liturgy

Slay Errors

Slay Errors on September 15, 2007

A soul complained to me recently of my “dialectical thinking” on the Pope’s Motu Proprio of July 7, meaning no doubt that I was going backwards and forwards in a confusing way. I replied that what I had said was surely just an application of an old Catholic principle memorably formulated by St. Augustine many centuries ago: “Slay the errors, love the people erring.”

This is because God is Truth, so there is no way that untruth, or error, can get a soul into his Heaven. As error, or false doctrine, leads to sin, so only truth can lead to God. If then I wish to get to Heaven and to help other souls to get there, I must be strict on Catholic doctrine. Many people do not know its truth, but it is knowable (this is what liberals deny), and it is known. For my own salvation and theirs, I must tell it to them without watering or softening it down.

On the other hand I am (in varying degrees) bound in charity to wish to all souls that they get to Heaven, and this is the purpose of telling them the truth. Therefore I will not tell it when telling it will only help them to Hell – Jesus was silent before Herod, and fell silent before Pilate. I may and must, according to circumstances, “temper the wind to the shorn lamb.” I must love both the truth and souls. So I must “Slay error but love those erring.”

In fact the more I love the truth, the more – and not the less – I can afford to have compassion for souls. The more firmly I am attached to the tree on the bank, the more safely I can reach out to souls drowning mid-stream. But woe to me reaching out if I am not firmly attached! Lack of doctrine is why liberals also lack true charity.

Thus the doctrine of Benedict XVI in his Motu Proprio and its accompanying Letter to the Bishops is a confused and confusing mixture of Catholicism and Vatican II, and I cannot cease highlighting the error of that Council’s attempting to reconcile the true Faith with the false modern world. On the other hand the so-called “Tridentine Mass” is loaded with Catholic doctrine, so I can only rejoice that the Motu Proprio both recognizes that it was never properly suppressed and grants a certain freedom to priests to celebrate it. “In the land of the blind” where even “the one-eyed is king,” that recognition and even limited grant are surely major steps forward.

Kyrie eleison.

Rebuilding

Rebuilding on August 25, 2007

The argument continues – I will not say, to rage – but certainly to go back and forth over Pope Benedict XVI’s recent Motu Proprio, recognizing that the Tridentine rite of Mass was never abrogated, and granting to priests anywhere in the Church a certain measure of freedom to celebrate it. Serious heads condemn the document for its doubletalk, and see in it no better than a decoy to lure Traditional Catholics back into the quick-sands of the Conciliar church.

As to the doubletalk, now favouring Catholicism, now favoring Conciliarism, there is no doubt about it. Yet what else can one expect from what one might call a double-pope? Benedict XVI, like Paul VI and John-Paul II before him, surely cannot see that he is believing in two contradictory religions at once. So he goes on promoting both at once. Short of a miracle, Benedict XVI will follow this line to his grave. That is a mighty crooked line, but as far as the Motu Proprio is concerned, surely that is not the main point.

The point as it seems to me is that, in the words of the proverb, “God writes straight with crooked lines.” In many countries we hear of the Catholic laity and individual priests – not as a rule their bishops! – re-awakening to the true rite of the Mass, ordering Missals, ordering Mass-kits, vestments, etc . . . I hear a hard-liner protest! . . . I say, go easy, go easy, indeed not everything will be perfect all at once. There will be fumbling with the Latin, fumbling with the rubrics and so on, and so on, but let us give God’s grace a chance!

With God a little good will goes a long way –

A Catholic priest is not rebuilt in a day!

Let me give you a controversial scenario. You do not have to believe in it, but here it is. Mankind’s present desperate situation can be compared only to that of Noah’s time, just before the Flood. Our televidiot civilization, now worldwide, can only crash. God cannot allow it to go on sleep-walking millions of souls into Hell. When it crashes, Catholics are going to be running through the streets, screaming for a priest to confess their sins. There are not going to be enough liturgically perfect priests of the S**X to go round. Therefore God is preparing a number of priests – known only to himself – outside the S**X for those dramatic days. The Motu Proprio, enabling them to pick up the true rite of the Mass at least in private, is an important step in that preparation. Let us pray with all our hearts for all such priests, and for the Pope!

Kyrie eleison.

Motu Proprio – III

Motu Proprio – III on August 4, 2007

A number of good souls cleaving to Catholic Tradition are not happy with Pope Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio of four weeks ago, despite its being apparently benevolent in words and deeds towards the old and true Mass of the Catholic Church.

As for the words, they say the Motu Proprio and the letter to the Bishops accompanying it are full of contradictions nullifying the benevolence. As for the deeds, they say that the supposed liberation of the Tridentine Mass is still so hedged about with restrictions that it is hardly a liberation at all. In brief, the Motu Proprio would be one more modernist manoeuvre to deceive the SSPX in particular, and to break down its so far stubborn resistance to the new-fangled Conciliar religion.

For myself, I readily grant that the double document is full of contradictions and restrictions, and, as far as Rome is concerned, it was most likely designed – even sincerely! – to help bring the SSPX and its fellow-travellers “back into the fold.” So be it. Yet objectively, the fact remains that the Pope has declared that the old Mass was never abrogated, which is a tremendous admission on Rome’s part. Also, objectively, individual priests all over the world can now pick up the old Missal and practise the true Mass, at least in private, without fear of being “disobedient,” which opens the way to a flow of true grace, as incalculable as it may also remain – private.

