Proposals for a Correct Reading of the Second Vatican Council

Given at a conference of cardinals and bishops held in Rome, December 17, 2010. The author is auxiliary bishop of Karaganda, Kazakhstan His Excellency Athanasius Schneider, ORC; it is translated here by Richard Chonak courtesy of EWTN.

The primacy of the worship of God as the basis of all true pastoral theology.

I. The theological foundation of pastoral theology

To speak correctly of pastoral theory and practice, it is necessary first to be conscious of their foundation and their theological aim. The aim of the Church is the aim of the Incarnation: “propter nostram salutem.” This is how the faith and the prayer of the Church are expressed: “Qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem descendit de caelis et incarnatus est.... et homo factus est.” This salvation means the salvation of the soul for eternal life. The purpose of the Church’s whole juridical and pastoral order also consists of this salvation, as the last canon of the Code of Canon Law tells us: “prae oculis habita salute animarum, quae in Ecclesia suprema semper lex esse debet.” (can. 1752)

The content of the salvation of the human soul consists of holiness, of renewal and indeed perfection of the original human dignity in Christ. God has created man according to His image and His likeness (Gen. 1:26) and this work is marvelous, as the Church says in the liturgy. “Deus, qui humanae substantiae dignitatem mirabiliter condidisti”. But more marvelous yet is the renewal and the perfecting of this image that has come by the work of the Redemption: “mirabilius reformasti”. Renewal, new perfection, holiness consist of the unimaginable grace of man’s participation in the Divine nature itself: “Divinitatis esse consortes”. This participation in the divine nature means being adopted sons of God, being sons in the Only Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ, the only Son of God by nature, made himself the first-born of many brothers by His true incarnation: “primogenitus in multis fratribus” (Rm 1:29). By means of His redemptive sacrifice Christ offers man the grace of Divine life. The same Divine life in the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is present in the humanity of the Son of God: “in ipso inhabitat omnis plenitudo divinitatis corporaliter”, in Him all of divinity dwells bodily (Col 2:9). Christ incarnate is full of grace and truth (Jn 1:14). The Holy Spirit shares the grace of Divine sonship and all the other necessary graces of holiness from this font of Divine life by means of the Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ, in the liturgy of the sacraments. Thus we can better understand what the Second Vatican Council taught:

Liturgia est culmen ad quod actio Ecclesiae tendit et simul fons unde omnis eius virtus emanat. (Sacrosanctum Concilium 10)

The liturgy is the summit toward which the action of the Church tends, and, at the same time, the fountain from which all her energy flows. Apostolic work, in fact, is ordered so that all who have become sons of God by means of faith and baptism may join in assembly, praise God in the Church, and take part in the sacrifice and at the table of the Lord. (SC 10).

II. A pastoral vademecum of the Second Vatican Council

In the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, in the context of the discourse on the primacy of worship and adoration that is to be rendered to God, the Council presents a solid synthesis of a sound and theologically valid pastoral theology, a sort of pastoral vademecum with the following seven characteristics:

The Church announces the good tidings of salvation to those who do not believe, so that all men may know the true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, and may be converted from their ways, doing penance [Jn. 17:3; Lk. 24:17; Ac 2:38]. To believers also the Church must ever preach faith and penance, she must prepare them for the sacraments, teach them to observe all that Christ has commanded [Mt. 28:20], and invite them to all the works of charity, piety, and the apostolate. For all these works make it clear that Christ's faithful, though not of this world, are to be the light of the world and to glorify the Father before men. (SC, 9).

From this brief synthesis given to us by the Council we can establish the following seven essential notes of pastoral theory and practice.

1. The duty to proclaim the Gospel to all non-believers (SC, 9).

Such a proclamation must be explicit: that is, faith in Jesus Christ, to which one arrives by the grace of conversion and repentance. Therefore there is no room for a theory and a practice of so-called “anonymous Christianity”, there is no acceptance of alternative ways of salvation other than the way of Christ: Christ is the one Mediator between God and men. This is what the Council teaches in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, saying:

The Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation. Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation. (n. 14)

In paragraph n. 8 of the same Dogmatic Constitution, the Council says: “Unicus Mediator Christus” (see also ibid., n. 28). Human beings who are saved in eternity are saved by their acceptance of the merits of the one Mediator, Jesus Christ, in their earthly life (ibid., n. 49). The Second Vatican Council teaches, presenting the following quotation from the Council of Trent: “per Filium eius Iesum Christum, Dominum nostrum, qui solus noster Redemptor et Salvator est” (ibid., n. 50). In the Declaration on Religious Liberty the Council teaches that every man is redeemed by Christ the Savior and is called to Divine sonship, which can be received only by means of the grace of faith (Dignitatis humanae, n. 10).

Pope Paul VI, in his address at the opening of the second session of the Council in 1963, taught: “Jesus Christ is the only and the highest Teacher and Pastor, and the one Mediator between God and men.” (Sacrosanctum Oecumenicum Concilium Vaticanum II. Constitutiones, Decreta, Declarationes, Città del Vaticano 1966, p. 905). The same Pope repeated at the Council the following year: “Jesus Christ is the one Mediator and Redeemer” (ibid., p. 989). The teaching of the Council continues: “Now, since he who does not believe is already judged, the words of Christ are at one and the same time words of judgment and of grace, of death and of life.” (Ad gentes, n. 8). Missionary activity is a sacred duty of the Church, because it is the will of God Himself who insists upon the necessity of faith in Christ and of baptism for eternal life (ibid., n. 7).

2. The duty of proclaiming the faith to the faithful (SC, n. 9)

The primary task of the Church consists in taking care that the faith of the faithful grow and be protected from the danger of error: therefore this means to take care for the purity, the completeness, and the vitality of faith. Already in his address at the opening of the Second Vatican Council, Blessed Pope John XXIII declared unequivocally, in a yet more effective way, how the principal duty of the Council was to be the protection and the promotion of the doctrine of the faith: “ut sacrum christianae doctrinae depositum efficaciore ratione custodiatur atque proponatur” (loc. cit., p. 861). The Blessed Pontiff continues, maintaining how, in the exercise of this her duty in our time, the Church may never take her eyes away from the sacred patrimony of the truth, received by Tradition. The Council must transmit Catholic doctrine in its integrity, without diminishing it and without distorting it: “integram, non imminutam, non detortam tradere vult doctrinam catholicam.” Pope John very realistically observes how this may not be appreciated by everyone. It is therefore necessary, says the Pope, that the whole of Christian doctrine be received in our days by all, without omitting a single part: “oportet ut universa doctrina christiana, nulla parte inde detracta, his temporibus nostris ob omnibus accipiatur.” (ibid., 864)

In receiving and promoting the entire doctrine of the faith, we must follow a way that is accurate as to its form and concepts, following the example of the Council of Trent and the First Vatican Council, as as Pope John XIII reaffirms. In the Declaration on Religious Liberty the Council admonishes the faithful to “let them be about their task of spreading the light of life with all confidence and apostolic courage, even to the shedding of their blood.” (DH, n. 14) Furthermore they have “a grave obligation... ever more fully to understand the truth received from Him, faithfully to proclaim it, and vigorously to defend it.” (ibid.) In the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, the Council exhorts: “Love and good will, to be sure, must in no way render us indifferent to truth and goodness. Indeed love itself impels the disciples of Christ to speak the saving truth to all men.” (n. 28). Pope Paul VI, in the address at the opening of the second session of the Second Vatican Council affirmed: “The foundation for renewal of the Church must be a more exacting study and a richer promotion of Divine truth.” (loc. cit., p. 913)

In the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity the Council expresses itself in these terms: “In our own times, new problems are arising and very serious errors are circulating which tend to undermine the foundations of religion, the moral order, and human society itself.” (Apostolicam actuositatem, n. 6). In the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, the Council observed how grave moral errors were being spread, already then, and exhorted all Christians to defend and promote the natural dignity and the high, sacred value of the matrimonial state (n. 47). The Council, in the same document, reproves immoral customs in relation to marriage and to the virtue of chastity, saying that “polygamy, the plague of divorce, so-called free love and other disfigurements have an obscuring effect” on the dignity of marriage and the family. “In addition, married love is too often profaned by excessive self-love, the worship of pleasure and illicit practices against human generation. Moreover, serious disturbances are caused in families by modern economic conditions, by influences at once social and psychological, and by the demands of civil society.” (ibid.) The Council gives an unequivocal teaching on marital chastity: “Relying on these principles, sons of the Church may not undertake methods of birth control which are found blameworthy by the teaching authority of the Church in its unfolding of the divine law. (Pius XI, Casti Connubii). All should be persuaded that human life and the task of transmitting it are not realities bound up with this world alone. Hence they cannot be measured or perceived only in terms of it, but always have a bearing on the eternal destiny of men.” (ibid., n. 51).

In the Decree on Missionary Activity, the Council exhorts that every form of indifferentism, syncretism, confusion be excluded (AG, 15). In the Constitution Gaudium et Spes, the Council rejects a purely worldly and anti-religious humanism (n. 56). The same conciliar document speaks of atheistic humanism which not only threatens the faith, but even exercises a negative and globalizing influence on all the spheres of social life:

Growing numbers of people are abandoning religion in practice. Unlike former days, the denial of God or of religion, or the abandonment of them, are no longer unusual and individual occurrences. For today it is not rare for such things to be presented as requirements of scientific progress or of a certain new humanism. In numerous places these views are voiced not only in the teachings of philosophers, but on every side they influence literature, the arts, the interpretation of the humanities and of history and civil laws themselves. As a consequence, many people are shaken. (ibid., 7).

Pope Paul VI, in his homily at the last public session of the Second Vatican Council, affirms that the Council is proposing to the people of our time a theocentric and theological doctrine about human nature and the world (loc. cit., pp. 1064-1065). In the homily given at the seventh public session of the Second Vatican Council, October 28, 1965, Pope Paul VI explains that despite the general pastoral nature of the council, it intends to propose the perennial and authentic doctrine of the Church, excluding doctrinal relativism; the Council is fulfilling a work

that does not historicize, does not relativize, according to the metamorphoses of secular culture, the nature of the Church, always the same and faithful to herself as Christ willed her and as authentic tradition perfected her, but makes her better suited to carry out her mission of doing good in the renewed conditions of human society. (loc. cit., pp. 1039-1040).

