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A SHORT CRITICAL STUDY |
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Commissioned by
Archbishop Lefebvre |
of the
New Order of Mass |
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continued... |
ARTICLE V
We now consider the question of
who performs the Sacrifice. In the old rite, these were, in order: Christ, the
priest, the Church and the faithful.
1. THE ROLE OF THE FAITHFUL IN THE NEW RITE
In the New Mass, the role attributed to the faithful is autonomous, absolute,
and hence completely false. This is obvious not only from the new definition of
the Mass ("...the sacred assembly or congregation of the people gathering
together..."), but also from the General Instruction's observation
that the priest's opening Greeting is meant to convey to the assembled
community the "presence" of the Lord:
"Then through his greeting the
priest declares to the assembled community that the Lord is present. This
greeting and response express the mystery of the gathered Church."
31
Is this the true presence of Christ? Yes, but only a spiritual
presence. A mystery of the Church? Certainly, but only insofar as the assembly
manifests and asks for Christ's presence.
This new notion is stressed over
and over again by:
-
Obsessive references to the communal character of the Mass.32
-
The unheard-of distinction between Mass with a Congregation and
Mass without a Congregation.33
-
The description of the Prayer of the Faithful as a part of the Mass
where "the people exercising their priestly office, intercede for all
humanity." 34 The faithful's "priestly office" is
presented equivocally, as if it were autonomous, by omitting to mention that
it is subordinated to the priest, who, as consecrated mediator, presents the
people's petitions to God during the Canon of the Mass.
The Novus Ordo's Eucharistic Prayer III addresses the following
prayers to the Lord:
"From age to age you gather a
people to yourself, so that from east to west a perfect offering may be made
to the glory of your name."
The so that in the passage makes it appear that the people,
rather than the priest, are the indispensable element in the celebration.
Since it is never made clear, even here, who offers the sacrifice, the people
themselves appear as possessing autonomous priestly powers.35
From this step, it would not be surprising if, before long, the people were
permitted to join with the priest if pronouncing the words of Consecration.
Indeed, in some places this has already happened.
2. THE ROLE OF THE PRIEST IN THE NEW RITE
The role of the priest is
minimized, changed, and falsified:
-
In relation to the people, he is now a mere president or brother,
rather than the consecrated minister who celebrates Mass "in the person of
Christ."
-
In relation to the Church, the priest is now merely one member among
others, someone taken from the people. In its treatment of the invocation to
the Holy Ghost in the Eucharistic Prayer (the epiclesis), the
General Instruction attributes the petitions anonymously to the Church.36
The priest's part has vanished.
-
In the new Penitential Rite which begins the Mass, the Confiteor
has now become collective; hence the priest is no longer judge, witness and
intercessor before God. It is logical therefore that he no longer recites the
prayer of absolution which followed it and has now been suppressed. The priest
is now "integrated" with his brothers; even the altar boy who serves at
a "Mass without a Congregation" calls the priest "brother."
-
Formerly, the priest's Communion was ritually distinct from the
people's Communion. The Novus Ordo suppresses this important
distinction. This was the moment when Christ the Eternal High Priest and the
priest who acts in the person of Christ came together in closest union and
completed the Sacrifice.
-
Not a word is said, moreover, about the priest's power as "sacrificer,"
his consecratory action or how as intermediary he brings about the Eucharistic
presence. He now appears as nothing more than a Protestant minister.
-
By abolishing or rendering optional many of the priestly vestments, in
some cases only an alb and stole are now required37, the
new rite obliterates the priest's conformity to Christ even more. The priest
is no longer clothed with Christ's virtues. He is now a mere "graduate" with
one or two tokens that barely separate him from the crowd38,
"a little more a man than the rest," to quote from a modern
Dominican's unintentionally humorous definition.39 Here, as when
they set up altar against altar, the reformers separated that which was
united: the one Priesthood of Christ from the Word of God.
3. THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH IN THE NEW RITE
Finally, there is the Church's
position in relation to Christ.
