10 år siden pastor Alan Littlewood døde

Generelt, Katolsk /

For en ukes tid siden minnet en prest meg om at det nå snart var 10 år siden pastor Alan Littlewood døde (selv trodde jeg det ikke var mer enn ni år). Han ble funnet død da han ikke dukket opp til kveldsmessen i Arendal 5. februar 2001. Og det ble deretter feiret en svært stor requiemmesse for ham i Trefoldighetskirken i Arendal 15. februar, der bl.a. de tre katolske prestene han hadde tatt opp i Kirken (p. Hauken, p. Eikenes og meg selv) var med og bar kisten.

katolsk.no meldte dette dødsfallet slik for ti år siden:

Det er nettopp kommet melding om at pastor Alan Cyril Littlewood, sogneprest i St. Franciskus Xaverius’ menighet i Arendal, plutselig døde i dag, den 5. februar 2001. Han ble 62 år. Han har i flere år slitt med hjerteproblemer.

Alan Littlewood ble født den 1. juni 1938 i Blackheath (erkebispedømmet Southwark) i England. Etter presteutdannelse ved erkebispedømmet Westminsters seminar «Allen Hall» i London, ble han presteviet den 24. mai 1962 i London (England). I 1962 kom han til Oslo katolske bispedømme.

Han var først kapellan i St. Olav Domkirke, Oslo (1962-1963) og i St. Paul, Bergen (1963-1970). Deretter ble han sogneprest i St. Josephs menighet i Haugesund (1970-1972). Etter et år som stiftskapellan, bosatt i Oslo, ble han den 15. september 1973 utnevnt til sogneprest i St. Franciskus Xaverius’ menighet i Arendal, en stilling han hadde like til sin død. Høsten 1998 ble hans 25-årsjubileum som sogneprest markert i menigheten.

Bildet under er tatt fra min prestevielse (i starten av messen), der pastor Littlewood presenterte meg for biskopen. Requiescat in pace.

Forandringene i messen på 70-tallet – sosiologisk vurdert

Liturgi /

Jeg leser, som jeg har nevnt tidligere, Michael Davies’ bok «Pope Paul’s New Mass», og på s 80 i boka siterer Davies den kjente sosiologen (jeg har lest om ham mange ganger hos Fr. Richard Neuhaus og i First Things), som uttaler seg om forandringene i den katolske messen som soiolog og lutheraner.

(Her må man være klar over at det er forandringene i radikal form han snakker om, slik det ble over alt i USA og mange andre lnad; latin helt borte, det gamle alteret borte, presten står ved et lite bord vendt mot menigheten, prekestol og statuer forsvunnet, musikken fullstendig modernisert etc.) Peter Berger er svært streng i sin vurdering av effekten av disse forandringene:

In May 1978, Peter A. Berger, a Lutheran professor of sociology, commented on the changes within the Catholic Church since Vatican II from the dispassionate standpoint of a professional sociologist:

«Thus there were extraordinary changes imposed on the Catholic community in areas where the authorities could have moved much more circumspectly. The liturgical revolution – no other term will do – is the most important case in point, touching millions of Catholics at the very core of their religious life. Let me only mention the sudden abolition and indeed prohibition of the Latin Mass, the transposition of the officiating priest from the front to the back of the altar (the first change symbolically diminished the universality of the Mass, the second, its transcendent reference) and the massive assault on a wide variety of forms of popular piety.»

Professor Berger insists that these changes were a mistake from the sociological point of view:

«If a thoroughly malicious sociologist, bent on injuring the Catholic community as much as possible, had been an adviser to the Church, he could hardly have done a better job.»

«Nå kommer skrifte-appen»

Katolsk /

Avisa DagenMagazinet skrev i går ettermiddag også om at katolikker nå kan skrifte ved hjelp av en iPhone – og artikkelen var like misforstått som den som stod i Vårt Land (men raskt ble korrigert). Slik skriver de bl.a.:

Den katolske kirke har sagt ja til en iPhone-applikasjon som gir en mulighet til å skrifte via mobilen. Programmet … tar utgangspunkt i informasjon om brukerens alder, kjønn og sist vedkommende bekjente sine synder … applikasjonen er ikke ment som erstatning for en prest, men som et redskap for skrifemål. … Det vil helt sikkert være mennesker som ikke anser dette som den beste måten å skrifte på. Men, hvis det kan være til hjelp for en gruppe unge mennesker og det hjelper dem, så er det en god ting.

Men hvis det ikke er en erstatning for en prest, og bare hjelper med å forberede til skriftemål (som et tradisjonelt skriftespeil), er det da særlig revolusjonerende, og hvem skulle være i mot noe slikt?

