On February 9, 2014, the city of São Paulo celebrated the 10th anniversary of the celebration of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form. The Traditional Mass is celebrated everyday (twice on Sundays) in a downtown chapel, by the chaplain, Fr. Jonas Lisboa, a priest of the Apostolic Administration.
The Solemn Pontifical Mass was celebrated in an older and bigger church this time, a building belonging to the Third Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The mass was celebrated by Bp. Fernando Areas Rifan, the Deacon was Father José Henrique, and the Subdeacon Father Jefferson Pimenta. Father Jonas Lisboa functioned as Auxiliary Priest.
The mass was well attended, very beautiful and solemn. During the sermon, bishop Rifan told us about his last visit to the Holy Father and that the pope thinks that the Traditional Latin Mass is a treasure for the Church and that his only fear is that the Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form could be “instrumentalized”, and bishop Rifan answered His Holiness that he is doing everything that he could to ensure that this is not going to happen and to promote the Extraordinary Form as a treasure for the entire universal Church, to which he humbly belongs. At the end of the Mass the Te Deum was sung by all those present.
Archbishop Arthur Roche is the Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, and is helping to organize a special conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of ... “Sacrosanctum Concilium.” ... Speaking of the Latin Mass, the archbishop highlighted that it “will always be a part of the Roman rite” because it maintains “the language in which the Roman rite is written - whether it be the ordinary or indeed the extraordinary form.”“It is the way in which the Church expresses itself,” he explained, observing how there has been an increase in use of Gregorian chant during Mass, “especially at international events.”Drawing attention to the special international reach of the city of Rome, Archbishop Roche went on to say that “people from throughout the world, from every continent and from the different hemispheres, come together to share Mass and are joined together in that common expression of the singing of the Latin part of the Mass.”Turning his attention to Pope Francis take on the rite, the archbishop explained that “the Pope hasn’t expressed anything about the extraordinary form nor in fact about the ordinary form either.”
[A.] “Vatican II was a re-reading of the Gospel in light of contemporary culture,” says the pope. “Vatican II produced a renewal movement that simply comes from the same Gospel. Its fruits are enormous. Just recall the liturgy. The work of liturgical reform has been a service to the people as a re-reading of the Gospel from a concrete historical situation. Yes, there are hermeneutics of continuity and discontinuity, but one thing is clear: the dynamic of reading the Gospel, actualizing its message for today—which was typical of Vatican II—is absolutely irreversible. Then there are particular issues, like the liturgy according to the Vetus Ordo. I think the decision of Pope Benedict [his decision of July 7, 2007, to allow a wider use of the Tridentine Mass] was prudent and motivated by the desire to help people who have this sensitivity. What is worrying, though, is the risk of the ideologization of the Vetus Ordo, its exploitation.”
It is always said that pope Francis remembers his country, Argentina, even though he is now the head of the smallest state in the world. In the Vatican, Jorge Bergoglio renewed his passport and applied for his new DNI [National Identity Document], which will be the only valid one from next year.The Minister of Interior and Transportation, Florencio Randazzo, informed today that, "pope Francis applied for his new Argentinian DNI and Passport last Friday and will receive it in the next few days in the residence he declared, in the Vatican," according to a communiqué of the office."His Holiness spoke to Juan Pablo Cafiero, our ambassador before the Vatican, and informed him that he would like to keep traveling around the world with the Argentinian passport, due to which the procedure was started by way of the digital center we have working in Rome," Randazzo declared."Francis expressly asked not to enjoy any privilege, the reason for which both his New DNI and Passport have followed the regular administrative path," the civil servant emphasized. "The Pope went through a procedure as the one all Argentinians follow, in which a digital photograph, his fingerprint and his signature were collected in about 15 minutes; and in the next few days he will be receiving it in Domus Sanctae Marthae, in the Vatican, which he declared as his residence.""This new gesture of the Pope for our country fills us with pride," Randazzo added, recalling that Bergoglio has had a Vatican passport from the beginning of his pontificate, on March 19 [2013].
Christianity is as old as the world; for it consists, essentially, in the idea of a God -- Creator, Legislator, and Savior -- and in a life conformable to that idea. Now, God manifested himself to the human race from the beginning under the threefold relation of Creator, Legislator, and Savior, and from the beginning, from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to Moses, from Moses to Jesus Christ, there have been men who lived conformably with this idea of God.