In only one instance, in its treatment of the form of the Mass without a
Congregation, does the General Instruction admit that the Mass is
"the action of Christ and the Church." 40
In the case of Mass with a Congregation, however, the only object the
Instruction hints as it "remembering Christ" and sanctifying those
present. "The priest celebrant," it says, "...joins the people to
himself in offering the sacrifice through Christ in the Spirit to the Father"
41, instead of saying that the people join themselves
to Christ who offers Himself through the Holy Ghost to the Father.
In this context, the following
points should likewise be noted:
-
The many grave omissions of the phrase through Christ Our Lord, a
formula which guarantees that God will hear the Church's prayers in every age.42
-
An all-pervading "paschalism", an obsessive emphasis on Easter and the
Resurrection, almost as if there were no other aspects of the communication of
grace, which, while quite different, are nevertheless equally important.
-
The strange and dubious "eschatologism", a stress upon Christ's Second
Coming and the end of time, whereby the permanent and eternal reality of the
communication of grace is reduced to something within the bonds of time. We
hear of a people of God on the march, a pilgrim Church, a Church no longer
Militant against the powers of darkness, but one which, having lost its
link with eternity, marches to a future envisioned in purely temporal terms.
In Eucharistic Prayer IV, the Church, as One, Holy, Catholic, and
Apostolic, is abased by eliminating the Roman Canon's petition for "…all
orthodox believers who keep the Catholic and Apostolic faith." These
are now merely "…all who seek you with a sincere heart."
The Memento of the Dead in the Canon, moreover, is offered not
as before for those who are gone before us "…with the sign of faith", but
merely for "…those who have died in the peace of Christ." To this
group, with further detriment to the notion of the Church's unity and
visibility, Eucharistic Prayer IV adds the great crowd of "…all the
dead whose faith is known to You alone."
None of the three new Eucharistic Prayers, moreover, alludes to a
suffering state for those who have died; none allows the priest to make special
Mementos for the dead. All this necessarily undermines faith in the
propitiatory and redemptive nature of the sacrifice. 43
Everywhere desacralizing omissions debase the mystery of the Church. Above
all, the Church's nature as a sacred hierarchy is disregarded. The second part
of the new collective Confiteor reduces the Angels and the Saints to
anonymity; in the first part, in the person of Saint Michael the Archangel, they
have disappeared as witnesses and judges. 44 In the Preface
for Eucharistic Prayer II, and this is unprecedented, the various angelic
hierarchies have disappeared. Also suppressed, in the third prayer of the old
Canon, is the memory of the holy Pontiffs and Martyrs on whom the Church in
Rome was founded; without a doubt, these were the saints who handed down the
apostolic tradition finally completed under Pope Saint Gregory as the Roman
Mass. The prayer after the Our Father, the Libera Nos, now
suppresses the mention of the Blessed Virgin, the holy Apostles and all the
Saints; their intercession is thus no longer sought, even it times of danger.
Everywhere except in the Roman Canon, the Novus Ordo eliminates
not only the names of the Apostles Peter and Paul, founders of the Church in
Rome, but also the names of the other Apostles, the foundation and mark of the
one and universal Church. This intolerable omission, extending even to the three
new Eucharistic Prayers, compromises the unity of the Church.
The New Order of Mass further attacks the dogma of the Communion of
Saints by suppressing the blessing and the salutation "The Lord Be with You"
when the priest says Mass without a server. It also eliminates the Ite Missa
Est, even in Masses celebrated with a server.45
The double Confiteor at the beginning of the Mass showed how the
priest, vested as Christ's minister and bowing profoundly, acknowledged himself
unworthy of both his sublime mission and the "tremendous mystery" he was
to enact. Then, in the prayer Take Away Our Sins, he acknowledged his
unworthiness to enter the Holy of Holies, recommending himself with the prayer
We Beseech Thee, O Lord to the merits and intercession of the martyrs
whose relics were enclosed in the altar. Both prayers have been suppressed. What
was said previously about elimination of the two-fold Confiteor and
Communion rite is equally relevant here.
The outward setting of the Sacrifice, a sign of its sacred character, has
been profaned. See, for example, the new provisions for celebrating Mass outside
a church: a simple table, containing neither a consecrated altar-stone nor
relics and covered with a single cloth, is allowed to suffice for an altar.46
Here too, all we have said previously in regard to the Real Presence applies,
disassociation of the "banquet" and the Sacrifice of the supper from the
Real Presence itself.
