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Only the laziest slug-a-bed on the East coast will not yet know of today’s announced March 13th release date for Pope Benedict’s long-awaited Post-Synodal Exhortation, which we now know will be called Sacramentum Caritatis. So, rather than just waiting ’round till next week to see what it actually says, I thought I’d toss up this post as a clearing house for the members of our august Society to give their “things to look for” in the Exhortation when it does arrive. My own list of things-to-note:
1) Ratio of references to and quotes drawn from Vatican II + John Paul II to everything else. The question is whether this is 20-to-1 or 10-to-1. Bonus points for any mention of Trent or even St. Pius X
2) Mention of Mass said ad Orientem. Even a whiff of this would tempt me to break my Lenten fast in celebration.
3) Weasel words, or words with force? If the tone is, “in communion with the exhortations of the second Vatican Council, we encourage blah blah blah,” forget it. But if a few “We declare and command”s or similar verbiage sneaks in, watch out!
My fellow bloggers, your thoughts? Readers, your concerns?
Update: It’s Out. Commentary will be here
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St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,
Why is this Exhortation such a big deal? Are we that starved for documents from Rome? Talk about a document that will be DOA.
Legion of Mary
Come now, Legion, aren’t you the least bit curious? Especially given Msgr. Schmitz’s recent hints about ad orientem and the Canon in Latin being mentioned? What effect it may have remains to be seen, of course.
Jacobus,
Not really. Because what Rome suggests and what actually happens are never one and the same. So they can suggest the Canon being in Latin but how could that possibly happen? The missals are all in English so each priest would have to tape over the horrific Novus Ordo translation with the latin version while the rest of the missale would remain in English (which no one will do). Or else they would have to say the Mass completely in Latin which if you’ve ever heard young priests pronounce latin it is excruciatingly painful. 99% of them have had little training in Latin and the older pre-vatican II priests who actually have had training in latin have either forgotten it or in most cases have no interest in it anyway.
To your other point, I live in the Diocese of Arlington where 95% of the churches were built in the Novus Ordo era so there are no high altars but a table with the tabernacle usually off to the right somewhere. So celebrating ad orientem would just look ridiculous because most of these churches have either the celebrant’s chairs or plants directly behind the altar.
Look Jacobus, I have come to the conclusion that the Novus Ordo is irreformable. Yeah, it would be nice to have Latin & Gregorian chant but the only priests interested in Latin & Gregorian chant are young priests who have had absolutely no training in the Novus Ordo seminaries. It is hopeless.
Legion of Mary
Well, Legion, I agree with you that reforming the NO is hopeless. However, it is the mass in use right now, and for the vast majority of people, the only mass they know. If the Pope is going to say some somewhat traditional things, and direct them at the NO crowd, I can’t help but hope they might get people thinking along the right lines.
The immediate result might be the ridiculous things you see in the reform-of-the-reform parishes, or even worse, but I think it is still important to get Benedict’s perspective on paper. Especially for your modern-day papaloter, for whom one new document completely replaces everything that came before.
Perhaps some roudy priests will notice and agree to the point you have made about the strangeness of the ad orientam without the tabernacle there, though this is not a substantial arguement, and take a hammer to the now empty walls and construct a tabernacle and raradose… ok maybe the later is a a strech, but worth a prayer. Ave. … and move the presidential chair to the side.
And, maybe some priests will learn latin. Let us take a page from the history books and recall the restoration of Coptic in the Coptic Orthodox Church. They had a linguistic revolution and developed a taste and realization of importance for a dead language. It makes theology and conversation easier.
Peace be with you and may God bless you.
God love you and Holy Mary protect you.
-Christopher
Jacobus,
Yes this is true. It is better to have the Pope say something traditional rather than nothing at all. But I’ve also come to some other conclusions:
1)Actions speak louder than documents. If the Pope truly cares about the Traditional Rite, then celebrate the Traditional Mass (in all pomp & circumstance)on a major feast day.
