Denne morsomme videoen på youtube har blitt sett av noen tusen de siste dagene, etter at Father Z. nevnte den på sin blogg. Sheiscatholic har også en del andre videoer der hun forsvarer den katolske tro.
I det engelske, katolske tidsskriftet Catholic Herald skrev William Oddie nylig en artikkel der han gleder seg over utnevnelsen av en ny biskop (msgr Egan til Portsmouth), men der han også skriver om tidligere nuntiers – og engelske biskopers – aktive motstand mot pave Johannes Pauls og pave Bendikts ønsker for Kirken. Les selv – her er starten av artikkelen:
When Archbishop Antonio Mennini was first appointed as papal nuncio, we all had a good look at his record, for clues as to what his policy would be in one of the the most important areas of a nuncio’s work: making recommendations to the Congregation for Bishops and the Holy Father as to who to appoint to dioceses which become vacant. We were all well aware what the explanation was of the great conundrum, for the English Church, about the reign of John Paul II: why was it, when he had appointed most of our bishops, did nearly all of them go out of their way to undermine his vision for the Church? The answer was that a succession of nuncios had “gone native”, and had advised the Holy Father to appoint the men suggested to him by our own existing bishops, and especially by Cardinal Hume and then Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor: in other words, nuncios had been agents for the continuing project of the English bishops endlessly to perpetuate themselves and their de-Romanising, even secularising, vision for the English Church.
On Archbishop Mennini’s appointment, I hopefully speculated that an interview he had given in Russia (where he had previously been nuncio) might indicate that he was firmly behind the Pope’s agenda on the fight against secularisation, and might, therefore, be on-side when it came to the appointment of bishops here who would similarly be of the papal mind, on this and other key elements in the Ratzingerian analysis of where the Church needs to go. It was, I said, “good and hopeful stuff, which encourages one to hope that he will be using his obvious capacity to work out what’s going on in a particular secularised culture to help the Church here to begin the fightback, in the most effective way open to him – that is, by helping the Pope to appoint bishops who will do everything they can to implement rather than to undermine the Holy Father’s agenda.”
Well, the appointment of Mgr Philip Egan could hardly be a more striking demonstration that that is precisely what Archbishop Mennini does intend. To Portsmouth, the diocese in England where more than in any other the subversion of everything Pope John Paul stood for has proceeded unchecked ever since the appointment of its present bishop in 1989, the Holy Father has appointed the right-hand man of Bishop Mark Davies, probably the most passionately orthodox bishop in England today. …..
Jeg møtte Fr. Berg (som har norske aner) i Fribourg Sveits i mars i år. Han var meget vennlig og sympatisk, så jeg er glad for å lese i dag at han er gjenvalgt som superior for FSSP for 6 nye år. Fra FSSPs nettsider leser vi nå følgende kunngjøring:
Communiqué of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter: Wednesday, July 11, 2012, Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, Denton, Nebraska, USA
The General Chapter of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), gathered from July 3 to July 18, 2012 at the International Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Denton, Nebraska, in plenary session elected Fr. John Berg as Superior General for 6 years. This election, at which the 33 capitulants were present, took place on July 9. The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei was immediately informed and sent a congratulatory message.
The election of the Assistants and Counselors will follow in the next days.
An American priest born in 1970, Fr. John Berg studied philosophy at St. Thomas Aquinas College (California, USA) and theology at the International Seminary of St. Peter in Wigratzbad (Bavaria, Germany). Fr. Berg holds a licentiate from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. Ordained a priest in 1997, Fr. Berg taught as a professor at the International Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Nebraska, USA) from 1999 to 2000. Afterwards he exercised his ministry from 2000 to 2005 at the FSSP parish in Sacramento (California, USA), before being appointed again as professor at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary. In 2006, the FSSP General Chapter elected him Superior General for a first term of office. The Chapter reelected him on 9 July 2012 for a second term of six years.
I dag feires den hellige Benedikt (i den nye kalenderen); og i Europa feires han som fest, siden han i 1964 ble utropt til vernehelgen for hele Europa. I dagens messe hørte vi om to passende temaer for Benedikt; om visdom og om fattigdom.
