I used to think the "Reform of the Reform," the purging of the Novus Ordo of all its accumulated abuses, a good thing. Fr. Joseph Fessio, James and Helen Hitchcock and a host of other faithful Catholics devoutly hoped and prayed for this. Adoremus Bulletin, a publication of the Adoremus Society for the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy, was founded by these individuals; and they both promoted the "Reform of the Reform."
After my more recent discovery of the older, more traditional liturgy, I began to lose interest in the "Reform of the Reform," which seemed a bit like a losing rearguard battle with little hope of getting anywhere. By the time Pope Benedict's publication of Summorum Pontificum (2007) and the Instruction Universae Ecclesiae (2011) guaranteeing universal permission for the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass and promoting its proper instruction, I had become more familiar with the ancient liturgy and learned not only to appreciate lack of politically-correct abuses and innovations attendant to it, but had time to process the learning curve involved in it and to appreciate its own particular virtues.
Now a ZENIT report (February 19, 2015) [via Rorate Caeli] on the Holy Father's recent two-hour meeting with the Roman Clergy in Rome has just been published in which he evidently declares his opinion that the "Reform of the Reform" is a "mistake," and seminarians (and presumably others, like myself?) attached to the "traditionalist" liturgy may be suffering "psychological" problems and certain "imbalances." I surely hope the Holy Father is being misquoted here, or, in order to regain my sanity, I may have to start praying for the gift of speaking in tongues -- a gift thus far denied me.
5 comments:
Ironic, since a friend who is highly placed in Catholic publishing shared with me that many priests now believe Francis himself is "suffering 'psychological' problems and certain imbalances" as the only explanation for his ongoing rhetorical mashup.
...Form my part, all I know is that the reports of him induce both of those in things me. So encouraging it is to have Pope who, if paid attention to, makes being Catholic seem like something you have to date totally misconstrued. St. Joan Chittister, Pray for Us!
Sorry, but I will say it again:
The frantic efforts of Grub Street hacks to “rescue” Francis from his own utterances have reached the point where they reveal more about the Grubbers than about Francis. Rather than face the truth (or reveal what they already know of it), the Grubbers will carry on as if they believe that the man suffers from a kind of Tourette’s Syndrome by which he involuntarily blurts dubious remarks on matters of Catholic teaching. But it is absurd to think that a man of Francis’s stature is so thoughtlessly and spasmodically inarticulate that he needs clown cars of Chestertonian poseurs and galoots in cowboy hats to rescue him from his hapless self. It is far more sensible to believe that the man says what he means, and means what he says, and doesn’t give a tinker's fart what “self-absorbed promethean neo-pelagians” think about it, because they are not the audience to whom he is pitching. No carping, no obfuscating, no “buts” about it: Pope Bergoglio’s supposed blurtings are in fact the considered remarks of a third world liberationist and progressive ideologue.
Isn't it odd that despite all this talk of mercy this pontiff still uses the specter of mental illness as an insult?
Dymphna,
Good point. When people don't have a reasonable argument, as a rule they hurl ad hominem insults.
"clown cars of Chestertonian poseurs ..."
best ...description ...evah
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