Katolsk

Imbredagene om høsten

Katolsk /

Imbredagene (fastedagene) om høsten er uka etter festen for korsets opphøyelse, 14. september – altså onsdag, fredag og lørdag denne uka. Father Z. skriver i år om disse dagene:

These days were penitential in spirit. They were also traditional times for ordinations. If nothing else, pray during these Ember Days in a special way for an increase in vocations to the priesthood. If you cannot attend Ember Day Masses in the older form of the Roman Rite perhaps you would, in your goodness, make a donation to a diocesan or other sound vocation program.

I en kommentar skriver en dame ganske interessant om hvordan hun husker denne tradisjonen fra «gamle dager»: (De forsvant i 1970, men kan forstsatt brukes, så vidt jeg forstår.)

I remember Ember Days as a child as we lived in a rural area and these were big days. These were connected to the harvest times to remind people to be grateful but also moderate in eating and drinking. Harvest festivals and embers days were like the waxing and waning of our relationship with the good things of the earth. I distinctly remember fasting and abstaining as all us kids did as our parents did. Growing up with such practices was merely part of the rhythm of life. Friday fast, ember day fasts, days of festivals, formed our lives and added to our Catholic identity. I, for one, was sad when so many of these things passed away in the new calendar.

Om katolsk (og annen) blogging

Data/blogg, Katolsk /

En av de godt voksne og seriøse prestebloggerne i England, Fr. Tim Finigan, holdt nylig et foredrag ved the Catholic Theological Association Annual Conference, kalt «New Movements and New Media«. Der sa han bl.a. om blogging:

The rise of the Catholic blogosphere was not something engineered by Pope Benedict, though his election proved to be a focal point for many new bloggers at a time of growth. What he has done is to encourage this phenomenon and to give some fatherly guidance. Three successive annual messages for World Communications Day were devoted to the digital media. In 2009, the Holy Father spoke of how new technologies had brought about a shift in patterns of communication and human relationships. He addressed the “digital generation” encouraging the promotion of human understanding and solidarity. Remarkably he addressed the concept of Christian friendship in the context of a digital concept of “friend”, a clear reference to Facebook. Towards the end of his message, he appealed to young Catholics:

It falls, in particular, to young people, who have an almost spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication, to take on the responsibility for the evangelization of this «digital continent». Be sure to announce the Gospel to your contemporaries with enthusiasm. You know their fears and their hopes, their aspirations and their disappointments: the greatest gift you can give to them is to share with them the “Good News” of a God who became man, who suffered, died and rose again to save all people.

The following year, the Holy Father addressed priests particularly. He spoke of the way in which digital communications offer priests new possibilities for proclaiming the word of God.

The spread of multimedia communications and its rich “menu of options” might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web, or to see it only as a space to be filled. Yet priests can rightly be expected to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different “voices” provided by the digital marketplace. Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.

Since April 2006, my blog has had six and a half million page views from nearly 4 million visitors. Other priests I know have up to ten times the number of readers that I have. Even a relatively low traffic blog by a priest who simply posts his sermons each week would get in excess of 200 unique visitors per day. There is no way that we would reach that number of people by preaching in Church or even by standing on a soap box in the local shopping mall. A priest who blogs is made acutely aware of his responsibilities by the (unmanageable) correspondence that he receives from the faithful who are grateful, confused by things that have happened in their local Church, in need of prayer, or puzzled by some aspects of Catholic doctrine. Whatever criticisms we might have of individual priests’ blogs this platform is certainly a means that can be used for evangelisation.

In 2011 Pope Benedict addressed the question of the internet a third time. He spoke of a vast cultural transformation parallel to the industrial revolution. I would suggest that it is also parallel to the invention of moveable type, something especially relevant to evangelisation. In this message he addressed the dangers of “cyberspace” particularly in regard to personal authenticity. He also reaffirmed that direct personal contact can never be replaced by virtual friendships and that such contact was fundamental for the transmission of the faith. He called us back to Christ:

In the final analysis, the truth of Christ is the full and authentic response to that human desire for relationship, communion and meaning which is reflected in the immense popularity of social networks. Believers who bear witness to their most profound convictions greatly help prevent the web from becoming an instrument which depersonalizes people, attempts to manipulate them emotionally or allows those who are powerful to monopolise the opinions of others.

In these messages, Pope Benedict used his authority, which is hugely respected by many Catholic bloggers, to offer a deeper vision of social communication and to invite us to an examination of conscience which is necessary from time to time when communication is made so easy, effective and powerful.

Det engelske tidsskriftet The Tablet liker ikke blogging noe særlig, soesielt ikke konservative, katolske blogger, og skriver:

[T]he use of social media, particularly blogs and tweets, where instant reaction is coarsening debate. And it’s evident not just in politics but in religion too, particularly in comment over the same topics that cause such vitriol in politics: life and death issues, sex, marriage, gays. Friends who work at The Guardian tell me that great care has to be taken in monitoring its website whenever Catholics write opinion pieces, given the aggression of many readers’ instant responses to them.

