Initially, I was excited about the introduction of five, new mysteries. Then, as I began reading de Montford, I, too, became disturbed about the change from the traditional 150, which corresponds so nicely to the Psalms, to 200, also. I even joked with our other priest that now de Montford would have to go back and revise his book. (Yes, I know he is long gone from this world.)
And that got me to thinking. As others in this thread have pointed out, the addition of this five, new mysteries does, in a way, devalue much beautiful devotional literature like de Montford's.
I'm kind of relieved to see this article since I thought I was the only one disturbed by this. Let me see if I can offer an analogy.
Recently, the church in which my wife and I were married was renovated. Now, to be fair, the new part is NOT one of these theatre-in-the-round garage monstrosities which so blemish many 'renovated' Catholic Churches. Indeed, its quite beautiful in and of itself.
However, its just sort of 'stuck on' to the old Church. It doesn't really match the previous architecture. As another priest has commented on it, rather wittily I think, "some parts of the new church are less intolerable than others." Its not that the new church addition isn't beautiful, standing alone it would be great. Its just that rammed on to the old church it looks, well, weird, and this "weirdness" detracts from the beauty of each part.
I'm worried these new mysteries could do the same. And I'm beginning to think His Holiness is approaching much of his dealings with the Church in the same manner. Rather than directly confronting the current 'archeticture of the Church,' he seems to be just trying to make things better by tacking on new things, hoping they'll cover up the actual problems.
Read de Montford's, The Secret of the Rosary. His love and devotion -the tender care he brings to his subject- cannot help but lead one to wonder if maybe tacking on five new mysteries may not be as good an idea as it initially sounds.
Now, here's my problem. Its not hard for me to imagine some in my parish latching on to this as an excuse to drop the Fatima prayer when we say the Rosary. Consider: a number of people in our parish, when saying the last sentence of the Hail Mary, already say, "pray for OUR sinners, now and at the hour of our death."(BTW, has anyone else ever heard of this?)
It seems obvious to me these individuals have a problem saying 'US sinners.' Maybe they don't like to feel bad about themselves. The point is, I have no doubt they would just love to do away with the whole, "Oh my Jesus, save US from the fires of Hell and lead all souls to heaven, especially those who have most need of thy mercy," business. I fear His Holiness has just given them the ammunition to do this.