Gregorius Magnus: call for submissions for the Winter edition

The deadline for submissions to the 12th edition of the FIUV magazine, Gregorius Magnus, is 15th September.

See the call for submissions which went out by email here. Previous issues here.

Gregorius Magnus is mostly online-only, but we print a few copies as well.

Canonical Guidance from the Latin Mass Society on Traditionis Custodes

Cross-posted from the blog of the LMS Chairman,

The 1962 Mass in the Chapel of the Throne, in St Peter's Basilica, Rome, celebrated by
Bishop Rey of Frejus, France, for the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage 2019.

With thanks to Edward Pentin for breaking the story on the National Catholic Register, with some helpful commentary, the Latin Mass Society is pleased to present the fruits of our consultations with a number of Canon lawyers, in a short document available on our website.

We have circulated this a little privately but we believe that it would be valuable to present it to the widest possible audience. It is clear to us that many bishops, priests, and lay Catholics, are finding it difficult to see exactly what the force of the Apostolic Letter might be.

It is our hope that the arguments contained in this Guidance will commend themselves to careful readers from across the spectrum of opinion, and contribute to a calm and reasoned discussion. 

Key points from the Guidance:

*Traditionis Custodes does not abrogate the 1962 Missal (otherwise it could not allow it to be said in certain circumstances).

* It follows that it is not the right of priests to celebrate it that is at issue--this remains intact--but the public exercise of this right, which is a matter of regulation by the local bishop.

* The right of priests to celebrate privately, to say the older Office, to celebrate the other sacraments, to use the older Rituale: all these are unrestricted by Traditionis Custodes.

* The restrictions mentioned in Article 3, notably on the use of parish churches, only apply in the case of 'authorised' 'groups', such as came into existence in the course of the formal application of Summorum Pontificum, or are served by a 'personal parish'. 

* Although preists need permission from the bishop to celebrate the 1962 Missal, with this permission, and outside the context of a formalised 'group', he may do so without the restrictions of Art 3: for example, in a parish church.

*It would also follow that there need be no difficulty allowing the 1962 Missal to be used for special occasions such as pilgrimages. 

See the document in full here.

Official Statement of the Fœderatio Internationalis Una Voce regarding the Motu Proprio «Traditionis Custodes»

The International Federation Una Voce (FIUV) is the worldwide organization of lay faithful attached to the celebration of the Mass according to the Editio Typica 1962 of the Roman Missal, known until now as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, Usus Antiquior, or simply the Traditional Latin Mass.

Since its foundation in 1965, the FIUV has developed its activities in obedience to and in harmony with the Holy See, where we have always been received with cordiality and openness.

On 16th July 2021, Pope Francis published an Apostolic Letter given motu proprio, Traditionis Custodes, which establishes tight restrictions and limitations on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.

The International Federation cannot fail to note that the motivation for the new Apostolic Letter, as stated in the accompanying letter of the Reigning Pontiff derives from the alleged attitudes and words of those of us who choose the Traditional Mass, as reported by some Bishops to the Holy See, which involve a «rejection of the Church and her institutions in the name of what they consider the "true Church."» In addition to an «instrumental use of the Missale Romanum of 1962, which is increasingly characterized by a growing rejection not only of the liturgical reform but of the Second Vatican Council, with the unfounded and unsustainable claim that it has betrayed Tradition and the "true Church."»

Both the characterization of Catholics attached to the Traditional Mass, and the harsh new restrictions on it, sadden us greatly. It is our experience, as representatives of groups of the faithful, that what primarily attract people to the spirituality of the Traditional Mass are not the theological or pastoral discussions of the past, but respect for the Sacred, and the sense of the continuity of Tradition, which does not remain as a mere aspiration, but is lived daily in the venerable rite that has developed slowly through centuries and has never been abrogated.

Certainly, as with other groups of the Faithful, there is no absolute homogeneity in the opinions and attitudes of those attached to the former Missal. But precisely in their desire to assist at this Mass within the framework of their Dioceses and parishes, these Catholics implicitly express their recognition of the true Church, cum Petro et sub Petro.

Finally, as sons and daughters of the Church we wish to express our sadness over the restrictions on our ability to continue to nourish our spiritual lives using parish churches, as any Catholic would like to do. If there is one thing we fervently desire, it is to be able to live a normal life without being forced to use hidden or inaccessible spaces.

We believe that the beautiful spiritual fruits of this Missal should be shared, and we pray that we can be instruments of God inside and outside the Church.

The International Federation is deeply grateful to each of the Bishops who are generously providing for the faithful attached to the ancient Mass in their dioceses and to the Priests entrusted with the care of their souls.

Una Voce groups all over the world are united in prayer, as always, with their bishops and with the Pope.

Many of the faithful look to us to make their desires known, particularly in Rome, in a way which combines a sincere respect for the Universal Church and the Holy Father, with a love of the Traditions which are ultimately inseparable from them. We are committed to this task, which we and our predecessors have undertaken for more than half a century. 

