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Benedict XVI's Motu Proprio: Sedevacantist Reaction
traditionalmass.org ^ | July 7, 2007 | Rev. Anthony Cekada

Posted on 07/09/2007 11:01:19 AM PDT by AnthonyCekada

A “mark of identity… a form of encounter…particularly suited to them.….” A “sacrality which attracts many people.” (Benedict XVI, on his reasons for instituting the Motu Mass)

“Legitimate diversity and different sensibilities, worthy of respect… Stimulated by the Spirit who makes all charismata come together in unity.”( John Paul II, on the traditional Mass, to the Fraternity of St. Peter)

“Everything in their system is explained by inner impulses or needs.” (Pope St. Pius X, on modernists and the sacraments, Pascendi)

* * *

ON JULY 7, 2007 Benedict XVI issued Summorum Pontificum, his long-anticipated Motu Proprio allowing a more widespread use of the 1962 version of the traditional Latin Mass. His action came as no surprise. As a Cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger had already spoken favorably about the old Mass many times.

Here are some salient provisions of the Motu Proprio and his accompanying letter:

• The New Mass of Paul VI is the “ordinary” expression of the “law of prayer” (lex orandi), while the John XXIII version of the old Mass is the “extraordinary” expression. They are “two uses of the one Roman Rite.” (Motu Proprio, ¶1)

• Any priest can celebrate the Mass of “Blessed John XXIII” privately. (¶2)

• In parishes where there is a stable group of faithful “attached to the previous liturgical tradition,” the pastor should accede to their requests for a celebration of the ’62 Mass. (¶5.1)

• Such celebrations can take place on weekdays, “while on Sundays and feastdays there may be one such celebration.” (¶5.2)

• Scripture readings can be proclaimed in the vernacular. (¶6)

• The older rite may also be used, when requested, for weddings and funerals (¶5.3), and the pastor may allow using the older rites for administering other sacraments as well. (¶9.1)

• The diocesan bishop may set up a “personal parish” for such celebrations. (¶10)

• The New Mass and the old are not “two Rites,” but a two-fold use of “one and the same rite.” (Letter to Bishops)

• The old Missal was “never juridically abrogated, and consequently, in principle, was always permitted.”

• The two rites are “mutually enriching.”

• New saints and new Prefaces from the New Missal “can and should be inserted into the old.”

• There is “no contradiction” between the two rites.

• Priests from communities that adhere to the former usage “cannot, as a matter of principle, exclude celebrating according to the new books.” So, now that the “Motu Mass” has finally arrived, what should we make of it? Here are some preliminary considerations.

I. POSITIVE ASPECTS

1. An Admission of Failure

As a seminarian in the 1960s, I lived through the liturgical revolution on the inside, and since then I have read commentaries on the reform by those who directed it — Bugnini, Jungmann, Braga, Wagner, Patino, Botte, Vaggagini, Brandolini, and many others.

In those days and for these men, there was never any question of allowing the pre-Vatican II Mass to survive, even on a restricted basis. The new rite of Mass in the 1970 Missal of Paul VI was to become the Mass of the Roman Rite, period, and it was to be a great step forward for the Church.

This was the intention of Paul VI himself. In November 1969, shortly before his New Mass was to be introduced in churches throughout the world, he developed this theme in two General Audiences:

“[The liturgical reform] is a step forward for [the Church’s] genuine tradition. It is a clear sign of faithfulness and vitality.… It is not a fad, a fleeting or optional experiment, the invention of some dilettante… This reform puts an end to uncertainties, arguments and arbitrary abuses. It summons us back to that uniformity of rites and attitudes that is proper to the Catholic Church…

“[T]he fundamental outline of the Mass is still the traditional one, not only theologically but also spiritually. Indeed, if the rite is carried out as it ought to be, the spiritual aspect will be found to have greater richness.”…

“Let us then not speak of a ‘new Mass,’ but of a ‘new age’ in the life of the Church.”

The new age is now over. During four decades of “greater richness,” ordinations in the U.S. declined by 72%, seminary enrollment by 90%, seminaries by 66%, teaching sisters by 94%, Catholic school enrollment by 55%, and Mass attendance by about 60%.