In his speech given the same year, 1965, on the occasion of the eighth public session of the Council, Pope Paul VI criticized the behavior of those who incorrectly and abusively misinterpret the intention of Blessed Pope John XXIII on the Church's pastoral adaptation to the new needs of our time (“aggiornamento”). Furthermore, the Pope expounds the spirit of the Council in this regard and puts everyone on guard against doctrinal and juridical relativism, stating that Pope John XXIII

certainly did not want to attribute to this programmatic word the meaning that some are trying to give it, as if it were to agree to ‘relativize’ everything in the Church according to the spirit of the world today: dogmas, laws, structures, traditions, whereas the sense of the Church's doctrinal and structural stability was so alive and firm in him as to make it the cornerstone of his thought and of his work. Aggiornamento will mean from now forward, for us, wise penetration of the spirit of the Council celebrated and faithful application of its norms issued in happy and holy wise. (loc. cit., pp. 1053-1054).

In the original Latin text, Paul VI does not use the word “aggiornamento” but the word “accommodatio”. The famous expression “aggiornamento” of Blessed John XXIII has become legendary by now. In his original intention, this expression has nothing to do with a doctrinal, legal, or liturgical relativism.

The new pastoral and benevolent attitude of patient understanding and of dialogue with society outside the Church does not involve doctrinal relativism. Pope Paul VI defends the Council from such a possible accusation in the aforementioned homily during the seventh public session: “This attitude ... was strongly and continuously operating in the Council, to the point of suggesting the suspicion to some that a tolerant and overpowering relativism toward the outside world, to fleeting history, to cultural fashion, to temporary needs, to the thoughts of others, had dominated persons and acts of the ecumenical synod, at the expense of the fidelity owed to tradition and to the detriment of the religious orientation of the council. We do not believe that this misfortune should be imputed to it, in its real and deep intentions, and in its authentic manifestations” (loc. cit., p. 1067). Here, Paul VI is defending only the real and deep intentions and authentic manifestations of the Council, not entering into the merits of persons.
The Council expressly rejects any kind of religious syncretism in missionary activity and requires that the particular traditions of peoples be enlightened by the light of the Gospel, always leaving intact the primacy of the Chair of Peter (AG, 22).
3. The duty of preaching repentance to the faithful (SC, n. 9)

One cannot speak of a true pastoral doctrine and practice without the essential element of repentance in the life of the Church and of the faithful. Every true renewal of the Church in history took place with the spirit and the practice of Christian penitence. The Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium n. 8 states that the Church must continually advance on the road of penitence and of renewal. Then it says that the faithful have to conquer in themselves the reign of sin by self-denial with a holy life (ibid., n. 36). In missionary activity the children of the Church must not be ashamed of the scandal of the Cross (AG, n. 24).

We can understand the true spirit of this conciliar teaching about the necessity of penance better if we consider the fact that, on July 1, 1962, the Feast of the Most Precious Blood, in view of the imminent opening of the Council, Blessed Pope John XXIII dedicated an entire encyclical to the necessity of penitence under the title “Paenitentiam agere”. It deals with a pressing invitation to the Catholic world and an exhortation to a more intense prayer, and a penitence beseeching Grace upon the coming Council. The Pope indicated the thought and the practice of the Church, as in the example of preceding councils, recalling the need for interior and exterior penitence as a cooperation with the Divine redemption. Concretely Pope John XXIII recommended in each diocese a penitential intercessory event, explaining how

with the works of mercy and of penance all the faithful seek to beseech God almighty and implore of him that true renewal of the Christian spirit which is one of the principal aims of the council. (n. II, 2)

The Pope continues:

In fact, Our predecessor Pius XI of venerable memory rightly observed: «Prayer and penance are the two means set at the disposition of God in our era to redirect to Him poor humanity which is wandering without a guide; it is they that take away and repair the first cause and principle of our confusion, which is the rebellion of man against God.» (Encyclical Caritate Christi compulsi)” (ibid.)

John XXIII directed the following ardent exhortation to the bishops: “Venerable brothers, make every effort without delay by every means that is in your power, so that the Christians entrusted to your care may purify their spirit with penance and arouse themselves to greater fervor of piety.” (n. II, 3)

The spirit of penitence and expiation must always animate every true renewal of the Church, as Pope John XXIII hoped would be produced by the Second Vatican Council. This attitude protects the Church from the spirit of worldly activism. As the Pope taught in the end of his encyclical:

What a wonderful, what a heartening spectacle of religious fervor it will be to see the countless armies of Christians throughout the world devoting themselves to assiduous prayer and voluntary self-denial in response to Our appeals! This is the sort of religious fervor with which the Church's sons and daughters should be imbued. May their example be an inspiration to those who are so immersed in the affairs of this world as to be neglectful of their duties towards God. (ibid.)

In the following words we can grasp that true spirit that animated the Pope of the Council and certainly the pars maior et sanior of the Conciliar Fathers:

They must repudiate it [worldly hedonism] with all the energy and courage displayed by the martyrs and those heroic men and women who have been the glory of the Church in every age of her history. If everyone does this, each in his own station in life, he will be enabled to play his individual part in making this Second Ecumenical Vatican Council, which is especially concerned with the refurbishing of Christian morality, an outstanding success. (ibid., n. II, 2).

4. The duty to prepare the faithful for the sacraments (SC, n. 9) The Council, in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, teaches that the sacraments are the principal means by which all the faithful of every state and condition are called by the Lord to the perfection of holiness (n. 11). The principal end of the sacraments consists, according to Sacrosanctum Concilium n. 59, in the sanctification of men, the edification of the Mystical Body of Christ, and in the worship due to be rendered to God. Rarely in the history of the Church has the supreme Magisterium so insisted on the importance and the centrality of the sacred liturgy, and particularly of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, as the Second Vatican Council in fact has done. The fact that the first document of the Council to be debated and approved was dedicated to the liturgy, that is, to Divine worship, is meaningful and manifests this clear message of the primacy of God: God and the worship of adoration which the Church renders to Him must occupy the first place in all the life and activity of the Church. Sacrosanctum Concilium teaches us: “Sacra Liturgia est precipue cultus divinae maiestatis” (n. 33), and by this the worship of the Divine majesty must be the summit of all the activity of the Church: “Liturgia est culmen ad quod actio Ecclesiae tendit et simul fons unde omnis eius virus emanat” (n. 10).

The sacred liturgy is primarily and necessarily the true font of the Christian spirit, says the Decree on the Formation of Priests (Optatam totius, n. 16). The purpose of all the sacraments is found, in turn, in the eucharistic mystery, maintains the Decree on the Life and Ministry of Priests, quoting St. Thomas Aquinas: “Eucharistia est omnium sacramentorum finis” (Summa Theologica, III, q. 73 a.3 c) and adds: “In Sanctissima enim Eucharistia totum bonum spirituale Ecclesiae continetur” (St. Thomas, Summa Theologica, III, q. 65, a. 3, ad 1), (Presbyterorum Ordinis, n. 5). The same document says again that the Eucharist is the source and summit of all evangelization, and with all the more reason, the Eucharist is the source and summit of all the pastoral life of the Church. In Sacrosanctum Concilium we find this synthesis: “Particularly from the Eucharist, Grace is derived in us, as from a spring, and the sanctification of men and the glorification of God in Christ toward which all the other activities of the Church converge as toward their end, are obtained from it with the greatest efficacy.” (n. 10).

5. The duty to teach the faithful all the commandments of God (SC, n. 9)

Another element of pastoral activity is this: “To believers also the Church must ... teach them to observe all that Christ has commanded” (SC, n. 9). The Pastors of the Church therefore have the duty to teach the Divine laws and commandments in all their integrity. In the Declaration on Religious Liberty the Council states: “the highest norm of human life is the divine law – eternal, objective and universal – whereby God orders, directs and governs the entire universe and all the ways of the human community” (DH, n. 3). The Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes maintains: “Man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged.” (n. 16) The same pastoral document states: “Spouses should be aware that they cannot proceed arbitrarily, but must always be governed according to a conscience dutifully conformed to the divine law itself, and should be submissive toward the Church's teaching office, which authentically interprets that law in the light of the Gospel.” (Gaudium et Spes, n. 50)

The Council continues, saying: “This split between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age.” (ibid., n. 43) Such an error has become even more manifest in recent years in which one observes the phenomenon of people who, while professing to be Catholics, at the same time support laws contrary to the natural law and to the Divine law, and openly contradict the Magisterium of the Church. These words of the Council echo now: “Let there be no false opposition between professional and social activities on the one part, and religious life on the other.” (GS, n. 43) Moral, domestic, professional, scientific, social life must be guided by the faith and so ordered to the glory of God. (ibid.) Let us observe again, in these teachings of the Council, the importance of the primacy of the will of God and of His glory in the life of every one of the faithful and in all the Church. The Council affirms this not only in a document on the liturgy, but in the pastoral document par excellence: the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes.

6. The duty of promoting the apostolate of the lay faithful (SC, n. 9).

Another essential point of pastoral life is this: “To believers also the Church must ever … invite them to all the works of charity, piety, and the apostolate.” (SC, n. 9) In this point lies the great historic contribution of the Second Vatican Council to elevating the dignity and the specific role of the lay faithful in the life and activity of the Church. One can say that this is an organic development and a crowning of the Magisterium of Pope Paul VI regarding the question of the lay faithful. The Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium gives us a formidable synthesis on the question of the lay faithful in the Church and in the world, with a solid theological foundation and a clear pastoral direction, saying:

Moreover, let the laity also by their combined efforts remedy the customs and conditions of the world, if they are an inducement to sin, so that they all may be conformed to the norms of justice and may favor the practice of virtue rather than hinder it. By so doing they will imbue culture and human activity with genuine moral values; they will better prepare the field of the world for the seed of the Word of God; and at the same time they will open wider the doors of the Church by which the message of peace may enter the world. Because of the very economy of salvation the faithful should learn how to distinguish carefully between those rights and duties which are theirs as members of the Church, and those which they have as members of human society. Let them strive to reconcile the two, remembering that in every temporal affair they must be guided by a Christian conscience, since even in secular business there is no human activity which can be withdrawn from God's dominion. In our own time, however, it is most urgent that this distinction and also this harmony should shine forth more clearly than ever in the lives of the faithful, so that the mission of the Church may correspond more fully to the special conditions of the world today. For it must be admitted that the temporal sphere is governed by its own principles, since it is rightly concerned with the interests of this world. But that ominous doctrine which attempts to build a society with no regard whatever for religion, and which attacks and destroys the religious liberty of its citizens, is rightly to be rejected. (n. 36)

Here the Council condemns secularism without using the word, citing Leo XIII (Encyclical Immortale Dei, Nov. 1, 1885: ASS 18 (1885), pp. 166ff. Idem, Encyclical Sapientiae Christianae, Jan. 10, 1890: ASS 22 (1889-90), pp. 387ff. Pius XII, Discourse Alla vostra filiale, March 23, 1958: AAS 50 (1958), p. 220), who said that “the legitimate healthy laicity of the State is one of the principles of Catholic doctrine.” (ibid.) The Pope continued, saying: “the life of individuals, the life of families, the life of greater and smaller collectivities, will be nourished by the doctrine of Jesus Christ, which is the love of God and, in God, the love of neighbor.” This doctrine finds in its essential elements a clear echo both in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church and in the Pastoral Constitution of the Second Vatican Council.

