Å avstå fra kjøtt på fredager har mest med identitet og lydighet å gjøre

Katolsk /

William Oddie skriver om den engelske bispekonferansens vedtak om å innføre obligatorisk abstinens fra kjøtt hver fredag på en litt annen måte enn flere av oss sannsynligvis hadde tenkt. Han oppsummerer et stykke i the Catholic Herald slik: «In the end, it’s obedience, not personal choice, that holds us together as a people.» Og han skriver bl.a.:

I do not often find myself moved by actual enthusiasm for official utterances emerging from meetings of the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales. Now I do. A statement they issued on Saturday is not only wonderfully brief (around 400 words), it is written in a powerfully devotional style. …

… The point, of course, is not simply that we abstain from meat on Friday (if we do) as a personal devotion: it is that we once did it, and soon will once more, out of obedience to the authority of the Church: it was once, and, deo gratias, will be again, a constant reminder that once we have taken the initial choice of committing ourselves to being Catholics in the first place, we are under obedience; and that it is that obedience that holds us together as a people.

The Church used to make this clear beyond peradventure: a convert was said to “submit” to the authority of the Holy See. This usage was thought, in the heyday of the “Spirit of Vatican II”, unduly forbidding and was quietly dropped in favour of the less daunting usage to “come into full communion” with the Holy See. But downplaying the idea of obedience has had damaging effects on the collective mind of the faithful. …

… nothing stops us from abstaining from meat on a Friday as things stand now. In our household we do already: but the point is that we do it as a private rule of life rather than as an expression of the fact that we are part of the daily life of the Church. We used to do it, in fact, even when we were Catholic-minded Anglicans: that, too, was just a personal devotion. As such, it was a kind of nostalgic tribute to an order within the Church which seemed to have passed away for ever. As I wrote last year, “It would be wonderful if our bishops now actually said, in terms, that the old tradition is now restored by their authority, and formally pronounced that we ought not to eat meat on a Friday without good reason”. Now they have …

Pave Benedikts reform av liturgireformen har såvidt begynt

Liturgi /

Teksten under (utdrag fra CNS) er en oppsummering av kardinal Kurt Kochs (som er Vatikanets nye økumenikk-leder) foredrag under liturgikonferansen på *Angelicum* i Roma sist lørdag – den er også blitt trykket i L’Osservatore Romano.

Pope Benedict XVI’s easing of restrictions on use of the 1962 Roman Missal, known as the Tridentine rite, is just the first step in a «reform of the reform» in liturgy, … The pope’s long-term aim is not simply to allow the old and new rites to coexist, but to move toward a «common rite» that is shaped by the mutual enrichment of the two Mass forms …

In effect, the pope is launching a new liturgical reform movement, the cardinal said. Those who resist it, including «rigid» progressives, mistakenly view the Second Vatican Council as a rupture with the church’s liturgical tradition, he said. …

Cardinal Koch said Pope Benedict thinks the post-Vatican II liturgical changes have brought «many positive fruits» but also problems, including a focus on purely practical matters and a neglect of the paschal mystery in the Eucharistic celebration. The cardinal said it was legitimate to ask whether liturgical innovators had intentionally gone beyond the council’s stated intentions.

He said this explains why Pope Benedict has introduced a new reform movement, beginning with «Summorum Pontificum.» The aim, he said, is to revisit Vatican II’s teachings in liturgy and strengthen certain elements, including the Christological and sacrificial dimensions of the Mass.

Cardinal Koch said «Summorum Pontificum» is «only the beginning of this new liturgical movement.» «In fact, Pope Benedict knows well that, in the long term, we cannot stop at a coexistence between the ordinary form and the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, but that in the future the church naturally will once again need a common rite,» he said.

«However, because a new liturgical reform cannot be decided theoretically, but requires a process of growth and purification, the pope for the moment is underlining above all that the two forms of the Roman rite can and should enrich each other,» he said.

Cardinal Koch said those who oppose this new reform movement and see it as a step back from Vatican II lack a proper understanding of the post-Vatican II liturgical changes. As the pope has emphasized, Vatican II was not a break or rupture with tradition but part of an organic process of growth, he said.

Messen i Peterskirken søndag

Liturgi, TLM /

Her er et kort opptak (6:15) med highlights fra den tradisjonelle messen i Peterskirken søndag morgen – som sikkert varte to timer.

