Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Armour-Plated Rigidity: Vatican Denies ANY Request To Celebrate The Roman MassJoseph Shaw (LmsChairman.org, August 12) has obtained the copy of a letter Neo-Cardinal Arthur Roche is sending to EVERY BISHOP requesting permission for priests to celebrate the Roman Mass.Roche writes that "this Dicastery [for the liturgy] is of the opinion that [this permission] would not be an opportune decision. Therefore, we deny the request."He explains that Francis' [rigid] intentions in Traditionis custodes are "quite clear" and that he underlined them in his "Letter to Bishops of the Whole World" and in his "Responsa ad dubia."Roche quotes Sacrosanctum Concilium...

[Catholic Caucus] Worship Prefect interviewed.At Vatican News we find an interview with the Prefect of Worship, whom Francis designated as a Cardinal, Archbp. Arthur Roche, once of Leeds and less-than-successful head of ICEL.Roche is an inveterate enemy of the Roman Rite, the Vetus Ordo, and has peculiar notions about what the Second Vatican Council mandated for liturgical reform. He reads into documents curious things. However, Roche is exemplary, in that he is one of those who wants to make Vatican II the only lens through which the whole of the Church’s history, doctrine and practice, including worship, must be reinterpreted.The...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal-designate calls liturgical tensions a ‘tragedy’VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Cardinal-designate Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, described as a “tragedy” the tensions within the Latin rite of the Catholic Church over the way the Mass is celebrated.In a wide-ranging interview broadcast June 16 by Vatican News, the cardinal-designate said the tensions are “partly” due to having had two versions of the Roman Missal — those from before and after the Second Vatican Council — in use in the church at the same time.“There’s never been a controversy about the liturgy in the...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican liturgy chief: Latin Mass just a ‘pastoral concession’ not aligned with post-Vatican II ChurchArchbishop Roche described the Traditional Latin Mass as not being ‘the norm’ in the Church’s life and somehow out of step with the ‘mandate given to the entire Church by the Second Vatican Council.’ VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The Vatican’s liturgy chief, Archbishop Arthur Roche, has described the Traditional Latin Mass as being merely “a pastoral concession” granted by Pope Francis, suggesting it was not in line with the fundamental changes the Second Vatican Council introduced to the Catholic Church.In a recent interview with...

Canon Lawyer Fr. Gerald Murray: The content of the Responsa “goes beyond what is canonically possible” Recently two canon law evaluations of the Responsa ad dubia of the Congregation for Divine Worship have been published. The first is written by Dominican Fr. Pius Pietrzyk, OP, STL, JD, JCD, and was published by Edward Pentin here. The second is an interview of Diane Montagna with Fr. Gerald Murray, a canon lawyer well known from his many appearances on EWTN; the full text may be found here. Both canonists maintain that Traditionis Custodes and the Responsa are canonically valid instruments and...

[Catholic Caucus] "Illiterate Imbecile": Philosopher and Liturgist Settles Scores With Archbishop Roche“We are dealing, at best, with an illiterate imbecile and a lackey looking for a red hat,” Peter Kwasniewski writes about Archbishop Arthur Roche, Francis' Liturgy Prefect (Rorate-Caeli.Blogspot.com, January 22).Kwasniewski compares Roche’s rhetorics to those of the Communists because Roche doesn't merely lie, but says "the exact opposite of the truth.” For instance, in a recent interview,• Roche condemns Roman Rite Catholics for "promoting an individual preference.” Kwasniewski replies that it is the Novus Ordo that allows options, choices and individual preferences – in total millions of possible configurations....

[Catholic Caucus] Compare what Archbp. Roche said in 2015 to what he is saying now.It is very hard to respect clerics who are just weathervanes, waving around, changing directions under the pressure of whomever is at the moment in power.Archbp. Roche, now in present role as Prefect of the CDW, now one of the chief enforcers of the cruel legacy document of the Francis’s Regime, in 2015 said that the Traditional Latin Mass is a “valid expression of the Church’s liturgy”.“Unity … [is] not looking just for simple uniformity,” he said, adding that Pope Francis “talks about unity with diversity....

