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Peace,
BMP

AVE MARIA, A LA KELLY CLARKSON

Thankfully, this was at a youth rally, and NOT at Holy Mass. I think I pissed off a few people, however, for making what I feel was a constructive criticism saying that a classical piece like the Ave Maria isn't a good match for her, and that the "ad libs" had to go. But the same people get pissed off if one says that Rosanne's thrashing of the Star-Spangled Banner is hilarious.

RSCT to David who mentioned it in this post's beefbox.



Peace,
BMP

PLEASE TELL ME THIS GUY IS KIDDING?

One gets it (NYC), one doesn't (DC).

This is the alleged list of music being performed at the Papal Mass in Washington, DC on April 17:

Plenty Good Room-------------------------------Spiritual
Come, O Spirit of God---------------------------Manolo
Sing Aloud Unto God our Strength------------Nelson
Go Up To The Altar Of God--------------------Chepponis
Ave Verum Corpus-------------------------------Mozart
Spirit of God---------------------------------------LeBlanc
Concertato On Grosser GottHoly God, We Praise Thy Name
O Spirit All-Embracing--------------------------Holst/Proulx
Ave Maria-----------------------------------------Dett
O Holy Spirit By Whose Breath----------------Latona
Kyrie------------------------------------------------Roberts
Gloria – Mass of the Angels---------------------Proulx
Lord, Send Out Your Spirit----------------------Peloquin
Easter Gospel Acclamation----------------------Luckner
Trilingual Intercessions--------------------------Hay
Let All the World in every Corner Sing-------Argento
Ven Espiritu Sancto
Sanctus - Mass of Creation----------------------Haugen
Memorial Acclamation – Mass of Creation---Haugen
Fraction Rite---------------------------------------Honoré
The Lord’s Prayer
Psalm 100 – All the Earth-----------------------Deiss/Proulx
Jesus Is Here Right Now------------------------ Roberts
Ubi Caritas---------------------------------------- Hurd
Pange Lingua-------------------------------------Manolo
My God and My All-----------------------------Zaragoza
Love’s Redeeming Work Is Done-------------Ogden

The titles I did NOT highlight in bold are either fine, or titles I don't know of. For the Pope to have to hear these would be downright horrible. Though, maybe if he did hear these, he'd get a good example of what the typical American liturgeist is about and declare that this crap MUST stop.

Not listed above is the following (emphasis mine):

Tom Stehle, who is in charge of music for the D.C. Mass told me that the liturgy will contain many familiar pieces. The opening hymn, for example, will speak of the Holy Spirit, but with a familiar tune – “All Creatures of Our God and King.” (This is fine) The Mass, recall, is a votive Mass of the Holy Spirit with Pentecost readings.
The closing hymn will be “Alleluia, Sing to Jesus,” but with text about the Holy Spirit and being Christ’s presence in the world. (In other words, they've bastardized the hymn to utilize a "praise us" text??? WTF???)
[...]
"The most important thing to me is that everyone present is fully engaged," he said. "The music is aimed at allowing the assembly to take up its role and not just be spectators, but full participants in the celebration, no matter where they are sitting." (Spoken like a TRUE liturgeist!)

RSCT to Jeffrey Tucker at NLM, who rightfully says:

Do the organizers of this Mass care at all about the cause to which this Pope is so obviously dedicated? Are they seeking to say: your cause is not our cause?

This isn't responsible liturgical planning. This is an insult. American Catholics should be deeply embarrassed and outraged.

Meanwhile, in another NLM post, at least Dr. Jennifer Pascual (music director at St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC), who is directing the Pope's Mass in New York City, gets it. This list is impressive.

Yankee Stadium – Celebration of the Eucharist: April 20, 2008
Dr. Jennifer Pascual, Director of Music/ Mass Conductor
New York Archdiocesan Festival Chorale
Cathedral of St. Patrick Choir
Ulster County Vicariate Choir, Michael Sweeney, Director of Music
Donald Dumler, Organist
John Des Marias, Cantor
Joe Simmons, Psalmist
Entrance of concelebrants:
Symphony No. 9 in D minor – Ludwig van Beethoven
I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
II. Molto vivace
Entrance of the Holy Father:
Hymnus Pontificius – Charles Gounod, arr. Alberico Vitalini
Dixit from Vesperae Solennes de Confessore – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Music for Mass:
Jesus is Risen/ Cristo Jesús Resucitó – arr. John Rutter
Tu es Petrus – Dom Lorenzo Perosi
Kyrie – from Litany of the Saints, adapt. Richard Proulx
Gloria from Missa O Magnum Mysterium – Tomás Luis da Victoria
Psalm – Dr. Jennifer Pascual
Alleluia (VICTORY) arr. Wm. Glenn Osborne
Credo III
Trilingual Intercessions – Michael Hay, orch. Wm. Glenn Osborne
How Lovely is thy Dwelling Place – Johannes Brahms
Sanctus from German Mass – Franz Schubert, adapt. Richard Proulx
Christ Has Died/ Amen - Franz Schubert, adapt. Richard Proulx
Agnus Dei from Missa O Magnum Mysterium – Tomás Luis da Victoria
Panis Angelicus – Cesár Franck, Marcello Giordani, Tenor, Metropolitan Opera
Sicut Cervus – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Ave Verum – Alexandre Guilmant, orch. Deborah Jamini
Amén. El Cuerpo de Cristo - John Schiavonne, orch. Carl MaultsBy
Let Us Break Bread Together – arr. Carl MaultsBy
This is the Feast – Richard Hillert, arr. Richard Kidd
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee/ Jubilosos te Adoramos – from Hymn to Joy
Fantasy – Bruce Saylor
Symphony No. 9 in D minor – Ludwig van Beethoven
IV. Presto

With the exception of the two I highlighted, excellent!

Peace,
BMP

POPE BENEDICT XVI IS WITH RED SOX NATION!

A CHRISTUS VINCIT SPORTS Special Report


Domini Sumus got the skinny from the AOL Fan House:

A quick glance of the Yankees' schedule in April reveals a pretty strange stretch: they're on the road for almost three straight weeks from the 8th through the 28th, with a random two-game home stand jammed in the middle against the Red Sox on the 16th and 17th. That makes for an awful lot of traveling and some angry Yankees. But why is the schedule so funny?
Turns out Pope Benedict XVI is coming to Yankee Stadium to say a mass on April 20th, which required that weekend's series with the Orioles to be flipped from New York to Baltimore. Since schedules are apparently incredibly delicate things, MLB didn't flip any other series to accommodate the Yanks. The result is a schedule that requires them to be in Tampa on the 15th, New York in the 16th, and Baltimore on the 18th. That's a bad week.
So the Pope is messing with their schedule, the Red Sox have won two World Series in the past four years, and Hank Steinbrenner is in charge. There's only one conclusion to draw from this whole scenario, really. God hates the Yankees.

Well, guys and gals, I wouldn't so much as say God HATES the Yankees. After all, God LOVES everyone. I do believe, however, it's a matter of the recent influx of Vatican officials (the Holy Father included) who might have hopped on the Red Sox Nation bandwagon.

Peace from one who supports two teams - the Red Sox, and whoever beats the Yankees,
BMP

THE LATEST IN CHILDREN'S INSTRUCTIONAL TOYS

The latest line of children's instructional toys can be found at The Curt Jester. Everything from chant CD's to the keys to heaven. You'll love how Baby Augustine teaches your child how to be a good Catholic.






And while Baby Augustine comes with a chant CD and instructions on good liturgy, our new counterpart, Baby Benedict will teach your child to crack down on liturgical abuses and really bad music.







Finally, in consumer news, the Church has recalled Baby Haugend'aas, the liturgical instruction product endorsed by NaPalM that's been around for... well... too long. The Vatican has asked for this product, which teaches your child how to play insipid little jingles and ditties, to be removed as quickly as humanly possible.