Hva mange mennesker husker om den tradisjonelle messen

Liturgi, TLM /

«Mitt inntrykk er at de fleste var glade for at den gamle messen forsvant; prestene ble kvitt redselen for å gjøre feil, og de mange kompliserte ritualene – og folk flest likte også det nye mye bedre enn det gamle.» Dette fortalte en prestekollega meg for ikke så lenge siden. Og jeg hadde hørt det samme selv. Det virker som det bare er slike minner igjen fra 60-tallet; ganske ensidige overflatiske, mens det er få som virkelig vet hva Kirken gjorde før 1965. Jeg svarte ham slik i en e-post:

Interessant det du sa om den gamle messen i dag, og jeg hadde hørt akkurat det samme som deg, og trodde det fullt ut, inntil for fire-fem år siden: At det var en helt nødvdendig opprydning som ble foretatt – mens de ortodokse hadde beholdt alle sine dubletter, unødvendig gester, korstegn etc. Men da jeg begynte å se grundigere på det, begynte jeg å se spor av den samme tendensen til å ødelegge alt gammelt som man gjorde mht arkitektur o.l. – i Norge aller tydeligst på 70-tallet. Det bildet er også en overdrivelse – som det første – men jeg syns i alle fall nå at mye av det man gjorde under liturgireformen var lite vellykket.

Å snu alterne er f.eks. en misforståelse (etter min mening) av hva den tidligste kirken hadde gjort – og det skjedde over alt, selv om det egentlig ikke var bestemt av noen dokumenter. Og akkurat det berører hovedpunktet for hva jeg syns er problematisk med hvordan messen i dag feires flere steder; at messen ikke lenger tydelig er et offer som bæres fram for Gud. Den blir for ensidig et menneskelig fellesskap; kommunionen er selvsagt et måltid, men det betyr ikke at hele messen er det.

I tillegg til den offisielle liturgireformen fikk man dessuten også flere negative ting som skjedde (spontant eller ved press fra folket/prester/biskoper – der Vatikanet til slutt ga etter); bl.a. at man ikke lenger skulle knele når man mottok kommunion, og ikke måtte ta imot hostien direkte på tungen.

Noen steder var det godt med en viss forenkling, f.eks. i den tradisjonelle dåpsliturgien, der jeg syns det blir litt vel mange renselser og eksorsismer og bønner – jeg mister litt oversikten. Men man forandret dåpsliturgien veldig mye mer enn det som var nødvendig, og det var nok delvis teologiske grunner til at man tok bort de aller fleste eksorsismene.

En tradisjonell vielse er også forskjellig fra den moderne, mest ved at selve vielsen skjer helt først, før brudemessen begynner. (Det kunne man se rester av i prinsebryllupet i England nylig.) Her var det et prinsipp (som man kan se flere steder); at alt skulle integreres i messen – bl.a. åpningen med vievann i søndagens høymesse. Om det er et vellykket prinsipp, kan man så diskutere.

Du nevnte at du heller hadde ventet at pave Benedikt skulle reformere den nye messen, heller enn å gjenåpne for den gamle – og du spurte om den gamle messen egentlig blir brukt særlig mye. I tall er det en forsvinnende liten prosent katolikker som regelmessig deltar i den gamle messen, prosenttallet for prester og seminarister er nok en del høyere. Jeg tror likevel ikke dette var det viktigste for paven; han ønsker helst (tror jeg) at den gamle messen skal påvirke måten alle katolske messer feires på. Og en generell justering av den nye messen vil da komme når tiden er moden.

Konferansen om den tradisjonelle messen i Roma – svært vellykket

Liturgi, TLM /

Jeg har hatt en lang arbeidsdag i dag (søndag) og må få lome tilbake senere med en grundigere dekning av konferansen om den tradisjonelle messen i Roma – fredag, lørdag og søndag. Så langt jeg forstår var konferansen svært vellykket, med svært godt frammøte. Under ser dere tre bilder fra messen i dag tidlig; ved «alteret ved stolen» – første pontifikale høymesse (ved kardinal Brandmüller) i Peterskirken på nesten 50 år. John Sonnen har mange flere bidler fra messen og konferansen



Kjøttfrie fredager gjeninnføres i England

Katolsk /

Jeg må innrømme at jeg ble overrasket, gledelig overrasket, i går da jeg leste at de katolske biskopene i England og Wales har bestemt seg for å gjeninnføre (fra 16/9 i år) den eldgamle tradisjonen med at katolikker ikke skal spise kjøtt på fredager – som en botshandling på Jesu døsdag. På 60-tallet (1966?) ble det bestemt at katolikker kunne gjøre på bot om fredagen på andre måter, som de selv kunne velge, men i praksis førte dette nok dessverre til at mange katolikker ikke gjør noen botshandling om fredagene, og heller ikke vet at de bør/skal gjøre det. Slik skriver zenit.org om nyheten fra England:

English Bishops Bring Back Meatless Fridays
Note That Penance Identifies Catholics With Christ on Cross

The bishops of England and Wales are re-establishing the practice of abstaining from meat on Fridays as a penance to identify with Christ on the cross.

In the resolutions published from their spring plenary assembly, which concluded Thursday, the bishops announced the re-establishment of the practice, to go into effect Sept. 16.

«Every Friday is set aside by the Church as a special day of penance, for it is the day of the death of our Lord,» a statement of resolutions from the assembly reminded. «The law of the Church requires Catholics to abstain from meat on Fridays, or some other form of food, or to observe some other form of penance laid down by the Bishops’ Conference.»