Critics of the Church and of Catholics are not only to blame. Nasty, unChristian remarks abound within the Catholic world. No wonder one Catholic journalist says he won’t read the most vicious sites of the Catholic blogosphere any more: he views them as an occasion of sin. But what’s worrying is that Rome is apparently keen to read them too.

The Vatican itself has become adept at using new media – check out YouTube, its tweets, its websites – realising the power of these twentyfirst-century opinion formers. The word is that Vatican officials are gleaning much of their “knowledge” of the Church beyond Rome from blogs, including those that have made spite their signature dish.

If we have reached a stage when Rome’s views are shaped by bloggers’ vitriol rather than the opinions of its nuncios and its bishops, let alone sounding out the people in the pews who pray and pay, then something deeply distorted is developing. It’s certainly no way for Rome to learn to talk human. (Father Z. kommenterer dette her – svært kritisk til the Tablet.)

Jeg har selv blogget i over 7 år, har ca 200 besøk pr dag, og fått kjeft noen ganger. Personlig syns jeg nok det kan være ubehagelig å lese kommentarer i blogger, nettaviser o.l., mens innleggene/sidene selv ofte er nyttige. Jeg har sensurert en del innlegg på min egen blogg, og f.eks. er kommanterene på Vårt Lands Verdidebatt hovegrunnen til at jeg besøker denne fellesbloggen forholdsvis sjelden.

Pave Benedikt i Libanon

Katolsk, Paven /

Pave Benedikts besøk i Libanon får ganske positiv omtale, her fra to ikke-katolske kilder, BBC og og avisa Dagen.

Sistnevnte har nylig skrevet flere positive artikler om vår Kirke – bl.a. om St Paul menighet her – og betrakter tydeligvis katolikkene nå som (nokså vanlige) kriste – «I love jesus» på bildet over viser jo dette.

Fem år siden den tradisjonelle messen ble frigitt

Katolsk, Liturgi, TLM /

For meg er det i løpet av disse årene blitt helt naturlig å feire både den tradisjonelle og den nye messen, men det er fortsatt nokså få prester som gjør det (er de redd for motstanden, for ekstraarbeidet med å lære noe nytt, liker de ikke Kirkens gamle tradisjon?). Jeg ser heller ikke så veldig forskjell mellom de to formene av messen, i alle fall når man feirer den nye messen i lys av tradisjonen (som jeg selv gjør).

Det har de siste årene blitt helt normalt for meg å lære av Kirkens tradisjon også når det gjelder liturgiske spørsmål (ikke bare når det gjelder historie og teologi); men for veldig mange mennesker førte slutten av 60-tallet til et dramatisk brudd liturgisk sett, helt unødvendig og svært skadelig etter min mening – dette er et brudd som må leges så snart som mulig.

Slik skriver Father Z. om dagens jubileum:

Today is the anniversary of the happy day when Summorum Pontificum went into force. A lot of progress has been made but there is still a great deal to do.

But consider the fact that, even though many seminaries and even bishops are resisting the formation of priests for the whole of their Roman Rite, after five years, all the major seminarians in formation now have not known a time as seminarians when the provisions were not in effect.

It seems to me that, though sometimes it seems as if the wheels are spinning once in a while, this is going to get traction soon. And when it does….

Perhaps we shall see some great gains during this Year of Faith? Perhaps you can redouble your efforts to promote and stimulate and bring about a wider implementation of the provisions of the Motu Proprio.

Please say a pray for Benedict XVI today, who gave priests and laity alike this great gift.

Spennende om Bredtvet kirke

Generelt, Katolsk /

Jeg feirer nå messe hver søndag morgen i Bredtvet kirke, og så vidt jeg vet er det førstkommende mandag Oslo (lutherske) bispedømmeråd egentlig skal avgjøre om vi katolikker får kjøp/ leie denne kirken. Det er min studiekamerat fra 30 år siden som uttaler seg om dette til NRK:

… Mange som bor i Groruddalen tilhører andre religioner, og behovet for kirker er ikke lenger like stort. Derfor skal Oslo bispedømmeråd bestemme seg for om de fire sognene i Grorud-området skal bli ett, og om de skal gi fra seg Bredtvet kirke.

Leder i Oslo bispedømmeråd, Harald Hegstad, mener at Bredtvet kirke vil være den beste kirken å gi slipp på, enten ved å selge eller leie den ut. …

Eksempler på liturgiske feil

Katolsk, Liturgi /

Bloggen PrayTell er på ingen måte spesielt konservativt, det kan man se både på innlegg om kommentarer, men ofte tar de opp interessante og aktuelle (mest) liturgiske spørsmål. Nylig spurte de om hvilke liturgiske feil prester gjør, som (uten at de ønsker det) kan føre til en konservativ reform av liturgien. I innlegges nevnes det to slike feil; det ene er at presten begynner messen med et rungende «Good morning!», og det andre er at han løfter hostien og kalken høyt opp under konserkrasjonen (dvs mens han sier ordene), ser på menigheten hele tiden, og på en måte «spiller» handlingen for dem. Slike ting ser man ofte i USA, men jeg har heldigvis aldri sett det i Norge.

