Philadelphia Chapter

Given by His Holiness St. Pius X September 1, 1910.

To be sworn to by all clergy, pastors, confessors, preachers, religious superiors, and professors in philosophical-theological seminaries.

I . . . . firmly embrace and accept each and every definition that has been set forth and declared by the unerring teaching authority of the Church, especially those principal truths which are directly opposed to the errors of this day. And first of all, I profess that God, the origin and end of all things, can be known with certainty by the natural light of reason from the created world (see Rom. 1:90), that is, from the visible works of creation, as a cause from its effects, and that, therefore, his existence can also be demonstrated: Secondly, I accept and acknowledge the external proofs of revelation, that is, divine acts and especially miracles and prophecies as the surest signs of the divine origin of the Christian religion and I hold that these same proofs are well adapted to the understanding of all eras and all men, even of this time. Thirdly, I believe with equally firm faith that the Church, the guardian and teacher of the revealed word, was personally instituted by the real and historical Christ when he lived among us, and that the Church was built upon Peter, the prince of the apostolic hierarchy, and his successors for the duration of time. Fourthly, I sincerely hold that the doctrine of faith was handed down to us from the apostles through the orthodox Fathers in exactly the same meaning and always in the same purport. Therefore, I entirely reject the heretical’ misrepresentation that dogmas evolve and change from one meaning to another different from the one which the Church held previously. I also condemn every error according to which, in place of the divine deposit which has been given to the spouse of Christ to be carefully guarded by her, there is put a philosophical figment or product of a human conscience that has gradually been developed by human effort and will continue to develop indefinitely. Fifthly, I hold with certainty and sincerely confess that faith is not a blind sentiment of religion welling up from the depths of the subconscious under the impulse of the heart and the motion of a will trained to morality; but faith is a genuine assent of the intellect to truth received by hearing from an external source. By this assent, because of the authority of the supremely truthful God, we believe to be true that which has been revealed and attested to by a personal God, our creator and lord.

Furthermore, with due reverence, I submit and adhere with my whole heart to the condemnations, declarations, and all the prescripts contained in the encyclical Pascendi and in the decree Lamentabili, especially those concerning what is known as the history of dogmas. I also reject the error of those who say that the faith held by the Church can contradict history, and that Catholic dogmas, in the sense in which they are now understood, are irreconcilable with a more realistic view of the origins of the Christian religion. I also condemn and reject the opinion of those who say that a well-educated Christian assumes a dual personality-that of a believer and at the same time of a historian, as if it were permissible for a historian to hold things that contradict the faith of the believer, or to establish premises which, provided there be no direct denial of dogmas, would lead to the conclusion that dogmas are either false or doubtful. Likewise, I reject that method of judging and interpreting Sacred Scripture which, departing from the tradition of the Church, the analogy of faith, and the norms of the Apostolic See, embraces the misrepresentations of the rationalists and with no prudence or restraint adopts textual criticism as the one and supreme norm. Furthermore, I reject the opinion of those who hold that a professor lecturing or writing on a historico-theological subject should first put aside any preconceived opinion about the supernatural origin of Catholic tradition or about the divine promise of help to preserve all revealed truth forever; and that they should then interpret the writings of each of the Fathers solely by scientific principles, excluding all sacred authority, and with the same liberty of judgment that is common in the investigation of all ordinary historical documents.

Finally, I declare that I am completely opposed to the error of the modernists who hold that there is nothing divine in sacred tradition; or what is far worse, say that there is, but in a pantheistic sense, with the result that there would remain nothing but this plain simple fact-one to be put on a par with the ordinary facts of history-the fact, namely, that a group of men by their own labor, skill, and talent have continued through subsequent ages a school begun by Christ and his apostles. I firmly hold, then, and shall hold to my dying breath the belief of the Fathers in the charism of truth, which certainly is, was, and always will be in the succession of the episcopacy from the apostles. The purpose of this is, then, not that dogma may be tailored according to what seems better and more suited to the culture of each age; rather, that the absolute and immutable truth preached by the apostles from the beginning may never be believed to be different, may never be understood in any other way.

I promise that I shall keep all these articles faithfully, entirely, and sincerely, and guard them inviolate, in no way deviating from them in teaching or in any way in word or in writing. Thus I promise, this I swear, so help me God. . .

By Dave Delozier

DENVER (KUSA) – The world viewed Pope Benedict XVI as the leader of more than a billion Catholics world-wide. He was regularly seen speaking to thousands in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

But Peter Srsich saw a different side of the pope.

When Peter was just 17-years-old he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.

“He had a chest x-ray and it revealed a softball sized tumor in his chest,” Laura Srsich, Peter’s mother, said. “It was determined that it was stage four non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”

While doctors at Children’s Hospital Colorado worked to save Peter’s life, the Make-a-Wish Foundation granted him his wish.

“First thing Peter said, ‘I’d love to go meet the Pope in Rome,'” Laura said.

On a sunny day in May Peter got his chance to meet Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Square.

