BFP: Rest Easy! The Greatest threat to the Church has been Removed!

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Show Notes

Stunning news yesterday from Rome.
Pope Francis acted swiftly to squash the enemies of the Church.

Immediately upon exiting his hospital stay where he was recovering from complex surgery, he asked for a pen. 

Sources close to the event say Pope Francis first words were, “I need a pen so I can sign this document.”

Experts say he intends to squash the greatest threat the Church has seen in over five. hundred Years!

Over to you, Sridakar

Thank you.  

We have obtained both documents signed by Pope Francis.  The first document is a letter wherein Pope Francis expresses sadness caused by abuses in the liturgy on all sides.  We thought this might pertain to an action against the modernists, or ending the abuse of lay ministers during Mass, or voiding the fraudulently obtained indult for  Communion in the hand.  No, the greatest threat is Latin Mass.  Pope Francis lashed out at Pope Benedict and shackled the latin mass back to his tight control by Vatican apparatchiks.

This is Sridakar Krishmaneranen, reporting for the Bellarmine Forum News.

WOW!  Thanks, Sridakar!

I’d have never guessed that the extraordinary action and force of a Motu Proprio would be merited for Latin Mass.  This left me with many questions, though.  I set out to learn what this document Pope Francis issued was.  I began to ask around and my questions led me to Professor Zbigniew Oszienski, Chair of the Theological Marian Akita Chair at Trent University 

PROFESSOR OZIENSKI

Yes, Thank you for calling.  I am glad you ask this question.  It is a pleasure to speak with the Bellarmine Forum

I have looked in my modern catholic dictionary and it has two definitions.

A MOTU PROPRIO refers to Words used in rescripts drawn up and issued by a pope on his own initiative, and not conditioned by any petitionary requests. The documents are always signed personally by a pope. 

The dictionary then tells me to See PROPRIO MOTU.

So, I turn the pages and find this second definition.

PROPRIO MOTU.  More commonly referred to as motu proprio. 

It means “Something done on one’s own initiative or by one’s own will.” 

Said especially of certain papal documents written on the Pope’s own authority, often to meet a special and urgent need in the Church.

We’ve learned that Pope Francis surveyed Bishops around the world and asked them about the threat of Summorum Pontificorum — which made it clear that the Latin Mass is not divisive – that is in his words, having these two liturgies available to the faithful, the traditional latin mass and the new mass, “in no way lead to a division in the Church’s lex credendi”.  

Stunningly, we’ve found several persons who had opinions on this.

——

Brooke Hurst-Smith is RCIA Director at First Suburban AmChurch in Megalopolis.  She describes herself as actively engaged in the ministry of her parish, and made clear that her pronouns are “she/her”.  

“At 16, I joined a Sing A New Church workshop. it was really neat! I was so impressed that women like me could, like, preach to the community. and I still remember the reverent way the lectors raise their hand to make the community respond.  Someday, I hope to be a lector.  I am practicing raising my hand and speaking like they do. Today, I teach R.C.I.A.  I also work on my ministry as a eucharistic minister.  I hope to keep it going when I enter college next year!”

I asked her if she felt threatened by Latin Mass being available.  

“I’ve never been to the latin mass, but I’ve heard it mentioned by some faithful in our faith community.”  

Brooke explains that she approached catechism as a way to welcome new comers and accompany them on their journey to discover what God means to them.

“I believe it’s not about rules and the past, but a self directed journey of discovery of meaning in the community of service to the poor and needy.”  “faith is knowing that you can help.”

“I do remember being threatened by a person who insisted that we used a Baltimore Catechism and memorize rigid rules.  He really harmed the others in the R.C.I.A. class and made them feel marginalized.  He would not join us in spirituality and encounter workshops and told us he felt these were demonic.” 

“Just using that harsh language made me feel uncomfortable and worry for the safety of the others.”

 “If he was latin mass, then I do think it’s dangerous and divisive and harms the progress we make with the persons we accompany here.  Pope Francis needs to stop them” 

——

Sister Barbara is parish administrator of St. Anthony-Brigid-Gertrude consolidated pastoral zone in the north part of the Triple Cities.  She is very active in the parish.

“Don’t call me parish administrator on the news show.  I have to call myself a ministry coordinator in any references that get published because it makes certain people upset and they get all rigid with rules and laws and wind the bishop up.  But between us, I run this place.”

Sorry, Sister.  can you explain how latin mass harms you?

“they are unbearably disruptive with thier posture at our spiritual celebrations of community.  They come in and demand to see a tabernacle.  We don’t have one in the worship space.  It’s in the back.  They still insist of acting different than our local faith tradition.  We don’t genuflect or kneel.  They insist on it as if they knew better.  And if I try to correct them, they get all talking about God, as if I don’t celebrate the great spirit myself.”