I en kommentar skriver Fr. Allan J. McDonald interessant om dette:

We have to keep in mind that many priests my age and older (in their 50′s and forward) were taught and had modeled for us the Fr. Eugene Walsh school of celebrating Mass which is a model that has the priest trying to engage the “assembly” with a smile on one’s face and dramatic gestures towards them to embrace them and pull them into the “action” of the Liturgy.
He encouraged dramatic eye-contact with the congregation not only in reading the lessons, I mean, proclaiming the Scriptures and having an “informal” formality, a kind of “living room” approach to connecting the priest to the assembly and the assembly to one another and to the priest. What this leads to is a “false” liturgical familiarity with the assembly, proclaiming not only the Scriptures to the assembly but also the prayers, all the prayers, and reading these as though they are directed to the assembly, not only with gestures, but with eye contact and moving one’s eyes and head toward the assembly so that each person present feels as though they are pulled into the “action” of the prayer.
Facing the congregation directly by not only the priest but also the choir or ensemble leading the music gives an air to the entertainment model of assemblies that so many experience today when they attend Mass even if no rubrics are actually challenged or words changed, but the latter two do occur and rather frequently in innocuous and blatant ways. And when the priest faces the congregation for prayer, many often comment that they like this, that or another priest or dislike him because of his demeanor and visual piety thus developing the “cult the celebrity priest or the villain priest” based upon the visual features and piety of the priest’s face. …

Fr. Allan J. McDonald interessant blogg kan leses her.

Kardinal Burke om kirkeretten og «ånden» fra Vatikankonsilet

Katolsk, Teologi /

For noen år siden arbeidet jeg sammen emd en prest som ofte ga uttrykk for at han ikke hadde noe sans for eller respekt for kirkeretten. Jeg tenkte på det da jeg nylig leste om et foredrag kardinal Burke holdt om kirkeretten i slutten av august. Om det foredraget leser vi bl.a.:

Lamenting a clerical culture dismissive of canon law in the decades following the Second Vatican Council, Cardinal Raymond Burke addressed a Kenyan canon law convention on August 28 2012 about “the essential service of canon law in the work of the new evangelization.”

“After I began my studies of Canon Law in September of 1980, I soon learned how much the Church’s discipline was disdained by her priests, in general,” he recounted. “Institutes of the Church’s law, which, in her wisdom, she had developed down the Christian centuries, were set aside without consideration of their organic relationship to the life of the Church or of the chaos which would necessarily result from their neglect or abandonment.”

“The ‘hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture,’ which has tried to hijack the renewal mandated by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, is marked by a pervasively antinomian culture, epitomized by the Paris student riots of 1968, and has had a particularly devastating effect on the Church’s discipline,” he continued

. “It is profoundly sad to note, for instance, how the failure of knowledge and application of the canon law, which was indeed still in force, contributed significantly to the scandal of the sexual abuse of minors by the clergy in our some parts of the world.”

The prefect of the Apostolic Signatura continued: The years of a lack of knowledge of the Church’s discipline and even of a presumption that such discipline was no longer fitting to the nature of the Church indeed reaped gravely harmful fruits in the Church. For example, I think of the pervasive violation of the liturgical law of the Church, of the revolution in catechesis which often rendered the teaching of the faith vacuous and confused, if not erroneous; of the breakdown of the discipline of priestly formation and priestly life, …..

Hele kardinal Burkes foredrag kan leses her.

Katolsk tidsskrift kritiserer katolsk biskop

Katolsk /

The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy i England arrangerer en interessant konferanse i oktober. Her skal bl.a. en engelsk, katolsk biskop delta, noe som får en skribent i det katolske tidssktiftet the Tablet til «å se rødt» (fra continuity-bloggen):

… the Tablet observes that Bishop Egan’s appointment was seen as «part of a trend to appoint outspoken defenders of Church teaching to dioceses in England and Wales.» How dreadful! Fancy appointing Bishops who are outspoken defenders of the teaching of the Church! Most of us might see the defence of the teaching of the Church as an uncontroversial requirement of Canon Law for the appointment of Bishops. In Tablet-speak it makes him a «rising star for the conservative wing of the Church in England and Wales.» Can they really mean that the other Bishops are generally not outspoken defenders of the teaching of the Church? Perish the thought!

In classic Tablet style, the Notebook piece was used as a dolly-up for a thunderous letter the following week … Mr Angry refers to Bishop Egan’s nefarious role as Church teaching defender, along with his guilt by association with Bishop Mark Davies. He reckons that «The plans and purposes of this confraternity should be made known as widely as possible, openly debated and wherever necessary vigorously opposed.»

