NOVUS ORDO WATCH SPECIAL REPORT
DVD mail-out in France okays liturgy in vernacular and facing people
SSPX priest pushes Paul VI's
"transitional Mass" for Novus Ordo presiders
We must admit it is a master blow of Protestantism to have declared war on
the sacred language. If it should ever succeed in ever destroying it, it
would be well on the way to victory.
—Dom Prosper Guéranger, The Anti-Liturgical Heresy
In
a
cover letter addressed to his new church "brother priests,"
the Society of St Pius X's Fr
Patrick de La Roque writes:
"...although this DVD gives you the possibility of learning this Mass in Latin, one may also celebrate the Tridentine Mass in the vernacular: in 1965 an edition of the Roman missal proposed a French translation. Likewise, the Ritus servandus introducing the edition of 1962 provides for the Mass facing the people, if need be. If Benedict XVI should liberalize this rite, it seems therefore possible to introduce it progressively in the parishes, without disturbing your parishioners’ habits all at once."
NOW
Comments:
It's been a while since anything has astounded us
when it comes from the SSPX's quixotic quest to gain recognition by and
admittance into the Modernist Conciliar church, but this comes close,
really close. In essence they're attempting to coax the "priests" of
the Novus Ordo to return to the traditional Mass [or, at least, the
modified 1962 version] through 1964's mostly-vernacular,
priest-facing-the-people version—so,
the Society's using the "transitional Mass" tactic in reverse.
The message is basically: If you want to work your way back to the
traditional Mass, we'll help facilitate that for you and in a manner that
presents the least number of problems for your congregation.
While we don't doubt the sincerity of Fr de La Roque's intentions in the
least in coming out with the DVD, we do doubt the probable results. To
begin with, who attending the French churches (few as they are) will
embrace the idea of a return to a hybrid Mass that was transitional in the
first place? How this can do anything but foster a laissez faire mentality
towards the liturgy resulting in the acceptance of multiple hybrid
pseudo-Catholic rites, not just in new church presiders but in SSPX
priests as well, is a mystery perhaps known only to Bp Bernard Fellay, Fr de
La Roque and other Society leaders.
This can be seen best in the context of the SSPX two stated immediate
goals: a universal indult to permit the traditional Mass to be said
without permission of the local "bishop" and lifting of the Novus Ordo
censures against the Society, so that it would no longer be regarded as
excommunicated and schismatic. Beyond these, there's been talk about the
establishment of Latin rite prelature (overseen ultimately by Modernist
Rome, of course) with Bp Fellay or some high-ranking Society leader being
put in charge. From the standpoint of Benedict XVI, news of the DVD
mailing can only bode well in eliminating a troublesome group, but from
the standpoint of truly traditional Catholics it can only bode ill for
resistance to the Modernist takeover of the Church. One need to take a
look at the background of the "transitional Mass" to grasp why encouraging
it can only have an effect opposite from the one desired by Fr de La
Roque.
Dr Thomas Droleskey, noting that Paul VI
defended the "transitional Mass" in a plainly
Modernist fashion ("It corresponds to the interior being and needs of modern
man"), has observed:
"The revolutionaries accustomed Catholics to what they had theretofore been unaccustomed to: ceaseless change and unpredictability as institutionalized features of a parish's liturgical life. The 'few months' of adjustment noted in the bulletin announcement above has become four decades of ceaseless, unremitting liturgical change, which has played its role in accustoming Catholics to changes in matters of Faith and morals. Lex orendi, lex credendi. The law of praying is the law of believing. Catholics who become accustomed to ever-changing forms of prayer in what purports to be the Mass, which must convey the permanence and the immutability and the majesty of the Blessed Trinity Himself, will come to expect all too logically that everything in the Faith is "up for grabs," that nothing is permanent, not even God Himself."
