The Latin Mass Explained and Demonstrated for Priests

St. Edmund Campion Missal & Hymnal for the Traditional Latin Mass

The True Mass at its best (All Saints' at the London Oratory)

From New Liturgical Movement:

Some photographs of this evening's Mass at the London Oratory:

A new papal ferula (and it's horrendous!)

Really?  So now our modernist Holy Father is using a "Touch-Down Jesus?"  What next?  A polyester chasuble with the Rainbow flag?

From Rorate Caeli:

For today's Papal Mass at the Campo Verano cemetery, the Pope made use of a new ferula. This one features the Risen Christ in front of the Cross, an arrangement sometimes called "Resurrexifix".

(UPDATE) This ferula was donated to the Pope last month by Goldlake, a mining corporation that is part of major Italian cement holding Gruppo Financo, with mining concessions in Argentina and Honduras (from which came the metals used for this staff).

Sodomite Army @ the Vatican marches again.

The Secret Gay Life of the Vatican: Inside a Hidden Netherworld of the Catholic Church

By Vanity Fair
10/31/31

www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2013/10/Vatican-secret-gay-life

As rumors of a powerful “gay lobby” within the Vatican make headlines and a new Pope promises reform, Vanity Fair contributing editor Michael Joseph Gross interviews dozens of current and former priests, gay monks, veteran Vatican journalists, Italian aristocrats, and gay men at Roman gyms, bars, nightclubs, sex clubs, and restaurants and finds that “to be gay in the Vatican is no guarantee of success, mark of belonging, or shortcut to erotic intrigue. Most basically it is a sentence of isolation,” a life “in a closet that has no door.”

According to Gross’s piece in the December issue of Vanity Fair (on stands today), a significant number of gay clerics at the Vatican are in positions of great authority, but they inhabit a secretive netherworld because homosexuality is officially condemned. The principal requirement of their power and priesthood is silence about who they really are—at least in public. According to Gross, “Clerics inhabit this silence in a variety of ways. A few keep their sexuality entirely private and adhere to the vow of celibacy. Many others quietly let themselves be known as gay to a limited degree … sometimes they remain celibate and sometimes they do not. A third way, perhaps the least common but certainly the most visible, involves living a double life.

Gross goes on to describe the codes and signals by which gay priests navigate life in the Vatican. “Camp is perhaps the most powerful and pervasive” code, with ironic, effeminate self-mockery allowing priests to “exercise some limited rebellion against their own isolation and invisibility.” One former gay priest describes clerical camp to Gross as “a natural way of expressing [gay identity] while celibate.” Yet in the Church, as in Italian society, Gross writes, “the right appearance—la bella figura­—is all…. Parties celebrating appointment to the Vatican and other high Church offices can be lavish … with many clerics in attendance being ‘gay men wearing everything handmade, perfect, queer as it comes,’” as a prominent figure in the Roman art world tells Gross. Still, Gross finds an every-man-for-himself dynamic in Rome’s gay clerical culture: gay clerics often fail to help one another, says a gay former seminarian who was robbed one night in a park while numerous men stood by, because solidarity entails the risk of being outed.

For clerics who break the vow of celibacy, gay saunas are good places to meet other gay priests and monks (though some gay celibate clerics use the saunas not for sex but to experience a sense of fellowship with others like themselves), according to Gross.

If a gay clergy member makes a connection, it’s possible to use your monastery cell for sexual assignations, as long as you don’t make much noise. “You can sneak people in, no problem,” one gay monk tells Gross, “but try to avoid consistent patterns of movement.” That said, a former monk tells Gross that “no one has sex” with other residents of his own monastery, “because it is like a Big Brother house. Everyone knows everything.”

Upcoming All Saints' and All Souls' Day Liturgies

I have no idea if The Feast of All Saints' is still a Holy Day of Obligation for the Novus Ordo (N.O.) crowd, or simply shot forward to the next Saturday night sing-along.  

As to All Souls' Day:  Haven't a clue if the N.O. even recognizes it.  But if so, how many N.O. priests and bishops would dare wear....drum roll please...BLACK vestments?

Good luck with that!

Video on Walsingham Pilgrimage

From Rorate Caeli:

This video was put together by the Latin Mass Society about the recent Pilgrimage to Walsingham in England, this involved walking the 55 miles from Ely, the traditional pilgrims' route.
 
