U.S. Ordinariate pushback again EF?

Hey, where's the trust? Christian Clay Columba Campbell, "Monsignor Steenson Continues to Express Enmity Toward the Extraordinary Form" (The Anglo-Catholic, July 29, 2012), writes:

I have it on unimpeachable authority that there is on ongoing crackdown on those AU/Ordinariate priests who would dare to learn or celebrate the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite on the part of Steenson, Hurd, and Chalmers. The affected priests are naturally frightened, and unwilling to go on record, but make no mistake, the leadership of the U.S. Ordinariate at present has set itself against both Summorum Pontificum and Anglicanorum coetibus. I also have it on good authority that this intimidation, an abuse of power, is being reported directly to the Roman Authorities. And the contention that the traditional Latin Mass has no bearing on the Anglican Patrimony — this simply has me flabbergasted. Is there just a shortsightedness on the part of the Ordinary, or is he ignorant of the history of English Catholicism?

[Hat tip to Rorate Caeli]

Related:"NLM: 'The Potentialities of the English Missal for the Ordinariate and the Roman Rite'" (Rorate Caeli, August 2, 2012):

The Ordinariates for former Anglicans established by Anglicanorum coetibus can be something mediocre and tame - but they can also be something truly great for the whole Church. The name of the game-changer is "The English Missal" (the Anglo-Catholic translation of the traditional Roman Missal in Early Modern English), not as the sole rite, but as a possibility open to all their priests - and our friend Shawn Tribe, of The New Liturgical Movement, explains why. Read more >>

Trent, Vatican II, and clarity

Catholics tortured within living memory

The untold story of Marxist torture of Catholics in hundreds of Romanian 'prisons' during the 1970s and 1980s, while the Bee Gees hit made famous by John Travolta, "Staying Alive" soared to the top of the charts back in the U.S.A.

Is it permissible to worry about the future of the Church?

A profound question posed by Rorate Caeli about realism about the current circumstances of the Church and words of encouragement from St. Maximilian Kolbe about the promises of Christ:

The fact that the Church is of God and exists because of supernatural life, is today made to correspond to an absolute prohibition of worrying about Her future in the world.

Nowadays, whoever dares express in public their disquiet about the destiny of the Bride of Christ in the world, is immediately assaulted by a mighty chorus of judging voices that cry: “How dare you be so pessimistic, the Church belongs to the Lord, it is not right for you to speak like this, She is never going to be abandoned by God.”

In Catholic environments, you can hardly express anymore a realistic judgment about the situation in the Church....

Extraordinary Community News

Tridentine Community News (July 29, 2012, External Solemnity of Ste. Anne):

Upcoming Special Masses in Historic Churches: August 4: Holy Family Church, Detroit

The Tridentine Mass continues to be reintroduced in an increasing number of local historic churches. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Andrew Fanco and Paul Schultz, Juventútem Michigan’s annual pilgrimage walk through Detroit this coming Saturday, August 4 will conclude with Mass in the Extraordinary Form at 7:00 PM at Detroit’s Holy Family Church. The Mass will be the anticipated Mass of the Ninth Sunday After Pentecost.

Located in downtown Detroit on the west side (southbound) service drive of I-75 adjacent to the Blue Cross Tower, Holy Family is an Italian/Sicilian parish with a long tradition of reverent liturgy. Parking is along the street; a few spaces are available on the driveway that encircles the back of the church.

Holy Family is one of very few churches in the world which can make the claim that almost every scheduled Mass it has ever offered has been in Latin, including even weekday Masses. Until recently, almost every scheduled Mass has also been celebrated ad oriéntem. That being said, the Mass on Saturday will be the first public Tridentine Mass to have been celebrated at Holy Family in over 40 years.

While the Mass is part of a Juventútem event, faithful of all ages are invited to attend.

