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“With Benedict XVI, playtime is over” writes Sandro Magister in the latest from Chiesa. Magister’s article brings to the attention of English speaking readers (it first appeared in Il Giornale) that our most holy lord, Benedict XVI, has smashed (that would be too gentle a word) the Neocatechumenal Way, in particular, their notoriously deviant liturgical practices. Iacobus had a fine post about these shady characters a little while back. But to refresh your memory, here are some of the things which Magister notes about the Neocatechumenal Way’s liturgical practices:
“. . . Communion is taken while seated around a large square table, with a large loaf of bread that is divided among the participants and wine … passes from hand to hand and is taken in large swallows . . .”
Sounds wholesome, doesn’t it? I like to think of it as diversity in liturgical expression, one of the important ways in which we express our desire to be a conciliar church.
Turns out, Benedict doesn’t care, and he made Cardinal Arinze deliver the kiss of death: as of now, the Neocatechumenal Way is to cease and desist from their deviant liturgies and to resume the celebration of Mass according to the approved rites of the Church.
You can read Arinze’s letter at the bottom of Magister’s piece. It doesn’t sound like much, but that’s because it’s in the style of a post-conciliar romanitas: the rules of romanitas don’t let you spike the ball in the opponent’s end zone, even if that’s what you feel like doing.
Thus far, Benedict has been a silent operator, but he’s getting things down, slowly, slowly. Another Roman once used the expression: “Festina lente” (albeit in Greek). Maybe that’s what we’re seeing here. This is a definite sign that the current pontificate will be much less forgiving of liturgical theatrics, liturgy as community celebration, and all the other garbage that the world has seen since the Council. Stay tuned . . .
You might want to refer here for our general position on these things. As we have all manner of readers here at this blog, we would prefer if you refrained from using “evil” in descriptions of the NOM, which is a usage that has led so many into deep trouble.
Vivaarchlefebvre, we all would prefer to see the old rite of the Mass restored, fully, everywhere, in all its glory, but in the meantime, we don’t think that the Novus Ordo Missae is evil per se; the Eastern forms of the Eucharistic liturgy are not as suited, in all respects, to the worship of God as is the Mass of St. Pius V, but that doesn’t mean that they are evil, even if relative to the gold standard, so to speak, they appear defective. A very well done new Mass is much like the Eastern liturgies: good but not all there. Unfortunately, only very rarely (and I mean very rarely) is there a publicly celebrated new Mass which comes as close as it can to resembling the old rite in terms of rubrics.
Thank you for your comments. We all know how much we owe to The Archbishop.
Sandro Magister’s reporting is more comprehensive on the liturgical elements and gives the document, but John Allen was first:
http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/word122305.htm#five
Viva, perhaps this post drew your attention because I sounded rather enthusiastic about Benedict’s liturgical crackdown. I am enthusiastic about it, but in a relative sense: I know very well that, thus far, he has only restrained the wildly deviant, and has not done anything to fix a situation, with the Novus Ordo, that has been bad for quite some time.
I just happy to see that the reins have been pulled back a little bit.
I understand what you’re saying about St. Thomas. I do think it’s the case, though, that you would also have to accuse the Eastern rite of being evil, if the force of your argument really came down against the Novus Ordo.
I don’t know what you think, but I think that we can say that the various Eastern rites are not quite the beautiful and proper worship which the Mass of St. Pius V is. They are fine, as far as it goes, but the old Latin rite captures even better the theology of the Church with regard to the Holy Sacrifice.
Yet the Church has always permitted a diversity of rites. They are not evil, they are quite good, in fact. What is defective in the situation about which we speak is that we have moved from something which was very good (the old rite) to something which is not so hot. And it appears even worse when we consider the richness we had before.
It’s not all about the Mass, though. As any Society bishop would say, the real issue is the theology of various things (the Mass, ecumenism, ecclesiology) since the Council. The new Mass was the tool used by the modernists and Free Masons to shatter the human elements of the Church from within. Forget the new form of the Mass! think alone of what the loss of the Jesuit order to the modernists has done to the Church!
But the new Mass, by being a constant presence, exerts a more awful effect upon the laity. So we are especially worried about it.
Yet what can we do? If we break our unity with the Holy Father, we are in a precarious position as Catholics. I say nothing more. I do not judge the bishops of the Society; I do not judge those who would only go to Society chapels; for I agree with them in nearly all respects.
But as a convert, as a former Lutheran, I can’t, I do not want to judge the Roman Pontiff. Many bad things were done and said under the reign of JPII, but he did not repudiate the Faith. Nor will Ratzinger. The Church is indefectible.
Why did this punishment come upon us? I do not know. But at least those of us on this forum have an appreciate for the Mass which we may not have had otherwise. We savor every bit and piece, every word of the Mass of St. Pius V. I hardly know if that justifies what has happened during the past forty years, but it’s something of a consolation during this time.
And I think that good things are on the horizon for the old Mass. The Society continues to grow; the FSSP is growing; the Institute is growing. And that rate of growth will only increase as the many, many children which today’s old rite Catholics have had begin to embark upon their own adult lives.
God’s will be done, but it would be nice to live to see the Faith exerting again that influence which it did during the 1950s and early 1960s when Americans were coming into the Church in unprecedented numbers.
So Viva, no need here to argue about the old Mass and the new Mass. None of the contributors on this blog would ever frequent the new rite Mass if they thought it could be helped. And if there is a disagreement on that point, I respect your position, but it’s not one which I conscience I can take.
Why were all the comments here removed??
I don’t know why Vivaarchlefebvre deleted his, but once he did, mine didn’t really add much! So I took it out. I left the one that was still on topic.