The process of desacralization is made complete, thanks to the new and
grotesque procedure for the Offertory Procession, the reference to
ordinary (rather than unleavened) bread, and allowing servers (and even lay
people, when receiving Communion under both Species) to handle sacred
vessels.47 Then there is the distracting atmosphere created in the
church: the ceaseless comings and goings of priest, deacon, subdeacon, cantor,
commentator, the priest himself becomes a commentator, constantly encouraged to
"explain" what he is about to do, of lectors (men and women), of servers
or laymen welcoming people at the door and escorting them to their places, while
others carry and sort offerings. And in an era of frenzy for a "return to
Scripture," we now find, in contradiction of both the Old Testament and
Saint Paul, the presence of a "suitable woman" who for the first time in
the Church's history is authorized to proclaim the Scripture readings and
"perform other ministries outside the sanctuary." 48 Finally,
there is the mania for concelebration, which will ultimately destroy the
priest's Eucharistic piety by overshadowing the central figure of Christ, sole
priest and Victim, and by dissolving Him into the collective presence presence
of concelebrants.49
ARTICLE VI
We have limited ourselves above to a short study of the Novus Ordo
where it deviates most seriously from the theology of the Catholic Mass. Our
observations touch upon deviations which are typical. To prepare a
complete study of all the pitfalls, dangers, and psychologically and
spiritually destructive elements the new rite contains, whether in texts,
rubrics, or instructions, would be a vast undertaking.
We have taken no more than a passing glance at the three new Eucharistic
Prayers, since they have already come in for repeated and authoritative
criticism. The second gave immediate scandal to the faithful due to its brevity.50
Of Eucharistic Prayer II, it has well been said that a priest who no
longer believed in either Transubstantiation or the sacrificial character of the
Mass could recite it with perfect tranquillity of conscience, and that a
Protestant minister, moreover, could use it in his own celebrations just as
well.
The new Missal was introduced in Rome as an "abundant resource for
pastoral work," as "a text more pastoral than juridical," which
national bishops' conferences could adapt, according to circumstances, to the
"spirit" of different peoples. Section One of the new Congregation for
Divine Worship, moreover, will now be responsible
"for the publication and
constant revision of liturgical books."
This idea was echoed recently in
the official newsletter of the Liturgical Institutes of Germany, Switzerland and
Austria:
"The Latin texts must now be
translated into the languages of different nations. The ‘Roman style’ must be
adapted to the individuality of each local Church. That which was conceived in
a timeless state must now be transposed into the changing context of concrete
situations, and into the constant flux of the universal Church and its myriad
congregations." 51
The Apostolic Constitution itself, in promulgating the Novus Ordo Missae,
deals a death-blow to the Church's universal language when, contrary to the
express wish of the Second Vatican Council, it unequivocally states that "in
great diversity of languages, one [?]
and the same prayer will ascend,
more fragrant than incense."
The demise of Latin may therefore be taken for granted. Gregorian chant,
which Vatican II recognized as a distinctive characteristic of the Roman
liturgy, decreeing that it "be given pride of place in liturgical services"52,
will logically follow, given, among other things, the freedom of choice
permitted in choosing texts for the Introit and the Gradual.
From the outset, therefore, the
new rite was pluralistic and experimental, bound to time and place. Since unity
of worship has been shattered once and for all, what basis will exist for the
unity of the faith which accompanied it and which, we were told, was always to
be defended without compromise?
It is obvious that the New Order of Mass has no intention of
presenting the Faith taught by the Council of Trent. But it is to this Faith
that the Catholic conscience is bound forever. Thus, with the promulgation of
the New Order of Mass, the true Catholic is faced with a tragic need to
choose.
ARTICLE VII
The Apostolic Constitution explicitly mentions the riches of piety and
doctrine the Novus Ordo supposedly borrows from the Eastern Churches. But
the result is so removed from, and indeed opposed to the spirit of the Eastern
liturgies that it can only leave the faithful in those rites revolted and
horrified.
