I’ve posted it before, but it is still funny!

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Keep in mind that the Latin Church example is pretty strange.  I don’t the maker of the video had any intention to be “fair”.  But that underscores a problem, doesn’t it?  The Novus Ordo is susceptible to this.

Anyway… it is an interesting video.

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This isn’t Secretariat of State boilerplate. This is Francis.

Some context: Before this prayer, Francis had mentioned that the first faithful bishops have are their priests.  He spoke about obedience and self-emptying, the gift of self as what distinguishes pastoral ministry.  He mentions the Devil again, of course. He warns about the seduction of a career, money, laziness, being a functionary, worrying about structures more than people.  The whole thing bears reading.

Then, after saying “I place you, and I place myself, too, under the mantle of Mary, Our Mother”, he concluded with this!

Mother of the silence that preserves the mystery of God, deliver us from the idolatry of the present, to which those who forget are condemned. Purify the eyes of pastors with the balm of memory:that we might return to the freshness of the beginning, for a praying and penitent Church.
Mother of the beauty that blossoms from fidelity to daily work, remove us from the torpor of laziness, of pettiness, and defeatism. Cloak Pastors with that compassion that unifies and integrates: that we might discover the joy of a humble and fraternal servant Church.
Mother of the tenderness which enfolds in patience and mercy, help us burn away the sadness, impatience, and rigidity of those who have not known what it means to belong.
Intercede with your Son that our hands, our feet and our hearts may be swift: that we may build the Church with the truth in charity.
Mother, we will be the People of God, on pilgrimage towards the Kingdom. Amen.

Benedict has his voice. Francis has his.

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From a reader:

we will be on a Greek island without a Catholic church on a Sunday:

can we attend the Greek mass and/or receive the Sacrament?

You can, and I think should, attend the Greek Divine Liturgy if attending a Catholic Mass is not possible. The impossibility of attending a Catholic Mass in a Catholic church or chapel that day absolves you of your obligation (no one is bound by law to do what is impossible).

Even though you can’t fulfill your canonical Sunday obligation, and therefore you are absolved of that obligation, you still have an obligation in natural law to worship God.

Since the Liturgy of the Greek Church is valid and reverent, you can surely fulfill your natural law obligation than to worship with the Greek Orthodox Church.

As to the reception of Holy Communion, can. 844 §2 states,

“whenever necessity requires or a genuine spiritual advantage commends it, and provided the danger of error indifferentism is avoided, Christ’s faithful for whom it is physically or morally impossible to approach a Catholic minister, may lawfully receive the sacraments of penance, the Eucharist, and anointing of the sick from non-Catholic ministers in whose Churches these sacraments are valid.”

Therefore, it is possible, from the Catholic perspective, to receive. However, the Greek Orthodox Church may differ!

As I understand it, the Orthodox do not entirely agree with us on this principle. They will not, as I understand it, administer the Eucharist to non-Orthodox congregants. In other words, we say we may receive from them, but they say they will not give to us.

Out of respect for their law and practices, it would probably be best not to approach to receive Communion.

You have, instead, the opportunity to make a Spiritual Communion.

Use Communion time to pray, not only for the unity of our Church, as Christ Himself willed, but also for all those who should not receive the Eucharist, perhaps because of irregular marriage situations or even the lack of a priest for their parish.

And I’ll just say it again:

Benedict XVI was the Pope of Christian Unity.

UPDATE:

Some people are shocked that I suggested attending liturgical worship of God in an Orthodox Church.  Some even suggest that I am advocating mortal sin.

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On the full screen it is amazing. Click it.

Note other galaxies in the background.

Sometimes I consider why the visible cosmos is so large, involving forces and numbers so great that we cannot get our thoughts around them.  Perhaps God arranged it this way so that we can have some notion of eternity.  On the other hand, when we delve into the microscopic world, we see manifest order and mind-boggling complexity.  It is so, no doubt, so that we can understand that we are not accidents of irrational chaos.

We are made in the image and likeness of the One who brought all this into existence from nothing.

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Alas, we never get what the Pope actually said in its entirety.  We are only getting bits and pieces as determined by someone working for either Vatican Radio or L’Osservatore Romano or… well… it’s hard to know!   This is a problem.  Did the newsie doing the reporting making the right selection of quotes? Is the newsie doing the reporting a theologian?  We should either get everything Francis says or nothing.  Moreover, the Italian accounts and the English accounts of what Francis said differ somewhat.  And who knows how what Francis says in these sermonettes will ultimately be related to the Ordinary Magisterium of the Roman Pontiff?  We are told that it is doesn’t form part of his magisterial teaching, but…  really?  They sure are being played up by the Holy See’s news agencies, aren’t they!

