Today the re-introduction of the Latin Mass signals to me that far from becoming open to the kinds of changes needed to protect children from abuse, the Catholic Church is once again circling the wagons, rejecting necessary reforms and consolidating its power in the hierarchy.
You’re really on a roll this morning is posting anything negative about the Catholic Church that you can find, aren’t you?
I don’t think we appreciate it.
Really?
What language was Mass celebrated in before the Counter-Reformation, Suzy?
Esperanto?
President, Chicago Theological Seminary
The Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, is the 11th President of Chicago Theological Seminary. She has been a Professor of Theology at the seminary for 20 years and director of its graduate degree center for five years. Her area of expertise is contextual theologies of liberation, specializing in issues of violence and violation.
Hmmm...
The Latin Mass was developed during one of the most reactionary periods in the history of the Catholic Church, the “Counter-Reformation”.
Wrong (and thus detrimental to the rest of her argument). The Mass affirmed by Quo Primum in 1570 is the Mass of St. Gregory the Great, and it has existed (though maybe not exactly as it was in 1570) since his time some 700 years prior.
Today the re-introduction of the Latin Mass signals to me that far from becoming open to the kinds of changes needed to protect children from abuse, the Catholic Church is once again circling the wagons, rejecting necessary reforms and consolidating its power in the hierarchy.
What? The Latin Mass liberalization shows consolidating power in the hierarchy? That statement doesn't make much sense at all, especially considering that many bishops and cardinals are very unhappy about the Motu Proprio. Besides, the link she's making is hardly clear (at least I'm not seeing it). The "changes needed" have nothing to do with the rubric that is used in the Mass.
You forgot the barf alert.
** Sound of collective sucking in of breath**
I like this spin. Usually we get the shtick about Mass being nothing more than empty human ritual performed with wafers.
This broad goes to the other extreme and implies that it involves all sorts of deep spiritual secrets, unknown to all except the cogniscenti.
I guess that's more suited to her overall thesis of secrecy and conspiracy in the Church. One plays whatever card suits one's purpose.
If Ms. T were to have a personal or professional motto, I would propose this for consideration:
Credo quia absurdum
Why this RC bashing. Please, enough is enough.
Her seminary is of the nearly extinct United Church of Christ, Obama’s denomination. It’s also certified by the United Methodist Church, and the Metropolitan Community Churches, the which is a gay denomination(!) and is headquartered in West Hollywood. But the Washington Post and Newsweek figure she’s fit to judge America’s largest and fastest-growing denomination.
“# We are committed, in conscious response to the Holocaust and in recognition of the toll taken by religious divisions in our world, to fostering better understanding and collaboration among religious traditions, paying particular attention to cooperation among Christianity, Judaism and Islam toward the end of realizing the aims of the prophetic traditions.
# We are committed, in a society riven by racism, to equipping leaders who honor cultural and racial diversity while resolutely combating the forces of division and domination.
# We are committed, in a world in which sexism remains a powerful force, to fostering leadership for gender justice, including developing a more mature masculine spirituality and engaging feminist and womanist spiritualities.
# We are committed, while church and society are threatened by new forces of division under the banner of homophobia, to developing leadership for a more inclusive church and society.”
There is no connection between allowing a more generous use of the Tridentine Mass and a parish or diocesan policy regarding clergy sexual abuse. They just aren’t connected. Of course when Ms Brooks Thistlewhatever uses words like “reactionary” or “circling the wagons” or “consolidating its power in the heirarchy” she might fool some into thinking that, well, this must be related to covering up sex abuse. The fact remains that there just isn’t a connection. Maybe next time she should actually try to formulate a coherent argument before bashing a Church about which she knows nothing.
Ha. How bogus. The facts aren’t even right. The tridentine mass existed long before the Catholic reformation.
If anything this is a validation that Catholics stand for what they’ve always stood for, including a strong moral fiber. No more wishy washy feel good protestant-lite church ;-)
Dog bites man,. Nothing to see here. Thanks for the ping, Salvation, but this is a non-story. NEWS would be something like "The Episcopal Church thinks the Pope is right". This is not news. It's business as usual
The real Catholic Religion is back. The Latin Mass is all tan, rested, and ready to take the world by storm. I for one am thrilled beyond belief.
The best of my life was when Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope. The second best day was when he instituted the LATIN MASS!!
The Latin Mass is not about Latin but about reverence, putting God at the center of worship (not “celebrating ourselves) and about holiness.
Pedophilia started when psychologists decided Sex and morality and family had nothing to do with each other, and the if we let it all hang out sexually we would be more mature.
A lot of the predictions of what would happen when we made sex “fun” and removed it’s link with responsibility and children are in Humana Vitae, but I bet Thistelwaite never read it.
This writer does not know her history. The Enlightenment began in the seventeenth century. The Council of Trent was held in the middle of the sixteenth century. Therefore, it could not have been a “reaction” to the Enlightenment.
Moreover, the writer is suffering from the same delusions that seem to plague many others—namely that the Second Vatican Council marked a rupture in Church history and that the whole of Church history that preceded the Council was some kind of “dark age.” Finally, she clings to the erroneous belief that the sex abuse scandal was “caused” by the Church’s hierarchy and that only by eliminating the hierarchy can we “protect” children from abuse. What hogwash! This just proves my contention that many people are using the clerical sex abuse scandal as an excuse to advance a modernist agenda in the Church, to remake the Church into a lay-run institution. Well, you can post all the Church-bashing articles that you want, but the Church will never adopt the kind of false reforms that you and so many others want it to.
This may be one of the great non sequiturs ever committed to print since the death of Johannes Gutenberg. Yikes!
I think such sexual predators should be publically mutilated, along with their bishop enablers. I won't cast the first scalpel since I have a blemish or two on my record. Nevertheless, there isn't penance available in this vale of tears for such human debris.
I would welcome the return of the Latin Mass. Now if they would just move the Saturday effort at my parish from 5:00 PM to 4:30 PM and change it to Latin, I may offer to become a server once again, although I would need to brush up on my responses. Then, again, so might the celebrant.