A popular saying goes: "After the storm came the calm." The motu proprio of Francisco "Custodes Tradicionis" raised a lot of excitement among Catholics at the time and was seen as an imminent final blow to the Holy Tridentine Mass and its holy liturgy.
Humans
have the facility to forget the history of the Church and we see as a first
terrible threat to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass without remembering that, in
past times, it has received attacks in order to consummate the work of the
devil, well explained by Martin Luther with these words: "Destroy the mass
and you will destroy the Church."
On
the other hand, it is not the first "Motu proprio" with this
diabolical purpose and other Pontiffs such as John Paul II and Benedict XVI
also did their thing against this venerable Rite of the Mass.
Divine
providence, in all these acts of sabotage by the enemy, has always aroused
churchmen who have come to its defense and attacking, in turn, the new mass or
"Novus ordo" spoken so far in the vernacular. This first defense was
made during the Second Vatican Council, where, by unanimous vote, the new rite
was lost and the Tridentine Rite was affirmed. Not content with this, the
orthodox or traditionalist Fathers insisted on making public their discontent with
Paul VI and leaving to future generations a testimony of a courageous defense
of the Rite of Always, all summarized in a small book entitled:
BRIEF
CRITICAL EXAMINATION ON THE NEW MASS.
To
which traditionalist Catholics we wholeheartedly adhere as a courageous protest
against the abuses of these "authorities" who are in no way different
from those who, at the time, sought to carry out Satan's masterstroke. Given
this, we take as our own the words of the great apostle of the nations, Saint
Paul:
"I
conjure you before God and Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the
dead, both in his appearance and in his kingdom: preach the word, urge in time
and out of season, rebuke, censure, exhort with all patience and doctrine ... (
II, Tim, 1-5)
This
has been my objective and I have tried to be faithful to it in all my writings
related to the imminent danger that the modernist mass represents for true
Catholics or, also, the so-called "Mass of Paul VI". It is for this
reason that I return to the charge attacking these modernist masses in order to
show to friends and strangers the spiritual dangers to which our soul exposes
if it continues to drink from this cloudy and poisoned source.
In
a first installment I will present the brief critical examination assigned to
Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani and Antonio Bacci, but which, it is said, was
written by Bishop Marcel Lefebvre and another great French theologian and we
will continue this same theme with another very important work entitled
"La Mass of Paul VI "
Note
2. The italicized type is the editor's comment on this short critical review.
Preface
Letter
to Paul VI from Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci
Holiness,
After
having examined and had the new Ordo Missae prepared by the experts of the
Commission for the application of the Conciliar Constitution on the Sacred
Liturgy examined, and after having reflected and prayed for a long time, we
feel the obligation before God and Your Holiness to express the following
considerations:
1.
As sufficiently evidenced by the attached critical examination, however brief
it may be, the work of a select group of theologians, liturgists and pastors of
souls, the new Ordo Missae - if one considers the new elements susceptible of
very diverse appraisals, which appear in he understood or implied– it is an impressive departure,
both as a whole and in detail, from the Catholic theology of Holy Mass
as formulated by the 20th session of the Council of Trent which, by
definitively setting the "canons" of the rite, raised an
insurmountable barrier against any heresy that could threaten the integrity of
the Mystery.
2.
The pastoral reasons attributed to justify such a serious rupture, although
they may have value in the face of doctrinal reasons, do not seem sufficient.
So many novelties appear in the new Ordo Missae and, in turn, 2. The pastoral
reasons attributed to justify such a serious rupture, although they may have
value in the face of doctrinal reasons, do not seem sufficient. In the new Ordo Missae there
appear so many novelties and, in turn, so many eternal things are relegated to
a lower or different place - if they continue to occupy any - that the
doubt that unfortunately insinuates in many could be reinforced or changed with
certainty. areas according to which the truths that the Christian people have
always believed could be changed or silenced without this implying infidelity
to the sacred deposit of doctrine, to which the Catholic faith is forever
linked.
The recent reforms have sufficiently
demonstrated that the new changes in the liturgy cannot be carried out without
leading to the complete confusion of the faithful, who already state that they
are unbearable and that their faith is undeniably diminishing. In the best part of the clergy this is manifested by a torturous crisis of
conscience, of which we have innumerable and daily testimonies.
3.
We are sure that these considerations, directly inspired by what we hear from
the vibrant voices of the shepherds and the flock, must find an echo in the
paternal heart of Your Holiness, always so deeply concerned with the spiritual
needs of the children of church.
The subjects, for whose sake the law
is made, always have the right and, more than the right, they must - in the event that the law turns out to be harmful - to ask with filial
confidence its abrogation from the legislator.
For
this reason, we urgently beg Your Holiness not to allow, - at a time when the
purity of faith and the unity of the Church suffer such cruel lacerations and
ever-increasing dangers, that every day they find a distressed echo in the
words of the Common parent–,
May
we not be deprived of the possibility of continuing to make use of the complete
and fruitful Roman Missal of Saint Pius V, so praised by Your Holiness and so
deeply venerated and loved by the entire Catholic world.
The
Episcopal Synod convened in Rome in October 1967 had to pronounce a judgment on
the experimental celebration of a mass called "normative
mass." This mass had been prepared by the Commission for the
application of the Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.
That
Mass caused enormous perplexity among the members of the Synod: a lively
opposition (43 non placet), many and substantial reservations (62 juxta modum)
and 4 abstentions, out of a total of 187 voters.
The
international news press spoke of a "rejection" by the Synod. The
innovative trend presses quietly passed the event. A well-known newspaper,
intended for the bishops and expressing their teaching, summarized the new rite
in these terms: «The
intention is to make a clean sweep of all the theology of the Mass. In short,
it is close to the Protestant theology that destroyed the sacrifice of the Mass”.