“When I got up to actually talk to him I was struck by how human he was,” Peter said. “It was a humbling experience for me to see how humble he was.”

Pope Benedict XVI listened as Peter told him about his journey with cancer. Peter presented the pope with a lime green wristband that had printed on it, “Praying for Peter.” In return the pope offered a blessing for Peter.

“Then he blessed me. He put his hand right on my chest where the tumor had been. He didn’t know where the tumor was, but he put his hand right there,” Peter said.

Nearly a year later, Peter is now cancer free and a sophomore at Regis University. He is hoping one day to become an ordained priest.

Pope Benedict XVI surprised many when he announced his resignation, the first pope to do so since Pope Gregory XII in 1415.

Peter believes in doing so Pope Benedict XVI is humbly putting the Catholic Church ahead of his own needs. Something that Peter says is in character with the man he met.

“I’m going to remember him as one of the most humble people in the world, especially by this last act he is doing,” Peter said.

From the New Liturgical Movement

By Jennifer Donnelson

“The Power of the Old Mass”

By Father “Fidelis”

I have been celebrating the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite for over 30 years now… Ordained in the mid-1970s in the reformed ceremonies of the Roman Rite following Vatican Council II, out of frustration with the New Form I began to celebrate the old liturgy privately sometime in 1981. It was a moving experience, one that brought me back to my childhood. It was an awkward experience at first, since I had been trained in a liturgical style completely opposite to the Old Rite.

But it was compelling. It involved me in praying the Mass in an intense and concentrated way. I celebrated this Mass mostly over a period of 15 years or so from that point, without a congregation since my Bishop had forbidden that, and it was only in the mid-1990s that I was asked to pastorally care for a congregation of Catholics who had achieved permission to celebrate this liturgy in our diocese.

At this point, a whole new world opened up for me. I was able to learn how this Mass, the Mass of the Ages, affected other people, and not simply people who had some special liturgical awareness, but all sorts of people whose religious inclinations were very different.

Still, I have been, over and over again, reminded of the spiritual power of the Traditional Mass. My Bishop assigned me to hospital ministry in a non-Catholic hospital, and it is there that I have spent countless hours over the last 17 years. Hospital ministry is demanding; it is spiritually rewarding in the most profound way, but it is often physically and emotionally exhausting in the extreme. Nights get mixed with days, moments of joy get mixed with the most heart-rending tragedies, many times one feel s completely helpless and is tempted to be angry with God, who seems to place horrible demands upon people’s sense of trust and faith.

Because for so many years I was the only chaplain in my hospital and the only one who offered Mass in our small chapel, I chose to celebrate in the Old Rite, which was for me most satisfying. Interestingly, this met with the approval of our Protestant department head, who regarded this as something “special” and a sort of attraction to the spiritual opportunities afforded by our hospital’s pastoral care department. Wonder of wonders! A Protestant defending the Old Mass! A sort of following developed for this liturgy—people who started coming to the hospital Mass simply because it was there.

But most memorable for me, though, were the times when someone would sort of stumble into our little chapel by accident, when Mass was going on, and I would hear weeping behind me. Oft-times, I would have no server, and sometimes no congregation when I started the Mass, so I would simply be unaware that anyone had come in to the chapel. Until I turned around for the “Ecce Agnus Dei” at the people’s Communion, I did not know whose sobs I had been hearing. After Mass, the explanation of these impromptu visitors was almost always the same: “Father, I haven’t seen this Mass in thirty (or forty) years. I have forgotten how beautiful it is.” This was a Low Mass, without any of the grandeur of the Sung Mass or the Solemn High Mass. But people remembered how intensely God-centered it was, how awesome it presented the Mercy of God and the call to holiness—how it invited one to such humility before the omnipotence of God.

I heard the same thing from visitors to our Sunday liturgies, but over the years something dramatic has begun to happen.

One now hears these things from people who have no experience of the old liturgy at all from their earlier years.

The same thing is at work: The beauty of the chant, the lingering odor of incense, which permeates one’s clothing and reminds one that they’ve been to Mass, the dignity and beauty and the color of vestments and altar furnishings, the “littleness” of kneeling to receive the Lord on one’s knees at Communion time—all these things tell of something great.

The Old Mass changes hearts.

Years ago, the Traditional Latin Mass was disparaged as being something yearned for by people out of a sense of “nostalgia.”

But there can be no nostalgia for something which one cannot remember. The real answer is that God calls us to something greater—an intimate surrender of our hearts and minds to His lasting truth. The old Mass does that.

It demands more, it takes more energy and self-discipline, it requires more preparation and attention in every way, but it brings us closer to God. It challenges us to love one another more closely and be more attentive to their needs.

It is the real call to holiness and to evangelization, so that people everywhere can come to know God’s love.

Fr. “Fidelis”

8/30/2013
St. Rose of Lima

The Introit of the Mass is a fervent prayer; which may be said in every necessity and adversity.