Back to the Pope’s sermon from 22 May.

If you go through his comments as reported, and I did, there is nothing in Pope Francis’s remarks about the possibility of atheists being saved that is not in keeping with the document Dominus Iesus.

In a nutshell, Francis was not talking about non-Catholics or non-Christians.  He was not talking about those who profess another religion with their own mediators.  He was not talking about those who pray to other gods.  He was talking about atheists.

Moreover, Francis was clear that whatever graces are offered to atheists (such that they may be saved) are from Christ.  He was clear that salvation is only through Christ’s Sacrifice.  In other words, he is not suggesting – and I think some are taking it this way – that you can be saved, get to heaven, without Christ.

So, have a care with these sermons.  It is great to get pithy lines from the Holy Father about something that is crystal clear such as, say, the Devil.  It is another when the pithy quip veers into something that is more difficult to untangle.  It is best not to jump to negative conclusions based on the incomplete reports about fervorini of ambiguous magisterial authority.

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Before you read what I posted below, you should know that very soon Father’s parish is going to be closed, thus rendering him “retired”, though he would have liked to keep going.  He accepted the decision with a serene attitude.  He is 62 years a priest, well into his 80′s, and he writes things like the following every week.

May I give you a pleasant “action item”?  Could I ask you to go HERE (there is an email link) and perhaps drop him a note of thanks for his years as a priest and for the following? You might indicate your country or state. It would be great to flood the secretary’s email with notes for him.  (He does NOT do email, so she will print them.)

Pastor’s Page
By Fr. George Welzbacher, Church of St. John of St. Paul, MN 
May 19, 2013

The technical term Catholic, whose first known use occurs in the letters of the bishop and martyr Ignatius of Antioch, writing very early in the second century of the Christian era (in what is known as the sub-Apostolic age) is a term derived from the ancient Greek adverbial phrase kath holon, meaning “according to the WHOLE“. This new adjective – perhaps his coinage – was used by St. Ignatius to differentiate, on the one hand, the Church that preaches the whole revelation of Christ to the whole world to all generations to come until the end of time, in contrast with those transitory sects that, like bargain hunters at a rummage sale, pick and choose only such items as happen to have a passing appeal. The authentic Catholic is therefore one who accepts the whole doctrine of Christ, intact and untrimmed, and (with special relevance to our day) not revised with respect to the proper use of the sexual power. The authentic Catholic recognizes that Christ’s teachings are eternal and absolute, not subject to revision, inasmuch as not even Christ Himself was at liberty to change them, since, as He explained: “The word that I have spoken to you is not mine; it is the word of Him Who sent Me” (John 14: 24). So it was that the Apostles were to convey Christ’s revelation, exactly as they had received it, with no addition or loss. And those whom they in turn ordained through the laying on of hands together with prayer to the Holy Spirit were instructed to transmit the Christian doctrine exactly as they had received it from the Apostles. Thus St. Paul writes to Timothy:…”rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands …. Follow the pattern of the SOUND words which you have heard from me … guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us …. what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also …. Preach the word, be urgent in season and OUT of season, convince, rebuke and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when men will not endure SOUND teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings and will turn away from listening to the truth …. (II Timothy 1:6; 1:13-14; 2:1 4:2-4). And so the transmission of a teaching and sacramental authority would continue till the end of time, within the Church in which the Holy Spirit dwells, Whose presence makes the Church to be indeed “the pillar and bulwark of the truth”. (I Timothy 3:15).

St. Paul could speak with such confidence about the Church as “the pillar and bulwark of truth,” within which “the Holy Spirit dwells, ” precisely because at the Last Supper Christ had promised the Apostles that, as He was about return to the Father, He would not leave them “desolate”.  Instead He would send another Counselor,   another Advocate, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, to dwell with them “forever” and to guide them “to the whole truth.” “I will pray the Father,” Christ said “and He will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth …. the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you …. But when the Counselor comes, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness to me, and you also are witnesses …. When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth … and He will declare to you the things that are to come …. He will take what is mine and declare it to you “(John 14:16-17; 14;26; 15:26 16:13-14).

