"I came to the Church through the Traditional Latin Mass"

James Kalb, "What the Traditional Mass Means to Me" (Crisis,  December 4, 2014). [Note: the article that follows was sent to me by my correspondent, Guy Noir, and carries his emphases, as well as an asterisk appending a comment by him at the end.] 

 I came to the Church through the Traditional Latin Mass.

I would have converted anyway. It was becoming more and more obvious that the Church was where I belonged, and it seemed pointlessly obstinate and even artificial to remain apart from her. But the Traditional Mass made the situation clearer, because it made it more obvious what the Church is.

It is easy for present-day Americans to get that point wrong. The Catechism and the Second Vatican Council say that the Mass is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” The claim seems odd to most of us today. Americans usually think religion has to do with spirituality, which we see as personal and rather vague, with moral commitment, whether defined as “family values” or as “social justice,” or with joining a community of mutual concern, acceptance, and support. Even if we accept in theory that the religion to which we claim to adhere is something much more definite, it goes against the grain to treat the definite part as more than decorative. After all, doctrine divides, and we’re all pragmatists, so why emphasize that side of things?

If you look at religion that way a worship service becomes something like a lecture, pep rally, self-help meeting, or social get-together. Other people do those things at least as well as Catholics, so why bother with Catholicism? Why not go with something even more modern and American than the New Mass as presented in the average suburban parish? Why not do praise and worship at a megachurch?

The Traditional Mass made it clear that the Mass is something different from all that.

"Advent"

Season of Advent

The liturgical texts used during the four weeks of the season of Advent remind the faithful of the "absence of Christ." Therefore, the Collects of Advent do not end with, "through our Lord Jesus Christ," as during the rest of the year. In a spirit of penance and prayer we await the Mediator, the God-Man, preparing for His coming in the flesh, and also for His second coming as our Judge. The Masses for Advent strike a note of preparation and repentance mingled with joy and hope; hence, although the penitential violet is worn and the Gloria is omitted, the joyous Alleluia is retained. The readings from the Old Testament contained in the Introit, Gradual, Offertory, and Communion of the Masses, taken mostly from the prophecies of Isaias [Isiaiah] and from the Psalms, give eloquent expresseion to the longings of all nations for a Redeemer. We are impressed by repeated and urgent appeals to the Messias [Messiah]: "Come, delay no longer." The Lessons from St. Paul urge us to dispose ourselves fittingly for His coming. The Gospels describe the terrors of the Last Judgment, foretell the second coming, and tell of the preaching of St. John the Baptist "to prepare the way of the Lord."

In Advent, the Greek Church celebrates particularly the ancestors of our Lord -- all the Patriarchs and Prophets of the Old Testament, but especially Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Latin Church also mentions them often in this period. In the Breviary, many texts are taken from Isaias (Introit of the Second Sunday, Communion of the Third Sunday).

The idea of Advent is "Prepare you for the coming of Christ." Therefore the very appeals of the Patriarchs and Prophets are put into our mouths in Advent. Prepare for the coming of Christ the Redeemer, Who comes to prepare us for His second coming as Judge.

When the oracles of the Prophets were fulfilled and the Jews awaited the Messias, John the Baptist left the desert and came to the vicinity of the Jordan, bringing a baptism of penance to prepare souls for the coming of Christ. The world took him to be the Messias, but he replied with the words of Isaias: "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare yet the way of the Lord."

During Advent we make straight for Christ the way to our souls -- and behold, our Lord will come at Christmas.

First Sunday of Advent

The First Sunday of Advent or the Fourth before Christmas, is the first day of the Liturgical Year. The Mass prepares us this day for the double coming (adventus) of mercy and justice. That is why St. Paul tells us, in the Epistle, to cast off sin in order that, being ready for the coming of Christ as our Savior, we may also be ready for His coming as our Judge, of which we learn in the Gospel. Let us prepare ourselves, by pious aspirations and by the reformation of our lives, for this twofold coming, Jesus our Lord will reward those who yearn for Him and await Him: "Those who trust in Him shall not be confounded."