INTROIT Bow down thine ear, O Lord; to me, and hear me: save thy servant, O my God, that hopeth in thee: have mercy on me, O Lord, for I have cried to thee all the day. Give joy to the soul of thy servant: for to thee, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul. (Ps. 85) Glory be, etc.

COLLECT Let Thy continued pity, O Lord, cleanse and defend Thy Church: and because without Thee it cannot abide in safety, govern it ever by Thy gift. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, etc.

EPISTLE (Gal. 5:25,26; 6:1-10) Brethren, If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be made desirous of vain-glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

Brethren, and if a man be overtaken in any fault, you, who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so you shall fulfill the law of Christ. For if any man think himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

But let everyone prove his own work, and so he shall have glory in himself only, and not in another. For every one shall bear his own burden. And let him that is instructed in the word, communicate to him that instructeth him, in all good things.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption: but he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting. And in doing good, let us not fail: for in due time we shall reap, not failing.

Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

EXPLANATION This epistle is taken, like that of the Sunday before last, from the epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians, in which St. Paul shows them the insufficiency of the Jewish law, and that they can only be saved by a lively faith in Christ, but now he admonishes them to the performance of good works.

You now live, he tells them, in the Spirit, that is, the Holy Ghost animates your heart by His grace, enlightens, confirms, and inflames you, admonishes and teaches you, impels your heart to do good; you must, therefore, also regulate your external conduct accordingly, and in particular devote yourself to the practice of humility and charity, as the foundations of a truly spiritual life.

Humility must teach and move you to think little of yourself, to avoid vain glory, and not to confide in your own strength. But charity should impel you to be meek and compassionate to all, even sinners, to correct them charitably, and lead them back to the path of virtue; since he who is harsh to the erring, despises and treats them roughly, is often permitted by God to fall into the same, nay, even into greater sins.

Particularly you must show your charity one for another, that one bears the burdens of the other: that you bear the faults and imperfections of others just as patiently as you wish others to bear with your own imperfections; thus you will fulfill the law of Christ, which commands us to love our neighbor; you will prevent many sins which are occasioned by considering yourself perfect, raising yourself above others, criticizing their failings, and causing disturbance.

True glory consists in knowing ourselves, our faults and evil inclinations, and in eradicating them. Be grateful to those who instruct you in the word of God, and give to them willingly of your earthly possessions. What you sow, you shall reap; if you only follow the dictates of the flesh, do not mortify yourself, do not correct your failings, and indulge your sinful appetites, you will one day reap death, destruction and damnation, whereas, on the contrary, if you follow the dictates of the Holy Ghost, you will reap of the Spirit of life.

Let us obey this doctrine, for it is of interest to us, and impress deeply on our heart that without mortification of body and soul we cannot be saved.

ASPIRATION O, St. Paul! beg of God the grace for me, that I may always walk in humility, and the love of my neighbor, particularly in bearing with his imperfections and failings, and thus fulfill the law of Christ in this as in all things.

GOSPEL (Luke 7:11-16) At that time, Jesus went into a city called Naim: and there went with him his disciples, and a great multitude. And when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only, son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a great, multitude of the city was with her. Whom when the Lord had seen, being moved with mercy towards her, said to her: Weep not. And he came near, and touched the bier. And they that carried it stood still. And he said: Young man, I say to thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear on them all; and they glorified God, saying: A great prophet is risen up amongst us, and God hath visited his people.

Why did Christ show compassion to this widow?

To convince us that God takes sorrowful and destitute widows under His protection; and is to them a consoler and helper; and to teach us to do the same. Woe, therefore, to those who oppress them and cause them to weep. The tears and cries of widows will ascend to God, who will terribly punish the injuries inflicted upon them. (Exod. 22:22,23)

Christ had still other reasons for compassion, for He saw in this deceased youth the death of sinners, and in the afflicted mother the pain which the Church experiences at the spiritual loss of so many of her children. Should this not also awaken our sympathy since it was the principal cause which moved our Savior to compassion.

If we are faithful children of our mother, the Church, it is impossible for us not to share her sorrow, and we would surely not be her children, if we could contemplate without sorrow the multitude who daily die the death of sin, and thus separated from the living body of Christ, hasten to eternal destruction. O let us with the Church unceasingly, ask Jesus, that He raise sinners from their spiritual death, enlighten those in error so that all recognize the truth, find, and walk the path Which leads to life!

Why did Christ say to the widow: Weep not?

He wished to moderate her excessive sorrow, and to teach us that we should not mourn for the loss of our relatives, like the heathens who have no hope of resurrection to eternal life. (Thess. 4:1) Resignation to the will of God, with prayer and good works, will be of more use to the dead than many tears.

What else do we learn from this gospel?

That no one, however young and healthy, will escape death, wherefore we should always be prepared to die.