«The Bishops wish to re-establish the practice of Friday penance in the lives of the faithful as a clear and distinctive mark of their own Catholic identity,» the statement announced.

The prelates added that it is «important that all the faithful be united in a common celebration of Friday penance.»

«Respectful of this, and in accordance with the mind of the whole Church, the Bishops’ Conference wishes to remind all Catholics in England and Wales of the obligation of Friday Penance. The Bishops have decided to re-establish the practice that this should be fulfilled by abstaining from meat,» the resolution stated.

The prelates said those who do not eat meat normally should abstain from some other food on Fridays.

The date for the re-establishment of meatless Fridays, Sept. 16, marks the anniversary of Benedict XVI’s visit to the United Kingdom last year.

«Many may wish to go beyond this simple act of common witness and mark each Friday with a time of prayer and further self-sacrifice,» the bishops’ statement concluded. «In all these ways we unite our sacrifices to the sacrifice of Christ, who gave up his very life for our salvation.»

«Messen fra 1962 må gis sin rettmessige ære»

TLM /

Slik skrev Zenit.org om gårsdagens dokumenter om den tradisjonelle messen. Og de fortsetter:

New Document Clarifies Pope’s Expansion of Extraordinary Form

VATICAN CITY, MAY 13, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Almost four years after Benedict XVI’s «Summorum Pontificum» expanded use of the 1962 Missal, clarifications on its use were released today by the Vatican.

The July 7, 2007, document on the «extraordinary form» of the Roman Rite made the liturgy used before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council more accessible to the universal Church.

The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei clarified «Summorum Pontificum» today with «Universae Ecclesiae.» Jesuit Father Federico, director of the Vatican press office, also released a statement about the new document. «Universae Ecclesiae» carries the signature of the Ecclesia Dei president, Cardinal William Levada.

«Universae Ecclesiae» reiterates what the Pope said in 2007: «There is no contradiction between the two editions of the Roman Missal. In the history of the Liturgy growth and progress are found, but not a rupture.»

It also recalls that «Summorum Pontificum» aimed to offer all the faithful the «precious treasure» of the extraordinary form, guaranteeing it for all those who ask of it. The Pope thus wanted to promote «reconciliation at the heart of the Church.» …

Les hele denne nyhetsmeldinga. – Les dokumentet som forklarer «Universæ Ecclesiæ«, også utgitt i går. – Les om kommisjonen Ecclesia Dei.

Universæ Ecclesiæ – noen smakebiter

Katolsk /

Noen smakebiter fra dagens nye dokument fra Vatikanet – om hvordan pave Bendikts regler (fra 2007) for bruken av den tradisjonelle messen, skal forstås. (Her er dokumentet i pdf-fprmat.)

En gruppe (hvordan en slik gruppe skal defineres har vært svært grundig diskutert) som ber om den tradisjonelle messen defineres svært åpent – det er i realiteten enhver gruppe av troende:

«15. A coetus fidelium (“group of the faithful”) can be said to be stabiliter existens (“existing in a stable manner”), according to the sense of art. 5 § 1 of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, when it is constituted by some people of an individual parish who, even after the publication of the Motu Proprio, come together by reason of their veneration for the Liturgy in the Usus Antiquior, and who ask that it might be celebrated in the parish church or in an oratory or chapel; such a coetus (“group”) can also be composed of persons coming from different parishes or dioceses, who gather together in a specific parish church or in an oratory or chapel for this purpose.»

Hvis en prest sammen med noen troende ønsker å feire den tradisjonelle messen (utenfor prestens egen by og kirke, må man regne med), skal ha be å få låne en passende katolske kirke – og det skal skje uten problemer:

«16. In the case of a priest who presents himself occasionally in a parish church or an oratory with some faithful, and wishes to celebrate in the forma extraordinaria, as foreseen by articles 2 and 4 of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, the pastor or rector of the church, or the priest responsible, is to permit such a celebration, while respecting the schedule of liturgical celebrations in that same church.»

Hva slags krav stilles til (opplæring kreves av) en prest som skal feire den tradisjonelle messen? Det samme som for å feire den nye messen, egentlig:

«20. With respect to the question of the necessary requirements for a priest to be held idoneus (“qualified”) to celebrate in the forma extraordinaria, the following is hereby stated:
a. Every Catholic priest who is not impeded by Canon Law is to be considered idoneus (“qualified”) for the celebration of the Holy Mass in the forma extraordinaria.
b. Regarding the use of the Latin language, a basic knowledge is necessary, allowing the priest to pronounce the words correctly and understand their meaning.
c. Regarding knowledge of the execution of the Rite, priests are presumed to be qualified who present themselves spontaneously to celebrate the forma extraordinaria, and have celebrated it previously.»

Hvor mye skal man lære av latin og den tradisjonelle messen på presteseminarer? Her hadde noe ønsket at det skulle være skrevet enda tydeligere:

«21. Ordinaries are asked to offer their clergy the possibility of acquiring adequate preparation for celebrations in the forma extraordinaria. This applies also to Seminaries, where future priests should be given proper formation, including study of Latin and, where pastoral needs suggest it, the opportunity to learn the forma extraordinaria of the Roman Rite.»