Her er så noe av det aktuelle leserinnlegget i the Tablet:

… The plans and purposes of this confraternity should be made known as widely as possbile, openly debated and wherever necessary vigorously opposed. Being in his diocese, I am able to get a very good idea of the mentality of the confraternity from Bishop Davies’ own Shrewsbury Voice. It is reaction itself. It stands for a return of the Church to how it was before the Second Vatican Council. It holds to an excessive, hence highly unbalanced, interpretation of the role and power of the papacy which has no foundation in biblical and patristic sources. This is the pool from which episcopal appointments are now, and will be, made. It is totally unable to distinguish between its version of ecclesiology, the sacraments, male and female relationships, and so on from what is also now on offer, and has been for many centuries, in the Universal Church. The confraternity is a gathering of the like minded who root themselves in the nineteenth century and pre-Second World War Europe. It has influence, and its influence will grow. It has to be challenged, by whatever way it does it, by the rest of the hierarchy itself; by the clergy and with the equal involvement of the Catholic laity which is now anything but the subservient layer of the Church which the confraternity would like to return it to. …

Pave Benedikt om Guds lov

Katolsk, Paven /

Litt forsinket kommer her pave Benedikts preken til Angelus-bønnen sist søndag:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The theme of God’s Law, of his commandments, makes its entrance in the Liturgy of the Word this Sunday. It is an essential element of the Jewish and Christian religions, where the complete fulfilment of the law is love (cf. Rom 13:10). God’s Law is his word which guides men and women on the journey through life, brings them out of the slavery of selfishness and leads them into the “land” of true freedom and life. This is why the Law is not perceived as a burden or an oppressive restriction in the Bible. Rather, it is seen as the Lord’s most precious gift, the testimony of his fatherly love, of his desire to be close to his People, to be its Ally and with it write a love story.

This is what the devout Israelite prays: “I will delight in your statutes, / I will not forget your word…. Lead me in the path of your commandments, / for I delight in it” (Ps 119[118]:16, 35). In the Old Testament the person who passes on the Law to the People on God’s behalf is Moses. After the long journey in the wilderness, on the threshold of the promised land, he proclaims: “Now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you” (Deut 4:1). And this is the problem: when the People put down roots in the land and are the depository of the Law, they are tempted to place their security and joy in something that is no longer the Word of God: in possessions, in power, in other ‘gods’ that in reality are useless, they are idols. Of course, the Law of God remains but it is no longer the most important thing, the rule of life; rather, it becomes a camouflage, a cover-up, while life follows other paths, other rules, interests that are often forms of egoism, both individual and collective.

Thus religion loses its authentic meaning, which is to live listening to God in order to do his will — that is the truth of our being — and thus we live well, in true freedom, and it is reduced to practising secondary customs which instead satisfy the human need to feel in God’s place. This is a serious threat to every religion which Jesus encountered in his time and which, unfortunately, is also to be found in Christianity. Jesus’ words against the scribes and Pharisees in today’s Gospel should therefore be food for thought for us as well.

Jesus makes his own the very words of the Prophet Isaiah: “This People honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” (Mk 7:6-7; cf. Is 29,13). And he then concludes: “You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men” (Mk 7:8).

The Apostle James too alerts us in his Letter to the danger of false piety. He writes to the Christians: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Jas 1:22). May the Virgin Mary, to whom we now turn in prayer, help us to listen with an open and sincere heart to the word of God so that every day it may guide our thoughts, our decisions and our actions.

Kardinal Carlo Maria Martinis «åndelige testamente»

Katolsk /

Flere steder har vi lest om det siste intervjuet med Milanos tidligere erkebiskop, Kardinal Carlo Maria Martini, noen uker før han døde 31/8. Jeg vil gjøre det klart at jeg ikke deler hans synspunkter, faktisk syns jeg de er ganske sjokkerende. Men her er intervjuet i John Allens oversettelse, med følgende innledning:

Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini died in Varese, northern Italy, on Aug. 31 at the age of 85. Two weeks earlier, on Aug. 8, Martini gave a final interview to his fellow Jesuit Fr. George Sporschill, with whom Martini had collaborated on a book titled Nocturnal Conversations in Jerusalem, and an Italian friend named Federica Radice Fossati Confalonieri. Radice has told Italian media outlets that Martini read and approved the text of the interview, intending it as a sort of «spiritual testament» to be published after his death.

Og her litt av intervjuet:

What tools do you recommend against the exhaustion of the church?

I recommend three very strong ones. The first is conversion: the church must recognize its errors and follow a radical path of change, beginning with the pope and the bishops. The pedophilia scandals compel us to take up a path of conversion. Questions about sexuality, and all the themes involving the body, are an example. These are important to everyone, sometimes perhaps too important. We have to ask ourselves if people still listen to the advice of the church on sexual matters. Is the church still an authoritative reference in this field, or simply a caricature in the media?

The second is the Word of God. Vatican II gave the Bible back to Catholics. Only those who perceive this Word in their heart can be part of those who will help achieve renewal of the church, and who will know how to respond to personal questions with the right choice. The Word of God is simple, and seeks out as its companion a heart that listens. … Neither the clergy nor ecclesiastical law can substitute for the inner life of the human person. All the external rules, the laws, the dogmas, are there to clarify this internal voice and for the discernment of spirits.

