Ruth Gledhill - "paradigm smashed"

Ruth Gledhill, writing in her blog on Times Online has a really quite good article on the Motu Proprio. As I have criticised her reporting before, I think it is only fair to draw attention to this article. And besides, she has featured the "Happy Days" video which is very kind. (At the time of writing it had over 300 views - the number is now over 22,000.)

She aptly quotes one of our more successful prime ministers:

In Churchill’s famous phase, today is “not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Absolutely! We have a long way to go but Pope Benedict has firmly indicated the direction.

I did enjoy this part of the article, which I think is spot-on:

The Pope has worked for decades for a declaration that the Latin Mass was never abrogated. However, many Bishops are still working with the paradigm that it was superceded by the new Mass and needless to say this produces the hostility which traditionalists feel from Bishops throughout the world. This paradigm has now been smashed and it will take some if not many Bishops time to come to terms with it.

Yes, indeed, that paradigm has been well and truly smashed. Gledhill has also captured the essential dimension that is so often missed:

The young, more conservative priests who are the few that are being ordained will take full advantage of this sentence, not least because it restores the dignity of the priesthood and is a source of spiritual consolation. One can expect to see less burnout among the priesthood, as they are no longer encumbered with the enormous expectations placed on them as “presidents of a community celebration” rather act “in persona Christi” which is all the people really need them to be.

Yes, less burnour, more spiritual consolation and less encumbrance. With the classical use of the Roman Rite, the priest does not need to be a performer or anything else except to act in persona Christi.

This is an amusing and accurate comment:

§ 2 Clerics ordained “in sacris constitutis” may use the Roman Breviary promulgated by Bl. John XXIII in 1962.

Commentary
Fortunately, a Bishop even he wanted to be Big Brother had no real means of checking on this. It does, however, mean that there will be no more furtive Breviary reading!

Very true - and no more furtive use of the Roman Ritual for blessings, no more scruples about celebrating the occasional baptism in the old rite, no more worries about getting permission for couples who want the old rite of marriage, no need to worry the Bishop if an elderly person wants the last sacraments according to the usus antiquior.

Has anyone any ideas for a picture of a "smashed paradigm" :-)