to attain either completely or to a satisfactory degree of perfection the end which God intends. Therefore, the riches that economic-social developments constantly increase ought to be so distributed among individual persons and classes that the common advantage of all, which Leo XIII had praised, will be safeguarded; in other words, that the common good of all society will be kept inviolate. By this law of social justice, one class is forbidden to exclude the other from sharing in the benefits. Hence the class of the wealthy violates this law no less, when, as if free from care on account of its wealth, it thinks it the right order of things for it to get everything and the worker nothing, than does the non-owning working class when, angered deeply at outraged justice and too ready to assert wrongly the one right it is conscious of, it demands for itself everything as if produced by its own hands, and attacks and seeks to abolish, therefore, all property and returns or incomes, of whatever kind they are or whatever the function they perform in human society, that have not been obtained by labor, and for no other reason save that they are of such a nature. And in this connection We must not pass over the unwarranted and unmerited appeal made by some to the Apostle when he said: "If any man will not work neither let him eat." For the Apostle is passing judgment on those who are unwilling to work, although they can and ought to, and he admonishes us that we ought diligently to use our time and energies of body, and mind and not be a burden to others when we can provide for ourselves. But the Apostle in no wise teaches that labor is the sole title to a living or an income.

To each, therefore, must be given his own share of goods, and the distribution of created goods, which, as every discerning person knows, is laboring today under the gravest evils due to the huge disparity between the few exceedingly rich and the unnumbered propertyless, must be effectively called back to and brought into conformity with the norms of the common good, that is, social justice. [Quadragesimo anno, 49-50, 58]

We would like to reinforce what we posted just a few days ago: social concerns, in theory and in practice, cannot be left by Traditionalists as an unoccupied field to the ecclesiastical "leftwing", to the unbelieving liberals. By supporting the overthrow of all that is natural in society (for instance, from their defense of abortion to their promotion of "gender theory"), "progressive Catholics" ("Liberals") are, in fact, great promoters of injustice, subverters of the Catholic order in Church and Society. By criticizing the current Pope when he indeed defends positions kept by his predecessors on Social Doctrine (admittedly, Pope Francis often fills such defense with unexpected idiosyncrasies, but not essential deviations), "Conservatives" bring themselves to an untenable position.

The traditional Catholic Social Doctrine is ours, it is wholly traditional, and it is our responsibility to defend it, to put it into practice in our communities (including with specific actions for the benefit of the most derelict in society), and also to defend His Holiness in those cases in which he makes its defense in the current economic environment.

Traditional Catholic school looking for online teachers

From the school:

Fisher More Academy, offering Catholic online educational programs for students at three levels: Elementary School (grades 4-6), Junior High School (grades 7-8), and High School (grades 9-12), has openings for teachers in selected subjects at the junior and senior high school levels.  

Interested teachers may apply by sending a complete resume and at least three references to Edward Schaefer, Director of Academic Affairs, at edward.schaefer@fishermore.edu.

Centennial of Dom Delatte's Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict II - St. Benedict, Father of Christendom, under Christ the King "Our business is not to live many years, but to walk to God."

[I - Saint Benedict was above all a man of Tradition]

The Rule of St. Benedict is, as its name indicates, a law, a code of laws - but not any kind of code. Beauty and kindness flow from the heart of the Patriarch as he talks directly to his children.

In his 1913 Commentary, Dom Paul Delatte spends, in the style of his venerable predecessor Dom Prosper Guéranger, what seems like a disproportionate amount of time and energy on every word of the rule's Prologue. That is not the case at all: the only way to explain how this ancient Roman, filled with the best common sense of Antiquity, is about to establish the mode of life that will enable Christian faith to survive, hidden at first, and then flourish in Europe in the long period following the collapse of the Empire in the West is to show how Benedict's words are that of a true Paterfamilias. But not any Paterfamilias, a Christian Father.

And what is the concern of this Christian Father? To make us aware of our true concern, the only true business of our lifetimes. "Our business," says Dom Delatte, "is not to live many years, and to become learned, or to make a name in the world, but to walk to God, to get near to Him, to unite ourselves to Him." This is one of the most profound sentences of the whole book, and a firm rule of life for every Christian - because these beautiful words are not for monks only, but for all Catholics of good will.

"Ausculta, o fili... " [Hearken, o son... ]

Other Rules[, begins Dom Delatte,] have a more impersonal character, a more concise and formal legislative air: St. Benedict in his first words puts himself in intimate contact with his followers, commencing the code of our monastic life with a loving address. He who speaks is a master; for we cannot dispense with a master in the supernatural life, which is at once a science and an art. He gives precepts - that is to say, doctrinal and practical instruction.