In
the Ordo Missae promulgated by the Apostolic Constitution Missale romanum of
April 3, 1969, we find, identical in substance, the "normative mass."
It does not appear that the Episcopal Conferences as such have been consulted
on this matter in the interval.
The
Apostolic Constitution Missale romanum affirms that the ancient Missal
promulgated by Saint Pius V (Bull Quo Primum, July 14, 1570), –but that it
dates largely to Saint Gregory the Great and even to a greater antiquity 1– has
been during four centuries the norm of the celebration of the Sacrifice for
priests of the Latin rite. The Apostolic Constitution Missale romanum adds
that, in this Missal, spread throughout the earth, "innumerable saints
nourished their piety and their love of God."
And
yet, "since the desire to promote the sacred liturgy began to be affirmed
and spread among the Christian people," according to the Constitution
itself, the reform that aims to put that Missal definitively out of use would
have become necessary.
This
last statement clearly contains a serious misunderstanding.
Well,
although the Christian people expressed their desire, they did so –mainly at
the impulse of Saint Pius X– when they set out to discover the authentic and
immortal treasures of their liturgy.
Never, absolutely never, did the
Christian people ask that, in order to make it better understood, the liturgy
be changed or mutilated. What he asks to understand better is the unique and
unchanging liturgy, which he would never have wanted to see changed.
The
Roman Missal of Saint Pius V was very dear to the hearts of Catholics, priests
and laity, who venerated it religiously. It is not understood in what way this
Missal, accompanied by an appropriate initiation, could hinder a greater
participation and a better knowledge of the sacred liturgy; It is not
understood why, at the same time that it is recognized as great merits as the
Constitution Missale romanum does, it is judged that he is not capable of continuing to nourish the
liturgical life of the Christian people.
It
turns out, then, that the Episcopal Synod had rejected that "normative Mass", and now it is
substantially recovered and imposed with the new Ordo
Missae, without ever having been subjected to the collegial judgment of
the Episcopal Conferences.
Never have the Christian people (and
especially in the missions) wanted any reform of the Holy Mass. It is therefore not possible to discern the reasons for the new
legislation that ends a tradition of which the Missale romanum Constitution
itself recognizes that it had remained unchanged since the 4th or 5th
centuries.
Consequently,
since the reasons for such reform do not exist, the reform itself appears
devoid of a reasonable foundation that, justifying it, would make it acceptable
to the Christian people.
The
Council had clearly expressed, in No. 50 of its Constitution on the liturgy,
the desire that the various parts of the Mass be revised "So that the sense of each
of the parties and their mutual connection is manifested with greater
clarity." We do not see how the new Ordo Missae responds to those
wishes, of which we can say that there are, in fact, no memories left.
1 The prayers of the Roman Canon are found in the
treatise De Sacramentis (late 4th and early 5th centuries). Our Mass goes back,
without any essential change, to the time when it first assumed the developed
form of the older common liturgy. It still preserves the perfume of that
primitive liturgy, contemporary to the days when the Caesars ruled the world
and hoped to be able to extend the Christian faith; and to the days when our
ancestors gathered before dawn to sing the hymn of Christ, whom they recognized
as their God (cf. Pliny the Younger, Ep. 96). In all Christendom there is no
rite as venerable as the Roman Mass (A. Fortescue, The Mass, a study of the
Roman Liturgy, 1912). «The Roman Canon, as it is today, dates back to Saint
Gregory the Great. There is neither in the East nor in the West any Eucharistic
prayer that, remaining in use to this day, can invoke such antiquity. Not only
according to the opinion of the Orthodox but also according to the opinion of
the Anglicans and even of those among the Protestants who have kept some sense
of tradition, to reject this Canon would be equivalent on the part of the Roman
Church to renounce forever the claim. to represent the true Catholic Church
”(P. Louis Bouyer).
Close examination of the new Ordo Missae reveals changes
of such importance that they justify the same judgment that was made on the
"normative mass."
The
new Ordo Missae, like the "normative mass, "has in many respects been written to please the
more modernist Protestants”.
II
Let's
start with the DEFINITION OF THE MASS. It is found in No. 7 of Chapter 2 of the
General Regulation. This chapter is entitled "Structure of the Mass."
This
is the definition:
«The
Lord's Supper, or Mass, is the sacred assembly 2 or congregation of the people
of God, gathered under the presidency of the priest to celebrate the memorial
of the Lord 3. Hence it is eminently valid, when speaking of the local assembly
of the Holy Church, that promise of Christ: ―Where two or three are gathered in
my name, there I am in the midst of them‖ (Mt 18:20) ». 2
The
definition of the Mass is therefore reduced to a "supper": and this
appears continuously (in numbers 8, 48, 55, 56 of the General Ordination).
This
"dinner" is further described as an assembly presided over by the
priest; assembly gathered to carry out "the memorial of the Lord",
which recalls what was done on Holy Thursday.
All this does not imply either a
real Presence, nor the reality of the Sacrifice, nor the sacramental character
of the priest who consecrates, nor the intrinsic value of the Eucharistic
Sacrifice independently of the presence of the assembly 4.
In
short, this new definition does not contain any of the dogmatic elements
essential to the Mass and that constitute its true definition. 5. The omission
of these dogmatic elements in such a place can only be voluntary.
Such
voluntary omission means its "overcoming" and, at least in practice,
its denial.
In
the second part of the new definition, the misunderstanding is further
aggravated, since it is stated that the assembly in which the Mass consists
"eminently" realizes the promise of Christ: "Where two or three are gathered in my name,
there I am in their midst." Now this promise formally refers to the
spiritual presence of Christ by virtue of grace.
Note.
In the next installment, the commentary on these paragraphs will come first
and, second, more material for the brief critical examination.
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