Instruction concerning death:

If there were locked up in prison several hundred persons, on whom sentence of death had irrevocably been pronounced, yet who knew not the day or hour of their execution; if one after the other, and often he who least expected it, were taken out to be executed; would not each one’s heart tremble, whenever the prison door opened? Now the irrevocable sentence of death is pronounced on us all; we are all locked up in our bodies, as in a prison; (Ps. 114:8) one after the other is called hence, yet we do not regard it. We live as though we could live forever; we think only of the body, but for the soul nothing is done, except that we load it with sins and vices.

Is this rational? The body will be food for worms, but the soul (without knowing when) will travel into the house of eternity, to which place she must bring treasures of good works, in order to live happy for ever.

Who would, therefore, be so foolish as to care only for the body during life, and neglect the salvation of the soul?

O man, says St. Francis of Sales, (Introduction to the Devote Life, part 1, chap. 13) represent yourself in lively colors, that at your death the world will cease to exist with respect to you. In that last hour the pleasures, the vanities, the riches, the honors, the friendships, and all that was dear to you, will disappear before your eyes as so many shadows.

O fool that I am! you will then say, for what trifles and fooleries have I lost all! On the contrary, piety, good works, penance, etc., will appear pleasant to you, and you will exclaim: O, why did I not travel on this blessed road! Then the sins which you now consider as mere trifles, will seem to you like mountains, and all that you thought you had accomplished as, great things, with regard to piety, will seem to you very little.

What terrible fear will then seize your soul, when she must travel alone into the bottomless abyss of eternity which, as St. Bernard says, devours all possible, imaginable ages, and of which St. Gregory says, that we can easier say what it is not than what it is. What terrors will befall her, when she must appear before the tribunal of that God whom she never really loved and honored in her lifetime and before whom she must now give the strictest account, and hear an irrevocable and just sentence!

Should not these thoughts make an impression upon you? How can you escape this terrible future? By living now, as you would wish to have lived at the hour of death. Die daily with St. Paul by crucifying the flesh and its lusts and by voluntarily withdrawing your heart from the world, its pomps and vanities, before death will do this by violence.

RESOLUTION O world! because I cannot know the hour, in which I must leave you, I will not be attached to you. O you dear friends and relatives, you, too, I will in future love only with a holy inclination, directed to God, which will not cease with death, but remain forever. O Lord! help me, that I may die totally to myself and the world, and live only for Thee, and partake of eternal happiness.

“The crisis is over; we have lost. This is no longer just a prediction, it is a simple observation: Rome has been desecrated. We are in the age of darkness. Triumphalist reactions are in vain. The modern world and the Church deserve the punishment that God is raining down on us.” — John Senior.

When we received a copy in the mail last week of this book, we knew two things from the start: those who have been traditional Catholics pre-Summorum have at least heard the name John Senior. And, we guessed, those younger traditionals or older ones who came to tradition post-Summorum may have never heard of him.

For those who have, and for those who experienced the pre-Summorum years after the Council and know what faithful Catholics who love tradition have endured for 50 years, the quote at the top of this post will not come as a surprise, sadly. For those new to tradition, who have never had to drive multiple hours one way to the nearest Traditional Latin Mass, the quote may come as a shock, and seem excessive.

More than a decade following his death, Remnant Press has compiled some of Senior’s writings in an easy-to-read book titled “The Remnants: The Final Essays of John Senior.”

We found this short book has something for everyone, regardless of how long they’ve been traditional, or if they’re even traditional at all. Any serious Catholic would benefit from the wisdom and history it contains.

Senior takes readers through the minds of thinkers like Newman, Virgil and Aristotle. He gives a blueprint on how to recapture Catholic life in the home and how to form young minds. And, because he lived it along with other traditional Catholic warriors like his friend Michael Davies and the late Walter Matt, readers get a glimpse into the dark days following the Council, and decisions many traditional Catholics faced with the Écône consecrations, the early days of Ecclesia Dei and the perhaps presumed choice between love of tradition and “obedience” to the current actions of those at the top of the Church.

“Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”

By Zoe Kleinman
Technology reporter, BBC News

[Two Examples of Picture Captions]:

1. Life on Mars: Materia cana rerum stratarum in Melani Chasmate – or light-toned stratified materials in Melas Chasma.

2. Mass wasting in Valles Marineris (Lapsus massarum in Valle Marineris)

Pictures of the surface of Mars, taken from Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), are to be captioned in Latin on social media outlets as part of an outreach project.

The Latin captions will be published from 28 August on Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook.

The photography project is known as HiRise (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) and has run since 2006.

The Latin translations are being done by 18 volunteers coordinated in the UK.

“We were inspired by the Pope’s Latin feed,” HiRise spokesman Ari Espinoza from the University of Arizona told the BBC.

The then Pope Benedict XVI sent his first tweet in the ancient language at the beginning of the year and also used Latin in his resignation speech.

“Some of the science greats – [Johannes] Kepler, [Isaac] Newton wrote in Latin – this is a tie to the past but we’re looking at the future,” Mr. Espinoza added.

Captions are already provided in 10 languages as well as English, including Hebrew, Icelandic and Russian.