What do these ecumenical borrowings amount to? Basically, to introducing
multiple texts for the Eucharistic Prayer (the anaphora), none of
which approaches their Eastern counterparts' complexity or beauty, and to
permitting Communion Under Both Species and the use of deacons.
Against this, the New Order of Mass appears to have been deliberately
shorn of every element where the Roman liturgy came closest to the Eastern
Rites.53 At the same time, by abandoning its unmistakable and
immemorial Roman character, the Novus Ordo cast off what was spiritually
precious of its own. In place of this are elements which bring the new rite
closer to certain Protestant liturgies, not even those closest to Catholicism.
At the same time, these new elements degrade the Roman liturgy and further
alienate it from the East, as did the reforms which preceded the Novus Ordo.
In compensation, the new liturgy
will delight all those groups hovering on the verge of apostasy who, during a
spiritual crisis without precedent, now wreak havoc in the Church by poisoning
Her organism and by undermining Her unity in doctrine, worship, morals and
discipline.
ARTICLE VIII
Saint Pius V had the Roman Missal drawn up (as the present Apostolic
Constitution now recalls) as an instrument of unity among Catholics. In
conformity with the injunctions of the Council of Trent, the Missal was
to exclude all dangers, either to liturgical worship or to the faith itself,
then threatened by the Protestant Revolt. The grave situation fully justified,
and even rendered prophetic, the saintly Pontiff's solemn warning given in 1570
at the end of the Bull promulgating his Missal:
"Should anyone presume to
tamper with this, let him know that he shall incur the wrath of God Almighty
and His holy Apostles Peter and Paul."
54
When the Novus Ordo was presented at the Vatican Press Office, it was
impudently asserted that conditions which prompted the decrees of the Council of
Trent no longer exist. Not only do these decrees still apply today, but
conditions now are infinitely worse. It was precisely to repel those snares
which in every age threaten the pure Deposit of Faith,55 that the
Church, under divine inspiration, set up dogmatic definitions and doctrinal
pronouncements as her defenses. These in turn immediately influenced her
worship, which became the most complete monument to her faith. Trying to return
this worship to the practices of Christian antiquity and recreating artificially
the original spontaneity of ancient times is to engage in that "unhealthy
archaeologism" Pius XII so roundly condemned.56 It is, moreover,
to dismantle all the theological ramparts erected for the protection of the rite
and to take away all the beauty which enriched it for centuries.57
And all this at one of the most critical moments, if not the most
critical moment, in the Church's history!
Today, division and schism are officially acknowledged to exist not only
outside the Church, but within her as well.58 The Church's unity is
not only threatened, but has already been tragically compromised.59
Errors against the Faith are not merely insinuated, but are, as has been
likewise acknowledged, now forcibly imposed through liturgical abuses and
aberrations.
To abandon a liturgical tradition which for four centuries stood as a sign
and pledge of unity in worship,60 and to replace it with another
liturgy which, due to the countless liberties it implicitly authorizes, cannot
but be a sign of division, a liturgy which teems with insinuations or manifest
errors against the integrity of the Catholic Faith, is, we feel bound in
conscience to proclaim, an incalculable error.
Corpus Domini
5 June 1969
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| FOOTNOTES |
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"The prayers of Our Canon are found in the treatise De Sacramentis
(4th, 5th centuries)... Our Mass goes back without essential changes to the
epoch in which it developed for the first time from the most ancient common
liturgy. It still preserves the fragrance of that primitive liturgy, in times
when Caesar governed the world and hoped to extinguish the Christian faith'
times when our forefathers would gather together before dawn to sing a hymn to
Christ as their God... There is not in all Christendom a rite so venerable as
that of the Roman Missal." (Rev. Adrian Fortescue).
"The Roman Canon, such as it is today, goes back to Saint Gregory the Great.
Neither in East nor West is there any Eucharistic prayer remaining in use today
that can boast such antiquity. For the Roman Church to throw it overboard would
be tantamount, in the eyes not only of the Orthodox, but also of the Anglicans
and even Protestants having still to some extent a sense of tradition, to a
denial of all claim any more to be the true Catholic Church." (Rev. Louis
Bouyer)
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SC 50, DOL 50.