Første lesning Ordsp 2, 1-9
Min sønn, ta imot mine ord, og ta vare på mine bud, så du lytter til visdommen og prøver å forstå med hele ditt sinn. Ja, bare kall på forstanden, og rop med høy røst etter innsikt. Let etter den som om det var sølv, grundig som når en graver etter skatter. Da skal du skjønne hva gudsfrykt er, og vinne kjennskap til Gud. For det er Herren som gir visdom, kunnskap og innsikt går ut fra hans munn. Han lar de rettsindige ha fremgang og er et skjold for dem som er hel i sin ferd. Han verner de stier hvor retten rår, og vokter veien for sine fromme. Da skal du skjønne deg på rettferd og rett, på rettsinn og all god fremferd.Ecangelium Matt 19, 27-29
På den tid tok Peter til orde og sa til Jesus: «Men vi, vi har forlatt alt og fulgt deg. Hva får vi så igjen for det?» Jesus svarte: «Dette skal dere vite: Når tiden for verdens gjenfødelse kommer, når Menneskesønnen troner i sin herlighet – da skal også dere som har fulgt meg, sitte på tolv troner, som dommere over Israels tolv stammer. Og hver og en som har forlatt sitt hjem, sine søsken, sin mor og far, sine barn eller sine marker for mitt navns skyld, – han skal få det mangedobbelt igjen, og det evige liv i eie.»
Under sin første onsdagsaudiens som pave – 27. april 2005 – forklarte pave Benedikt hvorfor han valgte navnet Benedikt. Se og hør videoen under.
Katolsk.no skriver grundig om den hellige Benedikt, bl.a. forklarer de hvorfor han nå feires 11. juli, og ikke 21. mars, som tidligere:
I den gamle kalenderen var Benedikts minnedag dødsdagen 21. mars, mens 11. juli er dagen for overføringen av helgenens relikvier til Frankrike, Benedicti translatio. Ved kalenderrevisjonen i 1969 ble hans minnedag i Universalkirken også flyttet til 11. juli for at den ikke skal falle i fastetiden. Dagen er fest i Europa, som Benedikt er skytshelgen for. I Frankrike feires han også 4. desember, og i Østkirken feires han den 14. mars. Hans minnedag 21. mars er avmerket på den norske primstaven.
Landsbyen Nemi ligger ca 30 km sørøst for Roma, og pave Benedikt var der nylig – og også våren 1965, da siste sesjon av Vatikankonsilet ble forberedt. Fra Zenit.org:
I am really pleased to have the possibility to see this House in Nemi again after 47 years. I have a beautiful memory of it, perhaps the most beautiful memory of the whole Council. I was living in the center of Rome, in the Santa Maria dell Anima College, with all the noise: all this is also beautiful. But to be here surrounded by green, to have this breath of nature and also this freshness of the air, was already in itself a lovely thing. And then there was the company of so many great theologians, with the important and beautiful task to prepare a decree on the mission.
I remember first of all the General of that time, Father Schutte, who had suffered in China, he was condemned and then expelled. He was full of missionary dynamism, of the need to give a new thrust to the missionary spirit. And I was there, a theologian of no great importance, very young, invited I know not why. But it was a great gift for me.
Then there was Fulton Sheen, who fascinated us in the evening with his talks; Father Congar and great
of Leuven. For me it was a spiritual enrichment, a great gift. It was a decree without great controversies. There was this controversy, which I never really understood, between the school of Leuven and that of Munster: is the principal aim of the mission the implantation Ecclesiae or the Evangelii proclamation? However, everything converged in the unique dynamism of the need to take the light of the Word of God, the light of the love of God to the world and to give new joy to this proclamation. And thus a new and beautiful decree was born in those days, accepted almost unanimously by all the Conciliar Fathers, and, for me, it is also a very good complement to Lumen Gentium, because you find in it a Trinitarian ecclesiology, which stems above all from the classic idea of the bonum diffusivum sui, the good that has need to communicate itself, to give itself: it cannot remain in itself, the good thing, goodness itself is essentially communicatio. And this appears already in the Trinitarian mystery, in the interior of God, and it is diffused in the history of salvation and in our need to give to others the good we have received.