Pkt 28 er litt vanskelig å forstå, kanskje, men jeg forstår at det sier at liturgiske regler som er blitt forandret etter 1962 – som tillatelsen til å motta kommunion i hånden, og til å bruke kvinnelige ministranter – ikke skal gjelde når man feirer den tradisjonelle messen:

«28. Furthermore, by virtue of its character of special law, within its own area, the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum derogates from those provisions of law, connected with the sacred Rites, promulgated from 1962 onwards and incompatible with the rubrics of the liturgical books in effect in 1962.»

Det blir sikkert mye interessant diskusjon rundt dette dokumentet de neste ukene – følg med.

Universæ Ecclesiæ – nå er dokumentet her

Paven, TLM /

Kolkka 12.05 i dag så jeg etter det nye dokumentet (som skulle punliseres kl 12.00), og fant det med en gang på Father Z’s blogg (men det ligger sikkert ute på mange nettsteder). Han har lenker til hele teksten på engelsk og lating, og også en del kommentarer. SE HER.

Tittelen på dokumentet er»INSTRUCTION on the application of the Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum of HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI given Motu Proprio» – og pkt 8 uttrykker sentrale ting om pave Benedikts ønske for bruken av den tradisjonelle messen:

8. The Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum constitutes an important expression of the Magisterium of the Roman Pontiff and of his munus of regulating and ordering the Church’s Sacred Liturgy. The Motu Proprio manifests his solicitude as Vicar of Christ and Supreme Pastor of the Universal Church, and has the aim of:
a. offering to all the faithful the Roman Liturgy in the Usus Antiquior, considered as a precious treasure to be preserved;
b. effectively guaranteeing and ensuring the use of the forma extraordinaria for all who ask for it, given that the use of the 1962 Roman Liturgy is a faculty generously granted for the good of the faithful and therefore is to be interpreted in a sense favourable to the faithful who are its principal addressees;
c. promoting reconciliation at the heart of the Church.

Dokumentet «Universæ Ecclesiæ» – om den tradisjonelle messen – kommer fredag kl 12

Liturgi, Paven, TLM /

Om man kan lese den ganske lette italiensken under, ser man at instruksjonen om hvordan pave Benedikts dokument «Summorum pontificum» fra 2007 om den tradisjonelle messen skal forstås/tolkes endelig kommer. Journalistene får dokumentet litt i forkant, men det skal ikke frigis før kl 12.00 fredag 13. mai. Det trykkes samme ettermiddag i L’Osservatore Romano, som er datert lørdag 14. mai. Fra Vatikanets informasjonstjeneste:

Venerdì 13 maggio 2011 verrà resa nota dalla Sala Stampa l’Istruzione Universae Ecclesiae della Pontificia Commissione Ecclesia Dei sull’applicazione della Lettera Apostolica Motu Proprio data «Summorum Pontificum» di S.S. Benedetto XVI. L’Istruzione sarà pubblicata sull’edizione pomeridiana dell’Osservatore Romano, con data 14 maggio.

Il testo dell’Istruzione – in lingua latina, italiana, francese, inglese, tedesca, spagnola e portoghese, sarà a disposizione dei giornalisti accreditati a partire dalle ore 10 di venerdì 13 maggio, con embargo fino alle ore 12. Con il testo dell’Istruzione verrà fornita anche una Nota redazionale.

Father Z skriver selvsagt om dette, og da han hadde en gjettekonkurranse om når dokumentet ville komme ut for noen få dager siden, kan jeg skryte av at jeg tippet lørdag 14. mai. Jeg tippet lørdag av to grunner (mens over halvparten trodde det ville ta mer en to uker til); 1) i begynnelsen av april ble det sagt at dokumentet ville komme litt etter påske, 2) jeg syntes det var naturlig å knytte det til den store konferansen i Roma om den tradisjonelle messen denne helga (se her).

Konferansen i Roma 13.-15. mai om den tradisjonelle messen

Liturgi, TLM /


Jeg skrev om denne konferansen allerede for en måned siden – og den går av stabelen kommende helg, 13. -15. mai. Les mer om den her (på italiensk).

I artikkelen jeg nevnte tidligere i dag, skriver Anna Arco også om denne konferansen – slik:

It is interesting to note that next week, the Angelicum will host a massive conference entitled “Summorum Pontificum: a Hope for the Church“. It could not be more different than the congress described above. Four years after the publication of the Motu Proprio, the older form of the Mass has quietly entered the mainstream. Speakers here include hard hitters of the reform of the reform including the Kazakh Bishop Athanasius Schneider whose book on the Eucharist has been much vaunted, the new head of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch, who will speak about ecumenical points, and the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares-Llovera.