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A footnote in the Instruction refers us to two texts of Vatican II.
But nothing in the texts justifies the new definition, as it is evident from the
following: "Through the ministry of the bishop, God consecrates priests...In
exercising sacred functions they therefore act as the ministers of him who in
the liturgy continually fulfill his priestly office on our behalf... By the
celebration of Mass people sacramentally offer the sacrifice of Christ."
Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, Presbyterum Ordinis, 7
December 1965, Section 5, DOL 260. "For in the liturgy God is speaking
to his people and Christ is still proclaiming his Gospel. And the people are
responding to God both by song and prayer. Moreover, the prayers addressed to
God by the priest, who presides over the assembly in the person of
Christ, are said in the name of the entire holy people and of all present."
SC 33, DOL 33. One is at a loss to explain how the Instruction's
definition could have been drawn from these texts. We note too how the new
definition of the Mass alters what Vatican II laid down in Presbyterum
Ordinis Section 5: "The Eucharistic assembly is the center of the
congregation of the faithful." Since the center in the New Order of the
Mass has been fraudulently spirited away, the congregation has now usurped
its place.
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GI 7, DOL 1937 fn.
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GI 8, DOL 1398; GI 48, DOL 1438 fn.
GI 55.d, DOL 1445 fin; GI 56, DOL 1446.
-
The Council of Trent reaffirms the Real Presence in the following words:
"To begin with, the holy council teaches and openly and straightforwardly
professes that in the blessed Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, after the
consecration of the bread and wine, our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and man, is
truly, really and substantially contained under the perceptible species of bread
and wine." DB 874.
Session 22 which interests us directly (De sanctissimo Missae Sacrificio)
clearly synthesized the approved doctrine in nine canons (Dz 937a-956):
The Mass is not a mere symbolic representation, but rather a true, visible
sacrifice, instituted "to re-present the bloody sacrifice which
[Christ] accomplished on the cross once and for all. It was to perpetuate
his memory until the end of the world. Its salutary strength was to be applied
for the remission of the sins that we daily commit." Dz 938.
"Declaring himself constituted a priest forever according to the order of
Melchisedech, [Our Lord] offered his body and blood under the species
of bread and wine to God the Father and he gave his body and blood under the
same species to the apostles to receive, making them priests of the New
Testament at that time... He ordered the apostles and their successors in the
priesthood to offer this sacrifice when he said, 'Do this in remembrance of
me,' as the Catholic Church has always understood and taught." DB
938. The celebrant, offerer and sacrificer is the ordained priest, and not the
people of God or the assembly: "If anyone says that by the words, 'Do this
in remembrance of me,' Christ did not make the apostles priests, or that he
did not decree that they and other priests should offer his body and blood:
let him be anathema." Canon 2, Dz 949. The Sacrifice of the Mass is
a true propitiatory sacrifice, and not a simple memorial of the sacrifice
offered on the cross: "If anyone says that the Sacrifice of the Mass is
merely an offering of praise and of thanksgiving, or that it is a simple
memorial of the sacrifice offered on the cross, and not propitiatory, or that
it benefits only those who communicate; and that it should not be offered for
the living and the dead, for sins, punishments, satisfaction, and other
necessities: let him be anathema." Canon 3, Dz 950. Canon 6 should
likewise be kept in mind: "If anyone says that there are errors in the
Canon of the Mass and that it should therefore be done away with: let him be
anathema." Dz 953. Likewise Canon 8: "If anyone says that Masses
in which the priest alone communicates sacramentally are illicit and should be
done away with: let him be anathema." Dz 955.
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It is perhaps superfluous to recall that, if a single defined dogma were
denied, all dogma would fall ipso facto, insofar as the principle of the
infallibility of the supreme hierarchical magisterium, whether conciliar or
papal, would thereby be destroyed.
-
In light of the first prayer after the Consecration in the Roman
Canon (Unde et memores), the Ascension could also be added. The
Unde et memores, however, does not lump different realities together. It
makes a clear and fine distinction: "calling to mind... the blessed passion,
and also His rising from the dead and His glorious Ascension into Heaven."