In the 1990s, a new generation of clergy started to turn away from the rite of Paul VI and look longingly towards the Tridentine Missal. Graduates of garden-variety diocesan seminaries sought out old-style vestments, took courses on the pre-Vatican II rubrics, celebrated the traditional Mass on the sly, and generally, hoped for something more Catholic than was to be found in the new rite.

If the New Mass had been a success, there would be none of this. The Motu Mass is an ad-mission that the Novus Ordo was a failure.

2. Removing the Stigma.

From 1964 to 1984, the modernist hierarchy treated those who wanted the old Mass as outcasts, crackpots and troglodytes. The 1984 Indult and then the establishment of the Ecclesia Dei commission in 1988, however, removed some of the stigma from promoting the “Latin Mass.”

Ratzinger’s Motu Mass will further “legitimize” pre-Vatican II liturgical practices in the eyes of many.

3. A Cause of Division in the Enemy Camp

Despite the elaborate safeguards Ratzinger tried to lay down, Motu Mass will inevitably cause conflict among adherents to Vatican II.

I don’t know about other parts of the world, but I can probably predict how this will play out in suburban America, where the majority of Novus Ordo Catholics now reside. There, in churches architecturally indistinguishable from chain restaurants and bank branches, committees of “empowered” and aggressive laywomen, both salaried and volunteer, together with the occasional liberated “woman religious,” now dictate parish policies and practices. They and their fellow suburbanites like the easy-going Mass and religion of Vatican II just as it is.

Should a neo-con pastor (typically: “Father Bob,” — late 30s, overweight, and in his second career) announce that, thanks to the Motu Proprio, he will be bringing out all the old liturgical gear that he’s bought on eBay and start celebrating the old Mass in Latin at 10AM on Sundays, a parish-wide insurrection, complete with protests to the bishop and a full media campaign, would be organized by the women’s soviet.

Multiply this by a few parishes per diocese, and you can see the strife the Motu Mass could cause among the enemy. A divided house cannot stand, and divisions that advance the decomposition of the new religion can only speed the restoration of the old — quod Deus det!

4. Warning Flares for Committed Trads

Most long-time traditionalists detest any tinkering with the Mass. Ratzinger, however, hints at some changes that might be in store for them at their local Motu Mass: new saints’ feasts, new Prefaces, and vernacular readings — whether even the Bugnini lectionary can be used is left unclear.

Great! Fooling around like this with the old Mass will make old-timers very uneasy, alert them to Ratzinger’s game (one hopes), and perhaps even start them on the road to thinking that modernists like Ratzinger are the problem, not the solution, for real Catholics.

5. Rubbing Priests’ Noses in the New Mass

Since 1988 John Paul II and Ratzinger have approved a great number of quasi-traditionalist religious communities (Fraternity of St. Peter, Institute of Christ the King, the Good Shepherd Institute, etc.) that are allowed to use the ’62 Missal and other pre-Vatican II rites. These have insulated many clergy who detested the New Mass from being forced to celebrate it.

No longer. Ratzinger sends them a rocket: “Needless to say, in order to experience full communion, the priests of the communities adhering to the former usage cannot, as a matter of principle, exclude celebrating according to the new books. The total exclusion of the new rite would not in fact be consistent with the recognition of its value and holiness.”

Again, great! The more that priests in these institutes are personally confronted with the evil of the New Mass, the sooner they will realize the irreconcilable contradictions of their own position.

6. An Introduction to the Real Issues

Although the John XXIII Mass that Ratzinger authorizes is a stripped version of the inte-gral traditional liturgy, it still retains enough of the old to demonstrate that, in comparison, the New Mass of Paul VI represented an entirely new religion — “man-centered,” as one of its creators, Fr. Martin Patino, proudly proclaimed.

For many Catholics, the road to becoming traditionalists began when they encountered a traditional Latin Mass for the first time and compared it with the neo-protestant rite celebrated in their parishes. With the Motu Mass, the possibility of such encounters multiplies exponentially.

