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RU 39/2007 - FRANCE: liturgical crisis
- FRANCE: The day after September 14th, date of coming into effect of the Motu Proprio of Benedict XVI of July 7th concerning the liberalization of the ancient rite of the Holy Mass, we received an impressive testimony which explains a lot about the gulf which exists between the ancient Catholic religion and the practices introduced since the Council Vatican II. Here it is: "Chance made it happen that precisely on Sept. 14th, I was placed without any transition into the plain ambiance of post-Conciliar Catholicism, on the occasion of a pilgrimage in which I had decided to participate, without suspecting what would happen. Indeed, in my corner aside from the world, I benefit continually of the Holy Mass and Sacraments and the teaching of the doctrine that was practiced everywhere in the Church until Vatican II, and I was therefore not conscious of the amplitude of the changes which happened in the Church since 40 years. However, coming out of this modest compartment deep down in St. Peter’s boat, and going up to the bridge for joining a group of plain "Catholic" pilgrims - who follow the newest Church orders and are in full communion with the Pope Captain of the Boat -, I had a shock difficult to describe. It began with the rosary: There were not 10 AVE MARIA recited in the same classic way, and changes didn't limit themselves to the official new translation of the PATER NOSTER. I would even say that the pilgrims made every effort to vary the words as much as possible, from one tenner to the other, and even inside a tenner from one AVE to the other, when the prayer leader didn't add a sentence of another prayer, or insert one AVE sung in the middle of a recited series of AVE - some ones saying "you" to God or the Holy Virgin, others "thou”; some ones "happy of graces" and I don't know what other variant, instead of "full of graces"; others again "your child, or thy child, or your son, or thy son, is blessed", instead of the ancient "the fruit of your womb is blessed". Well, there were perhaps about ten uniformly recited AVE in Latin, but unfortunately introduced by a PATER NOSTER in French and with "thou". Result? For the others: living, happy, spontaneous prayers, and common sharing of their enthusiasms. For me it was impossible to raise my soul towards God, except during the very few pauses. Even if I told myself that I’m moving in the same spirituality than 20 centuries of big saints and innumerable admirable faithful - here, I was alone of my species, and when others prayed for the “poor stuck people" who don't manage to relax and to pray while showing the Christian joy by clapping in their hands, I felt aimed at. - But the worst was the Mass, where I noted the same improvisations and spontaneous involvements, until when the priest recited the words of the Consecration (?) while offering a big host of golden brown colour to the assistance while pronouncing the holy Words, and idem for the cup. In fact, the significance of his attitude and his gestures was visibly to offer bread and wine with and for the present people, to be their food and drink. Let’s say it otherwise: I was in another mental universe where the priest lends his voice to Our Lord Himself while offering His sublime sacrifice to God His Father, while respecting the intangible and immemorial ritual of the Church (where the priest who voluntarily changed the least term and even the least gesture, committed a capital sin!). Here, however: the electroshock! A phrase (I don't remember the precise words) was pronounced by the… I was going to say "guests", after the priest’s celebration words during the Canon: in short, they participated with high voice in what was considered to be the Consecration itself, first for the bread, then idem after the celebrating words over the wine - (NB: to participate, one can say those people participated!). Is it necessary to specify that they all together, without exception, went to receive communion, even those who are – as they said - "in research", and including the Protestants (there was at least one of them explicitly registered, for the conversion of which the group prayed when he was absent for a while!). Then, those who wanted, passed behind the altar to drink from the cup, including the Protestant… And yet, I didn't see everything. I was so ill at ease face to Our Lord that I didn't have my mind cool enough "to observe", so I saw by chance only what was going on when I raised my head and opened my eyes. As to the border line, it was all drawn by itself: the Conciliar Catholics and Protestants received communion together, and I was excluded from their communion, since it was unthinkable for me that I receive communion in the setting of such a ceremony, even if I had not had my stomach full, as it was the case since we all came right up from the dining room, including the priest! This is not solely the “technical" question of the validity of such a Mass, it is… there is something in all of that what I would like to call sacrilege, a complete shift between their professed faith in the Real Presence, and their relaxed attitude towards what they apparently believe to be the Most Holy Sacrament, without mentioning the Eucharistic hospitality or “charity" which seems to be natural to them. It’s evident that these people want to sing God in joy and to be united together and with Him, and that they think to be good Catholics. But for the antediluvian - no, I wanted to say pre-conciliary – Catholic that I am, this insolence, this "recuperation" of the most sacred things on earth, is for me something intolerable. - "Why didn’t you say anything?” What message could I have passed over? To people who can affirm that they are on the side of the pope’s flock and in full communion with him, the chief of the Church, who just announced that there are two modes of the same Mass? I, the “stuck” one, would have been considered as what, when telling to this priest and those pilgrims that I know better than the pope what the Catholic Mass is? But DEO GRATIAS, the extraordinary Mass is yet celebrated in some compartments on the bottom level of Saint Peter's Boat”. End of the report.
By the way, a Catholic priest told us, after we had submitted to him this report for having his commentary before publication in our RU dispatch: «It’s edifying, but it’s compliant in fact with what one knows about today’s practices everywhere. There’s nothing left of sacred, of supernatural. It’s spirituality superposed on naturalism. I say that it’s not those people who will come back towards the holy Liturgy with the Holy Father’s Motu Proprio. It’s necessary to look for people elsewhere.»
The Holy Father, «co-operator of the truth» according to his personal motto, just declared, during his recent pilgrimage to Mariazell in Austria: «The resignation face to the truth is the centre of the crisis in Europe!». Would this not also be the centre of the crisis in the very Church? Would it not have been necessary for him to go until the end of reasoning in the Motu Proprio, «without resignation», while replacing today’s modernist ritual – which chased ¾ of the faithful out of the churches since the end of the Council Vatican II - by Christ's single and unique Mass, the one fixed «forever», at least for the Occident, by Saint Pius V, instead of adventuring himself into extraordinary distinctions concerning «only one ritual of the Mass, but in 2 forms»? And please don’t object: «But the pope does what he can, he is so badly surrounded !». No, he is the chief of the Church - which is not a democratic club -, and strong of this Supreme Power given by God, he has all necessary graces to surround himself correctly, not by men who pursue some admitted – or even non confessed - terrestrial objectives, but by men who are aiming only at GOD'S EVER HIGHEST GLORY. We therefore wait for the Motu Proprio number 2, the one that will annul the modernist ritual in the Church and which will totally restore the ancient and venerable ritual to it’s unique place in the Church. While waiting for that, let’s stick to the promise made by the apostle John: «The Truth will make you free.» - (ru)
WISDOM OF THE OLD TESTAMENT: «The Lord says: What’s your life? You are a little smoke that remains a short time, and then disappears». - (ru; cf. CSI 09/2007)
- O.A.M.D.G. -
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