While some modern scientific terms had challenged the Latin translators, more mundane phrases had also faced scrutiny, said Dr. Lorna Robinson, director of the Iris Project, a UK-based Latin language outreach initiative, which is coordinating the team.

“There has been debate over whether to keep the Latin more simple or make it as close to classical Latin as possible,” she said.

“We reached a compromise – wanted to keep it clear and accessible to outsiders without being wrong.”

The word “possible” had divided opinion among the language experts because it had not been used in the same way as it was today, Dr. Robinson said.

“We went for ‘possibilis’ – which means ‘possible’ but in terms of classical Latin it wasn’t really used in the way we use it,” she said.

The phrase under scrutiny was a structure described as “with possible ice” which would not have been a format familiar to traditional speakers, Dr. Robinson added.

“One of the fascinating things for me has been discovering how many parts of Mars have been named in Latin,” she said.

“It will be interesting for people to see these connections. Terra [is Latin for] terrain, for example – most people will be able to work that out.”

The HiRise camera was designed for continuous use until the fuel on the MRO runs out in 2023, and sends back over 12 images each day, said Mr. Espinoza.

“So far we have 30,000 images. Beautiful dunes, defrosting carbon dioxide ice, gulleys and impact craters – it’s Mars,” he said.

“The [translation] group we have created has done a lot of talking. You just don’t learn about impact craters or carbon dioxide ice in Latin at school.”

From The Back of the World Blog

Hi, my name is Ryan. I’m 27-years-old, and I’m new to this diocese. And for the love of all that is holy, can someone please do something about all of the tambourine playing going on around here?!

I apologize in advance if this post comes off as too much of a rant. And I should say this from the start: I’m not a Traditionalist Catholic. I’ve never found the criticisms of Vatican II to be very convincing, I’m a big fan of some theologians that Trads usually aren’t fond of (e.g., von Balthasar), I think that Pope Francis’ simpler style is (for the most part) pretty awesome, etc. I guess you can say I’m a “JP2 conservative”…faithful to the Magisterium, adherent to the hermeneutic of continuity, etc. All that to say, I was never interested in picking on the Novus Ordo liturgy…

But we’ve made a decision as a family to start attending the Traditional Latin Mass regularly. And here’s why:

When we were received into the Catholic Church, we lived in Boston. There, it was never hard to find a beautiful, reverent, Novus Ordo Mass. Life was good, and when I was on the right side of town, I even enjoyed the occasional Anglican Use Mass or Maronite Divine Liturgy.

Last year, I read Pope Benedict’s “Spirit of the Liturgy” (a must-read, by the way), and began to re-think a lot of the views I held on the liturgy. I began to agree with the need for kneeling to receive Communion, having the priest celebrate ad orientem, etc. [Ed. note: many thanks to Fr. Z for catching the Latin typo in the original!] But, I have to admit, I didn’t see these things as really pressing issues, mostly because what I saw in and around the city of Boston was (for the most part) in keeping with the solemn nature of what we as Catholics believe to be taking place at the Mass.

Now, though, we’ve moved to the Diocese of ______________, Florida. And, if I may be blunt, the state of the liturgy around here is utterly atrocious.

Imagine seashell-shaped parishes filled with Baby Boomers dressed in Bermuda shirts and khaki shorts. Imagine complete strangers holding hands with each other during the Our Father. Imagine jamming out to contemporary Christian songs that were popular 15-20 years ago. Imagine all sorts of improvisations on the part of priests. Heck, imagine everyone getting called up to stand around the altar together during the Eucharistic prayers, rather than kneeling back in the pews–yeah, that happened! I was there!

It’s enough to make me want to scream: “People! We are attending the re-presentation of the once-for-all-sacrifice made for us on Calvary, and simultaneously realizing the eschatological Wedding Supper of the Lamb made present in the Eucharist! PUT DOWN THE TAMBOURINES!

And so we attended the Latin Mass this past Sunday. And it was breathtakingly beautiful. And you know, it wasn’t that hard to follow along in the missal. And, in what is no doubt a bitter irony to the kind of people that like contemporary Christian music, at a Latin Mass of about 100 people, there were probably triple the number of young people than at any other Mass I’ve been to since we moved here…

And maybe this will sound extreme to some of my readers, but I don’t really want my kids exposed to what’s going on in the Novus Ordo in this diocese. I think liturgy has a huge pedagogical component to it, and I don’t like what those liturgies teach my children. I think they take away from the utter seriousness of what the Mass is, I think it says “this is just a Sunday get-together” rather than “this is a Holy Sacrifice”, I think it teaches that liturgy is about your musical preferences rather than worshiping God…Besides which, my two-year-old was way better-behaved than he has been at the Novus Ordo, and I’m sure that’s because he picked up on the reverent and serious silence, rather than looking at a guy his grandfather’s age rocking out on a guitar and thinking “aw man, it’s party time up in here!”