Such a mainstream conference was unthinkable four years ago, but now it has come to pass without much fuss. The reform of the reform is happening. I think it is unlikely that the Extraordinary Form of the Mass will ever be very widely used, but it is good to have it, because its liberation has, slowly, slowly meant a more reverent celebration of the newer form of the Mass. …

«Målet for Vatikankonsilets liturgireform var ikke å forandre messen»

Liturgi, Paven /

Dette skriver Anna Arco i the Catholic Herald begeistret nå hun forteller om pave benedikts innledning til en liturgisk konferanse i Roma sist uke – og det var nokså progressive krefter som arrangerte konferansen. Anna Arco åpner artikkelen slik: «Pope Benedict has said the objective of Conciliar reform was not to change the rite and texts of the liturgy, but to renew the sense of Paschal Mystery.» Og hun fortsetter:

Addressing a group of liturgists who were meeting for the Ninth International Congress on the Liturgy, organised by the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Rome’s St Anselm Pontifical Athenaeum, the Pope said: “The liturgy of the Church goes beyond the ‘conciliar reform’, the objective of which in fact was not mainly to change the rites and texts but rather to renew the mentality and to put the celebration of Christ’s Paschal Mystery at the centre of Christian life and pastoral work.

“Unfortunately the liturgy has perhaps been seen – even by us, pastors and experts – more as an object to reform than a subject capable of renewing Christian life, seeing that ‘a very close and organic bond exists between the renewal of the liturgy and the renewal of the whole life of the Church’.”

“The liturgy … lives a proper and constant relationship between sound ‘traditio’ and legitimate ‘progressio’, clearly seen by the conciliar constitution Sancrosanctum Concilium at paragraph 23 … Not infrequently are tradition and progress in awkward opposition. Actually though, the two concepts are interwoven: tradition is a living reality that, in itself, includes the principle of development, of progress”.

The conference, entitled “The Pontifical Liturgical Institute: Between Memory and Prophecy” spanned over three days and focused on the legacy of the liturgy of the past 50 years, really since the Second Vatican Council. Speakers included liturgical luminaries like the electric guitar-playing Abbot Primas Notker Wolf of the Confederation of Benedictines, Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski and veteran liturgist Fr Matias Augé CMF. It also featured a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the Emeritus Archbishop of Brussels-Mechelen – a diocese where most people remain seated during the consecration and the churches are pretty empty. …

Pave Benedikt i Aquileia

Katolsk, Paven /

Det er noen dager siden nå, men pave Benedikt startet sitt besøk i Nord-Italia sist uke i den gamle storbyen Aquileia – som det nå dessverre er veldig lite igjen av, heller ikke mange ruiner. Paven snakket begeistret om vår kristne tro, både fra tidligere tider da Aquileia var så viktig for Kirkens misjonsvirksomhet, og i vår tid (fra Vatikanradioens nettsider):

… Pope Benedict wasted no time in establishing the themes and the tone of the visit, right from the get-go. In Aquileia, the Holy Father’s first public remarks were at the Piazza del Capitolo outside the Basilica of Aquileia. Often these greetings are really just an exchange of official pleasantries, but this time, Pope Benedict praised the Church of Aquileia in a prose that waxed rhapsodic.

He recalled the ancient roots of the Church, the Aquileian Church’s pivotal role in the evangelization of central Europe and also – this is poignant – in the defence of the true faith against the Arian heresy – a false teaching in the early centuries of the Church, which denied the full divinity of Christ. In this connection, Pope Benedict mentioned the great bishop Cromatius of Aquileia, by name. He was, said Pope Benedict, diligent and attentive as St Augustine of Hippo or St Ambrose of Milan – and St Jerome, a figure not known to praise often or lightly, called him “Holy and learned among the bishops.” So, Pope Benedict celebrated the way in which he worked to serve the Church: a perfect synthesis of learning and loving care for his flock.

But the Holy Father didn’t stop with the praise of Aquileia’s past glories: he also encouraged the faithful of Aquileia and all her daughter Churches in equally thrilling language:

“Dear brothers and sisters,” he said, children and heirs of the glorious Church of Aquileia, I am now among you to admire this rich and ancient tradition, but above all, I am here to confirm you in the deep faith of your fathers: in this hour of history,” he said, “rediscover, defend, and professes with warmth of spirit this fundamental truth.”


Dette bildet (over) tok jeg selv i domkirken i Aquileia i mars 2010, da vi var der. I denne kirken opplevde jeg dessverre også en av mine verste messer noen sinne.

Hva har Den katolske Kirke gitt verden?

Apologetikk, Katolsk /

En ateist i USA, Robert Wilson, ga $22.5 millioner til katolske skoler i New York, fordi: “without the Roman Catholic Church, there would be no western civilisation.» Samtidig opplevde man nylig på et debattprogram på BBC World at over 87 % «of the audience rejected the notion that the Catholic Church is a force for good in the world».

En artikkel i the Catholic Herald ser på hva Kirken har betydd for verden. De nevner følgende punkter:

1. Light and the cosmos

The Opus Maius (1267) of the Franciscan Roger Bacon (d 1292), written at the request of Pope Clement IV, largely initiated the tradition of optics in the Latin world. The first spectacles were invented in Italy around 1300, an application of lenses that developed later into telescopes and microscopes.

