Tridentine Community News - The Rite of Betrothal – Part 3 of 3

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News by Alex Begin (September 29, 2019):

September 29, 2019 – Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel

The Rite of Betrothal – Part 3 of 3


5. Thereupon he blesses the engagement ring:

V. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
R. Who made heaven and earth.
V. O Lord, hear my prayer.
R. And let my cry come unto Thee.
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.
Let us pray. O God almighty, Creator and Preserver of the human race, and the Giver of everlasting salvation, deign to allow the Holy Spirit, the Consoler, to come with His blessing upon this ring. Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for endless ages.
R. Amen.
The ring is sprinkled with holy water.

6. The man takes the ring and places it first on the index finger of the left hand of the woman, saying: In the name of the Father, (then on the middle finger, adding): and of the Son; (finally placing and leaving it on the ring finger, he concludes): and of the Holy Spirit.

7. The priest opens the missal at the beginning of the Canon, and presents the page imprinted with the crucifixion to be kissed first by the man and then by the woman.

8. If Mass does not follow (or even if Mass is to follow, if he deems it opportune), the priest may read the following passages from Sacred Scripture:

Tobias 7: 8

Tobias said: I will not eat nor drink here this day, unless thou first grant me my petition, and promise to give me Sara thy daughter… The angel said to Raguel: Be not afraid to give her to this man, for to him who feareth God is thy daughter due to be his wife; therefore another could not have her… And Raguel taking the right hand of his daughter, he gave it into the right hand of Tobias, saying: The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob be with you, and may He join you together, and fulfill His blessing in you. And taking paper they made a writing of the marriage. And afterwards they made merry, blessing God… Then Tobias exhorted the virgin, and said to her: Sara, arise, and let us pray to God today, and tomorrow, and the next day; because for these three nights we are joined to God; and when the third night is over, we will be in our own wedlock. For we are the children of saints, and we must not be joined together like heathens that know not God. So they both arose, and prayed earnestly both together that health might be given them.
R. Thanks be to God.

John 15: 4-12
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If any one abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you. In this is My Father glorified; that you bring forth very much fruit, and become my disciples. As the Father hath loved Me, I also have loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love; as I also have kept my Father’s commandments, and do abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and your joy may be filled. This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.
R. Praise be to Thee, O Christ!

9. Lastly, the priest extends his hands over the heads of the couple and says: May God bless your bodies and your souls. May He shed His blessing upon you as He blessed Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. May the hand of the Lord be upon you, may He send His holy Angel to guard you all the days of your life. Amen. Go in peace! 10. Before leaving the church, the betrothed couple as well as the witnesses will affix their signatures to the document previously prepared for this purpose. [The Ritual goes on to provide an example document.] 11. If Mass does not follow immediately, it would be appropriate to sing at this time the seasonal anthem of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Tue. 10/01 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Holy Name of Mary, Windsor (St. Remigius, Bishop & Confessor)
• Thu. 10/03 6:00 PM: Solemn High Mass at St. Mary of Redford (St. Therese of Lisieux, Virgin) – Rosary, Novena Prayers for fallen away Catholics, and veneration of relics follow the Mass
• Fri. 10/04 7:00 PM: High Mass at Old St. Mary’s (St. Francis of Assisi, Confessor) – First public Tridentine Mass of Fr. Adam Nowak. Devotions to the Sacred Heart before Mass. Reception after Mass. Juventútem gathering for young adults also follows.
• Sat. 10/05 8:30 AM: Low Mass at Miles Christi (Saturday of Our Lady)
• Sun. 10/06 6:00 PM: Solemn High Mass at St. Mary of Redford (External Solemnity of Our Lady of the Rosary) – Rosary, Novena Prayers for fallen away Catholics, and veneration of relics follow the Mass

[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. Albertus (Detroit), Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), and St. Alphonsus and Holy Name of Mary Churches (Windsor) bulletin inserts for September 29, 2019. Hat tip to Alex Begin, author of the column.]