If this is where we are at, if this is what the Novus Ordo has become in some dioceses, then maybe the best thing to do is to hit the reset button and start from the beginning. Maybe we need to all go home, re-learn the 1962 missal, then calmly re-read Sacrosanctum Concilium in about 5 years to learn what the Council actually said, and we can have this discussion again.

Until then, you can find me and mine down the street at the TLM on Sundays, reclaiming my heritage and birth-right as a Roman Catholic–i.e., good liturgy.

by Louis Verrecchio

Dr. Ralph Martin’s recent article in the theological journal Nova et Vetera, The Post-Christendom Sacramental Crisis: The Wisdom of Thomas Aquinas, has garnered considerable attention for its relatively sober assessment of the current condition of the Catholic Church.

“There is something like an institutional collapse going on, evidenced by the vast numbers of schools closing, parishes merging, clustering and closing and the multiple assignments that many young priests now are asked to manage. Besides the institutional collapse, there is evidence of a widespread repudiation of the teaching of Christ and the Church by vast numbers of Catholics,” Martin observed.

The article, especially noteworthy for having been published in a journal that Archbishop Chaput called “an outstanding resource for the renewal of theology in line with the New Evangelization,” certainly deserves kudos. That said, the main reason it has been so well received among traditionalists is simply because Martin states what so many other “new evangelists” are determined to deny; namely, that the visible structures of the Catholic Church are rapidly deteriorating before our very eyes.

Martin makes a number of important observations, but even as he holds a veritable x-ray up to the light, revealing a nasty ecclesial tumor; ultimately, he leaves the disease undiagnosed.

The article begins with a thesis:

This article argues that, given the collapse of a societal consensus that is supportive of the Judaeo-Christian [sic] moral tradition, the Church is facing a sacramental crisis. The crisis consists in fewer and fewer baptized Catholics participating in the post-baptismal sacraments and fewer and fewer of the Catholics who do participate in further sacraments effectively realizing the fruits of these sacraments. Part of the solution to this crisis is to consider carefully the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas on how to identify (and remove) obstacles to sacramental fruitfulness.

Martin goes on to cite statistics from an unnamed Midwestern diocese that reveal a problem that is far more fundamentally important: In just a ten year period (2000 to 2010), Catholic baptisms and marriages are down nearly 50%.

So, while it is certainly true that “fewer baptized Catholics” are living a fully Catholic life, and addressing the matter of sacramental fruitfulness is a noble idea, we would do well to concern ourselves first and foremost with the underlying causes that have led to this time when so few are even approaching the sacraments in the first place.

Yes, the two problems of lower numbers and a lack of sacramental fruitfulness are interrelated, but while some may be tempted to get caught up in a chicken-and-egg debate, Martin comes frustratingly close to putting his finger on the actual disease that lies at the heart of the matter:

With the intellectual currents of the Enlightenment, the subsequent anti-religion rebellion of the French Revolution, and the profound intellectual rejection of the Christian worldview symbolized by Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, forces were unleashed in Western culture that eventually led to not only a repudiation of the church-state relationships that had evolved over many centuries but a repudiation of religion itself as a legitimate shaper of culture.

What Martin leaves unaddressed is the degree to which these “intellectual currents” were unleashed, not only in Western culture at the hands of determined secularists, but in the very heart of Catholicism via the Second Vatican Council at the hands of determined churchmen.

Archliberal Cardinal Leo Jozef Suenens hailed the Council, and with no little accuracy, as “1789 in the Church” for a reason:

It was the Fathers of Vatican II who officially (in the document Dignitatis Humanae) repudiated the “church-state relationships that had evolved over many centuries,” effectively dethroning Christ the King in exchange for a solitary folding chair among the many at the political table, as if He aspires to be accepted as nothing more in society than an equal to every heathen, heretic and humanist with an opinion.

It was the Fathers of Vatican II who invited religious indifferentism by suggesting that false religions are a means of salvation.

It was the Fathers of Vatican II who replaced the Church’s call to conversion with a sentimental plea for religious dialogue and mutual understanding.

I could continue, but presumably the point has been made.

“Of course, it would not be accurate to leave the impression that the ‘secular culture’ is to blame for [the sacramental crisis.] Years of silence about those aspects of the gospel which the contemporary culture is hostile to—the truths about sin, about heaven and hell, about the need for repentance, about the real meaning of discipleship, about the supreme value of knowing Christ—have contributed to the metamorphosis of Catholicism in the minds of many into a comforting religious ritual of indeterminate meaning,” Martin rightly observed, and for this he should be applauded.

He failed to address, however, precisely what gave rise to these decades of virtual silence.

The unvarnished truth is that fewer people are coming to the sacraments simply because the overwhelming majority of our sacred hierarchs, from the 1960’s on forward, have ingested every limp-wristed, weak-kneed, kumbaya-style ambiguity the conciliar text has to offer, only to regurgitate them back to the souls in their care at every opportunity like pelicans feeding their young.