Introit (Ps. 24:1,3,4); Epistle (Rom. 13:11-14); Gradual (Ps. 24:3,4); Gospel (Lk. 21:25-33); Offertory (Ps. 24:1-3); Communion (Ps. 84:13)

Second Sunday of Advent

Numerous allusions appear in the Liturgy of this day to Jerusalem and her people. Let us be filled with sentiments of hope and joy, for the coming of Jesus is near. Let us prepare the way in our hearts for the Messias, our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ.

Introit (Is. 30:30; Ps. 79:2); Epistle (Rom. 15:4-13); Gradual (Ps. 49:2,3,5); Alleluia (Ps. 121:1); Gospel (Mt. 11:2-10); Offertory (Ps. 84:7,8)

Third Sunday of Advent

On this day the Church urges us to gladness in the middle of this time of expectation and penance. The coming of Jesus approaches more and more. St. John, the holy precursor, announces to the Jews the coming of the Savior. "The Savior," he says to them, "lives already among us, though unknown. He will soon appear openly." Now is the time for fervent prayers and for imploring Jesus to remain with us by His mercy. Let us prepare the way for Him by repentance and penance and by a worthy reception of the Sacraments. All the prayers of this Mass are filled with what the Church wishes our souls to possess at the approach of the Savior.

Introit (Phil. 4:4-6; Ps. 84:2); Epistle (Phil. 4:4-7); Gradual (Ps. 79:2,3,2); Gospel (Jn. 1:19-28); Offertory (Ps. 84:2,3); Communion (Is. 35:4)

The Greater Advent Antiphons (or "Great O's")

The Ember Fasts

At the beginning of the four seasons of the Ecclesiastical Year, the Ember Days have been instituted by the Church to thank God for blessings obtained during the past year and to implore further graces for the new season. Their importance in the Church was formerly very great. They are fixed on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday: after the First Sunday of Lent for spring, after Pentecost Sunday for summer, after the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (14th September) for autumn, and after the Third Sunday of Advent for winter. They are intended, too, to consecrate to God the various seasons in nature, and to prepare by penance those who are about to be ordained. Ordinations generally take place on the ember Days. The faithful ought to pray on these days for good priests. The Ember Days were until c. 1960 fast-days of obligation.

Wednesdays in Ember Week of Advent

On the Wednesday of Ember week in Advent, the Mystery of the Annunciation is commemorated by many Churches. The Mass is sung early in the morning. That Mass is sometimes called the Golden Mass, Rorate Mass, or Messias Mass. On that occasion the Church is illuminated, as a token that the world was still in darkness when the Light of the world appeared. The Mass is called the Golden Mass possibly because in the Middle Ages the whole of the Mass or at least the initial letters were written in gold, or on account of the golden magnificence of the solemnity, or more probably on account of the special, great, "golden" grace which, at that time, is obtained by the numerous prayers. It is called Rorate Mass after the first words of the Introit of the Mass: Rorate Caeli; and Messias Mass because the Church, like our Lady, expresses on that day her longing for the arrival of the Messias.

Introit (Is. 45:8; Ps. 18:2); Lesson (Is. 2:2-5); Gradual (Ps. 23:8,3,4); Epistle (Is. 7:10-15); Gradual (Ps. 144:18,21); Gospel (Lk. 1:26-38)

Friday in Ember Week of Advent

Introit (Ps. 118:151,152,1); Epistle (Is. 11:1-5); Gradual (Ps. 84:8,2); Gospel (Lk. 1:37-47); Offertory (Ps. 84:7,8); Communion (Zach. 14:5,6)

Saturday in Ember Week of Advent

Introit (Ps. 79:4,2); Lesson (Is. 19:20-22); Gradual (Ps. 18:7,2); Lesson (Is. 35:1-7); Gradual (Ps. 18:6,7); Lesson (Is. 40:9-11); Gradual (Ps. 79:20,3); Lesson (Is. 45:1-8); Gradual (Ps. 79:3,2); Lesson (Dan. 3:47-51); Hymn (Dan. 3:52-56); Epistle (II Thess. 2:1-8); Tract (Ps. 79:2,3); Gospel (Lk. 3:1-6); Offertory (Zach. 9:9); Communion (Ps. 18:6,7)

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Introit (Is. 45:8; Ps. 18:2); Epistle (I Cor. 4:105); Gradual (Ps. 144:18,21); Gospel (Lk. 3:1-6); Offertory (Lk. 1:28,42); Communion (Is. 7:14)

[Acknowledgements: The Roman Catholic Daily Missal: with Kyriale in Gregorian notation; compiled from the Missale Romanum (1962) (Kansas City, MO: Angelus Press, 2004), pp. 135-171.]