Fr. Perrone: Divorce

Fr. Eduard Perrone, "A Pastor's Descant" (Assumption Grotto News, October 22, 2017):

This week's subject matter raised another issue upon examination of my relatives in terms of adherence to the Catholic faith. It has to do with the failure of marriages, what we have called, perhaps somewhat euphemistically, divorce. Once a rarely uttered word, like abortion in that remote past time of my life, divorce has inflicted my extended family as it has the general population. While I had intended to make a count of the number of divorces among my relatives I failed to do the needed calculations. Doesn't matter, really. The point is that this cancer has done its share of damage and created an uncomfortable family tension. There are "ex-" husbands and wives and their children who have suffered the consequences of their separated parents. There is the awkwardness of family gatherings, either on account of the missing spouse or else upon his unexpected presence. Most of all for me, there is the matter of the Catholic faith. For us, marriage is not only a lifelong pledged agreement of fidelity and commitment to a life lived in common, it is also a sacrament, a sacred union that derives its lifeblood from Christ. Every Catholic marriage failure is a manifestation of some personal sins, that is, of offenses against God's laws. To glibly ascribe divorce to 'irreconcilable differences' masks the transcendental meaning of divorce as sin. Unlike a so-called private sin, failed marriage does harm to at least one other person, and often to more, and this in the wider family relationships, in society generally, and in the Church specifically. We are a weaker, restive Church for prevalence of divorce since marriage is symbolically a reflection of the undivorceable marriage of Christ and the Church. Our Lord is always the faithful groom, and His people are collectively His bride. He pledged His life in sacrifice to win this spouse for Himself by His meritorious death. He will never retract His marital vows to her. The fidelity of the Church espoused to Christ is expressed in her adhesion to His teachings and in the refusal to prefer sin to His grace. The high incidence of divorce among Catholic spouses is symptomatic of the infidelity of many Catholic people to their baptismal marriage "vows" to Christ. Their total acceptance of Catholic belief (doctrine) and their determined abstention from a sinful manner of life have too often been set aside either for some other religion or for some other way of life. Divorce is only the outward sign of the internal marital infidelity of the Church membership to Christ.

Our familiarity with divorce can inure us to being mindful and sensitive to it symbolic significance in terms of the faith. The response to divorce among Catholic people must always be fidelity to Christ's doctrines and to His commandments. Instead of this only permissible solution, proposals to accommodate our Lord's teachings and His laws are being seriously considered by the pope, some bishops and priests, and by some desperately but deludedly hopeful divorced and re0cohabitating couples (I say not "remarried"). Behind this scandalous suggestion is the idea that if one cannot abide by the law (in this case, divine law) then the law itself should be abrogated, or at least adjusted to present circumstances. This is the most pernicious aspect of what's being advocated by the allowing divorced and re-"married" people (without Church annulment) to receive the sacraments without the necessary requirement of total continence (the non-use of the marital act). The reason why this is so grievous is that, if admitted, it would unravel the whole moral law of God and all the Church discipline concerning what is sacred. In brief, by it the whole Catholic and Christian faith would be cast away. All would be remade or readjusted, as if to force God into submission to man's weaknesses rather than insist on wek man's obedience to God. Thus one would have the triumph of man over God. The great 'divorce' would have been achieved and God's marriage to the church would be undone.

The rebellion against the traditional biblical and ecclesiastical understanding of marriage and the sacraments has seeds in the souls of everyone who regrets the binding force that God's natural law has upon him. It expresses an old resentment that God should make demands upon humanity, demands that defy man's beastly craving for limitless freedom from strictures. Those who decry the outrageous proposals for change in the church's laws governing marriage and the sacraments are those who are themselves beset with the disorder of original sin's residue; yet they rightly insist that God's laws are irrevocable, unreformable by anyone: pope, bishop, layman. In the still raging controversy over Catholic re-"marriage" and reception of the sacraments one ought to take a more inclusive, panoramic view of what this means. It is the preamble to a declaration of war of man against God, of human willfulness over obedience to Him, of a divorce and a riddance of the divine Groom who ever remains faithful despite His spouses' menacing threats of desertion.