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Ps. 50:7-9, in Heb. 10:5.
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GI 54, DOL 1444.
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This shift of emphasis occurs in the three new Eucharistic Prayers,
which eliminate the Memento of the Dead and any mention of souls
suffering in Purgatory, to whom the propitiatory Sacrifice is applied.
-
See Mysterium Fidei, in which Paul VI condemns the errors of
symbolism together with the new theories of "transignification" and "transfinalization":
"... it is not allowable... to stress the sign value of the sacrament as if the
symbolism, which to be sure all acknowledge in the Eucharist, expresses fully
and exhaustively the meaning of Christ's presence; or to discuss the mystery of
transubstantiation without mentioning the marvelous changing of the whole
substance of the bread into the body and of the whole substance of the wine into
the blood of Christ, as stated by the Council of Trent, so that only what is
called 'transignification' or 'transfinalization' is involved." Encyclical,
Mysterium Fidei, on the doctrine and worship of the Eucharist, 3
September 1965, Section 11, DOL 1155.
-
Mysterium Fidei amply
denounces and condemns introducing new formulas or expressions which, though
occurring in texts of the Fathers, the Councils, and the Church's magisterium,
are used in a univocal sense that is not subordinated to the substance of
doctrine with which they form an inseparable whole (e.g., "spiritual
nourishment," "spiritual food," "spiritual drink," etc.): "Not only the
integrity of the faith, but also its proper mode of expression must be
safeguarded, lest, God forbid, by the careless use of words we introduce false
notions about the most sublime realities." He quotes Saint Augustine:
"’We, however, have the obligation to speak according to a definite norm, lest
the carelessness of our words give rise to impious ideas about the very
realities signified by these words.' " He continues: "We must religiously
respect the rule of terminology; after centuries of effort and under the
protection of the Holy Spirit the Church has established it and confirmed it by
the authority of councils; that norm often became the watchword and the banner
of orthodox belief. Let no one arbitrarily or under the pretext of new science
presume to change it... In like manner we must not put up with anyone's personal
wish to modify the formulas in which the Council of Trent set forth the mystery
of the Eucharist for belief." Sections 23, 24; DOL 1167-8.
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Contradicting what Vatican II prescribed. (Cf. SC 48,
DOL 48).
-
GI 54, DOL 1444.
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GI 54, DOL 1444.
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GI 241 fn. 69, DOL 1630.
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GI 129, DOL 1629.
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The Instruction recognizes the altar's primary function only once:
"At the altar, the sacrifice of the cross is made present under sacramental
signs." GI 259, DOL 1649. This single reference seems
insufficient to remove the equivocation resulting from the other, more
frequently used term.
-
GI 49, DOL 1489. Cf. GI 262, DOL 1652.
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GI 262, DOL 1652.
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GI 262, DOL 1652, and GI 276, DOL 1666. 23.
-
"To separate tabernacle from altar is to separate two things which by
their origin and nature should remain united." Pius XII, Allocution to
the International Congress on Pastoral Liturgy. 22 September 1956, PTL
817. See also Pius XII, Encyclical, Mediator Dei, 20 November 1947,
PTL 550, quoted below.
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Rarely does the Novus Ordo use the word hostia. In
liturgical books this traditional term has a precise meaning: "victim."
Again we encounter a systematic attempt to emphasize only "supper" and
"food."
-
Following their customary practice of substituting one thing for another,
the reformers made Christ's presence in the proclaimed word equal to the Real
Presence. (See GI 7, 54; DOL 1397, 1444). But Christ's presence
when Scripture is proclaimed is of a different nature and has no reality except
when it is taking place (in usu). Christ's Real Presence in the
consecrated Host, on the other hand, is objective, permanent and independent of
the reception of the Sacrament. The formulae "God is speaking to his people,"
and "Christ is present to the faithful through his own word" (GI
33, DOL 1423) are typically Protestant. [ff. 25 continued in next column]
|
[ff. 25 continued]
...Strictly speaking, they have no meaning, since God's presence in the word
is mediated, bound to an individual's spiritual act or condition, and only
temporary. This formula leads to a tragic error: the conclusion, expressed
or implied, that the Real Presence continues only as long as the Sacrament
is in the process of being used, received at Communion time, for instance,
and that the Real Presence ends when the use ends.