Signs of the times: exorcists, pornography, alienated youth and the Immaculate Conception

Father Eduard Perrone, "A Pastor's Descant" [temporary URL] (Assumption Grotto News, December 7, 2014):

As if the addiction itself were not bad enough, there are, according to a bonafide exorcist, some pornography sites that have had a curse put on them, to the effect that those who view them become inextricably addicted to them. This is somewhat reminiscent of the alleged practice of some of the more perverse rock-and-roll groups whose musical albums have had Satanic message encoded onto them. While all this may lay claim to conspiracy phobia, it is incontestably true that there are a lot of weird people in the media business who shamelessly boast of their deviant behaviors of various kinds and lead their devotees to imitate them.

This information on the curse came to me via Father John over a midday meal (some of our dinner conversation is, as you see, ill-conducive to good digestion). I relate this to you because of my ongoing concern about that trajectory of evil I wrote about a few weeks back by which people become more and more helplessly (so it seems) entangled in evil habits in a downward spiral of perverse inclinations. The end of this line of corruption is, of course, the eternal damnation of a soul–the devil getting the just reward for his diligence. A pastor then must be worried about things of this kind and want to do what he can to restrain the onslaught of wickedness from corrupting his flock. It’s perhaps a good idea to let young people know that pornography is a multi-layered vice whose end is the capture of one’s immortal soul. Once young people come upon this filth they may desperately want to be freed from its entanglements but find themselves held in a compulsive bondage to vice. The demonic element here should not be overlooked since it helps explain the ever widening web that ensnares our youth, extinguishing the light of reason from their minds and tormenting their imaginations.

While on this unsavory topic...I read an article during the week (this time over breakfast, a fact which may make one wonder whether our priests may be suffering from gastronomic disorders) on the topic of the freakishness of our youth. We know that not a few young people like to dress up and act in weird, grotesque ways. This has often baffled me, as it surely has many others. The article in question gives the reason. Many adolescents and young adults have come to feel alienated from the society of people of accepted mores. By joining offbeat groups, by blasting their auditory faculties unto near deafness, by dressing up (or down) in outlandish ways they can find a place where they, hiding their real selves all the while, are accepted, “in,” on account of the anonymity provided by the weird behaviors and–shall I call it–their camouflage. The real tragic element here is not the bizarre aspect of it but the fact of the loneliness that they feel on account of having been left without a seriously engaging religious way of life, without moral training, and without much personal self-discipline. They are thus consigned to meander in a world that is, in many ways, incomprehensible to them. They seek understanding, love, “values” and–beyond all else–God in their lives. Since our world generally is losing all this, it can’t pass on these most needed realities to the young. The result is their isolation–the emptiness which their eccentricity temporarily remedies. 

This then is another pastoral pitch for you to be exemplary Catholic Christians, for your own sakes first of all, and then for the sake of the young who may see your example and be confused if what you say you believe and you do are contraries. 

Now on to something else. Monday is a holyday of obligation, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is not one of those sometime holydays where the bishops have dropped the obligation to attend Mass when the day in question should fall on a Monday. This one, December 8, is always obligatory. The reason is that this is the title for the Virgin Mary as the Patroness of our USA. How we need Her patronage! Do not neglect, under pain of mortal sin, to come to Mass tomorrow and, while there, to beseech the holy Mother of God to act powerfully on behalf of our country which is fast becoming godless and pagan.

Fr. Perrone

 

Extraordinary Community News - "Extraordinary Faith" Episode 3: Minneapolis - St. Paul, Minnesota

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News (December 7, 2014):

Episode 3 of Extraordinary Faith, filmed in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, will be televised on EWTN in the U.S. and Canada on Monday, December 15 at 3:00 AM and 6:30 PM Eastern time. Beginning Thursday, January 15, the episode will be available for viewing on our web site, www.extraordinaryfaith.tv.