So, as for fear of the Motu Proprio being a trap, here is a comparison. The SSPX (and companions) occupy a fortress on top of an impregnable mountain (the unchanging Catholic doctrine and liturgy). Below in the plain all around the fortress, the modernist enemy are suddenly observed to be making a gesture as though they do not want to destroy the fortress after all. Should there be rejoicing inside the fortress?

Certainly, say I, on two conditions! Firstly, the gate of the fortress should absolutely not yet be opened (except to genuine “deserters” from modernism). Secondly, nobody inside the fortress should rejoice or behave as though the war is over. It has, unless God intervenes, a long way to go. But on those two conditions . . . .

Kyrie eleison.

Motu Proprio – II

Motu Proprio – II on July 14, 2007

After many false reports of an imminent publication of Pope Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio on the pre-Conciliar rite of Mass, at last it appeared on July 7, under the title of Summorum Pontificum.

Amongst Catholics holding to Catholic Tradition, it has in the last week met with a mixed reception. On the one hand throughout the Society of St. Pius X, for instance, a Te Deum was sung out of gratitude for everything in the document which favors and to some extent sets free the old rite of Mass. On the other hand Catholics who distrust anything and everything coming out of Conciliar Rome, some to the extent of disbelieving that Benedict XVI is even Pope, have little difficulty in discovering in the Motu Proprio the numerous contradictions which reflect Pope Benedict XVI’s vain attempt to reconcile Catholicism with the intrinsically anti-Catholic modern world.

Now the contradictions are certainly there, because while the Pope cleaves in his heart to the old liturgy of his pre-war Bavarian childhood, he believes with his Conciliar mind in the reconciliation of irreconcilables, such as Catholicism and the revolutionary world all around us. However, as the proverb says, Rome was not built in a day, and Catholic Rome will not be rebuilt in one day. In fact will it take anything less than a flood of the wrath of God to wash the modernism out of this Rome’s Augean stables? One may wonder.

Nevertheless, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” Given the terrible official persecution of the true rite of Mass ever since 1969 when the Novus Ordo was introduced, surely two things at least in the Motu Proprio were worth a Te Deum. Firstly, the official, Papal, public recognition that the old Mass was never truly suppressed. We always knew it, but now every Catholic knows it in the Universal Church. What a change of perception that must entail! And secondly, a certain definite freedom for Latin rite priests to celebrate the old Mass, at least in private and to a greater extent than before also in public.

Let us pray as much as ever for the Pope, if not more, that his Bavarian heart continue to push his Conciliar head in a Catholic direction!

Kyrie eleison.

Motu Proprio – I

Motu Proprio – I on July 7, 2007

The long-awaited Motu Proprio of Benedict XVI, due to partly set free what is known as the Tridentine rite of Mass, should be published tomorrow (July 7). Here are four questions on the subject, and the answers which I gave six months ago (Rivarol is a French periodical):

Rivarol: It is said that Benedict XVI is about to set free the traditional rite of Mass. Will this measure be enough to solve the crisis in the Church? Bishop W.: I may be wrong, but I think that even just a partial setting free of the traditional Mass would be a great step forward for the universal Church. The powerful grace contained in the Mass, presently strangled as it were by the rite of Paul VI, would start to flow again all over the world. However, it would take much more than just restoring the true rite of Mass to solve the crisis of faith in the Church.

Rivarol: But will not this “Motu Proprio” end up by creating more confusion than clarity in the area of doctrine? Bishop W.: Precisely, it is not by merely allowing once more the true rite of Mass that Catholics would learn again how to attend it as they should. Everything needs to be re-built, so there would indeed, to begin with, be a great deal of confusion, for instance hybrid Masses. But the re-building must start somewhere, and I think we need to trust in the intrinsic power of the true rite.

Rivarol: Don’t traditional Catholics risk melting into Conciliar parishes at the expense of the integral Faith? Bishop W.: If following on the setting free of the true rite, traditional Catholics were to blend back into Conciliar parishes, one would have to ask if they ever had the integral Faith. It is the Faith which is at stake. Therefore it would be up to the leaders of Catholic Tradition to form their flock in advance, in such or way that the Motu Proprio would do more good to the Conciliarists than harm to the Traditionalists. This would require the latter to understand clearly that the basic problem is the whole of the Catholic Faith, and not just the rite of Mass.

Rivarol: Would not setting free the traditional Mass without abolishing the Novus Ordo Mass mean accepting in principle the co-existence and equal worth of what Archbishop Lefebvre called “The Mass of All Time” and the “Mass of Luther”? Bishop W.: “Ab inimico disce,” learn from your enemy, said the Latins. Why are so many Conciliar bishops in uproar at the mere possibility of the true rite of Mass being set free? Is it not because they know that if the Ark of the Alliance is allowed into their temples again, their rites of Dagon are in peril? (Read Chapter V of the first book of Samuel!) Are we with our rite of Pius V to be more afraid than they are with their rite of Paul VI?

Rightly or wrongly, these are still the answers I would give to the same questions. Time will tell.

Kyrie eleison.