Tridentine Masses coming to the metro-Detroit and east Michigan area this week

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

Sunday


• Sun. 01/18 9:30 AM: High Mass at St. Josaphat, Detroit (Second Sunday After Epiphany - St. Peter's Chair at Rome - St. Paul, Apostle and Prisca, Virgin & Martyr)
• Sun. 01/18 9:30 AM: High Mass at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Second Sunday After Epiphany - St. Peter's Chair at Rome - St. Paul, Apostle and Prisca, Virgin & Martyr)
• Sun. 01/18 9:45 AM: High Mass at Chapel of the Academy of the Sacred Heart, Bloomfield Hills (Second Sunday After Epiphany - St. Peter's Chair at Rome - St. Paul, Apostle and Prisca, Virgin & Martyr)
• Sun. 01/18 2:00 PM: High Mass at St. Benedict/St. Alphonsus Church, Windsor, Canada (Second Sunday After Epiphany - St. Peter's Chair at Rome - St. Paul, Apostle and Prisca, Virgin & Martyr)
  
• Sun. 01/18 4:00 PM High (or Low) Mass All Saints Catholic Church, Flint (Second Sunday After Epiphany - St. Peter's Chair at Rome - St. Paul, Apostle and Prisca, Virgin & Martyr)
  
  Monday
  
  
• Mon. 01/19 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Ss. Marius, Martha, Audifax, & Abachum, Martyrs))
• Mon. 01/19 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat, Detroit (Ss. Marius, Martha, Audifax, & Abachum, Martyrs))
• Mon. 01/19 7:00 PM: High Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Ss. Marius, Martha, Audifax, & Abachum, Martyrs))
  
  Tuesday
  
  
• Tue. 01/20 7:30 AM High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Ss. Fabian, Pope, & Sebastian, Martyrs)
• Tue. 01/20 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Benedict/Holy Name of Mary, Canada (Ss. Fabian, Pope, & Sebastian, Martyrs)
• Tue. 01/20 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Ss. Fabian, Pope, & Sebastian, Martyrs)
  
  Wednesday
  
  
• Wed. 01/21 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. Agnes, Virgin & Martyr)
• Wed. 01/21 4:00 PM: High Mass at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. Agnes, Virgin & Martyr)
  
  Thursday
  
  
• Thu. 01/22 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Sts. Vincent & Anastasius, Martyrs)
• Thu. 01/22 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Sts. Vincent & Anastasius, Martyrs)
  
  Friday
  
  
• Fri. 01/23 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. Raymond Pennafort, Confessor)
• Fri. 01/23 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat, Detroit (St. Raymond Pennafort, Confessor)
• Fri. 01/23 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. Raymond Pennafort, Confessor)
  
  Saturday
  
  
• Sat. 01/24 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. Timothy, Bishop & Martyr)
  
  Sunday
  
  
• Sun. 01/25 9:30 AM: High Mass at St. Josaphat, Detroit (3rd Sunday after Epiphany)
• Sun. 01/25 9:30 AM: High Mass at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (3rd Sunday after Epiphany)
• Sun. 01/25 9:45 AM: High Mass at Chapel of the Academy of the Sacred Heart, Bloomfield Hills (3rd Sunday after Epiphany)
• Sun. 01/25 2:00 PM: High Mass at St. Benedict/St. Alphonsus Church, Windsor, Canada (3rd Sunday after Epiphany)
  
• Sun. 01/25 4:00 PM High (or Low) Mass All Saints Catholic Church, Flint (3rd Sunday after Epiphany)
  
  
  

No, Virginia, we are not all children of God

"Terrific piece. Terrific," writes our underground correspondent we keep on retainer in an Atlantic seaboard city that knows how to keep its secrets, Guy Noir - Private Eye. "Also jaw-dropping in the context of a Catholic journal: I can't think of a single Vaticanista who would dare strongly concur with this one. Not even a Pope. They would sooner trip over their robes in public, I'd wager. But wait, Lu is -- of course -- a convert. Perhaps she is a counter-exhibit to the uncomfortable fact of Mark Shea (just kidding, sort of)."