2) Many people who say they are interested in the Traditional Mass really aren’t. After they attend the Traditional Mass, they complain that it feels like some artifact from another century. What these people really want is the Traditional Mass celebrated like the Novus Ordo. These are the people for whom it would be interchangeable to use Missale Romanum of 1962 or the current Missale Romanum as long as all the externals looked like the Traditional Mass (latin, chant, ad orientem, etc.) with the one exception bieng that every word must be clearly audible and the congregation should be able to repeat many parts of the Mass aloud. The fact that some 83% of the orations of the Traditional Mass were eliminated in the Novus Ordo doesn’t bother them. Nor does the fact that the Novus Ordo has like 13 Eucharistic prayers phase them. See the “Shrine of the Holy Whapping” for an example of what I am talking about.
3) Most Catholics (even the very good ones)really don’t care about the Traditional Mass nor the Reform of the Reform. They have it ingrained in their minds that the Novus Ordo with guitar music is as good as the liturgy gets because this is all they have ever had. And at this point, most Novus Ordo pastors have no desire to change this.
Legion of Mary
Gracious, LoM, you are a sour trad!
People need time to learn. Look, a mere six or seven years ago, not one contributor to this blog had ever heard of the Traditional Mass, but here we all are. Yes, actions are better than words, and of course, we’d all love to see real progress on a human time-scale, but given that none of us can directly influence things at the highest levels, we can do only two things, beyond prayer: (1) live out our own Catholic life in conformity with the piety that informed the lives of the Saints and (2) try to spread the good word of Tradition and the graces that come with it to as many people as possible.
The latter is why we run this blog, of course; and the former should be the goal of all of us. A sour or bitter attitude may seem like consoling realism to you, and it may even be accurate, but in the main it merely deadens one who indulges it to the good things that God DOES do in the world, and in the mean time it is an attitude almost tailor-made to keeping those folks who are not already converted to Tradition from becoming converted.
Think on it. If you started to express interest in a club, and the members to whom you spoke said, “we’re dying off anyway. And you probably only like us for our fancy meeting hall. You aren’t even a real member. Oh times! Oh morals!” would you be likely to stick around? The Tradition handed down from the apostles is much more than some mere club, of course, but on a purely human level, we must strive to give aids to God’s grace, not act as dampers warding it off!
Legion of Mary,
Well put, on all points.
Though I wouldn’t recommend taking the Whapping folks seriously, or as representative of any sizable group. Those recent posts on traditional without the traditionalism were mind-numbingly silly, to say the least.
Iosephus,
Sweet.
C’mon Ambrosius! I go to the Novus Ordo 6 out of 7 days of the week. Doesn’t that give the right to complain? My only point is we can be so concerned about a specific document coming out that could take years to take effect. Better to hunker down with “The Mystical Evolution” by Fr Juan Arintero and focus on the interior life rather than whether the Pope used 1% or 2% milk on his corn flakes at breakfast.
I try to help the Traditional Movement as much as I can. So far this year I’ve given three Missale Romanums (1962) to three young priests in my diocese and all three have since learned to celebrate the Traditional Mass. And two of the three have come to the point where they can barely stand to celebrate the Novus Ordo. Both can’t wait to get out.
LOM
LOM
Excellently well done then, oh noble Legion! You may consider my accusations withdrawn.
Thank you, Ambrosius, for that comment — I quite agree. Though I myself have often been criticized for being insufficiently “Trad” (and yet, I do spend 4 hours in a car each Sunday in order to assist at a Tridentine Mass), I have to say that I’m rather amazed and gratified at the progress that has been made over the last decade. Of course, I’m relatively new to tradition and haven’t had as much time to grow impatient. But still, we have to remember that when it comes to our holy faith, it’s necessary to take the looooooong view of things. We of all people should realize that Vatican II was practically yesterday, in the larger scheme of things. There have been some bad times in the recent past, and things are still pretty bad but they’re getting better. You don’t have to hang on every piece of news from the Vatican if you don’t want to, but let’s try to be humbly grateful for every little thing we can do to assist in the revitalization of our Holy Mother.