Peace,
BMP

IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE AN INVALID BAPTISM?

If your priest bastardized the text, yes!

VATICAN CITY, 29 FEB 2008 (VIS) - Made public today were the responses of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to two questions concerning the validity of Baptism conferred with certain non-standard formulae.

The first question is: "Is a Baptism valid if conferred with the words 'I baptise you in the name of the Creator, and of the Redeemer, and of the Sanctifier', or 'I baptise you in the name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer'"?

The second question is: "Must people baptised with those formulae be baptised 'in forma absoluta'?"

The responses are: "To the first question, negative; to the second question, affirmative".
Benedict XVI, during his recent audience with Cardinal William Joseph Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, approved these responses, which were adopted at the ordinary session of the congregation, and ordered their publication. The text of the responses bears the signatures of Cardinal Levada and of Archbishop Angelo Amato S.D.B., secretary of the dicastery.

An attached note explains that the responses "concern the validity of Baptism conferred with two English-language formulae within the ambit of the Catholic Church. ... Clearly, the question does not concern English but the formula itself, which could also be expressed in another language".

"Baptism conferred in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit", the note continues, "obeys Jesus' command as it appears at the end of the Gospel of St. Matthew. ... The baptismal formula must be an adequate expression of Trinitarian faith, approximate formulae are unacceptable.

"Variations to the baptismal formula - using non-biblical designations of the Divine Persons - as considered in this reply, arise from so-called feminist theology", being an attempt "to avoid using the words Father and Son which are held to be chauvinistic, substituting them with other names. Such variants, however, undermine faith in the Trinity".

"The response of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith constitutes an authentic doctrinal declaration, which has wide-ranging canonical and pastoral effects. Indeed, the reply implicitly affirms that people who have been baptised, or who will in the future be baptised, with the formulae in question have, in reality, not been baptised. Hence, they must them be treated for all canonical and pastoral purposes with the same juridical criteria as people whom the Code of Canon Law places in the general category of 'non- baptised'".

Source: the Vatican / RSCT: the Deacon

Good on Cdl. Levada and Pope Benedict XVI. Dang, I thought only Poncho Ladies™ used such invalid formulae.

Peace,
BMP

So what is sacred music?

I was browsing through the lists of old posts, and I came across this little article taken from my Fatima Church Annual Report of 2006. For those of you who wonder why I am now a substitute organist, the points I make in this article are the reasons: chiefly, my adherence to the Papal instructions regarding music in the liturgy and my ability to articulate those instructions and to put them into action. I wasn't willing to consider the Pope to be a hood ornament.

The Roman Catholic church musician is charged with the duty to present sacred texts through music which underscore lessons from Holy Scripture both to instruct the faithful and to re-orient their souls for worship of the Almighty. He also must select appropriate instrumental repertoire which fosters the same. The music of the house of God is not the music of the secular world. We allow ourselves so easily to be duped by modern culture, that in our churches there is a place for secular music and for music which imitates it. Our society teaches us that the sonorities and style of popular music should attract us all the more to worship, even worship within a Catholic liturgical context. This false logic produces a house of God imbued with the secular, a temple much like that which Christ himself cleansed, according to the Gospel of St. Mark 11:15ff. The true music of the house of God is concerned solely with the worship of the Most High and must be suitable to accompany the Latin Rite, whose participation in the one sacrifice of Calvary enables the faithful to partake in a foretaste of the Beatific Vision. The secular idiom inherently falls short here, and by its very nature can only deemphasize the Eucharistic Mystery, interfering with the mystic participation in the timeless and thus shifting the attention of the soul from the Holy Sacrifice to the self and to the emotional euphoria its music brings, both of which the indisputable icons of secularism: the self and self-gratification.Sacred music has indeed changed and developed through its 2000 year history, however, care must be taken that all music used for liturgical purposes is organically and historically linked to the Church’s 2000 year music tradition, as the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, has stated time and again, and most recently on June 25, 2006: “Genuine renewal in Catholic music cannot be achieved except by following the great traditions of the past, of Gregorian chants and sacred polyphony.” The repertoire of chant and polyphony is vast indeed; so too is the treasury of contemporary compositions which have sprung from this tradition and which are still being composed today in the 21st century. We have wasted much time in experimentation with secular idioms in an attempt to homogenize the secular and the sacred, and that in an age when recordings of monks singing the daily office in Latin reach the “top 10” pop chart list. As Catholics we are called to evangelization, to sanctify the secular, not to secularize the sacred. The Church musician offers to God a sacrifice of music and offers to the faithful words and melodies to take along into their workaday world. Sacred music helps to establish a connection between us, the people of God, and our Creator, not only during Holy Mass, but afterwards and throughout the week. Sacred music brings us back to the house of God, if not only for a moment in the day, as we recall our visit to His house and the heavenly banquet to which He continually invites us. “I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness” Psalm 84:10.

CANTIUS WEBSITE REVAMPED

St. John Cantius Church in Chicago, the church with multiple Masses in both the Ordinary and Extraordinary form, has revamped their website quite nicely.

The Masses are no longer referred to as Normativa and Tridentine, but Mass in the Ordinary Form and Mass in the Extraordinary Form (though Tridentine does get forced into parentheses). Ordinary Form and Extraordinary Form are the designations given by our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI in his motu proprio Summorum Pontificum.

The music section REALLY got revamped, now naming staff to go along with all them choirs they have, and the FOUR pipe organs in the church:

1. An Oberlinger continuo (or "positive") organ, a portable single-manual pipe organ. Pipes are self-contained in a small box. The console is also attached to this box.

2. A three-manual Kilgen in the upper gallery (yeah, this church has a double gallery).

3. A two-manual "unit" organ assembled by John Hoverland out of used odds and ends (similar to the chancel organ that William Laws built at Holy Name in the 1960's) in the lower gallery.

4. A single-manual tracker built in Holland in 1860 that is awaiting restoration.

Check it out. Just about every department got expanded upon. Really nice job.
Peace,
BMP

THE SCOOP AT ROTO-REUTERS...

Pope turns his back on the people at Mass

At least that's what Reuters said. Get some hot water! Get some disinfectant!

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict celebrated parts of Sunday's Mass with his back turned on the congregation, re-introducing an old ritual that had not been used in decades.

Never mind facing the Lord, or facing the same direction as the people. That wouldn't be newsworthy, at least not for the folk over at Roto-Reuters.

The Carolina Cannonball gives this accurate report:
In other news... Reuters hires trained monkey reporters.

Peace,
BMP

MORE EXTRAORDINARY POSSIBILITIES IN RHODE ISLAND

One of the parishes is another former parish of mine.

This article found in the Providence Journal. Don't ask me how I missed this, but RSCT to Catholic Church Conservation.

PROVIDENCE — The Rev. Alfred P. Almonte hadn’t celebrated the Mass in Latin in about four decades, so when one of his parishioners at St. Bartholomew (modern church, one of the few Italian-American parishes left in RI that are still staffed by the Scalabrini Fathers, seating in semi-circle, but nice Moller pipe organ) parish in Silver Lake suggested that he bring back the Latin Mass as part of the church’s 100-year jubilee, he knew that he would have some brushing up to do.

But the priest, who said Mass in Latin for the first four or five years after his ordination, in 1961, saw it as an opportunity to connect St. Bart’s parishioners to their past.

Not that it was going to be easy. While the edict issued by Pope Benedict XVI three months ago gave priests blanket permission to publicly celebrate the old Tridentine rite without having to get the approval of their bishop, there was still the problem of finding a cadre of altar servers who could recite the Latin responses and do the detailed choreography associated with a Solemn High Latin Mass.

