A fellow student from my Rome days, Fr Shaun Middleton, parish priest of St Francis of Assisi, Pottery Lane, has written a short article in the Tablet proposing the formation of a Society of Pope Paul VI to preserve the ICEL translation of 1974, communion in the hand, the abolition of altar rails etc. When I first heard of this article, I though it might be tongue-in-cheek since I know Fr Shaun has a good sense of humour. It seems, though, that he is serious, expressing worry about Pope Benedict's "reform of the reform".Perhaps in some years' time, we may see the formation of such a society. I would want to be magnanimous. The Latin Mass Society and other traditionalist groups struggled through several decades of opprobrium and suspicion. Let us on the contrary welcome the Society of Pope Paul VI and offer a wide and generous application of the norms allowing Mass with all the liturgical innovations in force up until the reign of Pope Benedict.
The Mass could be scheduled once a month at four o'clock on a Sunday afternoon in a different parish each week. (It would be best not to advertise it in case there was any danger of seeming to dissent from the reforms of Pope Benedict.) In some places, it might be possible to set up a personal parish for the rite of the 1970s but only if the Council of Priests are in full agreement.
The SSPVI would need to bring their own pottery chalice(s), pizza hosts, polyester vestments, guitars and Celebration Hymn Books. They would also need an ironing board or similar to set up with two squat candlesticks at one end for Mass facing the people. The priest who was preaching would, of course, be on his honour not to say anything against the Traditional Latin Mass.
22 comments:
You forgot to mention that there ought to be an exam to see if the priest is "idoneus". "I'm sorry Fr Dipsy, you seem to have followed the rubrics to the letter. That just won't do".
Hysterical Fr! Dig the pottery!
What is astonishing to me is that I do get the sense that the Litniks, who have made life miserable for traditionalists for so long, feel persecuted by the very IDEA, let alone the reality, of people actually wanting the traditional Mass. It is very hard for me to get into the heads of these people. Is it sort of like Victorian England's terror of Irish Home Rule? "Good Lord, these people might actually do to us what we have enjoyed so much doing to them?"
There is a middle way. Want a well clebrated Latin mass? There is the Association for Latin Liturgy which wishes to see mass available in any form in Latin,including the Paul VI mass not to the detriment of the vernacular. Latin mass with a choir is celebrated every Sunday morning at Farm Street, Spanish Place, St Ethelreda's etc in London and many other places. The Oxford Oratory has even had celebrations of the Sarum Rite which is the traditional mass of England although there were local variations-York, Bangor, Durham etc.
I don't think that the ALL Masses would be seen by the SSPVI as a middle way but as a halfway house to all they abhor.
(The ALL has done a wonderful job over the years of preserving tradition within the newer form of the Roman Rite and I remain a member.)
Please, listen this transposition of gregorian hymn Gloria, laus to portuguese: http://gazetadarestauracao.blogspot.com/2008/07/gloria-laus.html
It was recorded in Portugal by five traditionalists, including me.
What do you think?
Hmmm I wonder if an interest in such things will eventually become a 'formation issue' at some seminaries!
I expect the SSPVI will be mad keen to promote their hero`s great encyclical Humanae Vitae.
Brilliant!
Burlap banners and vestments, guitar ditties, puppets, clowns, skits, music in three quarter time, incense bowls, liturgical prancing....
I'm there.
Fr. Deacon Daniel, SSPVI
I don't think that membership of the SSPVI needn't become a "formation issue" for seminarians ... as long as they observe the following simple rules:
1. Wear your cassock and collar when escaping from the seminary to attend an SSPVI event on your afternoon off. You can always change into something more "1970s" at a service station, and change back into clerics on the return journey.
2. If you use an ICEL Breviary, make sure you (i) do so in private (ii) buy a black leather cover to conceal it and (iii) take note of the scriptural and patristic readings at Mattins, so that you can make some allusion to the same to the Rector and the Staff at lunch or in lectures.
3. Have all SSPVI publications delivered to you in plain brown envelopes marked with the legend "Introibo ad Altare Dei".
4. Be careful when practicing Mass in the Usus Antiquior. Any slight deviations in the direction of "modern" practice (such as not keeping your thumb and forefinger closed after the consecration) will be noticed by the staff and seen as evidence of your unsoundness.
5. Attend Mass at the London or Birmingham Oratories on a regular basis (properly dressed of course). I know its a bore to listen to the likes of Fr Creighton-Jobe or Fr Nicholls spout their tedious so-called orthodoxy, but if you get "known" at Hagley or Cromwell Road and can allude publicly to the content of last week's homily when back at the ranch, it will help to pull the wool over the eyes of the staff.
