Rebuke for bishops who resist Old Rite

[universalindult]

Fr. Z. at WDTPRS has a commentary on this article posted today:

The Tablet (UK)
Church in the World
10 November 2007

Rebuke for bishops who resist Old Rite

Robert Mickens

A senior official at the Congregation for Divine Worship (CDW) this week said that bishops who were trying to curtail use of the Tridentine Mass were “in rebellion against the Pope” and guilty of pride, “one of the gravest sins”.

Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, who serves as the CDW secretary, levelled his criticism at “theologians, liturgists, priests, bishops and even cardinals” who have written “interpretative documents that inexplicably try to limit the Pope’s motu proprio” - the document that liberalised use of the pre-Second Vatican Council Mass. The CDW official told an Italian online news service that the bishops should especially “return to obedience” since they “have professed fidelity to the pontiff”.

Pope Benedict issued his motu proprio last July despite concerns by many bishops that it could deepen divisions in the Church. Since the motu proprio came into force on 14 September, entire national episcopal conferences - including those in the Philippines and Germany - have released explanatory letters that could be seen as placing conditions on the celebration of the Tridentine Rite and therefore limiting the implementation of the papal document. A motion to issue such a letter by a group of Italian bishops was voted down by the conference’s permanent committee. Some bishops around the world - including Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds, chairman of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, and Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, chairman of the US bishops’ liturgy office - have individually written explanatory letters directly to priests in their own dioceses, and at least two Italian bishops have publicly stated that they would not permit the pre-conciliar liturgy in their churches.

Those who favour the Tridentine Mass have complained that such restrictions contradict the clear stipulations contained in the Pope’s motu proprio. Archbishop Ranjith, who is close to the Pope and is expected by many to be the next prefect of the CDW, accused bishops who are limiting the Old Rite of being motivated by “prejudices of an ideological type or by pride”.

Clergy who have voiced reserves about the motu proprio have been careful not to criticise the Pope directly and have sought subtle ways to justify their opposition to his decree. The most prominent among them has been Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini. The retired Archbishop of Milan made his point in a leading Italian paper last September by saying, that he would not celebrate the Tridentine Mass even if he counted himself among the most qualified to do so.

Others, such as Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels, have downplayed the motu proprio by saying there was no interest in the Tridentine Mass in their countries, even though the head of the worldwide pro-Tridentine Mass organisation Una Voce is from Belgium. Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi told priests in Milan that the document did not apply to the northern Italian archdiocese since it uses the Ambrosian Rite rather than the Roman one. In August Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow sent out a letter pointing out that the motu proprio required provision for “stable groups” who “adhered” to the earlier rite, and said he thought it unlikely there were such groups in his diocese (The Tablet, 25 August).

Archbishop Ranjith, a native of Sri Lanka, said the motu proprio was “an act of liberty and justice towards traditionalists”. He then criticised celebrations of the New Rite Mass that are frequently “transformed into shows with dancing, singing and applause”.

Meanwhile a small number of prominent bishops around the world have spoken in favour of the Tridentine Mass’s wider use. Cardinal George Pell became the first archbishop in four decades to celebrate the Old Rite in Sydney’s cathedral last Saturday morning.

 

[BobP123]

And these rebelling/mutinous bishops call themselves in full communion with Rome?

Guess we know where the real schismatic mindset is now.

 

[jj2011]

Does anyone have the e-mail address for Archbishop Ranjith?

 

[universalindult]

Holy Smoke
by Damian Thompson

’The Bitter Pill’ fizzes with hypocrisy
Posted by Damian Thompson on 09 Nov 2007 at 13:44
Tags: The Tablet, Latin Mass, Evelyn Waugh

The Left-wing magazine The Tablet is known throughout the Catholic world as “The Bitter Pill”. Well, it certainly lives up to its nickname in this week’s issue, which deplores the liberation of the Latin Mass and the “Evelyn Waugh” Catholicism of seminarians.

Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh would have laughed at The Tablet’s pomposity

The Tablet is all in favour of English bishops blocking the return of the classical Mass, on the grounds that traditionalists are “disobedient” to the spirit of Vatican II. The fact that, in opposing Pope Benedict’s wishes, the bishops are themselves being gravely disobedient does not trouble the magazine at all.

There is something intrinsically hilarious at the spectacle of a publication read mostly by ex-hippies with bus passes wringing its hands at the conservatism of the young.

Here is the relevant paragraph. I know it reads like a cruel parody, but it’s the real thing:

“Bishops have every right to have reservations about the return of the Tridentine Mass, as it has long been the symbolic flag carried by elements in the Church which most disliked the reforms promoted by the Second Vatican Council. The bishops have a duty not to let this disobedient and anti-conciliar spirit spread. It is already present in some seminaries, where a proportion of young men studying for the priesthood seem particularly attracted to a backwards-looking style of Catholicism that was familiar in the novels of Evelyn Waugh.”

Don’t you love that reference to “backwards-looking”?

And this from a publication whose writers and readers think and dress as if it was still 1979, and the evil “Thatch” had just won her first general election.