Yesterday, as more than 400 people filtered into what some people still call the “new” St. Bart’s (having replaced the original building in 1969), 10 altar servers, all grown men, two deacons and two priests gathered in a room to don cassocks and robes, hoping that they would not forget what they had learned in three weeks of rehearsals.

Angelo DeFeo, 44, acknowledged that he had never been to a Latin Mass. “Don’t worry,” declared fellow altar server Ray Funaro, 64. “We’ll make a lot of mistakes, but nobody will know but us.”

At one time St. Bartholomew’s was an almost exclusively a parish of Italian immigrants, but has evolved over time into a parish with a large contingent of young Hispanic families who attend a Spanish-speaking Mass at 9:30 a.m. and an older, English-speaking congregation that worships at 11:30.

Yesterday the two congregations were joined. Though some critics have expressed disdain for what they see as a liturgy that does not encourage participation by the people, the Rev. Philip (correction: Robert) E. Lacombe of St. Timothy Church in Warwick (I shudder to admit I once worked there), the visiting preacher, argued yesterday that there is participation in the Tridentine rite but of a different sort.

“Through this Mass people experience a profound sense that they are participating in a mystery,” Father Lacombe said.

“The priest’s back is not against the people, but rather the priest and people are facing in the same direction toward God,” he said. (I forgot to mention, Fr. Lacombe, St. Timothy's curate, is NOT the cause of my bitterness there.)

Though there has been a weekly celebration of the old rite at Holy Name Church in Providence for the last 13 years, Pope Benedict’s edict allowing the rite’s wider use seems to be taking hold: the Rev. Kevin R. Fisette, pastor of St. Leo the Great parish in Pawtucket, announced that he will have a 5 p.m. “low” Latin Mass on the third Sunday of every month beginning Oct. 21. and the Rev. Douglas J. Spina polled his parishioners at St. Martha Church in East Providence and found 180 parishioners who would “commit” to attending a Latin Mass weekly (Good, but they need an organ. One friend of mine interviewed there last year and found there was no organ, only a piano or keyboard, with no apparent intentions of acquiring one. I can't picture the Extraordinary form with piano, though I can picture a good High Mass a cappella. Still, get an organ!). He plans to introduce the Mass in January.

Father Lacombe says St. Timothy’s is planning to celebrate the old rite on an “occasional basis.” (I find that hard to believe, but if this is true, good! But they too need a real organ. Current instrument: a Hammond E300 series - blech!) Father Almonte said so many people were moved by yesterday’s Mass that he would consider doing the same.

Codified by Pope Pius V in 1570, the Tridentine rite was the dominant form of worship in the Catholic Church until the Second Vatican Council permitted Masses in the vernacular and Pope Paul VI promulgated a simpler “new order” Mass in the late 1960s.

As was customary under the old rite, parishioners yesterday knelt at a communion rail and received the hosts on the tongue.

Esther Yacavone said choir members had been practicing the Latin prayers for two months and was pleased with the result.

“Would I like to do it every week? No. But I would like it for my funeral. It was beautiful.” (For mine, I want the Ordinary Form, but with chants, traditional hymnody - none of Glory and Praise's or Gather's "greatest hits", and celebrated ad orientem. Don't get me wrong, I still like the Extraordinary Form, but I want to shake things up a bit, you see - give the family and friends a taste of how the Ordinary Form is SUPPOSED to be done.)

Peace,
BMP

GREAT SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM NEWS IN RHODE ISLAND

My former boss will be celebrating 1962 Mass! WOOHOO!

I usually don't read the Pawtucket Times. Most of the time it's really only good for wrapping fish and lining litter boxes. But today I stumbled onto this front page write-up and I was very elated. (Links and snarky remarks added by yours truly)

Introibo ad altare Dei (I will go in to the altar of God)

PAWTUCKET - St. Leo the Great Church will be going back in time (Not really, but you have to understand, this is secular media that printed this article). Using a 1962 pre-Vatican II missal, the (Very) Rev. Kevin Fisette (my former pastor who I still consider a good friend to this day) will celebrate Sunday Mass in Latin on Oct. 21 at 5 p.m. (WOOHOO!)

The pastor will be wearing traditional vestments and during much of the Mass, will be standing with his back to the congregation. (When will the secular media around heree ever get it right? He will be facing the Lord, "to the East", the same direction as the congregation will be facing!) Worshippers will have to kneel to receive Holy Communion, and the host will be placed on the tongue.

In one other notable difference, Father Fisette will be assisted by altar boys - no girls allowed.

While this hasn't met with any resistance from parishioners, he did admit that one of his female altar servers, perhaps only half jokingly, responded with "Hey, that's not fair!" when told of the Latin Mass rules. (Quoting Fr. Fisette on my first Sunday at Holy Name, after I announced the hymns at the Latin Mass, obviously my still not knowing any better then, he asked me not to announce, and for good reason. "They didn't do that in '62," he told me. Same applies to the rule allowing altar boys and not altar girls - "They didn't do that in '62.")

St. Leo's, at 697 Central Ave., is the second church in Rhode Island to offer the Tridentine Mass. The other is Holy Name of Jesus Church in Providence (where I worked with Fr. Fisette for four of his seven years there, very happily, mind you), which has been offering the Mass for almost a decade by special permission from church authorities.

Earlier this year, Pope Benedict XVI lifted Vatican restrictions (Well, he really didn't "lift" the restrictions, but made clear that such restrictions never really existed, contrary to the belief of many bishops worldwide) on the celebration of the Latin Mass, paving the way for more parishes to offer the traditional rite. However, as Father Fisette pointed out, there are many specific rules and regulations associated with it, which have been outlined by the Most Rev. Thomas Tobin, Bishop of Providence.

"Bishop Tobin made it clear we can not mix rites, do a little of the old Mass and a little of the new," said Father Fisette (that is correct). "Everything will be just as it was in 1962." He added that Bishop Tobin has been "extremely supportive" of his plan. (God bless Bishop Tobin!)

Father Fisette said he is excited about offering the Latin Mass and hopes that it will generate enthusiasm among his own parishioners, and perhaps attract some that are new. (Like I mentioned in an earlier post - "Build it and they will come.")

Noting that weekly Mass attendance among Catholics has dropped about 40 percent in the last 40 years, Father Fisette said, "We have to do whatever we can to bring people back."

Father Fisette, who has been a priest for 26 years, said he realizes there are some who consider the practice a sign of the church going backwards. (A word to said skeptics, it's really just bringing back those sacred elements that somehow got lost in transition... well, and then some.)

He and other supporters of the Tridentine Mass view it as a return to a time of more sacred, traditional church values that were in place prior to the Second Vatican Council. "Sometimes, I think we have lost a sense of the sacred. It's all become very familiar," he said. "We would like to bring back the sense of mystery, if you will - back when people were more in awe of the Mass." He added that the Latin Mass celebration offers more in the way of "spiritual drama." (I've often sensed that in the sudden outbursts of "Nobis quoque peccatoribus", from the Canon of the Mass, and "Domine, non sum dignus", from the priest's Communion.)

Commenting on the longtime practice of the priest turning his back to the congregation, Father Fisette said that traditional thinking held that the old Mass was, essentially, the "priest's prayer on behalf of the people who were gathered."

In contrast, the new Mass is centered around the idea that all of the people celebrate the Mass with the priest. (Not to mention the stereotypical innovative liturgeist's definition of "Full, Conscious, and Active Participation")

Father Fisette said he sees the Latin Mass as providing parishioners with another option of a traditional Catholic Mass.

"The Church is certainly big enough for different types of Masses. It is big enough for everybody's spirituality," he said. "We have guitar Masses and Gregorian chants, why not the Latin Mass?" (After all, Cardinal Arinze once said, "I will not now, nor will I ever say, 'Never guitar'". The problem is not so much the guitar as it is the music that the stereotypical "liturgical guitarist" uses at Holy Mass. Let me remind you that the beloved Christmas carol Stille Nacht, Heilege Nacht got its premiere on guitar, as the organ at the composer's church had broken down.)

