Monday, May 21, 2007

My New Job as an Editor

This article is my first assignment.

Making the Latin mass more readily available may be a key to reconciliation between the Vatican and a[n] ultra-orthodox splinter Catholic group, a report said.

"The pope believes the time has come to favor access to this (Latin) liturgy," said Cardinal Dario Castrillon, who is negotiating the return of the Society of St. Pius X, which was established in 1970 and has about 450 priests worldwide, the Italian news agency ANSA said.

The Society of St. Pius X shuns the modern liturgy approved by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. The group's late founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, was excommunicated in 1988 for causing a schism in the Catholic Church by contesting some modern reforms of the Council, ANSA said.

Although the Latin mass was not banned by the Council, bishops priests presently need authority permission from superiors their ordinaries to celebrate it.

Pope Benedict XVI, 80, is fond of saying mass in Latin. When he was elected, he celebrated his first official mass at the Sistine Chapel in the ancient language of the Romans official language of the Roman Catholic Church.

12 comments:

  1. Good Luck, Mon Ami. They sure can use all the help they can get.

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  2. "Making the Latin mass more readily available may be a key to reconciliation between the Vatican and a[n] ultra-orthodox splinter Catholic group, a report said."

    Perhaps . . .

    "Making the Latin mass more readily available may be a key to reconciliation between the Vatican and the splinter group, a report said."

    BTW, I am for anything that will make the Mass less accessible to the people.

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  3. I'm assuming you meant more accessible to the people?

    In the sentence you cited, I was mainly objecting to the use of the meaningless adjective "ultra-orthodox". There is no attempt to understand issues or use proper terms when the press discusses religion.

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  4. In my opinion why even use the term Catholic? I think they mean "Roman Catholic" when they use the term "Catholic".

    I meant less accessible to the people. We don't need a pal or a buddy, or a homeboy. We need God. We need our holy mysteries. We need smoke and ethereal voices. We need the impenetrable sense of the sacred.

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  5. Oh, OK -- I understand what you mean now. In the new liturgy there is a tendency to strip away at least some of the mystery and much of the majesty of the High Latin Mass. It gets too "chatty", esp. with the priest roaming around like a talk-show host like they sometimes do during the homily (although they're not supposed to.)

    If all the Novus Ordo Masses were celebrated the way the EWTN televised Mass is then we probably wouldn't even be having the discussion.

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  6. I meant less accessible to the people. We don't need a pal or a buddy, or a homeboy. We need God. We need our holy mysteries. We need smoke and ethereal voices. We need the impenetrable sense of the sacred.

    Personally, I think we need -- and I think Scripture clearly teaches -- a balance between the numinous awe of God almighty and the personal friendship of our loving Father.

    After all, Christ taught us that we should pray to Abba, which is apparently such a personal term of affection that it may be better understood, not as "Father", but as "Dad." He said that He calls His disciples His friends, "because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father." And the veil that separated the common man from the Holy of Holies was torn apart on Good Friday.

    Of course, the same God Incarnate who called His disciples His friends caused those friends to fall to their knees when He was transfigured. We do need awe in the presence of God, and I would be inclined to agree that our current culture tends to ignore that need to our detriment.

    But we need it to know this, that the mystery that we cannot penetrate has been penetrated by God's own actions, driven by His undeserved love for us.

    Just as we need to feel the burden of sin before we can truly accept and appreciate the gift of God's forgiveness, we need to feel the awe of His holiness before we can rightly relate to a Father who reaches down, embraces us, and draws us to that holiness. A right personal relationship depends on the sense of awe, but we shouldn't dwell so much on the awe that we ignore the intimacy.

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  7. B, long time no see.

    That was kind of an inside baseball comment on my part. My parish is nicely balanced, great music, great liturgy, about a third in Latin including the Angus Dei and the Pater Noster. We have a middle aged pro-life pastor. Last time I went to confession at my church the line had about 30 people. I thought this is fluke and came back next week--same thing. Yesss! The beauty of my parish is that it does not feel contrived. Our pastor strives for BALANCE.

    Three weeks ago I went to a not so balanced, let’s call it. . . I even hate to use the word . . . “liberal” parish. Oh that hurts.

    The tabernacle was out in the cheap seats along a side wall amongst the people. This tells you how stupidly ignorant Roman Catholics are. Jesus was in the house, and no one was sitting by him. They all went and sat in the middle so they could look at the priest. There was no crucifix, just a big floating abstract hippy Jesus glued to a support ledge above the “stage”. Then the stations of the cross had abstract scenes of the passion superimposed on real images of civil rights leaders and other modern sufferers of political and economic injustice. I am surprised we didn’t say the five inclusive mysteries of the rosary.

    No disagreement with your comment on my part, just further qualification.

    We have other ways to get close to Jesus like Eucharistic adoration. That would be an intensely personal experience. I would argue that there is nothing more intimate than Holy Communion. Part of my inside baseball comment was to remind just how abused that has been in our lifetimes. Hence the hyperbole.

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  8. "Then the stations of the cross had abstract scenes of the passion superimposed on real images of civil rights leaders and other modern sufferers of political and economic injustice."

    You're freaking kidding me.

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  9. Oh, great -- PC stations. You could have Pontius Pilate wearing a Wal-mart t-shirt and Simon of Cyrene with the classic Che Guevara T. Veronica could be doing the "power fist" thing and the centurions could have Nascar-like sponsorship stickers on their breastplates. Any more ideas?

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  10. "any more ideas?" how about me up there? i suffer political/economic/social injustice on a pretty regular basis.

    seriously, that stations has to be heretical

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  11. I don't have a problem with praying a Peace & Justice Way of the Cross; it can be a good way to bring together love of God and love of neighbor in a very practical way.

    Peace & Justice stations permanently installed in a church, though... no, I've got a problem with that.

    Following Pauli's lead, I can see an 8th Station where Jesus accepts and atones for His own role in the subjugation of the women of Jerusalem.

    And maybe the 2nd Station can make it clear that the cross was carved from the last of the Truffula Trees.

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  12. Angus Dei

    Is that the beef the pope eats?

    Sorry, Cube, couldn't resist. ;)

    Diane

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