Along the way, an entire generation or more has come of age having been nurtured on little more than the fast food of modernism by pastors who have utterly ceased to proclaim the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church as the solitary means of salvation, and therefore the paramount importance of the sacraments that the Lord has entrusted to her.

All of this being the case, is it any wonder that the Catholic Church in our day is in the throes of a full-scale institutional collapse?

by Blanca Morales
August 19, 2013

Sheer curiosity is what led me to first attend Mass in the Extraordinary Form. I had heard of the terms Missa Cantata, High Mass, Tridentine Rite or Traditional Latin Mass, but didn’t know they all referred to the same thing: Mass as celebrated in the time-honored tradition of centuries past.

I knew very little about the Traditional Latin Mass, which had fallen into disuse after the Second Vatican Council. I also didn’t know that in 2007, Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI made it easier for priests to celebrate the Latin Mass in his motu propio Summorum Pontificum. In this apostolic letter, Pope Benedict XVI noted that the form of Mass which had nourished the faith of so many generations should be made more widely available, though the newer form of the Mass, as celebrated in most of our parishes today, must continue to be recognized for its value and holiness. It would be inconsistent, he said, to exclude the new rite as illegitimate.

Being a part of what many call “the JP2 generation,” my only association with Mass has been in the post-Vatican II “ordinary” (normal) form, which introduces a lot of youth-friendly modernisms such as contemporary praise music.

Looking to explore something new and different, I entered the quaint Spanish-revival church, the Mission of Sts. Francis and Clare, with preconceived notions of Latin Mass that had been given to me by the media.

Great was my surprise when a great majority of attendees were people of my own generation. Indeed, Pope Benedict noted the demand for greater use of the 1962 missal was not just made by those who grew up with it, but by younger generations who felt an attraction to it and found in it a “a form of encounter with the mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist which suited them particularly well.”

The moment Mass began, I was swept into this very mystery in more ways than one.

Being completely unacquainted with this form of the Mass, I stumbled through the Missal, trying to follow in Latin and translating in English. I began to grow a bit frustrated. I knew the new rite like the back of my hand, and now I felt like many a convert must feel when attending their first Mass: confused.

In a time and age when we like to have control of our surroundings, I didn’t like the feeling of not knowing what to do. I was unused to surrendering, but that was exactly what I needed to do.

I closed the Missal and put it aside. I decided to just experience the Mass. That’s when it all changed.

As I listened to prayers chanted in Latin, saw trails of incense floating in the air, and observed the priest offer up the Mass, I realized, this is exactly how centuries of Catholics celebrated Mass. Suddenly, I felt transported outside the constraints of time and space.

I always knew we Catholics are united in the Eucharist, but now, at Latin Mass, the term “universal church” carried a fuller, deeper meaning.

At a Mass like this one, St. Therese of Lisieux or Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati recited the same Credo, prayed the same Pater Noster, responded with the same “et cum spiritu tuo.” Now, more than ever, I felt united with the communion of saints: I was praying in the same language they prayed in. They no longer seemed so distant.

As I continued to enjoy the mystery of it all, no greater sense of surrender came than at the time of Communion. In Latin Mass, it is tradition to kneel for Communion and receive the host on the tongue.

I was in a bit of a panic. I had only been taught to receive Communion by hand. And here, there was no option for reception of Communion. I couldn’t have things “my way” as if Mass were a fast-food joint.

As I made my way down the center aisle toward the altar, I felt as jittery as a bride on her wedding night, receiving her groom for the first time. And that’s exactly what was happening: I was receiving the Bridegroom in a way I had not experienced.

At that moment, I stopped thinking and let my focus be on Him alone. I refused to worry about my surroundings, or whether I knew what I was doing. “Let go and let God,” was on my mind and I did the only thing I could do: submit.

And I did. It was not the awkward situation I thought it would be, and the feeling of surrender from that first experience was so liberating that I find that this is how I now prefer to receive communion.

I returned to Latin Mass in the weeks that followed, being attracted to the indescribable beauty of tradition, sacred music, and reverence.

Slowly but surely I am learning the prayers and responses, my Latin vocabulary increasing with each new visit. I am learning deeper truths about the celebration of the Lamb’s Supper. I also now know why the priest in my Children’s Missal was “facing the wrong way,” as I had observed as a child.

I cannot say whether or not I will become a traditionalist Catholic; I am in no way foregoing the novus ordo which has brought Mass to the nations in the language they know. I can say, however, that attending Latin Mass is a bit like finding a hidden treasure box and discovering all the beauty that lies within. It is in every way extraordinary.

From the Remnant

ROME – The Mass in the Roman rite according to the pre-conciliar Missal of 1962 will continue to be freely celebrated without any limitation by Pope Francis. This is the opinion of renowned theologian and liturgist, Don Nicola Bux, as expressed in a recent interview in the Neapolitan daily Roma and reported in various news outlets.

