Philadelphia Chapter

On February 2nd, the Feast of the Presentation, at 7:00 p.m., there will be Holy Mass and Candlemas Service at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, 931 Christian Street, Philadelphia. All are welcome, and please bring a friend to this beautiful Service.

January 24, 2012|, By Liz Gormisky, Inquirer Staff Writer

Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast High School, appealing the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s recommendation that it be closed, on Monday said it had surpassed $1 million in fund-raising to keep it open.

“We had some big donations come in over the weekend,” said Joe Mattson, president of the Monsignor Bonner Alumni Association. The largest: an anonymous gift of $100,000.

The money for the Catholic high school in Upper Darby has come from all sorts of donors, from strangers to a parent at rival school Cardinal O’Hara in neighboring Springfield.

The funds are being collected by the alumni association with the hope of using them for scholarships if the school stays open next year.

Mattson, a 1971 alumnus, said he did not have an exact figure. The association is keeping records of donors and will return the contributions if the school closes.

“We’ll keep trying to raise money until we know if we’ll be around,” Mattson said. Even as he spoke, administrators from Bonner-Prendie, as students call it, were in a formal appeals meeting with the archdiocese.

The hearing, which began at 3 p.m., lasted 90 minutes. Afterward, principal William Brannick said the school would learn its fate next month.

Brannick said the meeting was an “opportunity to present our case” using “a recap of the facts and figures” that support the school’s continued sustainability.

Bonner-Prendie plans to increase enrollment from underserved markets outside of the community immediately surrounding the school. The administration hopes that small gains in market penetration will add up and expand enrollment overall.

“Individuals on the committee were open and very receptive to it,” Brannick said of the plan, which he presented along with Bonner-Prendie president the Rev. James Olson to members of the Office of Catholic Education and the blue ribbon commission that recommended an overhaul of Catholic education in the archdiocese.

Brannick did not specify whether the fund-raising surge was used as evidence at the hearing, but said “the more financial support we have, the stronger the case.” He said the school would continue to accept donations via the alumni association.

Olson has set an overall fund-raising target of $5 million; the $1 million mark was a milestone that fell on the same day as the appeals hearing.

Brannick said that the mood of the students has been “up and down,” but that the appeals process has brought them hope.

“We need to show ourselves and our community we remain viable,” he said. But ultimately, the decision is “in the hands of the bishop and of God.”

By Julie Asher
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Every child and adult with special needs, every unwanted unborn child and every person who is “poor, weak, abandoned or homeless” is “an icon of God’s face and a vessel of his love,” said Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput.

“How we treat these persons — whether we revere them and welcome them, or throw them away in distaste — shows what we really believe about human dignity, both as individuals and as a nation,” he said Jan. 22 in a keynote address at a pro-life conference in Washington.

He was the keynote speaker at the 13th annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life at Georgetown University. It is named for the late Cardinal John O’Connor, archbishop of New York from 1984 to 2000.

The student-run conference drew more than 700 young people and adults. The agenda included sessions on topics such as the international abortion situation; media and the pro-life movement; abortion and natural law; adoption’s role in the pro-life movement; and ethical controversies in evolving medical technologies.

The day ended with a discussion on pro-life legislation with members of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus.

In his keynote, Archbishop Chaput talked about “the kind of people we’re becoming and what we can do about it,” illustrating his theme by outlining the current situation facing unborn babies shown by genetic testing to have Down syndrome.

He said he has friends who have children with disabilities, in particular Down syndrome. He noted that about 5,000 children with the genetic disorder are born in the U.S. each year, and currently there are about 400,000 people in the country with Down syndrome.

But that population “may soon dwindle,” he said. “And the reason why it may decline illustrates, in a vivid way, a struggle with the American soul. That struggle will shape the character of our society in the decades to come.”

Prenatal testing today can detect 95 percent of the pregnancies that have a strong risk the child will be born with Down syndrome, he said. Studies show more than 80 percent of unborn babies diagnosed with it are aborted “because of a flaw in one of their chromosomes — a flaw that’s neither fatal nor contagious, but merely undesirable.”

“I’m not suggesting that doctors hold back vital information from parents. Nor should they paint an implausibly upbeat picture of life with a child who has a disability,” Archbishop Chaput said. But he suggested expectant parents hear from parents who already have special-needs children, not just from doctors and genetic counselors.

“They deserve to know that a child with Down syndrome can love, laugh, learn, work, feel hope and excitement, make friends and create joy for others,” he said.

Raising such a child, he acknowledged, “can be demanding. It always involves some degree of suffering,” as his friends have experienced.

“The real choice in accepting or rejecting a child with special needs is never between some imaginary perfection or imperfection. … The real choice in accepting or rejecting a child with special needs is between love and unlove; between courage and cowardice; between trust and fear,” Archbishop Chaput said.