August 14: St. Mary Star of the Sea, Jackson

The Tridentine Community in Jackson, Michigan is based at St. Joseph Church, a 1960s-era edifice. For only the second time in memory, they have arranged a special Mass at Jackson’s grand, historically-intact St. Mary Star of the Sea Church. The Mass will be an anticipated Mass for the Feast of the Assumption, on Tuesday, August 14 at 7:00 PM. It will be a Solemn High Mass with Deacon and Subdeacon, a form of the Tridentine Mass rarely celebrated in Jackson.

St. Mary Star of the Sea is located at 120 E. Wesley St. in downtown Jackson. The current church is the second one built by the parish and was dedicated in 1926 by Bishop Joseph Plagens, who just happens to have been pastor of Detroit’s Sweetest Heart of Mary Church at the time. In those years Jackson was a part of the Diocese of Detroit; now it is part of the Diocese of Lansing.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

Mon. 07/30 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (Ss. Abdon & Sennen, Martyrs)

Tue. 07/31 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Assumption-Windsor (St. Ignatius Loyola, Confessor)

Fri. 08/03 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus) [First Friday]

Sat. 08/04 7:00 PM: High Mass at Holy Family, Detroit ([Anticipated] Tenth Sunday After Pentecost)

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth" [Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@stjosaphatchurch.org. Previous columns are available at www.stjosaphatchurch.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat bulletin insert for July 29, 2012. Hat tip to A.B.]

Working class grows a bit testy?

Rainbow Flag Imperialism

In an article the provoked the ire of LGBT websites, Family Research Council wrote (July 16, 2012):

When it comes to foreign policy, the Obama Administration has made it clear they will have two priorities -- promoting homosexuality and promoting abortion. The Administration has not only vocalized this policy but been quick to put taxpayer funds and resources behind it -- regardless of other countries' views on the matter. Earlier this year in the country of Bulgaria, the Administration spent tax dollars on a Gay Bulgarian Film Festival as well as an "after show party." In June, the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria, alongside 12 ambassadors from other countries, endorsed that country's gay parade in an official declaration.

This brought the attention of 20 civil society organizations who wrote a letter to the embassies expressing their outrage that these countries would seek to promote activity that is against Bulgarian law, which clearly defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. This all seems to be part of the President's push, headed up by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to use official U.S. resources to promote homosexuality. For example, while the Administration is slow to defend oppressed Christians who are being killed for their beliefs in Muslim and communist countries, they took less than one day to condemn the Russian government for barring a homosexual pride parade in Moscow. It is clear with this Administration that family and babies take a back seat to exporting immorality.

Related:

• Daniel Mattson, "Why I Don’t Call Myself a Gay Christian" (On the Square, July 27, 2012).
• "Lewis On Homosexuality" (Adventures of a Christian Collegian, October 1, 2008).

[Hat tip to J.M.]

" Traditional Catholic soccer professional gets serious"

Rorate Caeli reported yesterday:

It is a rare thing to read about a major league sports figure who talks openly about Catholicism in a positive light. New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira did so a couple months ago in the National Catholic Register.

Even more enjoyable is to see a major league sports figure talk openly about the traditional Latin Mass in a positive light. In the same publication, Eddie Gaven, who played this week in the Major League Soccer all-star game, said the following:

I grew up with the Novus Ordo Mass, unaware of the Latin Mass. However, when I started looking into the faith more seriously, I came across the Latin Mass, which was quite an experience to see for the first time. It was beyond anything I’d ever dreamed of. There’s so much reverence in the Latin Mass, which I attend regularly now.

I’m very thankful to Pope Benedict for making the “extraordinary form” more widely available through his motu proprio five years ago. I enjoy sharing the Latin Mass with others and often invite teammates to attend with me. It truly is, as many have said before, the most beautiful thing outside of heaven.

The full article/interview may be read here.

[Hat tip to J.M.]