Thus, with these memories I have often thought of these days at Nemi which are in me, as I said, an essential part of the experience of the Council. …
Under kan man se et lite innslag fra besøket.
Da vi besøkte USA for noen få uker siden, og bl.a. korherrene dom Elias og dom Daniel på Long Island, hørte vi at dom Gabriel (som vi møtte i Wien i 2008) skulle diakonvies 29. juni – og deretter begynne å arbeide i korherrenes to menigheter på Long island; St Patrick og St Rocco. Bildet øverst viser de tre korherrene, og man kan lese mer om ordinasjonen her.
Denne boken av p Nicola Bux ble utgitt på italiensk i 2008, og nå nylig (21. juni) kom den på engelsk, på Ignatius Press i USA, og i dag kjøpte jeg den som Kindle bok fra Amazon. jeg har lest det interessante forordet av Vittorio Messori, og så vidt fått tid til å begynne på innholdet. … Fortsettelse følger …
Amazon beskriver boken på følgende måte:
When Benedict XVI reestablished the celebration of the older Latin Mass, voices of protest rose up from many sides. The widespread fear was-and is-that the Pope had revealed himself as the reactionary defender of tradition that many have accused him of being since he was the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the former Holy Office.
Defenders of Benedict XVI have responded to these objections by explaining that the use of the Tridentine Rite is not a «step backward» to pre-Vatican II times, but rather a step forward. Now the Church can see what the older rite offered in terms of beauty, reverence, and meaning and perhaps desire more of those elements in the ordinary form of the Mass.
A professor of theology and liturgy, the author of this book explains the motives behind the Pope’s decision to allow two forms of the Mass. He does this by turning to the Pope’s own theological and liturgical writings, but he also draws from his experiences on various Church commissions and in offices of the Roman Curia.
The author also brings to his subject an astute understanding of current social and spiritual trends both inside and outside the Church. Sensitive to modern man’s hunger for the sacred, he desires with Pope Benedict XVI that the Mass be first and foremost a place of encounter with the living God.
Fr Tim Finigan referer på sin blogg til en familie i menigheten som nylig reiste mange timer for å se relikvien til den hellige Johannes Maria Vianney – hans hjerte. Og denne familien skriver:
We drove for over four and a half hours each way on Thursday to spend an hour and a half in prayerful contemplation before the heart of Saint Jean Marie Vianney in Saint Anthony’s Church, Wythenshawe, and it was worth every moment. Hearty and heartfelt praise are owed to Bishop Mark Davies for organising the visit of this precious relic which will undoubtedly bring an outpouring of graces to the Catholic Church in England. In addition to the long queues to venerate the heart of the Cure d’Ars, it was encouraging to see long queues for the many confessionals.
There is still time to see, venerate and pray before this important relic: now more than ever our priests need the intercession of Saint Jean Marie Vianney. See below for the remaining dates. Even if you only manage a short visit after a long journey it will be worthwhile. …
I dag er det fem år siden pave Benedikt «frigjorde» den tradisjonelle latinske messen, og på Father Z’s blogg fant jeg dette intervjuet med kardinal Burke.
NLM-bloggen skriver om dette foredraget som nylig ble holdt i Salt Lake City. Her er lenken til foredraget (på Scribid, der det kan leses og/eller lastes ned) – og man kan også lese det under.
The Reform of the Roman Rite by Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth
Jeg planlegger å kommentere deler av foredraget om ikke lenge.
P. Nicola Bux, en konservativ teolog som jeg har nevnt her på bloggen flere (14) ganger (skriv Bux i søkefeltet, så kommer innleggene opp) har kommet med et forsvar av erkebiskop Müller. Det er Rorate cæli som som har oversatt et intervju med p Bux fra italiensk (se her) til engelsk, der det bl.a. står:
In 2002, Müller, in his book «Die Messe – Quelle des christlichen Lebens» [The Mass – Source of the Christian Life], speaking of the Eucharistic Sacrament, writes that, «the body and blood of Christ do not mean the material components of the human person of Jesus during his lifetime or in his transfigured corporality. Here, body and blood mean the presence of Christ in the signs of the medium of bread and wine.»