Who are the sacraments for? These are the third tool of healing. The sacraments are not an instrument of discipline, but a help for people in their journey and in the weaknesses of their life. Are we carrying the sacraments to the people who need new strength? I think of all the divorced and remarried couples, to extended families. They need special protection. The church upholds the indissolubility of matrimony. It’s a grace when a marriage and a family succeed …

The attitude we hold towards extended families determines the ability of the church to be close to their children. A woman, for instance, is abandoned by her husband and finds a new companion, who takes care of her and her three children. This second love succeeds. If this family is discriminated against, not only is the mother cut out [from the church] but also her children. If the parents feel like they’re outside the church, and don’t feel its support, the church will lose the future generation.

Before communion, we pray: «Lord, I am not worthy …’ We know we’re not worthy … Love is a grace. Love is a gift. The question of whether the divorced can receive communion ought to be turned around. How can the church reach people who have complicated family situations, bringing them help with the power of the sacraments? …

Fra en av de berømte liturgiukene i USA

Katolsk, Liturgi /

En blogg jeg nettopp kom over – conciliaria.com – skriver om det som skjedde ved oppstarten av konsilet for 50 år siden. Nylig skrev de – dvs. presenterte gamle dokumenter som skrev – om den liturgiske konferansen som ble holdt i Seattle i juni 1962. En konferanse som ble beskrevet slik:

What is a Liturgical Week?
The first Liturgical Week, sponsored by the National Liturgical Conference, was held in 1940, in a room in the basement of Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. It was attended by just a handful of people, mainly priests. But these days, it is clear that the Liturgical Movement is not just a fad or a trend, nor is it only for priests. Pope Pius XII, and his successor, our beloved Pope John XXIII, have embraced the Liturgical Movement as the work of the Church itself. Last year’s Liturgical Week in Oklahoma City drew about 5,000 people–priests, religious, and laity–who came together to pray together and to learn more about the Church’s worship and to explore displays, listen to lectures, view demonstrations and art exhibits, and even take part in a contest for the best church design. This year’s Liturgical Week in Seattle is expected to be the largest yet, with as many as 6,000 participants. The added attraction of the World’s Fair, and the excitement about the forthcoming Ecumenical Council, both have something to do with the surge of interest in the Liturgical Week. LES MER HER.

Bloggen viser også til en annen artikkel som ble skrevet om lturgien, etter at konferansen var over, og som tok med et bilde (over) av den første messen som ble feiret versus populum i Seattle:

From the June 28, 1962 issue of Commonweal Magazine, a provocative call for liturgical reform by an organizer of the North American Liturgical Week recently held in Seattle in conjunction with the World’s Fair, imagining how liturgy might be celebrated 50 years from now. LES MER HER.

28. august: Den hellige Augustin

Katolsk /

I dag feirer Kirken den hellige biskop og kirkelærer, Augustin. Om ham leste vi i dag i de tradisjonelle tidebønnene:

Augustine was born of good parents at Tagaste in Africa, and in a short time surpassed all his companions in learning. As a young man, when in Carthage, he fell into the Manichean heresy. Later he went to Rome and was sent from there to Milan to teach rhetoric. At Milan, he was persuaded by Monica, his most devout mother, to become a frequent listener to the Bishop Ambrose. Ambrose brought it about that Augustine was fired with a desire for the Catholic faith, and baptized him when he was thirty-three years old. Going back to Africa, Augustine led a life governed by religion and holiness, and was made priest by Valerius, Bishop of Hippo, renowned for his sanctity. At this same period, he founded a religious community with whom he lived, taking part in their life and worship while he trained them very carefully to the apostolic life and to learning. Moved by his devotion, Valerius made him his coadjutor bishop. He wrote many works remarkable for their devotion, subtlety and diffuseness, to combat heresies and throw light on Christian teaching. When the Vandals were laying Africa waste and Hippo had been besieged for three months, he was taken with a fever and went to the Lord in the seventy-sixth year of his age. His body was buried first in Sardinia and then in Pavia, where it is venerated with honour.

Et bordalter er tatt bort

Katolsk, Liturgi /

Det er nok en stund til slike ting begynner å skje i Norge, men i andre land begynner det nå langsomt; at bordalter som ble plassert i kirkenes kor på 70-tallet, nå tas bort. Dette eksempelet er fra the Assumtion Grotto i Detroit, der sognepresten skriver bl.a.:

… many of you, though not all, noticed a change in the sanctuary of the church last weekend. The low altar had been removed, allowing the high altar to shine in its full original splendor. Although I had intended to write to you about this in advance of its ouster, events moved too swiftly for me to do that. Our Parish Council members had been foretold of this intention sometime ago. No one then showed any dissatisfaction with the proposal. Indeed, everyone seemed intrigued to know how the church would have looked at its construction. I offer a brief ‘unscientific’ history of this subject.