That also is the choice society faces “in deciding which human lives we will treat as valuable, and which we will not,” he said.

“Abortion kills a child; it wounds a precious part of a woman’s own dignity and identity; and it steals hope. That’s why it’s wrong. That’s why it needs to end. That’s why we march.”

Quoting Jesuit Father John Courtney Murray, he said, “Anyone who really believes in God must set God, and the truth of God, above all other considerations.”

So “Catholic public officials who take God seriously cannot support laws that attack human dignity without lying to themselves, misleading others and abusing the faith of their fellow Catholics,” Archbishop Chaput said.

“Catholic doctors who take God seriously cannot do procedures, prescribe drugs or support health policies that attack the sanctity of unborn children or the elderly; or that undermine the dignity of human sexuality and the family,” he continued. “Catholic citizens who take God seriously cannot claim to love their church, and then ignore her counsel on vital public issues that shape our nation’s life.”

As a nation, he said, the United States depends “on a moral people shaped by their religious faith.” With faith “animating its people and informing its public life, America becomes something alien and hostile to the very ideals it was founded on,” he added.

Archbishop Chaput warned Catholics “to wake up from the illusion that the America we now live in … is somehow friendly to our faith.”

“Changing the course of American culture seems like such a huge task,” he said. “But St. Paul felt exactly the same way. Redeeming and converting a civilization has already been done once. It can be done again. But we need to understand that God is calling you and me to do it.”

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY | Tue Jan 24, 2012 11:28am EST

(Reuters) – Pope Benedict is asking people to stop amid the noise and haste and listen to the sounds of silence in life.

Benedict dedicated the theme of his message for the Catholic Church’s World Day of Communication to the relationship between silence and words.

“Silence is an integral element of communication; in its absence, words rich in content cannot exist,” he said in the message.

“In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves; ideas come to birth and acquire depth; we understand with greater clarity what it is we want to say and what we expect from others; and we choose how to express ourselves,” he said.

Benedict, who is a shy and quiet man himself, said that today “silence is a precious commodity” in a world with a “surcharge of stimuli and data.”

“It is often in silence, for example, that we observe the most authentic communication taking place between people who are in love: gestures, facial expressions and body language are signs by which they reveal themselves to each other,” he said.

Joy, anxiety, and suffering can all be communicated in silence, sometimes more powerfully than with words and silence often gives people a chance to listen — to God, to themselves and to others.

In short, the pope is asking everyone to turn down the noise, reflect, evaluate and analyze.

“For this to happen, it is necessary to develop an appropriate environment, a kind of ‘eco-system’ that maintains a just equilibrium between silence, words, images and sounds,” he said.

But he said the world of social communications was not always the problem and could also be part of the solution.

Benedict said there were “various types of websites, applications and social networks” which can help people find time for reflection and authentic questioning.

The Roman Catholic Church’s World Day of Communications is marked on May 20. The message is intended for parishes around the world to prepare for the best way to celebrate it locally.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella, editing by Paul Casciato)

Published January 25, 2012, Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA – An indicted Catholic church official is showing signs he won’t take the fall alone for the priest abuse scandal in Philadelphia, with his lawyer saying Wednesday that a successor threw him “under the bus.”

Monsignor William Lynn, 61, is the only official from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia facing trial for allegedly failing to remove accused predators from the priesthood. He served as secretary of clergy from 1992 to 2004.

Defense lawyers argue that Lynn took orders from then-Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and other superiors in the church hierarchy.

Prosecutors hope to include dozens of old abuse allegations to show a pattern of conduct at the trial, which is scheduled to start in late March and last several months.

One such case involves a West Chester University chaplain accused in 1994 of taking pictures of students in their underwear.

He next became chaplain of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, worked with a parish youth group and later admitted taking boys on overnight trips, one to Jamaica, before retiring to the New Jersey shore, prosecutors said.

When a New Jersey diocese asked the Philadelphia archdiocese about the priest, Monsignor Timothy Senior allegedly wrote in a letter that Lynn, his predecessor, did not fully investigate complaints against the priest.

“Maybe that’s an answer to why Monsignor Senior is not here (as a defendant). He obviously doesn’t mind throwing Monsignor Lynn under the bus,” defense lawyer Jeffrey Lindy argued.

Prosecutors call the archdiocese “an unindicted co-conspirator” in the case. A 2005 grand jury report blasted Bevilacqua and his successor, Cardinal Justin Rigali, for their handling of abuse complaints, but they were never charged. Bevilacqua is now 88 and in failing health.

A judge will hear more arguments Monday on whether 27 of the 63 priests described in that grand jury report can be referenced at Lynn’s trial. Prosecutors want to show that Lynn kept them on the job despite knowing of complaints stored in “secret archives” at the archdiocese.