The Twin Cities have long been known for the high quality of Catholic liturgy on offer. Ground Zero is St. Agnes Church in St. Paul. Under its long-time pastor Msgr. Richard Schuler, St. Agnes gained a reputation as one of the world’s great sites for Catholic Tradition. The parish offers Holy Mass in both the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms, along with Sunday Vespers in Latin (pictured below). All Masses are offered at the High Altar, ad oriéntem. St. Agnes pastor Fr. Mark Moriarty shows us around the church and explains the liturgical traditions of the parish.


St. Agnes is possibly the only church on earth that offers a full orchestral Latin Mass (usually in the Ordinary Form) an incredible 30 Sundays per year. This Mass packs the church; many of the faith travel great distances to attend. We’ll introduce you to the leaders of the Twin Cities Catholic Chorale, comprised of almost 100 singers plus a full professional orchestra, filling an enormous choir loft.

St. Agnes has a thriving K-12 school attached to the parish, where sacred music is an integral part of the educational program. We’ll meet the school’s music director, Donna May, along with one of her star pupils.

Our film crew shot this episode during a conference of the Church Music Association of America that was held at St. Agnes. We’ll talk with Dr. Jennifer Donelson, organizer of the conference and a nationally known Latin Mass music director and chant expert.

Also historically significant is St. Augustine Church in South St. Paul: Home to one of North America’s first Tridentine Masses started after Vatican II, St. Augustine (pictured below) has been offering a weekly Sunday Mass in the Extraordinary Form since shortly after the Vatican reintroduced permission for them to occur in 1984. In recent years, St. Augustine has become known for its Argument of the Month Club, a men’s club which attracts hundreds to debates on Catholic topics. We’ll meet pastor Fr. John Echert, who explains some of the background at St. Augustine.


The Twin Cities, appropriately enough, have twin Cathedrals: The magnificent Cathedral of St. Paul (pictured below), perched high on a hill overlooking the downtown, and the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. Both co-cathedrals were designed by the same architect and sport grand interiors, with baldacchino-surmounted High Altars. We’ll take you inside both edifices.


Can’t wait to see what’s in store? Take a peek at the preview video on the page for Episode 3 on our web site, www.extraordinaryfaith.tv, where you’ll also find links to every place we visit.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Mon. 12/08 11:00 AM: High Mass at All Saints, Flint (Immaculate Conception)
• Mon. 12/08 7:00 PM: High Mass at St. Joseph (Immaculate Conception)
• Tue. 12/09 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Benedict/Holy Name of Mary (Feria of Advent)

[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 Assumption (Windsor) bulletin inserts for December 7, 2014. Hat tip to A.B., author of the column.]

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

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

Sunday


• Sun. 12/07 9:30 AM: High Mass at St. Josaphat, Detroit (2nd Sunday of Advent - 1st class)
• Sun. 12/07 9:30 AM: High Mass at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (2nd Sunday of Advent - 1st class)
• Sun. 12/07 9:45: High Mass at Chapel of the Academy of the Sacred Heart, Bloomfield Hills (2nd Sunday of Advent - 1st class)
• Sun. 12/07 2:00 PM: High Mass at St. Benedict/St. Alphonsus Church, Windsor, Canada (2nd Sunday of Advent - 1st class)
  - Initial First Sunday High Mass at Holy Name of Mary Church
  - Windsor Masses on other Sundays of the month continue to be held at St. Alphonsus Church at 2:00 PM
• Sun. 12/07 4:00 PM High (or Low) Mass All Saints Catholic Church, Flint (2nd Sunday of Advent - 1st class)
  
  
  Monday
  
  
• Mon. 12/08 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary - 1st class)
• Mon. 12/08 11:00 AN High Mass at All Saints Catholic Church, Flint (Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary - 1st class)
• Mon. 12/08 7:00 PM: High Mass at St. Joseph, Detroit (Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary - 1st class)
• Mon. 12/08 7:00 PM: High Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary - 1st class)
  