On the proper vocation of the laity, the Council says: “It is proper to the laity to seek the kingdom of God, dealing with temporal things and ordering them according to God.” (Lumen Gentium, n. 31) In the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, the Council speaks of the idolatry of temporal things because of an excessive confidence in the progress of the natural sciences and of technology. (AA, n. 7) The Council continues, affirming that matrimonial and familial life is the place where the Christian religion permeates all the organization of life and transforms it more every day. At the same time, the Christian family proclaims in a clear voice the present power of the kingdom of God and the hope of eternal life. In this way, with its example and with its witness, it accuses the world of sin and illuminates those who seek the truth (ibid.) We can observe here how current is this expression of the Council: the Christian and Catholic family is a living accusation to the world, accusing the world of sin.

The particular form of the apostolate of the laity consists in the witness of the life of faith, hope, and charity: it excludes, therefore, an apostolate of activism and of worldly interests. We can locate within the Decree on the Laity a brief vademecum of the lay apostolate, where the Council teaches that the internal form of the lay apostle must be conformation to the suffering Christ, and that the purpose of his apostolate is the eternal salvation of the people of the world. The Council says: “They should all remember that they can reach all men and contribute to the salvation of the whole world by public worship and prayer as well as by penance and voluntary acceptance of the labors and hardships of life whereby they become like the suffering Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 4:10; Col. 1:24).” (AA, n. 16). Often the lay apostle puts even his life in danger due to his fidelity, says the Council. (ibid., n. 17)

7. The duty of promoting the vocation of all to holiness (SC, n. 9)

The final essential note of pastoral activity in the Church consists of promoting the vocation of all to holiness, saying that the followers of Christ, being not of this world, must be yet the light of the world. (SC, n. 9) More specifically, the Council deals with this theme in the fifth chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, nn. 39-42: “De universali vocatione ad sanctitatem in Ecclesia”. In this one can see the truly historic and most specific contribution of the Second Vatican Council. Holiness consists fundamentally in the imitation of Christ, of Christ poor and humble, of Christ who carries the Cross, says the Constitution Lumen Gentium, n. 41. The imitation of Christ reaches its peak in martyrdom, in the courageous witness of Christ before men. (ibid., n. 42). The Council says: “All must be ready to confess Christ before men and follow Him on the way of the Cross during persecutions, which are never lacking to the Church.” (ibid.)

III. The authentic intention and purpose of the Second Vatican Council

For a correct reading of the texts of the Second Vatican Council, it is necessary to take account also of the specific characteristics of the time in which it developed. In the homily of Pope Paul VI during the last general congregation of the Second Vatican Council on Dec. 7, 1965, the Pontiff gives the following description of the historical period in which the Second Vatican Council was celebrated:

it is necessary to remember the time in which it was realized: a time which everyone admits is orientated toward the conquest of the kingdom of earth rather than of that of heaven; a time in which forgetfulness of God has become habitual, and seems, quite wrongly, to be prompted by the progress of science; a time in which the fundamental act of the human person, more conscious now of himself and of his liberty, tends to pronounce in favor of his own absolute autonomy, in emancipation from every transcendent law; a time in which secularism seems the legitimate consequence of modern thought and the highest wisdom in the temporal ordering of society; a time, moreover, in which the soul of man has plumbed the depths of irrationality and desolation; a time, finally, which is characterized by upheavals and a hitherto unknown decline even in the great world religions. It was at such a time as this that our council was held to the honor of God. (loc. cit., pp. 1063-1064).

According to an expression of Blessed Pope John XXIII in the speech given at the final general congregation of the first session of the Council, December 7, 1962, the one purpose of the Council and the one hope and confidence of the Pope and the Council Fathers consists in this: “To make ever more known to the men of our time the Gospel of Christ, that it be practiced willingly and that it penetrate deeply into every aspect of society.” (loc. cit., pp. 881-882). Can there be a more authentic and more Catholic pastoral principle and method than this?

In the address for the closing of the first session of the Second Vatican Council, Dec., 8, 1962, Pope John XXIII presented the true purpose of the Council and its desired spiritual fruits in this way: “So that the Holy Church, firm in faith, strengthened in hope, and more ardent in love, may flourish with a new and youthful vigor, and, fortified by most holy laws, be more effective and more resolute in fulfilling the Kingdom of Christ.” (Handwritten letter to the bishops of Germany, January 11, 1962)...Now the Kingdom of Christ on earth will be enlarged with new growth. Now the good tidings of the redemption of man will resound louder and sweeter in the world; thereby the supreme rights of almighty God, the bonds of fraternal charity among men, the peace that was promised on this earth to men of good will shall be confirmed.” (loc. cit., p. 891). According to the intention and desire of the holy pontiff John XXIII the Second Vatican Council was to contribute strongly to the following end: “that in the whole human family the fruits of faith, hope, and charity may grow most abundantly.” According of the words of John XXIII, in this consists the singular importance and dignity of the Council (ibid.)

IV. The challenge of contrasting interpretations

For a correct interpretation it is necessary to take account of the intention manifested in the conciliar documents themselves and in the specific words of the conciliar Popes John XXIII and Paul VI. Finally, it is necessary to discover the thread leading through all the work of the Council, which is the salus animarum, that is, the pastoral intention. This, in turn, depends on and is subordinate to the promotion of Divine worship and the glory of God, that is, it depends on the primacy of God. This primacy of God in the life and all the activity of the Church is shown unequivocally in the fact that the Constitution on the Liturgy intentionally and chronologically occupies the first place in the vast work of the Council. The seven essential notes for pastoral theory and practice are found exactly in the Constitution that deals with the worship of God and the sanctification of men, in n. 9 of Sacrosanctum Concilium, and they are: 1. The urgency to preach Christ to non-believers so that they may be converted; 2. The greatest care about preaching the doctrine of the faith; 3. The essential role of penitence in the life of the Church; 4. The sacraments as principal means of salvation and sanctification, where the Eucharist occupies the central and culminating place; 5. The integrity of moral doctrine; 6. The apostolate of the lay faithful in the Church and in human society; 7. The universal vocation to holiness.

The characteristic of rupture in the interpretation of the conciliar texts is shown in the most stereotypical and widespread way in the thesis of an anthropocentric, secularizing, or naturalistic shift by the Second Vatican Council in regard to the preceding ecclesial tradition. One of the most well-known manifestations of such a confused interpretation was, e.g., the so-called Theology of Liberation and the subsequent devastating pastoral practice. The contrast between that theology of liberation and its practice, and the Council, appears evident in the following conciliar teaching: “the proper mission that Christ has entrusted to His Church is not of the political, economic, or social order: in fact, the end that he has set is in the order of religion.” (GS, 42). The same document then says that the nature and the mission of the Church are not tied to any particular political, economic, or social system. (ibid.) The Constitution Gaudium et Spes quotes the following words of Pius XII:

Its divine Founder, Jesus Christ, has not given it any mandate or fixed any end of the cultural order. The goal which Christ assigns to it is strictly religious. . . The Church must lead men to God, in order that they may be given over to him without reserve.... The Church can never lose sight of the strictly religious, supernatural goal. The meaning of all its activities, down to the last canon of its Code, can only cooperate directly or indirectly in this goal. (Pius XII, Address to the International Union of Institutes of Archeology, History and History of Art, March 9, 1956: AAS 48 (1965), p. 212)

An interpretation of rupture of doctrinally lesser weight is shown in the pastoral-liturgical field. One can cite under this topic the loss of the sacred and sublime character of the liturgy and the introduction of more anthropocentric gestural elements. This phenomenon makes itself evident in three liturgical practices well known and widespread in nearly all the parishes of the Catholic world: the nearly total disappearance of the use of the Latin language, the reception of the Eucharistic Body of Christ directly on the hand and standing, and the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice in the modality of a closed circle in which priest and people continually look each other in the face. This manner of praying, that is: not all facing in the same direction, which is a more natural bodily and symbolic expression with respect to the truth of everyone being spiritually turned toward God in public worship, contradicts the practice that Jesus Himself and His Apostles observed in public prayer at the temple or in the synagogue. Moreover, it contradicts the unanimous testimony of the Fathers and all the prior tradition of the Eastern and Western Church. These three pastoral and liturgical practices, in noisy rupture with the laws of prayer maintained by generations of faithful Catholics for nearly a millennium, find no support in the conciliar texts, but rather contradict either a specific text of the Council (on the Latin language, see Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 36, § 1; 54), or the “mens”, the true intention of the conciliar Fathers, as can be verified in the Acts of the Council.
In the hermeneutical uproar of contrasting interpretations and in the confusion of pastoral and liturgical applications, the Council itself united with the Pope appears as the one authentic interpreter of the conciliar texts. One could make an analogy with the confused hermeneutical climate of the first centuries of the Church, provoked by arbitrary biblical and doctrinal interpretations on the part of heterodox groups. In his famous work De praescriptione haereticorum Tertullian was able to set against the heretics of various orientations the fact that only the Church is the legitimate owner of the faith, of the word of God, and of tradition. With that in the disputes on true interpretation, the Church can drive the heretics “a limine fori”. Only the Church can say, according to Tertullian: “Ego sum heres Apostolorum” (Praescr., 37, 3). Speaking analogically, only the supreme Magisterium of the Pope or of a future Ecumenical Council will be able to say: “Ego sum heres Concilii Vaticani II”.