Three times before Jesus Christ, God manifested himself to men in this threefold character: by Adam, the first father of the human race; by Noah, the second father of the human race; and by Moses, the lawgiver of a People whose influence and existence have mixed them up with all the destinies of mankind.
There exists, however, a fact not less remarkable, namely, that Christianity only started its reign in the world eighteen hundred years ago, with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ appears to have been the first who brought light into the world. Before him, as Saint John said, "it shined in darkness". But what is the cause of this? How is it that Christianity, vanquished in the world before Jesus Christ, has been victorious in it since his coming? How is it that Christianity, before Jesus Christ, "did not hinder the nations from following their ways", and that Jesus Christ, on the contrary, was able to pronounce that sentence of eternal victory, "In mundo pressuram habebitits, sed confidite, ego vici mundum"?
What new thing is it then that Jesus Christ has accomplished? Is it the sacrifice on Calvary? The Lamb of God that takes aways the sins of the world "was slain from the beginning of the world". ... Is it the Gospel? The Gospel, after all, is but the Word of God, and that word, after many trials, did not change the world. Is it the sacraments? The sacraments are only the channels of grace, and the grace of God, although less abundant, without doubt had not ceased continually to flow to men before Jesus Christ. What new thing, then, did Jesus Christ accomplish? By what means did he secure the eternal duration of the victory obtained on Calvary? Listen to his own words, he will say them to you: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her". This is the work which was to subjugate forever hell and the world, which would everyday renew the Sacrifice of the Savior, maintain and diffuse his doctrines, distribute his grace! ... this Church, "the pillar and ground of the truth"...[is] destined to the universal and perpetual instruction of the human race.
[Abp. Jan Graubner speaks:] When we were discussing those who are fond of the ancient liturgy and wish to return to it, it was evident that the Pope speaks with great affection, attention, and sensitivity for all in order not to hurt anyone. However, he made a quite strong statement when he said that he understands when the old generation returns to what it experienced, but that he cannot understand the younger generation wishing to return to it. "When I search more thoroughly - the Pope said - I find that it is rather a kind of fashion [in Czech: 'móda']. And if it is a fashion, therefore it is a matter that does not need that much attention. It is just necessary to show some patience and kindness to people who are addicted to a certain fashion. But I consider greatly important to go deep into things, because if we do not go deep, no liturgical form, this or that one, can save us."
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| Roman weather: always hard to predict |
Immediately after the Second Vatican Council it was presumed that requests for the use of the 1962 Missal would be limited to the older generation which had grown up with it, but in the meantime it has clearly been demonstrated that young persons too have discovered this liturgical form, felt its attraction and found in it a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist ... . ... What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place. (Benedict XVI, July 7, 2007 Letter to Bishops)
Ilocos Sur wants women to use veil during Mass
MANILA - The Ilocos provincial board has approved a resolution encouraging women to wear veils during Masses and religious rites as a sign of respect for “God, Mary, and all the saints.”
The resolution, authored by Board Member Jeremias Singson, reads: “A resolution encouraging the revival on the use of veil among women while attending masses and other church rites and visits, as a show of respect to God - the Supreme Creator, Mother Mary and all the saints that we venerate.”
He said it is just bringing back a tradition. “It will take some time, baka after one year, makita ang epekto.”
The Catholic church in Ilocos Sur does not have any problem with the resolution, but noted it will be hard to sway the religious into doing so.
Msgr. Vicente Avila of the St. Paul Metropolitan Cathedral said it is best to encourage the faithful to use decent clothing when in church.
The 1917 Code of Canon Law obliges women to wear veils during Masses. This document has since been changed in order to comply with modern times.
"It must be noted that these ordinances, probably inspired by the customs of the period, concern scarcely more than disciplinary practices of minor importance, such as the obligation imposed upon women to wear a veil on their head; such requirements no longer have a normative value,” the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith dictates.
Avila said religion is about strengthening the faith of the people. “Give more emphasis on what is in a man’s or woman’s heart. The way he or she lives is more important.”