The Catholic, therefore, is not dependent on his own very fallible opinions as to what must be done and what must be avoided in order to gain eternal life. Within a Church that traces itself back in unbroken continuity to the Apostles themselves the Catholic possesses the full doctrine taught by the Apostles, which is in turn the doctrine of Christ. And he possesses that doctrine in its fullness, without corruption, not because of the human intelligence of the intervening generations between the present and the apostolic age but because within that Church, in fulfillment of Christ’s promise, the Voice of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the Spirit of Truth, speaks clearly and forever.

Those who reject that Voice cannot call themselves authentically Catholic; rather, they are sectaries who pick and choose as passion and caprice dictate. The Catholic in truth is one who accepts the whole teaching of the Church because that teaching is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit. Even the Catholic sinner – and who among Catholics, apart from Christ’s Blessed Mother, is not? – is Catholic to the extent that his mind accepts the teaching of the Church in its entirety, precisely because Christ and the Holy Spirit guarantee that teaching in its full content forever.

Thus those who publicly and persistently promote abortion, contraception and homosexual behavior as things good and worthy of praise, in flat-out contradiction to the Voice of the Holy Spirit speaking through the teaching of the Church, a teaching reflected in the Scriptures, have in all honesty forfeited the right to receive Holy Communion, the supreme sign of unity with Christ’s Church. In their public and impenitent promotion of what is in fact intrinsic disorder, and as such gravely sinful, they fall under the prohibition against receiving the Eucharist as expressed in Canon 915 of the Roman Catholic Code of Canon Law, a Canon that forbids giving the Eucharist to public, grave and impenitent sinners.

A recent instruction of Pope Francis to the Catholic bishops of Argentina has therefore quite properly aroused great interest. Let us pray that it will prove to have been the harbinger of a more insistent and widespread enforcement of Canon 915.

Fr. Z kudos to Fr. W.

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STOP sending me links to the video of Pope Francis praying over the fellow in the wheelchair.

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After reading this latest post on how priests reportedly dislike the new Missal, a priest friend dropped me an email to share his impressions:

One of the things going on here is very important, but I suspect most priests have never thought about it.

I concelebrated at a Funeral Mass with an older priest (about 75) about four months after the new Missal came into use. I was the main celebrant. His parts were reading the Gospel and the sections of the Eucharistic Prayer given to concelebrants.

He did this with real difficulty, the reason being that he kept trying to look at the congregation as he read. This is much easier with the older, easily memorized text. This book keeps you needing to read from it.  [It makes you think about what the texts mean, too.  One day some of these priests will actually think about the texts and they will realize that most of the time they are not talking to the congregation.]

Most priests do not seem to ever have thought about the nature of ritual at all. The priest who comes out on the altar and greets the folks in his own colloquial way, and then starts the Mass with the text, doesn’t realize that there IS a greeting in the Mass. He speaks in “real life” and then retreats to the formal worship. He does so at the end as well. “Have a nice day!”

This priest I concelebrated with did not seem to realize that in the Eucharistic Prayer we are speaking to God, not the congregation. [There it is.]

I believe that putting the priest celebrant behind the altar facing the people was a very serious, core error.   [Do I hear an "AMEN!"?] When I celebrate the Traditional Mass or the Anglican Use liturgy (which is generally celebrated with the traditional altar ceremonies), I come before the altar, face it in the same direction as the people, and begin Mass by addressing Him. I submit myself to the rite; the people submit themselves to the rite. We participate together.

The Novus Ordo has made the priest the focus. He starts by initiating a dialogue with the people. He keeps up this dialogue throughout the Mass. He stands behind the Altar like Julia Child doing a cooking demonstration at her kitchen island.  [Good one!]

[...]

A new translation cannot be expected to accomplish everything. Only with time will we recover a sense of the difference between going to the Altar of God and singing around the camp fire.

Read the whole thing over there.

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They are in the FINALS!

My correspondent wrote:

Don’t forget to watch the Dominican Sisters of Mary competing for the Grand Prize  ($100,000) on the American Bible Challenge this Thursday, May 23, 2013 at 7:00 PM on GSN (Game Show Network, Ch. 71 Direct TV). Their winnings will go to a retirement fund for retired nuns. Let’s pray they win in this grand finale.

UPDATE:

There is a preview video.

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