Before arriving at St. Leo's, Father Fisette was pastor of Holy Name Church, where he celebrated the weekly Tridentine Mass for seven years. He said that at Holy Name, there was a great deal of interest in the Latin Mass, even attracting a younger segment of the parishioners. (We had really good turnouts at that Mass. And don't let Fr. Fisette's being a diocesan priest ordained in 1981 fool you. He can say/chant the Mass in the Extraordinary Form just as well as any of the other well-trained priest in that form, and with class.)

Father Fisette admits he is no Latin scholar, having only taken a couple of years of the ancient language in high school. However, when he was assigned to Holy Name in 1997, he decided to learn it himself. He said he used his mother's old missal and watched a videotape as a guide. "I was tongue-tied at first, but I found that it was fairly easy to learn," he said. (I took a similar route - I did one year of French in eighth grade, then took Latin in my first two years of high school. When I got involved in church music in my late teens, I had to do some converting - mainly in pronunciations, as the high school I attended was a public high school and the Latin was Classical Latin - so I had to learn to convert all my pronunciations to Ecclesiastical Latin. I try not to show conceit, but I have to say it paid off well for me, and for Father Fisette as well.)

He said he still intends to deliver his homily in English, however. (That is fine. That is usually the custom, as well as re-reading the Epistle and Gospel in English just before the homily.) Because of all the different rules and practices involving the Latin Mass, Fisette said he plans to hold an instructional session for parishioners on Wednesday, Oct. 17, at 6:30 p.m. in St. Leo's Church. (Big time kudos!)

Following the inaugural Mass on Oct. 21, Father Fisette plans to celebrate a 5 p.m. Latin Mass on the third Sunday of each month for one year, to see if it catches on with parishioners. "I feel optimistic that it will," he stated. (I feel it will too.)

BTW, I plan on being there for (at the absolute least) the October 21 Mass. St. Leo the Great Church is on 697 Central Avenue in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Looks a little modern on the outside, but looks more traditional on the inside.

Peace,
BMP

WTF??? OH WELL, I SHOULDN'T BE SURPRISED!

Renowned "composer" Inwood: Ix-nay on Otu-may Oprio-Pray

That's right, kids! Paul Inwood, the director of liturgy for the Portsmouth diocese in the UK, as well as world renowned composer of schlock that liturgeists pass off as sacred music, has asked the people of his diocese not to ask for the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.

Catholics in the diocese of Portsmouth are to be told that most of them are not allowed even to ASK for the traditional Latin Mass, which has just been restored to full parity with the newer form of Mass by Pope Benedict. The reason? According to Paul Inwood, Portsmouth’s lay “director of liturgy”, the Pope’s own ruling does not permit them to.

(Attention to Fr. Erik --- let's give Inwood a big Bat Shit Crazy Award for that last sentence!)
(UPDATE: Fr. Erik left very good reasons in this post's combox why a Bat Shit Crazy Award should be denied to Mr. Inwood.)

In other words, the diocese – with the apparent backing of its liberal bishop, Crispian Hollis (never heard of him) – is grotesquely misrepresenting Pope Benedict’s apostolic letter on the traditional liturgy, Summorum Pontificum, which says pretty much the opposite of what Inwood claims it says. Does he seriously think he is going to get away with it? The piece is not due to appear until the October issue of the diocesan newspaper, but already Catholics in Britain, America and Rome are outraged. (That's riiiiiiiiiight!)

Fr John Zuhlsdorf, the world’s leading traditionalist Catholic blogger, has the details here. There will also be a full report in the forthcoming Catholic Herald, in which Hollis suggests he agrees with Inwood’s stance.

Fr Z begins by saying: “Let us pray to God and all the angels and saints that this piece is corrected or, even better, trashed and not published at all … This is the stupidest of all diocesan statements about Summorum Pontificum I have seen to date.”

(Big time kudos to Fr. Z., who (as per usual) knows where it's at, as does Damian Thompson, who wrote this article as you see it in italics.)

I’ll second that. The Portsmouth article is based around an interpretation of the papal document that is so obviously biased and wrong that one wonders how on earth it came to be written.

According to Inwood, “people cannot now decide that they want a Tridentine Mass and ask for it”: they must have already have declared their attachment to the older liturgy. (Balderdash to the fullest extent of the word!)

This is utter nonsense. Summorum Pontificum says no such thing. As Fr Z correctly notes, “a brand new group of people can form, who have never gone to the older Mass, and they can make a request.” In any case, the diocese has no say in who can or cannot ask for the extraordinary form.

Almost unbelievably, Inwood brings up the subject of child protection, of all things, saying that any priest who comes into the diocese to say the older form of Mass must have been cleared by the authorities. To quote Fr Z again: “WHAT? If serious, this would merely be a blatant tactic to block priests who are willing and able to say the older form of Mass… This is an exercise in intimidation.”

I blogged yesterday about the risible political correctness of the Portsmouth diocesan bureaucracy. But this is not risible: it is a very serious matter to misrepresent, even unintentionally, the contents of an apostolic letter to the people of a diocese. As, I think, Bishop Hollis will soon discover. (Let's hope!)

Now that you've seen that one - I kind of followed a set of links, you see. I surfed the NLM blog and found this post by Jeffrey Tucker, which led to the Damian Thompson article you'll see below, which led me to his article which I printed above (btw, snarky remarks and emphases mine). This next article, also by Mr. Thompson, goes into Mr. Inwood's ditties, called "liturgical music" by Liturgeist Central and certain big-time publishers of what is supposed to be Catholic music.

I’m learning interesting things about the powerful subculture of ageing trendies who control Catholic worship in many dioceses. Paul Inwood, the Portsmouth "director of liturgy" who wants to ban churchgoers from asking for the traditional Mass, turns out be a composer by trade. Indeed, he is the composer of many of the mind-blowingly banal ditties that the English bishops have been forcing on congregations for years. And he makes a jolly nice living out of it.

(The weird thing is that Mr. Inwood had some really good settings of the Psalms and what not in an early 1970's version of the Simple Gradual in English. The stuff of his that has made the infamous OCP Music Issue over the past couple of decades, well... not half as good.)

You can find excerpts from Inwood’s music here (click on “compositions”). Warning: your toes will curl. Yet his music has featured in more TV and radio broadcasts of Catholic liturgies than that of any other living composer. (That might be in the UK, but in the US, that dishonor goes to Marty Haugen.) And he also sits on the liturgical formation sub-committee of the Bishops’ Conference.

Inwood has received very substantial patronage from the Catholic Church in this country. The evidence is here, on the website of his own company, Magnificat Music, which describes itself as “the leading independent publisher of sheet music for Catholic churches in the British isles”. Interestingly, it gives its address as Park Place Pastoral Centre in Wickham, which also houses much of the Portsmouth diocesan bureaucracy.

Inwood has recently been commissioned to write Masses by the dioceses of Plymouth and Shrewsbury, and has conducted “thousands of workshops” in Britain and America. Fair enough, you might say. (We need better composers to grab hold of what may just be the new Mass translation and get working on real settings thereof, before guys like Inwood, Haugen, and the like start infesting the English-speaking Church with their latest jingles.)

Except for one detail. The guy has a certain technical facility, but his melodies are staggeringly banal. Listen carefully to the excerpts on the website. The tunes are formulaic and unmemorable – and I’m not saying that because I dislike his whole approach to the liturgy. This is bad music, full stop.

A typical Inwood tune meanders up and down the scale, jumping the same intervals, supported by droopy harmonies. Many of the melodies are virtually indistinguishable from each other: you could programme a computer to write something very similar. (As an experiment, I have just sung the instructions on a packet of soap powder to an Inwood-style melody – it’s very easy to do.) (As one local good friend and mentor of mine once said, "A first year harmony student wouldn't get away with writing stuff like that!")