 

On the last day of the Month of the Rosary: the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Fr. Domenico Zipoli
Litaniae Lauretanae in C

Fr. Domenico Zipoli, S.I. (1688-1726), a Tuscan, was active in the Jesuit missions of Paraguay (now in Paraguay, Northeast Argentina and Southern Brazil).

An explosion of converts and priests! (during the reign of Pius XII)

So allow me to do a bit of public school math:  If, at the time of Pope Pius XII's death in 1958, the United States had almost 37,000 seminarians, and by 1965 (the year the Council ended) the U.S. had approximately 47,000 seminarians...why do we now have around 5,000?

Oh yes, silly me:  We are in the "Springtime" of Vatican II.

From Rorate Caeli:

There's been a lot of talk lately about proselytizing, the "new evangelization," etc. Many of these same people who think the Church has it all right now say that the Church was broken pre-Vatican II. That no one understood the Latin Mass and it had to go. That the rigid Church turned off non-Catholics and that the firm stand against false ecumenism was a barrier to great conversions of non-Catholics. 

A priest reader of Rorate recently saw a 1959 version of the Kenedy Directory (now The Official Catholic Directory) for sale and purchased it. As the priest tells us: "Much to my joyful surprise, there was a beautiful tribute page to Pope Pius XII, this being the first Directory published after his death."

For those who say we are now living in the greatest age of the Church, let us consider the numbers below. They are remarkable, to say the least:

While all these numbers may make one yearn for the Church of old, a few of them are truly staggering for the modern mind to comprehend in today's Catholic-lite world: a 200+% increase in American converts; a nearly 250% increase in seminaries built; a 200+% increase in seminarians; and a 50% increase in priests. All of this happened over Pius XII's glorious 19-year-reign. 

While we would never criticize the canonization of a saint, we can say, looking at these numbers, that there may be one venerable former pontiff who is conspicuously missing from the lineup on April 27.

"You can keep you plan..." Right!

Diary of a Latin Mass Wedding

It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Back in the 1990s, all the best people knew the Latin Mass wouldn’t last.

Nevertheless, at the behest of Pope John Paul II, in bishops’ palaces around the world a grudging ’accommodation’ was made to those faithful who were — albeit inexplicably — still ‘attached’ to the old Form of the Mass. (In this way, it was to be hoped, the old Mass would quietly die out with those die-hards in the old generation.)

But it didn’t happen that way.

Today, this inexplicable ‘attachment’ has spread far and wide — and most rapidly and passionately, among young, serious Catholics.

Herewith then, is the story of a young couple, amid photos of their magnificent wedding that ‘all the best people’ would never have believed possible — in Latin, in Connecticut, in 2013. (With honeymoon photos in Rome!)

“At first, I was fascinated by the concept of Mass in an ancient and otherwise silent language. I wanted to hear it, just once. When I went, I felt like I was living inside a movie. It felt like something transcendent.”

KERRY HARRISON’S STORY: I’m 26 and Peter is 27. I am from Connecticut — Peter is from the Boston area originally, but moved to Connecticut to work for the Knights of Columbus Headquarters in New Haven, CT. We got engaged on our one year anniversary, at church after the Easter Vigil Mass, at the stroke of midnight.

HOW I FOUND THE LATIN MASS: I’ve been attending the TLM since 2009. I took Latin in school, and one day someone told me, “Did you know that in the Middle Ages the Mass used to be in Latin?” I thought, “I wish that still happened, somewhere on earth.” Then, I found out there was a traditional Latin Mass at St. Agnes in New York City, so I started taking the train from Connecticut to attend. I had no idea there were any TLMs anywhere else, much less any in Connecticut.

PETER IS INTRODUCED TO THE LATIN MASS: Peter had gone to one TLM before, in college, but since he didn’t know the Latin, he was a bit lost. When we went on our first date, I told him how I loved this Mass, and said he was welcome to come any Sunday. He showed up the next day. However, it was Palm Sunday, and he didn’t know that meant a two hour liturgy, followed by a Gregorian chant procession through the city streets, and an hours-long brunch, quaintly termed “coffee hour”. I think the poor man was in shock.

HOW THE LATIN MASS DEEPENED MY FAITH: At first, I was fascinated by the concept of Mass in an ancient and otherwise silent language. I wanted to hear it, just once. When I went, it felt absolutely otherworldly. I found it wasn’t so hard to believe, after all. When you realize that your grandparents, and great-grandparents, and great-great grandparents, all the saints and doctors of the Church, have prayed these same prayers, repeated these same words, you realize how small you are in the vastness of time, how little you are and how big God is. And you begin to really love Him for loving you.