… After the Second Vatican Council there was a popular movement in liturgical circles to have the Mass celebrated with the priest facing the people, even though this was never mandated by the Council nor by any subsequent directive of the Holy See. Grotto Church, like most others, began the practice with a temporary altar set up in the great open space before the high altar (which space had been created for the old solemn ceremonies of the Latin liturgy) so that a priest could celebrate Mass towards the people. … In 1978 Monsignor Sawher decided to replace the temporary low altar with a dignified and indeed beautiful marble altar that would in many ways be harmonious with the existing decor.

When I carefully studied the book The Spirit of the Liturgy by then-Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), I realized that we ought to be facing East once again and not towards the people since that position inadvertently created a “closed circle” that did not aim towards heaven, towards God (East), but towards man (symbolically indicating that man and not God was the focal point of the Mass). In the early years of my pastorship here, the low altar was used variously: first, facing the people; then facing East; and then, with a move of the altar farther back some feet towards the main altar, with the priest still facing East. We were getting progressively more in line with an ideal.

… Fine, you may say, but what is to be done should a visiting priest want to celebrate Mass facing the people? We have already provided for that in having readily available an altar that can be set in place in a matter of minutes. It too is suitably made, containing an true altar stone and thus worthy of Holy Mass.

Hyrdebrev om ekteskapet i Skottland

Apologetikk, Katolsk /

I går, søndag, ble et hyrdebrev om ekteskapet lest opp i alle katolske kirker i Skottland, siden det der i det siste har vært mye diskusjon om innføringen av en kjønnsnøytral ekteskapslov. Og biskopene skrev bl.a. (les mer her):

… We write to you having already expressed our deep disappointment that the Scottish Government has decided to redefine marriage and legislate for same-sex marriage. We take this opportunity to thank you for your past support in defense of marriage and hope you will continue to act against efforts to redefine it. We reaffirm before you all the common wisdom of humanity and the revealed faith of the Church that marriage is a unique life-long union of a man and a woman. In circumstances when the true nature of marriage is being obscured, we wish to affirm and celebrate the truth and beauty of the Sacrament of Matrimony and family life as Jesus revealed it; to do something new to support marriage and family life in the Catholic community and in the country; and to reinforce the vocation of marriage and the pastoral care of families which takes in the everyday life of the Church in dioceses and parishes across the country. For that reason, in the forthcoming Year of Faith we have decided to establish a new Commission for Marriage and the Family. … The new Commission will promote the true nature of marriage as both a human institution and a union blessed by Jesus. The Commission will be asked to develop an online presence so that prayer, reflection, formation and practical information on matters to do with marriage and family life can be quickly accessible to all. It will also work to produce materials and organise events which will support ordinary Catholic families in their daily lives. During the course of the coming year we will ask for your support for these initiatives. Our faith teaches us that marriage is a great and holy mystery. The Bishops of Scotland will continue to promote and uphold the universally accepted definition of marriage as the union solely of a man and a woman. At the same time, we wish to work positively for the strengthening of marriage within the Church and within our society. This is an important initiative for all our people, but especially our young people and children. We urge you to join us in this endeavour. Pray for your own family every day, and pray for those families whose lives are made difficult by the problems and cares which they encounter. Finally, we invite you to pray for our elected leaders, invoking the Holy Spirit on them, that they may be moved to safeguard marriage as it has always been understood, for the good of Scotland and of our society.

Bør den eukaristiske fasten igjen bli tre timer?

Katolsk, Liturgi /

Hos Rorate Cæli fikk jeg tips om et nytt dokument om liturgien fra engelske Latin Mass Society. Dette siste dokumentet i denne serien argumenterer for at en tre timers faste før mottagelsen av kommunion bør gjeninnføres – og jeg syns nok argumentene har noe for seg. (Inntil 1953/-57 var det i over 1000 år obligatorisk faste fra midnatt før kommunion, så ble dette redusert til tre timer, og på 60-tallet til bare én time – noe som i prasis er nesten ingen ting.)

I dokumentet leser vi bl.a.:

On this topic, and on the topic of Holy Days of Obligation, which we will be dealing with in the future, Catholics attending the Traditional Mass are governed by Canon Law, and the provisions of their local bishops, which have changed the legal structure the liturgy works within. The Canon legal situation in 1962 was that we were obliged to fast for three hours before receiving Communion (see Appendix B for the full details); a few years earlier, we had been obliged to fast from Midnight. The seriousness the midnight fast, and even the three hour fast, implied about the reception of Holy Communion, accorded with the seriousness implied by the ancient liturgy itself. These fasts were something which Catholics intending to receive Holy Communion had to think about; every now and then people would not receive Communion because it was not practical to observe the fast, that is, to give the Blessed Sacrament the honour which is its due. (Although, in fact, the exceptions to the three-hour fast after 1957 were extremely generous: see Appendix C.)

By contrast – and I think I can say this without offending anyone – the one-hour fast is not serious. The motivation for it is obvious enough, to make things easier for the Faithful, but it no longer tells us that the reception of Holy Communion is something to be prepared for with care, and undertaken with fear and trembling. It does not accord with the seriousness implied by the ancient Mass.