Fr. Perrone

"Sex-drenched"

Thus reads another missive from our underground correspondent, Guy Noir - Private Eye, sent yet again by carrier pigeon from God-knows-where. Unfolded and spread on the table, it read:

Ding ding ding! Read this (but kids, please be safe…)

Rod Dreher, "Cheap Sex = Dying Christianity" (American Conservative, September 5, 2017), who quotes Mark Regnerus, "Christians are part of the same dating pool as everyone else. That's bad for the church." (Washington Post, September 5, 2017):

Cheap sex, it seems, has a way of deadening religious impulses. It’s able to poke holes in the “sacred canopy” over the erotic instinct, to borrow the late Peter Berger’s term. Perhaps the increasing lack of religious affiliation among young adults is partly a consequence of widening trends in nonmarital sexual behavior among young Americans, in the wake of the expansion of pornography and other tech-enhanced sexual behaviors.

Cohabitation has prompted plenty of soul searching over the purpose, definition and hallmarks of marriage. But we haven’t reflected enough on how cohabitation erodes religious belief.

We overestimate how effectively scientific arguments secularize people. It’s not science that’s secularizing Americans — it’s sex.

About which, Noir noted that decades ago Frank Sheed also wrote on sex, as one finds here in this beautifully arranged post entitled "Let's Talk about Sex" (September 9, 2017).

In answer to which, sent back to Noir via carrier pigeon the following reply, folded up in a paper:

This is good stuff from Sheed. As always. I've run into several things on the topic lately, and one thing I'm gathering is that (ironically) the actual practice of sexual intercourse has dropped off precipitously since the advent of pornography. In Japan they're apparently no longer interested in getting married. It seems that actual relationships with real human beings are too much trouble. People are too busy having sex with themselves to trouble themselves with having it with others.

Sad.

Contra Ivereigh: not just 'converts' are worried about the Church

Dan Hitchens, "It’s not just converts who are worried about the Church" (Catholic Herald, August 10, 2017):

In the last few years, many Catholics have become uneasy about statements coming out of Rome, and about the general direction of the Church. But which Catholics? According to a recent article in the Vatican newspaper, the “main obstacle” is “a good part of the clergy”. Then again, an article in Crux last year identified those “going against the Pope” as “almost always lay”.

Some believe that the issue is geographical: Massimo Faggioli describes an unease about the Church changing its style “from a Western one to a global religion”. Conversely, Cardinal Walter Kasper has said that the recalcitrant tend to be African or from “Asian or Muslim countries”....

This brings me to Austen Ivereigh’s latest piece suggesting that the epicentre of current anxiety is neither priests nor the laity, neither Westerners nor Africans, but converts. Ivereigh diagnoses “convert neurosis” in a range of writers, from “elegant commentators such as Ross Douthat” all the way down to “ex-Anglicans in my own patch such as Daniel Hitchens of the Catholic Herald.” Our neurosis reveals itself in disproportionate anxiety at the state of the Church; a horror of doctrinal development beyond our favourite period of Catholic history; and a failure to trust that “the Holy Spirit guides” Pope Francis. In sum, “their baggage has distorted their hermeneutic”.

I’m wary of this kind of psychologising: it is hard, even with those we know best, to say how their psychological issues affect their opinions. And in this instance the psychoanalysis seems needless, since there are at least as many cradle Catholics who have the same worries as us converts....

... I’m sorry to go over this again, but it seems worthwhile, since there is a determined effort in some quarters to change the subject. The concerns are about the sacraments and about doctrine. Nothing on this earth is more beautiful and precious than the sacraments, and it is natural for Catholics to be alarmed about the abuse of them. Scarcely anything is as necessary for our happiness as sound doctrine, and it is normal for Catholics to worry that doctrine is being contradicted or confused. There have been as many saints who were relaxed about heresy as there have been saints who despised the poor.

So of course converts and cradle Catholics will be dismayed by sacramental abuses and doctrinal confusion. And it is hard not to use such terms when we read Malta’s bishops claiming that avoiding adultery may be impossible; when we hear of priests, bishops and even cardinals abandoning the Church’s practice on Communion; when papal teachings are used – without contradiction from Rome – to justify novel approaches to divorce, euthanasia and extramarital relationships....

[Hat tip to JM]

The Ends of Marriage

By Unam Sanctam Catholicam. Examining the traditional Catholic understanding of the ends of marriage relating to why homosexual relationships can never be the basis for any authentic marriage. The relation between fertility and marital union and why acts which directly impede or negate fertility are immoral.