[Catholic Caucus] The Outrageous Propaganda of Archbishop Roche “Where do you get your stuff?” “Oh, in the wild blue yonder.”As I was reading the other day the page proofs of Fr. Bryan Houghton’s autobiography Unwanted Priest—long believed lost but recently rediscovered and forthcoming from Angelico Press—I was struck by the following passage (among many others). He is talking about anti-religious posters he came by on a trip to Russia:I had picked up the first group [of posters] in 1931 from an upper school in Moscow. They are forcefully designed but the content is rather naive. They are anti-clerical rather...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Roche on ‘Traditionis Custodes’ and Its Guidelines: ‘The Liturgical Possibilities Are in Place’The prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments discussed the implementation of the guidelines regarding the July apostolic letter on the Traditional Latin Mass.VATICAN CITY — The promotion of the traditional liturgy has been “curtailed but does not characterize discrimination,” Archbishop Arthur Roche has said in Dec. 22 comments to the Register. “What is important to realize now is that the Holy Father has spoken,” the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments...

[Catholic Caucus] Assertions without reasons: A Statement in Protest of the CDW Responses from Pro Missa Tridentina Veni, veni, Emmanuel! Statement of the Lay Association "Pro Missa Tridentina" on the implementation of the regulations of the Motu proprio Traditionis Custodes (of 7/16/21) published on 12/18/21: The form and content of these restrictions cannot be accepted by traditional Catholics. With stunned horror, the faithful attached worldwide to the Roman tradition take note of the document that Archbishop Roche, with the consent of Pope Francis, addressed to the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences, which was made public on Saturday, December 18,...

Dear Archbishop Roche: The Attempt to Cancel Tradition is doomed to failure Venite, adoremus!Dear Archbishop Roche:Very early yesterday morning a “Rorate” Mass was celebrated in a local parish church in a New England town here in the United States with the kind and generous permission of the local bishop. It is not a “Traditional” parish per se. As is the custom for the Rorate Mass in Advent, the Mass began early, before dawn, with only candles in the church providing light. Shortly after the Consecration of the Mass, the light of dawn appeared in the sky. There were nearly...

The Second Atomic Bomb Has Exploded: CDW Issues Directives Banning Traditional Confirmations and Ordinations, Decrees the End of Ecclesia Dei CommunitiesCFN will hold a LIVE Q&A Session on this topic tonight, December 18, at 8:00 PM Eastern Time. Join us with your questions!The predicted document of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW) extending the totalitarian measures against the Traditional Latin Mass has been published. It takes the form of a letter from Archbishop Arthur Roche, the Congregation’s Prefect, and a series of responses to dubia (questions) it says are a consolidation of questions submitted by...

[Catholic Caucus] TRADITIONIS CUSTODES: A Weapon of Mass DestructionTranslation:ItalianIn a recent interview on Swiss television, Archbishop Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and a key figure in the implementation of Pope Francis’s apostolic letter restricting the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass, Traditionis Custodes, asserted:“The normal form of the celebration of the Roman Rite is found in those documents that have been published since the Second Vatican Council. Ecclesia Dei and Summorum Pontificum were established in order to encourage the Lefebrvrists, above all, to return to full unity with the Church.”...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop RocheFr Zed has done us all a service in publishing correspondence between Vincent Cardinal Nichols and Archbishop Arthur Roche concerning he implementation of Traditionis custodes. It is not easy to be optimistic about the future, as long as this calamitous pontificate survives. But more of that below.My first surprise was to read that, in Roche's view, the pre-conciliar Liturgy "was abrogated by Pope Saint Paul VI".Pope Benedict wrote, in Summorum Pontificum Article 1, that the Roman Missal as promulgated in 1962 was "never abrogated". In the accompanying Letter that he wrote to the World's Bishops, he iterated...

[Catholic Caucus] Liturgical Screwtape Letters Leaked to Gloria.tvA July 28 letter of Westminster Cardinal Nichols to Archbishop Roche, the Prefect of the Liturgy Congregation, has been leaked to Gloria.tv (below).It contains six questions regarding the application of Traditionis Custodes. Nichols asked:- whether following-up documents on TC will be issued;- whether TC abrogates the celebration of the other sacraments and the Roman Breviary;- whether the Novus Ordo calendar must be imposed on the Roman Rite;- what translations must be used for Roman Rite readings;- who exactly constitutes a Roman Rite “group” (TC);- whether TC allows for Roman Rite Requiems according to...