What a Mess

The following appeared on the Church Militant site (a great site for Catholics)-- my comments appear in red:

Did the Second Vatican Council Change the Mass?

Examining the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy and the average mass today

by Michael Lofton • May 20, 2015

In a previous article on the Second Vatican Council, it was asserted that the council did not change the Faith. Some responded by saying that the Second Vatican Council changed the Mass, and as a result, changed the Faith. But is that true? (If it is, it did, under lex orandi lex oredendi)

The Second Vatican Council began to reform the Roman Rite through its first constitution, known as Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. The reforms taken by the Council were modest and explicitly intended to keep the substance of the Mass the same, only changing some of the elements that were not divinely instituted:

For the liturgy is made up of immutable elements divinely instituted, and of elements subject to change. These not only may but ought to be changed with the passage of time if they have suffered from the intrusion of anything out of harmony with the inner nature of the liturgy or have become unsuited to it.

The Council sought to guard against extreme novelty by prohibiting priests from changing the liturgy. "Therefore no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority."

It requested that the revisions made to the liturgy would maintain "sound tradition": "That sound tradition may be retained, and yet the way remain open to legitimate progress careful investigation is always to be made into each part of the liturgy which is to be revised."

It also put further restrictions on legitimate progress by stating, "Finally, there must be no innovations unless the good of the Church genuinely and certainly requires them."

The Council cautioned against the laity performing functions not proper to their role, and the same for priests. "In liturgical celebrations each person, minister or layman, who has an office to perform, should do all of, but only, those parts which pertain to his office by the nature of the rite and the principles of liturgy."

It also wished to preserve Latin in the Mass. "Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites." (bolded mine)

It even gave Gregorian chant the highest position of honor in the liturgy. "The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services." (bolded mine)

The reforms of the liturgy requested by the Second Vatican Council were implemented faithfully in the revision of the Mass made in 1965. This liturgy was almost very much like the liturgy before the Second Vatican Council, with only a few changes. Pope Paul VI claimed this edition of the Roman Missal was the faithful implementation of the Second Vatican Council: "The singular characteristic and primary importance of this new edition [the 1965 edition of the Mass] is that it reflects completely the intent of the council's Consitution on the Sacred Liturgy" (Klaus Gamber, Reform of the Roman Liturgy, 33).

Though the 1965 Roman Missal was a faithful and complete fulfillment of what the Council requested, Pope Paul VI allowed for a further refom of the Mass by Abp. Annibale Bugnini and his Consilium, which went way beyond, and perhaps at times against, the instructions laid out by the Second Vatican Council. The result was the 1969 edition of the Roman Missal, the edition used today (though this edition has been revised several times). It was this edition that made the many changes we see between it and the Mass prior to the Second Vatican Council. But even the current edition didn't change the direction the people face during Mass, nor did it require Communion in the hand and the overuse of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion.

What was requested by the Second Vatican Council is not what we see in the average parish today. In fact, we are twice removed from what they requested, as the 1969 edition of the Roman Missal that Novus Ordo parishes use today is not a faithful implementation of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, and much of what we see in the average Novus Ordo parish isn't even faithful to the 1969 edition of the Roman Missal. For this reason, the Second Vatican Council itself cannot be faulted for the liturgy we often see in the average Novus Ordo parish today.

As outlined in my book, this development resulted from the failure of those bishops who, perhaps because they felt intimidated by the liturgical “experts,” allowed them to propagate teachings at odds with Sacrosanctum Concilium. In effect, the bishops allowed the imposition of newfangled liturgical “reforms” on their flocks, resulting in a liturgy which has proven “spiritually destabilizing” in many cases. The question which continues to puzzle is, why such poor shepherding? If the maxim lex orendi, lex credendi is true, and it is, then the lack of resemblance between what the Church teaches concerning the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the reality of what is taking place in its celebration in parishes in the United States today warrants that we come to understand those developments in the Liturgical Movement under the influence of modernist thinking, and their impact on the Church. This is one reason I penned Smoke.

Comments

This video of a young boy twerking at Pride has homophobes outraged | Gay Star News

DANCING WITH MR. D: This video of a young boy twerking at Pride has homophobes outraged | Gay Star News : 'via Blog this'

A Series on Spiritual Warfare

In The Screwtape Letters , C.S. Lewis’ use of irony exemplifies distinctions between God and Satan’s attitude toward human beings; Lewis does this through the use of innuendos, sarcasm, and ironic inversions. I recently stumbled on a three-part series which builds on the truth in Lewis' writing here , here and here . Good Advent reflection!

Dancing With Mr. D: Grooming the Little Children

A former pro-transgender activist said she regretted her previous work in pro-transgender activism, adding she felt she was "indoctrinated" on gender ideology in an interview with Fox News Digital. "I started to realize that what I had been doing at my job at the LGBT Center, it was grooming," Kay Yang, a former employee of a location in New York, said. Grooming in this context means "to get into readiness for a specific objective." Kay works as a 'deprogrammer' to help parents and children who have been 'indoctrinated' by the 'cult-like' transgender agenda. Yang herself previously went by they/them and worked as a 'trans educator' in schools for years. Listen to her testimony.