How much money, I wonder, has the Catholic Church spent on this dreary stuff over the years? There is a real problem here. There is nothing illegal or unethical about what Inwood is doing, but we are confronted by a problem that Thomas Day identified in his book Why Catholics Can’t Sing, a stinging attack on the trendy Catholic musical establishment.

As Day says, many professional Catholic liturgists are also composers. They push dioceses and congregations towards the style of music that they themselves compose and publish. How very convenient. (Thus, crap!)

This morning I spoke to a distinguished musician employed by the Catholic Church. He told me: “There’s a cosy relationship between dioceses and the composers and publishers of what is basically bad pop music. Watch out for the new English translation of the Mass [expected in 2009]. I bet that various ‘approved’ composers are already preparing settings that will be commissioned the moment the new texts appear. It’s incredibly galling.” (Go back to my snarky remark three paragraphs up. And, btw --- I don't want no stinkin' commission. I just want to be able to share what I would hope is a decent musical setting of Holy Mass.)

Indeed it is. And what are we going to do about it?

(Start writin'! That's what!)

Great set of articles, Mr. Thompson!
Peace,
BMP

A MORON IN EVERY CROWD

Even in Missouri

Ya can't win'em all - not even in Missouri, the state with two of the nation's greatest prelates (Burke and Finn). Here's a letter from a Benedictine who is pastor at St. Joseph Church in Springfield, MO (I auditioned in Springfield once, not long before Holy Ghost hired me, but it was Immaculate Conception, not St. Joseph, thank God). Clearly this Benedictine is full of $&!+.

RSCT to Gerald. Keep a barf bag nearby.
Peace,
BMP

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

PASTOR’S REFLECTION by the Rev. Denis Dougherty

I think that Pope Benedict’s recent decree reviving the old Latin Mass was a step backwards in the implementation of the decrees of the Second Vatican Council, which were approved and promoted by Pope Paul VI. The Council never intended there to be two forms of the Roman rite existing simultaneously. Latin at Mass, yes, but the old rite stemming back to the 16th Century, clearly no. To keep a group of objectors in the Church, Pope John Paul gave permission to have the old Mass on a very limited scale in 1984 despite the nearly unanimous opposition of the bishops throughout the world. Now, Pope Benedict has given permission to go over the heads of the bishops as long as a “stably existing” community requests the old Mass and the pastors can prevent a disruption in their communities. The Council clearly wanted to give such power to the bishops, but in this too the Council’s teaching is being reversed. (Well, let's see - the extraordinary form was never done away with to begin with. The Holy Father clearly stated that. Further, if the ordinary form wasn't toyed with by progressive liberal liturgeists by innovating new things that Pope Paul VI never called for, like liturgical dance and the use of insipid music, maybe there wouldn't be such a call for the extraordinary form to begin with.)

I don’t anticipate having a Latin Mass problem in our parish [Surprise! Sorry, I couldn't help myself], although a group of people who formerly sought to introduce such a Mass here has sought to do so again. We will follow (you mean, "go against") Pope Benedict’s instruction and not introduce the Latin Mass here because we do not have a stable (longstanding) group of active parish members requesting it. You are aware that to be an active member of our parish requires current registration, regular Mass attendance, and tithing to support the parish, as I have told you at least once a year. Very few of those suggesting the Latin Mass here are active members of the parish. (Build it and they shall come. You might surprise yourself.) The vast majority clearly do not qualify as a stable existing group of parishioners. I also perceive that the group would he disruptive if they came here with the idea of ‘gritting their teeth (as one described it) until they could dominate the parish again. (Ah yes, the sign of true arrogance! If a group comes and protests against your little agenda, they're disruptive. How typical!) Also, should we ever be required to introduce a Latin Mass in the future, such a Mass would fall under the supervision of the pastor and the appointed Liturgical Committee, like all other liturgical matters, not under the direction from some other group requesting it. (I can just picture a typical liturgy committee scrambling to innovate ways to blatantly screw up the extraordinary form.)

We should all ask ourselves questions like the following: Do we really want to introduce a liturgy emphasizing sin and its expiation in preference to the celebration of the paschal mystery centering on the death and resurrection of Christ. (Let me ask you something: Are you THAT afraid of acknowledging that we are sinners that need to reform? Yes, the Mass needs to center on the death and resurrection of Christ. But don't we need to be cleansed and freed from sin in order to enter that place in heaven that Christ has prepared for us?) Do we really want to exclude women from the sanctuary, go back to the old lectionary, which had only a one year cycle of readings rather than the three year cycle we enjoy now; Do we really want to go back to the celebration of a Mass in which we do not understand the language in which the priest is praying and reading, and doing so with his back to us. (This is why most Missals have parallel English and Latin pages - so one can know what's going on. With a little time and practice they'll get used to it. And the priest facing the Lord along with the people, which you downplay as "having his back turned to the people" isn't such a bad thing. After all, he prays to the Lord, too, ya know.) Do you really want to reintroduce the disruption the parish previously experienced from some of the very people now requesting the old Latin Mass? (And what the hell is so disruptive about the extraordinary form? And I suppose all that hootenanny music that publishers, composers, and liturgeists, and a certain supporting society all pass off as liturgical music ISN'T disruptive? I beg to differ.)

The old Mass has been called the “traditional” Mass but that is erroneous because the tradition of the Church from the most ancient times was to celebrate the Mass in the language understood by the people. That is the reason the Mass, probably first celebrated by Jesus in Aramaic, was soon celebrated in Greek, and then in the 4th or 5th Century celebrated in Latin in the Roman Church. The “tradition” of the fathers of the Church was to celebrate the Mass in the language of the people. The fathers of the Second Vatican Council were simply returning to this traditional Catholic practice in providing us with the Mass in the various languages which we understand. (And many of us, myself included, stress once again - the fathers of the Second Vatican Council NEVER did away with Latin. They merely allowed the use of the Vernacular, while stressing the need to preserve the Latin language. If you took some time and read at least some of Sacrosanctam Concilium, you'd grasp this.)

So we at St. Joseph’s will follow the ancient tradition of the Church and continue to celebrate the Mass in the language of the people, as we follow the practice given us by Pope Paul VI and the Vatican Council and in doing so we will not be violating the decree of Pope Benedict because we do not have a request from of a “stably existing” community and our parish and because the pastor doesn’t feel we can do so in a non-disruptive way.

I just thought I would explain.

God bless you all!—Fr. Denis
(God bless you too. I'll pray for your reform.--BMP)

Lafayette priests: the new Keystone Cops

As the faithful await a regular schedule of Masses celebrated from the 1962 missal, it seems that the men in black in the Diocese of Lafayette are busy boinking each other over the head with billy clubs and running around in circles. What clever little boys they are, so amusing, so humorous, so utterly moronic. Here is an email I received from the old "Tridentine Committee" regarding the implemenation of the motu proprio in the Diocese of Lafayette. The first letter is from the pastor of the church where the old rite is currently celebrated once monthly. The question that initiated the email was primarily in search of a regular Mass time on Sunday mornings. Notice the Mass time he suggests. You think Jason is getting out of bed at 2am in Youngsville and driving to Carencro for a 5am Solemn High? Truth be told, it's more likely that Benedict 17 will be a woman, than I flip the switch on my Bunn-o-matic at 2am. The second letter is from me to James. I'm laying it on the line. Simply, because it's starting to get annoying watching the men in black bickering about what is blatently obvious. I like the words of the angel: "Men of Galilee, why stare you into the heavens?" The Keystone Priests are wondering about the word "stable" in the text. I am too. Not what "stable" means, as the Keystone Clerics, but who in the samhell put the word in in the first place. I know Benedict didn't. I can just find the word "coetus" in his text. I've been searching for "stabilis" somewhere in the original, but, no dice. A little Latin study goes a long way, esteemed Fathers. It really looks like the Clown Clergy who proudly touted back in the 70's that "We don't use Latin anymore" are now trying to muddle things up to save face. They've thrown in a bit of spin and a good measure of agenda. All the while, they're huddled in their tight, cozy sacristies gawking at the 1962 missal and saying, "oh shit, what the hell do we do now?" Should have learned those conjugations and declensions back in school, boys....