They have detailed the cases over a three-day pretrial hearing this week. The cases include a priest who allegedly pinned loincloths on naked boys playing Jesus in a Passion play, and whipped them, in keeping with the drama; a priest who held what prosecutors called “masturbation camps” at the rectory, having boys strip naked and teaching them to masturbate; and a pastor written up for disobedience for complaining to Bevilacqua about an accused priest being transferred to his parish.

“I truly would love a jury to see how these were handled,” Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington said in court. “The more cases they see … the clearer the picture becomes.”

Although some of the abuse dates to the 1960s through 1980s, before Lynn’s time as secretary for clergy, he had access to the secret files. And many of the cases were not reported until years later, during his tenure.

Defense lawyers hope to limit the trial evidence to Lynn’s handling of the priest and ex-priest on trial with him. The Rev. James Brennan, 48, and defrocked priest Edward Avery, 69, are charged with rape. All have denied the charges.

The archdiocese declined to respond to the comments made Wednesday about Monsignor Senior, citing a gag order in the case.

Lynn is on leave from the archdiocese. Jury selection is set to start next month.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/25/key-ruling-expected-in-philly-priest-abuse-case/#ixzz1kcDHdGQR

Hispanic influence in the U.S. Catholic Church

Third of January 2012:
Second Sunday after the Epiphany

The Hispanic community in America, which was below two million in 1940, has increased tremendously in the last few decades. Today it includes over 50 millions souls and represents 16% of the 308 million Americans. Two thirds of Hispanics are Catholic, and 15% Evangelical.

The first Hispanic bishop was consecrated in 1970. There are presently 50 such bishops. Today, the Catholic Church in America counts 68 millions baptized persons, which represents about 22% of the total population, 40% of which are of Hispanic origin. To top it off, it is estimated that the growth of the Catholic population is coming from them at the rate of 70%. One of our every four children in Catholic kindergarten is Hispanic. At such a rate, the Hispanic community will compromise the majority of Catholics in America as soon as 2030.

Such statistics call for some remarks:

By now most United States dioceses have set up well-established Hispanic parishes where the faithful and children are taught the Faith and can grow with little need of adaptation. This continues the Catholic battle which all immigrants faced from the 19th century regarding the use of their own language and traditions in their Catholic schools. (I am thinking specifically of the Germans in the Midwest.) The children are growing up perfectly bilingual and they serve as mediators to less adaptable parents.

Without a doubt, Latin American culture has a lot to offer to the United States Catholic Church. Just think of the great mystics like St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. Think too of the wonderful cultural development, evangelization, and education brought about by the Spanish settlers under the Catholics Ferdinand and Isabella. They are the heirs of the highest cultural achievement which was brought about from the connection of the Old and New World. Who can boast of establishing two flourishing universities in the New World 150 years before Harvard? Who can boast of having an Indian Viceroy of Mexico just a few generations after the Spanish conquest of Cortes?

Most southern States of the USA were at one time the property of the Spanish crown. Are we witnessing the revenge of the Hispanics who were kicked out of their own territory by a fiercely Masonic government?

Yet, one may fear that the Spanish influence may be less Catholic than numbers tell. Like the waves of immigrations of the last century, the incoming Hispanics are mostly underprivileged families seeking asylum in a country which promises a rosy future for them. They have little education and little ambition. It will take generations to turn them into the powerhouse of Catholic America in leadership.

More to the point, there is here a large reserve of vital forces into which the present hierarchy must tap, under pain of letting the easy, happy-clappy Church leaders swing them to their side. It seems inevitable that our Society of St. Pius X needs to direct much of its efforts along the same lines and promote study in Spanish at the seminary. And—this is not negligible—our college students will fare better in job interviews if they can present some bilingual capacity in their resume.

Remnant Press Release POSTED: 1/18/12

Contact: Dr. Jennifer Donelson, Nova Southeastern University

jd1120@nova.edu or (954) 262-7610

Thursday, February 2, 7:30 p.m.

Church of the Epiphany (8235 SW 57th Avenue, Miami, FL)

We are pleased to welcome His Excellency, Thomas G. Wenski, Archbishop of Miami as the celebrant of this Mass. The Mass will be preceded by the traditional blessing of candles and a procession for the feast day.

Ceremonial and logistical assistance for the Mass is provided through the generous efforts of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP).

Musical highlights include Tournemire’s office from L’Orgue Mystique for the day (Purificatio B. Mariæ Virginis), played by Mr. Thomas Schuster, Organist and Director of Music at Church of the Epiphany, as well as a Missa Brevis by Zachary Wadsworth, and a commissioned motet by Dr. Paul Weber. Choral works will be sung by the Schola Cantorum of the University of Florida under the direction of Dr. Edward Schaefer. The Gregorian propers of the day will be sung by a Women’s Schola Cantorum under the direction of Dr. Jennifer Donelson of Nova Southeastern University.

