Pope sends sign language message to the Bishops

A translation is included beneath each sentence.....

                                                 I want every Bishop.....

                                           

...to start acting responsibly and to use their brains.....

.....to introduce the EF Mass in every parish....

.....throughout the world...on every Sunday.....

...beginning on Christmas Day, entender?

Excelente!

This post is only for priests......

.....and, maybe,  Deacons, Sacristans, Nuns, Brothers, Altar Servers and, even, Bishops.

And the laity may find it informative and interesting also.

 

How good is your Bishop?

I am sure he means well, but we can say that about most people who have walked the earth.

Vlad meant well but he was a real pain in the ****

 Vlad the Impaler meant well, it's just that he....well....he, sort of, you know..... impaled a few people in the process.

Adolf Hitler doubtless "meant well" when he set out with his socialist ideals and then it all went wrong when he got ideas above his station.

My meaning, with regard to Bishops is prompted by an anonymous comment concerning the Bishop of Nottingham who, from time to time, celebrates the Latin Mass, you know, the real one!

Good, excellent and bravo! But wait, there's a shadow cast; apparently, in all other respects, his Lordship is pretty much a liberal (if Anon is to be believed and I have no reason to do so).

The EF Mass celebration is, according to Anonymous of Nottinghamshire, just a bit of stage management, to help the poor man gain a red hat.

Well, I don't think that Bishop McMahon is even on the listing for a red hat so it's a poor show to flag that up, more red herring than red hat.

But it does highlight an important issue and that is, how many of the clergy who celebrate the old Mass do so only for show, so to speak?

I know one or two. They celebrate wearing what appear to be voluminous dressing gowns instead of proper chasubles and they also make it up a bit as they go along.

They have no regard for the rubrics concerning the EF Mass, they treat the Latin Mass in much the same way as the Novus Ordo (or Nervous Disorder as it used to be called).

Is it ignorance? Or, is it wilful pride?

The fact of the matter is, that the rite of the old Mass is set in stone.

The things that are said (or not said) and the timing of every tiny action of the priest and, to a lesser degree, the server, are specific, precise and unchangeable.

So why do those priests insist on doing it?

And, just as importantly, why do some Bishops make a show at an EF Mass but then perform the rest of their duties in a manner reminiscent of Ian Smith's UDI move in what used to be called Rhodesia when he cut adrift from the United Kingdom?

We are the Church of Rome with St Peter's successor at our head.

Making the liturgy up as we go along or celebrating the Latin Mass for show is not something that we do.

Or, have their Lordships declared UDI?

Why the Latin Mass is so important

More important than pooja, sarat or metta karuna - more important, in fact, than any single thing on earth.

The Mass in the Extraordinary Form has rightly been described as the most beautiful thing this side of Heaven.

Watch this video and weep - and, hopefully, agree

NEWSFLASH.........PRAY FOR NORTH AMERICA IN THE FACE OF ADVANCING STORMS - PRAY FROM YOUR LATIN MISSAL, PRAY THE ROSARY BUT, ABOVE ALL ELSE, PRAY!

(Message from Father Z)

I do not have access to my missal at present but here is a prayer I found online from the 

St Louis Catholic Blog:

V. From lightning strikes, hail, and violent storms.
R. Deliver us, O Lord Jesus Christ.


V. Show us, O Lord, Thy mercy.
R. And grant us Thy salvation.


V. O Lord, hear my prayer.
R. And let my cry come unto Thee.


V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.

Let us pray.  We beseech Thee, O Almighty God, through the intercession of Holy Mary, the Mother of God, of the holy angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, widows, and of all Thy saints, that Thou show us Thy continuing protection, permit tranquil winds, and also pour out to us, Thy unworthy servants, Thy safety from heaven above against lightning strikes and violent storms, and that Thou remain always protective of the human race and crush down the aerial powers by the right hand of Thy power.  Through the same Christ our Lord.


R. Amen


V. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
R. Now and forever.


