Summorum Pontificum First Anniversary articles (con't)

Rorate Caeli has an article posted today,


A Historian observes the Catholic moment
One year of Summorum Pontificum and the SSPX

You Got Questions, They Got Answers

The Liturgical Institute at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, Illinois, announced today that as a public service it will make its faculty available to answer questions on its web site about the sacred liturgy.

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Why I Quit the SSPX

There us a fascinating look at the intellectual and spiritual journey of one man out of the SSPX on a blog called The Sensible Bond. It a thoughtful look at some of the premises necessary to remain in the SSPX. It is very worth the read. A snip...

As I say, it is hard now to retrace every step of that path but I want to give a structure to the considerations that follow, so I will organise them very much in the order which they occurred to me. My initial considerations concerned the episcopal consecrations of 1988 and so were connected to canonical issues. The second body of considerations concerned theological points of controversy, and were connected to the Church’s teachings and to Vatican II. My final considerations concerned the liturgy, and were thus connected to the Church’s worship. What horrified many of my friends and family at the time was not merely my separating from the SSPX, but my questioning the SSPX theses almost right across the board. What they did not understand was my realisation that, in each of these three areas – canonical, theological, liturgical - the SSPX had, albeit very worthily and with serious reasons, made the same false step. That at least is my opinion. I hope to make their false step clearer in due course.

Read the entire thing >>>>

Changes At The Oratory

From St. Louis Catholic:

Today is a sad day for the faithful at St. Francis de Sales Oratory, as our beloved rector, Father Karl W. Lenhardt, is being called to a new position. Fr. Lenhardt announced at Mass today that the Vicar General of the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest, Monsignor Michael Schmitz, would announce the specifics next Sunday. As of yet, therefore, Father's new assignment is not publicly known.

While we suspect this move will benefit the worldwide Institute, it is a sore blow for all those in St. Louis who have benefited from Father's wisdom, knowledge, patience and his pastoral care. It seems that there is a trend among clergy in this city-- success in St. Louis leads to promotion to better things, and what is St. Louis' loss is the universal Church's gain.

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Sorry About This...

A parody about the UK petition for the Gregorian Rite.

I Can't Get No...

I can’t get no, satisfactionem
I can’t get no, satisfactionem
And so I trad, and I trad and I trad and I trad
I can't get no, i can't get no

When I’m sittin’ in my pew
And that man does his floor show
He's tellin' me more and more
About some active participation
Leaving me in more frustration
I can't get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that's what i say

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Mundelein Adds Required Course on the Extraordinary Form

One year after the release of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, The Liturgical Institute at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois, announced that it has added a required 3-credit course on the history and spirituality of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite to its roster of classes.

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I Can't Get No - Satisfactionem

Bianca Jagger and many other prominent Brits have signed a petition asking the bishops of England and Wales to provide more Latin Sunday Masses in the extraordinary form.

Damian Thompson reports:

As the Catholic Herald reveals this week, leading Catholics including Lord Alton of Liverpool, Bianca Jagger and Dom Antony Sutch have signed a petition asking the bishops of England and Wales to provide more Latin Sunday Masses in the extraordinary form (Tridentine rite).

The petition - which has been signed by Catholics from across the political spectrum - "humbly requests" that the bishops make traditional Masses widely available to the faithful, in accordance with Pope Benedict's wishes. Progress on this front has been slow, to put it mildly.

Signatories include Catholics not normally associated with traditionalist circles, such as the concert pianist Stephen Hough and Robin Baird-Smith, publisher of Continuum Books. He has written on the petition: "Liberal and progressive, I am nonetheless in support of the petition's aims."

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Back In The F.SS.R.

You don't know how lucky you are boys, back in the F.SS.R.

The Transalpine Redemptorists have changed their name...

Dear Friends
Praised be Jesus and Mary ever Virgin!

Our new name has been worked out in consultation with the Holy See but, as with all things of this nature, we can only say that the name will be absolutely finalised when the community's statutes are approved. This is normal proceedure.

Our new name, the name which we will use exclusively
from 2 August will be:

SONS OF THE MOST HOLY REDEEMER
Filii Sanctissimi Redemptoris

The siglum will be the Latin initials for 'Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer':

F. SS. R.

Read the Rest >>>>

Interview with Transalpine Redemptorists

There is a fascinating interview with the Transalpine Redemptorists who have recently entered into communion with the Holy See. The interview covers many topics including having their newspaper banned in SSPX chapels since reuniting, the reasons for reunification, the future of their order, the view of the Redemptorists toward their traditional brethren, and more. A sample:

Carol from CNS: What prompted the community to agree to join in communion with the Holy See?

Fr. Michael Mary: Pope Benedict XVI. The Holy Father's Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum and the letter that accompanied the document led to our monastery council seeking expert advice from outside our community. The advice we received led us to more closely examine our ecclesial structures and their seeming absence of jurisdiction. While the question of supplied jurisdiction for Confessions and Marriages has been widely discussed, we had not come across any discussions on this point of jurisdiction for the religious life. We have concluded in fact, that there is no 'supplied jurisdiction' for traditional religious superiors receiving vows; nor does their power to command link back to the Holy Father and to the power of the Keys.

If this is so, it means that the superiors do not have supernatural authority to command and organise their communities in the traditional understanding, where the voice of the superior is the voice of Christ. This is an extremely important point.

We asked the SSPX about this question and also the traditionalist Dominicans in France. Both agreed that there was no "supplied jurisdiction" for religious superiors.

Once we were clearly aware of this lack of jurisdiction for the organisation of religious life we found that we would be building on sand, not to mention burying our heads in it, if we continued to try to live religious life in this way.

We were unhappy with the responsibilities and possible consequences that we would be taking upon ourselves in commanding people without sharing in the authority that comes from Christ, through His Vicar and through the delegated superiors whoever they may be. Continuing on in the face of these realities seemed to be like 'playing house' and we didn't want to have anything to do with it.

Read the entire interview >>>>

Liturgical Jealousy

I have a piece over at CMR on my recent experience of liturgical jealousy. A snip...

It's big, it's green, and it's bad. No, not the Hulk but jealousy. Envy.

St. Thomas Aquinas said of Envy: "Envy according to the aspect of its object is contrary to charity, whence the soul derives its spiritual life... Charity rejoices in our neighbor's good, while envy grieves over it." (2, 36, ad 3)

I must admit that I am jealous, but I am not sure it is a sin. Does a starved person sin when he is suffused with desire upon witnessing the banquet of another? This is the situation I found myself in Tuesday, famished at the banquet.

In Southern California on business, I decided to make my way over to St. Michael's Abbey in Silverado CA to attend mass. Their website had advertised that they had "Latin High Mass" at 7am in the church. I woke up and made my way over to the Abbey from my hotel, a 30 minute drive.

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