G. Noir was referring, of course, to Rachel Lu's "We Are Not All Children of God" (Crisis Magazine, January 14, 2015), about which the irrepressible Noir continues to muse:

Holy Cow.

This is actually so rudely counter to current theology assumed within the Church that she'd have been safer in terms of media reception if she'd gone straight for "Jesus wasn't necessarily divine nor Mary necessarily a Virgin." Those statements have come to sound less shocking. Just try uttering the various lines in public Catholic quarters and see which seems most shocking to most people! "We aren't all children of God? What, are you founding some new hate group or something?"

Nonetheless, it is an undeniable:

"After all, aren't we all children of God?"

An affirmative YES to that question is hermeneutical key to the entire project of Modernism. As the bumper stickers say, COEXIST and ONE PEOPLE, ONE PLANET. In such a schema, judgement and an honest interpretation of the Bible simply don't make any sense. No matter how many doorstops and happy tracts come from the pens of Germans like Barth, von Balthasar, and Kasper, or how many positive and prolix papal encyclicals come from Rome.

Well. Food for thought.

I do remember asking our resident court metaphysician, Fr. John McDermott, S.J., whether the Biblical references to the "Fatherhood" of God can be understood in any other way than via the analogy of proper proportionality. For example, whereas many Catholics fall into the illusion of thinking that calling God "Father" is simply a metaphor, it is not; because that would mean that while God is similar to a father, as Herod is similar to a fox in his cunning, God is no more a real father than Herod is actually a fox. Fr. McDermott concurred, but with this interesting proviso, that the "Fatherhood" of God obtains only through the Sonship of Jesus Christ for those who are made fellow heirs by adoption and incorporation into His body, the Church. All of which puts the matter in an altogether unforgivingly vivid new light -- a light amplified here by Rachel Lu.

The Faustina - Francis connection goes mainstream

You may have heard of twilight-zone speculations about the significance of St. Faustina's Diary entry for December 17 (1936), the birthday of Pope Francis. It must seems to have gone mainstream (though please bear in mind that the author classifies his post under "humor"). One requires some humor these days, does he not? [Disclaimer: Rules 7-9]

[Hat tip to L.S.]

The "Our Father" as I learned it as a child

天にまします我らの父よ
願わくは
み名をあがめさせたまえ
み国を来たらせたまえ
み心の天に成る如く地にもなさせたまえ
我らの日用の糧を今日も与えたまえ
我らに罪を犯す者を我らが赦す如く我らの罪をも赦したまえ
我らを試みに遭わせず悪より救い出したまえ
国と力と栄えとは限りなく汝のものなればなり
アーメン

[Hat tip to Ken Shenk]

"Theology of the Body" - a traditional view

Don Pietro Leone has published a book, The Family under Attack(2014), offering a critical review of the new "Theology of the Body" celebrated throughout the Catholic world.

A portion of Leone's book is published online by kind permission of the author: "'Theology of the Body' explained - a Traditional Catholic view" (Rorate Caeli, January 17, 2015). While the substance of the author's thesis is argued more thoroughly than one may easily summarize, here are some excerpts from his conclusions:

In fine, we see clearly that Theology of the Body is a personalist, phenomenological system. As such it is concerned with the subjective realm, such as the person and love, and neglects the objective realm, be it Catholic dogma (as with the doctrine that the primary end of sexuality and marriage is procreation or as with the distinction between the natural and supernatural orders,) or be it the perennial or scholastic theology, philosophy, or morality (as with the distinctions between the different forms of love). The outcome is a shift from the virtue of love to the passion of love, from supernatural love to natural love, and in the final analysis from sanctity to sexuality.

In this lack of catholicity, Theology of the Body, although presented as the praise of Catholic conjugal love, becomes instead a paean to Eros[10], with greater resonance for the world than for the Church. As such it constitutes certainly one of the more remarkable fruits of the much vaunted rapprochement [11] between the Church and the World[12].