V. Our help is in the Name of the Lord.
R. Who made heaven and earth.


V. May the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, + the Son, and the Holy Ghost, descend upon you, this place, and the fruits of the earth and remain forever.


R. Amen.

A 'new' Latin Mass for London?

My youngest daughter has just informed me of a 'new' Latin Mass centre in London - Whey-hey! and all that!

I thought that I knew all the crevices wherein a Sunday EF Mass was to be found in the London area.

 The Oratory at 9am, of course, St James's (I like the apostrophe) Spanish Place at 9.30am and St Bede's Clapham Park at the very social hour of 10.45am.

Then there's St Mary Magdalen at Wandsworth Common at the even more social hour of 11am and that's it for parishes with a TLM every Sunday (I'm leaving Blackfen out of it as they are, I think, a bit beyond the London boundaries, sorry Fr T).

Not a lot for Britain's capital city and mother Diocese of England and Wales but......there you go, come the revolution etc.

But now, thanks to Miss Collins, I am informed that St Margaret's Convent Chapel, Canning Town, has a Latin Mass at 6pm every Sunday! How come this one passed me by?

Easy. It's not in Southwark or Westminster, it's in Brentwood Diocese.

Aaah....Brentwood Diocese. Last time I mentioned the scarcity of Sunday EF Masses in Brentwood I got a good roasting from many good bloggers who knew otherwise but, on checking the Latin Mass Society quill and parchment Mass Listings online, I see that only St Margaret's offers the Mass of all time on every Sunday - in the whole Diocese!

Now, if you have the knowledge as the London Cabbies say, please don't beat me up, if you know of other Latin Mass parishes where a Sunday EF Mass is offered, write to the LMS and ask 'em to feature in it in their ledger.

But, in all of this is there a smidgeon of misinformation?

Can you say, with any accuracy which town is in which Diocese? Is Baldock in Westminster or Brentwood? Guildford in Southwark or Arundel and Brighton? Ware in Northampton or Westminster?

And don't even start on Southwark North and Southwark (Kent) ugh!

If you were a visitor from overseas (are we still allowed to say 'foreigner'?) not knowing the geography of England and Wales, where would you begin with a Diocesan index?

I would suggest that the LMS might consider two things in all of this; one, that they produce an index of Mass centres by town or city in alphabetical order, and, two, that they expand their listings to include all Latin Masses, not just ones where they have a finger in the liturgical pie.
Not just those that they support and organise.

And one final point regarding St Margaret's...it was the parish wherein my dear parents were born and brought up.
My mother was the organist when just a slip of a girl and my father painted extensive murals for the church, I don't suppose for one minute that they are still there.
All colour was whitewashed out after the Second Reformation. I think I'm still allowed to say that.

Time to change the Credo?

Change? Change? A word that can produce apoplexy in traditional circles (but not magic ones).

Of course, I am not proposing any change to the wording of the Credo, that is beyond my remit somewhat, light years beyond, in fact.

But, having travelled the country attending Sung EF Masses rather a lot over the last 12 months, I observe that the choir and the people are not as one.

It is, as you know, the practice for choir to commence the Credo with the congregation taking over for the second tranche and it alternates from then on.

Choir = good  

Choir + Congregation + alternate = bad

Choir + Congregation + unison = good

Even pre the Second Reformation, the congregation was not good at getting it right; there was always a bit of a fudge at the handover point, rather like a relay runner passing the stick on to a colleague who is not too sure when to grab it.

The result is a shade dirgey, a small tower of babble that picks up again when the choir re-asserts its authority.

So - I have a suggestion to make.

Let us all sing the Credo together, choir, people and priests. It is a most wonderful piece that calls us all to attention and points out precisely what we should be concerned with and then...and then....we come to the resounding "et unam sanctam Catholicam....." bit. This should be belted out with chests out and heads held high - and...in unison. The rafters of the church should shake and set Satan quaking in his boots.

Is a Vigil Mass legit?