While many people think of Galileo (d 1642) being persecuted, they tend to forget the peculiar circumstances of these events, or the fact that he died in his bed and his daughter became a nun. The Gregorian Calendar (1582), now used worldwide, is a fruit of work by Catholic astronomers, as is the development of astrophysics by the spectroscopy of Fr Angelo Secchi (d 1878). Most remarkably, the most important theory of modern cosmology, the Big Bang, was invented by a Catholic priest, Fr Georges Lemaître (d 1966), a historical fact that is almost never mentioned by the BBC or in popular science books.

2. Earth and nature

Catholic civilisation has made a remarkable contribution to the scientific investigation and mapping of the earth, producing great explorers such as Marco Polo (d 1324), ….

3. Philosophy and theology

Catholicism regards philosophy as intrinsically good and was largely responsible for founding theology, the application of reason to what has been revealed supernaturally. Great Catholic philosophers include St Augustine (d 430), St Thomas Aquinas (d 1274), St Anselm (d 1109), Blessed Duns Scotus (d 1308), Suárez (d 1617) and Blaise Pascal (d 1662). Recent figures include St Edith Stein (d 1942, pictured), Elizabeth Anscombe (d 2001) and Alasdair MacIntyre. ….

4. Education and the university system

Perhaps the greatest single contribution to education to emerge from Catholic civilisation was the development of the university system. Early Catholic universities include Bologna (1088); Paris (c 1150); Oxford (1167, pictured); Salerno (1173); Vicenza (1204); Cambridge (1209); Salamanca (1218-1219); Padua (1222); Naples (1224) and Vercelli (1228). By the middle of the 15th-century (more than 70 years before the Reformation), there were over 50 universities in Europe. …

5. Art and architecture

Faith in the Incarnation, the Word made Flesh and the Sacrifice of the Mass have been the founding principles of extraordinary Catholic contributions to art and architecture. ….

6. Law and jurisprudence …

7. Language …

8. Music …

9. The status of women …

Myter om Vatikankonsilet

Katolsk, Liturgi /

Jeg tok på meg for et par år siden å være ansvarlig for de katolske sidene på nettutgaven av Store Norske Leksikon. Jeg har tvilt en del ganger på om jeg burde ha tatt det på meg, og en hel del uro om leksikonets framtid har også gjort at jeg til tider har lagt ned veldig lite arbeid her. Nå har jeg begynt å gjøre litt mer; i første omgang å legge til en hel del lenker til katolsk.no – det passer også godt nå, siden katolsk.no er blitt oppdatert nylig, med bl.a. nye adresser til alle sidene.

Jeg så i dag på hva snl.no skrev om 2. Vatikankoonsil, og la inn lenker til alle konsilets dokumenter. Jeg oppdaget til min forskrekkelse at det om Sacrosanctum concilium hadde stått: «konstitusjon om liturgien (som fremmer legfolkets aktive deltagelse i gudstjenesten og går inn for å erstatte latin med folkespråk)«. Vi kan ikke ha feilaktige opplysninger i et leksikon (konsilet ville jo beholde latinen: SC 36. § 1. «Bruken av det latinske språk bibeholdes i den latinske ritus«) så nå er dette forandret – men jeg har ikke gjort mange andre forandringer.

(Jeg minner gjerne igjen om at det var jeg som i 1998 skannet inn alle dokumentene fra konsilet, slik at de kunne bli lagt ut på nettet her.)

Pave Benedikt i Venezia

Paven /


Pave Benedikt ble fraktet i dogens egen gondol i Venezia tidligere i dag. Og å finne fire menn til oppgaven viste seg å være ganske vanskelig – SE HER.

Noen tradisjonalister ønsker ikke å tolke Vatikankonsilet sammen med resten av Kirkens tradisjon

Katolsk, Teologi /

Jeg leste lørdag formiddag både artikkelen av prof. Mattei (som jeg skrev om her) og en artikkel der dominikaneren P. Giovanni Cavalcoli svarer på en kristisk artikkel fra David Werling i The Remnant. Enkelte tradisjonalister har en tendens (mer enn en tendens) til å tolke Vatikankonsilet i verst mulig lys, for så å forkaste det. De ser ikke ut til å ville lytte til bl.a. pave Benedikt, som vil tolke konsilet i lys av Kirkens tradisjon. (Igjen vil jeg anbefale nettstedet www.chiesa, der kan man lære mye.)

Etter en diskusjon om analog tenkning, og Aristoteles og Descartes, skriver P. Cavalcoli:

Analogical thought makes it possible to understand how a concept, while still remaining identical to itself, can however at the same time develop, progress, explicate and clarify itself. … Thus the doctrines of Vatican II must not be viewed as a disowning or rupture with the previous magisterium, but as a confirmation and explication of them. In other words, with Vatican II we know better those same truths of faith that we knew before.