Dear James:

I have not received anything from His Excellency, yet. I received the minutes from the Council of Priests meeting for August and Summorum Pontificum was discussed. St. Peter's was mentioned as already having the 1962 Mass once a month. There was also a statement that the Bishop would be "amenable" to a request to the pastor of St. Peter. But still I have not received official word.

There has been confusion about the document. Two documents were issued with the same title, but slightly different wording. This wording problem is to be clarified. As far as I can see, it should be no problem to set up weekly Masses after I receive word from the Bishop. A priest is allowed from September 7th onward to celebrate the 1962 Mass privately at his own discretion. A priest is not allowed to initiate the public celebration of the Mass. Public celebrations are to be the result of a "stable" group requesting the Mass, which is our case.

I am sorry about the delay and I did not mean to be curt with my last message. I was planning to leave on a short vacation and pilgrimage to Minnesota and Our Lady of the Snows in Illinois and I was short on time.

Because we are already busy on most Sundays in the afternoon, how about a 5 AM Mass on Sunday mornings? I know it is early, but doesn't disrupt the rest of the schedule.

God bless,
Father Bill

You know, James, I'm sick and tired of these priests with no Latin knowledge whatsoever who are arguing ridiculous points from bad English translations. This is EXACTLY what invited such liturgical abuse into the Mass of Pope Paul VI. The original Latin text does NOT say "stable". In fact, there is no adjective at all that describes the group. The word used by Benedict 16 is simply "coetus", an assembly or simply "a group". I know they are priests, ordained by God yada yada yada, but they are being led in the wrong direction by misleading information instead of going straight to the horse's mouth: the Latin text. This is a major rule of academic research: go to the primary source. Logical, right? Now that we have the motu proprio, I have a feeling the whole thing will be just as screwed up as the Mass of Paul VI, mainly because these priests were too damn lazy to do their Latin homework back when they were students.

Are they just idiots or what? This is the same thing as giving directions through Lafayette using a map from 1920. Has anyone else ever told the men in black that the emperor has no clothes, or am I the only one who sees a pack of bumbling morons in Roman collars?

Frustrating.

JP

LATIN MASS SPOKEN HERE

Here's a Providence Journal Article from 7/8 that I totally missed somehow. This involves my favorite former parish, Holy Name of Jesus in Providence, which has done a Latin Mass since 1978 (Novus Ordo 1978-1993, Tridentine 1993-present).

Source

(emphasis and snarky remarks mine)

PROVIDENCE — As pastor of Holy Name Church on the East Side, the Rev. Joseph Santos admits that he is starting to feel nervous.

After years of advocating for more widespread use of the traditional Latin Mass, which has been offered at Holy Name with the express permission of a series of bishops going back to the Most Rev. Louis E. Gelineau, the priest is about to see his dream fulfilled. Yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI issued his long-awaited document, a motu proprio titled Summorum Pontificum, which authorizes priests to celebrate the once-suppressed Tridentine Mass publicly — without having to get the bishop’s permission. (Ah, but it was never suppressed to begin with, though the bishops didn't want anyone knowing that, which explains why some bishops, despite clarification by the Motu Proprio, are even trying to make up their own rules to set an anti-Motu agenda.)

With the roadblock removed, will priests who have long grown accustomed to the new Mass, sometimes called the Novus Ordo — which was promulgated by Pope Paul VI four decades ago to bring the Mass closer to people in the pews — dare to open their parishes to the old Mass once again? And if so, how popular will it be? (You'll never know until you try.)

Time will tell, but Father Santos says he estimates there are 30 priests in Rhode Island alone who have expressed an interest in bringing the old liturgy to a younger generation who never had the opportunity to experience the old Mass in all its splendor. (My own pastor went to a workshop recently on the Extraordinary Form. It's great that there are priests in my diocese willing to give it a shot. Our bishop, the Most Reverend Thomas J. Tobin, welcomed the Motu Proprio with open arms.) The old Mass is not simply the present-day Mass recited in Latin. It is more elaborate in both words and choreography.

“There are about 20 priests who have asked me to teach it to them, and I think I’m going to get them all together for classes. I find the most interest among our younger priests, which is remarkable because most priests today don’t even get Latin when they go to seminary.” (That's another thing that will need a foot coming down upon by our Holy Father, I fear. With a good amount of bishops who insist that to do the Extraordinary Form requires those well-versed in Latin but yet shows no intention of having it taught to his priests, that is most likely a sign of discouragement.)

Those who follow the Latin Mass, also known as the Tridentine Mass, know that the nation’s Catholic bishops haven’t all been in favor of allowing the rite in their dioceses, even though Pope John Paul II directed them to be open to it. Many have either refused requests for their churches to have the Latin Mass or have strictly limited it, judging that the use of the Tridentine Mass might be used as a rallying point for those broadly opposed to the changes in the church that were ushered in in the early 1960s by the second Vatican Council, known as Vatican II. For many, the new Mass symbolized Vatican II teachings because it was the most visible sign of change.

Here in Providence, Holy Name’s pastor emeritus, the Rev. Joseph T. Gallagher, got permission in 1978 from Bishop Gelineau to celebrate the new Mass in Latin. (With all due respect to Fr. Gallagher, who I know personally, he could have done the Novus Ordo Latin anytime he wanted without permission from the Bishop.) The parish was given approval 13 years ago for the Tridentine rite after a trusted friend of the bishop convinced him that allowing the older rite would provide hope to Catholics who felt alienated from the church. (The Tridentine Mass has now been done at Holy Name under the approval of three bishops - first Gelineau, followed by Bishop Robert E. Mulvee, then Tobin. Their graciousness in letting this happen is extremely commendable.)

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before he became Pope Benedict XVI, expressed the view that it was a mistake to try to completely suppress the traditional rite. He has suggested that more openness to the rite would restore reverence and show a continuity with the church’s past. It might also bring back Catholics who had always favored the older Mass, he has said. At Holy Name, the attendance at the 11 a.m. Sunday Solemn High Latin Mass has gone from about 125 people as recently as seven years ago to an average of 250 people now from September through June — close to a third of them families with young children and another third older folks who remember the Mass as it once was. (Even in the summer months, when the Latin Mass is Low Mass, the turnout is still quite good. I'd say about 150 in the summer, 225-ish at High Mass the rest of the year, during my tenure as their music director.) Others come for a range of reasons, including curiosity.

Among those at Mass last week were Patrick Fiorillo, 21, a college student from Franklin, Mass., and Edward Evans, 32, who usually makes the trek to Holy Name from Sturbridge, Mass., with his wife, Jennifer, and their three children, Alexander, 5, Amanda, 4, and John Paul, 17 months.

Fiorillo, a student at the University of Hartford, said he knew very little about the traditional rite until a friend invited him to attend a Latin Mass last November in New Haven. (Probably St. Mary's, a parish with very high quality music - run by Dominicans.)

It took some getting used to, Fiorillo said, but by the fifth time there he began to understand and appreciate the Mass in a new way. In the Tridentine Mass, which was codified and promulgated by Pope Pius V in the 16th century after the Council of Trent, many of the prayers are elaborate, emphasizing the sacrificial aspects of Jesus’ death on the cross and man’s need for atonement.

“I just think it offers more, and spiritually it is much more fulfilling,” Fiorillo said. “It goes a lot deeper in many aspects.”