When an Oxford Don goes rogue and comes out in support of traditional marriage and family values

I understand Oxford Don Richard Swinburne created quite a stir when he addressed the Midwest meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers last fall. "The difficulty," according to The Editors of First Things, was that in the course of exploring these topics, Swinburne characterized homosexuality as a “disability” and a condition that, while sometimes “to a considerable extent reversible,” in many instances is “incurable,” given the present state of medical research.

The Editors continue:

Given the current state of public life and the stringency of academic moral codes in favor of diversity and tolerance, it will be no surprise to our readers that the president of the Society of Christian Philosophers, Michael Rea, subsequently expressed his “regret regarding the hurt caused by” Swinburne’s paper, suggesting that Swinburne’s ideas were inconsistent with the Society’s “values of diversity and inclusion.”

Rea’s message has triggered a reaction on the other side. So far the situation has been commented on by Joseph Shaw, Edward Feser, and Rod Dreher, along with eighty-seven philosophers who signed a letter of protest against the principles implied in Rea’s apology. We at First Things were curious about the paper that prompted all the to-do, and so we asked Professor Swinburne whether he would be willing to let us make his paper available. He has generously agreed.

You can read it here [PDF download].

Here is a video of Swinburne's live presentation:

More light on a persistent confusion

Mats Wahlberg,"The Two Faces of Amoris Laetitia" (First Things, April 4, 2017), writes:

Two completely different—and logically incompatible—arguments in favor of communion for the divorced and remarried have figured in the synodal process that led up to Amoris Laetitia. Despite their incompatibility, both arguments can be found in Amoris itself, at least according to many of the document’s interpreters. Here is one of the arguments:

A) Living in a new sexual relationship after a divorce from a valid marriage can in some cases be objectively morally good or at least morally acceptable, namely in cases where the new relationship is so established that the well-being of children and other innocent persons would be jeopardized if the couple were to separate or attempt to live as “brother and sister.” Jeopardizing the well-being of innocent persons would be unjust, which is to say immoral, and this means that the morally right course of action is to preserve and nurture the new relationship. This is why persons who are in this kind of situation can receive communion.

Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J., senior analyst for the National Catholic Reporter, has no doubt that this is how Pope Francis reasons: “Francis would be sympathetic to the woman who put her husband through law school waiting tables but then got dumped for a pretty, younger associate. She is now married to a loving plumber who is a good father to the children from both marriages. Telling her to abandon her new husband or live as brother and sister is not only absurd, it is unjust” (National Catholic Reporter, Dec 8 2016, my emphasis). However, some other commentators who embrace communion for the divorced and remarried reject this argument out of hand. According to them, the pope reasons like this:

B) Living in a sexual relationship after a divorce from a valid marriage is always objectively gravely immoral, but various factors can diminish or even remove subjective guilt. So while the situation itself is gravely sinful, the persons involved in it need not be in a state of mortal sin. This is why some of them can receive communion.

The philosopher Rocco Buttiglione advances this interpretation. “Sexual relations outside of marriage are without doubt gravely contrary to the moral law. This was the case before Amoris Laetitia, this is still the case in Amoris Laetitia. … Again, there is no doubt as to whether [the divorced and remarried person] is living in an objective situation of grave sin, except in the limited case of an invalid marriage. Whether he or she is carrying the full subjective responsibility and is at fault remains to be seen” (L’Osservatore Romano, July 19 2016).

Then, skipping ahead to the conclusion, we read:

Since Argument A is very persuasive, taken on its own terms, it is no wonder that intelligent and faithful Catholics feel its pull and are moved to advocate what they see as a merciful pastoral solution for people in difficult marriage situations. And it is no wonder that faithful Catholics prefer to defend this pastoral solution in terms of another, incompatible argument—the arguably orthodox Argument B—that allows them to claim that no doctrine has changed. However, this double play can only go on for so long in “good faith.” And the time when Arguments A and B could be innocently confused is over.