In the decades past there have existed, and exist to this day, groupings within the Church that commit an enormous abuse of the pastoral character of the Council and of its texts, written according to that pastoral intention, since the Council did not wish to present its own definitive or irreformable teachings. From the pastoral nature of the Council’s texts it is evident that its texts are, on principle, open to further completion and to greater doctrinal clarification. Taking account of the experience of several decades since then, of interpretations doctrinally and pastorally confused, and contrary to the continuity, over two millennia, of doctrine and prayer of the faith, the necessity and the urgency rise for a specific and authoritative intervention by the pontifical Magisterium for an authentic interpretation of the conciliar texts with completions and doctrinal clarifications: a type of “Syllabus errorum circa interpretationem Concilii Vaticani II”. There is need for a new Syllabus, this time directed not so much against errors coming from outside the Church, but against errors spread within the Church on the part of those who maintain a thesis of discontinuity and rupture with its doctrinal, liturgical, and pastoral application. Such a Syllabus would consist of two parts: a part marking errors and a positive part with propositions of doctrinal clarification, completion, and precision.

Two groupings that maintain the theory of rupture are evident. One such grouping tries to protestantize the life of the Church doctrinally, liturgically, and pastorally. On the other side are some traditionalist groups that, in the name of tradition, reject the Council, and avoid submission to the supreme living Magisterium of the Church, the visible Head of the Church, submitting for now only to the invisible Head of the Church, waiting for better times.

During the Council, Pope Paul VI explained the meaning of true renewal of the Church in this way:

“We think that the new psychology of the Church should develop along this line: clergy and faithful will find a wonderful spiritual work, to be discovered through the renewal of life and activity according to Christ the Lord; and We invite Our Brothers and Our Sons to this work: let those who love Christ and the Church be with us in professing more clearly the meaning of the truth, proper to the doctrinal tradition that Christ and the Apostles inaugurated; and with that the meaning of the discipline of the church and of the profound and cordial union, which makes us all confident and united, as members of one body.” (Paul VI, Address at the eighth public session of the Second Vatican Council, Nov. 18, 1965, loc. cit., p. 1054)

Pope Paul VI, explaining the mens of the Council, affirmed in his speech during the eighth public session: “So that all may be strengthened in this spiritual renewal, we propose to the Church to recall fully the words and example of Our last two Predecessors, Pius XII and John XXIII, to whom the Church herself and all the world are indebted; and to that end, we direct that the processes of beatification of those Supreme Pontiffs, most excellent and devout and dear to us, be begun canonically. In this way, the desire expressed by both the one and the other will be seconded, in a sense, by countless voices; in this way the patrimony of their spiritual heritage will be secured for history; and it will prevent that any motive other than the veneration of true sanctity – that is, the glory of God and the edification of His Church – would recompose their authentic and dear image for our veneration and for that of future ages.” (Paul VI, Address at the eighth public session of the Second Vatican Council, Nov. 18, 1965, loc. cit., p. 1054)

In substance, there were two impediments against the true intention of the Council and its Magisterium bearing abundant and lasting fruits. One was found outside the Church, in the violent process of cultural and social revolution in the 1960s, which, like every powerful social phenomenon, penetrated within the Church, contaminating vast ranges of people and institutions with its spirit of rupture. The other impediment showed itself in the lack of wise and intrepid Pastors of the Church who would be ready to defend the purity and integrity of the faith and of the liturgical and pastoral life, not letting themselves be influenced either by praise or by fear (“nec laudibus, nec timore”).

The Council of Trent stated in one of its last decrees on the general reform of the Church: “The holy synod, shaken by such grave evils that burden the Church, cannot fail to recall that the most necessary thing for the Church of God is... to choose the best and most suited pastors; with all the more reason, inasmuch as our Lord Jesus Christ will call negligent pastors, unmindful of their duty, to account for the blood of those sheep who might perish because of bad governance.” (Sessio XXIV, Decretum de reformatione, can. 1) The Council continues: “Thus to all who for any reason have received from the Holy See any right to intervene in the promotion of future prelates, and to those who take part in other ways... the holy Council exhorts them and admonishes them to recall foremost that they can do nothing more useful to the glory of God and to the salvation of peoples, than to dedicate themselves to choose good and suitable pastors to govern the Church.” (ibid.)

Thus there truly is the need for a conciliar Syllabus with doctrinal value, and moreover there is need to increase the number of holy, courageous pastors, profoundly rooted in the tradition of the Church, free from any type of mentality of rupture whether in the field of doctrine or of liturgy. In fact, these two elements constitute the indispensable condition so that doctrinal, liturgical, and pastoral confusion may diminish notably and the pastoral work of the Second Vatican Council may bear many and lasting fruits in the spirit of tradition, which joins us with the spirit that reigns at all times, everywhere, and in all true children of the Catholic Church, which is the one and the true Church of God on the earth.

---

Rome, December 17, 2010

“The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council: a pastoral council. Historical-philosophical-theological analysis.

Conference of studies on the Second Vatican Council toward a right hermeneutic in the light of the Tradition of the Church, organized by the Theological Seminary “Immacolata Mediatrice” of the Franciscans of the Immaculate.

Istituto Maria SS. Bambina, via Paolo VI 21, Roma, December16-18, 2010.

Abbreviations:

AA: Apostolicam actuositatem AG: Ad gentes DH: Dignitatis humanae GS: Gaudium et spes SC: Sacrosanctum Concilium

English translation by Richard Chonak.

Acknowledgements:

The source text in Italian was provided courtesy of L’Espresso newspaper at:
http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1346289

Englsh translations of the conciliar decrees and constitutions were taken from vatican.va.

New Roman Missal for Canada-II

A response has been received to my letter to the General Secretary of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops regarding the implementation of the Missale Romanum 2002 in its corrected translation. The response indicates that there has been very recent "communication" and that there there is "nothing out of the ordinary" (I think there is a pun there somewhere) about the request for recognitio for Canada. The response indicates that the time taken by the Congregation is not "out of the ordinary" and that it has provoked "concern over the time factor" involved in preparation of the Missal and proper implementation.

Then why the delay? We have no reason to doubt the response from the secretariat at the CCCB that there is nothing out of the "ordinary" requested for Canada, then why is Rome delaying the approval for Canada?

Perhaps my concern or even cynicism is justified given the promotion being given to this Missal by Cardinal Pell in Australia and the USCCB on its web page and catechetical programs. In fact, it has just been announced that the new Roman Missal will be implemented in September 2011 in the United Kingdom. How can this important matter for the Catholic Church in Canada be so ignored?

Surely, the delay cannot be the Proper of Saints for Canada, for example, a feast day for Blessed Laval? How long could it possibly take to translate the Proper for Canadian Saints? On the other hand, if the CCCB has asked Rome to reassign January 6 so that it is not the Feast of St. Andre (as this is actually Epiphany!) that might be a good thing.

This delay certainly leads to questions of what exactly the Canadian bishops have asked for that could be so hard to grant a recognitio. While there is apparently "nothing out of the ordinary" what could be the hold up? One does not wish to be suspicious but, when one can read a document such as this where the CCCB rejects the GIRM until there is a new Missal in French. If this still applies then it is unacceptable:

http://www.cccb.ca/site/eng/media-room/archives/public-statements/2000/154-explanatory-note-by-the-episcopal-commission-for-liturgy-on-the-revised-general-instruction-of-the-roman-missal

The Roman Missal instituted by Pope Paul VI issued in 1970 was modified slightly by Pope John Paul II in 2000 and promulgated for use throughout the world in its Latin original. In 2002, the Holy Father issued the instruction, Liturgiam Authenticum, on how the new Missal was to be translated to the vernacular languages. Did you get that? Pope John Paul II issued a new Missal for Mass in 2000 and you still don't have it in your parish! It has taken a decade to translate properly in accord with Liturgiam Authenticum as opposed to the interpretation used in 1970 which was not a translation faithful to the Latin original and often, paraphrased. You may already know that the people's response will change from "and also with you" which is surely a redundant statement to, "and with your spirit" which is not only a direct translation of "et cum spiritu tuo" but also, scriptural. You may even know that you will be saying, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed" which is also scriptural. But did you know this?

The Fourth Sunday of Advent Opening Prayer which will gratefully be called the Collect (accent on the first syllable) is as follows:

COLLECT; MISSALE ROMANUM 1970/2002: Gratiam tuam, quaesumus, Domine, mentibus nostris ut que, Angelo Christi Filii tui incarnationem cognovimus, per passionem eius et ad resurrectionis gloriam perducamur; per eundum...

OPENING PRAYER; 1970 Missal: Lord, fill our hearts with your love, and as you revealed to us by an angel the coming of your Son as man, so lead us through his suffering and death to the glory of his resurrection, through...

COLLECT; 2000 Missal Correctly Translated: Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection; through...

Who knew that the "opening prayer" for the Fourth Sunday of Advent was actually the Angelus Prayer? I shall save the polemics that we, as Catholics, were robbed of this beautiful prayer or how anyone could possibly have thought in 1970 that these are from the same originating Latin and that the first example above used for 40 years was actually a translation. .

As for Catholics in Canada we are no less intelligent or desirous of this accurate translation than those in the U.S. or U.K. We have the right and expectation to this language of worship and correct translation of the Roman Missal and both the CCCB and the Congregation in Rome must move this forward without further delay.

The entire Missal is available here for all to read;

https://wikispooks.com/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=2010+missal

Blogs, EWTN, social media such as Facebook, http://www.vatican.va/ are all accessible and Catholics are becoming better educated and aware. Imagine the confusion that is going to take place as Catholics travel or watch Mass on EWTN or a Papal Mass in English and find that we in Canada are not in harmony with the universal Church. Has anyone considered the poor parish pastor and how he is going to explain why Canadians are so out of step? Frankly, the “printers” delay is not an excuse. If necessary, the corrected translation can be implemented through PDF’s until Missals are printed as I seem to recall a similar method being used once before up to 1974.

There are glaring examples of the Church in Canada being out of harmony with the Holy See and I recall two examples; the Winnipeg Statement and the NRSV implementation without approval; the Catholic in me wants to see something different in this regard, the cynic is not so sure he is going to.

Halton Trustees: One more chance to get it right!

UPDATE:

Cowards and really bad CINO's! (Catholics In Name Only)

The pro-family policy was supported by trustees Anthony Danko and Jane Michael, and it was opposed by Paul Marai, Arlene Iantomasi, Ed Viana, John Morrison, Diane Rabenda, and John Mark Rowe. Board chair Alice Anne LeMay abstained.