This will no doubt lead many sincere and thoughtful souls to look beyond the liturgical question to the larger doctrinal issue — the heresies of Vatican II and the post-Conciliar popes — and eventually embrace the only logical position for a faithful Catholic: sedevacantism.

II. NEGATIVE ASPECTS

1. Co-opted by Modernist Subjectivism

Because they still think in the old Catholic religious categories, traditionalists who pro-moted the Motu Mass will consider its approval a resounding defeat for modernism.

But in fact, something different has occurred: with the Motu Mass, the modernists will now co-opt unsuspecting trads into their own subjectivist program.

Pope St. Pius X condemned modernism because (among other things) it spurned dogma and exalted the “religious sense” of the individual believer. And the Vatican pronouncements that authorize the use of the traditional Mass — from the 1984 Indult onwards — all do so on the basis of slippery and subjective modernist categories like “different sensibilities,” “feelings,” “legitimate diversity,” “enjoyment,” various “charismata,” “cultural expressions,” “attachment,” etc.

Ratzinger now repeatedly sounds this theme: “attachment,” “affection,” “culture,” “personal familiarity,” “mark of identity,” “dear to them,” “attraction,” “form of encounter,” and “sacrality which attracts.”

Everything is reduced to the subjective.

Let the traditionalists who promoted it say what they will. For Ratzinger, the Motu Mass makes them merely one more color in his Vatican II rainbow.

2. A Side Chapel in an Ecumenical Church

As we have repeatedly pointed out elsewhere, Joseph Ratzinger’s personal contribution to the long list of Vatican II errors is his “Frankenchurch” heresy. For him, the Church is a “communion” — a type of ecumenical, One-World Church to which Catholics, schismatics and heretics all belong, each possessing “elements” of the Church of Christ either “fully” or “partially.” According to his Catechism, all are part of one big happy “People of God.”

Under this roof, some enjoy Lutheran chorales, guitar Masses, Gregorian chant, communion in the hand, altar girls, lay Eucharistic ministers, Hindu and African “inculturated” liturgies and Mariachi music. Others (in “partial communion” with Ratzinger) enjoy somber Orthodox chanting, rock music, priestesses, Anglican smells and bells, Canons with the Words of Consecration missing, accept-Jesus-as-your-perrrzonal-savior altar calls, and Filioque-free Creeds.

It is therefore hardly surprising that Ratzinger would offer traditionalists the Motu Mass, and with it a large and comfy side chapel in his ecumenical church. Just one more option…

And in fact, Fr. Nicola Bux, a Vatican official who was involved in drafting the Motu Proprio, called it just that: an “’extension’ of options.”

And of course, there is a price to be paid.

According to Ratzinger’s Motu Proprio and accompanying letter, the Novus Ordo — the ecumenical, protestant, modernist sacrilege that destroyed the Catholic faith throughout the world — is the “ordinary expression of the law of prayer of the Catholic Church.” Your Motu Mass — the true Mass, you may like to call it — is merely “extraordinary.” The new and the old are merely two uses of the same Roman Rite.

If you accept the Motu Mass, you buy into all this, and become a paid-up member of Ratzinger’s One-World Ecumenical Church.

3. Catholic Rituals, Modernist Doctrines

For decades, traditionalists rallied to the cry “It’s the Mass that matters!”

But ultimately this is just a slogan. You can get to heaven without the Catholic Mass, but you can’t get to heaven without the Catholic Faith.

Ratzinger will now give you the Mass — but the faith? Will those who accept his generous offer be free to condemn the Novus Ordo, the Vatican II errors, and the false teachings of the post-Conciliar popes?

To find out, one need only look at the Fraternity of St. Peter, the Institute of Christ the King and the other organizations already celebrating the old Mass under the auspices of the Vatican’s Ecclesia Dei Commission. The most their clergy dared to do was offer the occasional polite criticism about “deficiencies” or “ambiguities” in the new religion. They are now all sold men.

Their principal concern now, like that of the Anglican High Church wing, will be to maintain the externals of Catholicism, especially its worship. But the heart of Catholicism — the faith — is gone.

So while a neo-con priest who offers a Motu Mass may now find it very thrilling to chant the ancient collects with their “negative” language about hell, divine retribution, Jews, pagans, heretics and the like, he should remember that Vatican II abolished the doctrinal presuppositions on which this language was based.