"A Mass or not a Mass? - that is the question"

Today we observe the Vigil of the Feast of Ss Peter and Paul and, for those of us who suffer under the Bishops of England and Wales (with their sparse attention to the needs of their more traditionally inclined faithful), a Mass in the Extraordinary Form can often be hard to find (on a Sunday or on a Holyday).

Priests are hard pressed  and, on many occasions,  cannot offer an EF Mass on the due day because of pressure of OF Mass schedules and other pastoral duties.

Under such circumstances it seems sensible to attend a Vigil Mass if one is on offer; after all, better to have a Mass on the eve of a Feast rather than no Mass at all.

But, there are some Catholic organisations who do not appear to subscribe to pragmatism and they refuse to place Vigil Masses on their Mass listings.

I feel a vote coming on so please check in the sidebar and express your view on the matter.

Further comment on this matter may be seen at A Reluctant Sinner blog

Ten things you can do to make God laugh

1. Invest in a ten year life annuity scheme

   2. Become a life long member of Friends of the Earth

   3. Plea bargain with Him (“I’ll be a better person blah blah if you grant me 

       my request etc)

  4. Pray with your arms in aeroplane mode

  5. Enthuse over Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

  6. Tell Him that He is Mother as well as Father

  7. Ask Him to look after your faithful dog Rover who has just departed this

      earth

  8. Tell Him you will be a better person in a few years time

  9. Take a guitar to Mass

  10. Start stocking up on essential supplies with the great chastisement in mind

Answers to the ten criticisms most often raised

Catholics who have little or no experience of the Latin Mass, Mass in the Extraordinary Form, have many pre-conceived notions.

They generally come in the form of a one off critical statement thrown into a general conversation at random making them difficult to respond to without a jerk of the knee.

Here are the responses to the top ten criticisms, in a more measured 'answer' format, please feel free to add more of your own in the comments box.

1. Most cottas are plain, not lacy.

2. Priests do not “gabble” the Latin

3. It is easy to follow if you have a Missal

4. The incense and the bells both serve a purpose

5. The priest is not turning his back to the people so much as facing God

6. It is not exclusive, many peasants in the Middle Ages coped quite well  

     with Latin

7. It’s quiet because you are in the presence of Almighty God

8. Plainchant is another link back to Christ, guitars aren’t

9. Wearing a mantilla is not a form of subjugation so much as an offering

    to God made by a woman

10. It is returning, it may be slow coming but coming it is!

Plan A is the Catholic Church - Plan B....there is no Plan B!

The old apologetics case that states: "If you have twenty faiths all proclaiming the truth but all different in their doctrines then either only one can be right or they all can be wrong. There is no other conclusion" is one that I can readily identify with.

But it does mean that, Protestants, Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims and fur lined ocean going Seventh Day Adventists and others are on the wrong bus.
There is not a Plan B, only the Catholic Church.

I will leave on one side the concept of people of other faiths gaining an eternal reward; I am sure it does occur, through the redemptive qualities of Holy Mother Church but, if it was me, I would not leave anything to chance; I would want to be within the fold of 'the one true Church'.

In many ways, Plan A was much simpler before Vatican II (and I use the Council in this instance as a punctuation mark in the history of the Church in the twentieth century).

We were all Catholics in 1961. We all believed the same truths, it was all so very black and white. We did not say things like: "My conscience guides me not the Church" or, "I think the Pope is wrong in this instance".

We were all Catholics then, sturdy and well rounded

Photo: Art & Interiors


We all abstained from meat on Fridays and, in England and Wales at any rate, we were recognised as being Catholics because our stance placed us at odds with secular life. We did not join in with office gossip and blue film groups; we declined social invitations on a Sunday in order that we could attend Holy Mass, we asked for time off from work on Holy Days of Obligation and we would consult our parish priest before attending a wedding or funeral in a non Catholic church.

We were not saints; we drank too much, fought occasionally and frequently lived the high life but always within certain parameters.

But....we all had the imprint of Catholicism writ large on our foreheads.

Of course, this is an idealistic picture. It cannot surely all have been like this? But, that is what I remember, I am sure that there are holes to be picked in my recollections but, by and large, I am not very far from the truth.