Without a doubt, this thesis must be demonstrated, because in effect it is not always so evident. But as Catholics, supposing that matters of faith are at issue, we can suppose a priori that the Council cannot teach us something that is false or contrary to what the Church taught before, because this would suppose that Christ deceived us when he promised the apostles that the Holy Spirit would lead the Church to the fullness of truth, and said moreover: «Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.»

As for the practical-pastoral dispositions, however, we should not be surprised if, with the Council, the Church offers us a direction that contrasts with the directives of the precouncil. Here, at times, change is not only possible, it is necessary. What would we say if the Church, as happened in the Middle Ages, ordered us to confess only to the priest of our own parish? Here we do not face the problem: what magisterium to obey, the medieval one or that of today. It is clear that we must obey that of today.

Moreover, in this field the Church can even err: it can abandon attitudes that should be kept, or introduce laws that the test of experience shows to be harmful. In this case, efforts must be made either to restore what has been abandoned, or to correct mistaken decisions.

But in the field of dogma, where notions are immutable, all of that means nothing. The only progress that can and must be made does not lie in replacing concepts, but in deepening them, … And with that, I begin my response to the second point. I read further in «The Remnant»:

«Arzillo completely misses the point of the traditionalist argument. Traditionalists aren’t being disobedient to the Church’s Magisterium, especially when it comes to the issues of ecumenism and religious freedom. Traditionalists are simply pointing out the fact that the Church’s Magisterium has contradicted itself. …

What nonetheless seems to me should be taken into serious consideration in what «The Remnant» writes is effectively the fact that the language of the Council is not always clear, lending itself to contrary interpretations, even of a modernistic kind, which the modernists are now exploiting as if the Council agreed with them, while it is they who are falsifying the doctrines of the Council to their advantage.

On the other hand, it is important to follow the interpretations of the Council made by the subsequent magisterium, considering also the doctrinal condemnations issued by the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, condemnations that are generally aimed against false interpretations of the Council.

Moreover, a good guide for understanding the real meaning of the conciliar doctrines in continuity with the previous ones is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. And it is also very useful to follow the discourses of the pope, in which the tendency to present the Council in continuity with Tradition is evident. …

Finally, for a model of theology that demonstrates the possibility of continuity between Vatican II and the previous magisterium, allow me to direct you to the Czech Dominican priest, the servant of God Tomas Tyn (1950-1990), of whose cause of beatification I am the vice postulator. Fr. Tomas Tyn was proud of his traditionalism, but he lived it in full communion with the Church of the postcouncil. ….

Jeg har tatt med ca 1/4 av artikkelen her – les gjerne hele artikkelen.

En historisk forståelse av Vatikankonsilet og andre konsiler

Katolsk, Teologi /

Professor Roberto de Mattei (som jeg nevnte her) likte ikke kritikken han fikk for sin bok om Vatikankonsilet – «Il Concilio Vaticano II. Una storia mai scritta» – og har svart ganske grundig på kritikken her. (Nettstedet www.chiesa har ofte svært interessante artikler.)

Han begynner med å skrive at han ville ha foretrukket å bli vurdert av fagteologer eller -historikere, men det har han ikke blitt i denne omgang – dessuten er han blitt kritisert ut fra et ideologisk ståsted og ikke et faglig. Overskrifta på hans innlegger er at «konsilene kan også ta feil», og han bruker så en del tid på å vurdere hvordan Vatikankonsilet og andre konsiler kan og bør vurderes historisk. Her er et utdrag av hans artikkel:

The criticism of Marchetto and Introvigne seems to have a single purpose: to close off preemptively that debate which Benedict XVI has opened with an invitation to develop it. […]

I believe, on the contrary, that Vatican Council II can be discussed on the historical level in a way no different from how Church historians have always done.

Addressing them in 1889, Leo XIII wrote that «those who study it must never lose sight of the fact that it contains an ensemble of dogmatic elements that are imposed upon faith, and that no one can call into question […]. …

… The Church is indefectible, and yet, in its human part, it can commit errors and these errors, these sufferings, can be provoked, Leo XIII says, by its children and even by its ministers. But this takes nothing away from the greatness and indefectibilty of the Church. The Church, Leo XIII said, opening the Vatican archives to scholars, is not afraid of the truth. …

… My book is born from a profound love of the Church, of its magisterium and of its institutions, «in primis» of the papacy. And my love for the papacy wants to be so great as not to stop with the current pope, Benedict XVI, to whom I feel deeply bound, but seeks behind the man the institution that he represents. It is a love that wants to embrace with this pope all of the popes in their historical and intellectual continuity, because for a Catholic the pope is not a man, he is a bimillennial institution; it is not that individual pope, but it is the papacy, it is the uninterrupted series of the vicars of Christ, from Saint Peter to the reigning pontiff.

So then, there is no better way to express one’s attachment to the pope and to the Church than to serve, in all areas, the truth, because there does not exist any truth, historical, scientific, political, philosophical, that could ever be wielded against the Church.