Now, go back and read the detailed argument in between at the original source.g

Tridentine Community News - Churches for weddings in the Extraordinary Form; Former Detroit Tridentine Mass Organist Dr. Steven Ball Arranges Altar Serving Training in Atlantic City; riduum Tridentine Mass Schedule; TLM schedule this coming week

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News by Alex Begin (April 2, 2017):

April 2, 2017 – Passion Sunday

Churches for Weddings in the Extraordinary Form


A few weeks ago a wedding in the Extraordinary Form was held at Detroit’s magnificent, historic Sweetest Heart of Mary Church [photo above]. Sweetest Heart is one of the most popular sites for Catholic weddings in Detroit due to its grandeur, elaborate stained glass, and detail of sacred art.

Are you or someone you know looking for an ornate church that will permit a wedding in the Extraordinary Form? Consider making inquiry with these churches in our region which have either already hosted Tridentine wedding(s) or have a track record of being friendly to tradition:

Detroit: Assumption Grotto, Holy Family, Holy Redeemer, Old St. Mary’s, St. Albertus, St. Hyacinth, St. Josaphat, St. Joseph, Sweetest Heart of Mary

Bloomfield Hills: OCLMA/Academy of the Sacred Heart Chapel

Wyandotte: Our Lady of the Scapular

Windsor: St. Benedict/St. Alphonsus

Former Detroit Tridentine Mass Organist Dr. Steven Ball Arranges Altar Serving Training in Atlantic City


For many years Dr. Steven Ball was a prominent substitute organist at Detroit and Windsor Tridentine Mass sites. He was organist at Detroit’s Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, Carillonneur and Professor of Music at the University of Michigan, and organist at Ann Arbor’s Michigan Theatre. He also refurbished the tower bells at Detroit’s St. Albertus and Windsor’s Assumption Churches. In 2013 he relocated to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he is now organist and Director of Outreach for the restoration of the world’s largest pipe organ at Boardwalk Hall.

Last fall Steven became the organist and choir director for the year-old Tridentine Mass at Atlantic City’s historic St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church. In only its second year of existence, the Sunday 8:45 AM Tridentine Mass is already supported by a professional choir and regularly attracts tourists as well as locals. Last weekend Steven and celebrant Fr. Thanh Pham arranged an altar server training workshop to support the growing team of men young and not-so-young who desire to serve the Sacred Liturgy according to the mind of the Church. Steven invited this author to conduct the training; he hopes to recreate at St. Nicholas much of the quality of worship that he fondly recalls from his time spent in our region.

Triduum Tridentine Mass Schedule

Holy Thursday, April 13

Oakland County Latin Mass Association at the Academy of the Sacred Heart Chapel, Bloomfield Hills: 7:00 PM. Members of the choir from Windsor’s St. Benedict Tridentine Community will join the OCLMA choir for special music during the Triduum.

St. Joseph Oratory: 7:00 PM

Good Friday, April 14

OCLMA/Academy: 1:30 PM

St. Joseph Oratory: 3:00 PM

Holy Name of Mary, Windsor: 5:30 PM

Easter Vigil, April 15

OCLMA/Academy: 8:00 PM

St. Joseph Oratory: 9:00 PM

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Mon. 04/03 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (Monday in Passion Week)
• Tue. 04/04 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Rosary Chapel at Assumption Church, Windsor (Tuesday in Passion Week) – Special location this week only
• Fri. 04/07 7:00 PM: High Mass at Old St. Mary’s, Detroit (Friday in Passion Week) – First Friday Devotions before Mass. Reception after Mass. Celebrant: Fr. Louis Madey

[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. Albertus (Detroit), Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), and St. Alphonsus and Holy Name of Mary Churches (Windsor) bulletin inserts for April 2, 2017. Hat tip to Alex Begin, author of the column.]

"To Hell with Accompaniment"

Douglas Farrow, "To Hell with Accompaniment" (First Things, March 2017, via Abyssus Abyssum Invocat, February 9, 2017):

Is the pope Catholic?” used to be an answer, not a question. Alas, it has become a question; or rather it has become five questions, in the form of the dubia put to Pope Francis by four of his cardinals. In good Jesuit fashion, Francis seems to be making his reply by other means—since responding directly to dubia is apparently distasteful, as even the Prefect of the Holy Office Gerhard Cardinal Müller has now said. Thus far, the replies (comments about pharisaical doctors of the law, and that sort of thing) are not very reassuring. Actually, very little one hears from the Vatican these days reassures.