Felipe Alanis Suarez

President

18 of July 2021

Cardinal Zen on the value of the Extraordinary Form

Joseph, Cardinal Zen posted this on his personal website, in Italian, and tweeted it on 12th June 2021. 

Translation by Diane Montagna: reproduced with permission.

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

What’s the harm in making the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite accessible to all?

I have read in the news quite worrying reports about possible restrictions to the celebration of the Tridentine Mass (what we now call the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite). I want to make it clear that I cannot be considered an extremist of this liturgical form and that I have worked actively, as a priest and as a bishop, for the liturgical reform after Vatican II, also by trying to curb excesses and abuses, which unfortunately have not been lacking in my diocese. So, I will not be accused of factiousness. But I cannot deny, in my experience in Hong Kong, the great good that has come from the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum and from the celebration of the Tridentine Mass. There is a faithful group here that, for decades, has participated in this form that comes to us from the liturgical riches of our Tradition, a group that has never created problems for the diocese and whose participants have never questioned the legitimacy of the renewed Mass. Many young people have passed through the community that participates in the Extraordinary Form in Hong Kong, and through this Mass they have rediscovered the sense of adoration and reverence that we owe to God, our Creator.

I have worked for the liturgical reform, as I said, but I cannot forget the Mass of my childhood. I cannot forget when, as a child in Shanghai, my father, a devout Catholic, took me to Mass every day and on Sundays made me attend five Masses! I felt such reverence, I was so fascinated (and still am!) by the beauty of Gregorian Chant, that I think that experience nourished my vocation to the priesthood, as it did for so many others. I remember the many Chinese faithful (and I don’t think all of them knew Latin...) participating in these liturgical ceremonies with great enthusiasm, just as I can now witness in the community attending the Tridentine Mass in Hong Kong.

The Tridentine Mass is not divisive; on the contrary, it unites us to our brothers and sisters of all ages, to the saints and martyrs of every age, to those who have fought for their faith and who have found in it inexhaustible spiritual nourishment.

Translation by Diane Montagna

Cardinal Sarah on the importance of Summorum Pontificum

A series of Tweets sent but Robert, Cardinal Sarah, @Card_R_Sarah, at 12pm on 8th July 2021 (translated from French).

History will remember Benedict XVI, not only as a great theologian but also as the Pope of Summorum Pontificum, the Pope of liturgical peace, who built an ecumenical bridge with the Christian East by means of the Latin-Gregorian liturgy.

 

He will be remembered as the Pope who had at heart the desire to find again the Christian roots and unity of Europe. He opposed meaningless secularism [laicisme] and the disintegration of European culture.

 

Following the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, despite difficulties and resistance, the Church embarked on a path of liturgical and spiritual reform, which, though slow, is irreversible.

 

Despite intransigent clerical attitudes in opposition to the venerable Latin-Gregorian liturgy, attitudes typical of the clericalism that Pope Francis has repeatedly denounced, a new generation of young people has emerged in the heart of the Church.

 

This generation is one of young families, who demonstrate that this liturgy has a future because it has a past, a history of holiness and beauty that cannot be erased or abolished overnight.

 

The Church is not a field of battle where one plays to win by trying to harm the spiritual sensitivity of ones brothers and sisters in the faith.

 

As Bendict XVI said to the French bishops: “In the Church there is room for everyone,” because we know how to treat each other with respect and live together, praising the Lord in His Church and remaining in the one true Faith.

 

The liturgical crisis led to the crisis of faith. In the same way, respect for the two forms of the Latin liturgy, ordinary and extraordinary, will imbue us with a missionary impetus for evangelisation, and we will finally be able to escape of the “tunnel of crisis”.

Reactions to the FIUV advert in La Repubblica

I gather together here some news and comment reactions to the FIUV advert: this post may be updated. In terms of the news cycle, the fact that it appeared on the day of Pope Francis’ admission to hospital must have dampened responses. (Please pray for Pope Francis, in true meantime.)

In advance of the Federation’s advert, the most comprehensive report of the rumours about possible changes to Summorum Pontificum came from Diane Montagna in The Remnant.

In English, our announcement of the advert was cross-posted directly on the Rorate Caeli blog.

The first report seems to have been on the Catholic News Agency and Gloria TV.

Church Militant (Jules Gomes) picked it up with a quote from FIUV Secretary Joseph Shaw:

Shaw urged bishops and priests with concerns about the TLM to "come and meet the congregations attending these Masses and the young people and families who have been inspired to live their faith more deeply by this liturgical form." 

