July 8, 2007
hmmmph
Well, the Holy Father may wear white, but please note that you have never seen him with a red bandana and sash.
He might be a wonderful Pope, but he is oblivious to the importance of San Fermin. For some reason, he chooses the week of San Fermin's feast to issue a Motu Proprio. Does he make San Fermin's feast a Solemnity? Does he even move it to the universal calendar? Does he proclaim San Fermin the patron saint of bullfightin? Does he even publicly raise a glass of sangria in the saint's honor?
No. Instead we get all this stuff about the traditional mass.
NPR was in top form, with Silvia Poggioli making all sorts of goofs. For some reason Abe Foxman thinks that the Motu Proprio oppresses him. I would be happy to show him real oppression. Some elderly wop was calling yesterday "a day of mourning." Unfortunately the elderly wop is a bishop.
As you know, I am fairly cool to these various extraordinary forms of the Roman rite, but I am all in favor of them being allowed to exist. If the choice is between the music of Marty Haugen or Richard Proulx (who is really Marty Haugen in a costume - drag perhaps) and the 1962 mass, I will take the 1962 mass. If the choice is between Latin and English, I will take the 1962 mass. Fortunately we have the normative Roman Rite in Latin, so I don't have to do the indult thing.
Meanwhile, we are settling in nicely, and should be all unpacked and organized by the end of the year. I mean, month.
Posted by erik at July 8, 2007 10:30 PMEric:
I am quite well. In fact, I was just married at St Dominic's last month! We should catch up at more length soon.
Thanks for your interesting reply. I agree, of course, that the ICEL "translation" is gravely defective. As to the relative merits of the Latin originals, however, what do you make of the arguments advanced in the Ottaviani Intervention? (Leaving to one side the inappropriate uses which schismatic groups make of it ...)
Pax,
M.
Matthew,
How are you? It has been a long time.
Your question is a good one that deserves more of an answer than I am going to give at eight to midnight on a Sunday night. Short answer, yes, I believe the Novus Ordo (Latin, so we avoid translation issues, as I am sure we both believe the English translation to be gravely defective) more clearly reflects the Catholic Faith.
Hopefully I will post more on this later.
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at July 22, 2007 11:53 PM"Fortunately we have the normative Roman Rite in Latin, so I don't have to do the indult thing."
Hi, Erik:
Long time, no speak. Hope you're well. My question is, why do you prefer the Novus Ordo to the 1962 extraordinary use? Let's stipulate that both are sung in Latin and according to the rubrics: valid, licit, and beautiful. There are, however, many differences between the two. Do you believe that the prayers and gestures of the Novus Ordo are more clearly reflective of the Catholic faith than those of the extraordinary use?
Pax,
Matthew.
I am not cool to the mass, simply to the nostalgia for the prior liturgical norms, as I am to any of the other prior liturgical norms, or the various Eastern rites.
I love a well-said 1962 missal mass, but we have to remember that it was, in its day, also subject to numerous abuses, for instance:
1. That the low mass had become the norm for Sundays. The low mass has its place, but Sundays and major feasts are not it.
2. Many non-liturgical devotions going on among the faithful.
3. The high number of semi-Jansenists who rarely received communion (and the priests who encouraged this sort of thing).
Now. For perspective, we must recognize that these are not as bad as clown masses, liturgical dancing, and whatnot, but to insist that the old missal was somehow immune to abuse is preposterous. The mass that nourished the Regent of Spain, by the Grace of God, was the same mass as today's, just with a different missal (and it wasn't the 1962 missal, either - another myth is that the Tridentine mass was unchanged from Trent).
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at July 8, 2007 11:49 PMHow can you be cool to the Mass that nourished Generalissimo Francisco Franco?!?!?!?!?
Posted by: at July 8, 2007 11:07 PM