Since the decision has been taken by the Holy Father to treat the Traditional Latin Mass, from a legal point of view, as a ‘form’ of the same Rite as the Novus Ordo, rather than as a separate Rite, it does not make sense to argue for a different, binding discipline for the Eucharistic Fast for Catholics attending the TLM, than for Catholics attending the Novus Ordo. Within this context, we must argue for a revision of the discipline for all Catholics of the Latin Rite. And it seems to us that this is an opportune moment to do just that.

Les hele dokumentet her.

Pius X feires i dag (eller 3. september)

Katolsk, Liturgi /


Jeg feiret nettopp messen i St Hallvard kirke, og mintes den hellige pave Pius X, siden der er 21. august. Jeg har fridag tirsdag og feirer da vanligvis en privatmesse i den tradisjonelle form, men i dag var dte ingen andre prester her, så jeg måtte feire menighetsmessen.

Og om Pius X og hans minnedag skriver katolsk.no:

… Tidlig på morgenen den 20. august 1914 døde Pius X i Roma av en lungebetennelse. Etter hans eget ønske ble han bisatt i en prunkløs sarkofag i grotten i Peterskirken. Han skrev i sitt testamente: «Jeg ble født fattig, har levd som fattig og jeg ønsker å dø fattig.»

Pius X var på mange måter dypt konservativ, og ble også ansett slik av samtidige. Men han hører også til de største og mest konstruktive reformpavene på grunn av reorganiseringen av kurien og nyordningen av kirkeretten, men særlig på grunn av den religiøse fornyelsen av Kirken han sterkt hadde fremmet. Målet for Pius Xs pontifikat, å «fornye alle ting i Kristus», kunne han langt på vei virkeliggjøre. Han karakteriseres som en «konservativ reformpave», og vil alltid ha en fremtredende plass i pavehistorien.

Pius X ble tillagt mirakler ennå mens han levde, og italienerne kalte ham allerede da «il Papa Santo». Straks etter hans død var det et inntrengende folkelig ønske om hans kanonisering. Prosessen begynte i 1923, og han ble saligkåret av Pius XII den 3. juni 1951, og den 29. mai 1954 ble han helligkåret som den første pave på 242 år. Hans minnedag var opprinnelig den 3. september, men siden 1969 er den 21. august.

Jeg vet ikke hvorfor man først (da han ble helligkåret i 1954) valgte 3. september som minnedag, men nå feires han så nær sin dødsdag som praktisk mulig. Wikipedia skriver:

Pius X’s feast day was assigned in 1955 to 3 September, to be celebrated as a Double. It remained thus for 15 years. In the 1960 calendar (incorporated in the 1962 Roman Missal of Pope John XXIII, whose continued use as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite is authorized under the conditions indicated in the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum) the rank was changed to Third-Class Feast. The rank in the General Roman Calendar since 1969 is that of Memorial and the feast day is obligatorily celebrated on 21 August, closer to the day of his death (20 August, impeded by the feast day of St Bernard).

I orden for de Transalpine Redemptoristene

Katolsk, TLM /


Catholic Herald melder at den fire år lange ventetiden nå er over for disse prestene:

The Congregation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, also known as the Transalpine Redemptorists, was erected today, on the feast of the Assumption, as a Clerical Institute of Diocesan Right. The community, which has about 15 members, has been in limbo since 2008 when it announced that it wished to enter into full communion with Rome.

The group’s decision was a response to Pope Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, which allowed priests to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass freely.

Previously, the community had been a part of the worldwide Society of St Pius X (SSPX), the estranged traditionalist group currently in dialogue with Rome.

Next Wednesday evening, August 22, the community are to make a public profession of vows at their home on Papa Stronsay, a tiny, windswept island in Orkney, off the north-east of Scotland. The profession will be celebrated by Bishop Hugh Gilbert OSB of Aberdeen, who, as their diocesan bishop, granted them canonical recognition.

Bishop Gilbert was ordained as Bishop of Aberdeen exactly a year ago, taking over from Bishop Peter Moran, who had retired.

Brødrene skriver også om dette på sin egen blogg.

«Maria hører våre bønner i himmelen», sier pave Benedikt

Katolsk /

På the Catholic Herald leser vi om pavens messe på denne store høytidsdagen for jomfru Maria:

Assumed into heaven, Mary is with God and is ready to listen and respond to cries for help, Pope Benedict XVI has said. Joining God in heaven, Mary “does not draw away from us, does not go to an unknown galaxy”, but becomes “even closer to each one of us”, the Pope said during his homily today at Mass for the feast of the Assumption.

… The Pope celebrated an early morning Mass in the Church of St Thomas. … Mary’s assumption, he said, gives believers “a sure hope: God expects us, he awaits us. We are not moving toward a void.” “And going to that other world, we will find the goodness of the Mother [Mary], we will find our loved ones, we will find eternal love,” the Pope said.