It was precisely in Capernaum that the terms used by Jesus, flesh and blood, were misunderstood as anthropomorphic and the Lord had to reiterate their spiritual sense, which does not mean that its presence is less real, true, and substantial. See the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding this. Saint Ambrose says that it is not the the element formed by nature, but the substance produced by the formula of consecration: its very nature is transformed, so body and blood are the being of Jesus. The Tridentine Council says that in the Eucharist Our Lord, true God and true man, is «substantially» present. He is sacramentally present with his substance, a mysterious mode of being,admissible on faith and possible from God.
St. Thomas [Aquinas] had said that the mode of «substance» and not the «quantity», characterizes the presence of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist. The bread and wine as a species or appearances mediate our access to the «substance», something that happens especially in communion. All the same, the Tridentine Council sees no contradiction between the natural way of the presence of Christ in heaven and his sacramental being in many other places. All this was reaffirmed by Pope Paul VI in his Encyclical Mysterium Fidei, unfortunately forgotten. The senses are not enough, but faith is required from us. It is a mystery of the faith.
On Protestantism and the salvific unicity of Jesus, Müller said, in October 2011: «Baptism is the fundamental sign that sacramentally unites us in Christ, and which presents us as the one Church in front of the world. Thus, we as Catholic and Evangelical Christians are already united even in what we call the visible Church.»
St. Augustine defended against the Donatists the truth that baptism is an indestructible bond, which does not abolish fraternity among Christians, even when they are schismatics or heretics.
Unfortunately today debate is feared in the Church, but moves on theses and ostracism of those who think differently. I refer to theology, of course, in which different opinions may be acceptable.
However, doctrinal development benefits from debate: who has more arguments, convinces. In the charges against Bishop Müller, there is extrapolation from the context: it is easy to condemn anyone like this. A true Catholic must trust the authority of the Pope, always. In particular, I believe that Benedict XVI know that he does. And I would like to renew to the Society of St. Pius X the invitation to trust the Pope.»
Og i en av kommentarene på Rorate cæli står det ganske interessant: «Abp Muller seems perfect for this position. He is tough against the extreme liberals … and he is tough against the extreme conservatives …» Jeg må selv si at jeg ikke uroer meg over utnevnelsen, og jeg tror også pave Benedikt vet hva han gjør.
Tyske kat.net har et intervju med den nye lederen av Troskongregasjonen, og skriver bl.a.:
KNA: Herr Erzbischof, was empfinden Sie angesichts Ihrer Ernennung?
Müller: Dankbarkeit für das Vertrauen, das der Papst mir schenkt. Es ist keine leichte Aufgabe, wenn man sich das Ganze der Weltkirche vor Augen hält; aber es ist eine schöne Aufgabe, dem Papst in seinem Lehramt dienen zu können. Das Amt hat eine universalkirchliche Dimension – und hat nichts mit Zentralismus zu tun. …
… KNA: Ein nächstes großes Thema in Rom ist das Konzilsjubiläum. Was erwarten Sie von dem Rückblick?
Müller: Wir brauchen keine Hermeneutik, die von außen an das Konzil herangetragen wird. Es gilt die Hermeneutik zu entdecken, die im Konzil selbst enthalten ist: die Hermeneutik der Reform in der Kontinuität, wie der Heilige Vater wiederholt unterstrichen hat. …
Dette intervjuet kan også leses i engelsk oversettelse. Og for noen dager siden skrev også Continuity-bloggen om denne utnevnelsen:
The big news today is that Bishop Gerhard Müller has been appointed as the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to succeed Cardinal Levada. This appointment has occasioned a certain amount of weeping and gnashing of teeth, from both traditionalists and liberals. …
Fr Longenecker skriver på sin blogg om boka 100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura av David Armstrong:
… Over the years Dave has gathered the evidence for Catholic teaching from just about every source imaginable. He’s debate endlessly with Protestants online and has the strength not only to understand the Catholic faith, but to understand the subtleties and arguments of his Protestant opponents.
