Michael Matt on the abdication, the council & Fatima

This is a bit of a reach from my usual fare, but my attention was drawn to this video by some comments I encountered on the Internet today. I don't know much about the Third Secret of Fatima, and I don't know what I think about some of the things Mr. Matt says here, but I do think many of you will agree that parts of his talk offer a striking and provocative departure from the mainstream.

"And so it begins"

Hat tip to Rorate Caeli, March 1, 2013: "Letter of the Dean of the College of Cardinals to the Lord Cardinals providing official notice of the existence of a vacant Roman See, calling them to the first General Congregation of the College, on Monday, March 4, 2013, at 9:30 AM, in the Paul VI Hall (at the smaller hall of the Synod of Bishops)."

Now all good Catholics and even the Pope are "Sedevacantists"

AND ... it's a First Friday. As Fr. Z. says, "Think about it" (WDTPRS, March 1, 2013).

Media focus cannot be good for the conclave

One of the problems from which the Church has suffered in recent years has been the pressure exerted by the media upon our prelates. The constant pressure of expectations by the secular media, pressure exerted by those either oblivious of Church principles or intent on "shaming" clerics into bowing to what the media considers politically correct decisions at the cost of abandoning Church principles, cannot be good for the Church. I have seen this occur time and again at the local level, where Catholic public figures succumb to self-censorship rather than stand on principle, simply to please or mollify those shaped by the prevailing culture. It's hard to imagine the comparative freedom the conclaves of centuries past must have enjoyed, when we have trouble even imagining the world before the cell phones, the internet, television, and even radio (all of which were developed only in the 20th century).

Journalist Woodward threatened by administration

The POTUS stooped to new lows of mendacity and machiavellian madness over the last couple of days, trying to blame his political enemies for the Sequestration, which was his own idea; rejecting Republican authorization to choose where the cuts would be least damaging; trying to intimidate journalist Bob Woodward (the liberal journalist who exposed the Nixon administration) for telling the truth about the the Obama administration (see his recent book, The Price of Politics), and trying to silence him. Woodward calls out the President for his Sequestration "Madness":

Pope Weigel?

"Please, Pope Weigel, resign from your Pontificate" (Rorate Caeli, February 28, 2013):

"Not the 'Küng left', not the 'schismatic Lefebvrist hard-right', but I, the virtuous via media, hold the keys to authentic Evangelical Catholic reform, as I explain in my book, available in bookstores everywhere - just $ 9.99!," thus saith Supreme Pontiff Weigel descending from Mount Manhattan.

Can't Pope Weigel at least wait till the conclave is assembled to put forward his candidacy? Can't he at least wait till 8PM Rome time today to proclaim his declarations of apostasy and schism?...

The lack of restraint from those who wish to "frame" the next pontificate is astounding. Küng has tried it, Weigel, still not fully recovered from the end of the Wojtyla pontificate, is trying it as well. As for the "schismatic Lefebvrists", their only program seems to be this novena for the election of the Sovereign Pontiff, starting tomorrow. Now, which of these programs seems to be the truly Catholic one?

Well ... that is a bit of a problem, isn't it. Perhaps it's a good example of THE problem.

Conflicting reactions to the resignation

"No more nice words: The resignation is a catastrophe" "Benedict XVI: why have you abandoned us?" (Rorate Caeli, February 24, 2013), relating reports from the French daily, La Croix, in which two conservative Catholic thinkers express their dismay at the empty chair of St. Peter (Sede Vacante).

"Benedict XVI responds: 'No, I am not abandoning you!'" (Rorate Caeli, February 24, 2013):

Dear brothers and sisters, I feel that this Word of God is particularly directed at me, at this point in my life. The Lord is calling me to "climb the mountain", to devote myself even more to prayer and meditation. But this does not mean abandoning the Church, indeed, if God is asking me to do this it is so that I can continue to serve the Church with the same dedication and the same love with which I have done thus far, but in a way that is better suited to my age and my strength. Let us invoke the intercession of the Virgin Mary: may she always help us all to follow the Lord Jesus in prayer and works of charity.