-------
[10] if one did not know that it was composed by the Pope himself, one might perhaps be excused for ascribing it to a personalist philosopher influenced by Christianity, such as Max Scheler.
[11] or aggiornamento
[12] see chapter 6 of the present book. There we illustrate how sexual love is the main theme hymned by the World – although characteristically in the form of fornication.

Treasury of the Church: Gregorian Chant - with Fr. Eduard Perrone

Have you ever wanted to learn how to read Gregorian chant notation, how Gregorian chant is sung? It is a singular kind of music that has produced traditionally for one purpose only: for liturgical worship.

Thirteen episodes on the "Treasury of the Church: Gregorian Chant" are being produced for Church Militant TV, hosted by the pastor of Assumption Grotto Church in Detroit, Fr. Eduard Perrone:

This program is from ChurchMilitant.TV

A fascinating mental experiment, suggested by a 1904 article by Marcel Proust

Marcel Proust, "The Death of Cathedrals [and the Rites for which they were built]" (Le Figaro, August 16, 1904, English landmark translation by Prof. John Pepino for Rorate Caeli, January 13, 2015):

Suppose for a moment that Catholicism had been dead for centuries, that the traditions of its worship had been lost. Only the unspeaking and forlorn cathedrals remain; they have become unintelligible yet remain admirable.

Then suppose that one day scholars manage, on the basis of documentary evidence, to reconstitute the ceremonies that used to be celebrated in them, for which men had built them, which were their proper meaning and life, and without which they were now no more than a dead letter; and suppose that for one hour artists, beguiled by the dream of briefly giving back life to those great and now silent vessels, wished to restore the mysterious drama that once took place there amid chants and scents—in a word, that they were undertaking to do what the Félibres have done for ancient tragedies in the theatre of Orange. Read more >>

Overwhelmed by over 100,000 souls enrolled in its Purgatorial Society, Rorate changes its policy

Adfero, "Purgatorial Society: Policy change" (Rorate Caeli, January 13, 2015).

Interesting. When Rorate first started the Society, they were so desparate for help that they even offered to pay priests for Masses and planned to go through family records just to enroll Souls. "Who would have known that four short years later we would have over 50 priests saying weekly or monthly traditional Latin Masses (for free) for the Souls and roughly 100,000 Souls enrolled? God knew -- but we surely didn't."

Essentially, the website will no longer be posting lists of all the names of individuals and families enrolled in the society any longer, because the staff is simply overwhelmed. Nevertheless, the procedure for enrolling the souls of your departed loved ones remains the same: email athanasiuscatholic@yahoo.com and submit as follows: "Name, State, Country". Please follow this formatting strictly. Although individual names are preferred, if you want to enroll entire families, simply write in the email: "The Jones family, Ohio, USA."

The society also solicits the membership of additional priests willing to offer their services. "There's nothing labor intensive involved: all you need to do is offer a weekly or monthly traditional Latin Mass (and it does not need to be a Requiem Mass) with the intention: "For the Souls enrolled in the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society."

For any Catholics who don't understand the significance, let alone the importance, of this Catholic tradition of praying for the souls of the faithful departed in Purgatory, it may be that you have been deprived, through no fault of your own, of a vitally important spiritual resource which is your birthright as a Catholic. Please read a good traditional Catholic book on Purgatory, such as Rev. Fr. F. X. Schouppe, S.J., Purgatory: Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints(TAN Books reprint, 2006), which was recommended to me by a good friend. There are amazing graces to be found in keeping faith with our ancestors by means of such Catholic traditions and practices.