This latest book is straight up. You know exactly what you’re getting: 100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura. In Part One he takes us through the reasons for the binding authority of tradition as opposed to the Bible alone. So he outlines how the Bible itself relies on tradition–not just the written word, how Christ and the early church relied on tradition, and how the whole of the story of salvation relies on the spoken word, the prophetic word and the living “word of God” in the lives of faith. In Part Two Dave shows how the authority of the Church is binding–not just the written Scriptures. He piles up evidence from the Bible for the living authority of the church, apostolic succession, evidence for an infallible teaching authority in the church and he winds up with arguments against denominationalism and then counters the usual proof texts used by Protestants for sola Scriptura. …
Høyre arm til Frans Xaver, Kirkens største misjonær etter Paulus – og viktig for meg siden jeg var så mange år hos Frans Xaver-søstrene i Bergen – er vanligvis plassert i Il Jesu-kirken i Roma, men skal sendes til Australia i høst for å sette en spiss på starten av Troens år der. Det var denne armen han døpte og velsignet så mange menensker med.
Francis Phillips hos the Catholic Herald skriver at «The changes at Yad Vashem show that the black legend against the wartime pontiff is on the way out«, og forteller at teksten om Pius XII, som kom opp da museet ble utvidet i 2005 (jeg har selv dessverre bare vært der én gang, høsten 1977), nå har blitt modifisert noe:
The revised text, although still including the point of view of his critics, now adds that according to his supporters the Holy Father’s neutrality “prevented harsher measures against the Vatican and the Church’s institutions throughout Europe, thus enabling a considerable number of secret rescue activities to take place at different levels in the Church.” The Holy See’s apostolic nuncio to Israel, Mgr Antonio Franco, described the change as a “positive evolution”; the text had moved from condemnation to “an evaluation.” The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, added that the new caption also states, “Until all relevant material is available to scholars, this topic will remain open to further inquiry.”
Significantly, the negative phrase “did not intervene” has also been changed to “did not publicly protest”. The Church has always maintained there was a good reason for this: if the Pope had been more outspoken and critical of the Nazis it would have led to more savage reprisals against the Jews – as happened when the Dutch bishops made their own protest. According to his defenders (who have always included a number of Jewish scholars and historians, as well as influential public figures such as the late Israeli prime minister, Golda Meir) Pius XII had to endure a “martyrdom of silence” while doing everything in his power behind the scenes to save thousands of Jewish lives in Europe through the work of papal nuncios and religious orders.
Although the Vatican archives of the Pius XII era are not due to be opened to outside historians until 2014, Fr Federico Lombardi SJ, the director of the Vatican press office, has made it clear that everything there is to know is already known. In other words, when further documentation comes to light it will simply provide more evidence of the Pope’s rescue work, rather than discover any lurking skeletons. According to a spokeswoman for Yad Vashem, the revisions to the caption followed new research, in part based on opening up the archive of Pope Pius XI.
What is noteworthy is Israel’s willingness to re-examine old positions in the light of new findings and then to make tentative steps to setting the record straight towards a Pope who has been unjustly maligned. …
Sist uke leste vi at den 68 år gamle dominikaneren og erkebiskopen, J. Augustine Di Noia, som har vært sekretær for Vatikanets sakramentskongregasjon, nå blir visepresident for den pavelige kommisjonen Ecclesia Dei. I to lange intervjuer – der jeg syns han er overraskende frittalende – sier han mye interessant.
Fra intervjuet med the Catholic News Service kan jeg ta med følgende:
Archbishop Di Noia told Catholic News Service June 26 the Vatican needed to help people who have strong objections to the council see «that these disagreements don’t have to be dividing or keep us from the same Communion table.»
«It is possible to have theological disagreements while remaining in communion with the see of Peter,» he said.
«Part of what we’re saying is that when you read the documents (of Vatican II), you can’t read them from the point of view of some liberal bishops who may have been participants (at the council), you have to read them at face value,» Archbishop Di Noia told CNS. «Given that the Holy Spirit is guiding the church, the documents cannot be in discontinuity with tradition.»