THE POINT IS TO ‘GET LOST’: One of the best pieces of advice I got is that you’re not really going to get it at first, and that’s normal. You can go every week and months in, still get totally lost. It’s not a play. The priest is doing one thing, the choir is doing another, the altar boys are doing something, and a bell is ringing, all at the same time. You don’t know where you’re supposed to look. But that’s okay, and knowing where you are in the Mass isn’t the goal. If you get lost in prayer, or reading and re-reading one part while everyone else has moved on, or you forget to care what the words mean when the chant takes your breath away, then, in my mind, you really have met the goal. The POINT is to ‘get lost.’

WHAT ABOUT CHASTITY? I would say that I think it’s critical for the formation of a healthy relationship. If you use sex from the start as a means of fixing fights or providing entertainment when you’re bored, I think you cheat yourself of a lot of information. You may use intimacy as a crutch, instead of realizing, “We fight a lot” or “I’m bored… we don’t have that much in common”. You skip a lot of steps, instead of seeing if the relationship has real staying power and real compatibility. The Church doesn’t teach what it does because it enjoys being a fun-squasher. It teaches what it does because God knows us better than we know ourselves sometimes, and because God wants to call us to be better than our human nature often does. I don’t think too many people regret holding out on sex. I think a lot more people regret too much, too fast, too soon.

A RELATIONSHIP BASED ON TRUTH: On our first date, we started talking about politics. I began to say, “I think the most important issue today is -” and he finished my sentence with the exact words I was going to use: “the right to life. Because without that right, all other rights are meaningless.” We both began to realize that we saw the world the same way. Our unity on this issue has drawn us closer together and been the basis for a relationship based on truth rather than the lies our society is often selling.

WHAT PEOPLE SAID ABOUT OUR LATIN MASS: My family knew that the wedding would be a TLM. (They’re usually pretty entertained by us.) Our practicing Catholic friends were very interested in the Mass, and our other friends seemed interested in the concept. I didn’t get a lot of questions beforehand about the Mass, one of my aunts wanted to know what it was so she could look it up. The response from guests was positive. Many people had never been to a Latin Mass before and found it very interesting. A few people thanked us for the opportunity to attend a TLM.

HOW I FEEL ABOUT MY LATIN MASS PARISH: I was so excited when I heard about the Latin Mass in Connecticut. I went the next Sunday and haven’t stopped since. That parish is a blessing in my life. I can’t describe how much I have learned and changed in the time since I found it, and how grateful I am for the wonderful people I’ve met at St. Mary’s in Norwalk, Connecticut. They’ve been with me through thick and thin, good days and bad. It really feels a lot like family.

The Royal Shave

Every man needs to have a real shave, at least once in their life.

What We Have Lost

Yesterday, The Feast of Christ the King, was celebrated throughout the traditional Catholic world (or before the late 1960s, simply everywhere).  The Mass we attended was a Solemn High Mass, in all its magnificence and glory.  The celebrant, and two other priests acting as deacon and sub-deacon, moved perfectly around the sanctuary, providing the faithful with the beauty of the faith rarely, if ever, seen by millions of modern (Novus Ordo) Catholics.

The celebrant gave one of the finest sermons I’ve ever heard.  He discussed the meaning of the sovereignty of Christ’s Kingship over all, and how the Council (in Dignitatis Humanae) stripped away that sovereignty into one of religious relativism.  He also discussed our current Holy Father, and emphasized the fact that this man on the Chair of Peter is, by his very statements, a flat out modernist, plain and simple.  He illustrated the point with the Holy Father’s recent public remark that “…who was he to judge” when it came to sins such as homosexuality.

Our celebrant reminded the faithful that the Holy Father was the successor to St. Peter, and therefore God’s representative here on earth.  It was his JOB to judge!

Following the Mass, the entire congregation had a procession for a few miles around the parish neighborhood, with Our Lord held high in the monstrance.  This procession of clergy, choir and the faithful made its way down the main streets, in front of numerous houses on that Sunday morning.

But the saddest part of that spectacle, once so common in all Catholic communities, is that this city of almost one million people, with over 70% Hispanic Roman Catholics is this:  Not one single person in front of their homes acknowledged Our Lord, and hit their knees in adoration and thanks.

And this, ladies & gentlemen, is what the Council and the “new springtime” has given us.  Catholics who haven’t a clue who they are, or what their faith is.  The Novus Ordo world is falling apart, and her bishops haven’t a clue as to why.