The Heavyweight Prelate Debate

Editors, "New Oxford Notes," New Oxford Review (December 2014), pp. 17-19:

The questions of Communion for divorced-and-remarried Catholics and how to welcome homosexuals into parishes were the flashpoints in October’s Extraordinary Synod on the Family (see the preceding New Oxford Note), and a great many observers focused their attention on how and where these issues clash with Church doctrine and practices. But to restrict one’s focus to the immediate concerns of the synod is to risk losing the broader perspective — you know, the forest for the trees and all that. By stepping back and taking the longer view, we see that the synod is itself a flashpoint in a larger struggle within the Church — one that pits two opposing camps against each other, both of which are led by high-profile, heavyweight prelates who’ve dominated the post-Vatican II ecclesiastical landscape. The struggle involves the very definition of the Church; the main combatants are two Germans: Joseph Ratzinger and Walter Kasper.

In an article in the National Catholic Register (Oct. 19), Fr. Raymond J. de Souza, editor-in-chief of Convivium magazine, alludes to the debates Cardinals Ratzinger and Kasper carried out in theological journals toward the end of the previous millennium and the beginning of the current one. Ratzinger, de Souza writes, “argued that the Church universal was prior to the local Churches,” while Kasper “took the opposite view.”

What bearing does this have on the recently concluded synod? The debate took on a very public nature when, in 1993, Kasper, as a bishop in Germany, issued “pastoral instructions” to his diocesan priests to allow divorced-and-remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion. The next year, Ratzinger, in his role as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), issued, with the approval of Pope St. John Paul II, a “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church Concerning Reception of Holy Communion by the Divorced and Remarried Members of the Faithful,” which effectively overruled Kasper’s pastoral letter. It reminded the bishops of the world that “if the divorced are remarried civilly, they find themselves in a situation that objectively contravenes God’s law. Consequently, they cannot receive Holy Communion as long as this situation persists.”

But that wasn’t the end of the debate; it enlarged, covering additional topics, including the nature of the Church as expressed in the 2001 CDF instruction Dominus Iesus, of which Kasper was outspokenly critical.

For greater insight into this ecclesial sparring match, we dipped into the NOR archives in order to re-examine an article from our April 2002 issue titled “The Kasper-Ratzinger Debate & the State of the Church” by Philip Blosser, who currently teaches philosophy at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. According to Dr. Blosser, the Kasper-Ratzinger debate was “representative of a much broader conflict” in the Church in those days — a conflict “between those, on the one hand, who are concerned to safeguard the unity of traditional faith and morals, and those, on the other hand, who are concerned with keeping abreast of the changing times.”

Wimpy translators of papal tweets?

The underground correspondent we keep on retainer in an Atlantic seaboard city that knows how to keep its secrets, Guy Noir - Private Eye, also sent us the following disturbingly-amusing remarks today: "I am sorry, but I laughed. But there was this comment too:

'You should look at the latin versions of the pope’s tweets. They are much more interesting. Other than the whole Mary thing, I’m beginning to think a big part of the problem with the Vatican in English is the wimpy translators.'"

The piece that provoked Noir was a post by the Evangelical blogger, Doug Wilson, entitled "As Gay As a Pope Tweet" (Blog & Mablog, December 8, 2014):

One of our central problems today is that Christian men have been maneuvered (and/or bludgeoned) into thinking that ungodly and sentimental softness is a biblical virtue.... It comes down to a “softer than thou” sort of posturing. The corruptions of feminism have gotten into everything .... The end result is that evangelical men, taking one thing with another, are gayer than a pope tweet.

And lest this seem like a random insult — instead of an incredibly apt metaphor — let me just say that Pope Francis (@Pontifex) takes sentimentalist sap to new and majestic heights. “Advent begins a new journey. May Mary, our Mother, be our guide.” “Advent increases our hope, a hope which does not disappoint. The Lord never lets us down.” “There is so much noise in the world! May we learn to be silent in our hearts and before God.”

It didn’t always used to be this way. It almost makes one yearn for the days of the badass popes. For example, Pope Urban VI ordered the torture and execution of five of his cardinals, responding to their screams with his taunt of “weak old women!” That also would be a bad hash tag, but at least it wouldn’t be so insipid and boring . . . okay then, all right. I changed my mind. I am prepared to grant the effeminate Francis is an improvement, but still . . .
#DeathByBromide.