B16's "Bombshell By the Bay"

Rocco Palmo, "B16's 'Bombshell By the Bay' -- Marriage Chief Cordileone to Rock San Francisco" (Whispers in the Loggia, July 27, 2012):

Depending on how one looks at things, this Friday morning brings either the most courageously bold -- or stunningly brazen -- American appointment in the seven-year reign of Pope Benedict XVI.

. . . Now, finally, the dust has cleared... and even for a city well-accustomed to seismic activity, the ecclesial Richter Scale both by the Bay and well beyond is about to record a right whopper.

. . . at Roman Noon the pontiff named Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, 56 -- the San Diego-born head of the neighboring Oakland church since 2009, and lead hand behind the US bishops' national effort to defend the traditional definition of marriage -- to succeed Archbishop George Niederauer, who reached the retirement age of 75 in June 2011. Read more >>

Related:

• Lionheart: After several decades, a worthy bishop for the city of Saint Francis Plus: great Carmelite news (Rorate Caeli, July 27, 2012).

[Hat tip to J.M.]

Why Don't We Dress Up Anymore?

Jennifer Fulwiler, "Why don't we dress up anymore?" (NCR, June 27, 2012):

Last week Monsignor Charles Pope wrote a thought-provoking post lamenting our lax modern attitudes regarding the way we comport ourselves in public, especially when it comes to attire. It was occasioned by an ad for Skinny Girl liquor (which you can watch at the bottom of Msgr. Pope's post) that juxtaposes a caricature of a woman from the 1950s to modern women. The '50s woman wears a tailored dress, white gloves, high heels -- and of course the stereotype wouldn't be complete without a gaudy string of pearls. While this woman sits stiffly and rattles off rules about how a real lady behaves, the ad flashes to images of modern women having fun while breaking all of these rules (and drinking Skinny Girl beverages, naturally).

There's a lot one could say about this ad, starting with the crushing irony of the fact that its message dismisses the behavioral laws of generations past, while loudly proclaiming the unspoken laws of our own times ("A real woman watches her calories so that she can be 'skinny'!" one hears in the undertones of the entire marketing campaign). But I think that Msgr. Pope has identified the most telling aspect of the ad when he writes:

As the commercial rolls on, I think we see that we have lost a lot. The picture flashes away from the elegantly dressed woman, careful for modesty and dignity (though excessively portrayed), to the modern scene where we are suppose to rejoice and approve at how far women have come.

And what do we see? Half drunk women, with painted nails and flip flops, liquor bottles in abundance, and the indelicate and boorish behavior of those who have been drinking too much. Further there are numerous displays of immodest dress, immodest posture and unbecoming behaviors. In effect, if you ask me, it is a celebration of all in our culture that is boorish, immodest, indelicate, and excessively informal.

Read More >>
[Hat tip to J.M.]

Extraordinary Community News

Tridentine Community News (July 22, 2012):

Conference Reports: CMAA Sacred Music Colloquium

Your reporter was privileged to attend two significant liturgical conferences over the past month.

The largest and most successful convention on traditional Catholic sacred music yet was held June 25-July 1 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Church Music Association of America’s annual Sacred Music Colloquium attracted well over 200 participants. Seminars were offered on numerous aspects of music performance and directing, with a special emphasis on Gregorian Chant. Both the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms were given attention. Attendees spanned the spectrum, from singers new to the traditional repertoire, to veteran Tridentine Mass music directors. Liturgies were served by choirs organized to train singers, including a women’s chant choir, a men’s chant choir, and a mixed voice polyphonic choir. It was a pleasant surprise to run into Dr. Ron Prowse, the Music Director of Detroit’s Sacred Heart Seminary, as well as several well-known music directors from around the world, including Connecticut’s David Hughes and the London Oratory’s Charles Cole.