The Mass is part of a conference on the French Catholic Composer, Charles Tournemire.

The conference, entitled “Gregorian Chant and Modern Composition for the Catholic Liturgy: Charles Tournemire’s L’Orgue Mystique as Guide” is presented by The Church Music Association of America, in collaboration with Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and the Church of the Epiphany in Miami, Florida. It includes recitals and papers by an international collection of performers and academics.

For more information, visit the conference website: http://www.musicasacra.com/tournemire

Fr. Brian Austin of the F.S.S.P. or Dr. Jennifer Donelson are available for interview by phone or internet.

Questions about the Mass or the conference can be directed to Dr. Jennifer Donelson, assistant professor of music at Nova Southeastern University at jd1120@nova.edu or (954) 262-7610.

***

The Mass will be available on the internet via livestreaming at www.livemass.net. To “tune in,” simply visit the website during the Mass time (7:30 p.m. EST)

There will be at three catechetical sessions connected with the Mass.

These sessions will serve as an introduction to the Traditional Latin Mass and the customs of Candlemas. They are an excellent opportunity to ask questions of knowledgeable clergy.

Tuesday, January 31 – 8:00 – 9:30 p.m. – St. Augustine’s Catholic Church on the University of Miami campus. This session is open to young adults, aged college graduate to 39 and will be presented by Fr. Joseph Fishwick, longtime chaplain of the Latin Mass community in the Archdiocese of Miami.

Thursday, February 2 – 6:30 – 7:00 p.m. – Church of the Epiphany School. This session is open to high school and college students and will be presented by Fr. Christian Saenz, S.J., a newly ordained priest who teaches theology at Belen Jesuit prep.

Thursday, February 2 – 6:30-7:00 p.m. – Church of the Epiphany School. This session is open to adults and families and will be presented by Fr. Christopher Marino, pastor of St. Michael the Archangel church in Miami.

I – INTERVIEW WITH PADRE MANUEL

1) Father Manuel, would you introduce yourself to our readers?

Father Manuel: My name is Manuel Folgar Otero–Father Manuel María de Jesús in religion. I was ordained in 1988 for the diocese of Santiago de Compostela where for ten years I was an assistant priest at Saint Joseph of Pontevedra, as well as a hospital chaplain, director of the Legion of Mary Curia and spiritual director of a section of the Ladies’ Night Adoration. I taught Religion in middle school for twelve years. I have also been the administrator for a number of rural parishes for the past fifteen years and, finally, founder of a private lay association, the Fraternity of Christ the Priest and of Saint Mary Queen (Fraternidad de Cristo Sacerdote y Santa María Reina). From this fraternity came the Missionaries of the Fraternity of Christ the Priest and of Saint Mary Queen, a public clerical association (editor’s note: like the Community of Saint Martin) which is also in formation. It is located in Toledo and I have been its superior since 2009.

2) What is your experience of the extraordinary form of the Roman rite and of the place held by the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum in your life as a priest?

Father Manuel: Given my age–I was born in 1962–I have no memory of the traditional Mass in my childhood, not to mention my youth or later. The first time I ever attended a celebration of holy Mass according to what is now called the extraordinary form was after the year 2000. It was only from 2004-2005 that I got to know the traditional liturgy, during my visits to the monastery of Le Barroux. And in 2007 I was also able to discover the international seminary of the Institute of Christ the King, in Gricigliano, and Cardinal Cañizares who was conferring priestly ordinations there at the time. In fact, it was only after 2007, when the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum was published, that I began regularly celebrating the extraordinary form. In October of that year, during an unforgettable audience, Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, president of the Ecclesia Dei commission, encouraged us.

Today the extraordinary form is a characteristic of our community and is acknowledged as such in our statutes.

My experience has been very positive and, in certain respects, even exciting. I have travelled along the path of discovery of this marvelous treasure that had been hidden from us in the company of my community’s brothers as well as with my parishioners. For the older ones it was a rediscovery; for the younger ones, a total novelty. In my various parishes I have never encountered the slightest aversion or resistance against the traditional Mass. This may surprise some people, but it is so. My faithful and I, together, have lived in our own flesh the experience mentioned in the Gospel of the father, a householder, “who bringeth forth out of his treasure new things and old” (Mt 13:52). For us this father was His Holiness Benedict XVI, who opened up to us this marvelous treasure, old yet always renewed, that is the Church’s 2000-year-old liturgy, an authentic monument of faith and piety.