This leaves those of us who are struggling with “discernment of situations” (to use the phrase from Familiaris Consortio that was taken up by Amoris Laetitia) in some perplexity, not so much in the matter of marriage and family life as in the life of the Church herself. Reckoning with a pope whose own remarks seem somewhat erratic is one thing. But how are we to reckon with a situation in which the administration of the sacraments, and the theology behind their administration, is succumbing, with his blessing, to regionalism? In other words, how are we to reckon with a situation, nicely timed to the quincentenary of the Reformation, in which being Catholic begins to look quite a lot like being Protestant?

The trauma of the two synods on the family, which led to Amoris and to the dubia, is a trauma for which Francis himself is largely responsible. The ongoing rebellion against Humanae Vitae and Veritatis Splendor is something that he has permitted, if not encouraged. And the flaws in Amoris are of his making. His unwillingness to respond directly to the dubia is not, then, a matter of taste only. In any event, the very fact that the dubia have been put—and they have been well put, whether or not they should have been put publicly—has carried the whole difficulty beyond matters of taste. Cardinal Müller’s denial that there is a doctrinal problem here is unconvincing.

Read more >>

The bottom line on Amoris

This was published last Sunday, but if you haven't seen it yet, I think it's probably the clearest illustration I've seen of problems posed by efforts to square the circle by those the author calls "Amoris Supporters":

Eduard Peters, "Conscience can't be the final arbiter on who gets Communion" (Crux, January 8 2017).

A fundamental, as he points out, is this:

Typical pastors reading 'Amoris' are likely to stumble into accepting its central flaw, namely, assuming that an individual Catholic’s assessment of his or her own conscience is the sole criterion that governs a minister’s decision to give holy Communion to a member of the faithful.

Read more >>

Society of Biblical Lit. bans InterVarsity Press from its conference ... for its BIBLICAL stand on sexuality

In case you missed this, like I did, here's the article: "InterVarsity Press faces book conference ban" (World, October 19, 2016).

[Hat tip to JM]

How Amoris Laetitia is balkanizing the Church

Sandro Magister, "In Rome Yes, In Florence No. Here's How 'Amoris Laetitia' Is Dividing the Church" (www.chieza, October 14, 2016): "In the pope’s diocese, the divorced and remarried can receive communion, in other Italian dioceses no. Because every bishop is deciding as he wishes. A manual by Cardinal Antonelli for confessors who want to remain faithful to perennial doctrine."

Meanwhile Cardinal-designate Kevin Farrell says that "Amoris Laetitia is 'the Holy Spirit speaking'" (National Catholic Reporter, October 14, 2016). Go figure.

Two demurrals from Mirus

Edward Peters, "My I demur re Mirus this once?" (In the Light of the Law, September 13, 2016):

Pretty much everything Dr. Jeff Mirus writes is worth reading, but his latest column, correctly defending Pope Francis against charges of heresy based on his endorsement of the Buenos Aires Directive, overstates the argument in one small, technical regard and, I think, misses a larger, more important point in another. I basically agree with everything Mirus wrote, except as follows. Read more >>

Dr. John Lamont, "Dr. Jeffrey Mirus on marriage and the Eucharist" - via "Op-Ed: 'Adultery as a venial sin' -- and other absurdities of trying to defend the indefensible Francis Doctrine" (Rorate Caeli, September 15, 2016):

Dr. Jeffrey Mirus has recently published an article entitled ‘Not heretical: Pope Francis’ approval of the Argentine bishops’ policy on invalid marriages’ [available here]. The object of this article is to argue that Pope Francis has not asserted or endorsed heresy in approving of a recent document issued by some Argentinian bishops concerning the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. To justify this conclusion, Dr. Mirus makes a number of claims about moral behaviour and the discipline of the sacraments.

These claims urgently need to be addressed. Read more >>

Related: And now a response from Dr. Jeff Mirus, "Papal governance by sleight-of-hand strains my grasp of culpability and Canon Law" (CatholicCulture.org, September 16, 2016).

Canonis Ed Peters on "the Buenos Aires directive"

Ed Peters, "On the Buenos Aires directive" (In the Light of the Law, September 13, 2016). As always, superlatively clear, eminently edifying, and right on the money.