Pope Benedict, who set aside his prepared text for much of his homily, said that Mary’s closeness to God ensures her closeness to all God’s creatures. “Mary, totally united with God, has a heart that is so big that all creation can find a place there,” a fact illustrated by the votive offerings people around the world leave at Marian shrines and statues when their prayers are answered, he said.

Mary’s presence in heaven shows that “in God there is room for man”, he said. At the same time, he said, she demonstrates that “in man there is room for God,” and when God is present within individuals and they allow God to influence the way they act in the world, the world becomes a better place.

… Later, Pope Benedict recited the Angelus with visitors crowded into the courtyard of the papal summer villa. Continuing his reflection on the meaning of the Assumption, he said that “it shows us, in a brilliant way, our destiny and that of humanity and of history. In Mary, in fact, we contemplate that reality of glory to which each one of us and the entire Church is called.”

Prestestudenter må lære den tradisjonelle messen

Katolsk, TLM /

Biskop Morlino i Madison, Wisconsin, USA, hadde nylig en samling for sine prestestudenter, om ba dem alle lære den tradisjonelle latinske messen (i tillegg til den nye messen) før si ordinasjon. Father Z. skriver om dette, bl.a.:

Bp. Morlino told the [seminarians] that it was his expectation that all of them learn how to say Mass in the Extraordinary Form before they are ordained.

Morlino did not say that they would be required to use it all the time, but that they must know how to use it. If seminaries are not offering the opportunity to learn the older form (which they ought to be, by the way), they could go to workshops or find priests who could help them to learn it. Bottom line: they are to learn the Extraordinary Form.

I think this was a remarkable. How many bishops, after all, are saying this openly to their seminarians? It was also, frankly, a paternally charitable thing to tell the seminarians.

First, if there were any doubts about their bishop’s attitude toward his seminarians and traditional forms, these doubts were thereby removed. They need never fear the bishop or worry about what would happen to them when he heard that they were going to TLM’s here or there, learning the rubrics, serving Masses. They need not on this account fear the rector of the seminary they attend, since they are following the expressed desire of the bishop. Moreover, Universae Ecclesiae (the Holy See’s commentary on Summorum Pontificum) gently asserts that seminarians are to know the Extraordinary Form.

Second, knowledge of and use of the older form of Mass teaches men -seminarians and priests alike – something about the priest and the priesthood which the Novus Ordo doesn’t really do on its own. The older form stresses the sacrificial and priestly nature of the priest’s actions and words during Mass as well as the priest’s own deep unworthiness and complete dependence on God’s mercy and grace.

Third, no priest of the Roman Rite ought to rest easy until he knows also the older form. Ignorance of the older form means ignorance of his own rite. Furthermore, when it comes to their ordination, someone must stand up and attest to the ordaining bishop that the men have been properly formed. How can he honestly say they are properly formed if they have been left ignorant by their seminaries of their rite? The seminarians of Madison, by learning the Extraordinary Form, can always be at ease on this point.

(Underlig at noen biskoper krever noe, og andre biskoper nekter akkurat det samme – mens pave Benedikt legger tydelig til rette for at den tradisjonelle messen gjerne må brukes.) Og Father Z. skrev også nylig om en prest som hadde blitt spurt av sin biskop om å lære den tradusjonelle messen:

During his homily this weekend, my pastor stated that our bishop asked him to learn to say the TLM so that he can say mass for a group of Carmelite nuns who recently moved to the area. I would like to pray for my pastor as he learns to say the TLM. …

Pave Benedikts vektlegging på kontinuiteten

Katolsk, Liturgi, Paven, TLM /

Kardinal Burke snakker på denne videoen svært interessant om at den katolsk tradisjonen fortsetter – før, under og etter konsilet. Og om hvordan det er liturgien som aller sterkest må vise denne kontinuiteten – og hvordan dette kommer fram i tillatelsen gitt til alle prester til å feire den tradisjonelle messen, og i den nye engelske oversettelsen av messen. Fr. Z. har transkribert deler av intervjuet:

What the Holy Father … and I’m just reflecting now on what he himself has written … is trying to communicate is the continuity of our Catholic faith down the centuries. Sadly, what happened after the Second Vatican Council was – an idea developed that we were forming a new Church and that everything that had gone on since the time of the first Chrsitians was all retrograde and in some way a defection from what was supposedly this Church of freedom and truth and joy. And what happened in the process is that the tradition was lost, especially in the sacred liturgy. There were many abuses and even the reform of the rite itself was so radical that people didn’t see sometimes how there was a continuity between what’s now called the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite and the Extraordinary Form. The Holy Father … and this is important not just for the sacred liturgy but is important for every aspect of our life … we can see it in catechesis, we can see it the moral life, we can see it in family life, religious life, priestly formation – no need to go into all of that. The Holy Father rightly has put his focus on the sarcred liturgy because this is the highest and most perfect expression of our life in Christ. And if we can reestablish in the celebration of the sacred liturgy a strong sense of the worship of God as God wants it, not my creation, but the gift of God, that sacred worship has been handed down to us in the Church through the centuries, we’ll get a lot of other things straightened out at the same time. It has to start with the sacred liturgy.

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