Bishop Morlino’s Move to Ad Orientem Masses in Madison

OnePeter5 ^ | 9/6/16 | Brian Williams

[marshmallow]

This past weekend the Most Reverend Robert Morlino, Bishop of the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin made an announcement of great liturgical importance. Going forward His Excellency will be offering all of his Masses at the Cathedral ad orientem. Make no mistake about it, this is a major development on the liturgical landscape of American Catholicism.

While Bishop Morlino is a strong supporter of the Traditional Latin Mass, and has offered it publicly on numerous occasions, his recent announcement pertains to Masses offered in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

This is the positive manifestation of Robert Cardinal Sarah’s call to action at this past July’s Sacra Liturgia Conference in London. At the time Cardinal Sarah made the following request:

And so, dear Fathers, I ask you to implement this practice (ad orientem worship) wherever possible, with prudence and with the necessary catechesis, certainly, but also with a pastor’s confidence that this is something good for the Church, something good for our people. Your own pastoral judgement will determine how and when this is possible, but perhaps beginning this on the first Sunday of Advent this year, when we attend ‘the Lord who will come’ and ‘who will not delay’…

Dear Fathers, we should listen again to the lament of God proclaimed by the prophet Jeremiah: “they have turned their back to me” (2:27). Let us turn again towards the Lord!”

What is possibly even more inspiring than the bishop’s decision itself is the acceptance and (indeed) desire on the part of the faithful for a return to this traditional liturgical orientation. As one parishioner who was present said, there was an actual gasp from the pews when the announcement was made. “After the gasp, the Bishop said how wonderful it was that not only did we know what that means, but.........

[Jeff Chandler]

This is in Madison? Heads are exploding, I’m certain.

[Salvation]

Bump for Bishop Morlino.

[RitaOK]

Wow! At least a fine hair crack in the armor, at last. The USA is chocked full of hard line modernist Catholic bishops, longing to imitate disappearing European Catholicism, beginning with having nothing to do with Tradition. Ahh, the West. The pinnacle of the faithless.

It is both outrageous, but expected. How else do you winnow down to nothing but a remnant?

[Unam Sanctam]

Good news. My diocesan newspaper, a “spirit of Vatican II” hotbed if ever there was one, published an article entitled “Facing the wall at mass is not the norm”. Such respect for a venerable practice in the Roman rite and still the norm in Eastern rites... Crank that I am, I wrote a letter to the editor giving them a piece of my mind. I got a lengthy response, but I don’t think my arguments went over too well.

[Campion]

They’re absolutely right. Nobody should face the wall at Mass, they should face the high altar, the tabernacle, and the reredos. ;-)