  
  Tuesday
  
  
• Tue. 12/09 7:30 AM High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Feria of Advent - 3rd class)
• Tue. 12/09 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Benedict/Holy Name of Mary, Canada (Feria of Advent - 3rd class)
• Tue. 12/09 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Feria of Advent - 3rd class)
  
  
  Wednesday
  
  
• Wed. 12/10 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Feria of Advent - 3rd class)
• Wed. 12/10 7:00 PM: High Mass at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Feria of Advent - 3rd class)
  
  
  Thursday
  
  
• Thu. 12/11 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. Damasus I - 3rd class)
• Thu. 12/11 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. Damasus I - 3rd class)
  
  
  Friday
  
  
• Fri. 12/12 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Feria of Advent - 3rd class or Our Lady of Guadalupe - 3rd class)
• Fri. 12/12 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Joseph, Detroit (Feria of Advent - 3rd class or Our Lady of Guadalupe - 3rd class)
• Fri. 12/12 7:00 PM: Low Mass (usually) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (Feria of Advent - 3rd class or Our Lady of Guadalupe - 3rd class)
  
  
  Saturday
  
  
• Sat. 12/13 7:30 AM: High or Low Mass (varies) at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (St. Lucy - 3rd class)
  
  
  Sunday
  
  
• Sun. 12/14 9:30 AM: High Mass at St. Josaphat, Detroit (3rd Sunday of Advent - 1st class)
• Sun. 12/14 9:30 AM: High Mass at Assumption Grotto, Detroit (3rd Sunday of Advent - 1st class)
• Sun. 12/14 9:45: High Mass at Chapel of the Academy of the Sacred Heart, Bloomfield Hills (3rd Sunday of Advent - 1st class)
• Sun. 12/14 2:00 PM: High Mass at St. Benedict/St. Alphonsus Church, Windsor, Canada (3rd Sunday of Advent - 1st class)
  
• Sun. 12/14 4:00 PM High (or Low) Mass All Saints Catholic Church, Flint (3rd Sunday of Advent - 1st class)
  
  

"How the Sensitivity Movement Desensitized Catholics to Evil"

A reader writes: "Any concept of God as demanding, hard to please, or holy seems quite gone. Is this a good thing, and how does it square with earlier eras and Scripture? I have yet to hear a convincing answer to that question." And now from William Kilpatrick, "How the Sensitivity Movement Desensitized Catholics to Evil" (Crisis, November 25, 2014). Excerpts:

... The Church has repudiated the philosophy of relativism, but I’m not aware of any similar repudiation of the human potential psychology that made relativism so popular. I would guess that seminary classes are no longer conducted like encounter groups, but it does seem that the encounter mindset still lingers in the Church. Perhaps the biggest hangover from the self-esteem era is the loss of the sense of sin and evil that comes from too much exposure to me-centered psychology. You will get a much better sense of the reality of evil by reading a single Dean Koontz novel than by listening to a hundred Sunday sermons in an average Catholic parish.

...

Up to now, the official Catholic response to the global jihad has been nothing more than continued calls for dialogue. But the dialogue process itself sounds suspiciously like something out of the bell-bottom-encounter group era. Not that the dialoguers stand around in circles and hold hands—I presume that they do not—but that they carry over into their discussions many of the assumptions of that period. When Church leaders speak of dialogue, they tend to use language uncomfortably reminiscent of the heyday of the human potentialists. Calls to dialogue are replete with phrases such as “risk-taking,” “releasing creativity,” “mutual understanding,” “encounter,” and “respect for the other.” Moreover, today’s dialogue advocates seem to share the same optimistic assessment of human nature held by encounter enthusiasts. They operate on the assumption that once you get to know the other fellow, you’ll invariably find that, underneath it all, he shares the same worthy values and goals that you do. As a recent USCCB statement on dialogue with Muslims puts it:

Perhaps most importantly, our work together has forged true bonds of friendship that are supported by mutual esteem and an ever-growing trust… Through dialogue we have been able to work through and overcome much of our mutual ignorance, habitual distrust, and debilitating fear.

In other words, we can trust the other. We only fear others because we don’t know them. And once we know them, we’ll realize that there was never anything to fear.