Og fra intervjuet med the National Catholic Register tar jeg med:
In a bid to keep talks on course to a possible reconciliation, Pope Benedict XVI has appointed American Archbishop J. Augustine DiNoia as vice president of the commission charged with helping to bring the Society of St. Pius X back into full communion with Rome.
Noen har gitt dette intervjuet overskriften: «The Pope doesn’t want this division to continue.»
Forrige uke leste jeg en hel del om den siste utviklingen i forsoningsprosessen mellom Vatikanet og SSPX – det fikk meg til å tenke en hel del, men jeg har ikke tenkt å skrive så mye om det på bloggen. Det ser ut som man trenger mer tid (selv om mange trodde at alt var klart) på den dogmatiske grunnlagsteksten, der tilstrekkelig enighet skal stadfestes og undertegnes, før de kirkerettslige tingene kan ordnes.
Men i denne posten på Rorate cæli står det en hel del litt sjokekrne om lekkasjer og ulydighet innen SSPX, bl.a.:
Furthermore, I inform all members of the Chapter that … the Superior General has deprived Bp. Williamson from the position of capitulary due to his stand calling to rebellion and for continually repeated disobedience. He has also been forbidden to come to Écône for the ordinations.
Jeg leste hos Rorate cæli i går: «The Swiss Catholic news agency APIC reported yesterday that Bishop Charles Morerod OP of the Diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg has decided to entrust the pastoral care of the Basilica of Our Lady (Basilique de Notre-Dame) in Fribourg to the FSSP, starting September 2012.»
Det er en god nyhet, for det er vanskelig å få folk til å komme i messer om man ikke har en fast tid og et fast (og godt) sted å tilby, og FSSP måtte i Fribourg tidligere bruke flere ulike kirker – som også hadde andre brukere, slik at det var mange hensyn å ta. Og det er ekstra hyggelig å lese om nyheter (i fremmede land) som man selv også har litt ekstra kjenneskap til. De to bildene av den aktuelle kirken i Fribourg har jeg nemlig tatt selv, i mars i år, da jeg var der for å snakke med FSSP’s leder, Fr. Berg. Og dagen før jeg traff ham, hadde han hatt sin første samtale med biskop Morerod – en dominikaner flere av oss møtte i Oslo ikke lenge før han ble utnevnt til biskop.
Bildet under viser koret i kirken ganske tydelig; det er ikke mye arbeid å flytte det upassende bordet og de upassende stolene, så høyalteret kan brukes slik det var tenkt.
Under et bilde av meg selv samme dag i Fribourg – utenfor en av nabokirkene.
Mens vi i St Hallvard kirke var 25 personer i messen på dagens store fest, siden festen nå (siden 2008 i vårt bispedømme) feires på dagen og ikke på nærmeste søndag (det er både fordeler og ulemper med dette), var det helt fullt i Peterskirken. Se videoen under.
Her er et bilde av Fr. Hunwickes første messe, torsdag i the London/ Brompton Oratory:
Oppdatering 30/7:
Fr Ray Blake skriver om dette på sin blogg:
I couldn’t get to Fr Hunwicke’s Ordination last night, at the Oxford Oratory, I heard it was very beautiful, there a few pictures here. I also heard the celebrant preached against the wickedness of «rubricism»; a little unfortunate as following them with a degree of precision is the great charism of our English Oratories.
Today however I actually met Fr Hunwicke, at the London Oratory, where he celebrated his first Mass in the Extraordinary Form at the Lady Altar. We have corresponded for some time and have friends in common and I have felt something of his pain at not being able to celebrate Mass. I recognise in him a truly priestly soul. The Mass was beautiful, it was low, no sermon, some rather exquisite vestments, over and done in 35 minutes. There were about 50 in the congregation …
I know it was Vigil in most places but in Westminster it was the Feast of St John Southwell and of course for us a celebration of a first Mass. … One of the important things I have always said about the Ordinariate which I think cradle Catholics just don’t get is its humour which Fr Hunwicke supplied in heaps. … It was a really beautiful celebration for the eve of St Peter and Paul; Fr Hunwicke in communion with the Church and now a happily a priest of the Catholic Church.