Interestingly, the principal Mass of the convention, held at Salt Lake’s Cathedral of the Madeleine, the Solemn High Tridentine Mass on Friday, June 29, was celebrated by none other than Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth, the General Secretary of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL). That’s right, the priest in charge of the new translation of the Ordinary Form was the celebrant of a major public Mass in the Extraordinary Form. He and Cardinal Cañizares Llovera of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments are examples of the clear trend of Church leaders charged with the Ordinary Form increasingly involving themselves with the Tridentine Mass.

Fota Liturgical Conference

The fifth annual Fota Liturgical Conference was held in Cork, Ireland July 7-9. Distinguished guests included Raymond Cardinal Burke and the new Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Charles Brown. Talks were of an academic nature, most revolving around the theme of the Sacrificial aspect of the Eucharist. Detroit was represented by Sacred Heart Seminary professor Fr. Daniel Jones, who presented a paper on St. Augustine.

Every Mass and Vespers service offered was according to the Extraordinary Form, at Cork’s historic Ss. Peter & Paul Church. A Pontifical Solemn Mass celebrated by Cardinal Burke was offered on Sunday, and the First Mass of an Institute of Christ the King priest was offered on Monday. The Lassus Scholars provided the music; this choir is based at Dublin’s St. Kevin Church and travels throughout Ireland to perform at many of the country’s major Tridentine Mass events. Interestingly, they chose polyphonic settings of most of the Mass Propers in favor of the traditional chant settings.

Catholic Ireland

Much has been written about the state of the Church in Ireland in recent months. Not to dismiss any of the unfortunate facts, it’s important to look at the bright side of things, as well. While not as dominating as in England, the Extraordinary Form has a significant and growing place in Irish Catholic life. For example, St. Kevin’s offers daily Tridentine Mass and a spectrum of devotions. The main Irish Catholic newspaper, the Catholic Voice, contains several articles and advertisements concerning the Tridentine Mass. For an idea of what is available, see the Latin Mass Society of Ireland’s web site, www.latinmassireland.org.

Architecturally, there are some truly stunning sites to behold. St. Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh, perched on the side of a hill overlooking a harbor where cruise ships dock, offers not only a magnificent vista, but inspiring, towering Gothic Revival design inside. St. Colman’s has been the site of occasional Tridentine Masses, with music supplied by ... you guessed it ... the Lassus Scholars.

St. Finbarr’s Oratory [pictured below] is an idyllic historic chapel on a lake in Gougane Barra, open all day. It marks the site where St. Finbarr established a monastery in the 6th century. There is something intensely spiritual about this particular site, heightened by the mist and rainbows that occur over the lake due to Ireland’s seemingly continually alternating intervals of rain and sun. Imagine a smaller, more isolated version of St. Hugo’s Stone Chapel [in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan]. Today St. Finbarr’s is a popular site for weddings.


One concluding observation: In Ireland you drive on the left. In Ireland the driver’s seat is on the right. In Ireland the streets are ... narrow. In Ireland there are countless country roads with no shoulders, on which farm tractors will come at you in the opposite direction, occupying at least 50% of the width of the road. In Ireland you will learn the true meaning of fear while driving. St. Christopher, patron of drivers, pray for those renting cars in Ireland.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

Mon. 07/23 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (St. Apollinaris, Bishop & Martyr)

Tue. 07/24 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Assumption-Windsor (St. Christina, Virgin & Martyr)

Wed 07/25: Previously announced Mass at St. Josaphat cancelled

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth" [Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@stjosaphatchurch.org. Previous columns are available at www.stjosaphatchurch.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat bulletin insert for July 22, 2012. Hat tip to A.B.]

The fake unity of multi-lingual Masses (vs Latin)

An anonymous priest's rant is posted by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, "GUEST RANT: Many languages for Mass and fake 'unity'" (WDTPRS, July 20, 2012).

Vatican II called for the preservation of Latin in the mandated reform of the Roman liturgy. Most Catholics today find it convenient to forget this, assuming that Latin was an alienating, divisive thing that kept the pew peasants in ignorance about what was going in the Mass. Besides, learning Latin today would be a chore and a drudgery. So to Latin they bid "Good riddance!" and to the Vernacular they bid "Welcome!"