In my priestly life it has meant an enrichment at all levels: in doctrine, prayer, identification with Christ priest and victim, etc. And also in so many other aspects I need not get in to today. I’ll take this opportunity to point out an error. Some people acknowledge that the traditional liturgy can enrich the priest who celebrates it, but deem it to be detrimental to the faithful on the grounds that it would impoverish them spiritually by markedly decreasing or even preventing their participation and understanding of the liturgy. I must humbly say that this does not correspond to my own experience, quite to the contrary.

The celebration of the traditional liturgy compels the priest to give greater pastoral attention to the faithful, in the sense of devoting more time and energy to their doctrinal and spiritual formation. This permanent formation rests on teaching the true meaning of “actuosa participatio”: the interior disposition to uniting oneself to Christ the Victim through the priest as the intermediary who, as minister of Christ and the Church, renews and offers the Holy Sacrifice. It also rests on the greater care with which one forms one’s faithful liturgically and mystagogically. What right or basis do we have to underestimate the laity’s capacity to participate in the Church’s twice-millennial liturgy worthily and fruitfully? There are laymen with little education from simple backgrounds who could tell a thing or two to any number of those who think themselves learned. These are laymen who have never set foot in a school of theology yet who know by heart the content of the faith and who live out the Eucharistic mystery incredibly deeply and in profound union with Christ the Priest. They draw from their participation in the Holy Sacrifice the force and the inspiration to offer themselves up in turn, in their daily life, as living hosts, holy and agreeable to God.

Today, thank God, the faithful can read and follow the texts of the Holy Mass in their missal. They thus associate themselves more perfectly to the Prayers of the Holy Liturgy. This demands a greater concentration and attention than among those who rest content with listening.

Behind many of the objections to the Motu Proprio, one finds more ideology than legitimate reasons.

3) In the introduction to your book, you justify your work by the lack of knowledge regarding the Motu Proprio among Spanish priests and, to an even greater degree, laymen. So you are not surprised by the result of the Ipsos survey that Paix Liturgique commissioned just before the WYD, which indicates that 69.5% of Spanish practicing Catholics had never heard of it?

Father Manuel: I am not surprised at all. As a matter of fact I find that the result seems to fall short of the reality. I am convinced that the overwhelming majority of the faithful has never heard of the Motu Proprio. And that those who have heard something of it, including priests, do not know its content. There is little to be read about it. The idea that predominates, which is totally distorted, is that the Pope has authorized the Latin mass for Bishop Lefebvre’s followers, period. Many are those who spread this equivocation with a view to soft-pedaling the Pope’s teaching and to minimizing the importance of the Motu Proprio which, by the way, has force of law for the universal Church and which, as such, dictates authentic rights and duties to be respected by all.

Unfortunately, many people satisfy themselves with the sensational headlines that certain media offer and which distort the reality and truth of the report’s content.

4) So your book–and its form as well as its content bear this out–principally seeks to make the text of the Motu Proprio and the Pope’s desire in liturgy better known. What reception did it have in Spain?

Father Manuel: I’ve tried to do my best. The reception among those whom the book could reach has been very good, even though our means were limited. I self-published the book and, beyond my personal contacts, the book did not elicit much response besides a few sites on the internet.

For this type of subject you cannot count on Catholic publishers. They are not interested, it doesn’t fit in with their editorial line . . . . Think only that when Bishop Schneider’s fabulous book, Dominus Est–which is said to have been so pleasing to the Holy Father–was offered to different Spanish editors for minimal copyrights, none was willing to publish it. I don’t know how that would go today . . . . And I am here speaking of Catholic publishers, some of whom are reputed to be “conservative”. There again, ideology prevails. It’s as though they wanted people not to know too much, not to think for themselves, and to bow to the dominant way of thinking. As sad as it is, it is so. Benedict XVI has often denounced the dictatorship of relativism. Well, one could just as well, I suppose, say that there is a dictatorship of single thought that is present and very powerful in certain circles.

Why do some people show so much fear at the idea that people might know, experience, and decide for themselves? Hasn’t there been, for many years, a much-proclaimed notion that the laity are now adults? Couldn’t we let the faithful decide, and stop throwing spanners into the Holy Father’s decisions?

5) In your chapter 9,you insist on the necessary unity of local churches with Rome. Only one Spanish prelate, Bishop Ureña Pastor, has celebrated the extraordinary form in his diocese yet. Can one hope that other bishops will soon follow his example?

Father Manuel: To date, two other Spanish bishops seem also to have actually celebrated the extraordinary form, although this took place in near-secrecy: during WYD. No announcement, no reports. Nearly the only ones who attended were those who were sure to do so as they belonged to groups linked to the extraordinary form. I do not know whose responsibility this situation was, but I won’t allow myself to believe that this was done in bad faith.