-
As the General Instruction describes it, the sacramental action
originated at the moment Our Lord gave the Apostles His Body and Blood "to
eat" under the appearances of bread and wine. The sacramental action thus no
longer consists in the consecratory action and the mystical separation of the
Body from the Blood, the very essence of Eucharistic Sacrifice. See Mediator
Dei, especially Part II, Chapter I, PTL 551, ff.
-
GI 55.d, DOL 1445
fn.
-
GI 55.d, DOL 1445.
-
As they appear in the context of the Novus Ordo, the words of
Consecration could be valid in virtue of the priest's
intention. But since their validity no longer comes from the force of the
sacramental words themselves (ex vi verborum), or more precisely, from
the meaning (modus significandi) the old rite of the Mass gave to
the formula, the words of Consecration in the New Order of Mass could
also not be valid. Will priests in the near future, who receive no
traditional formation and who rely on the Novus Ordo for the intention of
"doing what the Church does," validly consecrate at Mass? One may be
allowed to doubt it.
-
Let it not be said, following the
methods of Protestant biblical scholarship, that these phrases being in the same
Scriptural context. The Church always avoided superimposing and juxtaposing the
texts, precisely in order to avoid confusing the different realities they
express.
-
GI 28, DOL 1418
-
GI 74-152, DOL 1464-1542.
-
GI 209-231, DOL 1599-1621.
-
GI 45, DOL 1435.
-
Against the Lutherans and Calvinists who teach that all Christians are
priests and offerers of the Lord's Supper, see A. Tanquerey, Synopsis
Theologiae Dogmaticae, (Paris, Tournai, Rome: Desclee, 1930), v. III:
"Each and every priest is, strictly speaking, a secondary minister of the
Sacrifice of the Mass. Christ Himself is the principal minister. The faithful
offer through the intermediary of the priest, but not in a strict sense."
Cf. Council of Trent, Session 22, Canon 2, Dz 949.
-
GI 55, DOL 1445.
-
GI 298, DOL 1688 fn.
-
We note in passing an unthinkable innovation which will have disastrous
psychological effects; employing red vestments on Good Friday instead of
black (GI 308.b, DOL 1698), as if Good Friday were the
commemoration of just another martyr, instead of the day on which the whole
Church mourns for her Founder. (Cf. Mediator Dei, PTL 550,
quoted below.)
-
Rev. A. M. Rouget, OP, speaking to the Dominican Sisters of Bethany at
Plessit-Chenet.
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GI 4, DOL 1394. Cf. Presbyterum Ordinis,
Section 13, DOL 265.
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GI 60, DOL 1450 fn.
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See Jn. 14:13-16, 23-24.
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In some translations of the Roman Canon, the phrase "…a place of
refreshment, light and peace…" was rendered as a simple state:
"blessedness, light, peace." What can be said then of the disappearance of
every explicit reference to the Church Suffering?
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Amidst this flurry of omissions, only one element has been added: the
mention in the Confiteor of "…what I have failed to do."
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At the press conference introducing the Novus Ordo, Rev. Joseph
Lecuyer, CSSp, professing a purely rationalist faith, discussed changing the
priest's salutations in Mass without a Congregation from plural to
singular (Pray, brother; for example, replaces Pray, brethren.)
His reason was "so that there would be nothing [in the Mass]
which
does not correspond with the truth."
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GI Section 260, 265; DOL 1650, 1655.
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GI 244.C, DOL 1634.
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GI 70, DOL 1460, fn.
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It now seems lawful for priest to receive Communion under both species at
a concelebration, even when they are obliged to celebrate Mass alone before or
after concelebrating.
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It has been presented as The Canon of Hippolytus, but only a few
traces of that original text remain in the new rite.
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Gottesdienst no. 9 (14 May 1969).
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SC 116, DOL 116.
