Damien Thompson has highlighted the letter and quoted Fr Z in his post "An atrocious letter from Leeds" on his Daily Telegraph blog "Holy Smoke". Fr Ray Blake has his own observations, and Catholic Action UK have suggested "local action as appropriate."
The letter raises a number of serious issues that merit discussion (some have already been discussed extensively here and elsewhere.) I hope to find time particularly to look further at the question of the way in which the two forms of the rite can, as Pope Benedict said, be "mutually enriching." It does not seem to me at all "clear" that there is to be no transferring of elements from one form of the rite to the other. There is talk of adding some newer prefaces to the older rite. I can see no reason not to restore some elements of the older form as options for the Novus Ordo.
There is one point made by the Holy Father that deserves more attention. In the accompanying letter to Summorum Pontificum, he said,
"The present Norms are also meant to free Bishops from constantly having to evaluate anew how they are to respond to various situations."This struck me as a very sensible point. I always felt that it was pointless extra bureaucracy for the Chancery to be issuing permissions for funeral Masses etc. Now that the Motu Proprio has freed the Bishops from this, it does seem odd that some Bishops seem be creating a whole lot more work in intensively "moderating" the classical form of the rite.
In the meantime, there is a very encouraging report from Orbis Catholicus: Summorum Pontificum: the Rome update. There is now a daily Mass at 8am in St Mary Major's in the usus antiquior, celebrated by one of the canons of the Basilica, many altars in Rome are seeing the return of their altar cards, indicating that more private Masses are being celebrated in the older form of the rite.
If you really want to know what is going on, a good way to check is to look in the shops on the Via Conciliazione. Apparently they are now selling new hand missals for the laity, printed in Italy.
Oh, and the 1962 Missal is listed in the new publications section of the Vatican Press.
10 comments:
Trentophobia, plain and simple.
To be honest if I had a priest like you in my diocese I'd want to moderate your bitchiness.
What you (and others) want is to stifle a debate that you lose ignominiously whenever it goes public.
Well said, Father Tim.
It really is an appalling state of affairs when bishops do whatever they can to circumvent the authority of the Holy Father.
Imagine what would happen if a PP in Leeds decided to falsely interpret in public the teachings of his bishop. Would the Bishop ignore the PP? Hardly.
The last thing any of the liberals want is to engage in an honest debate of the issues, because they know they haven't a leg to stand on.
"Let us generously open our hearts and make room for all that the faith itself allows."
Pope Benedict XVI
7 July 2007
In his letter accompanying "Summorum Pontificum"
How could any disciple of Christ respond to those words other than with generosity and love ?
Anonymous wrote "To be honest if I had a priest like you in my diocese I'd want to moderate your bitchiness."
That is one of the most unpleasant comments I have read on this blog, made all the worse by the fact that the writer appears to be a catholic.
It cannot be emphasised enough how the rise of the internet has blown a major hole in the strategy of the ecclesial cliques which relied heavily on control and restriction of information from rome and anywhere else but them.
10 years ago all most of us would have known about the existence of an MP would have been a bishops letter read out about it on a Sunday, if we were lucky and, as we have sadly seen, in many cases the bishops letters would have been spin worthy of Alistair Campbell.
When I went to Rome this year with my two friends, I had noticed the Italian Old Rite Missals on sale in many religious shops, including the Via Conciliazione. The Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua was selling them too along with copies of Summorum Pontificum in Italian.
Surely the only comment any bishop need make on the MP is:
Roma locuta est, causa finita est.
"Anonymous said...To be honest if I had a priest like you in my diocese I'd want to moderate your bitchiness."
If you were honest, you wouldn't post as "Anonymous"
The French, German, American and English bishops have acquitted themselves of their responsibilities as pastors with great integrity in their reception of the Motu Proprio and have taken very generously into account the demands of the small minority who with to celebrate the traditional Tridentine Mass. For their pains they are lambasted by bloggers worldwide, who want more uncritical alacrity and less concern with pastoral priorities and basic common sense. In addition the bishops are described as "instruments of the devil" by Archbishop Ranjith, whom the insidious schismatic bishop Bernard Fellay sees as his man in Rome (Fellay also told his followers that Cardinal Arinze was "a traitor"). It is unheard of for a Vatican official to pour scorn on Cardinals and bishops in this way, and I do not think that the Pope can afford to entertain his antics much longer. It is amazing to see schismatics calling on the world's bishops to be more obedient to the Pope! And the bad ecclesiology that regards the universal episcopate as mere pawns and errand-boys is perfectly incompatible with Vatican II.
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