An old lady our socialists love to hate

"Kitty Werthmann -- 85 Yr Old Austrian Lived Under Hitler -- Speaks of Socialism and Gestapo: Alan Colmes, Salon Deems Her a Wing Nut" (Before It's News, Jan. 6, 2013):

Kitty Werthmann is 85 years old. She is a naturalized U.S. citizen. At 85 she stands tall, walks like a much, much younger woman and has no trouble explaining that Hitler was elected by 98% of Austrians because he gave a good speech. As I look around the InterTubes for information about her, I see the Left hates her. I see that Alan Colmes gave her his WingNut award. Salon is confused about the “political path” she is taking and also refers to her as a “wing nut.” The loose transcript and video below is from a June 2011 TeaParty speech. Don’t miss her mention of Senator Barbara Boxer, then a U.S. Representative from California and what happened to Austria’s educational system under Hitler. Read more >>

Can Catholics still play chess?

Garriso Keillor once joked on Prairie Home Companion, asking: "Why can't Episcopalians play chess?" Answer? "Because they can't tell the difference between a bishop and a queen."

Given the contemporary trajectory of things coming to light closer to home (see, for example, the previous post below), I'm now tempted to ask: "Can Catholics still play chess?" I certainly hope so. But you'll forgive me for feeling the need to ask.

Lavender blackmail, background of Papal resignation?

A reader sent me the article linked below:

John Hooper (Guardian's Rome correspondent), "Papal resignation linked to inquiry into 'Vatican gay officials', says paper" (The Guardian, February 21, 2013): "Pope's staff decline to confirm or deny La Repubblica claims linking 'Vatileaks' affair and discovery of 'blackmailed gay clergy'":

A potentially explosive report has linked the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI to the discovery of a network of gay prelates in the Vatican, some of whom – the report said – were being blackmailed by outsiders....

The paper said the pope had taken the decision on 17 December that he was going to resign – the day he received a dossier compiled by three cardinals delegated to look into the so-called "Vatileaks" affair....

According to La Repubblica, the dossier comprising "two volumes of almost 300 pages – bound in red" had been consigned to a safe in the papal apartments and would be delivered to the pope's successor upon his election.

The newspaper said the cardinals described a number of factions, including one whose members were "united by sexual orientation"....

[La Repubblica] quoted a source "very close to those who wrote [the cardinal's report]" as saying: "Everything revolves around the non-observance of the sixth and seventh commandments."

The seventh enjoins against theft. The sixth forbids adultery, but is linked in Catholic doctrine to the proscribing of homosexual acts.

La Repubblica said the cardinals' report identified a series of meeting places in and around Rome. They included a villa outside the Italian capital, a sauna in a Rome suburb, a beauty parlour in the centre, and a former university residence that was in use by a provincial Italian archbishop....

La Repubblica's report was the latest in a string of claims that a gay network exists in the Vatican. In 2007 a senior official was suspended from the congregation, or department, for the priesthood, after he was filmed in a "sting" organised by an Italian television programme while apparently making sexual overtures to a younger man.

In 2010 a chorister was dismissed for allegedly procuring male prostitutes for a papal gentleman-in-waiting. A few months later a weekly news magazine used hidden cameras to record priests visiting gay clubs and bars and having sex.

The reader who called my attention to this article, commented in the sent email:

Distressing.

And yet you would think the parties are warring over global warming or Left-handedness.

Really, people are prisoners of their own dented thinking. Read the last two sentences of the last paragraph of this piece:

The Vatican does not condemn homosexuals. But it teaches that gay sex is "intrinsically disordered".

Will these two statements make sense to moderns? Do they make sense at all? No. Does the Vatican "condemn" anyone? Any person? Of course not, not even Bishop Williamson. It would not condemn even Hitler as a man. But it is impossible to NOT "Condemn" homosexuals if you condemn homosexuality.

This is why the 'Born That Way" argument is in fact important (even if not decisive). But we have all but ceded the ground. There is absolutely NO conversation about the immorality or sinfulness of homosexuality, only noble posturing about "Defense of Marriage." You can't find arguments about it that include the idea that all other arguments aside, the practice of gay sex is itself wrong and should not be given any sort of tacit approval.

If you simply say, "Of course gays cannot marry. We can't approve of the essential sexual act the defines them, much less institutionalize it in a a sacred ceremony!" you have clarity. You would also have California rumbling so hard in rage it would detach itself from the continental plate. If you default to: "Well, the real purpose of marriage is after all procreation...," like our primary objections are functional, you turn the exercise of moral theology into a farce. The fact that marriage is meant for procreation is a far secondary argument. Marriage is made for men and women because Sex is made for men and women. To engage arguments that assume otherwise is to give them some legitimacy. Once you do that, unfortunately, you immediately lose all ground. If the boundaries of normal and abnormal, natural and unnatural, are blurred, there is no focus at all.