For the good Father and his congregation, the lex orandi which they observe (the tradi-tional Mass) has no connection whatsoever with their official lex credendi (the Vatican II religion).

From its 19th-century beginnings, modernism sought to create a religion that is divorced from dogma, but that nevertheless satisfies man’s “religious sense.” It is ironic that this self-contradicting and dogma-free religion is now fully realized in Ratzinger’s Motu Mass.

4. Non-Priests Offering Invalid Masses

“Once there are no more valid priests, they’ll permit the Latin Mass.”

This was the prediction made in the mid-1970s by the Capuchin Fr. Carl Pulvermacher, an older traditionalist priest who worked with SSPX and was an editor of their U.S. publication The Angelus.

It was also prophetic. In 1968, the modernists formulated a new Rite of Episcopal Conse-cration that is invalid — it cannot create a real bishop. Someone who is not a real bishop, of course, cannot ordain a real priest, and all the Masses — traditional Latin or Novus Ordo — offered by an invalidly ordained priest are likewise invalid.

So nearly forty years later, when, thanks to the post-Vatican II Rite of Episcopal Consecration, there are few validly ordained priests left, the modernist Ratzinger (himself invalidly consecrated in the new rite) permits the traditional Mass.

As a result of the Motu Proprio, therefore, traditional Latin Masses will start to be cele-brated widely throughout the world: chant and Palestrina will echo in magnificently appointed churches, cloth-of-gold vestments will glisten, clouds of incense will fill Baroque apses, preachers in lace will proclaim the return of the sacred, solemn-faced clerics will officiate with as much rubrical perfection as the truncated rites of John XXIII will allow.

But the Motu Mass will all be an empty show. Without real bishops, no real priests; without real priests, no Real Presence; without the Real Presence, no God to receive and adore — only bread…

III. SAY NO TO THE MOTU

IN THE LONG run, the Motu Mass will contribute to the steady decline of post-Conciliar religion and the eventual death of Vatican II — Ratzinger’s devil-baby, for which Limbo was never an option. At all this, we can only rejoice.

In the short term, however, many gullible traditionalists will be lured to the Motu Mass because of convenience or the prospect of “belonging to something bigger.”

But the negative aspects of actually assisting at the Motu are pure poison. Here are two key points to remember:

(1) In most cases, your local Motu Mass will be invalid, because the priest who offers it will have been ordained by an invalidly consecrated bishop. Even some Indult parishioners already avoid the Masses of FSSP priests for this reason.

(2) The Motu Mass is part of a false religion. Sure, you have your “approved” Latin Mass and perhaps even your Baltimore Catechism. But your co-religionists in the Church of Vatican II also have their Mass and their Catechism, all “approved” as well.

By assisting at the Motu Mass, you become part of it all and affirm that the differences between you and the folks down the road at St. Teilhard’s Church are merely cosmetic — “legitimate diversity and different sensibilities, worthy of respect… stimulated by the Spirit,” as John Paul II said to the Fraternity of St. Peter about their apostolate of offering the old Mass.

But if as a faithful Catholic, you’re disgusted at the thought of compromising with heresy and becoming one more color in the modernists’ liturgical and doctrinal rainbow, you have only one choice: Say no to the Motu!

------------

FREE INFO PACK: St. Gertrude the Great Church • 4900 Rialto Road West Chester OH 45069 • 513.645.4212 or visit: www.traditionalmass.org


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: catholic; motuproprio; sedevacantism; tridentine
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To: TaxachusettsMan

I thought your Pius XIII post was a very clever “Scrappleface-esq” take on this group, until I went to the “truecatholic” website.

I honestly didn’t know if I should bust out laughing or start crying. I only wish it was satire!


61 posted on 07/10/2007 6:35:03 PM PDT by Lauren BaRecall (Illegal aliens do not have Constitutional rights.)
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To: Lauren BaRecall
Baptists, being independent congregations, vary a good deal.