(From the article "In a Flash")
It was about this "transitional"
reform that led author Michael Davies (in an out-of-print book published
by the SSPX's official publishers in North America, by the way) to
refer to it as actually "more decisive" in its effect than even the
Novus Ordo Missae that would follow. In a section on the Conciliar
document Inter Oecumenici, Instruction on the Proper Implementation
of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (issued on September 26, 1964),
Davies writes:
"This Instruction certainly represented the most decisive step in the Liturgical Revolution, more decisive even than the promulgation of the New Mass itself. The changes imposed by the Instruction put an end to the concept of a liturgy that never changed and replaced it with a constantly changing liturgy. Once this psychological breakthrough had been achieved the possibility of any large scale resistance by either priests or laity had been overcome. The vital step was to get the clergy and laity to accept the first changes; once this had been done it was certain that they would not resist anything that followed."
(From Liturgical Revolution III: Pope Paul's New Mass, Dickenson, TX: Angelus Press, 1980, 28. Mr Davies notes on page 31 that the changes included the saying of the entire Mass in the vernacular except the Preface and Canon, the abolition of the Judica Me, Last Gospel and the Leonine Prayers, and the people praying the Pater Noster aloud with the priest. See the bottom of this page for an article by Mr Davies that argues against the 1965 Missal, showing how its transitional position in the liturgical revolution was much in keeping with the manner the apostate Thomas Cranmer conditioned the English away from the true Mass for which he substituted his heretical Anglican "Lord's Supper," a service the Novus Ordo closely resembles.)
Much more recently, the March 2001 issue of Society's American magazine,
The Angelus, carried an incisive study entitled
"Mediator
Dei: an encyclical condemning Pope Paul VI's liturgical 'reform'"
that shows how the very evils manifest in that reform, including the 1965
changes, were explicitly condemned by Pope Pius XII as early as 1947.
Indeed, it's as though the "reformers" examined
Mediator Dei and deliberately set
out to violate every innovation denounced there, so why on earth would the
SSPX want to encourage such changes?
There's a method behind behind the
"transitional Mass" and that method was gradualism; a sudden shift from
the hallowed traditional Latin Mass to the Protestantized Novus Ordo
Missae would have been too extreme for Catholics to accept it, so a "one
step at a time" approach was employed. As Dr Droleskey writes: "The
revolutionaries accustomed Catholics to what they had theretofore been
unaccustomed...." And, again, to cite Mr Davies: "The vital step was
to get the clergy and laity to accept the first changes; once this had
been done it was certain that they would not resist anything that
followed...."
Paul VI even alluded to this himself when he made this defense of the
"reform":
The Liturgical reform affects habits that are dear to us; it demands of us some effort. We may not relish this, but we must be docile and have trust. The religious and spiritual plan unfolded before us by the new liturgical constitution is a stupendous one for depth and authenticity of doctrine, for rationality of Christian logic, for purity and riches of culture and art. It corresponds to the interior being and needs of modern man.
(Cited in the article "In a Flash")
What makes the SSPX mail-out so
disturbing is that they've adopted the exact same mentality as the
revolutionaries, albeit for different reasons. After all, what is Fr de La Roque doing when,
while encouraging
the Conciliar "priests" to say the transitional Mass in the vernacular and
facing the laity (using the Protestant table "altar", of course), he
reminds them that "If Benedict XVI should liberalize this rite, it seems
therefore possible to introduce it progressively in the parishes,
without disturbing your parishioners’ habits all at once (emphasis
added)," but suggesting gradualism to them, only this time the
hoped-for transitioning would be from the "new Mass" to the true Mass?
As mentioned above, this
strategy isn't going to win anyone to the Faith, because by its very
nature it gives more than tacit approval to the very revolution the SSPX
was created to resist. Rather, it gives Modernist Rome the rope and
scaffold with which to hang the Society and effectively
completes the executioner's task itself by kicking away the very doctrinal ground
upon which it stands. Surely, Benedict XVI will be beside himself with
delight upon learning of such a fortuitous development, a development he
apparently did nothing to set into motion, save for his pretended .
If Fr de La Roque and others
in the SSPX truly wish to honor the memory of Abp Lefebvre, they will
abandon this destructive strategy at once, a strategy that can only spread
confusion and bring about the group's ultimate demise. Instead, they must
recall that it was in fierce opposition to these very same false reforms
that he and Bp Castro Mayer
consecrated four bishops at Ecône in 1988
VIDEO
On that very day the
archbishop made a point of saying that the consecrations were being done
because that changes had been introduced into the Church that were "not
Catholic." (And he did not use the "transitional Mass," by
the way.)