[Hat tip to J.M.]

Update:

And then there is this: "The Pope & Homoheresy," based on "a blockbuster report produced by a PhD priest at the Pontifical University in Kraków, Poland, who was asked to prepare this report by various bishops and cardinals. It details how the secret homosexual lobby of priests and bishops in the Church is trying to gain a stronger foothold in his native Poland and how much damage has already been done by them in other parts of the world throughout the Church, from active homosexual clergy among priests to active homosexuals among bishops and those that are friendly to them, that promote them and protect them, as well as those who had been hidden and covered up the resultant child sex abuse at the hands of predator homosexual clergy." [The report: by Fr. Dariusz Oko, Ph.D., "With the Pope Against the Homoheresy" - PDF]

Update (2/26/13):

Of Hamsters and Sequesters

George Will, "The manufactured crisis of sequester" (Washington Post, February 22, 2013):

Even during this desultory economic recovery, one industry thrives — the manufacture of synthetic hysteria. It is, however, inaccurate to accuse the Hysteric in Chief of crying “Wolf!” about spending cuts under the sequester. He is actually crying “Hamster!”

As in: Batten down the hatches — the sequester will cut $85 billion from this year’s $3.6 trillion budget! Or: Head for the storm cellar — spending will be cut 2.3 percent! Or: Washington chain-saw massacre — we must scrape by on 97.7 percent of current spending! Or: Chaos is coming because the sequester will cut a sum $25 billion larger than was just shoveled out the door (supposedly, but not actually) for victims of Hurricane Sandy! Or: Heaven forfend, the sequester will cut 47 percent as much as was spent on the AIG bailout! Or: Famine, pestilence and locusts will come when the sequester causes federal spending over 10 years to plummet from $46 trillion all the way down to $44.8 trillion! Or: Grass will grow in the streets of America’s cities if the domestic agencies whose budgets have increased 17 percent under President Obama must endure a 5 percent cut!

The sequester has forced liberals to clarify their conviction that whatever the government’s size is at any moment, it is the bare minimum necessary to forestall intolerable suffering. At his unintentionally hilarious hysteria session Tuesday, Obama said: The sequester’s “meat-cleaver approach” of “severe,” “arbitrary” and “brutal” cuts will “eviscerate” education, energy and medical research spending. “And already, the threat of these cuts has forced the Navy to delay an aircraft carrier that was supposed to deploy to the Persian Gulf.”

Read more >>

[Hat tip to J.M.]

Detroit's Blessed Sacrament Cathedral to Hold Special Tridentine Mass on August 30

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News (February 24, 2013):

Sometimes a development occurs that causes one to sit up and take notice. That happened this week when Juventútem Michigan announced that it is organizing a Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form to be held on the evening of Friday, August 30 at Detroit’s Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, with the approval of Archbishop Allen Vigneron. Thanks are due to His Excellency, to Cathedral Rector Msgr. Michael LeFevre, and to Juventútem Michigan leader Paul Schultz for making this possible.

As the September 2, 2012 edition of this column noted, an increasing number of cathedrals worldwide are hosting Tridentine Masses. In this region, London, Ontario’s St. Peter Cathedral hosted ordinations to the sacred priesthood for the Fraternity of St. Peter in March, 2000. Lansing’s St. Mary Cathedral is home to a fledgling Tridentine quasi-parish, the Blessed John XXIII Community. Kalamazoo’s St. Augustine Cathedral for many years hosted a regular Mass.

Now Detroit’s Blessed Sacrament Cathedral joins these ranks. Built in 1930 as Blessed Sacrament Church, this Norman Gothic edifice was designated as the cathedral in 1937 when the Diocese of Detroit was raised to the level of an Archdiocese. As the below historic photograph shows, Blessed Sacrament was built as a splendid home for the Tridentine Mass, with a soaring ceiling to elevate the mind to God.


After the Second Vatican Council, some relatively minor modifications were made to the sanctuary, most notably the removal of the central part of the Communion Rail and the installation of a freestanding altar. In 2003 the entire church was redesigned. The High Altar, High Pulpit, and remaining Communion Rail sections were removed, replaced by a sanctuary in the modern idiom clearly designed solely with an eye to the Ordinary Form.