Trustees
Alice Anne LeMay (905) 632-6300 lemaya@hcdsb.org
Jane Michael (905) 319-6582 north@cogeco.net
Arlene Lantomasi (905) 529-6155 iantomasia@hcdsb.org
John Morrison (905) 639-4718 john@braintanksolutions.com
Mark Rowe (905) 877-9510 mrowe6@sympatico.ca
Ed Viana (905) 632-6300 vianae@hcdsb.org
Diane Rabenda (905) 632-6300 rabendad@hcdsb.org
Anthony Danko (905) 825-9159 dankoa@hcdsb.org

Most Rev. Gerard P. Bergie, Bishop of St. Catharines
Chair, Ontario Bishops Education Commission
Catholic Centre
P.O. Box 875
St. Catharines, ON L2R 6Z4
Tel: (905) 684-0154
Fax: (905) 684-2185
E-mail:bishop@stcatharinesdiocese.ca

Most Rev. Douglas Crosby, O.M.I., Bishop of Hamilton
700 King Street West
Hamilton, ON L8P 1C7
Tel: (905) 528-7988
Fax: (905) 528-1088
E-mail: wdunn@hamiltondiocese.com

Most Rev. Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto
President, Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario
1155 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON M4T 1W2
Tel: (416) 934-3400 #609
Fax: (416) 934-3452
E-mail: archbishop@archtoronto.org

Tonight, the Catholic School Trustees in Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Milton, etc) to the west of Toronto in the Diocese of Hamilton, have an opportunity to overturn last week's Committee decision to overturn the Board policy and recommend the creation of so-called "gay-straight alliances." The vote was 7-2 to recommend pushed by a 23 year old trustee* elected last October who hid his homosexual lifestyle and poltical agenda from the voters and the Board! It is the same nine trustees now on Board who will vote again.

They must resind this lunacy!

Dear Chairwoman LeMay and Trustees of the Halton Catholic District School Board;

The Bishops in Ontario have issued the following statement:

“The debate surrounding Gay/Straight Alliances (GSAs) in Catholic high schools is being complicated by the fact that people are not distinguishing between an objective and a strategy. GSAs are a strategy that some people propose to achieve an objective with which the Bishops of Ontario are in agreement: that all students in schools feel safe and respected. Our objective is that each student be treated with dignity, for each is a child of God. It is not right or fair to suggest that one particular strategy is the only way to achieve a given goal. We seek to achieve the goal of a safe and loving environment for all students in a way that is in harmony with our faith.”

As a 13 year-old in a Toronto Catholic High School, I was bullied and not only by students! (probably for the same motivation as that which causes this blog to be--guts!) Nothing was there to prevent this bullying and nothing was done to help me deal with it.

If the issue is “bullying” then that is what you are to deal with--for all of your students, those with confused sexual identity and those without. Any and every child deserves protection. As the bishops have rightly said, you are confused!

You must not succumb to the secular media and homosexualist pressure outside the Board or by the person sitting around the Boardroom table who has an agenda, though he clearly hid it well from the electorate.

Before anything else, you are Catholics and you must act as so and that requires that even though you all sit on the Committee that voted to recommend so-called “gay-straight alliances” you must now reject them.

If you do not do this, then you have lost your right to govern and you will be held accountable in this world, and the next.

Alice Anne LeMay, Chairwoman (905) 632-6300 lemaya@hcdsb.org

Jane Michael (905) 319-6582 north@cogeco.net

Arlene Lantomasi (905) 529-6155 iantomasia@hcdsb.org

John Morrison (905) 639-4718 john@braintanksolutions.com

Mark Rowe (905) 877-9510 mrowe6@sympatico.ca

Ed Viana (905) 632-6300 vianae@hcdsb.org

Diane Rabenda (905) 632-6300 rabendad@hcdsb.org

Anthony Danko (905) 825-9159 dankoa@hcdsb.org

Paul Marai* maraip@hcdsb.org

Jubilate Deo: in a "place of beauty"

Yesterday in the calendar for the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite it was the Second Sunday after Epiphany. In the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite it was the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (which does not mean ordinary as in "ordinary" but ordered or numbered time). Perhaps we could find a better way of describing it, after all, Sunday is anything but "ordinary."

The Offertory Antiphon or Proper for both Forms (yes, there is an Offertory Antiphon on the OF or Novus Ordo but the rubrics dictate that it is only sung so it does not appear in the Altar Missal or your paper missalette) is Jubilate Deo. It also comes up again in both Forms a few weeks after Easter or, of Easter, again depending on the EF or OF.

This is a great chant. It is my favourite in all the repertoire and a joy to sing.

I was afraid that after the loss of the FSSP last year and nowhere to hang my pitch pipe in the Extraordinary Form that I would go without singing it.

Alas, the good LORD who provides had other plans and at the same time as the little experiment north of Toronto came to an end after Christmas a new place for my work presented itself where Gregorian chant will have its "pride of place." It's a little longer drive than most people would do and two diocese's away from home 1:40 each way.

So if you asked me how far would I'd travel to sing this, now you know!

New Roman Missal for Canada-I

On this same day when we welcome to the Church, four former Anglican Bishops as Catholic Priests for the Our Lady of Walsingham Ordinariate, I note on The Chant Blog that Westminster Cathedral in London will be hosting a "Training Day" on the Revised Roman Missal with the corrected translation for the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

In the United States of America, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has long had this web page, "Welcoming the Third Typical Edition of the Roman Missal." They have been publishing materials and catechetical programs are being implemented.

On the web page of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the last update is from September 3, 2010. Msgr. Powers is quoted, "The CCCB has now received recognitio for the standard texts of the Roman Missal that will be used by all the other English-speaking countries, but has not yet received recognitio for any adaptations for Canada, nor for the proposed Proper Liturgical Calendar for the Dioceses of Canada." The standard text is the dialogue of the Ordinary of the Mass. Monsignor is referring here to the "Proper" for Canada. This would contain certain feasts relative to Canada that would not be in the Missal for England as example, Blessed Laval. But what "adaptations" could the Canadian bishops have possibly asked for and what is holding up the approval or rejection by the Congregation of Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments? As Monsignor states, "The Bishops of Canada cannot select a date for the implementation of the Missal in Canada until all the approved texts, including the adaptations, have been received and the necessary amount of time ascertained for the Canadian Missal to be printed and published. In addition, it is not CCCB practice to release liturgical translations in advance before the official liturgical books have been published."

There is also this little tidbit from a web page updated December 8, 2010 on The Revised Roman Missal "The National Liturgy Office of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) is currently working on the revised Roman Missal. It is expected to be implemented in Fall 2011." If this is the case, it does not inspire confidence that the corrected translation will be definitively implemented on Advent I 2011.

My Canadian Catholic readers. You need to wake up on this matter and start asking questions!

I have sent today to Msgr. Patrick Powers, P.H., General Secretary of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops the following letter:

Dear Monsignor,

Can you please confirm whether, along with Great Britain, Australia and the United States of America, Canadians will reap the fruit of the corrected translation of the Roman Missal on Advent 2011?

Sincerely in Christ,

Vox Cantoris
Toronto

You may also write to Monsignor Patrick Powers, P.H., here or to the Assistant General Secretary, Mr. Bede Hubbard, here. You may also write to the Apostolic Nuncio in Canada at 1-613-746-4914 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-613-746-4914 end_of_the_skype_highlighting as I am not certain that this email, nunciature@rogers.com still functions. Ottawa Archbishop, His Grace, Terence Prendergast, S.J. was Canada's representative on the Vox Clara Commission charged by the Holy See with overseeing the translation. The email for His Grace easily available from the website for the Archdiocese of Ottawa is archbishop@archottawa.ca.

Leave comments received back on this blog.

First Anglican Ordinariate Erected in England

From the Vatican Information Service:



VATICAN CITY, 15 JAN 2011 (VIS) - "In accordance with the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution 'Anglicanorum coetibus' of Pope Benedict XVI (4 November 2009) and after careful consultation with the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has today erected a Personal Ordinariate within the territory of England and Wales for those groups of Anglican clergy and faithful who have expressed their desire to enter into full visible communion with the Catholic Church", reads an English-language communique released today. "The Decree of Erection specifies that the Ordinariate will be known as the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and will be placed under the patronage of Blessed John Henry Newman.

"A Personal Ordinariate is a canonical structure that provides for corporate reunion in such a way that allows former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their distinctive Anglican patrimony. With this structure, the Apostolic Constitution 'Anglicanorum coetibus' seeks to balance on the one hand the concern to preserve the worthy Anglican liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions and, on the other hand, the concern that these groups and their clergy will be fully integrated into the Catholic Church.

"For doctrinal reasons the Church does not, in any circumstances, allow the ordination of married men as bishops. However, the Apostolic Constitution does provide, under certain conditions, for the ordination as Catholic priests of former Anglican married clergy. Today at Westminster Cathedral in London, Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, ordained to the Catholic priesthood three former Anglican bishops: Reverend Andrew Burnham, Reverend Keith Newton, and Reverend John Broadhurst.

"Also today Pope Benedict XVI has nominated Reverend Keith Newton as the first Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Together with Reverend Burnham and Reverend Broadhurst, Reverend Newton will oversee the catechetical preparation of the first groups of Anglicans in England and Wales who will be received into the Catholic Church together with their pastors at Easter, and will accompany the clergy preparing for ordination to the Catholic priesthood around Pentecost.

"The provision of this new structure is consistent with the commitment to ecumenical dialogue, which continues to be a priority for the Catholic Church. The initiative leading to the publication of the Apostolic Constitution and the erection of this Personal Ordinariate came from a number of different groups of Anglicans who have declared that they share the common Catholic faith as it is expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and accept the Petrine ministry as something Christ willed for the Church. For them, the time has now come to express this implicit unity in the visible form of full communion".


For more see:

Atonement Online

The Anglo-Catholic

Oh, but wait...

For those Anglicans wishing to avail themselves of Anglicanorum coetibus in Canada, Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto is the liaison for the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Archbishop Collins will be hosting a gathering for all those interested in an Ordinariate in Canada on March 24-26. Father. Christopher Phillips of Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church in San Antonio, Texas plans to attend as well as Traditional Anglican Communion Primate, Archbishop John Hepworth.

The meeting will be held at Queen of Apostles retreat centre in Mississauga. I attended once as a Grade 9 student whilst in Catholic high school in Toronto at the age of 13 after which I did not attend church for more than a decade.