But then one finds that people today are rather grandiloquent about celebrating cultural diversity. In large metropolitan parishes one frequently encounters occasions when parts of the Mass are parceled out to native speakers or those otherwise fluent in various languages -- Spanish, Vietnamese, Polish, Italian, Portuguese, German, French, etc. -- in an expansive and sometimes all-too-self-congratulatory display of linguistic diversity and prowess.

All of this, of course, is quite as bewildering as it is impressive. Does anyone imagine that the majority of any congregation is familiar (let alone fluent) in all of these languages? Or even two or three? Is the purpose of jettisoning the Latin being forgotten here? Or wasn't the purpose effective communication to begin with? Hmmmmm ........

One thing apparent to anyone familiar with the traditional form Latin rite is that the rudiments of the Mass are transparently clear to anyone acclimated to it. Evelyn Waugh, a convert to the Catholic Faith in 1930, attests to this. The ordinary parts of the Mass -- the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei -- were always familiar even to those untutored in Latin. Any Catholic of age before the 1960s knew what was signified by these parts of the Mass (he knew, for example, what "Kyrie eleison" or "Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi" means), which seems more than one can sometime assume of English-speaking adults these days in the ordinary form of the Mass.

Furthermore, one could go to any country in the world and celebrate the same Mass with an identical form. This is not true since 1970. Any properly-catechized Catholic adult might figure out roughly where he is in the Mass, but the ordinary parts of the Mass would not be familiar, as they would be if he were acclimated to the Latin in the traditional Latin Mass. At one of the Spanish-language Masses I frequented in NC, the musical setting for one of the ordinary parts of the Mass was regularly Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence." If one did not know Spanish, he might well wonder what was going on.

But all this is a mere detail. Here's the post from the guest priest on Fr. Z's blog:

In my diocese we are often asked (read, expected, pressured) to participate in or to celebrate Masses in more than one language in the name of multi-culturalism. I am not talking Latin here. The result is that for bilingual people they are great, and for those who are not, at least half the Mass is incomprehensible. It is something of an irony, since I thought the very thing the liberals of the Church wanted was to run like lemmings towards the sea away from a language they could not understand. But now its all the rage, particularly in the Southwest where Spanish is so common. But now they cannot help themselves but make us sit through the new Mass to be culturally enriched by a modern romance language we do not understand. I am told that at a recent LA Religious Ed conference they did a Mass in five modern languages, meaning that four fifths of the devoted attendees did not know what they were listening to. My preference under such circumstances would indeed be Latin for real multiculturalism…but thats not going to happen where I live. Any thoughts?

"Wheaton College (Protestant) joins Catholic institutions in lawsuit against HHS mandate"

Wheaton College is joining Catholic instititutions to fight the Obama Administrations attacks on our 1st Amendment rights.

Any of you familiar with the Evangelical world have got to find this interesting. Wheaton College is the flagship academic institution of the American Evangelical world. It is as all-American and Evangelical as Billy Graham and the magazine Christianity Today.

Read more here >>

Honors & awards: “Somebody else made that happen!”

[Hat tip to Fr. Z]

Extraordinary Community News

Tridentine Community News (July 15, 2011):

Each year on the Sunday closest to July 16, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, both Assumption-Windsor and St. Josaphat Churches bless and distribute Brown Scapulars and enroll those who have not yet been enrolled in the scapular. Enrollment is a form of blessing that is only to be done once in a person’s life. As the enrollment prayer must be prayed in Latin and is rarely printed for the faithful to read, today we are printing the rite in both Latin and English. The text is from the Extraordinary Form Rituále Románum, the Church’s book of rites and blessings. The version for enrolling multiple people is presented, as we ordinarily use on this occasion.