Dom Paul Delatte
Third Abbot of
St. Peter's Abbey, Solesmes

St. Benedict here speaks of himself, though many commentators have thought differently. It is no folly to call himself master, since he teaches not in his own name, nor things of his own devising. He wrote near the end of his life and in the fulness of his experience. Why should he not be a loving father, pius pater, as he expresses it?

...

He does not dream of imposing them on you, but appeals to your good will, to your delicacy of perception; there is no question of constraint, but of a loving and glad acceptance, of supernatural docility.

This docility St. Benedict requires of every beginner; this same docility, under the forms of humility and obedience, gives our monastic life its authentic character; and, finally, by it is sanctity won: "Who so are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Rom. viii. 14) The sovereign importance of this simple, unaffected disposition comes from the fact that it comprises in itself all virtue. To begin with, docility means prudence, and in prudence are united all the moral virtues. We cannot in our own persons have all experiences; but others have had them, and we reap the benefit of these by our docility.

We make our own the wisdom of humanity supernaturalized, the wisdom of St. Benedict, and faith makes us share the very wisdom of God. Docility, and docility alone, establishes us in that state whence all self-seeking has been driven, a state which is the condition and the prelude of a living union with Our Lord. Its name then is charity.

We should note how St. Benedict analyzes and details the successive stages of supernatural docility. "Hearken": for we must listen; if there be too much noise in the soul and the attention be scattered over a multitude of objects, the voice of God which is generally quiet as " the whistling of a gentle air " (3 Kings xix. 12) is not heard. That silence which of itself is perfect praise, "To thee silence is praise," is rare among beings so fickle and impressionable as we are.

But to hearken is not enough, and St. Benedict invites us in the pretty phrase of the Book of Proverbs 2 and Psalm xliv to, "incline the ear of our heart." We must have a receptive understanding, a trustful attitude towards the truth that is proposed to us. If we begin by putting obstacles, by establishing at the entry of our souls a strict barrier, or still more, if we be filled with our own views to the point of saying, "He cannot teach me anything new; I know all that and better than he does!" then we are in the worst possible mental state, not only for supernatural teaching, but even for purely human instruction.

...

"Et efficaciter comple" And faithfully fulfill. It is the property of truth to move us to action. We cannot "hold it captive in injustice" (Rom. i, 18). We shall have to answer to God for all the good we have seen and have not done. But therein too lies the difficulty; for sin has upset the balance of our being: seeing, willing, loving, performing, these are far from being one single operation.

So lest the work should frighten us, and to make clear at once its character and plan, our Holy Father, with the insight of genius, yet in the quiet classical style, sets down that which is the prize of our life, that which should be its single object, that which gives it its dignity, charm, and power, its merit and simplicity, that in which is contained the whole Rule: "that you may return to Him by the labour of obedience."

For our business is not to live many years, and to become learned, or to make a name in the world, but to walk to God, to get near to Him, to unite ourselves to Him. This manner of conceiving the spiritual life as a fearless walking to God is a favourite one with St. Benedict; we shall meet it many times in the Rule. Our life is on an inclined plane: we may ascend or descend, and the latter is very easy.

Since the Fall, man has only one way in which to separate himself from God, and that is the way of the old Adam, disobedience; and he has, too, but one way to return and that is by obedience, with the new Adam.

The Church - the Source of all that is Good, the Great Society of the Just

Father Enrico Zoffoli ( 1915 - 1996) who was an Italian priest and theologian inspired by the works of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Therese of Liesiux, was ordained into the Congregation of the Passionists of St. Paul in 1939. Lecturer and prolific author, he is particularly remembered for his theological studies exposing the problems inherent in the Neo-Catechumenal Way.

The following is an extract by Father Zoffoli from his book “La Vera Chiesa di Cristo” (1990) “The True Church of Christ.” The entire extract is found on the blog “Chiesa e Post Concilio” of May 15, 2014. In this part, Father Zoffoli reminds us that the only true Church of Christ is the Roman Catholic Church – that all Good comes from Her and that all evil comes from outside of Her even if present in Her members. People even those outside Her (also non-baptized), can be redeemed only through the merits of Christ and His One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

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The Church - source of all that is good

a) If there is only one God and Father of all, only one Head with only one Body and only one Spirit (thus, one faith, one hope, one baptism), it is absurd to suppose that, outside and independently of the Church, there can be other sources of salvation, other criteria of morality, other secrets to success and other energies of life.