Lovely Joy Lazao, a fourth year student, said she last wore a veil during her first communion.“Siyempre magkaka-ilangan, pero kung talagang ipapatupad baka masanay din kami,” she said.
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| R.P. Reginaldus Garrigou-Lagrange O.P. 21.II.1877 - 15.II.1964 Requiescat in pace |
In the ... book of Ecclesiasticus we read that God hears the prayer of the poor man, especially at the time when this man has to die, and that He punishes hearts that are without pity. "The Lord is judge, and there is not with Him respect of person; the Lord will not accept any person against a poor man; He will hear the prayer of him that is wronged . . . [and of] the widow.... The prayer of him that humbleth himself shall pierce the clouds, and he will not depart till the most High beholds."This doctrine is verified particularly at the hour of death. God will be with him in that last hour. These high thoughts occur repeatedly in the Old Testament, and still more in the New, which sees clearly in the death of the just man the prelude of eternal life.It was this writer's privilege to see the death of a just man, a poor man, Giuseppe d'Estengo, who lived with his family in the eighth story of a house near the Campo Santo in Rome.He was gangrened in his four limbs, suffered much from the cold, especially when his nerves began to writhe before death. Nevertheless, he never complained. He offered all his sufferings to the Lord for the salvation of his soul, for his own people, for the conversion of sinners. Then he was struck by rapid consumption, and had to be carried to the other extremity of Rome, to the hospital of the Littorio, where three weeks later he died, in a perfect state of abandonment to God in the middle of the night.At the precise instant when he died, his elderly father, a very good Christian, who was at the other extremity of the city, heard the voice of his son saying: "Father, I am going to heaven." And his excellent mother dreamed that her son mounted up to heaven with healed hands and feet, just as he will be in fact after the resurrection of the dead.I count it one of the great graces of my life that I knew this poor man, who was pointed out to me by a Vincentian helper who said: "You will be happy to know him." She spoke truly. He was a friend of God. His death confirmed this. Blessed are they who die in the Lord. He was one of those "who taste death" as the prelude of eternal life.
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| Fr. Livio Fanzaga |
Dear Prof. Roberto de Mattei,
I read your recent article "Motus in fine velocior", and I noticed the way you have been continuously increasing your critical position regarding the Pontificate of Pope Francis. I am very displeased with it, and I would have wished you put your great cultural competence at the service of the Successor of Peter.
You will understand, dear Professor, that your position is incompatible with the presence in Radio Maria, which calls for, in its guiding principles, adherence not only to the Magisterium of the Church, but also support to the pastoral action of the Supreme Pontiff.
Regretfully and bound by conscience, I must suspend your monthly broadcast, while thanking you, also in the name of listeners, for your deep effort, made as a voluntary, in the research of the Christian roots of Europe.
Dear Professor, if your approach regarding the current Pontificate should change and become more positive, there would be no difficulty for you to resume your broadcast.
Cordially,
Father Livio Fanzaga (Director)
February 13, 2014Dear Father Livio,
With an e-mail message of February 13, you tell me that you have decided to suspend the program "Radici Cristiane" [Christian Roots] at Radio Maria, because I would "have been continuously increasing" my "critical position regarding the Pontificate of Pope Francis." "Your position" -- you write me -- "is incompatible with the presence in Radio Maria, which calls for, in its guiding principles, adherence not only to the Magisterium of the Church, but also support to the pastoral action of the Supreme Pontiff."
First of all, I thank you for the invitation you offered me four years ago to conduct the transmission “Radici Cristiane” on Radio Maria. Since then, until last January 15, every third Wednesday of the month, I tried to carry out to the best of my ability, the task that you had entrusted to me, by developing themes of a historical nature, apologetics and a spiritual and moral defense of the Church and Christian civilization. I thank you also for having publically defended me when, as a result of some of my transmissions, I was violently attacked by the secular press. All of my activity and apostolate has been and remains at the service of the Church and the Roman Pontiff, to whom I dedicated my latest book, Vicar of Christ: The Papacy - Normality and Exception Devotion to the Papacy is an essential part of my spiritual life.
Catholic doctrine teaches us however, that the Pope is infallible only in determined conditions and he can make mistakes, in the sphere of ecclesiastic politics for example, in strategic choices, in pastoral action and even in ordinary magisterium. In these cases it is not a sin, but a duty of conscience for a Catholic to criticize, provided that it is done with the maximum respect and love due to the Supreme Pontiff. The saints did so, and they have to be our models.