Hopefully, these good Anglo-Catholics will not have the same experience but after looking at the Chapel, it's hard to believe that it's actually worse than in 1970!



Oh, and would you mind bringing a few Anglican traditions over to the Church in Toronto?

Sacred Music at the Service of Truth

This most important article, completely in accord with the Popes from St. Pius X to Benedict XII, the Magisterium and the Second Vatican Council, appeared just before Christmas. Let's take a look at it with my own emphasis and observation:

Faithful Should Experience Church's Universality at Local Level
By Father Paul Gunter, OSB

ROME, 24 DEC. 2010 (ZENIT) At the time that St. Augustine wrote "Qui cantat, bis orat" — he who sings prays twice, one could easily recognize how much the character itself of sacred music made it essentially different from a simple group singing or an elegant performance by an expert musician of the secular realm.

The conviction of the fact that prayer is doubled if sung instead of being recited was not based so much on the merits of human effort, but rather on the need to describe the numinous dimension within sacred music, its emotive and artistic aspects, inasmuch as it is an exchange between God, the Giver of every gift, and the response of love of the human being to the Lord's omnipotent love.

A greater love will seek a higher quality and not just more abundant quantity, and this happens when the perseverance of an individual or a group has made progress in the musical realm and has experienced the beauty of its spiritual consolations. "Sacrosanctum Concilium" affirms that "the sacred liturgy does not exhaust the entire activity of the Church" (No. 9) and adds very pointedly that "before men can come to the liturgy they must be called to faith and to conversion."

Moreover, No. 10 clarifies that "the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed." Hence the liturgy is precisely the source of the necessary strength for every apostolic work. Wherever the liturgy of the Church is left to chance, the lack of coherence in its fruits becomes evident. Liturgical musicians must be appreciated and supported in all possible ways, if they are to attain a technical level that will enable them to communicate, through sacred music, the relationship with the tremendous mystery that God is. It is this perception of God's holiness, specifically treated by sacred music, which forms a bridge that enables persons to discover their desire for God and the desire to conform their lives to his.

Sacred music is prayer ordered to raise hearts and minds to God. Beyond the challenges represented by personal or cultural preferences, the purpose of sacred music is always praise of God. The active participation of the assembly must be ordered to this end, so that the dignity of the liturgy is not compromised and the possibilities for an effective participation in divine worship are not darkened. Active participation does not exclude different levels of participation that, of themselves, indicate that "participation in the act" is not diminished by the fact that one might not be singing everything at every moment. Sacred music must be conformed to the liturgical texts and devotional music must be inspired in biblical or liturgical texts, taking care in every case not to hide the ecclesiological reality of the Church.

Pope John Paul II explained it to some bishops of the U.S. on the occasion of their "ad limina" visit in 1998: "But full participation does not mean that everyone does everything, since this would lead to a clericalizing of the laity and a laicizing of the priesthood; and this was not what the Council had in mind. The liturgy, like the Church, is intended to be hierarchical and polyphonic, respecting the different roles assigned by Christ and allowing all the different voices to blend in one great hymn of praise." Hence, in its expressions of religious faith, textual fidelity and measured dignity, sacred music must become a symbol of ecclesial communion.

The character of sacred music is not diminished when it is simple, to the degree that its simplicity is noble rather than banal. The widespread use, though prohibited, of secular recorded music and "pop" songs in funerals justifies the distancing of many faithful, who feel themselves foreign to the musical life of the Church. "Cult" songs, doctrinally insipid, often take the place of liturgical treasures with catechetical value, with the effect that the culture of ecclesial music in many parishes has been "led down a blind alley in which one can say always less about its quo vadis" — this is the way in which J. Ratzinger describes the separation of modern culture from its religious matrix (A New Song for the Lord. Faith in Christ and Liturgy Today, Crossroads, New York, 1996, p. 120).

"Sacrosanctum Concilium" has said that Gregorian chant should be given "pride of place" (No. 116) and that the pipe organ "adds a wonderful splendor to the Church's ceremonies and powerfully lifts up man's mind to God and to higher things" (No. 120). While the effects of post-modern anthropological interpretations are intolerant on encountering every tendency to remake the past, the timeless and universal truths are of benefit to persons of all times and all places.

Necessary is an effective liturgical catechesis at the center of the New Evangelization to foster the immersion of the faithful in the mysteries celebrated per ritus et preces — through the rites and prayers (cf. SC 48). The Motu Propri of 2007, "Summorum Pontificum," offered a determinant opportunity for the revival of Gregorian chant, in those places in which it was previously practiced, as well as its insertion in contexts in which it is not yet known. It would be sad, however, if, because of the desire to understand everything, the use of Gregorian chant in the parishes were to be limited to the celebration in the "extraordinary form," thus relegating the ancient language of this chant to the history of the Church and to a symbol of polarization. Among the pastoral opportunities, it's not too much to ask that persons might have the experience of the universality of the Church at the local level, being able to sing the parts that correspond to them in Latin (cf. SC 54). This was the intention of the Fathers of the Council. With due moderation and pastoral sensitivity, this practice would be united harmonically to the rich expressions of the Catholic faith in the vernacular.

Finally, the harmony and orthodoxy of sacred music for an effective preaching of the revealed deposit depends on the fidelity of Christian to the life of grace, in a much greater decision to live coherently, as the Rule of St. Benedict affirms so clearly: "Hence we consider how we should behave in the presence of God and of his angels and let us hold ourselves [...] in such a way that our minds are in agreement with our voices" (19,6-7).
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Benedictine Father Paul Gunter is a professor at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Rome and a consultor of the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.

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Man saves 80 babies from abortion; adopts 50!

Hat tip to the Creative Minority Report:

Epiphany

Today is Epiphany.

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In the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite (post Vatican II Novus Ordo) it still falls on January 6, even though most conferences of bishops have transferred it to Sunday. At least when Christmas is on a Tuesday, Epiphany is celebrated on its proper day in the Novus Ordo liturgy universally. In Rome and some other places, it is always on January 6.

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Part of this post and a few below give my opinion, shared by many, on the transfer of Epiphany and Ascension from their actual day as well as the loss of the Gesmima Sundays as you will read below and the Rogation and Ember days and Holy Days of Obligation. As you read, keep in mind this verse from Psalm 73: "They have set fire to thy sanctuary: they have defiled the dwelling place of thy name on the earth. They said in their heart, the whole kindred of them together: Let us abolish all the festival days of God from the land."

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Before most people could read and prior to the publication and availabilty of calendars, it was necessary to advise the faithful of the dates of the major feasts and seasons. Except for those fixed on a calendar day, many are fixed to the date of Easter and it was on Epiphany that these dates were announced. Many don't realise that this proclamation can still be done, in English and in the reformed liturgy.

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Here are some presents from Vox for Little Christmas. Below is the text of the proclamation in Latin as in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite--the Traditional Latin Mass. In the Novus Ordo in Latin and its vernacular translations, the reference to the pre-Lented Gesima Sundays (a loss!) are removed. The English translation is from the United States Catholic Conference (now USCCB). Don't let the length of the English text confuse you. Latin can say much more in fewer words because one word can mean a phrase in English. I've also included two videos; the trio from Felix Mendellsohn's great Oratorio, Christus. You can view and listen to it first in German and then in English; remember to turn the player to your left off.

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Noveritis, fratres carissimi, quod annuente Dei misericordia, sicut de Nativitate Domini nostri Jesu Christi gavisi sumus, ita et de Resurrectione ejusdem Salvatoris nostri gaudium vobis annuntiamus. Die vigesima Februarii erit Dominica in Septuagesima. Nona Martii dies Cinerum, et initium jejunii sacratissimae Quadragesimae. Vigesima quarta Aprilis sanctum Pascha Domini nostri Jesu Christi cum gaudio celebrabitis. Secunda Junii erit Ascensio Domini nostri Jesu Christi. Duodecima ejusdem Festum Pentecostes. Vigesima tertia ejusdem Festum sacratissimi Corporis Christi. Vigesima septima Novembris Dominica prima Adventus Domini nostri Jesu Christi, cui est honor et gloria, in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Here is a little less than a minute from last year in St. Peter's Basilica. It is in Latin. This is for the Novus Ordo liturgy (yes, it is normally celebrated in Latin) so the words above would be slightly edited to remove the Gesima Sundays. Note that the music is the same as the Exultet from the Easter Vigil. Here it is sung in English to the dates from 2009.
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Dear brothers and sisters, the glory of the Lord has shone upon us, and shall ever be manifest among us, until the day of his return. Through the rhythms of times and seasons let us celebrate the mysteries of salvation. Let us recall the year's culmination, the Easter Triduum of the Lord: his last supper, his crucifixion, his burial, and his rising celebrated between the evening of the twenty-first day of April and the evening of the twenty-third day of April, Easter Sunday being on the twenty-fourth day of April. Each Easter, as on each Sunday, the Holy Church makes present the great and saving deed by which Christ has for ever conquered sin and death. From Easter are reckoned all the days we keep holy. Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, will occur on the ninth day of March. The Ascension of the Lord will be commemorated on the second day of June. Pentecost, joyful conclusion of the season of Easter, will be celebrated on the twelfth day of June. And, this year the First Sunday of Advent will be on the twenty-seventh day of November. Likewise the pilgrim Church proclaims the passover of Christin the feasts of the holy Mother of God, in the feasts of the Apostles and Saints, and in the commemoration of the faithful departed. To Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come, Lord of time and history, be endless praise, for ever and ever. Amen.

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What kind of mother are you?

For some reason, I awoke this morning at about 3:2o AM and found it hard to get back to sleep. Clearly, something was on my mind from the night which I have been having some trouble with. It's been stewing for about three months now and involves my work in the liturgy. I expect that one way or another it is going to resolve itself quite soon. What I will say, at this point is that I am not about to prostitute myself or my principles or my professionalism. I will put it in His hands but suffice to say, there has been no consolation, from the start, rather it is desolation and does not appear to be getting any better.

Desolation.

That is what I heard a few minutes later.

Whist trying to get back to sleep, I turned on the radio and there was my Lebanese brother who needs to rediscover his Catholic roots, George Noory (Noury???). This is the old Art Bell show, Coast-to-Coast. How can we ever forget those famous talks between Art Bell and Malachi Martin?

The topic was the phenomenon of Near Death Experience and the guest was Dr. Sam Parnia of the Weill Cornell Medical Centre. Whether to believe in NDE's is up for debate. I suppose it is possible, after all, as Catholics we believe in the meta-physical, but it must be from God, not from the evil one.

