Pope Francis has now turned his narrow-minded focus on the Latin Rite mass: "Pope Francis Imposes Sweeping Restrictions on Traditional Latin Mass".
There is a good short article at The Spectator (UK) on this decision, but you have to register to see it (here's the link if you're interested). I was sufficiently interested that I registered for five free articles, so I'll provide two citations.
Why does this matter for Catholics and non-Catholics alike? Because it's a lesson in how liberalism in this gerontocratic, Brezhnev-esque stage behaves - utterly intolerant of anyone who breaks from the party line. It is not enough to be quiet or even submit. You must conform.
Liberalism once promoted diversity; now it is in power, it has hardened into orthodoxy, a design for life that we must all follow. The conservatives used to run the Church and were often nasty with it, that's true: but they lost the war. Now that they are out of power, all they want is the right to be left alone. Well, they can't have it, and it's naive to think peace is an option. The reason why what Francis has done matters is because some day the kind of liberalism he embodies will come for you - for the simple, sweet thing you were doing that wasn't bothering anyone else but, by its mere existence, was an existential threat to the governing regime. You are next.These observations could just as easily apply to the entire Democrat/Media complex that is rapidly undermining our country's traditions of individual freedom and an orderly society.
I used to think my private name for him - Francis the talking Pope - was just a joke. Now I'm not so sure.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, only us OGs get the joke.
HAW!!!! That's hilarious!
ReplyDeleteBtw, I loved the "Francis the Talking Mule" series when I was a kid. Watched one of the movies in the series again, recently, and really enjoyed it. Chill Wills' voice was such an excellent choice.
Speaking of "liberals" who tout "inclusiveness", French President Macron has opened his pie hole, removed all doubt about where his faith lies .....
ReplyDeletePaco, we grew up with Mass in Latin and knew nothing else, then late 1960s after Vat II suddenly the whole thing changed: priest turned around facing congregation, liturgy in English, hand shaking get-to-know your neighbours... . 'This is Protestant stuff' my young mind said - not a bad thing per se but if we wanted that there were already Protestant churches we could attend. I drifted away after that, 'If they can change like that why should I believe anything else they say?'
ReplyDeleteMel Gibson's father promoted Latin masses in 1970s Sydney after that, his became a fringe group and now separate - like Protestants! The problem with the 'radicals vs conservatives in the Church' framing is that the Church is more complex than that, while those promoting that view, like Hutton Gibson, are like Birchers in their thinking - all black and white from an Anglo-American perspective.
For example there are millions of Catholics in India who dress like ultra-conservatives but have a positive view of Vat II I was surprised to find. Indian Catholics remind me of how we used to be. I think Anglo Catholics big mistake was getting too close to Hollywood after WW2, it went downhill from there.
I'm friend of a friend of Geoffrey Hull who wrote a definitive history of liturgy in the Church which I think you'd like:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8112541-the-banished-heart
He has a different view to mine.
Unfortunately it seems rare and expensive!
Then again maybe you wouldn't like the book. Here's a review:
ReplyDeletehttp://theradtrad.blogspot.com/2013/08/book-review-banished-heart-origins-of.html
I converted to Catholicism in the late 1970s. I was somewhat neutral with respect to the Vatican II changes, although I saw, at the time, the dangers that the Council's spirit of "innovation" presented to the cohesiveness of the church. I experienced some of the (to me) distasteful innovations up close: traditional hymns replaced by fourth-rate folk music, guitars (including electric bass) and drums replacing choirs and the pipe organ, priests roaming around the church during the homily as if they were working a room. Many bishops and priests wound up alienating parishioners (and not just old ones) with their pathetic attempts to be trendy.
ReplyDeleteWhen we moved to Richmond, we found a church that practiced the Tridentine Rite and became members (this was not a break-away group; the Latin mass was said with the formal approval of the bishop). I found it spiritually elevating, dignified and far more conducive to a spirit of worshipfulness than the plain vanilla vernacular.
Francis's decision is, as usual, driven by his narrow-minded, myopic, knee-jerk leftist sentiments. The Catholic church has granted large concessions to believers in the Middle East and Ukraine and other regions of the world in connection with the specific rites they follow; his hostility to the Latin mass has the appearance of sheer vindictiveness.
I have vivid memories of those 70s folk masses. Very vivid memories, which I keep in a tightly sealed compartment of my mind.
ReplyDeleteThe congregation trying to hit those high notes in Sister Janet Mead's rendition of The Lord's Prayer. Painful. I wouldn't be surprised if the noise turned God into an Anglican.
And if the noise didn't swing him over, Vatican Frank almost certainly will.
We sang English hymns even before the liturgy changed from Latin to English. But not many if I recall, only a couple of hymns per mass at most (or none) because the focus was on the liturgy.
ReplyDeleteAs 7 year old kids we were sent to the church across the road in school hours as a captive choir for funeral masses, always on a Friday. I remember us being up above with the organ looking down on the mourners. At the end of the service we'd give a rousing 'Nearer My God to Thee' and from our vantage we could see the bereaved would burst into tears. I avoided that song ever since, you could say it gave me nightmares.
Ah well, we get by as best we can. In India in 2012 the Trappist monks were impressed when I sang The Lord's Prayer in Gregorian modal melody. I must have learned it as a kid but can't remember when. They are Syrian Orthodox in communion with Rome and at sunset every day in the chapel they sing this stunningly beautiful ancient hymn by candle light:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phos_Hilaron
The earliest known Christian hymn!