Would he continue to visit Holy Name if he could find another Latin Mass closer to his home? “Yes, if my parish in Franklin began offering it, I would love to go there. But this is a great well-established community here, so I would be definitely coming back here.”

Evans, a systems engineer, said that while he was a lifelong Catholic, he knew little about the Mass until his brother-in-law invited him and his wife to check out an old-rite Mass in Albany, N.Y.

He finds it interesting that the new Mass had been put into place with the idea of making the Mass more accessible and understandable to the people, but thinks the reverse is more true. Unfortunately, he said, the words of the regular Mass have been made to sound so ordinary that the prayers almost sound banal. “There is nothing special, nothing mysterious about it anymore, and people wonder why should they even come.”

It’s not that way with the Latin Mass, he said. “Once people experience it I think they’ll want to come. Here there is more a feeling of being with God.”

I'm very thankful that 1) When I left Holy Name, Fr. Kevin Fisette (the pastor at the time - a wonderful priest, pastor, employer, and friend) hired someone that could keep a good thing going (and even expand on it), in the persona of Jacob Stott; and 2) When Fr. Fisette was assigned to St. Leo the Great in Pawtucket, Fr. Santos kept that good thing going.

Peace,
BMP

BISHOP PROVOST ON THE MOTU PROPRIO

Bishop Glen Provost of Lake Charles, LA (Jason's pastor until the appointment to the See of Lake Charles just last spring), has a very gracious letter here regarding the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. RSCT to Gerald.

I'll refrain from commenting within the text of the letter. The good bishop said it very well here.
Peace,
BMP

My dear People of God, there are two matters that I wish to address. Some of you have posed questions concerning two recent Vatican documents. The first is the Holy Father’s Motu Proprio allowing for greater freedom in celebrating the Latin Mass and the other is the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s “Responses to some questions regarding certain aspects of the doctrine on the Church”. Documents from the Vatican often involve fine points that the popular press, in the interests of simplicity and ease, find difficult to convey. I cannot presume to answer all of the questions that have surfaced, but I would pray that what I say offers some clarification. I would address them in order.

THE TRIDENTINE MASS
A Motu Proprio is a document of great importance issued by a pope on a matter that adjusts a practice in the Church. In this case, the Motu Proprio is entitled “Summorum Pontificum” and states clearly that the Mass promulgated by Pope Paul VI (as celebrated today in our parish churches) and the Mass of Pope St. Pius V, reissued by Blessed John XXIII (typically called the Tridentine Mass and celebrated at present only with special permission) are, and I quote, “two usages of the one Roman rite.” In Pope Benedict XVI’s letter to the bishops, he writes, “It is not appropriate to speak of these two versions of the Roman Missal as if they were ‘two Rites.’ Rather, it is a matter of a twofold use of one and the same rite.” At a practical level, beginning September 14, 2007, any priest, competent in Latin and in the rite itself, can celebrate the Mass of Pope St. Pius V, in the form published by Blessed John XXIII. No further permission is needed. The role of the bishop is to insure “that all is done in peace and serenity” (the Papal Explanatory Letter to Bishops of July 7, 2007). This, of course, I intend to do.

Is this a return to the past? Pope Benedict XVI does not think so. Nor do I. “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too,” the pope writes. If one studies the history of the Church carefully, one finds that the Church has always found room for multiple usages in the Roman Rite. I recall as a child encountering the “Dominican Rite” with its slight variations while serving Mass or learning about the ancient “Ambrosian Rite” celebrated in Milan, Italy. The history of the Church is rich, and the Church is universal. It is much broader than anyone can possibly imagine. In effect, what Pope Benedict XVI has done is respond to a need. In providing for the normal celebration of an older form, the pope is answering the need many have expressed. There are those for whom the older usage of the rite is expressive, uplifting, and prayerful. Why not provide for this need without prejudice to the newer rite? As the pope states, “Let us generously open our hearts and make room for everything that the faith itself allows” (the Papal Explanatory Letter to Bishops of July 7, 2007). As bishop, my role is to act as moderator for the liturgy in the diocese. For that reason I must insure that the Mass of the Roman Rite is celebrated authentically and reverently, whether in the form promulgated by Pope Paul VI or the form of Pope St. Pius V promulgated by Pope Blessed John XXIII.

DO I SENSE A DISOBEDIENT BISHOP?

This directive from Bishop Cooney of Gaylord, MI, in spite of the directives pointed out in the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum (RSCT to Fr. Rob Johansen):

At a gathering of priests of the Gaylord Diocese in late June (on the eve of the MP's release), the bishop of Gaylord, Patrick Cooney, issued a directive stating:

Until other law is promulgated, all liturgies in the Diocese of Gaylord are to be celebrated entirely in English by the presiding celebrant.

It then goes on to say:

The use of other languages in songs and hymns...can be used occasionally, but must never overshadow the use of English.

Any variance from this policy must be requested on an individual basis from the Bishop of the Diocese of Gaylord using the form that can be obtained from the Secretariat for Worship & Liturgical Formation or the Office of the Bishop.

This Policy takes effect immediately. [Bold text in original.]

The form mentioned above asks the person making such a request to explain the "reason for requesting this variance from Diocesan Policy on the Use of the Vernacular when Celebrating Liturgy."

(Scans of these documents can be downloaded here, here, and here.) (note from BMP: these are .tif images)

So, let's see... we have liturgy documents saying that the use of Latin is to be preserved, a Motu Proprio stating that the Extraordinary Form of the Mass was never done away with, but a bishop who disregards these points from the Second Vatican Council, and Popes Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI. This to me says disobedience by the Bishop of Gaylord to the Church he is a servant of. The double standard, of course, is that if you do a Latin Mass in the Gaylord Diocese (even in the Ordinary Form) without permission, you're in disobedience to the Bishop there.

BTW, according to MassTimes.org, St. Joseph's in Traverse City (in the Gaylord Diocese) has a Spanish Mass. But that's ok (and Latin isn't)??? I have a big frickin' problem with that!

Supplementary RSCT's to Fr. Z and Gerald.
Peace,
BMP

OK - SO THIS IS JUST FOR LAUGHS...

I really thought this Jeff Harmon article at Agnus Daily was serious until I saw it posted by Argent under the humor category.

With Pope Benedict the XVI’s Summorum pontificum and Motu Proprio, the preconciliar Tridentine Mass seems as though it will be resurrected despite the concerns of many Catholics. Is the return of the Latin mass good for the Church? I disagree, and I’ll give you three reasons why it’s not, and why its implementation is doomed to fail.

1. Nobody understands Latin (and we're too damn stupid to simply pick up the Latin/English Missal that's most likely provided to us when we enter the church proper)
While many Catholics today attend mass in a zombie-like stupor even with a liturgy in their own language, imagine would happen when their common vernacular is ripped from them as a pacifier is torn from a newborn baby’s gummy mouth. Utter chaos my friends. Zombie-Catholics will turn into vegetables (which is still better than turning into fruits), and parishioners will have to be pulled out of each mass on stretchers. (Their souls are just too fixed to the Lord, dontcha know?)

I grant the argument that most Catholics don’t understand the mass as it is today anyway is valid, but that’s only because there is not enough liturgical guitar to guide them into spirit-filled worship. (No, but they do understand Mass, with a capital "M". "mass" with a small "m" is a term meaning how many molecules are in someone or something.)

2. The Latin Mass lacks guitar
The most beneficial change that came to the Church via “The spirit of Vatican II” was God’s ordained instrument of worship, the guitar. Light, portable, and made of wood, it’s beauty was finally recognized as a means of musical worship (by the folks at NaPalM, of course).

The Latin mass will deny us of this, bringing back organ drenched melodies that the parishioners simply cannot participate in, or relate to. Give me a woman who learned to play guitar last week (or perhaps a habitless nun), and I’ll give you some music to praise the Lord.