“Those recent posts on traditional without the traditionalism were mind-numbingly silly”
? “…the ridiculous things you see in the reform-of-the-reform parishes, or even worse,…”
I am wondering if iacobus would care to expound upon the quotes above. What is a “reform-of-the-reform” parish? What is meant by traditionalist without traditionalism? Maybe a post about your thought?
Sorry, Joe. By tradition without the traditionalism I was referring specifically to this post, and the comments which follow it.
By “reform-of-the-reform” parishes, I meant places like the Assumption Grotto. I didn’t want to mention places by name, but I probably should’ve, to make myself clear. I think that a lot of what they do, with tons of altar servers, and creatively fancying up the NO until it is unrecognizable is a tad on the ridiculous side. Then again, I’m far too easily annoyed by such things.
Oops, deleted your comment accidentally:
“Look, a mere six or seven years ago, not one contributor to this blog had ever heard of the Traditional Mass, but here we all are.”
Well, I heard about it over a decade ago. But I didn’t attend one until 2002.
Good points about the limitations of cynical realism, or realistic cynicism.
‘Though I myself have often been criticized for being insufficiently “Trad” (and yet, I do spend 4 hours in a car each Sunday in order to assist at a Tridentine Mass), …’
The whole idea of labelling someone as “insufficiently ‘Trad’” really irks me. To suffer under the hegemony of banality in a NO parish and then be told that you’re not “Trad” enough because haven’t done X, Y, or Z — it’s too much. There is frankly a country club elitism in some traditionalist circles that gives tradition a bad name. I suppose that it’s just another side of the all-too-human face of the Catholic Church.
As a follow-up to my last comment, I remember our Lord saying something about those who lay heavy burdens on others’ shoulders without lifting a finger to help.
> What is meant by traditionalist without traditionalism?
Not a “traditionalist without traditionalism,” but “tradition without traditionalism”–that is, loving the Church’s traditional liturgy without many of the cultural assumptions which, for reasons of history, are currently associated with the Tridentine Mass. To sloganize the idea, think Latin Mass with an Ignatius Press reading list, perhaps. But of course, that’s a very simplistic example.
Not popular with everyone, apparently : )
Andrew of the Holy Whapping
Given that our present culture is totally debased and diabolical why are we so passive in accommodating novelty (expressed either through liturgical “inculturation” or making the liturgy more “relevant”) and on the other hand so quick to characterize the Traditional Latin Mass as a having elements of a Tridentine cultural creation which can be excised away.
In early times inculturation was referred to as the “way of the Greeks” and holy martyrs died rather than embrace these novelties.
We should be running full speed toward our Tradition and spurn everything coming out of this present age.
There is no middle ground with Catholicism. There has never been a middle ground with those faithful who worship the true God.
************************
The glorious martyrdom of the seven brethren and their mother.