So what must we, the Traditionalists, do in such times?  Continue doing what we’ve done for 2,000 years.  Remain true to the Faith, to the Mass, and True to Catholic Rome.

“We hold firmly with all our heart and with all our mind to Catholic Rome, Guardian of the Catholic Faith and of the traditions necessary to the maintenance of this faith, to the eternal Rome, mistress of wisdom and truth. We refuse on the other hand, and have always refused, to follow the Rome of Neo-Modernist and Neo-Protestant tendencies which became clearly manifest during the Second Vatican Council, and after the Council, in all the reforms which issued from it.” -Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre

Today, Sunday, October 27th, is the Feast of Christ the King for those who celebrate the True Mass.  I  have no idea what day it is on the made-up Novus Ordo calendar, but then again, I don't care.  

But one thing is for sure:  Since the end of that horrendous council, they have uncrowned Him.

2013 Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage - Mass in the Vatican Basilica

And to think that just 50 years ago, the True Mass was the ONLY Mass celebrated every day in St. Peter's.

From Rorate Caeli:





Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos celebrated the Pontifical Mass on the Altar of the Chair, crowning this year's Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage. First images by Messa in Latino below:
 

 

The Remnant has put up the following video of the procession from Santa Maria in Vallicela to Saint Peter's Basilica, and of the Solemn Pontifical Mass that took place there.

Pope expels German 'luxury bishop' from diocese

By NICOLE WINFIELD and DANIELA PETROFF
Associated Press
VATICAN CITY
Pope Francis temporarily expelled a German bishop from his diocese on Wednesday because of a scandal over a 31-million-euro project to build a new residence complex, but refused popular calls to remove him permanently.

The Vatican didn't say how long Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst would spend away from the diocese of Limburg and gave no information on where he would go or what he would do. It said his fate would ultimately be decided by the outcome of a church commission investigation into the expenditures.

It said Limburg's vicar general, the Rev. Wolfgang Roesch, who had been due to take up his duties on Jan. 1, would start immediately and would run the diocese during Tebartz-van Elst's absence.

At the center of the controversy is the 31-million-euro ($42 million) price tag for the construction of a new bishop's residence complex and related renovations. Tebartz-van Elst has said the bill was actually for 10 projects and there were additional costs because of regulations on buildings under historical protection.

The Limburg scandal has been front-page news for weeks in the country where Martin Luther launched the Reformation five centuries ago in response to what he said were excesses and abuses within the church. The perceived lack of financial transparency has also struck a chord since a church tax in Germany brings in billions of euros a year to the German church.

The head of the German bishops' conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, had been particularly blunt in his criticism of the expenditures and the credibility problem it was causing the church. He has said the church commission would investigate the costs of the renovation, the financing and how decisions about the restoration evolved. Canon lawyers are to determine if Tebartz-van Elst violated church law regarding the use of church money, he said.

The decision on the expulsion was taken after Francis met in the past week with Zollitsch and Tebartz-van Elst.

The Vatican stressed that Francis took the decision based on continuous and "objective" information, suggesting that the Vatican wasn't being swayed by the popular outcry over the scandal. At the same time, though, Francis has made clear he expects his bishops to live simply, setting as an example his own humble lifestyle.

In a statement, the Vatican said the situation in the diocese had become such that Tebartz-van Elst "at the current time cannot exercise his episcopal ministry."

Pending the results of the commission of inquiry, "the Holy See considers it opportune to authorize (Tebartz-van Elst) a period of time away from the diocese," the statement said.

A bishop being sent away from his diocese is very much in keeping with the church's legal tradition of making a public reparation for a scandal done to the church. While the circumstances were vastly different, the Vatican earlier this year sent a Scottish cardinal away from his diocese after he admitted to sexual misconduct.

Germany's main lay Catholic group, the Central Committee of German Catholics, praised the decision as creating "the necessary space to clear up completely and firmly the events in Limburg," said the group's head Alois Glueck.

"Pope Francis' decision offers the chance of a first step toward a new beginning in the Limburg diocese, because the situation can become an increasing burden for the faithful there and in all of Germany over recent weeks," Glueck said.

The German government, which last week called the situation "very difficult" and said it hoped for a solution that would give confidence to the faithful, refused to comment Wednesday on the Vatican's decision. A spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, Georg Streiter, said it was "an internal church matter."