3. The Latin Mass is old
Anything that is old has to be bad, or else it wouldn’t be old. To go back to the Tridentine liturgy would be like going back in time, and nobody’s successfully done that except for Michael J. Fox. I am pretty sure he didn’t give the Church a flux capacitor or a DeLorean. The only way you can go back in time.

People want something new. Liturgical dancing, liturgical boxing, and liturgical cooking (and maybe a few other new liturgical innovations censored by the FCC) are the wave of the future - and are among the only means we can reach the parishioners of today who are starving for something more.

Quo Vadis?
We need to keep pressing forward. No more of the backward crazy talk. There are many different additions to the current liturgy that have yet been tried. If we do not at least experiment in new liturgical arenas, then we will never know if they will be successful.

Humor, folks! Humor!
Peace,
BMP

THE TRADITIONAL LATIN MASS

The Ultimate Nonsense Reducer!

Check out this cool write-up by Michael Overall for Tulsa World!

One priest wore an orange wig with a red clown nose and performed magic tricks during the homily. In another video, people brought their pets to church for a K-9 Mass, where dogs surrounded the altar while the priest consecrated the Sacred Host.

Don't throw pearls before swine, the Bible tells us. But it doesn't say anything about Labrador retrievers. (I would prefer to bring a vicious pitbull, but only for the sake of teaching a lesson about inviting pets to the altar.)

Thank God, I've never seen this kind of silliness in my own church, but only on YouTube, where traditionalist Catholics have put together a "Hall of Shame" for liturgical abuse. (I haven't seen the pet one yet, but I did see the Barney blessing, the teen preaching, and the clowns acting out the Gospel and homily.)

Another video shows several parishioners leaving in disgust as a nun -- at least, allegedly a nun -- dances down the aisle in a leopard-print leotard. (I've had a vision of something like that once. I think they call it a nightmare!)

I wouldn't have walked out of that service. I would've run. (Me too!) God doesn't send down hellfire and brimstone often, but when it comes, it comes fast.

Ecumenical foolishness: Buffoonery, of course, is not a uniquely Catholic sin. I was backstage once at a non-denominational "worship center."

The word "church," you know, sounds too churchy. We have convention centers and sports centers and shopping centers, so why not "worship centers?" (And why not? Many Catholic parishes have "worship spaces". Before coming to Holy Ghost, I got a job description from a church in the Chattanooga (Tennessee) area that was hiring. My wife has relatives out that way. Nice looking church, but once I saw the words "worship space" in the pastor's cover letter, I opted not to pursue the position any further.)

The stage hands wore headsets to get cues from a director in the sound booth.

"Spot lights on three . . . two . . . one. Now the smoke machine!"

It was like Jesus on Broadway. Or more like Jesus in Branson, Mo. "America's Got Talent," and so does the congregation. (Maybe they were auditions for the next American Idol, which I usually refer to around here as American Idiot. Or maybe it was American Idol taking auditions at the infamous St. Joan of Arc. They write those off as "gym Masses".)

Did the disciples give a standing ovation after the Sermon on the Mount? Did St. Paul use dry ice when he preached to the Corinthians?

But I was never more tempted to leave a church service than in Waco, Texas, where I lived after college. New in town, I went to the parish nearest my apartment, and I didn't notice the sign out front was in Spanish.

Mass is an interactive ritual -- the priest speaks; you respond.

It helps to know the language.

I could've slipped discreetly out the door.

But the mysterious beauty of the service -- a modern Mass, but celebrated with old-fashioned solemnity -- kept me in the pew. (The sign may have been in Spanish, but any chance this Mass might have been in Latin? Or was this an extremely reverent Spanish Mass, thus fortifying something I once said about English getting the $&!+ end of the stick?)

This must have been something like going to church before the reforms of Vatican II, when you could understand what was happening even if you couldn't understand the words.

The fragile wisp of incense. Sunlight filtered through stained-glass. A hushed reverence as the priest lifts the bread over his head. The silence broken by a crystal-clear bell to announce that Christ himself has come to us.

I didn't need to hear it in English. I knew to get on my knees. (HAD to be Latin!)

Back to the future: This month, Pope Benedict XVI issued a papal decision that will make the old Latin Mass more widely available around the world. The pope doesn't want to drag the church back to the 1950s -- Latin will remain an exception, and the vernacular will remain the rule. (The only small part of this whole article I disagree with. Latin was never an exception, except due to liberals' misconceptions and those misinformed by thereof.)

Instead, I think, the pope wants to use the old liturgy as a kind of fertilizer, sprinkling a little Latin through the church to nourish a sense of wonder.

Or rather, he wants it to be a kind of poison, a weed-killer, to uproot the childishness that has been disgracing too many parishes in recent years. (I truthfully think the Extraordinary Form of the Mass could very likely serve both purposes - the fertilizer and the weed killer.)

Clowns behind the pulpit. Nuns in leotards. Worshipers bringing Fido with them. (And let's not forget Barney blessing the people!) And some critics are worried that Latin will distract people?

Benedict just wants to give every Catholic what I'm already blessed to have in Tulsa -- a church where grown-ups worship like adults. (You're extremely blessed to have a Bishop like Bp. Slattery. His articles on liturgy from Spring 2006 are excellent! I've blogged on him here, here, and here.)

RSCT to the Summorum Pontificum blog.

Peace,
BMP

TWO MORE BISHOPS ON SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM

Tobin versus Trautman

Do I start with the positive first, or the negative? The negative. We'll save the good bishop for last, ok?

First you got the infamous Bishop Donald Trautman, head of the BCL, and Bishop of Erie, PA. He begins his statement about the Holy Father's Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum, by stating that "The recent apostolic letter of Pope Benedict XVI on widening the use of the liturgical books of 1962 is prompted by his desire to reach out to those Catholics in schism because of their non-acceptance of the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council".

Nice try, but that's not the only reason, and the SSPX aren't the only people looking for the 1962 Mass. Vatican II never did away with the Tridentine Mass. In fact, Pope Benedict XVI made it clear that the 1962 Mass was never abrogated in the first place.

He then goes on to say that since two parishes in his diocese have a 1962 Mass there is no need to press desire for more. I equate that with his saying that the liturgy must be dumbed down since the average normal adult has the mind of a second grader (which is, IMO, what he implies when he whines about the reform of the reform).

I do, however, give him some credit for this:
"Priests who might want to celebrate the Tridentine Mass will be given a rubrical and Latin exam to comply with the pope’s own statement, 'The use of the old missal presupposes a certain degree of liturgical formation and some knowledge of the Latin language.'”

I do agree - if a priest is to say the Tridentine Mass, he has to know what he's doing. But I would sure hope that his diocese offers some kind of training (perhaps from the two parishes already celebrating the 1962 Mass) and not just some "pop-quiz" exam for the sake of saying, "you flunked, you're screwed!" in order to write off the Pope's wishes.

For a much better analysis than mine, check out Fr. Z's post. RSCT to Gerald.

Now, here in Providence, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin offers a more positive note:

“I welcome the statement of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI that allows for the expanded use of the traditional Latin Mass in the Church. Although it is unlikely that the new provision will have much immediate impact on our priests and parishioners, the provision for additional use of the traditional Latin Mass may serve the pastoral needs of some of the faithful, and for that we are grateful. The increased use of the Latin Mass is a legitimate reflection of the rich diversity of the liturgical life of the Church."
(emphasis mine)

He also mentioned that Holy Name of Jesus Church (where I worked from 1999-2003) in Providence celebrates a 1962 Mass each and every Sunday (at 11:00 AM). I may add that there is also a Traditional Latin Mass at 7 PM on holydays of obligation.

Entire article is in the July 12, 2007 edition of the Rhode Island Catholic.

Peace,
BMP