It came to pass also, that seven brethren, together with their mother, were apprehended, and compelled by the king to eat swine’s flesh against the law, for which end they were tormented with whips and scourges. But one of them, who was the eldest, said thus: What wouldst thou ask, or learn of us? we are ready to die rather than to transgress the laws of God, received from our fathers. Then the king being angry commanded fryingpans, and brazen caldrons to be made hot: which forthwith being heated, He commanded to cut out the tongue of him that had spoken first: and the skin of his head being drawn off, to chop off also the extremities of his hands and feet, the rest of his brethren, and his mother, looking on. And when he was now maimed in all parts, he commanded him, being yet alive, to be brought to the Are, and to be fried in the fryingpan: and while he was suffering therein long torments, the rest, together with the mother, exhorted one another to die manfully,
Saying: The Lord God will look upon the truth, and will take pleasure in us, as Moses declared in the profession of the canticle: And In his servants he will take pleasure. So when the first was dead after this manner, they brought the next to make him a, mocking stock: and when they had pulled off the skin of his head with the hair, they asked him if he would eat, before he were punished throughout the whole body in every limb. But he answered in his own language, and said: I will not do it. Wherefore Ire also in the next place, received the torments of the first: And when he was at the last gasp, he said thus: Thou indeed, O most wicked man, destroyest us out of this present life: but the King of the world will raise us up, who die for his laws, in the resurrection of eternal life. After him the third was made a mocking stock, and when he was required, he quickly put forth his tongue, and courageously stretched out his hands:
And said with confidence: These have from heaven, but for the laws of God I now despise them: because I hope to receive them again from him. So that the king, and they that were with him, wondered at the young man’s courage, because he esteemed the torments as nothing. And after he was thus dead, they tormented the fourth in the like manner. And when he was now ready to die, he spoke thus: It is better, being put to death by men, to look for hope from God, to be raised up again by him: for, as to thee thou shalt have no resurrection unto life. And when they had brought the fifth, they tormented him. But he looking upon the king,
Said: Whereas thou hast power among men, though thou art corruptible, thou dost what thou wilt: but think not that our nation is forsaken by God. But stay patiently a while, and thou shalt see his great power, in what manner he will torment thee and thy seed. After him they brought the sixth, and he being ready to die, spoke thus: Be not deceived without cause: for we suffer these things for ourselves, having sinned against our God, and things worthy of admiration are done to us: But do not think that thou shalt escape unpunished, for that thou attempted to fight against God. Now the mother was to be admired above measure, and worthy to be remembered by good men, who beheld seven sons slain in the space of one day, and bore it with a good courage, for the hope that she had in God:
And she bravely exhorted every one of them in her own language, being filled with wisdom: and joining a man’s heart to a woman’s thought, She said to them: I know not how you were formed in my womb: for I neither gave you breath, nor soul, nor life, neither did I frame the limbs of every one of you. But the Creator of the world, that formed the nativity of man, and that found out the origin of all, he will restore to you again in his mercy, both breath and life, as now you despise yourselves for the sake of his laws. Now Antiochus, thinking himself despised, and withal despising the voice of the upbraider, when the youngest was yet alive, did not only exhort him by words, but also assured him with an oath, that he would make him a rich and a happy man, and, if he would turn from the laws of his fathers, would take him for a friend, and furnish him with things necessary. But when the young man was not moved with these things, the king called the mother, and counselled her to deal with the young man to save his life.
And when he had exhorted her with many words, she promised that she would counsel her son. So bending herself towards him, mocking the cruel tyrant, she said in her own language: My son, have pity upon me, that bore thee nine months my womb, and save thee suck years, and nourished thee, and brought thee up unto this age. I beseech thee, my son, look upon heaven and earth, and all that is in them: and consider that God made them out of nothing, and mankind also: So thou shalt not fear this tormentor, but being made a worthy partner with thy brethren, receive death, that in that mercy I may receive thee again with thy brethren
Joe,
You’ve misread my post. I didn’t say anything about enculturation in the Tridentine Mass. I said the traditionalists are often attached to OTHER things for cultural reasons that are not intrinsic to the Tridentine Mass. Monarchy comes to mind.
Anyway, I have my own blog to talk about these things, and won’t take over this comments thread to do so.
Thanks for the long discourse on enculturation, anyway.
Andrew of the Holy Whapping
JSP, I think that we might see the point a bit more clearly if we look at the SSPX. They seem to have this whole fetish about not just monarchy, but the French monarchy. As bad as the French Revolution was, we live in America, not France, and it’s rather bizarre for some Catholic traditionalists to reject all contemporary American politics as corrupt while pining for some fanciful Bourbon legitimist to come and save them.
Also, some traditionalist Catholics, such as Solange Hertz, seem to be Luddites. Yet you are on the internet right now, reading a blog that could not have existed in any other technological or economic system than that which our corrupt, postlapsarian “modern world” has produced.
test. to whom does this comment go?