Unfortunately, this trust in the power of trust seems to have rendered the USCCB dialogue participants unable to grasp the possibility that their Muslim dialogue partners are not motivated by the same vision which inspires them. That their main dialogue partner—the Islamic Society of North America—is a spinoff of the Muslim Brotherhood seems to be of little concern. That their counterparts may simply be using the bishops in order to gain respectability for their main agenda—which is to introduce sharia law to America—does not seem to have entered the prelates’ minds.

Back in the seventies, the trust fall became a standard feature of encounter groups, summer camps, and college orientations. In one version of this trust-building exercise, one person stands in the middle of a circle of his peers and falls backward, relying on the others to catch him....

Contrary to human potential psychology, the world is not a giant safety net, and human nature is still fallen. This has always been a fallen world, but right now, thanks to the denial of that fact by the spiritual heirs of Carl Rogers, the world is a far more dangerous place than it might otherwise have been. The sensitivity movement desensitized us to the reality of evil. And many are now paying the price for that naiveté.

In 1967, smiley-face assumptions about human nature led to the collapse of an order of nuns and a district-wide Catholic school system. Unless we manage to discard our trust-fall fantasies about the human condition, we seem destined to experience a fall of much greater magnitude in the not-too-distant future.

[Hat tip to JM]

Saint Gilbert? Maybe not a good idea

Of course, with the cartoons about the Vatican turning into a "canonization factory," there's no telling who may canonized next, maybe even G.K. Chesterton. Our underground correspondent we keep on retainer in an Atlantic seaboard city that knows how to keep its secrets, Guy Noir - Private Eye, just wired us this remarkably thoughtful and detailed account of his own demurrals on precisely that prospect:

Over at Unum Santcum Catholicam there is this excellent and long-overdue rejoinder to all the breathless nonsense about a St. Gilbert now being proposed by professional Chestertonians. I have repeatedly generated ire for pointing out in com boxes that his biographer Maisie Ward -- who knew him personally -- was dismayed over Chesterton's over-imbibing in his last years. But as this piece points out, the predictable response is always that GKC had to be a saint because, well, we like him and thus we want to to be one! Such a spirit seems to be the guiding one nowadays with canonizations. It's messed up. The widening of the process has given us more saints, but it has also cheapened the brand. Sainthood is a ceremonial process that is supposed to not only affirm someone's life with God but also his or her worthiness as a public model of emulation and heroic sanctity. Saints are supposed to be heroes. Chesterton as a hero?! Good writers are simply not heroes by virtue of their literary prowess, or their sense of humor. Kenneth Woodward, liberal on some points, is objectively helpful in his treatment of the whole process in Making Saints. Highly recommended. Especially now, when names are floated about including those of Catherine de Hueck and Dorothy Day... despite what a firsthand associate like Frank Sheed might have written about them. People just don't care if these souls were holy by objective standards (or uniquely heroic in an age where we now ascribe hero status to everyone who enlists in the Armed Forces). Any more than they might give pause to describing Pope Francis as holy due to personal unfamiliarity with him. Today we think people are saints or holy because we approve of what we think they represent. It's "Identity Catholicism" off the rails. And it's all backwards. Saints aren't proven by their causes; their causes take on added luster based on saintly associations. Vatican II does not make Paul VI a saint. Chesterton's writings hardly make him a saint. But if he becomes a saint, his writings would gain that added sparkle. I say if. But he appears to have been no more a saint than Tolkien, or than Belloc. And Belloc, for one, was by all accounts most definitely not a saint.

See also:

• Boniface, "This is not about Chesterton" (Unam Sanctam Catholicam, November 30, 2014).
• Boniface, "History of the Devil's Advocate" (Unam Sanctam Catholicam, July 11, 2013).

The Franciscan conundrum

A reader recently described Pope Francis as a "conundrum." He went on to add: "And it shows just how confused the modern theological landscape is that evangelicals can think he's great while the crew over at the National Catholic Reporter can also claim him as their own at the same time." Even as a moderate conservative like William Oddie at Crisis, as he pointed out, can also pen these telling lines:

Those questions of Cardinal George’s, “why … doesn’t he clarify these ambiguous statements?” and “why is it necessary that apologists have to bear the burden of trying to put the best possible face on it?” really do need answering. I feel this dilemma very personally, having tried for what seems like years (but it can’t be, he’s not been Pope anything like as long as it seems) precisely to “put the best face on” some of the things he has said and done. But it seems a long time now since it was always possible to “read Francis through Benedict.”