Do you think they are a harm?

“Without a doubt, they are the most divisive force we face today.”

—— 

Lance Fabulous is music director at the same pastoral zone, and called later to add his experience.

“Hello!  Thanks for calling me back.  She said I could talk to you so here I am!

>> What do you do for the parish there?

“I am the music director of two years now.  I came from another faith community that was more ‘American’, we had many of the standards like Haas, Haugen, and the others.  Beautiful stuff, but you know, if you read the newsletters coming from the downtown Office of Human Dignity, then you know that it’s all covert white supremacist music and we need to move on to our own local traditions.  SING A NEW CHURCH!  They say!!!

“Sister Barbara has been asking me to add more folk music and indigenous peoples works to the spirituality and it’s been great.”

>>. Thanks, but tell me how the Latin Mass harms you.

“Oh, it’s terrible!  Those people only want the same chant over and over and they never want any musical instruments but the pipe organ!  It’s dreadfully the same over and over.  And they drone on and on about the meaning of the words.  I can’t do my job keeping it fresh and relevant with them always complaining!  They just won’t participate! “

>>. Okay thank you.

—-

Lance and Sister Barbara do make it clear that people who prefer the latin Mass also tend to forego “active participation”.   Whether that is divisive seems to be a matter of preference.  I could find no evidence where the Latin Mass itself injured anyone.  Then, I was shocked when I received a call from a prelate who spoke to me on terms of anonymity.

“I want to tell you want I have seen of these people.  They come and I see them with their whole family and they hold weapons in their hand.  They just stand there saying repetitious things.  Even the children join in and hold these small chains in their hands and finger the prints on the chains menacingly.  The women cover their heads in an attempt to hide their identities.  It is very stark and dreadful.  Recently, I was at an ecumenical service in the Vatican garden where there were many dignitaries, including Buddhists.  They came.  They did not join us around the pachamama, instead, they just held those chains and mumbled.  I wanted to accompany them so I approached them and asked them to join us in our ecumenical spiritual exercise.  They refused.  It is very divisive and harmful.”

—— 

What was the special need of the Church???

Michael Sean Winters, writing at the National Catholic Register, said that it is to promote “unity” and put an end to “private masses.”

Something tells me he doesn’t know what a private mass is — or more specifically, since “private masses” sound like something exclusionary, he wants his readers to think that the Latin Mass excludes people….  LOL

Here’s what homespun lunacy he wrote in the reporter:

“These words, it seems to me, put the pope’s theological finger on the problem exactly: Aficionados of the old rite like to talk about how that rite uniquely conveys the sense that each Mass is a part of the one eternal sacrifice of Christ, and the thanksgiving to which the Eucharist is our response, but then they insist on their right to have a private Mass.”

All are welcome.

“If the Eucharist is, as Vatican II taught, the source and summit of the Catholic faith, then we know that when the celebration of the Eucharist fails to serve the unity of the church, something is wrong, and it isn’t ever the fault of him whose sacrifice we commemorate. The gifts of the Spirit, too, never fail. The failing is in us, in our lack of charity, or in our inability to perceive the moral and religious obligation to promote unity.

Let’s look at this — he is definitely asserting that the Latin Mass excludes people.  This is hilarious to me.  Anyone can go to Latin Mass.  All are Welcome!

But, I want to point this out: “when the celebration off the Eucharist fails to serve the unity of the church”….  Notice he used a small c for the word church.  Does he mean the church building?  

Liturgical abuses fail to serve the unity of the Church, no?

Pope France seems to think so…. In the letter that accompanied his Motu Proprio, he said the following:

“At the same time, I am saddened by abuses in the celebration of the liturgy on all sides. In common with Benedict XVI, I deplore the fact that “in many places the prescriptions of the new Missal are not observed in celebration, but indeed come to be interpreted as an authorization for or even a requirement of creativity, which leads to almost unbearable distortions””

Almost?   No…. Definite distortions.  For instance, the aggravated assault on the laity conducted by the army of lay people that claim to be extraordinary ministers….  The profane music used for Mass.  The liturgical dancers.  The aboses of the Blessed Sacrament.

And not the least of which, the fraud committed to get the insult for Communion in the hand.   

You know, the things that DON’T HAPPEN AT LATIN MASS!!!

So, we must look at what the pope has done.  Of all this saddening he has, the only thing he acted on was the limit the Latin Mass.  He apparently sees nothing injurious in all those other abuses to act on them!

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!


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Bellarmine Forum

The Bellarmine Forum Podcast is Catholic commentary on anything from history, philosophy, and current events. Best viewed as an after-dinner chat.

John B. Manos

John B. Manos, Esq. is an attorney and chemical engineer. He has a dog, Fyo, and likes photography, astronomy, and dusty old books published by Benziger Brothers. He is the President of the Bellarmine Forum.