Saturday, June 16, 2007

Bishops` response

The Daily Telegraph has an article today entitled Catholic bishops resist advance of Latin Mass. The thrust of it is that the English bishops claim that provision for the Tridentine Mass in this country is already adequate and that the Motu Proprio will be of little consequence here. Requests for the celebration of the Mass are rarely refused, the article says. However as the article says some dioceses are still very reluctant to give permission. The Motu Proprio will aid especially priests for whom this Mass is an important part of their spiritual life and will also confirm them in the knowledge that their desire to celebrate this Mass does not make them some kind of pariah. Recently two priests who at present do not celebrate the Tridentine Mass have told me that they will start when the Motu Proprio is issued.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could be interesting!

Long-Skirts said...

Telegraph says...

"Catholic bishops resist advance of Latin Mass. The thrust of it is that the English bishops claim that provision for the Tridentine Mass in this country is already adequate and that the Motu Proprio will be of little consequence here"

STARKENBURG
The Holy Mass, that cannot die,
Was said amidst the oaks,
While pin-oak leaves came floating down
Around the simple folks,

Who knelt upon the acorn floor,
All dotted nutty brown.
The acorns cracked and old knees snapped,
Yet still there was no sound...

But the tinkling of the golden bells
As the White Host Son rose high,
On priestly limbs, like mighty oaks,
They branched up to the sky.

And in that wood, I laughed with joy,
Amongst the souls bowed down,
For the mighty oak was once a nut
That merely held it's ground.

So Christian souls, like acorn nuts,
Must burrow all around
And be the seed that sprouts new oaks
On consecrated ground...

Where the Holy Mass, that cannot die,
Is said around the oaks,
While pin-oak leaves come floating down
Amidst a mighty folk!

Deacon John said...

"The Motu Proprio will aid especially priests for whom this Mass is an important part of their spiritual life and will also confirm them in the knowledge that their desire to celebrate this Mass does not make them some kind of pariah."
Yes, Father, this is so true. A few years ago, I used to assist an elderly priest, once a month, who celebrated the Latin Traditional Mass. I was looked upon as some freak of nature because of it and shunned by my "brothers". I felt good about helping him as if it was a ministry for me; sometimes I had to literately pick him up after he genuflected. And of course I loved the sacredness and mystery of the Mass itself. Soon after that the local bishop stopped the Mass from being celebrated there and moved it to distant parish, which was hard to get to. I'm 70 years old, but if they allow a TLM near me, I will certainly attend it! The problem here is the shortage of priests . . . so many people, not enough priests. It's so sad. May the Immaculate Heart of Mary Triumph!
Deacon John (Florida)

Fr Michael Brown said...

Jackie, I really hope it will be very interesting!

Fr Michael Brown said...

Deacon John, thanks for your moving story. We`ll have to see how things work out but this Motu Proprio will I hope will put the traditional Mass firmly back in the hands of those who love it. A shortage of priests will be part of the problem. I look after three parishes but I`ll be doing my utmost to make the most of this new document. Of course while we may no longer feel like pariahs there will still be others who will try to treat us as such. A few public traditional Masses by the Pope would help our cause.

Fr Michael Brown said...

Thanks long-skirts. Your poem reminds me of the Masses in the woods on the Paris-Chartres pilgrimage. Who or where is Starkenburg?

Long-Skirts said...

Fr. Brown says...

" Your poem reminds me of the Masses in the woods on the Paris-Chartres pilgrimage. Who or where is Starkenburg?"

Dear Father,

Starkenburg is in the middle of the state of Missouri in the U.S.A. For the last 8 years the Order of St. Pius X has held an annual Pilgrimage there which the German immigrants built along the banks of the Missouri River. There is a beautiful Shrine (Church) built in honor of Our Lady of Sorrows but since the Pilgrimage is associated w/the SSPX the Diocesan Bishop will not let them confect the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass inside the Church, even though everyday the Shrine is OPEN to ANYone else in the world so the priests say the Holy Mass outdoors amidst the pin-oak trees before hundreds of faithful.
The Pilgrimage is 13 miles on a bike/walking path along the Missouri River. Often after the large families pulling little ones in wagons, the crippled, the elderly get to the Shrine we have to kneel on the wood's floor but it is all worth it when we see Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and so we kneel and adore.
Yes, the Bishop does have much to fear not because we are the lowest in our society but we are descendents of those who have gone before us and are praying for us...

THE
IRISH
KNEELERS

We are St. Joan,
Philomena, Campion.
The Faith in its whole
Is what we do champion.

We are St. Margaret,
Pearl of York,
Where the bowels of the Faith
They tried to torque.

We are Sir More,
That's Thomas, the Saint,
Whose reputation
They could not taint.

We are vocations,
In Ireland, kneeling,
Adoring His presence,
It's not just a feeling.

We are descendents
Of Irish and beggin'
To stop all the men
Who are turning us pagan.

We are the poor,
Uneducated ones,
But in faith, well-informed,
The heretic shuns.

And when we are told,
"Don't kneel anymore."
Since we don't hold doctorates...
We kneel and adore!

Et Expecto said...

So Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor thinks that the Holy Father's proposed Motu Proprio liberating the use of the old rite is unnecessary.

Someone more astute than me has pointed out that the Motu Proprio is necessary precisely because the likes of the Cardinal regard it as unnecessary.

Anonymous said...

You have confused the Latin mass ans the Tridentine rite. Latis mass is available at Wesminster Cathedral, Farm St, St Ethelredas etc. Thr Traditional rite in England is the Sarum Rite. Permission was given for a celebration in Oxford. The great saints mentioned in the poems would have valued the Sarum rite.

Anonymous said...

Virtually none of the English bishops will give permission for an Old Rite Mass at a convenient time on a Sunday. They will usually only allow Masses on other days or at inconvenient times - such as 4pm on a Sunday. This no doubt is a deliberate ploy. They are happy on the other hand to sanction 'gay' masses for active homosexuals.

Anonymous said...

Why not kill two birds with one stone? The tridentine masses tend to be "gay" anyway as the traditionalists have a high proportion of gay supporters. Why would anyone from England want the tridentine rite with all its textual corruptions.

Fr Michael Brown said...

Martin O`Shea, thanks for the contribution. I remember the John Lloyd case being one of the worst particularly because he went on TV to talk about the value of celibacy after Joe Jordan was convicted. I suppose, given he was press officer for the diocese he had no option, but it made the whole thing really creepy.

Fr Michael Brown said...

Biby Cletus, thanks for the link anf glad you like the link. I`ve met quite a number of Catholics from Kerala here in Newcastle. As for the Essenes it was interesting that the Pope himself this year referred to a possible link between Christ and the group in that the Last Supper was probably a Passover meal held according to the calendar of the Essenes