If everything is from God, if He conferred everything to Christ and if Christ works and obtains everything for the Church (even in those places Her ministers do not arrive and those where Her jurisdiction does not extend to), it is unquestionable that the Church is “source” and “symbol” of all the good desirable and the antithesis and guard against all the evil that rages in the world.

b) How do we explain then the evil we find in the Church? How do we explain all the good outside the Church?

The evil in the Church strikes only Her members, that is “ the passive – material-element” of Her structure. It is the evil of “individuals” who are “children” to be redeemed, “sinners “ to be saved… NOT YET PART OF MOTHER CHURCH who is capable only of regenerating them in virtue of the vital energy which makes Her the single “instrument” of salvation through the merits of Christ, The Head.

The good outside the Church belongs to Her, it being the good of Her Head, The Christ - the living Synthesis of all merit. He in fact, possesses everything, He redeems everything and He exalts everything, since of everything He is Master and Shepherd, King and Judge. He - not others - is the Arbiter of history inasmuch as He controls its course, leads the people, follows and waits, coordinates and subordinates [the historical] phases in their development; He prepares them for the light of His Revelation and for the liberating power of His message.

c) Thus: all of the evil inside the Church is exclusively of the world, dominated by concupiscence; and all the good in the world is of the Church, since – joined to Christ - [the world] is destined to have in the Church the fullness of Her affirmation and fecundity because of the prayers, sacrifices and merits of Her best children, who with all their heart project the greatest extension of the reign of God on earth.

To sum up:

- evil is in the Church, but not of the Church; She welcomes the errant, but does not approve their error; She opens Her arms to the sick, but does not absorb their sickness; She, rather, continues to impose Her attack against sin, which, in its defiling of human society, threatens Her members.

- evil – through the fault of believers who are not yet fully assimilated in Christ – is in the Church as the enemy or anti-Church, which lays snares for Her, tries to seduce, overwhelm and secularize Her. Evil belongs to the world and is enthroned there as in the kingdom of all covetousness and abominations.

In fact, it is this world that has never renounced its control of the consciences [of men]; forever resolute in rebelling, pressing, infiltrating and camouflaging itself under all sorts of disguises, taking its revenge in every sector, even at the highest levels of the Hierarchy, where the material-element (= human) remains irrepressible.

Simony, nepotism, concubinage, intrigues, alliances, ambiguities, unjust repressions, usurped powers, iniquitous trials, inhuman treatment, irresponsible capitulations, arrogant ways, worldliness, turpitude, and so many other shameful memories of the Medieval, Renaissance and Counter-Reformation Church, were the WORK OF THE WORLD - and will be again – with its “false brothers” and “mercenary priests” who dishonor the Church falsifying Her face, by attempting a secularization intent on making dogma fruitless, mocking the “wisdom of the Cross”, suppressing worship, undermining “the reign of God”, and substituting it with the reign of man.

Therefore, anti-clericalism, in attacking the Church, condemns the work of Her enemies: man’s nature, passions, stupidity and haughtiness.

The same can be said of good, in whichever way it is [manifest]. Its origins and seat are found in the Church, - the only great SOCIETY OF THE JUST, from the beginning of the world to the end of time – the Church whose members – even if not visible or recognizable – are all those honest hearts, open to the entire truth, disposed to all that is good, and capable of every sacrifice in achieving it.

They, even without having a distinct idea, implicitly accept the plan of God, and are immersed and carried along the path of the “history of salvation” ; they belong to Christ and are destined to enjoy the fruits of His sacrifice, and to be given life by His Spirit as members of the Church as well as His Soul, not being able (through no fault of their own) to be part of His Body alongside the “baptized.”

[Those non-Catholics who] ARE IN GOOD FAITH are virtually included in the fold - and can be saved, the only ones excluded being the wicked, the presumptuous and the obstinate.

Therefore all good, is only of the just, and must be attributed to the Church, the only Source of all the Good that exists.

[Translation and Contribution: Francesca Romana.]

Sermon for the Sunday after Ascension

From the Gospel of St. John:  “But these things I have spoken to you, that when the time for them has come you may remember that I told you."

So the Apostles return to the Upper Room to pray and wait.  They were chastised by the angel at the Ascension: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?” They were looking in the wrong place for what they had to do.  They were trying to hold on to the Jesus they knew and loved as he ascended into heaven.  But they did have the sense to know that what they had to do now was to pray, to pray together, to try to make sense of Jesus’ order to them to go out into the world and preach and baptize.  And so they wait.

But what are they waiting for?  They found out at Pentecost in a most dramatic way, which showed them they had no idea what they were waiting for and that they finally knew what they were waiting for: the descent of the Holy Spirit, the empowerment of the Church to be the locus of salvation, the place of the presence of the saving work of Jesus Christ, the enabler of the missionary effort of the Church.