Rob Bell as Oprah's Homeboy

From Guy Noir:

Elsewhere in the world of inclusive and welcoming rhetoric...

Laguna Beach! Wow. Really, this all sounds too much like an aspiring L.A. Guru on the make to chart with the fabulists. Another "You can't make this stuff up" episode.

Labels were invented to assist people in identifying and organizing things. When labels start being derided as limiting, start worrying about identity crises.

Indeed: Sarah Pulliam Bailey, "From Hell to Oprah: What Happened to Rob Bell?" (On Faith, December 2, 2014).

Ugh!

E. Milco on Ressourcement and the New Theology

E. Milco, "Letter to a Friend on Ressourcement and the New Theology" (Ursus Elisei, December 2, 2014).

Since having the "misfortune" (his word) of being linked by First Things, Milco added the following "Notes to My Previous Post" (Ursus Elisei, December 3, 2014).

From the original piece:

The New Theology can be divided into two schools: Ressourcement and Aggiornamento. The former is based on the notion that scholastic metaphysics and the disputative/tractative style of theological exposition are contrary to the richness and depth which belonged to theology prior to the emergence of the Schools in the high middle ages.... There are several problems with this story....

First, when one reads the Fathers, one has a definite sense that they are not only not averse to the use of philosophical tools in theological reflection, but that they often struggle to develop them as a means of clarifying and exposing the faith, and combating heresy....

Second, the standard portrait of changes in medieval theology is completely wrong....

Third, if the task of theological reflection is more "stifling" now than it was a millennium ago, this is in large part because of the clarity that has resulted from the development of the doctrine of the faith....

Fourth, the tradition of scholastic theology between Gregory VII and Pius XII abandoned neither the composition of exegetical tracts and homilies on scripture, nor the practical application of theological insights to spiritual counsel....

Finally, there is an overall difficulty in the implications of the Ressourcement position for the proper approach to the Tradition as a whole.... Could it be that Ressourcement is just an excuse to abandon the Catholic tradition altogether, and reconstruct a new one according to one's tastes and creative inclinations?

The Ressourcement position is the worthier of criticism because it is the less obviously heretical of the two schools within the "New Theology" that have blossomed since the Council. The other is much more disturbing because it reveals a basic lack of commitment to any sort of apostolic tradition or faith. This is the so-called Aggiornamento school, emblematized by the journal Concilium. (Concilium recently devoted an entire issue to the need for the destruction of "orthodoxy" in Catholic theology.) These people are straightforward Modernists....

One needn't wring one's hands about these guys, because it's clear that they are inventing a new religion which simply happens to share some key names and terminology with the one established by Christ. The chief difficulty with them, though, is that (again, as described by Pius X) they hide their many heresies behind vague, unconventional and metaphorical descriptions of their ideas. Rahner is an excellent example of this. In Foundations of Christian Faith, we read a "mystical" treatise on the essence and underlying realities upon which the Christian Faith is based. The language of this text is largely borrowed from Heidegger, and its style is full of circuitous neologisms. Because of the sprinkling of pious phrases and variations on standard doctrinal affirmations spread throughout the text, one might be tempted to think that Rahner's analysis is simply an updating of old Thomistic theology to fit the new philosophical methods of the German phenomenologists. Indeed, this is what Rahner is commonly described as doing! He even has his own "school" of Thomism.

But if you move beyond the stage of simply letting the verbiage wash over you and massage your consciousness, and try instead to get at the precise meaning of what he says, it is often extremely disturbing. He denies the reality of the life to come, except as immanent in the present life. He reduces God to the ground of our experience of mystery. He identifies grace, which is supposedly co-natural with human nature, with beatitude and claims that they are one single moment in our lives. He proposes the abolition of the traditional creeds and their replacement by certain more pluralistic and anthropocentric affirmations of commitment. The whole business is horrifying to anyone interested in preserving the truths of the Catholic Faith, because it very clearly does away with the Faith altogether. And to imagine that this man was held up as the chief theological hero of the Second Vatican Council!