Stadig ‘tullenyheter’ om skriftemål – korrigert

Katolsk /

Noen katolikker har laget et lite program for iPhone som skal hjelpe unge mennesker i samvittighetsransakelsen før sitt skriftemål. Det er litt mer avansert enn de vanlige ‘skriftespeil’ man finner i bøker, eller som prester pleier å gi til ungdommer på et A-5 ark e.l. – men sikkert ikke veldig mye mer avansert.

Nyheten finner vi på Catholic News Agency, og så har Vårt Land tatt det derfra og misforstått en del ting i oversettelsesprosessen (ser det ut til). For det er til forberedelsen programmet hjelper, det erstatter selvsagt ikke at man virkelig skrifter for en prest. Slik leser vi i Vårt Land:

Katolikkar kan skrifte med Iphone

… den er utvikla for å hjelpe katolikkar som vil skrifte og gå til kyrkje. Den gjev steg-for-steg rettleiing til skriftemål og personleg undersøking av samvetet. Den er basert på alder, yrke og kjønn.

Appen er ikkje meint som en erstatning for ein prest, men som eit høve for å skrifte. Brukarar seier at den har teke bort intimiteten i eit vanlig skriftemål.

Siste delen her er ganske misforstått. På engelsk står det: «using the app takes away the “intimidation factor” of going to confess their sins.» Det betyr vel at når man får hjelp til forberedelsen, blir selve skriftemålen mindre skremmende.

Tidligere har vi hørt om skrifte pr telefon, telefaks og Internett. Det er underlig at folk ikke forstår at man BARE kan skrifte fysisk og personlig for en prest.

OPPDATERING lørdag 09.30:
Jeg hadde skrevet til journalisten i VL i går kveld, og fikk nå beskjed om at artikkelen er korrigert, og har fått overskrifta: Iphone-app kan gjere skriftemålet mindre skummelt Flott! Jeg kan kanskje selv også legge til at det kan gjøre skriftemålet mer spennende for de unge når iPhone er involvert.

KIRKENE I PUGLIA – Februar 2006

Generelt /


Jeg skrev nylig at min kone og jeg reiste til Roma 1. februar for fem år siden, for å være der (studere) i et halvt år. Etter noen får dager i storbyen (for å ordne noen praktiske saker) reiste vi til Italias ‘hæl’, for å komme tilbake til Roma/Angelicum til semesterstart i midten av februar.

Vi tok noen flotte bilder av kirkene vi så i Puglia (Trani, Lecce, Otranto, Bari etc.) – de kan sees her.

«Hun beskriver bønn som et intimt vennskap med Kristus»

Katolsk, Paven /

Dette sa pave Benedikt i går under den ukentlige onsdagsaudiensen, da han snakket om den hellige Teresa av Avila. Han begynte forøvrig i går en nye serie om kirkelærerne. Slik starta han sin tale:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the course of the catecheses that I dedicated to the fathers of the Church and to great figures of theologians and of women of the Middle Ages, I was able to reflect also on some men and women saints who have been proclaimed doctors of the Church for their eminent doctrine. Today I would like to initiate a brief series of meetings to complete this presentation of the doctors of the Church. And I begin with a saint who represents one of the highest examples of Christian spirituality of all times: St. Teresa of Avila (of Jesus). …

Les mer her – eller se en kort video (under).

BREVIARIUM ROMANUM

Liturgi /


Den ankom i dag, i to flotte bind: Breviarium Romanum. Og i morgen har jeg tenkt å begynne å lese tidebønnene på gamlemåten – som pave Benedikt har gitt alle prester lov til om de ønsker det. Mye ligner på de nye tidebønnene, men det blir sikkert mange ting å lære.

Les om den nye utgaven av de gamle tidebønnene.

Det som skjer i England nå og økumenikk

Katolsk, Økumenikk /

Jeg nevnte mandag noen engelske katolikker som ikke er så glade for den store tilstrømningen av tidligere anglikanere. Dette kommenteres på en interessant måte på bloggen Dominus mihi adjutor – en blogg jeg aldri har sett før:

… it means that a goodly number of Anglicans and their clergy will be entering into full communion with the Catholic Church. Moreover, surely their arrival will only enrich the diversity of the Catholic Church, as they bring their own traditions, or “patrimony”, of liturgical worthiness, pastoral sensitivity and biblical engagement. They will speak an idiom clearly understood by Anglicans, who may then, we pray, feel moved to explore further the path to full communion by means of this familiar idiom.