Which brings me now to this.

A woman called and recollected the death of her son. I was only half-listening, trying to sleep and heard her say that a while before he died she told him about going back to church. I do not know whether she was a catholic or not. He had remarked to her in the negative about it and said something untoward about faith and God from what I recall.

She said as he was dying, he began to thrash and would screem, "get away" and was semi-conscious and agitated. He then looked sat bolt up and looked at her and screamed, "What kind of mother are you, why don't you help me, stop them, get them away, get a fire extinguisher, the bed is burning!"

At that point, I gasped remembering St. Faustina's vision of the man thrashing on his deathbed until she bilocated and prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

The mother then left the room to get a nurse. Her son was sedated and passed two hour later. Oh my.

No prayer.

No last rites.

No, casting out the demons coming after her son in the name of Jesus!

Perhaps in an effort to not cause this poor distraught mother any more discomfort, Dr. Parnia responded that he did not think it was a case of NDE.

I wonder.

May he rest in peace.

Please say a Hail Mary for that son of the mother who called Coast-to-Coast. The LORD and His Mother will know who it is.

Perhaps it is too late, prayer is never wasted and if it is too late, then another in purgatory will benefit; but, perhaps outside of time and space it is not too late.

May this soul and all the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen.

Languentibus in Purgatorio

(The Suffering Souls in Purgatory)

The suffering souls in Purgatory, Who are being purified in excessive heat, And are tormented by severe punishment, Assist them, in your compassion, O Mary!

You are the open-wide fount who wash away the faults of men. All you help, rejecting none: Extend your hand to the Dead, Who in pain languish continually, O Mary!

To you the souls of the Dead lovingly sigh,Desiring to be rescued from pain And to stand in your sight, To possess eternal joys, O Mary!

As they groan, hasten, Mother; In mercy, show them your heart. May Jesus through His wounds Be pleased to heal them: ask this, O Mary!

You are true hope to them that call upon you. The Holy Souls Sodality cry to you for their brethren. Appease your Son, that in Heaven He may give them their reward, O Mary!

Grant that the tears we shed at the feet of the Judge, And which you regard with kindness, May soon extinguish the avenging flames, That the Holy Souls may join the choirs of Angels, O Mary!

And when the strict accounting takes place In the terrible and awesome Judgment of God, As He judges us, supplicate your Son, That with the Saints may be our portion, O Mary!

Amen.

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Abbé Franck Quoëx, FSSP and the Holy Name of Jesus

On this, the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus (Traditional Calendar) comes this reprint from New Liturgical Movement.

"Our dear Abbé Quoëx died, dare I say, like a saint! After several months of illness and unrelenting agony that lasted over a month, great suffering, and always a great interior generosity, small delicate words and diverted complaints, apologizing for being a burden. (...) Always he drank prayer like the water with great savour, in which his whole body seemed to burn. He especially liked the prayer of Jesus. Often he would ask, on the morning after a night of suffering: "Help me up, I wish to say Mass ..." We had to explain that he could not rise, and that he would be offering a Mass by suffering with Christ, before being able to offer it soon in Heaven, in the beautiful heavenly liturgy of which we had spoken of so well one Holy Thursday... He passed away quietly this morning, the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, watched by a close friend who, after singing the hymn Jesu dulcis memoria and reciting Lauds in his hospital room, after having also read a poem by Cristina Campo (Non si può nascere, ma si può morire innocenti) approached supporting him and said: 'Today is the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. You'll celebrate it up there, the heavenly liturgy is more beautiful than you described. Go ahead, Father, go, the door of heaven is wide open.' He then took breath twice, and left..."



Read it all here.

Tribus Miraculis; So soon?

If there is one thing, or five, about the new calendar which drives this liturgist, musician and catholic bonkers, it is the transfer of Epiphany to Sunday. When I was a child, it was on January 6 and a Holy Day of Obligation. The reformers and Pope Paul VI allowed national conferences of bishops to choose Holy Days (can't have our people in Church too much now can we) so in Canada these were reduced to two. They had formerly included Epiphany, Ascension, Assumption, All Saints and Immaculate Conception along with Christmas and the Octave Day/Circumcision of the Lord/Mary, Mother of God on January 1. Oh, did you go to Mass yesterday? If not, then don't go to Holy Communion today without going to Confession.

The reality is, in many places, Rome specifically, today is not the Epiphany, it is the Second Sunday after Christmas and in the traditional calendar it is the Most Holy Name of Jesus which falls tomorrow in the new calendar, more tinkering. Ah, yesterday, Circumcision/Mary, Mother of God, the eighth day, he was named on, get it? The richness and depth of the old, the sanctoral calendar cannot be compared to the new temporal calendar.

So, in the Novus Ordo, Epiphany is still on January 6, technically speaking if not in practice. If there are two Solemnities that should be put back on their days it is Epiphany and Ascension on Thursday. Jesus went up 40 days after Paschal Sunday, not 43!

The sooner we get out of this liturgical banality and bastardisation foisted on us by a wrong understanding and interpretation of Vatican II, the better.

But what is Epiphany?

Yes, it is when we recall the visit of the Magi to the Infant King. The Magi represent you and me, the gentiles, the nations of the earth coming to adore and worship and fall prostrate before the King of the Universe and His most holy and blessed Mother. This was His first manifestation.

The ancient tradition of the Church is that about thirty years later, on the same calendar day, Jesus and His blessed Mother attended a wedding at Cana where his second manifestation took place and where He obeyed, not mocked His Mother as some protestants and evangelicals would have you believe; "do whatever he tells you" Mary said and it is obvious that Jesus obeyed her as the He changed the water to wine.

It was then a year later, on the same day, that He presented himself to John the Baptist at the Jordan and was manifested again.

Appropriately, in both Forms of the Roman Rite, the Gospel next Sunday is of course, the Baptism of Jesus and after the next Sunday is the Wedding Feast of Cana.

Here is Vox's favourite Epiphany motet. Tribus Miraculis by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, and pretty well sung, I might add. This is not an easy motet.

Tribus miraculis ornatum,
diem sanctum colimus:
Hodie stella magos duxit ad praesepium:
Vinum ex aqua factum est adnuptias:
Hodie a Joanne Christus baptizari voluit,
ut salvaret nos,
Alleluia.

We solemnly observe this day ornamented with three miracles:
today the star led the magi to the manger;
today wine was changed to water at the wedding;
today Christ desired to be baptized by John in the river Jordan so that He might save us,
Alleluia.

Here is Vox's favourite Epiphany hymn which should be sung today or January 6 if it is not transferred with you and then on the next two Sundays. The tune is Salzburg and is also used for At the Lamb's High Feast and Come, Ye Thankful People Come.

I really love this hymn. The Manifest hymn. Turn the player off on the left and have a listen. Just ignore the obvious modernist Episcopalian praxis.

Octave Day of Christmas-Feast of the Circumcision & Mary, Mother of God

On this the Octave Day (Eighth Day) of Christmas, may I take a moment to wish you a blessed New Secular Year of 2011; as you may know, the Church's "new year" began five weeks ago, on the First Sunday of Advent and we are still in the midst of Christmastide which continues in the traditional calendar until February 2, Purification or Candlemas and in the revised calendar to the Baptism of the LORD, the Sunday after Epiphany (or the Monday if January 6 falls on a Sunday). Yes, the Epiphany is really on January 6, friends under 50 but the Canadian bishops and most others in their less-than-infinite wisdom transferred it and Ascension, which actually occurs on a Thursday, to Sunday as well. Silly.

Yesterday, I posted on my Facebook a little note to my catholic family and friends, "To my Catholic family and friends; January 1 is the Octave Day of Christmas and is a Holy Day of Obligation, so you should be at Mass, just like you were (sic) on Sunday last and Christmas. If you like, come to St. John's in Weston at 5:00 on New Years Eve or St. Mary's in Nobleton on New Years morning at 9:45 wherst I shall be singing. See you there!" A little reminder to my many Catholic family and friends as to the priorities in life. I'm not sure it worked.

A long and dear friend, a former girlfriend actually, Jewish, wrote me on Facebook and asked, "What happened to the 'Circumcision; a very nice Catholic gentleman once told me about this some many years ago." Of course, I need to ask her, if I was the "very nice Catholic gentleman" of whom she wrote.

Well, whatever happened to the Circumcision? Yes, friends, Jesus was a Jew and as a little boy of a good Jewish family, his mother and foster-father, Joseph, had him circumcised.

I wrote her back and explained what I will follow with here though in a little more detail.

One thing that I wrote to her was that ironically, when the Church finds itself post-Vatican II in a more open spirit to non-Christian religions, particularly Judaism, which I applaud, She has actually, in her liturgy and calendar, de-emphasised Her Judaic roots. This is evident in the loss of the sacrificial ember days, and the loss of the Feast of the Circumcision of Our LORD, as well as the Purification of Mary, but more on that in a moment.

It is also evident in the elmination of many of the psalms said in the Traditional Latin Mass or Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite and in the posture of the priest, facing the Altar, not the people (of course you may not know, this is how the Novus Ordo was meant to be celebrated and what is in the rubrics. For example: "here the priest turns to the people and says, Pray my brothers and sisters...." Therefore, it presupposes that he is not facing the people). Thus you have the clear image of introibo altare Dei...going into the altar of God to present the Sacrfice. Another Jewish friend, now I suppose considered a Hebrew Catholic and about to be ordained to the Diacanate and next year the fullness of the Levitical Priesthood as a Catholic priest has said this to me, "The old Mass makes me feel more Jewish than the new, in it, I see the Temple Worship laid out before me."

Now, some may argue that the Offertory in the revised liturgy is actually Jewish being a from the Jewish Pesach or what in English is called Passover (because the Angel passed over) but which is really, ףש meaning, lamb. (gee, notice something here?) The actual name for Passover is Lamb and in Hebrew is pesch from which we derive the Latin Paschal. In most languages other than English and German-Oster or Easter, which means, from the East, not from a Babylonian goddess as some anti-Catholics would have you think) have a derivative such as Pacque in French or Pasqua in Italian, Pascuas in Spanish, Pasko in Tagalog, well you get the point. So, Easter is more appropriately called Paschal Sunday recalling the Lamb and His shed blood, resurrected.