Britney Spears "finds grace in the hook-up" while Jamie Lynn Spears thinks "love should take it slow"

Commenting on Spencer Kornhaber's article, "Britney Spears Finds Grace in the Hook-Up" (Atlantic, August 26, 2016), our underground correspondent, Guy Noir - Private Eye writes, in a cracker-jack display of journalistic finesse:

The Atlantic, the magazine for the 'good writing' crowd, yes, *The Atlantic* is publishing music reviews giving props to mall teen baby making pop. So goes the culture when two parent families are seen as a quaint commodity. I guess it's now 'all good' now matter how hormonally hyped if the message is 'chill' bohemian (Chris Brown, please leave the room), the producers trendy, and the production ingredients urban shiny. But the sophisticate's confession of faith in sex = salvation, tongue-in-cheekiness as it may be, paints poor Britney as a soon-to-be pop version of Snooki-crossed-with-Miranda Priestly. Oh wait, Madonna already has that part. Anyway...

And in a strangely-timed instance of You'd Never Know It's The Same Family, the Other Spears comes off [HERE] like an artful True Love Waits songstress. This is actually nice. Go figure.

Bravo.

Tridentine Community News - Rail Car Chapels; Juventútem Michigan Leaders to Wed; TLM Mass schedule

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News by Alex Begin (August 21, 2016):

August 21, 2016 – Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Rail Car Chapels Private rail cars have long been the province of politicians and the wealthy, but did you know that some have been outfitted to serve as Catholic chapels, hosting the Tridentine Mass? The Catholic Extension Society built at least three such cars. The St. Anthony Chapel Car is an early example, dating from 1908 and made out of wood.



A later example from the Extension Society is the St. Paul Chapel Car, made out of steel. The below diagram indicates that it contained a Communion Rail, organ, and behind the altar, priests’ living quarters. Even in regions such as Europe where rail travel is still a principal mode of long-distance transportation, it’s difficult to imagine that such a conveyance would be built today. Despite the cramped surroundings, it was still possible to hold an organ-accompanied High Mass in a dignified architectural setting. What a testament to the faith of the Catholics of that era.



Juventútem Michigan Leaders to Wed

Juventútem Michigan board members Michelle Harrison and Paul Schultz will marry each other at St. Thomas the Apostle, Ann Arbor, at 2:30 PM on Sunday, September 4. Everyone is invited to attend this Mass and to pray for their happy marriage. Fr. Zach Mabee will celebrate the Solemn High Mass for the Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost. Wassim Sarweh and singers from Windsor’s St. Benedict Choir will assist the Mass with Palestrina’s Missa Papæ Marcélli.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Mon. 08/22 7:00 PM: High Mass at Our Lady of the Scapular (Immaculate Heart of Mary) – Wassim Sarweh will provide the music
• Mon. 08/22 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (Immaculate Heart of Mary)
• Tue. 08/23 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Holy Name of Mary (St. Philip Benizi, Confessor)
• Sat. 08/27 8:30 AM: Low Mass at Miles Christi (St. Joseph Calasance, Confessor)
• Sun. 08/28 9:45 AM: Pontifical Missa Cantata at OCLMA/Academy of the Sacred Heart (Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost) – Celebrant: Bishop Donald Hanchon

[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. Albertus (Detroit), Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), and St. Alphonsus and Holy Name of Mary Churches (Windsor) bulletin inserts for August 21, 2016. Hat tip to Alex Begin, author of the column.]

Pope: All of Amoris Laetitia is 'sound doctrine'; & death penalty isn't

See John-Henry Westen's discussion HERE, where he shows Pope Francis doubling down on Amoris Laetitia and banning the death penalty as excluded by the Decalogue prohibition of murder.

[Hat tip to JM]

"The fearless wit and wisdom of Fr. George William Rutler"

K.V. Kurley, "The fearless wit and wisdom of Fr. George William Rutler" (CWR, July 7, 2016): "Rutler's writing is filled with fearlessness, and it is the best type of fearlessness: a willingness to perceive the truth that matters."