Photo: Zazzle

Yesterday I bumped into an old colleague, also a Catholic but very much in the modernist wing of the faith. He told me of several Catholic acquaintances who had 'left the Church' to become Protestants. He did not rise to my lighthearted crack "But I thought you were already Protestant" but the meeting did leave me with a feeling that all could not be right with the faith when people migrate so readily. It was a small sample, I agree, but it would have been unheard of 50 years ago.

What has changed? What has altered the thought processes of so many good people? Why have so many gone in search of a non existent Plan B?

There are many answers and many reasons for the change but the overriding one has to be a disregard for authority.
Discipline has become a dirty word - but that is what we had pre Vatican II.

Of course, opponents of traditional Catholicism will call it oppression and blind obedience but it was not. We had our route map and, by and large we stuck with it.

Admittedly, there was the syndrome of young people who fell away from the faith at the age of 18 or 20 but part of the pattern was that they returned stronger and more self assured within a very few years.

What I am really saying, in a roundabout sort of way, is that a collective spirit was good then but does not exist now.

We have fragmented and the major element has departed far from the truths, far from what the Holy Father wishes.

It is vital that a knowledge of Catholic life before the 1960s is maintained. That spirit that we had then was far from perfect but it was much, much better than the one we have today.

Those left wing liberal and modernist Catholics who continue to disregard the example and guidance of the Holy Father are just as bad as those few within the SSPX who veer too far to the nutty right.

The reform of the reform is under way albeit slowly but it will be truly be a great day when we can all say once more: "I am a Catholic" without any prefixes whatsoever.

Of what use is a Diocesan website?

Is it to inform, educate and enlighten?



Well, virtually impossible, yes!

 Is it to help guide those in need of advice (whether that be where to find a Mass or how to find out more about the one true faith?)
Or, is it to show what a good job the Bish and his team are doing?

Or (yet again), is it just an ignored bit of new technology drudgery that has to be done?

I guess that all four could apply to many if not all of the Diocesan websites around England and Wales.

Their Lordships are still fixated in communicating via the medium of stone blocks for all the interest that they take in what is undoubtedly the most radical advance in communications (and, therefore, evangelisation methods) since semaphore.

This blog must appear as if it is one mega whinge about Bishops but, it's only because, when faced with crass mediocrity, I tend to get a bit ratty.

It is not hard to do a job well, in fact, it requires precisely the same amount of effort as doing a job badly.

But let's cut to the chase; let me take the Archdiocese of Westminster website for a start (I do hope none of my blogging friends had a hand in this).

The site carries an A to Z directory of any parish within its boundaries and the theory is that, with one click you are within striking distance of the parish (as opposed to Diocesan) website.

This is fine except that, it assumes that you know there is a parish church in this town or village in the first place.
Often there is not (as I have discovered) so then what do you do?

Ah, some thoughtful soul in Westminster has added a map so that you may zoom in on the area of your choice and see where the churches are by the little red blobs.

Only trouble is, it is so mind blowingly slow a process that a 3 legged geriatric tortoise could walk the distance before you can bring it up on the map. Bah!

And when you do finally get to the parish of your choice you make two interesting discoveries.

A Leap Year and an 'r' in the Month?
Gotta be a Latin Mass next Sunday

The first is that they only list regular Masses. So, feasts such as The Nativity and all the associated Masses are NOT listed - but this is only one of two occasions in the year when a lapsed Catholic might return to Mass!

What are they thinking of?

And second (a disgraceful second) is that, should the parish feature, at any time (like the fifth Sunday of the month every Leap Year) an EF Mass, it does not appear on the website, or, in my experience, on the church notice board.

Why do some priests ignore the Latin Mass when it comes to church notices?

This is not an isolated example, I believe that most parish or Diocesan sites fail in this respect.

One might almost think that there was a conspiracy against the TLM - oh, come, come!

Sorry! No Mass this Christmas

I see from the *LMS magazine 'Mass of Ages' that Westminster Archdiocese does not have an EF Mass anywhere on Christmas Day this year.