But I got distracted from the point anyhow. The problem we are discussing is evangelical men who do not know what gentleness is. They do not know what men are for. They do not understand how tenderness is supposed to work....

Thence, he launches into a Bible study of the virtues of masculine gentleness and tenderness and how those virtues equip a man for war. Interesting.

It may be that the author fails to understand that Marian piety, among other things, wasn't historically regarded in the Catholic tradition as something the least bit effeminate or wimpy. Then again, I've often personally found some of the papal prayer intentions regularly communicated throughout the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, as well as Francis, rather banal-sounding. Maybe that's one reason I enjoy the absence of "General Intercessions" or what the English call "Bidding Prayers" in the usus antiquior. I certainly get the #DeathByBromide bit. We could all use a bit more "masculine" clarity in religion and less sentimentalism.

[Hat tip to G.N.]

"The Times Are Never So Bad ...

... that a good man cannot live in them." Work in them? That may be another question. As Guy Noir pointed out in a message today, the following story shows just how "bad" the times are getting. Depressing for anyone who values free speech and virtue.

Kate Shellnutt, "Bible Citation Costs Atlanta Fire Chief His Job" (Christianity Today, January 9, 2015).

Can you imagine a fire chief being fired in a Buddhist country for citing the Lotus Sutra, or in a Muslim country for citing the Qur'an?

We may just have the most insane policies of any country in the world. Political correctness is killing us. Orwell was right. The thought police are now flexing their new-found muscles. Pray for major cramping.


[Hat tip to GN]

The pre-Vatican II origins of liturgical changes

Most of us, I think, tend to see Vatican II as the watershed event with respect to liturgical developments since the 1960s, and there is no doubt that the changes set in motion during and after the Council have had a momentous impact on the quotidian lives of Catholics, the way they understand and live their faith as well as the way they worship.

The revolutionary changes that rocked the Catholic world came as a shocking upheaval to many. Fifty distinguished celebrities, scholars, historians, artists and writers, including the famed novelist Agatha Christie, signed a 1971 petition to Pope Paul VI to preserve the old Mass, whose "magnificent Latin text, has ... inspired a hosto of priceless achievements in the arts ... by poets, philosophers, musicians, architects, painters and sculptors in all countries and epochs." Whether it was because Paul VI like Christie or not, the petition was met with some limited success, in what came to be known as the "Agatha Christie Indult." (Source)

Yet anyone who has delved more deeply into the sources of the revolutionary changes of the 1960s and '70s will know that while the proximate causes of the changes may be found in Vatican II and the liturgical innovations that flooded the Church in its wake, the principal causes of these changes lie much earlier, far back in the reforms of the Pian pontificates and even somewhat before.

A convenient brief summary of some of those pre-Vatican II influences may be found in a recent post by a Thomas Aquinas College student under the moniker of Maestro, "Vatican II and the Origins of the Liturgical Reform" (January 9, 2015). The author also references a number of much more detailed posts on the subject over at the New Hampshire blog by the unabashed name of "The Rad Trad."

Readers, especially those to whom the subject is new, will find a good beginning here. There is, of course, much, much more to be read and digested.

[Hat tip to L.S.]

List of churches visited on the Chicago bus tour

To those of you interested in the specific churches visited on the Chicago Bus Tour recently reported in Extraordinary Community News (Musings, January 11, 2014), as well as earlier, below is list of the churches and descriptions (Taken from Heavenly City by Denis R. McNamara):

HOLY NAME CATHEDRAL (Downtown: Near North Side/Gold Coast)
Designed by Patrick Charles Keely of Brooklyn, New York. Dedicated on November 21, 1875. Gothic in its outside design, built with local Lannon limestone, cruciform in plan with a 210-foot spire, the building inside was completely modernized in 1969 under Cardinal Cody with the strong influence of the late Expressionist movement, which sought to reveal the inner meaning of an image by distortion and rejection of idealized beauty. Worth noting are the unusual oak and walnut ceiling vaults, pink St. Baum marble columns, and the massive Flentrop pipe organ from Holland, installed in 1989.