Documenting the journey of Marcel Lefebvre

From Rorate Caeli:

The recent documentary on the life and trials of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre was released in French months ago and is now being officially released in English. See the trailer, below:



 While not film critics, we will say this: regardless of where you stand on the current situation of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), this film will at bare minimum be entertaining, and a solid look at history -- but not in the way you may think.

The first half of the film really has little to do directly with the current crisis. It's more of a history of how the Church, led by Father, Bishop and Archbishop Lefebvre, made Christianity -- and society -- flourish in French West Africa. The interviews with priests, nuns and the laity whom were around during his time are both compelling, and historically important.

At one hour and 43 minutes, the film leaves you wanting for more. For those of you that didn't live through the troubling days of 1988, with its decisive and enduring consequences, or were too young to notice, you especially should consider watching. That goes for those who are pro, anti, and just not sure what to make of the current situation.

To find a screening at a theater or to organizing a screening, click here. The documentary can be pre-ordered here.

The Remnant Forum: Radical Traditionalism?

The Remnant Forum: Francis on Praying vs. Traditional Prayer

Press summary: The dangerous dilemma of the two living popes

From Rorate Caeli:

In the English-speaking media, there is an almost unanimity around the events of the current pontificate. As French blog Riposte Catholique reports, this attitude is certainly not the case in the media in other languages, mainly in the nation of the papacy itself - a sign that English-speaking religious correspondents are not doing their job properly. And the words of the main correspondent of French liberal religious magazine La Vie are almost terrifying in what they imply.

An emerging portion of the Ratzingerian iceberg, Sandro Magister, journalist at L'Espresso, a star among Vaticanists, releases in his blog chiesa, every week, and at times every day, severe criticisms of Pope Francis: "Martini Pope. The Dream Come True," on October 15; "Encyclicals have a new format: the interview," on October 7; "Ricca and Chaouqui, two enemies in the house," on August 26; "The Francis transformation", on October 3; among not few others.

But he is not alone: "Francis is in the process of founding a new religion opposed to Catholic magisterium" (Mattia Rossi, Il Foglio, October 11); "We do not like this pope" (Alessandro Gnocchi and Maria Palmaro, in Il Foglio on October 9 - they were removed from the staff of Radio maria [because of this article]); "Flock before doctrine? We risk losing both" (Rino Cammilleri, Il Giornale, October 10).

The coalition of media praise surrounding Pope Francis is as of now far from being unanimous in Italy. Not only in the media. It is necessary to understand that Italian journalists often "act" for the Curial prelates, some of whom in very high positions, who give them very reliable pieces of information and ask them in return to pass on this or that message. The Church authorities are themselves very mindful of the opinion expressed by these journalists and, on their side, pass on messages within the world of the dicasteries. In fact, one may even speak, especially on the level of the great ones, such as Sandro Magister, of informal groups in which churchmen and media men analyse [matters] at the same level.

Is Francis attentive to this phenomenon that has taken a relevance that goes beyond the small classic revolts? This is not clear. A pope coming from the peripheries, he "works", brightly anyway, with governing and communication methods that he tried in Argentina. Differently from his predecessor, who lived cloistered, he meets each day, in multiple formal audiences, and in a multitude of different contacts at Santa Marta, [and] over the phone, a number of different interlocutors. But is he better informed because of this? It is not clear that he has a great capacity to listen and view beyond certain patterns. One could not, anyway, require of a 76-year-old man, despite a breathtaking energy, to reorganize all the categories of analysis and reading schemes that he forged and used all through his existence.

Jean Mercier, [correspondent] of La Vie [the main liberal religious periodical in France], is also somewhat disturbed. In an article published on September 18 in his blog, "Is the Pope a demagogue?", he said: "Charismatic and popular, Francis does not hesitate to make gestures that hit their targets and to release statements that create a buzz. Isn't he overdoing it?" On October 4 ("Malaise in communication"), [Mercier] came back to the subject: "Francis multiplies the shock interviews, raising perplexity regarding his communication strategy. The problem of the different levels of his words is raised, and noticeably when the intimate words are taken as elevated to official words." And based on what he hears in the Eternal City, he sounds the alarm: the new order is even more risky "since the Pope Emeritus is still living and some could be tempted to burst the sound of 'Give us back Benedict XVI!' Nothing would be more dangerous than a kind of latent schism between two sensibilities, the one nostalgic of the Pope Emeritus, the other enthusiastic for the new Pope."

Precisely. Instead of comparing, as it was always done under a new pontificate, a living pope and his deceased predecessor, which was done with no risk for the legitimacy of the former, one can today compare two popes who are very alive.