The Southern Baptist Convention does give you a sort of common denominator for theology and administration, but the preaching is all over the map. I've heard some good Baptist sermons -- but I've never heard a boring A.M.E. sermon! Ever!

The most scholarly sermons are usually preached by Presbys (my mother was raised Presby, so I'm a bit of a sermon connoisseur) but I have been highly impressed by the level of theology in the preaching at our parish. Monsignor is solid, informative, and a wee bit dry; the 2nd Parochial Vicar is Irish to the core, very scriptural, a little bit mystical; our 1st Parochial Vicar is the wild card -- he preaches like an A.M.E. (his grandmother was A.M.E.)! He sings, he shouts, he brings Transformers into the pulpit (yes he really did). His nickname is "Father Krunk", and he has a drive time radio show on a local FM station. But his theology is dead center sound.

62 posted on 07/10/2007 6:49:28 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: AnAmericanMother
Yes, I think the ones I've heard are Southern Baptists.

His nickname is "Father Krunk", and he has a drive time radio show on a local FM station. But his theology is dead center sound.

As long as the doctrine is faithful to Church teaching, that's the most important thing. (Including faithfulness to the liturgy.) Otherwise, God has something for everyone. So many saints, so many approaches to the spiritual life, so many different devotions. A foretaste of the many mansions of Our Father's house. We're members of a Great Church, and the new Moto Proprio is the continuation of this great tradition.

The most scholarly sermons are usually preached by Presbys (my mother was raised Presby, so I'm a bit of a sermon connoisseur)....

I'm a "reach as I need," and God always leads me to the exact lesson He wants to give me at the time. He's so wonderful!

By the way, it was Pope John Paul II who refered to the Latin Rite and the Eastern Rite as the two lungs of the body of the Church. With this image in mind, there have been times I've thought of the tradition of Protestantism, i.e., concerning the practical application of Biblical principles to living the Christian life, as being the third lung. :o) I hope that more Catholics recognize the spiritual richness contained within this approach. I think it's definitely an aspect of true ecumenism.

63 posted on 07/10/2007 8:00:19 PM PDT by Lauren BaRecall (Illegal aliens do not have Constitutional rights.)
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To: Lauren BaRecall

The “two lungs” idea is a favorite metaphor of our 2nd PV. He’s so Irish, he’s adorable. JPII is his hero, he says he is the reason he became a priest — and he has a photo of himself actually shaking hands with the Great Man Himself on his office wall! He almost always mentions him or quotes him in his homily — and always calls him John Paul the Great.


64 posted on 07/10/2007 8:04:17 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: AnAmericanMother

Isn’t that something! There’s no such thing as a coincidence. God gave us a little blessing in our meeting on FR. :o)

One thing I wanted to mention is that the Biblical principle of “Waiting upon the Lord” has revolutionized my life. I subsequently read something about St. Francis De Sales and “nearly passed out” when I discovered that that was basically what *he* did! LOL!


65 posted on 07/10/2007 8:12:07 PM PDT by Lauren BaRecall (Illegal aliens do not have Constitutional rights.)
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To: Lauren BaRecall
And St. Francis de Sales is our local Latin Mass parish.

"There are no coincidences."

With that coming full circle . . . God bless you, and good night.

My daughter brought home an orphaned baby mockingbird, and he'll be up bright and early yelling for his breakfast.

66 posted on 07/10/2007 8:13:19 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: Youngstown

“Yes, I want the true Faith and the true Roman Catholic Church of Christ to be restored to the even greater glory of God.”

Yeah, and I want to be President. You don’t always get everything you want when you want it. Patience is a virtue. You can’t even seem to enjoy that which you profess is so important to you, your faith. Isn’t it psychologically painful to you to constantly go around with an axe to grind regarding your own religion. Try lightening up a little and see the glass as half full, not half empty. That’s a Republican trait, optimism as versus pessimism; Reagan being the biggest practitioner of this state of mind by far. Great strides are being made by this Pope and all you can do is dwell in the land of negativity. Life’s short, and you aren’t ever going to see those pearly gates if you are in schism with your own Church.


67 posted on 07/11/2007 12:47:28 AM PDT by flaglady47 (Thinking out loud while grinding teeth in political frustration)
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