6. For similar reasons, make sure you read The Hermeneutic of Continuity daily. Yes, "Fr Tim" can be very irritating, but we have to know what the enemy is thinking.
7. Buy a Liber Usualis and take it to Liturgy Planning meetings. I know Credo III hasn't quite got the shallowness and triteness of Kum-By-Ya, but we all have to make sacrifices from time to time. Remember, this is war and you have to conceal your identity. Rene did it in "Allo, Allo", and so can you.
If you follow these rules you will get through the system with no trouble at all. You can reward yourself for all your hard effort by planning an ordination liturgy which will "really" irritate the Rector. Just think of the pom-pom on his biretta twitching as you are vested in your horse-blanket chasuble to the strains of Christopher Walker's "Missa Interminabilis". The pleasure will be so great that it would be sinful.
Heh, heh. Good one, Father!
And taking off on Fr. Fisher's comment, wouldn't there need to be a 'stable group' to request this? Or, given the license employed in the NO, would this have to be an 'un-stable group'...?
Can we revive felt banners at all the Masses?
Bravo, Auricularius - brilliant comment.
Father - I'm a bit worried about this SSPVI stuff: has Your Hermeneuticalness prematurely canonised Papa Paolo?
Some of us are still trying to:
1.Bin the felt banners,
2.Stop the CWL from designing new felt banners,
3."Lose" the felt banners at extra-curricular parish outings.
It's slow work. I think maybe targetting whichever Chinese town manufactures felt these days might be the answer.
Pattif - you're right, that was a mistake (but I don't believe in Freud); should be SPPVI.
Oh well - he did give us Humanae Vitae and has probably gone to heaven for that.
Oh well - he did give us Humanae Vitae and has probably gone to heaven for that.
I'm pretty certain it takes more to get into heaven for a Pope, than to do the bare minimum and do what all your predecessors have always done.
Well, to be positive, I would want to suggest to the SPPVI to cherish not only Humanae Vitae but also Ecclesiam Suam and Mysterium Fidei. Pope Paul VI did may good things but is remembered now only for the bad. He lived in evil times and we may pray that God will judge him mercifully.
Just came across this post as the first thing that google brings up for "hermeneutic of continuity" and for a moment felt great excitement: I've been wondering myself about the same thing, although I was thinking more to preserve the Mass of Paul VI in its integrity (what we get here is the Mass of the Liturgical Team Brainstorming - a "clown mass" would be a welcome relief if it actually included the Confiteor and the Creed).
Yesterday the priest decided that the power to bind and loose means he can change the words of consecration to "This is me, my life, my bread, broken and shared for you. Do this so as not to forget me."
This is the last straw, but other than my back breaking (or my heart) I really don't know what to do about it. He did it before, two years ago, but I asked him nicely not to do it again, and for a while he didn't.
Paul - that form of consecration is not sufficient for a valid Mass. This is one of the "graviora delicta" mentioned in Redemptionis Sacramentum. I encourage you to bring this to the attention of your Bishop and, if there is no satisfactory response, to forward the correspondence to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith who will take the matter up.
If you need any help with this, feel free to contact me: rosary@freeuk.com
Yes, I know. That's what makes it the last straw (I'm pretty sure omitting the Confiteor and rewriting the Creed don't invalidate the Mass). When we moved here 8 years ago we started going to this church because the liturgy was the closest to the missal that could be found in the deanery - this is one reason I have a feeling that there's nowhere else to go. I suppose we could always start driving to the cathedral or somewhere on Sundays, but I can't help feeling we really ought to be able to hear a Mass in one of the half dozen churches that we can get to easily.
The first time he omitted the words of institution was at what was supposed to be my son's First Communion. I had to wait a couple of months before I could broach the subject in anything like a calm and charitable manner. Then he said we shouldn't be superstitiously tied to a particular form of words imposed by Rome (that made a Dutch Reformed friend raise his eyebrows when I told him), but at least he stopped doing it.
Dobbing him in seems a bit drastic - and I'm not sure it would help anyway, since we have the mixed blessing of a bishop whose own sermons and pastoral letters are very sound, but who seems to have a deep aversion to discipling anyone under his jurisdiction. I don't want to whine, but I do feel stuck.
Paul - it is important to write to the bishop about this, if only to settle your own conscience on the matter. If the Bishop's response is inadequate, send copies of the correspondence to Rome (CDW). They will deal with the matter, you can be sure. Abuses affecting the validity of the Mass and the sacraments go to the top of the list.
It is a very serious matter and I am horrified to hear that he did this at a First Communion Mass.
To complain about this is in no way "drastic".
You might like to check out www.sppvi.org.uk which was pointed out to me once by a friend.
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