HOLY TRINITY CHURCH (Northwest: Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village)
Designed by William G. Krieg of Chicago. Dedicated on October 7, 1906. It has and continues to minister almost exclusively to the needs of Polish-speaking Chicagoans. Like several other Polish Churches in the area the congregation grew out of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church. Holy Trinity Church was featured in the 1948 Jimmy Stewart film Call Northside 777. The Baroque exterior uses the architectural style associated with Poland's period of political autonomy in the eighteenth century. The exuberant interior scheme recalls the Polish Baroque tradition of elaborate, image-filled painting programs and unusual elevated devotional chapels. Drop pendants hang from the ceiling in place of columns, allowing for uninterrupted sight lines to the sanctuary.

OUR LADY OF SORROWS BASILICA (West: Near West Side)
Designed by Henry Englebert of Detroit, John Francis Pope of Chicago, and William J. Brinkmann of Chicago. Dedicated on January 5, 1902. Basilica Decree on May 4, 1956. It is one of Chicago's largest Churches, seating nearly two thousand people. It was founded by the Italian priests of the Servants of Mary, known as Servites. By the 1930's, it was necessary to hold thirty-eight services of the Novena of Our Sorrowful Mother so that some seventy thousand people might attend, with participants spilling out into the streets and lining up for blocks. In light of its cultural and devotional importance, Pope Pius XII named it the first formally designated basilica in Illinois. The central portion of the main facade, tightly wedged between two towers, reads clearly of the academic classicism of the type common to the period, with its arcade topped by a triangular pediment atop a high story. The verticality and massiveness of the two towers (one with spire removed after a fire in 1984) give the building something of a Romanesque solidity. The interior is one of Chicago's grand rooms, perhaps only equaled in singular grandeur by Chicago's Union Station waiting area. The nave, as high as a nine-story building and two hundred fifty feet long, is one of the largest Church interiors in the city, modeled on the architecture of the Roman High Renaissance and sports spectacular coffers and rosettes in the ceiling. Three large windows over the entrance flood the nave with light. One's eye leads to the sanctuary with its thirty-one foot high Carrara marble altar added in 1908 and three Eucharistic images. The rear walls are covered in murals dedicated to Christ and Saints of the Servite order, while the east transept includes an altar to the “Seven Holy Founders” of the Servite order backed by a large painting of Pope Pius XII “crowning” the Church as a Basilica completed in 1952. In the west transept, another marble altar honors Our Lady of Sorrows. Ten additional votive chapels line the nave, each with its own dedication and altarpiece. A bit off the beaten path for most tourists, this Church deserves to be better known so that the glory of its art and architecture can enrich the civic and religious spirit of those who live and visit Chicago. 

"Mark Shea's Head Explodes"

No comment [Advisory: Rules 7-9]: Chris Ferrara's article on Fetzen Fliegen, the Remnant Newspaper blog, January 8, 2015.

[Source: Artur Sebastian Rosman]

"History of modern man unravels as German scholar is exposed as fraud"

In case you missed it: Luke Harding's article pointing out that a flamboyant anthropologist falsified dating of key discoveries (in The Guardian, February 18, 2005):

It appeared to be one of archaeology's most sensational finds. The skull fragment discovered in a peat bog near Hamburg was more than 36,000 years old - and was the vital missing link between modern humans and Neanderthals.

This, at least, is what Professor Reiner Protsch von Zieten - a distinguished, cigar-smoking German anthropologist - told his scientific colleagues, to global acclaim, after being invited to date the extremely rare skull.

However, the professor's 30-year-old academic career has now ended in disgrace after the revelation that he systematically falsified the dates on this and numerous other "stone age" relics.... Read more >>