And so we must not be afraid to tell the truth about Vatican Council II, the twenty-first in the history of the Church. I emphasize this word, twenty-first. Vatican Council II was neither the first nor the last Council of the Church’s history: it was a point, it was a moment of the history of the Church.

In the history of the Church, there have been twenty-one Councils that are held as ecumenical today. Some of these are unforgettable: the first, the Council of Nicaea, which defined our «Credo,» then the Council of Trent, Vatican Council I. Other Councils are forgotten today, which does not mean that they were not authentic Councils, supreme expressions of the Church’s magisterium.

But a Council enters into history through the documents that it has produced. In the XVI century there were two Councils: Lateran Council V (1512-1517) and the Council of Trent. The only dogmatic definition of the fifth Lateran Council was that according to which the individual human soul is immortal; the Lateran was under certain aspects a failed Council: …

… No Council, not even Trent or Vatican I, and much less Vatican II, is above Tradition. Benedict XVI affirms that the documents of Vatican Council II must be interpreted in their continuity with the Tradition of the Church. Tradition is not an event, it is not a part, it is the whole. Tradition is like Sacred Scripture: a source of Revelation, with the divine assistance of the Holy Spirit. …

… I have been criticized for overlooking the documents of the Council or for interpreting them in a vein of discontinuity with the Tradition of the Church. Neither the first nor the second statement is true. The interpretation of the documents of the Council is not up to me, nor to any aspiring interpreter of the Council, but it is up to the magisterium of the Church, and to the magisterium I adhere. What I present are the facts, what I reconstruct is the historical context in which those documents came to light. …

… Vatican Council II, let’s not forget, was not a dogmatic Council, but pastoral, which does not mean that it was devoid of magisterium, but its magisterium can be considered definitive and infallible only when it proposes again and explicates, as it often does, truths already defined by the ordinary and extraordinary magisterium of the Church.

The problem that interests me, however, is not the discussion of the texts of the Council; I leave this exegesis to the theologians, and first of all to the pope. The problem that interests me, as a member of the Church, is to understand the historical roots of the crisis that we are going through. Remote roots, because the crisis we are going through is plurisecular, but also close, because the current crisis goes back, even before 1968, to the time of Vatican Council II, which is not necessarily the 16 documents that concluded it, but the words, the actions, the omissions during and after the Council of the conciliar fathers, and, on the other side, the parallel magisterium, above all that of the media, which flanked the authentic magisterium of the pope and the bishops. …

… There is no tempest, however well-publicized or ferocious, that may frighten us, because the Church is always standing through the storms: heresies, scandals, revolutions have not shaken it or halted its march through history.

Katolsk biskop i Australia må gå av

Katolsk, Teologi /

Det har vært en hel del uro rundt en katolsk biskop som er bedt av Vatikanet/ pave Bendikt om å gå av 67 år gammel – han har selv sagt at han er blitt bedt om å slutte. Noen liker ikke dette, men Christopher Pearson i avisa The Australian forstår det ganske godt (pga det biskopen har gjort og fordi prosessen har tatt minst fem år), og skriver:

… The bishop in question was the outgoing Bishop of Toowoomba, William Morris. He is one of three men who have been relieved of their dioceses by the Vatican in the past few months.

The others were the bishops of Pointe-Noire in Congo-Brazzaville and Orvieto-Todi in Italy. But while they were removed for financial mismanagement in one case and misbehaviour in the other, Morris’s ouster was on doctrinal grounds.

Bishops are in some respects akin to sovereigns in their dioceses and, while it has the authority to remove them, the Holy See is usually very slow to do so, preferring discreet solutions such as early retirement.

The three forced departures in seven months have no precedent in recent years and suggest an increasing preparedness to intervene on the part of the Pope and his new prefect for the Congregation of Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet. The previous prefect, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, was an uber-liberal.

The Catholic archbishop of Brisbane, John Bathersby, who will be retiring in 11 weeks, professed himself at a loss to understand the decision. He told the ABC: » I just wish it hadn’t happened and I don’t know why it happened and I would very much like to know.»

Perhaps I can enlighten him: Morris issued an Advent pastoral letter in 2006 that canvassed various options to make up for the lack of priestly vocations in his diocese.

Some were uncontroversial. Others, including the ordination of married or single women and recognising the validity of Anglican, Lutheran and Uniting Church clergy, were heretical.

He has since then maintained what he likes to call a dialogue on these non-options. …

Father Z. skriver også (naturlig nok) om dette.

Messe I: Lux et origo

Liturgi /

I messen i morgen – i St Joseph kirke i Akersveien, kl 19.00 – skal vi synge den første gregorianske messen, «Lux et origo». Den er forholdvis vanskelig – og synges vel ikke i så mange menigheter, men jeg husker at den ble brukt en del i påsketiden i St Paul kirke i Bergen på 90-tallet – så her kan man lytte til den – samt til Credo I, som vi også bruker – og øve til messen i morgen.

De fleste av disse videoene fant jeg her.

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