 The EF Mass is outlawed in Westminster this Christmas!

So, let's do the sums.....

1 Archbishop

+ 3 Bishops

+1 Retired Cardinal

+ 300 plus priests (est)

+216 parishes

---------------------

= 0

                           

That adds up to zero EF Masses on Christmas Day!

So, please don't ask for a Latin Mass as a smack in the mouth often offends!

*I believe that the above information is correct at time of publication but, I have to say that the LMS Mass listings are...how shall I phrase it without arousing ire?......a little ambiguous. There.......that was nice and subtle wasn't it...no choking over the Lapsang Souchong in Macklin Street over that!

Woolly Mammoth found in Westminster Diocese!

A current phrase that is bandied around somewhat is "the elephant in the room" referring to a large problem or issue that overshadows all else.

Well, in Westminster Archdiocese they have a Woolly Mammoth in the room, frozen in time, long passed its sell by date ("use by 7th July 2007") and still no sign of the ice melting.

Mammuthus Westminsterii

I refer to the scandalous fact that, out of all the Diocese of England and Wales, only Westminster has not moved forward one step since the Holy Father's Motu Proprio regarding the responsibilities of the clergy in providing the Extraordinary Form of Mass wherever there was a demand.

Where may you attend an EF Mass in London (Westminster) on a Sunday?

The London Oratory 9am 

St James, Spanish Place 9.30am (thank you Fr Colven and the priest who comes to celebrate Mass each week (but please use a microphone)

St Edmund's, Ware (where?)

Holy Trinity and St Augustine, Baldock (one Sunday per month)

And that's it! Hardly a lavish offering, not exactly what Pope Benedict had in mind!

Westminster is small geographically but big in terms of Catholic population, it is a Diocese that includes the capital city of London - is that meagre offering good enough?

Let's just look at the profile and resources of Westminster.....

214 Parishes

417 secular priests

263 priests belonging to a religious order

49 - assorted others

That's a total of 729 priests!

Yet all that Archbishop Nichols can manage to provide is 3.25 EF Masses on a Sunday! Extraordinary! More than extraordinary it is a cause for scandal!

By my rough reckoning that makes the Sunday Mass score something like this:-

OF Masses circa................ 400

Homosexual Mass................. 1

EF Masses......................... 3.75

What are the Traditional Catholics of Westminster doing about it? Holding prayer vigils in the Piazza? Nope. Creating petitions to forward to Rome? Nope. Writing to the Papal Nuncio? Maybe.

As an ex Westminster Diocese Catholic I appeal for all to write to Archbishop Nichols in the first instance and then to Archbishop Mennini - perhaps then we can slice the Woolly Mammoth up and let the ice melt away for good.

No Masses in Menevia Diocese in August!

There's a lotta square miles in Menevia!

Yes, that's right, there are NO Masses in the Diocese of Menevia in August 2011. That's no as in zilch, zero, nil, b------ all!

Amazing huh? Oh, sorry, forgot to say "No EF Masses in Menevia in August"*

EF Masses? Oh, that doesn't matter then!

* Other than the LMS Pilgrimage Mass at the National Shrine at 3pm on 7 August

"Extraordinarii" - a good label!

My learned and distinguished friend, Professor Robin Whatley has had a letter published in The Catholic Herald that has now been reproduced in Mass of Ages.

It is not a good letter - it is a fantastic letter! It is reproduced in full below:-

..For all those Catholics who may have become depressed that our bishops are so loath to grant wholesale support to Pope Benedict XVI's Motu Proprio, when they thought that 'Summorum Pontificum' was the solution to all their yearnings, I offer the following.
There seems to be an interesting comparison between those who today attend Holy Mass in the sublime Tridentine Rite and special members of Roman armies. Given that the various priestly orders dedicated solely to that Rite enjoy almost an embarrassment of riches with respect to the large number of seminarians they attract, especially compared to those coming forward in what we might call 'ordinary' seminaries, the former will eventually, at least in Western cultures, become the vanguard of the priesthood.
Their ranks will be added to because many young priests are much more orthodox than their teachers and are volunteering to learn to celebrate Holy Mass in the Old Rite.