Anyway, it always cheers me up to see old-style Lefties doing a little liturgical dance of rage. And I think Evelyn Waugh would have enjoyed it, too.

Posted by Damian Thompson on 09 Nov 2007 at 13:44

 

[bones_IV]

And these rebelling/mutinous bishops call themselves in full communion with Rome?

Guess we know where the real schismatic mindset is now.

Some of them have the devil on their back.

 

[Pious_Mat]

Left-wing Bishops, priests, and writers can complain and stomp their feet as much as they like. It will not change the fact that a new generation of Catholic clergy and devout laymen are coming of age, and are mindful of tradition and thirsting for Orthodoxy. The days of progressives and liberals is over. They used to make me angry, but now I just find them funny.

 

[bones_IV]

Left-wing Bishops, priests, and writers can complain and stomp their feet as much as they like. It will not change the fact that a new generation of Catholic clergy and devout laymen are coming of age, and are mindful of tradition and thirsting for Orthodoxy. The days of progressives and liberals is over. They used to make me angry, but now I just find them funny.

LOL…liberal Bishops and priests stomping their feet and throwing a big stink about the Moto Proprio. According to liberal clergy it’s a “step backwards”. A step backwards?! That is bad comedy. Sorry liberal clergy we aren’t buying it!

 

[universalindult]

Does anyone have the e-mail address for Archbishop Ranjith?

The Congregation contact info is:

Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/

Palazzo delle Congregazioni, 00193 Roma, Piazza Pio XII, 10

Telephone: 06.69.88.43.16; 06.69.88.43.18
Fax: 06.69.88.34.99
cultdiv@ccdds.va

 

[SemperFidelis]

According to liberal clergy it’s a “step backwards”.

A step backwards is a step forwards in my opinion. Sorry hippies, your days are numbered.

 

[brotherhrolf]

A step backwards is a step forwards in my opinion. Sorry hippies, your days are numbered.

Please! Remember that there were large numbers of us back then who were horrified by the change. We submitted to the magisterium of HMC but it doesn’t mean we liked it. I certainly didn’t.

My bishop “acknowledged” the MP. Which as all of us who work in state government recognize as “I hear ya but I’m not goin’ to do a thing about it”. Bureaucracy 101.

 

[SemperFidelis]

Please! Remember that there were large numbers of us back then who were horrified by the change. We submitted to the magisterium of HMC but it doesn’t mean we liked it. I certainly didn’t.

My bishop “acknowledged” the MP. Which as all of us who work in state government recognize as “I hear ya but I’m not goin’ to do a thing about it”. Bureaucracy 101.

I never meant you brotherrolf, or the many that were horrified. I understand that there were many good Catholics who stayed with the Church during its time of upheaval, and I am extremely grateful they “stuck it out.” I am speaking of those (hippies) who took over the seminaries and forced their folk Masses, etc. on the faithful. Now that Rome is “starting to come to its senses,” great changes are occuring, and those same hippies are trying to hold on to what little they have left. They are fighting an uphill battle and are losing. I see a future Church where reverant NO’s are commonplace and there are plenty of TLM’s to go around. Deo gratias!

 

[paramedicgirl]

Does anyone have the e-mail address for Archbishop Ranjith?

His Eminence Albert Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith Patabendige Don
Secretary
Congregation for Divine Worship & Discipline of the Sacraments
Piazza Pio XII 10,
00193 Rome
Italy
011 39 06 6988 4316
011 39 06 6988 3499 FAX
cultdiv@ccdds.va

 

[brotherhrolf]

I never meant you brotherrolf, or the many that were horrified. I understand that there were many good Catholics who stayed with the Church during its time of upheaval, and I am extremely grateful they “stuck it out.” I am speaking of those (hippies) who took over the seminaries and forced their folk Masses, etc. on the faithful. Now that Rome is “starting to come to its senses,” great changes are occuring, and those same hippies are trying to hold on to what little they have left. They are fighting an uphill battle and are losing. I see a future Church where reverant NO’s are commonplace and there are plenty of TLM’s to go around. Deo gratias!

No offense taken, my friend. There are far too many who post on these forums who say that Latin wasn’t understood; that the congregation did not participate; and that everyone gave a big sigh of relief when V II was promulgated. Such was not the case. People forget that there were a goodly number of my generation, who did not grow long hair, did not smoke pot, and did not protest the Vietnam War. Perhaps we were wrong in submitting to HMC and allowing the abuses to develop without comment. But I am more than happy to join with the younger generation in seeking to restore that which was lost. Do I want to go back to the TLM? No, not particularly. Do I want to see a reverent NO? You betcha. The one I saw on EWTN on All Saint’s Day struck me hard as to what I am looking for.

 

[SemperFidelis]

The one I saw on EWTN on All Saint’s Day struck me hard as to what I am looking for.

I definitely agree with you there. If all NO Masses were conducted like the ones on EWTN, I don’t think you’d find too many Catholics who would complain about the NO.