And you and I: what are we waiting for?  This is liturgical waiting time for an event that we know we will celebrate next week, the feast of Pentecost, with its dramatic notes of tongues of fire and speaking in many languages.  But this waiting time should not be wasted like waiting in a doctor’s office, where we quell any anxiety by reading mindless things like People magazine to dull the senses.  The coming of the Holy Spirit, the promise made by Christ: this fundamental event that lies so deep in the Catholic understanding of the Church.  That promise: I shall send you the Holy Spirit and he shall lead you into all Truth.  For me personally, this was part of why I became Catholic, this promise.  The guarantee of the presence of Truth by Christ himself, and in a living way through the gift, the descent of the Holy Spirit.  And this continues to stir me and deepens my faith in the Catholic Church

But let us look carefully at today’s gospel reading, which is yet another segment from Jesus’ farewell discourse to his Apostles before his Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension.   How does Jesus see the reason for the coming of the Holy Spirit, what is its purpose, so to speak?  There are two reasons:  the first is this:  “When the Advocate has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, Who proceeds from the Father:  He will bear witness concerning Me.”  It is only when the Spirit descends upon Mary and the Apostles that the Church is enlivened, quickened, that the Apostles fully understand who Jesus is, what his Passion and Death truly mean, what his Resurrection and Ascension mean, and finally what is their mission.  That is why they are waiting, because they still do not know these things. In Mark's Gospel, before the Ascension, Jesus appears to them to be worshipped-- and they doubt.  No, they cannot know until the glorification of Christ is complete in the Ascension, until this final acceptance by the Father of the sacrifice of his Son on the Cross  Only when the glorified body of Christ bearing his wounds ascends into heaven and is seen by the Father: it is only then can the Truth descend.  And it is here that we see the first purpose, so to speak, of the coming of the Holy Spirit: to let the Church know who this man Jesus was and is and to make the this knowledge the basis of the missionary effort of the Church, which is a mission of salvation.  And this not in some sort of gnostic sense, but a knowledge for all to know and from that knowledge to be saved.  And this is the telos of the Holy Spirit in the Church: to answer in a definitive and salvific sense the answer to the question that lies at the heart of the Gospels: who is this man Jesus? We see this clearly yet through a partially desilvered mirror in the debates about the person of Jesus in the Ecumenical Councils of the patristic Church and what comes through these messy experiences: " God of God, light of light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, through whom all things were made, for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven."  There it is: "He will bear witness to me."  And that witness has been made possible by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church, deepening our understanding of the meaning of the Life, Passion Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ and what all this means for you and me.

But there is a second reason, so to speak, for the coming of the Holy Spirit in today’s gospel.  Jesus speaks here directly to the Apostles, the foundation pillars of the Church, but he speaks here as well to us all as members of his body of the Church. “And you will also bear witness, because from the beginning you are with Me. Yes, the hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think he is offering worship of God.”  The promise of the Holy Spirit is also the promise of the strength to bear witness to the person of Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life.  And this witness will provoke persecution.  Persecution is promised by Christ to the Apostles, to the Church, and history records this persecution not only in the early Church whose martyrs are the seed of the triumph of the Church.  But it is throughout world history that we see this persecution of the Church in every nation and culture down to our own time.  The loss of an historical sense is a mark of modernity and post modernity, the forgetting of what Christians have endured from emperors, barbarians, from those who understood their religious zeal in terms of conquest and domination, from strife among those who broke the bond of peace between Christians,  from those whose hatred of the Church in the name of reason and brotherhood caused blood to flow like water, the extermination camps, the Gulag, the systematic driving out of Christians from the Holy Land, down to the militant secularism of our own time that rightly sees the Catholic Church as the last enemy. There are those today, even within the Church, who seek accommodation with a world that is inexorably opposed to the Truth of the person of Jesus Christ, and this accommodation is not only shameful. It is doomed to failure, for it denies who Christ is, especially in his judgment of the world.  But the presence of the Holy Spirit prevails even against those who falsify the Church, for one cannot fail if one is true to the one who said:  “Behold, I have overcome the world.”

But there has been a forgetting also of what the Christian faith has done for the world, that transformation that the Western world now takes for granted and thinks that the fruits of that transformation can endure without that faith that proclaims that man and woman are made in the image of God and all the implications of that proclamation.

What we are waiting for is not some coming of a magic kingdom that is a cross between Oz and the realm of the Lion King.  What we await is what is already supremely and absolutely real: the presence of God among us in all of his power and truth, making all things real:  and that is what is worth waiting for.