"Extraordinarii" - an elite fighting force!

We may, since the Tridentine Rite has come to be called the Extraordinary Form, refer to priest and congregation as the extraordinarii, which term was used in the Roman military system to describe those troops, usually a fifth of the infantry and a third of the cavalry,detached from the alae or wings that flanked the legions. The extraordinarii were under the direct command of the army commander and provided the vanguard to the column when advancing and the rearguard when retreating; dangerous tasks requiring particularly good soldiers.
My case is that, given time, it is the extraordinarii who will guide Holy Church back to her Traditional Catholic foundations, while leading us into the future and who will always safeguard her against further attempted subversion by the neo-Protestants.
Watched over by the Holy Spirit, supported by the Magisterium and commanded by our dear Holy Father, how can the extraordinarii not succeed?


ends/.....



Now I am aware that my fascination for 'labels' is irritating to some but we all live by the designations that surround us; English, African/American, Vegan, Carnivore, thinker, doer and so on. The Catholic Church has something in the region of 23 different rites (Armenian, Maronite, Syro-Malabar) and so on. All are distinctive in their own...um....rite - but all are Catholic! And some are extraordinarii!

So just how responsive have the English and Welsh Bishops been with regards to Sunday EF Mass provision?

Do have any idea? -  Do you think 20% of parishes in a Diocese offer an EF Mass on a Sunday? Less, maybe? - 15%? - down a bit further possibly? Can this be right?..............

..............after all the Holy Father has done to stipulate how important it is that the Bishops respond to his steer on this vital issue....I can state that, out of 2889 parishes (or thereabouts) only 2.87% on average, offer a Sunday EF Mass.

                                                    2.8% !

And that's not every Sunday...here are the specifics re my piece of research:-

1. I only included parishes that offer a regular Sunday EF Mass whether it is every Sunday or only one during a given month.

2. I included every parish and most Mass Centres but, at times these were difficult to identify so there may be the odd discrepancy but nothing too large as far as I am aware.

3. Obtaining the fairly simple information as to how many parish churches exist within a Diocese proved surprisingly hard to achieve. Some Bishops offer an almost indecipherable jigsaw of shapes which represent parish boundaries or, worse, deaneries, others provide a conventional alphabetical draw down listing and yet others provide a mongrel version which only adds to confusion. I have done the best in the time available.
One Diocese (Portsmouth) had an insoluble problem withits website so, in the end I did an estimated calculation as to number of parishes.

4. I did not include parishes that only offered the Mass on special feasts such as Easter as these appeared to be 'one offs'.

If you would like to see how your Diocese fared, here is the breakdown....

THE GREAT DIOCESAN RESPONSE

TO SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM

DIOCESE       PARISHES     SUNDAY EF MASSES         %

Westminster        216             4                        1.9%

A/del & Br'ton      153             4                        2.6%

 

Birmingham         271             3                        1.1%

Brentwood           131             2                        1.5%

Cardiff                 81             2                         2.5%

Clifton                54              7                         12.8%

East Anglia        110              3                           2.7%

Hallam               79               0                              0%

H'ham & N'cstle 199              4                            2.0%

Lancaster          115              5                            4.4%

                   

Leeds               127              4                            3.2%

Liverpool          204              4                            2.0%

Menevia            69               3                            4.3%

Mi'ddsborough   93               2                            2.2%

Northampton   107               2                             1.9%

Nottingham     158               5                             3.3%

Pymouth         116               5                             4.3%

P'smouth (est) 144               3                              2.1%

Salford           100               1                              1.0%

Shrewsbury     115               5                              4.4%

Southwark      181                9                              5.0%

Wrexham        66                 0                                 0%


Not an outstandingly good response......in fact it is ****** poor (I am not swearing in Lent).

I think the Bishops are (as they say) "having a laugh", and,
 it's at our expense!