No Altar Girls!

I got this excellent news from over at the excellent Rorate Caeli

For a while now, a German Canonical Commentary on Summorum Pontificum by the German latinist and canon lawyer Fr. Gero P. Weishaupt has been available online. This commentary has now been published as a book, and the preface to this book was written by H.E. Archbishop Raimond L. Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura. The full text of the preface is available at the German website Summorum Pontificum. Here is an NLM translation of a passage of the preface which doubtlessly will raise great interest:

In the second chapter of his commentary, Weishaupt answers a number of practical issues that arise regarding the implementation of Summorum Pontificum and result from recent changes to the discipline of the celebration of the sacraments, such as e.g. those regarding female altar servers or lay people who perform the ministry of lectors or extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. To answer these questions , the commentary correctly applies two general canonical principles.

The first principle requires that liturgical norms, which were in force in 1962, are to be diligently observed for the celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, for these norms protect the integrity of the Roman rite as contained in the Missal of Blessed John XXIII. The second principle states that the subsequent liturgical discipline is only to be introduced in the Extraordinary Form, if this discipline affects a right of the faithful, which follows directly from the sacrament of baptism and serves the eternal salvation of their souls.

The application of these two principles to the cases mentioned leads to the conclusion that neither the service at the altar by persons of the female sex nor the exercise of the lay ministries of lector or extraordinary minister of Holy Communion belong to the basic rights of the baptized. Therefore, these recent developments, out of respect for the integrity of the liturgical discipline as contained in the Missale Romanum of 1962, are not to be introduced into the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite. The commentary presents here in an impressive manner that the mutual enrichment of both forms of the Roman rite is only possible if discipline peculiar to each of the two forms is accordingly carefully observed.

That means no altar girls, no chyx with pyx, and no lectors need apply at celebrations of the Old Mass.

I betcha someone's pantsuits are gonna be in a bunch about this one...

It is a blessing to see some parts of the Church acknowledging our traditions.

Why Are Bishops So Set Against The Old Mass?

A Major Victory!

This should give the modernists at the chancery a fit or two! The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei has clarified some important points concerning Pope Benedict's Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. Pay close attention to the bold areas of 2 and 3.

Thanks to the New Liturgical Movement

1. If there is no other possibility, because for instance in all churches of a diocese the liturgies of the Sacred Triduum are already being celebrated in the Ordinary Form, the liturgies of the Sacred Triduum may, in the same church in which they are already celebrated in the Ordinary Form, be additionally celebrated in the Extraordinary Form, if the local ordinary allows.

2. A Mass in the usus antiquior may replace a regularly scheduled Mass in the Ordinary Form. The question contextualizes that in many churches Sunday Masses are more or less scheduled continually, leaving free only very incovenient mid afternoon slots, but this is merely context, the question posed being general. The answer leaves the matter to the prudent judgement of the parish priest, and emphasises the right of a stable group to assist at Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

3. A parish priest may schedule a public Mass in the Extraordinary Form on his own accord (i.e. without the request of a group of faithful) for the benefit of the faithful including those unfamiliar with the usus antiquior. The response of the Commission here is identical to no. 2.

4. The calendar, readings or prefaces of the 1970 Missale Romanum may not be substituted for those of the 1962 Missale Romanum in Masses in the Extraordinary Form.

5. While the liturgical readings (Epistle and Gospel) themselves have to be read by
the priest (or deacon/subdeacon) as foreseen by the rubrics, a translation to the vernacular may afterwards be read also by a layman.

Priests! Get out there and exercise your God given right to celebrate the Extraordinary Form on a regular basis! And if any modernist Monsignors give you any guff, you let the Traddy know!

I'm absolutely serious! You guys go get trained, and I can help you with that, then start your Mass and I will be there, plus a bunch of other people. Tradition isn't going away, and while this "Anti-Diocese" as I call it is trying with all its might to resist the storm Papa Benny is blowing, they cant hope to hold out!

The Holy Spirit moves the Church, and eventually the Scranton Diocese. Not the Bambera Spirit. Tradition will win.

Why Monsignor Bambera?

There is some good news coming out of Washington: On April 24, at our National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception there will be a Pontifical Mass in the EXTRAORDINARY FORM celebrated by his Eminence Dario Cardinal Castrillion Hoyos, former President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.

While you wouldn't catch anyone at the Scranton chancery office actually celebrating the Extraordinary Form at our OWN Cathedral, here we see the Cardinal coming to America's Cathedral to help celebrate His Holiness' 5th year as the Successor to Peter.

They are looking for donations to help EWTN broadcast this Mass, which I'm sure the Diocese would rather pre-empt in favor of some riveting Dan Gallagher commentary, but anyway, please donate here to help defray some costs.

In other news, Edward Cardinal Egan will also celebrate a Pontifical Mass in the Extraordinary Form (see a pattern here?) on March 25 at the Church of the Holy Innocents in Manhattan. This same church is where our retired Bishop with a love of Tradition, James Timlin, also celebrated a Pontifical Mass at the request of the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny.

He just can't celebrate one when asked by a similar local society in his own Diocese, it would seem. Right, Monsignor Bambera?

Andrea Tornielli ran a post where he states that worldwide since Pope Benedict's Summorum Pontificum took effect roughly 138 Bishops or Cardinals have celebrated Masses according to the liturgical books of 1962. We can't even get the Scranton Diocese to recognize the authority of the priest to say the Old Mass without Monsignor Bambera coming down with a case of apoplexy.

Just about two years ago there were several locations where the Extraordinary Form was available in this Diocese namely Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Plains, Nanticoke, and Hazleton.

Now only Scranton and Hazleton is left. What about Tioga county? Bradford? Wayne or Pike? Susquehanna? Monroe?