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Consider the following elements found in the Byzantine rite: lengthy and
repeated penitential prayers; solemn vesting rites for the celebrant and deacon;
the preparation of the offerings at the proscomidia, a complete rite in
itself; repeated invocations, even in the prayers of offering, to the Blessed
Virgin and the Saints; invocations of the choirs of Angels at the Gospel as
"invisible concelebrants," while the choir identifies itself with the
angelic choirs in the Cherubicon; the sanctuary screen (iconostasis)
separating the sanctuary from the rest of the church and the clergy from the
people; the hidden Consecration, symbolizing the divine mystery to which the
entire liturgy alludes; the position of the priest who celebrates facing God,
and never facing the people; Communion given always and only by the celebrant;
the continual marks of adoration toward the Sacred Species; the essentially
contemplative attitude of the people. The fact that these liturgies, even in
their less solemn forms, last for over an hour and are constantly defined as
"awe-inspiring, unutterable... heavenly, life-giving mysteries" speaks for
itself. Finally, we note how in both the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom
and the Liturgy of Saint Basil, the concept of "supper" or "banquet"
appears clearly subordinate to the concept of sacrifice, just as it was in the
Roman Mass.
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Bull Quo Primum, 13 July 1570. In Session 23 (Decree on the
Most Holy Eucharist), the Council of Trent announced its intention to
"uproot completely the cockle of the damnable errors and schism which in these
fateful times of ours and enemy has sown (see Matt. 13:25) in the
teaching of the faith about the Holy Eucharist and about the use and worship of
the Eucharist. In addition to his other purpose, our Saviour left the Eucharist
in his Church as a symbol of unity and love which he desired to unify and unite
all Christians." Dz 873.
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"Keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding the profane
novelties of words." (I Tim. 6:20)
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"Assuredly it is a wise and most laudable thing to return in spirit
and affection to the sources of the Sacred Liturgy. For research in this field
of study, by tracing it back to its origins, contributes valuable assistance
towards a more thorough and careful investigation of the texts and sacred
ceremonies employed on their occasion. But it is neither wise nor laudable to
reduce everything to antiquity by every possible device. Thus, to cite some
instances, one would be straying from the right path were he to wish the altar
restored to its primitive table form; were he to want black excluded as a color
for liturgical vestments; were he to forbid the use of sacred images and statues
in Churches; were he to order the crucifix so designed that the Divine
Redeemer's Body shows no trace of His cruel sufferings... This way of acting
bids fair to revive the exaggerated and senseless antiquarianism to which the
illegal Synod of Pistoia gave rise. It likewise attempts to reinstate a series
of errors which were responsible for the calling of that meeting as well as for
those resulting from it, with grievous harm to souls, and which the Church, the
ever watchful guardian of the 'deposit of faith' committed to her charge by her
Divine Founder, had every right and reason to condemn." Mediator Dei,
I.5, PTL 548, 549.
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"Let us not deceive ourselves with the suggestion that the Church,
which has become great and majestic for the glory of God as a magnificent temple
of His, must be brought to its original and smallest proportions, as though they
were the only true ones, the only good ones." Paul VI, Encyclical,
Ecclesiam Suam, 6 August 1964.
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"A practically schismatic ferment divides, subdivides, splits the
Church." Paul VI, Homily, In Coena Domini,, 3 April 1969.
-
"There are also among us those ‘schisms’ and ‘separations’ which Saint
Paul sadly denounces in I Corinthians." Paul VI, ibid.
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It is well-known how Vatican II is now being repudiated by the very men
who once gloried in being its leaders. While the Pope declared at the Council's
end that it had changed nothing, these men came away determined to "explode"
the Council's teachings in the process of actually applying it. Unfortunately
the Holy See, with inexplicable haste, approved and even seemingly encouraged
through Consilium an ever-increasing infidelity to the Council. This
infidelity went from changes in mere form (Latin, Gregorian Chant, suppression
of the ancient rites, etc.) all the way to changes in substance which the
Novus Ordo sanctions. To the disastrous consequences we have attempted to
point out here, we must add those which, with an even greater effect
psychologically, will affect the Church's discipline and teaching authority by
undermining the respect and docility owed the Holy See.
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