[Hat tip to JM]

All we really want is cool, clear water ...

So why should we even be seeing headlines like the one below?

"Interview with Cardinal Scola on the Synod: - 'I believe the Pope won't take the position allowing communion for "remarried" divorced'" (Rorate Caeli, December 2, 2014).

"I believe"? Really?

The Catholic Faith is the deepest joy of my life. Holy Mother Church is HOME, and I couldn't possibly love Her more. But I have to admit: these headlines are becoming a wet blanket -- no offense to the one who posted this one: he's just doing his job, and we don't want to stick our heads in the sand; we want to be informed; but I'm sure that even he would admit that it's becoming tiresome.

There's an old song by the Sons of the Pioneers about the American West called "Cool Water," which depicts the thirst of the weary travelers for "cool, clear water." All we pew peasants want is the cool, clear water of clarity. We have great lakes of clear water in Catholic tradition; but contemporary sound-bite recensions of the Faith sometimes come out sounding more like shallow puddles of muddy water.

How some Calvinists view Catholicism today

"Party lines, hope & change, and inconvenient truths"

Thus read the title of the telegram I received from Guy Noir - Private Eye, the beginning of a long missive full of miffed musings and vented aggravations. Here's what the telegram said:

I have not even read this rather head-turning piece... in Christianity Today ... by R.R. Reno!  And I am not at all sure I can, especially after reading a similar take in the evangelical zine Relevant this summer (http://www.relevantmagazine.com/current/why-pope-so-popular)

The CT media event: https://twitter.com/CTmagazine/status/537370148177313792/photo/1  

But I will make this one comment. Here is a post from a very Reformed [a.k.a. "Calvinist"]--and unfortunately very antagonistic to contemporary Catholic converts--website. How come they can make this rather arguably astute observation, but it would be like speaking in a foreign tongue if addressed to a smart guy like Reno. The antagonist Protestant take goes like this:

I think the point is that Bryan Cross and the whole Called to Communion project is almost entirely out of step with modern Roman Catholicism post-V2. ... It’s why you don’t see very many cradle RCs calling us to communion. They understand that the Vatican now sees us as true Christians, having in practice renounced the anathemas of Trent even while still nominally claiming them. The religion that Bryan and CtC promote is very heady and not at all in touch with the average RC in the pew. …[T]he church basically renounced its earlier doctrines and practices at V2… Bryan et al don’t see it at all, which is why we get 10,000 word tomes trying to make the square peg of Tridentine Romanism fit the round hole of post-V2 RCism. The blindness of CtC is seen in their refusal to admit that if Francis and any nineteenth century pope sat down together, neither one of them would recognize each other as a true RC.

Guy Noir continues:

I really don't know. Does proposing something that seems simply beyond the pale -- just because it seems beyond the pale -- make a suggestion out of the question? If a nagging suspicion or claim won't go away, is the best policy simply to ignore it? If Francis to so many Catholics sounds unCatholic, isn't that a reason to address to underlying issues, versus continuing to exist in a faith-anestithizing environment where we just pretend it ain't so? And while I am at it, since when is a Pope who talks like Universalism is an option and Being Good is good enough, a pope than evangelicals think sounds evangelical?! B. B. Warfield and Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, please call you offices, stat!

Thoughts?

An amusing but sobering talk on liturgy

Elliot Bougis, "An Orwellian Reform of Worship: 'We Have Always Been at War With Liturgica'” (One Peter 5, November 24, 2014).

[Hat tip to JM]

No kidding: Pope Francis takes center stage in new Filipino musical

As reported by Reuters HERE

[Hat tip to JM]

Could a grand deception lie beneath Benedict's retirement? - a delightful new conspiracy theory by Dr. Austen Ivereigh

John Bingham, "Pope Francis: how cardinals' Conclave lobbying campaign paved way for Argentine pontiff" (The Telegraph, November 22, 2014), via "A Dearth of Investigative Reporting on the Abdication and the Conclave - and a very important Parable to enlighten our friends in the media" (Rorate Caeli, December 2, 2014).