So did Robert Moynihan in Inside the Vatican: 

Clearly, this is an attempt to change the terms of the debate, terms which have been unfairly forced upon “traditionalists” by many of their “modernist” critics.
Catholics who love tradition, especially in the liturgical realm, do not love tradition in the way the modernists claim they do, Una Voce is saying.
No, they do not love the old Mass out of a kind of “sclerotic, fearful grasping for the stuffy securities of the past” in a time of change, but rather because, in this very time, in the 2020s, the old ways and old words of the traditional liturgy have somehow begun to seem “newer” than the words of the 1960s.
This is a critical point.
In fact, it is the decisive point.
What this appeal is really saying is that the old Mass, in its venerable antiquity, rooted in prayers and hymns from the very first centuries of the Church, actually seems “newer,” “fresher,” “more alive” than many of the prayers of the “new Mass,” which, 50 or 60 years later, because rooted in the trendy, time-bound certainties of that age, is starting to seem “old.”

LifeSiteNews published an article by Joseph Shaw on the advert and the threat to Summorum Pontificum, and a follow-up article on the issue of concelebration,

The Catholic Herald (which may be paywalled depending on where you are) has a news article taken from the Catholic News Agency and comment piece by its US Editor David Mills, which is worth reading. Mills writes: 

The apologists for suppression claim that the people who want the old Mass are divisive. If that is true, and it is sometimes, the obvious answer is to remove the reason for their alienation. Extend to them the care, and the concessions, you extend to other marginal groups. Some will remain cranky and disgruntled, but the Church has room for the cranky and disgruntled. 

The apologists also claim that only the very old and maladjusted young people want it. That’s wrong as a matter of fact, but even if it were true, why not give the elderly (who deserve our deference) and the maladjusted (who deserve our care) what they want and need? It hurts no one and it clearly helps many.

In German, it was reported by the website Summorum-Pontificum.de, and elsewhere:

Pro Missa Tridentina:  https://www.pro-missa-tridentina.org/news/news_564.htm

Kath.net: https://kath.net/news/75669

CathWalk.de: https://www.thecathwalk.de/2021/07/03/pfarrer-rodheudt-im-interview-uber-die-alte-messe-man-wird-nicht-im-ernst-erwarten-dass-man-sich-durch-restriktionen-einschuchtern-lasst/

Katholiscb.de: https://www.katholisch.de/artikel/30472-traditionalisten-in-sorge-kommt-das-aus-fuer-die-alte-messe

Gloria TV: https://gloria.tv/post/L7ELaTgLVRbd6wtjJKsNPyzUK

Gloria TV also has the report in French: 

https://gloria.tv/post/GfWfe3ez8ZbJ1cMZ9vZEkBk9S

And other languages:

https://gloria.tv/post/htGAGYrWzoE44hvBQMou34FzP

https://gloria.tv/post/XCvysRvxsAYX3LpkSGzjQvNoS

FIUV Statement in La Repubblica

The Una Voce Federation has taken out an advert in the mass-circulation Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica, appearing today, Sunday 4th July.

The English text is as following (for other languages see here):

Living the faith, living the future:

The Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite

Declaration of the International Federation Una Voce

The International Federation Una Voce (FIUV), founded in 1965, brings together associations of the lay faithful attached to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite (the Traditional Latin Mass).

In 2007, the Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum recognised the vitality of the traditional liturgy, the freedom of priests to celebrate it, and of the faithful to request it. This has led to an ongoing increase in the number of celebrations of the ancient Latin Mass, and of its spiritual fruits.

During 2020 the FIUV conducted a worldwide survey of the faithful on the implementation of Summorum Pontificum. From this survey, which included results from 364 dioceses in 52 countries, we found:

•    The ancient Latin Mass is deeply appreciated by groups of faithful of all ages, especially families with children, young people and converts, found in all social and cultural environments, on all continents and in an ever increasing number of countries.

• In many areas the increased availability of this Mass has favoured the normalisation of relations between the faithful attached to it and their bishops, relations increasingly characterised by mutual understanding and respect.

Nevertheless, we have noticed that, contrary to the previous policy of the Holy See, there are still people within the Church, including some bishops, who would like to see the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite explicitly suppressed, or subject to further restrictions. For this reason, the FIUV, in view of the faithful who adhere to the Latin Mass, feels the duty to express its opinion, encouraged by Pope Francis' exhortations to the members of the Church to use parrhesia with the necessary humility.

The growth of interest in the traditional liturgy is not due to nostalgia for a time we do not remember, or a desire for rigidity: it is rather a matter of opening ourselves to the value of something that for most of us is new, and inspires hope. Pope Francis has characterised the ancient liturgy in terms of a "sense of adoration" (Press conference of 28 July 2013), we can also apply his words to it: a "living history that welcomes us and pushes us forward" (Evangelii Gaudium 13).

Today we only wish to be part of that "great orchestra" of "unity in variety" which, as Pope Francis said (General Audience of 9 October 2013), reflects the true catholicity of the Church. The Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum continues to transform the conflicts of the past into harmony: long may it to continue to do so.

Felipe Alanis Suarez, President                                                                                        www.fiuv.org

Ends

Some details from the international survey are set out in here.