“The movement in favour of the traditional liturgy will certainly continue because the succession of Popes does not break the continuity of tradition and he who succeeds to a predecessor does not invent the Church again”, said don Bux, who is also a consultant to the Congregation for Divine Worship and well respected in tradition-minded circles. “Sometimes it is believed that the Pope, in his office, must make his personal views prevail, but this would be quite worrisome. It is clear that every Pontiff has his own temperament and history, and it is not these that are to prevail, but always the good of the Church. The Pope is a minister, but he is not the master, as was also reiterated by the current Pontiff”.

And what about Pope Francis’s attitude toward the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum? Well when he was Bishop of Buenos Aires, according to don Bux, Cardinal Bergoglio did “not hamper the application of the Motu Proprio”.

The interest in the traditional liturgy, don Bux contends, is also linked to the new evangelization. “In the present moment of grave crisis of faith, a mystical liturgy celebrated with dignity can be a great help for people searching to find God. Historically, great converts were struck by grace while attending solemn rites and listening to extraordinary chants”.

Don Bux’s words cannot but bode well for the Summorum Pontificum pilgrims due to flock to Rome for the second annual pilgrimage in October, whose programme was officially presented in late June during a media briefing at the Church of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini (Most Holy Trinity of Pilgrims), the personal parish erected by Benedict XVI to cater for the spiritual and religious needs of the traditionalist community in Rome and served by the Fraternity of St. Peter.

Pilgrimage chaplain, Father Claude Barthe, was the keynote speaker at the briefing. He announced that the pilgrimage would take place in Rome from the 24th to the 27th of October and, this time, besides the procession and Mass at Saint Peter’s on Saturday, October 26th, there will be a Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) in the streets of Rome on Friday, October 25th, and the closing Mass on Christ the King Sunday. This Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Rifan, the bishop of the Apostolic Administration Saint Jean-Marie Vianney in Campos, Brazil. Meetings and discussions between clergy and laity are also scheduled for Saturday afternoon in the form of a round table.

As was pointed out in the Paix Liturgique Newsletter (No 37 – 29 May 2013), Dom Rifan is bishop of what is so far the only “personal diocese” whose apostolate is based on the use of the Gregorian and the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite. Little known outside Brazil, the Saint Jean-Marie Vianney Apostolic Administration was born of the diocese of Campos, whose courageous bishop from 1949 to 1981 was Bishop de Castro Mayer, co-consecrator along with Archbishop Lefebvre of the four SSPX bishops in 1988. The traditional community of Campos was regularized by the Holy See in 2002 through the erection of an Apostolic Administration that now numbers some thirty priests, a hundred Mass venues, 24 schools and close to 30,000 faithful. Bishop Rifan succeeded the first Apostolic Administrator of Campos, Bishop Rangel, who passed away soon after the agreements with Rome.

Father Barthe also said that “with the second Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage coming up, pilgrims who follow the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite are invited to close this Year of Faith the same way it began, by making their way to Rome and showing their support for the Mission of the Church and their desire to play a greater part in it”.

The ever-young and ardent traditional liturgy of all time, he went on, is peacefully spreading into almost all the Catholic world and breathes its own spirit into the work of the New Evangelisation. “It attracts many of the young people who come to know it, thanks to its powerful identity and the way it expresses sacredness, and for these reasons it should be considered one of the important planks in the New Evangelisation”.

In Father Barthe’s opinion, “all pilgrimages to St. Peter’s and the tomb of the Apostle are pilgrimages we make with the Bishop of Rome, and as such they are a way for us to show our fidelity to the Successor to St. Peter”. In this particular case, he added, “I think I can say the feeling is mutual: we know that Pope Francis is very interested in that which renews and rejuvenates the outward face of the Church, and this Pope who came from so far away seems to have understood what strengths are to be found in older, European Catholicism…As far as we are concerned, Pope Francis is living out what his predecessor said to the Bishops of France in 2008:’Everyone has a place in the Church’.”

“Last year,” Father Barthes noted, “Cardinal Cañizares, in his homily during Mass at St. Peter’s, insisted that the Extraordinary Form is giving rise to priestly and religious vocations… Let us not forget that in many countries with very few vocations, more and more seminarians are being called by the Extraordinary Form. In France now, 15% of all new vocations come from the Extraordinary Form, and this gives a clear idea of the effects it has on the clergy”.

“Also as a result of this phenomenon,” he pointed out, “a lot of old barriers are falling down. With all these diocesan priests who are discovering the riches and joy of saying Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form, the number of seminarians who are learning to follow it, and the ordinary Catholics who are asking for it in their parishes, something must be done to improve contacts between them all. The Year of Faith also involves the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage”

Another important development is that the pilgrimage organisers have entered into an exclusive partnership with Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, more commonly known by the acronym, ORP, which is the official pilgrimage branch of the Vicariate of Rome, a Department of the Holy See directly answerable to the Vicar Cardinal of Rome, Agostino Vallini. ORP has launched three special packages designed to suit individuals, couples or families wishing to make the second annual Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage to Rome. Further information and bookings can be accessed in six languages by clicking: http://unacumpapanostro.com/category/en-it-fr-pt-es-de/english/