Latin

℣. Osténde nobis, Dómine, misericórdiam tuam.
℟. Et salutáre tuum da nobis.
℣. Dómine, exáudi oratiónem meam.
℟. Et clamor meus ad te véniat.
℣. Dóminus vobíscum.
℟. Et cum spíritu tuo.

Orémus.
Dómine Jesu Christe, humáni géneris Salvátor, hunc hábitum, quem propter tuum tuaéque Genitrícis Vírginis Maríæ de Monte Carmélo amórem servi tui devóte sunt est delatúri déxtera tua sanctí+fica, ut eádem Genitríce tua intercedénte, ab hoste malígno defénsi in tua grátia usque ad mortem persevérent: Qui vivis et regnas in saécula sæculórum.
℟. Amen.

Áccipe hunc hábitum benedíctum, precans sanctíssimam Vírginem, ut ejus méritis illum pérferas sine mácula, et te ab omni adversitáte deféndat, atque ad vitam perdúcat ætérnam.
℟. Amen.

Ego, ex potestáte mihi concéssa, recípio vos ad participatiónem ómnium bonórum spirituálium, quae, cooperánte misericórdia Jesu Christi, a Religiósis de Monte Carmélo peragúntur. In nómine Patris, et Filii, + et Spíritus Sancti.
℟. Amen.

Bene+dícat vos Cónditor cæli et terræ, Deus omnípotens, qui vos cooptáre dignátus est in Confraternitátem beátæ Maríæ Vírginis de Monte Carmélo; quam exorámus, ut in hora óbitus vestri cónterat caput serpéntis antíqui, atque palmam et corónam sempitérnæ hereditátis tandem consequámini. Per Christum Dóminum nostrum.
℟. Amen.


English

[The candidate for the scapular is kneeling. The priest, vested in surplice and white stole, or at least the latter, says:]

℣. Show us, O Lord, Thy mercy.
℟. And grant us Thy salvation.
℣. O Lord, hear my prayer.
℟. And let my cry come unto Thee.
℣. The Lord be with you.
℟. And with your spirit.

Let us pray.
O Lord Jesus Christ, Savior of mankind, sanctify + by Thy right hand this habit, to be worn with devotion by Thy servants out of love for Thee and Thy Blessed Mother, our Lady of Mount Carmel. Through her intercession, may they be defended from the hostile foe and persevere in Thy grace until death. Who livrest and reignest forever and ever.
℟. Amen.

[The priest sprinkles the garment with holy water, and invests the candidate, saying to each one:]

Receive this blessed habit, and call upon the most holy Virgin, that by her merits thou mayest wear it without stain, and be protected by her from all adversity and brought unto life everlasting.
℟. Amen.

[He continues:]

By the power granted to me, I receive you as a partaker of all the spiritual favors which, by the merciful help of Jesus Christ, are acquired by the religious of the Order of Carmelites. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit.
℟. Amen.

May almighty God, Maker of heaven and earth, bless + you – He Who has deigned to choose you for the confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. And we intercede with our Lady that, in the hour of your death, she will crush the head of the ancient serpent, so that you can finally come into the possession of the crown and palm of the eternal inheritance. Through Christ our Lord.
℟. Amen.

[He sprinkles the person with holy water.

If only the habit is to be blessed, the blessing begins with the versicle “Show unto us, O Lord”, and concludes with the prayer “O Lord Jesus Christ.”]

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

Mon. 07/16 6:00 PM: Solemn High Mass at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel-Wyandotte (Our Lady of Mt. Carmel)

Mon. 07/16 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (Our Lady of Mt. Carmel)

Tue. 07/17 7:00 PM: High Mass at Assumption-Windsor (St. Alexius, Confessor) [Celebrant: Msgr. Arthur Calkins, retired English Correspondence Secretary, Pontifical Commission Ecclésia Dei]

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth" [Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@stjosaphatchurch.org. Previous columns are available at www.stjosaphatchurch.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat bulletin insert for July 15, 2012. Hat tip to A.B.]