I don’t imagine that other bishops will soon celebrate the traditional Mass in their dioceses, especially since there does not exist any significant demand on the part of the faithful, the religious, or priests. Yet many priests acknowledge that they dare neither learn nor celebrate it out of fear of uncomprehending criticism. In Spain, we are at the Nicodemus stage: we learn to celebrate secretly . . . .

There is no arguing against facts. And the facts tell us that it is up to the most determined and convinced laymen and priests to move things along. I do not know the Holy Father’s innermost thoughts, but it seems that with the Motu Proprio the Pope has freed the argument from bishops’ arbitrary decisions. These last years Rome has consistently insisted on the “right of the faithful” to participate in the traditional liturgy, not on the right of the bishops to authorize it or not. The highest liturgical authority is the Pope. It is Benedict XVI who promulgated the Motu Proprio and seized the occasion to recall that the traditional Mass was never officially forbidden. This leads me to think that wherever it was in effect forbidden, this was in defiance of the law.

Local churches are called to live in affective and effective communion with the Mother Church of Rome. This communion is expressed and manifested in an excellent way through the liturgy. Without a doubt, in every diocese, the bishop is the supreme responsible person for the liturgy, an office he must fulfill in perfect communion and harmony with the Apostolic See. This is precisely why the Motu Proprio in no way diminishes the bishops’ authority.

Another monumental outrage consists in claiming that the coexistence of different liturgical forms jeopardizes ecclesial communion. This argumentation is easily refuted both from an historical point of view and from concrete reality. It is enough to consider the richness of the diverse Oriental and Latin rites. Who can seriously claim that such diversity jeopardizes the unity of the Church? On the contrary, the unity of the Church is under attack when truths of the Faith are denied, when the Magisterium is questioned, when the Vicar of Christ is disobeyed or whenever someone appropriates the liturgy for himself as though it belonged to him, “making it up” for himself outside of the Church’s laws.

There are also some bishops who explain that in reality there isn’t a sufficient number of the faithful requesting celebration in the extraordinary form. This sometimes happens to be true, at least in Spain. It is also true, however, that one cannot ask for what one does not know. Now, today, many are those who are unaware of the very existence of the extraordinary form and, for that reason, cannot freely express an opinion.

6) Getting back to the Ipsos survey conducted for Paix Liturgique: what do you think of the figure of 50.4% of practicing Catholics who declare themselves ready to attend the extraordinary form at least monthly if it were celebrated in their parish, without taking the place of the ordinary form?

Father Manuel: It does not surprise me per se. I even believe that the actual percentage of attendance might be higher, as I have noticed that wherever the extraordinary form is celebrated–after forty years!–the faithful are filled with wonder and ask to be able to attend again. They do not understand how such a treasure can remain hidden behind a bolted door. And I am speaking of laymen of all ages. It is very strange to see how much children like the extraordinary form. The traditional Mass is especially attractive to altar servers; likewise to young people who are particularly sensitive and disposed to beauty, the sense of mystery, adoration and contemplative silence.

I must also say that a preliminary formation and a veritable liturgical catechesis are required to rediscover all the symbolic, doctrinal, and spiritual wealth of this liturgy. The faithful are delighted by it.

7) Any last comments?

Father Manuel: I’d like to thank Paix Liturgique for this interview. As its name indicates, it seeks to attain liturgical peace and, above all, peace among hearts, which is the fruit of justice. And it is a work of justice to respect the rights of the faithful and to give the traditional liturgy its rightful place! This is how our dearly beloved Pope, Benedict XVI, puts it in the letter accompanying the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum: “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place.”

To obtain the book (in its original Spanish version), you can send an email to: santamariarenet@hotmail.com or call at: 0034 619 011 226.

Info from Mark Matthews, Esquire
Advisory Council

The priests are as follows: January 5, A.D. 2012 First Friday-Fr. Richard Mc Fadden; January 6, A.D. 2012 First Saturday-Fr. Dominick Finn, O.S.F.S. The TLM times for First Friday and Saturday at St. Albert The Great Parish are as usual, though there may (?) be a fifteen (15) minute delay for the start time of the First Saturday TLM due to a prior commitment of Fr. Finn (as he has been substituting for an ill priest) and it would be helpful if you noted this possible slight delay in start time of the First Saturday TLM. It is also very possible that Fr. Finn will start at 9 A.M. if circumstances are favorable.

Thank you for publicizing these TLM’s. Have a Blessed New Year.