Nevertheless, even with this configuration, with some creative thinking, the cathedral can accommodate the Extraordinary Form. Over the coming weeks measurements will be taken for an altar frontal [cloth], and supplies will be gathered so that the Mass may be appropriately celebrated in this sacred space. More information will be reported as the date of the Mass draws nearer.

Two Special Tridentine Masses on March 10

We have a pleasant quandary to present: On Sunday, March 10, there will be two special High Masses in the Extraordinary Form offered in our region on the same afternoon:

At 12:15 PM, Ss. Peter & Paul (west side) will have a High Mass offered by Fr. Mark Borkowski.

At 2:00 PM, Holy Redeemer Church will have a High Mass offered by Fr. Clement Suhy, OSB.

Let’s take the positive view and consider this an embarrassment of riches.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Mon. 02/25 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (Feria of Lent)
• Tue. 02/26 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Assumption-Windsor (Feria of Lent)

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat (Detroit) and Assumption (Windsor) bulletin inserts for February 24, 2013. Hat tip to A.B., author of the column.]

Musical legacy of the Holy Father

Jeffrey Tucker, "Pope Benedict XVI’s Musical Legacy" (Crisis magazine, February 12, 2013). Excerpt:

We are not out of the woods yet but the progress is very much in evidence. The future is clear. Chant will again be the universal music of the Roman Rite. New compositions will be inspired by it. It will have first place in the liturgy. Music appropriate to the liturgy will follow its inspiration.

What I find most impressive is the method that the pope used to achieve this. It was through inspiration and not imposition. For this reason, this change is fundamental and lasting. Mark my words: chant will come to a parish near you. We can thank Benedict XVI for his wisdom and foresight in achieving what most people thought was impossible.

As he has understood, the musical question is only superficially about style. The real substance of the question concerns what elevates the text and reflects the liturgical purpose of glorifying God. In the long run, there can be no separation between the Roman Rite and the music that is native to it. If that point seems obvious now, it is only because the papacy of Benedict XVI made it so.

For the record: "Benedict XVI - SSPX: Quarter to midnight"

"Benedict XVI - SSPX: Quarter to midnight" (Rorate Caeli, February 20, 2013):

... What threats can the hotheads on the SSPX side make? They have been expelled, or have excluded themselves.

What threats can the extremist liberals on the Rhine basin side make? Threaten schism, as they repeatedly (reportedly) did to John Paul II? Ask for the Pope's head, as they did in 2009? The Pope has delivered his head! On a tray, like the Precursor: the German-speaking and French-speaking Salomes cannot demand anything else.

From religioblog, the blog of the usually very well-informed religious writer of French daily Le Figaro:

"A quarter to midnight, Bishop Fellay." This parody of the title of the film dedicated to Dr. Schweitzer, a great Protestant, is badly chosen to recall the very Catholic Lefebvrist question, but it happens that this dossier, that seemed lost, could mark the last days of the Pontificate of Benedict XVI. Discussions, late [discussions], are taking place between Rome and Écône... Up to the end the Pope tries to reach an agreement...." Read more >>

Update (2/21/2013): "Society of Saint Pius X: Benedict XVI to pass on the dossier to successor" (Rorate Caeli, Feb. 21, 2013) [was not an "ultimatum"]

Extraordinary community news

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News (February 17, 2013):

The Liturgical Restoration Legacy of Pope Benedict XVI

Among the numerous accomplishments of our retiring Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, the record books are sure to give him particular credit for reinvigorating Catholic worship in both the Extraordinary and Ordinary Forms. It is not an overstatement to say that his actions have had a major positive impact on the faith lives of countless souls worldwide.

The 2007 Motu Proprio Summórum Pontíficum and its 2011 follow-up document Univérsæ Ecclésiæ certainly top the list for readers of this column. Any priest is now permitted to celebrate the Tridentine Mass on his own initiative, no longer requiring the permission of his bishop. Within three years after Summórum was published, the number of Mass sites in North America doubled to over 400. Among the most enthusiastic celebrants of the Latin Mass worldwide are young, newly ordained priests.