Just one excerpt:

Trying to redefine marriage by human fiat is to pretend that man is creator and not procreator. This old and regressive conceit began with the first lie in Eden: “You will be like God.” At the wedding in Cana, Christ’s mother said, “Whatever my son says to do, do it.” We are free not to do what he says. We are free even to play Humpty Dumpty with nature, only asking which is to be master of words instead of acknowledging the Word as Master. But when the social order has a great fall in consequence, all the politicians will not be able to put it back together again.

Read more >>

[Hat tip to JM]

On the idea that celibate clergy with no experience of marriage or sex are incompetent to advise laity on sexual morals

Joseph Selling of the Catholic University of Louvain composed and edited a document, entitled "Catholic Scholars' Statement on Marriage and the Family," in preparation for the Synods of 2014 and 2015. It offers a premier example of the now regnant conceits of self-styled 'progressive' dissenters in the Catholic Church.

Several ideas Prof. Selling is trying his hand at selling his audience are extracted for examination and analysed by David Mills in "While We're At It - Pt. XVIII" (First Things, February 2014): 

• “The vast majority of official teaching of the church on marriage and the family has been prepared and promulgated by men who have no direct, personal experience of married life in the contemporary world. They have made promises of celibacy which exclude any form of sexual relationship. As a result, relatively little of the teaching in this area clearly speaks to persons who are attempting to come to terms with their sexuality, to find and enter into meaningful relationships, and to prepare for a life of committed, mutual love that may involve the challenges of parenthood.”
So claims the Catholic Scholars’ Statement on Marriage and the Family issued by a professor at the Catholic University of Louvain and signed by a variety of dissenting Catholic theologians, though apparently none of the writer’s colleagues at Louvain, and good for them. About a third were listed as emeritus or retired. Sr. Jeannine Grammick and Georgetown’s Peter Phan appear.

Some priests and bishops may not convey the teaching very well, but the Church has the laity for that. If all old Fr. Tortellini can do is recite the rules, Mr. and Mrs. Antonelli can explain how those rules work out for good in practice.

Of all people capable of rational analysis of sex and human sexuality, celibates are the most likely to examine the matter dispassionately and disinterestedly. The fact that they don’t have a dog in the fight (other than their concern for the lives and eternal destinies of their people) helps them see more clearly what’s what. But of course what the statement means by “clearly speaks” is not “explains the teaching in a way people can understand and live” but “says what we think it should say.”

• It’s a contentious claim, that celibates are the most likely to examine the matter dispassionately and disinterestedly, writes Anna Sutherland, until last May one of our junior fellows. “The fact that it’s so contentious exposes what seems to be a common but false assumption: that you can’t really understand a sin if you haven’t committed it yourself, when in fact sin has a blinding, not an enlightening, effect.”

We may be better able to relate to someone like St. Augustine who sinned and repented, she continues, “but Jesus and the saints were more insightful, not less so, because of their holiness.” This we find hard to believe, so deeply have most of us ­absorbed the idea that experience brings ­knowledge.

 This recalls, as one reader writes, some Frank Sheed:

"Serving God does not give us the same kind of here-and-now pleasure that sin gives.  To eyes as little trained to reality as ours, there is a color and energy in sin, by comparison with which virtues look pallid and half-alive."

 Caveat emptor!

[Hat tip to JM]

Hmm ... most marriages today are 'null,' but cohabitors are essentially 'married'; and pederast priests are damned but man-boy love is peachy. Is that about right?

There is so much of what sounds like double-speak these days, it's enough to spin your head. I was just listening to the news and imagining how Joe Six Pack might understand what he heard. The Pope reportedly said that "The great majority of our sacramental marriages are null." But he followed that up by declaring: "I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in [unmarried] cohabitations, and I am sure that this is a real marriage, they have the grace of a real marriage because of their fidelity ..." Ummm. Okay. How would Archie Bunker understand that? For that matter, how would nearly anyone understand it?

Then there's the cognitive dissonance produced by the just condemnation of priestly pedophilia and pederasty (which actually turns out according to the John Jay College of Criminal Justice to be ephebophilia, or homosexual relations with adolescent young men), on the one hand, and then the existence of such respected national organizations as NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) in the wake of the gay juggernaut that brought about the Obergefalling of the Supreme Court. How would Archie understand that? Emmm ... Any heads ready to explode?