Mark

Mark Matthews
2617 Huntingdon Pike
Huntingdon Valley, PA
19006-5109

(T) 215-947-6555
(F) 215-947-4949

In the Traditional Mass there are several silent prayers, or better, prayers said in silence, or at least “submissa voce”. The most important of these obviously is the Roman Canon. I do not consider the Canon a silent prayer, rather the opposite, and we all know why itis recited, “submissa voce”, of which Card. Ratzinger said in “The Spirit of the Liturgy”: “Anyone who has experienced a church united in the silent praying of the Canon will know what a really filled silence is. It is at once a loud and penetrating cry to God and a Spirit filled act of prayer. Here everyone does pray the Canon together, albeit in a bond with the special task of the priestly ministry”. I refer instead to the more humble, private prayers that the priest at Mass recites for himself, to accompany some of the actions that he is making.

The priest at Mass acts “in persona Christi capitis”, he embodies, he represents Christ and therefore, all his actions, even the most insignificant ones, like climbing the steps, have a meaning, a sacred meaning. These prayers are not as ancient as the Roman Canon, and it can easily be surmised that in the course of time the priest and or the Church felt the need to fill in the gaps, so to speak, and be reminded of his unique role, at every moment of the Mass.

At this point I would like to share a personal episode which highlights the difference between the two forms of the Mass and the attitude towards the silent prayers. I think it was in 2004, I made my Annual Retreat, together with some priest confreres of mine, at Douai Abbey, near Reading, in England. The Retreat master was Father Paul Gunter, O.S.B., a Benedictine monk of the Abbey, now a professor at Sant’Anselmo and consultant of the Office of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Holy Father. His theme was precisely the silent, private prayers of the Mass, in the Missal of Pope Paul VI. In this missal, of course, the few silent prayers are all private, in the real sense of the word. They are few and, generally, are a shorter version of those of the traditional missal. One of the priests present, a little older than I, a good and committed priest, on the second day, when Fr Paul was commenting on the two lines of psalm 26, which is all that remains in the new missal of the prayer that accompanies the lavabo, said quite candidly: I never even knew that these prayers existed!

On the few occasions when I assist at a Novus Ordo celebration, I can honestly affirm that. in the majority of cases, the celebrant practically omits the Munda cor meum: usually he or the concelebrant that is to read the gospel makes at most a cursory bow to the altar, if at all and goes straight to the ambo. Of course, he can recite the prayer while going, but even trying to be very optimistic, I doubt it very much. The prayer which is invariably left out is one of the two set before Communion, each one a shorter version of “Domine Jesu Christe” and “Perceptio corporis tui”. I have seen even devout and traditionally minded priests pass directly from the Agnus Dei to “This is the Lamb of God”, sometimes even failing to genuflect before hand, as it is prescribed in the new missal. This is one further proof, if ever one more was needed, that simplification does not mean improvement. A shorter prayer is not necessarily recited better than a longer one. The problem lies elsewhere. Most celebrants of the Novus Ordo see themselves as presidents of the assembly: now, a president or chairman at meeting cannot afford to whisper quietly to himself.

Let us return to our chosen subject. The first characteristic of these prayers is humility. It is a recurring idea throughout the Mass, from the prayers at the foot of the altar to the last, inaudible prayer, Placeat tibi, Sancta Trinitas.

I said above, that the priest at Mass, but not only at Mass of course, acts in “persona Christi” and precisely for this reason he feels unworthy. It is as if he constantly needed to remind himself of his unworthiness for such a sublime role. A similar attitude is expressed by the kissing of the altar, which he does several times. Not only at the beginning, before the Introit, and twice during the Canon, but also every time he turns towards the people, he kisses the altar beforehand. Each time, he wants to be united with Christ, represented by the altar, he needs to be empowered by Christ himself, so that he can really re-present Him.

The first silent prayer, after the prayers at the foot of the altar, which, in the solemn Mass at least, are said by the sacred ministers alone, is Aufer a nobis. This is one of the most beautiful moments. The priest approaches the altar, the place of sacrifice and, realizing he is unworthy of such a task, prays that he may be purified. Humility leads to the request for purification. The altar already is the Holy of Holies, having been consecrated, set aside for the offering of the sacrifice. Who could approach it without fear? He prays Aufer a nobis, using the plural, because he prays in the name of the sacred ministers. As Dom Gueranger says: “The closer we are to God, the more we feel that even the slightest blemish on the soul is an obstacle to be removed. Already he has prayed: Deus, tu conversus, vivificabis nos. But since he is getting near to God, he asks again that his sins may be removed. Once arrived at the altar, standing as it were between the people and God, he touches it with his hands joined and kisses it: he pays homage to Christ, the altar, and at the same time to the martyrs and saints whose relics are embedded in the altar, or altar stone. He says another prayer “Oramus te, Domine” which begins in the plural but then he asks for the remission of his sins “peccata mea”, in the singular. Dom Gueranger notes: he uses the plural meaning that all the people who assist at the Holy Sacrifice must accompany the priest with their prayers. The saints are holy in mind and body: their relics are extensions of the Body of Christ, members of his Mystical Body.