The Church allows Her children this freedom to criticize, and it is not a sin if one points out, with due respect, the faults of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Instead, the one who is silent because of cowardice or conformism, does sin. The drama in the Church today is precisely the fear in priests and bishops, who constitute the pars electa of the Church, in denouncing the terrible crisis which is occurring, identifying its causes and proposing solutions.
I re-read the article which represents the reason for my dismissal - and it seems to me that there is nothing disrespectful in it towards the reigning Pontiff, but simply some considerations of a historical nature more than theological, motivated by a pure love for the Truth. Besides, I did not express my concerns about the actual situation in the Church on my monthly Radio Maria transmission, but on my own information agency.
Dear Father Livio, you have every right to dismiss me from your radio, but it would have been better if you had done it without motivations, rather than advance such weak reasons, which are, if I may say so, unfounded. This incident does not bode well for you and I am truly sorry about it. The motion of events has accelerated at an increasingly faster pace and sooner or later the whirlwind will involve you and Radio Maria, constraining you to assume, in one way or the other, positions, which you are deluded in thinking can be avoided. The time will come, however, when one has to take sides. [Emphasis added] As far as I am concerned, I shall continue to exercise my Christian freedom, to defend the faith that I have received with my baptism and is the thing I hold dearest.
May the Holy Spirit help me never to succumb to any pressure or flattery, and never cease to state the truth, and to state it as loud as the silence of those who should be giving voice to it.
With deepest respect,
Roberto de Mattei
Motus in fine velocior
by Roberto de Mattei [Feb. 12. 2014]
February 11, 2013, is a date which has entered history. It was on that day that Benedict XVI communicated to an assembly of astonished cardinals his decision to renounce the pontificate. The announcement was received “like lightning in a serene sky,” according to the words addressed to the Pope by the cardinal deacon Angelo Sodano, and the image of lightning which, that very day, had struck the Basilica of St. Peter, spread throughout the world.
[Cardinal Hummes] is a theologian so of course he knew it was possible for a Pope to resign, he knew Roman Canon Law allows it and he was aware of Ratzinger having mentioned it on a number of occasions . “But in practice it seemed impossible after 600 years.”
“Benedict XVI’s resignation “was completely unexpected,” Hummes stressed. The reasons given for his resignation were unusual. “Only a Pope like Benedict XVI could have made a gesture of this kind, because it takes a very rational mind to do it, as well as great faith and a deeply holy life, in order to leave everything in God’s hands. And he - Ratzinger - is that kind of man.
From that moment on things started to change at such a speed that even a veteran of Church government like the Archbishop of São Paulo – formerly Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy from 2006-2010 – is still left speechless. Pope Francis’ election and the signs he sent out right from the start meant “new doors opened as old ones closed.” Things have changed “so fast and in such a wonderful way. People were happy, they started to have faith in the Church again, they realised they could get through this difficult moment and this faith, this hope have not gone away.” There is still a crisis, Hummes admitted, “but it is being dealt with in a positive way and the scandals need to be cleared up, but now people have faith.”
"[T]he prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith maintains that a reconciliation with the Society of Saint Pius X is possible. The Congregation had presented [the SSPX] with a clear dogmatic preamble; 'this door is open, we do not close it,' says Müller. There are 'no hidden entrances.' The Congregation follows the unification efforts 'with perseverance and firmness,' as it was called to do by Pope Francis."
Among these the following emerge clearly today:
[FIRST NON-NEGOTIABLE]
- protection of life in all its stages, from the first moment of conception until natural death;
[SECOND NON-NEGOTIABLE]
- recognition and promotion of the natural structure of the family - as a union between a man and a woman based on marriage - and its defense from attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different forms of union which in reality harm it and contribute to its destabilization, obscuring its particular character and its irreplaceable social role;
[THIRD NON-NEGOTIABLE]
- the protection of the right of parents to educate their children.
These principles are not truths of faith, even though they receive further light and confirmation from faith; they are inscribed in human nature itself and therefore they are common to all humanity.