Liberal Catholics, Conservative Catholics, and Holy Catholics

In Smoke , I wrote of two modifications of "Catholic" in popular parlance these days: Lest we forget, there were indeed reform-minded Council Fathers who responded to Pope John’s vision of the Church growing in spiritual riches as a fruit of the Council under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the hope that the faithful might through grace be aided in turning hearts and minds toward heavenly things. Given what has been said thus far, it should not surprise the reader that many “liberal Catholics” view the pontificate of John Paul II as too “conservative,” and out of touch with the modern world, while the traditionalists view the writings and teachings of the Holy Father as modernist! Dr. Jeff Mirus of Catholic Culture has rightly linked Pope Francis's view of Vatican II as synonymous with those of his predecessors, who were in attendance.

Blogging Disciples!

To promote a book I spent years in writing , I began this blog. I am a baby boomer who knows all too little about blogging and the latest techie stuff. As I was perusing various Catholic blog sites, I noticed a post by Fr. Longenecker entitled, "The Smoke of Satan." If one troubles oneself to read Fr.'s quite accurate assessment, and becomes interested in just exactly how, according to the Pope who coined the phrase "Smoke of Satan" the Devil made his entrance into the post-Vatican II Church in the U.S., then my book is just what the Savior may have ordered, so why don't you!?

Thou Shalt Not Spin

Ruminating on excerpts from John Allen’s one year review of the pontificate of Pope Francis (in red): Many Points of Praise for Pope’s First Year By John L. Allen Jr. GLOBE STAFF MARCH 12, 2014 ….In the year since, Pope Francis has electrified the world with his taste for the improbable: his spurning of the papal apartment, his resolutely informal personal style, his startling words, such as his instantly immortal “Who am I to judge?” line on gays. Quite right! Who are we to judge anyone? He’s popular at the Catholic grass roots and may be the most celebrated pontiff ever in non-Catholic venues, and even some secular circles where criticism of the papacy is much more common than praise. I rejoice at this, and pray that the world will listen to all of Francis, even the hard sayings…. Symbolically, Francis, 77, has changed the narrative about Catholicism. Substantively, he has taken bold steps toward reform and reoriented the church toward the political an...

Libido Redux: Porn Stats

If one types "Libido Redux" on this blog's search engine, you will see various events which corroborate Pope Paul VI's prophecy that the human libido is a "crack" through which Satan can play havoc with souls. Here is the latest in the series, which should enlighten the reader, the stats on children and Christians in particular. From one who knows the truth of Paul's prophecy: "I have posted on a number of other articles about porn, but I wanted to post here as well to reach out to anyone else who, like me, is a porn addict. I tried for the first 9 years of marriage to stop looking at porn, and I could not. I asked God to help me stop, I went to confession, I received the Eucharist daily, but I could not stop. It was not enough for me to do it on my own with God. I had to ask for help from other people, see a counselor, and get into a 12-step recovery program, and that is how God is healing me. I believe the numbers here because I understand ...

Thou Shall Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor

Tucker Carlson: The Biden Scandal Is Real And Not Going Away Posted By Ian Schwartz On Date October 30, 2020 TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS: It's been obvious for decades now that the Biden family has gotten rich from selling influence abroad. Joe Biden held a series of high level jobs in the U.S. government. Based on that fact and that fact alone, Biden's son and brother approached foreign governments and companies, sovereign wealth funds, energy conglomerates, Third World oligarchs and dictators, and they offered to exchange favors from Joe Biden for cash. The polite term for that practice is influence-peddling. Sometimes it is legal under American law, sometimes it is not. But it has always been the economic engine of the Biden family. They've never done anything else. Until recently, no one debated this fact. Several liberal news organizations, in fact, have written detailed stories about the Biden secret business dealings over the years. Look them up, assuming you still c...

Dancing with Mr. D: Gender Ideology

In a private conversation with Bishop Andreas Laun on January 30 as part of the Austrian bishops’ ad limina visit , Pope Francis strongly condemned “gender ideology.” In so doing he follows the example of Pope Benedict, who is on record as saying that gender ideology is “a negative trend for humankind,” and a “profound falsehood,” which “it is the duty of pastors of the Church” to put the faithful “on guard against.” Bishop Laun The Austrian bishop stated, “In response to my questioning, Pope Francis said, ‘Gender ideology is demonic!’” As I have chronicled on these pages, the Holy Father often refers to the work of the devil. Of gender ideology, Bishop Laun explained that “the core thesis of this sick product of reason is the end result of a radical feminism which the homosexual lobby has made its own.” “It asserts that there are not only Man and Woman, but also other ‘genders’. And furthermore: every person canchoose his or her gender,” he added. “Today,” he said, ...

Read the Documents!

The third reflection in the series on why Catholics must know the real Vatican Council II: 3) “The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services” ( Sacrosanctum Concilium , #116). Here's why.

Search This Blog