Guessing the agenda of the chancery office is not a difficult task. While the Extraordinary Form is on the rise throughout the Church, here in the backwards Diocese of Scranton it is the opposite. The Old Mass is disappearing, and those few priests who dare to offer it get harassed and eventually are sent away. Punished. For doing what it is their right to do.

Because, as Pope Benedict clearly wrote in his Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum "...each Catholic priest of the Latin rite, whether secular or regular, may use the Roman Missal published by Bl. Pope John XXIII in 1962, or the Roman Missal promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1970, and may do so on any day with the exception of the Easter Triduum. For such celebrations, with either one Missal or the other, the priest has no need for permission from the Apostolic See or from his Ordinary."

You read that correctly Monsignor Bambera. A priest doesn't need permission from his Ordinary. So says the Pope. And you aren't the Ordinary, (in case you didn't know). So where does that power come from that you wield so mercilessly over the cowering priests of this Diocese?

"But Traddy!" you say. "Didn't the chancery just start a new Latin Mass?"

Well, if you meant to say "didn't the chancery just wipe some crumbs off their table for the traditionalists?" Then yeah. I would agree.

Plans were afoot as I reported here to get a priest trained so say the Old Mass, and to have a Mass said regularly in Wilkes-Barre to replace the one we lost last year. But when Bambera and his gang got wind of the news they did everything they could to obstruct our plans, they bullied the priests involved and inserted themselves fully into the plans and disrupted everything.

But I am quite convinced that if some priest wanted to have an ecumenical love-in with the local Protestants at his parish where they would be performing some pseudo catholic-like mass thingy complete with guitars, tambourines, and grape juice, that would have been greeted with joyful weeping and confetti strewn into the air from those at the chancery.

Oh wait! That's called the "Neocatechumenal Way" and they've already been welcomed into the Diocese. If I'm not mistaken, they've actually held their little "revival meeting" type clown masses at the Cathedral.

But when Tradition is touted it is a thing to be regulated. Watched closely. Discouraged. Stopped.

Why is that Monsignor Bambera? Why do you bully priests with a sense of Tradition for veiling the chalice? For wearing black vestments? For wearing traditional roman vestments? For doing things that the Church has always done? Why is tradition scorned and innovation praised?

I almost forgot to mention the other place to attend the Extraordinary Form in the Anti-Diocese of Scranton.

The Society of Saint Pius X has a chapel in Pittston. Many may start to go there if chancery officials don't get a sense of the shifting wind, get with the program, and allow priests to use the Extraordinary Form without intimidation and threats.

But Monsignor Bambera wouldn't know anything about that, right?

It Is Almost Soon

For those of you wondering whether it is 'soon' yet, it is.

Almost.

For those of you who are new and haven't read down aways, I reported here that a Traditional Mass will once again be offered in Wilkes-Barre.

What I can say is that a Diocesan priest who will be trained by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter will offer the Mass at Saint Patrick's in Wilkes-Barre. Remember this post? Thanks to prayers, the Holy Spirit proves he can soften hearts.

We are hoping to have a meeting this Monday evening to iron out details, and then I will be able to give you all a proper post on the subject.

In the meantime, it would be nice to show our gratitude if you would call Saint Patrick's and thank Father McGahagan for allowing us to use the beautiful church at 823-1948. If you are in the Diocese and haven't visited Saint Pat's, stop in. It's gorgeous.

Bp of Manila thumbs nose at Summorum Pontificum

This is one of the more ridiculous attempts of an ordinary to squash the wishes of the Holy Father. Who does this Cardinal think he is? Other than the unappointed restricter of the Extraordinary Form, that is...

ARCHDIOCESAN GUIDELINES
ON THE CELEBRATION OF THE MASS
ACCORDING TO THE RITE OF THE ROMAN MISSAL
PUBLISHED IN 1962 (TRIDENTINE MASS)

In accordance with the norms laid down by the Apostolic Letter, issued motu propio, of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, Summorum Pontificum, We hereby establish the following guidelines and conditions on the celebration of the Mass according to the rite of the Roman Missal published in 1962 (Tridentine Mass) in the Archdiocese of Manila:

1. The regulation of the celebration of this extraordinary form of the Mass belongs to the Archbishop of Manila, through the Minister of the Ministry for Liturgical Affairs of the Archdiocese of Manila.
   
   
2. This form of Mass is to be celebrated only at the Christ the King Chapel of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Manila once a month, but not on Sundays and Solemnities.
   
   
3. The presider at this form of celebration should be a priest duly appointed by the Archbishop of Manila.
   
   
4. To ensure the solemnity and orderliness of the celebration of this form of Mass, the participation of other ministers (i.e., lectors, Master of Ceremonies, servers, choir, etc.) in the liturgy is to be determined and regulated by the Ministry for Liturgical Affairs of the Archdiocese of Manila.
   
   
5. The celebration of the extraordinary form of the Mass in this Chapel is open to any individual or group in the Archdiocese of Manila who may have the desire to participate in such celebrations. Further requests from individuals or groups from the parishes of or who belong to the Archdiocese of Manila to celebrate this form of Mass is to be directed to join the monthly celebration at the Manila Cathedral.

6. It is highly encouraged that a missal / booklet of the rite in Latin and English be prepared to help the faithful follow the celebration. It is like wise encouraged that those who will participate in this Mass undergo a catechetical orientation before the celebration.

7. The Archbishop of Manila has jurisdiction over this celebration and, therefore, can decide to limit or discontinue this monthly celebration anytime he judges that this is not consonance with the whole pastoral direction of the Local Church.
   
   

Given in Manila, this 8th day of December 2008.

+GAUDENCIO B. CARDINAL ROSALES
Archbishop of Manila