The Church’s action in promoting them is therefore not confessional in character, but is addressed to all people, prescinding from any religious affiliation they may have. On the contrary, such action is all the more necessary the more these principles are denied or misunderstood, because this constitutes an offence against the truth of the human person, a grave wound inflicted onto justice itself.
There are significant ruptures in content and form that cannot be remedied simply by restoring Gregorian chant to primacy of place as the music of the Roman rite, expanding the use of Latin and improving vernacular translations of the Latin liturgical texts, using the Roman Canon more frequently (if not exclusively), reorienting the altar, and rescinding certain permissions. As important as it is to celebrate the reformed rites correctly, reverently, and in ways that make the continuity with tradition more obvious, such measures leave untouched the essential content of the rites. Any future attempt at liturgical reconciliation, or renewal in continuity with tradition, would have to take into account the complete overhaul of the propers of the Mass; the replacement of the Offertory prayers with modern compositions; the abandonment of the very ancient annual Roman cycle of Sunday Epistles and Gospels; the radical recasting of the calendar of saints; the abolition of the ancient Octave of Pentecost, the pre-Lenten season of Septuagesima and the Sundays after Epiphany and Pentecost; the dissolution of the centuries-old structure of the Hours; and so much more. To draw the older and newer forms of the liturgy closer to each other would require much more movement on the part of the latter form, so much so that it seems more honest to speak of a gradual reversal of the reform (to the point where it once again connects with the liturgical tradition received by the Council) rather than a reform of it…In the meantime, improvements can be made here and there in the ars celebrandi of the Ordinary Form. But the road to achieving a sustainable future for the traditional Roman rite—and to achieving the liturgical vision of Vatican II, which ordered the moderate adaptation of that rite, not its destruction—is the beautiful and proper celebration, in an increasing number of locations, of the Extraordinary Form, with every effort to promote the core principle (properly understood) of “full, conscious and active participation” of the faithful (SC 14).
'The proponents of the change, when they make their position explicit, ultimately rely on the conviction of the individual conscience. But is conscience the only means of solving the problem of the divorced and remarried? According to what happened during the first centuries of Christianity, it is not. Back then there was another solution. Attention to how the Church of the first centuries addressed the question of the divorced and remarried has been called back recently by a priest of Genoa, Giovanni Cereti, a scholar of patristics and ecumenism. ...The centerpiece of this study - replete with references to the Fathers of the Church at grips with the problem of second marriages - is canon 8 of the Council of Nicaea of 325, the first of the great ecumenical councils of the Church, the authority of which has always been recognized by all Christians. Canon 8 of the Council of Nicaea says:
"As for those who call themselves pure, if they should wish to enter the catholic Church, this holy and great council establishes [. . .] before all else that they should declare openly, in writing, that they accept and follow the teachings of the catholic Church: and that is that they will enter into communion both with those who have gone on to second marriages and with those who have lapsed in the persecutions, for whom the time and circumstances of penance have been established, so as to follow in everything the decisions of the catholic and apostolic Church."
The "pure" to whom the canon refers are the Novatianists, the rigorists of the time, intransigent to the point of definitive rupture both with remarried adulterers and with those who had apostatized to save their lives, even if afterward they had repented, been subjected to penance, and been absolved of their sin.
In demanding of the Novatianists, in order to be readmitted into the Church, that they "enter into communion" with these categories of persons, the Council of Nicaea was therefore reiterating the power of the Church to forgive any sin whatsoever and to receive into full communion again even the "digami," meaning remarried adulterers and apostates.
Since then, two tendencies with regard to the divorced and remarried have coexisted in Christianity, one more rigorist and one more inclined to forgiveness. During the second millennium, the former came to hold sway in the Church of Rome. But before that there was room for the practice of forgiveness in the West as well.' (Sandro Magister, 'When the Church of Rome Forgave Second Marriages').
1) Beginning the discussion from zero, without taking into account the work that has already been done on an issue.2) Drawing conclusions that lack any support.3) Arguing in a vicious circle.4) Using working hypotheses that guide one's research, but are then presented as emerging from that research.5) Arguments from silence.6) Preferring obscure allusions to clear affirmations in one's historical sources.7) Mistaken readings of texts.8) Insufficient historical analysis.