Let the SSPX heed those words and,
too, learn from the sad cases of Fr Josef Bisig, Bp Licino Rangel and
and, most recently, Fr Paul Aulagnier
and , who all fell by the wayside in their resistance to Novus Ordo
church, were neutralized when they accepted traditional side altars in the
pantheistic Modernist church, accepting the pseudo-traditional options
offered: respectively, the Fraternity
of St Peter (1998), the Personal Apostolic Administration of St John Mary
Vianney (2002) and the
Institute of the Good Shepherd (2006), all of which are false solutions
designed to destroy Catholic opposition to the Modernists. Today, they are
nothing. Benedict and his cohorts certainly have nothing to fear
from their likes anymore, see that compromisers keep their mouths shut,
follow orders and no longer question the disastrous changes that have
ravaged the Church. For all intents and purposes, they've performed the
equivalent of self-lobotomies.
Of course, the first part of such suicide is to convince oneself that
Benedict XVI is on really on our side, is really a Catholic who just
seems sometimes to be a Modernist. It is imperative, then, that the
leaders of the Society of St. Pius X come to their senses and see the true
situation in the Church and not one manufactured by wishful thinking, so
they can cease the lemming-like march to edge of the cliff and thus avert
the cruel fate that befell the others. Those in Society chapels must do
all that they can to implore their leaders to recall that it's
Modernist Rome, not Eternal Rome, as Abp Lefebvre declared, it is
a Rome ruled by
antichrists. Those leaders need to be made to see that the church
Benedict XVI leads is not Catholic, for only when they are
absolutely clear on that point will they have reached a safe point away
from the cliff, because they will no longer seek to be incorporated in a
religious body that is not the Roman Catholic Church.
To restore all
things in Christ
Reality Check:
Paul VI: To liberate the Mass of St Pius V is to
condemn Vatican II by means of a symbol
"The Holy Father said to me:
'Let us consider the liturgical reform. I will go even farther. Not only
have we kept all the past, but we recovered the source of the most ancient
tradition, the most primitive, closer to the origins. Now, this tradition
had been darkened by the course of the centuries, mostly in the Council of
Trent’.'"
From the encyclical,
Mediator Dei, of Pope Pius XII
The liturgy of the early ages is most certainly worthy of all
veneration. But ancient usage must not be esteemed more suitable and
proper, either in its own right or in its significance for later times and
new situations, on the simple ground that it carries the savor and aroma
of antiquity. The more recent liturgical rites likewise deserve reverence
and respect. They, too, owe their inspiration to the Holy Spirit, who
assists the Church in every age even to the consummation of the world.
They are equally the resources used by the majestic Spouse of Jesus Christ
to promote and procure the sanctity of man.
COMMISSIONED
BY ABP LEFEBVRE
The Ottaviani Intervention: A Short Critical Study
of the New Order of Mass
"[T]he Novus Ordo
Missae, considering the new elements widely susceptible to widely
different interpretations which are implied or taken for granted,
represents, both as a whole and in its details, a striking departure
from the Catholic theology of the Mass as it was formulated in Session
22 of the Council of Trent."
The Missal of 1962 –a rock of stability
"The survival of the
virtually unchanged 1570 Missal until 1965 was, even from a cultural
standpoint, something of a miracle. It would not be an exaggeration to
describe this Missal as the most sublime product of Western civilization,
more perfect in its balance, rich in its imagery, inspiring, consoling,
and instructive than even the most beautiful cathedral in Europe...."
(Note: While we've included this article by Michael Davies because he
ably shows how the Conciliar liturgical revolution of the 1960s so closely
resembles that the Anglican liturgical revolution of the 1550s that the
latter seems to have been the model for the former, we distance
ourselves both from his approval of the 1962 Missal, which while vastly
better than what would come along in three years, still is transitional in
its own right (such as the adding of St Joseph's name to the Canon, the
removal of many octaves, including most significantly, the one for Corpus
Christi and the suppression of many feast days) and thus part of the false
liturgical "reform" that would reach it's goal with the non-Mass of 1969.
Likewise, we must part company with his enthusiastic support of Ecclesia
Dei, John Paul II's false concession to traditional Catholics.)