Five months prior to the release of the Motu Proprio, Pope Benedict released the Apostolic Exhortation Sacraméntum Caritátis, in which he asked that the faithful become familiar with the [Ordinary Form] Latin Mass and that seminaries train future priests in Gregorian Chant and the celebration of the [OF] Latin Mass. He also recommended that tabernacles be located in the center of the sanctuary, in a high altar if one exists, and that the celebrant’s chair not block it.

Pope Benedict set important examples: He restored use of chanted Propers and elaborate traditional vestments to his Ordinary Form Masses in the Vatican Basilicas. He distributes Holy Communion only on the tongue to kneeling communicants.

Tridentine Masses have been held at several prominent altars of the Major Basilicas of Rome, including St. Peter’s Basilica. A fairly large church in Rome, Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, was given to the exclusive use of the Extraordinary Form.

In 2010, the Vatican Press published an Altar Missal for the Extraordinary Form, which has ever since remained among their best-selling books. Even today it is the first book listed on their web site, www.paxbook.com, along with Extraordinary Form versions of the Roman Ritual and the Breviary.

Much press coverage has been devoted to Pope Benedict’s efforts to reconcile with the Society of St. Pius X. Less well known is the successfully completed reconciliation with the formerly schismatic Transalpine Redemptorist priests in Papa Stronsay, Scotland. New groups have also been welcomed: In 2006 in France the Institute of the Good Shepherd was founded, a society of priests devoted to the Extraordinary Form, now with apostolates in four countries. Several smaller groups of priests and nuns devoted to the EF have also been founded or regularized.

In 2009, Pope Benedict restructured the Pontifical Commission Ecclésia Dei, the Vatican department in charge of the Extraordinary Form, placing it under the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Via the aforementioned documents Summórum Pontíficum and Univérsæ Ecclésiæ, the PCED has been given greater authority in assisting the faithful to obtain Tridentine Masses in their local dioceses.

Prior to Benedict’s papacy, it was a rare sight for a bishop to celebrate the Tridentine Mass, and if they did so, it tended to be done rather quietly. Today an increasing number of bishops, including San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and Portland Archbishop-designate Alexander Sample, make celebration of the EF a regular part of their schedule. One of the highest profile celebrants is Antonio Cardinal Cañizares Llovera, the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship. It is inspiring to realize that the head of the Vatican’s department in charge of the Ordinary Form makes it a point to celebrate the Extraordinary Form with some regularity.

Speaking of the CDW, in August, 2011, Pope Benedict issued the Motu Proprio Quærit Semper, in which His Holiness gave the CDW “a fresh impetus to promoting the Sacred Liturgy in the Church...on the basis of the Constitution Sacrosánctum Concílium.” The first major step was the creation of a new office of the CDW which will establish guidelines for sacred architecture and liturgical music, ensuring that the rich traditions of the past are guiding principles in the design of new church buildings and the composition of new sacred music.

The CDW has also announced that it will soon be issuing a “Manual to Help Priests Celebrate Mass”. One of the topics included will be a suggestion that Mass in the Ordinary Form be celebrated ad oriéntem, with the celebrant facing in the same direction in the congregation as he leads them in prayer, as is the norm in the Extraordinary Form. Pope Benedict himself gave regular example of this liturgical posture at the Masses he celebrated at the High Altar in the Sistine Chapel.

In February, 2003, the only diocesan-approved Tridentine Mass in metro Detroit was in a humble nursing home chapel in Windsor with a congregation of 12 people. Ten years later, in February, 2013, there are 15 churches in the area that offer the Mass, serving a combined congregation of almost 1,000 every Sunday. Whereas it used to be difficult to interest priests in celebrating the Extraordinary Form, nowadays there is no lack of priests who desire to say the Mass; the only real challenge is their availability. To the surprise of many of the older guard, it is young priests, young musicians, and young adults in general who are leading a local – and to large extent a worldwide – resurgence of interest in something they may not even have known existed ten years ago. That is Benedict’s legacy in metro Detroit and Windsor.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Mon. 02/18 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (Feria of Lent)
• Tue. 02/19 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Assumption-Windsor (Feria of Lent)
• Fri. 02/22: At Holy Family, Detroit:

* Rosary at 6:00 PM
* Stations of the Cross at 6:30 PM
* High Mass at 7:00 PM
* Pasta & Salad Dinner after Mass – no charge

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat (Detroit) and Assumption (Windsor) bulletin inserts for February 17, 2013. Hat tip to A.B., author of the column.]