Back to the Offertory. The actual Offertory prayer in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite or Novus Ordo is "Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation, through your goodness we have this bread to offer which earth has given and human hands have made, it will become for us the bread of life." The motzi prayer which means "brings forth" think here of motza, the flat unleavened cracker like bread (ah, a Holy Communion wafer???) or the manna from heaven (bread--gee connect this with Bethlehem---City of Bread and the Bread of Life) and you have, "Blessed are You, God, our Lord, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth." Now this fact is a big issue in the reformed liturgy for a lot of Traditionalists who see it as a real stumbling-block.

The Offertory in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite or Tridentine (Council of Trent liturgy) is "Accept, O Holy father, Almighty and Eternal God, this spotless host, which I, Your unworthy servant, offer to You, my living and true God, to atone for my numberless sins, offences, and negligence's; on behalf of all here present and likewise for all faithful Christians living and dead, that it may profit me and them as a means of salvation to life everlasting. Amen" and, "We offer unto Thee, O Lord, the chalice of salvation, entreating Thy mercy that our offering may ascend with a sweet fragrance in the sight of Thy divine Majesty, for our own salvation, and for that of the whole world. Amen." I would argue that this is actually more Judaic and Catholic because it more accurately describes the Holy Mass and richly presents to G-d the actual Sacrifice of which the Holy Mass is, the bloodless Sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb or Pesch--the blood atonement to the Father for the sins of Adam and Eve and all of us.

But back to the original question.

Whatever happened to the Circumcision?

In the Extraordinary Form calendar, today, January 1, is the Feast of the Circumcision of the LORD. "And after eight days were accomplished, that the child should be circumcised, his name was called JESUS, which was called by the angel, before he was conceived in the womb." Luke 2:21. While the reading of the Gospel is the same in the Ordinary Form, the Solemnity today is Mary, Mother of God.

Now what are we to think of this?

One might argue that we can never have too many feasts in honour of our Blessed Mother and this name emphasises Mary as Theotokos or God-bearer, as the Council of Ephesus declared in 431. True; and I would not want to suggest anything that downplays Our Lady. But the Catholic Church and certainly not the Traditional calendar or Mass ever downplayed Our Lady, it does make me wonder; have we lost something of the Catholic roots of Judaism by downplaying the Jewishness of Jesus? This title by the way, Thetokos, God-bearer or literally, Mother of God, was not to promote Mary but to affirm against heretics that Mary did not give birth to just the human part of Jesus but also to His divine nature, because his human and divine nature could not be separated.

On February 2, it is the Presentation of the LORD in the Temple according to the Jewish custom of offering the first-born on to God and taking a sacrifice of a lamb or in the case of a poor family and according to Leviticus, two turtle-doves as Mary and Joseph did. But in the old calendar it is also called the Purification of Mary which recalls the Presentation but also her need as a Jewish woman to be purified in a mikvah or ritual bath following child-birth. (as an aside a man had to have a mikvah if he suffered from a nocturnal emission...hmmm, does that mean that the "m" word really is a sin and we need to be cleansed by the Sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation? Think about that one for a minute my Catholic brothers!

So, we have traded Marian Feasts around perhaps in embarrassment about circumcision or some misguided thought that Mary was eclipsed in the Christmas season for I can think of no other reason why this was done. This is simply not true as John J. Tierney wrote in his article on "Feast of the Circumcision" in the Catholic Encyclopedia hundred years ago in 1908: "It is to be noted also that the Blessed Virgin Mary was not forgotten in the festivities of the holy season, and the Mass in her honour was sometimes said on this day. Today, also, while in both Missal and Breviary the feast bears the title In Circumcisione Domini et Octav Nativitatis, the prayers have special reference to the Blessed Virgin, and in the Office, the responses and antiphons set forth her privileges and extol her wonderful prerogatives. The psalms for Vespers are those appointed for her feasts, and the antiphons and hymn of Lauds keep her constantly in view." The tinkerers or come would say, conspirators, of the Concilium following the Second Vatican Council played chess with our ancient liturgical calendar and by doing so have made us less Jewish.

Somehow I think, something truly ecumenical was lost.

Regardless, a Blessed Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God and Circumcision of Our LORD to you and Happy Secular New Year.

May you be richly blest in 2011.

The Roman Synod of 1960

On this Seventh Day of Christmas, here is this little historical oddity. The Roman Synod of 1960 called by Pope John XXIII to prepare the Catholic world for the Second Vatican Council which he anticipated would last three months. So, is there any more proof that what happened at the actual Council was far beyond what was anticipated and hoped for by good Pope John? Can there by any doubt that the implementation of the Council has gone awry from the original intention? Is there any doubt that the ambiguity of the wording in many documents allowed bishops, priests, nuns, liturgists and other busy-bodies to proffer a false "spirit" of Vatican II which is only now being challenged? Truly, there has been a rupture with Tradition.

While I will often say, we need to see the Council properly implemented, I sometimes wonder; can anything good come out of Vatican II?

From Rorate Caeli blog:

The Roman Synod of 1960

2010 is the fiftieth year since the Roman Synod of 1960, called by Pope John XXIII in anticipation of Vatican II. Romano Amerio speaks of this Synod as having fallen into the Erebus of oblivion, tanquam non fuerit, "as if it had never been", and indeed its 50th anniversary this year was scarcely marked or commemorated anywhere. In belated amends for this forgetfulness I would like to present the following passage (sans the footnotes) from Amerio's Iota Unum regarding this forgotten Synod, this foreshadowing of the Vatican II that had been hoped for.

...three principal facts make the paradoxical outcome of the council (Vatican II-- CAP) apparent: the falseness of the forecasts made by the Pope and others who prepared it; the fruitlessness of the Roman synod called by John XXIII as an anticipation of it; and the almost immediate nullification of the decree Veterum Sapientia, which was meant to foreshadow the cultural cast of the post-conciliar Church.

Pope John intended the council to be a great act of renewal and functional adaptation for the Church and thought he had adequately prepared for it to be such, but nonetheless cherished the prospect that it would all be over within a few months ... In fact, the council opened on 11 October 1962 and closed on 8 December 1965, thus lasting intermittently for three years. All expectations were overthrown because of the aborting of the council which had been prepared, and the successive elaboration of another quite different council which generated itself.

The Roman synod was planned and summoned by John XXIII as a solemn forerunner of the larger gathering, which it was meant to prefigure and anticipate. The Pope himself said precisely that, to the clergy and faithful of Rome in an elocution of 29 June 1960. Because of that intention, the synod's importance was universally recognized as extending beyond the diocese of Rome to the whole Catholic world. Its importance was compared to that which the provincial synods held by St. Charles Borromeo had had with respect to the Council of Trent. New life was given to the old saying that the whole Catholic world should wish to model itself on the Church of Rome. The fact that the Pope immediately ordered the texts of the Roman synod to be translated into Italian and all the principal languages, also makes it clear that in his mind it was intended to play an important exemplary role.

The texts of the Roman synod promulgated on 25, 26 and 27 January 1960 constitute a complete reversion of the Church to its proper nature; we mean not merely to its supernatural essence (that can never be lost) but to its historical nature, a returning of the institution to its principles, as Machiavelli put it.

The synod in fact proposed a vigorous restoration at every level of ecclesial life. The discipline of the clergy was modeled on the traditional pattern formulated at the Council of Trent, and based on two principles which had always been accepted and practiced. The first is that of the peculiar character of the person consecrated to God, supernaturally enabled to do Christ's work, and thus clearly separated from the laity (sacred means separate). The second, which follows from the first, is that of an ascetical education and a sacrificial life, which is the differentiating mark of the clergy as a body, though individuals can take up an ascetical life in the lay state. The synod therefore prescribed for the clergy a whole style of behavior quite distinct from that of laymen. That style demands ecclesiastical dress, sobriety in diet, the avoiding of public entertainments and a flight from profane things. The distinct character of the clergy's cultural formation was also reaffirmed, and the outlines were given of the system which the Pope solemnly sanctioned the year after in Veterum Sapientia. The Pope also ordered that the Catechism of the Council of Trent should be republished, but the order was ignored. It was not until 1981 that, by private initiative, a translation was published in Italy.

The liturgical legislation of the synod is no less significant: the use of Latin is solemnly confirmed, all attempts at creativity on the part of the celebrant, which would reduce the liturgical action of the Church to the level of a simple exercise of private piety, are condemned. (A very good point that needs to be stressed in our time! CAP) The need to baptize infants as soon as possible is emphasized, a tabernacle in the traditional form and position is prescribed, Gregorian Chant is ordered, newly composed popular songs are submitted to the approval of the bishop, all appearance of worldliness is forbidden in churches by a general prohibition of such things as the giving of concerts and performances, the selling of pictures or printed matter, the giving of free rein to photographers and the lighting of candles by all and sundry (one ought to get the priest to do it). The ancient sacred rigor is re-established regarding sacred spaces, forbidding women entry to the altar area. Lastly, altars facing the congregation (which had been slowly but steadily growing in popularity since the 1950's, see this article -- CAP) are to be allowed only by way of an exception, which it is up to the diocesan bishop to make.

Anybody can see that this massive reaffirmation of traditional discipline, which the synod wanted, was contradicted and negated in almost every detail by the effects of the council. And so the Roman synod, which was to have been an exemplary foreshadowing of the council, fell within a few years into the Erebus of oblivion, and is indeed tanquam non fuerit. As an instance of this nullification I may say that having searched for the texts of the Roman synod in diocesan curias and archives, I could not find them there and had to get them from secular public libraries.

-- Romano Amerio. Iota Unum. A Study of Changes in the Catholic Church in the 20th Century (Sarto House, Kansas City 1996), pp. 54-56.

The canonist Edward Peters, in his brief online commentary to Sacrae disciplinae leges, also notes that the Roman Synod "had virtually no impact on either the Council or the Code (of Canon Law)."

Fifth Day of Christmas...Huzzah!

From the Vatican Information Service and courtesy of the New Liturgical Movement:

The Supreme Pontiff has today assigned to the Cardinals elevated at the Consistory of 20 November 2010 their memberships in the various dicasteries of the Roman Curia. Of particular interest to NLM readers will be the Cardinals appointed members of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments:

• Raymond Leo Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura


• Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don, Archbishop of Colombo


• Mauro Piacenza, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy


• Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints


• Kazimierz Nycz, Archbishop of Warsaw


• Velasio De Paolis, President of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See

For anyone interested in ongoing liturgical renewal, the restoration of the sacred, the reform of the reform and the implementation of Summorum Pontificum, this is a nice Christmas present.