If the altar represents Christ, so does his Holy Gospel. Before reading or chanting it, the priest, or the deacon at a solemn Mass, bows profoundly before the altar: in itself already a gesture expressing humility and trust. The prayer he says, quietly, “Munda cor meum” asks God that his heart and his lips may be purified so that he may announce the holy Gospel in the proper manner. According to J.A. Jungmann (Missarum Solemnia, Vol I, p.365), the “Munda cor meum” at the Low Mass began to be used in the late 15th century. After the publication of Summorum Pontificum, I remember reading an article in which a liturgist (Manlio Sodi, Dean of Liturgy and Homiletics at the Pontifical Salesian University, Rome), a critic of the Holy Father’s decision, said that the Traditional Mass gave little space to the Scriptures. Admittedly he was referring to the Lectionary, but also to the texts of the Mass: he seemed to forget that in the Traditional Mass there are always two psalms, 42 and 26 (6 verses), and recurring references to biblical images, like the Holy of Holies and, here, in Munda cor meum, to the Book of Isaiah: Isaiah’s lips were purified by live coals before announcing the word of God (Is 6, 5-7). At the solemn Mass, the Bishop or priest blesses the deacon; at low Mass the priest asks to be blessed “Dominus sit in corde meo et labiis meis”: that God may use his heart to believe and love the Gospel, and his lips, that they may be apt to announce it to the world.

All the Offertory prayers are silent prayers, but I do not consider them personal, in the way we have seen so far, for they pertain to the offering of the sacrifice, and can be regarded as public. Such is also the short prayer that the priest says when he drops a small part of the Sacred Host into the chalice: “Haec commixtio, et consecratio …”. This prayer which accompanied the “fermentum”, the joining of the Sacred Host sent to him by the Bishop with the one the priest had just consecrated, is interpreted by Dom Gueranger in a fascinating way. He says that “this ancient rite is meant to indicate that at the moment of the Resurrection of Our Lord, his Blood was reunited with his Body. It was not sufficient that his Soul had rejoined his Body, but so that the Lord be complete, even his Blood had to be running in his veins, the blood which he had shed in the garden of olives, in the passion and on the Cross”. The term “consecration” should not be interpreted as a sacramental consecration, but simply as the rejoining of sacred things.

After the prayer which, at High Mass precedes the Kiss of Peace, the priest prepares himself for Holy Communion by reciting two prayers, which appear in the IX and X centuries Like the Offertory prayers, they arrived at the Roman Missal from the usage of Frankish-gallican dioceses. The first, “Domine Jesu Christe, Fili Dei vivi” states that in the saving death of Our Lord, the Most Holy Trinity was acting, the Father by his will, the Holy Spirit by his cooperation and assisting the humanity of Christ in his self offering. Then the prayer says that through the Body and Blood of Christ, which the priest is about to receive, again he may be purified of his faults, and be freed of future faults by observing the commandments of God and being always united with Christ.

The second prayer, “Perceptio Corporis tui, Domine Jesu Christe” returns to the theme of unworthiness and humility, surely the most fitting attitude at this point. It makes an almost explicit reference to the teaching of Saint Paul – Scripture again! – in the first letter to the Corinthians (11, 29), about those who eat the Body of Christ unworthily: for them, Holy Communion is not a sacred, holy gesture, but a condemnation. Time does not allow me to dwell further on the “silent prayers”, but an observation by J.A. Jungmann casts further light on them. He says that the “silent prayers”, though they are generally spoken in the first person singular, “originally were also meant to accompany the meditation of the people at Mass”. (Cfr J.A. Jungmann, Missarum Solemnia, Vol 2, p. 260). And also that “This is not a particular phenomenon: even the eastern liturgies allow the celebrant to pray privately, especially in preparation to and thanksgiving after H. Communion”.

On 17th October 2001, Blessed John Paul II sent a Message to the participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, which said, among other things:

The People of God need to see priests and deacons behave in a way that is full of reverence and dignity, in order to help them to penetrate invisible things without unnecessary words or explanations. In the Roman Missal of Saint Pius V, as in several Eastern liturgies, there are very beautiful prayers through which the priest expresses the most profound sense of humility and reverence before the Sacred Mysteries: they reveal the very substance of the Liturgy”. A statement which surprised many, as it appeared not only to praise but to recommend the use of the Traditional Missal, six years before Summorum Pontificum! [Quoted in part by the essay “The priest at the offertory of the Mass” issued by the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff – 2009.)

The silent prayers of the priest at Mass, open for him a true sense of awe and amazement as he performs his holy duty. “This amazement should always fill the Church assembled for the celebration of the Eucharist. But in a special way it should fill the minister of the Eucharist.” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 5).