Here, one suspects, is her problem. The Ordinariate reveals clearly that for the Catholic Church ecumenism is not about ongoing “dialogue” for its own sake. It is about encouraging and convincing Christians to enter into full communion with the Church, from which they are estranged due to actions centuries ago. If it means anything regarding the relations between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church it is that the Church has only one goal, ultimately, for ecumenical dialogue with Anglicans: that they return to the Church. This may disturb many Anglicans, for sure, but that is no reason to stop the progress of ecumenism. …

Modernisme, reduksjonisme og rasjonalisme

Katolsk, Teologi /

Jeg skal her henvise til et ganske skarpt innlegg fra en annen presteblogger – men trøsten for noen av bloggens lesere er at dette i alle fall ikke handler om luturgi! Det handler om at moderne teologi – protestantisk og katolsk – de siste år har vært ganske bibelkritisk og rasjonalistisk. Starten til denne kritikken går mer enn 150 år tilbake – selv om det ikke er mer enn 70 år siden katolikker har fått lov til å drive noen form for bibelkritikk – og det må vel også sies (syns jeg) at vi har sett en viss bedring de siste 20 år. Selv var jeg svært opptatt av og anfektet av denne bibelkritikken, rasjonalismen og fideismen som teologistudent fra 1975-82, og må innrømme at jeg på dette punktet aldri har vært skikkelig moderne. Men så over til Fr Longeneckers innlegg for et par dager siden (som har forårsaket svært mange kommentarer):

There are many problems in the Catholic Church that might be thought to be the ‘smoke of Satan’ entering the church, but for my money one thing, above all others, has been the successful work of Satan, which has undermined the church, emasculated her ministry, sabotaged the aims of the Holy Spirit and captured a multitude of souls.

It is the modernist re-interpretation of the Catholic faith. The reductionist results of modern Biblical scholarship and the infiltration of a modernist, rationalistic and materialistic mindset meant that the supernatural was assumed to be impossible, and therefore the Bible stories (and also any supernatural elements of the faith) had to be ‘de-mythologized.’ Everything supernatural within the Biblical account and within the lives of the saints and within the teaching of the church were assumed to be impossible and had to be ‘re-interpreted’ so they would make sense to modern, scientifically minded people. …

… it’s virtually triumphant within the mainstream Protestant churches, and sadly, the modern Catholic Church in the USA is riddled through with the same noxious heresy. The reason it is so obnoxious and disgusting is because priests and clergy of all sorts still use all the traditional language of the liturgy, the Scriptures and the creeds, but they have changed the meaning of it altogether. They never actually stand up and say that they have changed the meaning, and that they no longer believe the faith once delivered to the saints. …

… The faithful don’t know why their church has become like a cross between a Joan Baez concert and a political activism meeting. They don’t understand why they never hear the need for confession or repentance or hear about old fashioned terms like ‘the precious blood’ or ‘ the body, blood, soul and divinity of Our Lord and Savior» …

En pavelig nuntius uttaler seg om messefeiring

Liturgi /

Erkebiskop Thomas E. Gullickson er pavens nuntius på Antillene skrev i juli 2009 om hvordan han hadde begynt å feire messen ad orientem i sit eget kapell:

I am finally coming to grips with the invitation from people I respect, first and foremost from the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and now Pope Benedict XVI, to look again at certain aspects of the last forty years of liturgical reform and specifically for me as a priest and bishop to look at the question of the best stance for the priest when praying the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass. …

I really am convinced that praying the Eucharistic Prayer ad Orientem makes more sense and is therefore better. I will celebrate that way in my chapel. In other chapels and churches, when I am invited, I will celebrate as is the custom there. Remember, the Holy Father has decided to teach by example in this case. …

Sist søndag holdt samme erkebiskop en preken der han bl.a. undret seg over at pave Benedikts ønsker om liturgien ikke altid blir fulgt opp:

… Why, even three years after the issuance of Summorum Pontificum (just to name one example), are well-meaning lay folk still treated with such great disdain … When the Holy Father speaks of his will to see these two forms of the Roman Rite (ordinary and extraordinary) enrich each other, when he and others express eagerness for a recovery of the sense of the sacred in our churches and in how we worship, I am convinced that he has indicated the true nature of the rupture which has indeed occurred and needs to be mended or healed. You would think that those in communion with the Pope would seek to understand him and embrace his point of view. …

Tips fra The New Liturgical Movement.

Underlige bilder fra en messe

Liturgi /


Dette er bilder av en messe biskopen av Toulouse feiret 16. januar i år – jeg har spesielt vanskelig for å forstå hva som skjer i det første bildet. (Det ser ut til å være under slutten av den eukaristiske bønn, under «Ved ham, og med ham og i ham …», og ingenting annet skal ved da løftes opp til Gud enn Kristi eget fullkomne offer!) Les mer om dette her.

TIL ROMA!

Generelt, Katolsk /

Dette skrev jeg for akkurat fem år siden – på min blogg:

I dag, 1. februar, reiser min kone og jeg til Roma!

Vi skal være der i nesten et halvt år; selv skal jeg studere økumenisk teologi ved det pavelige universitetet som kalles Angelicum. Vårsemesteret i Roma begynner 20. februar, men denne uken skal jeg ned og registeres og ordne med en del praktiske ting, før vi tar en ti dagers ferie på Italias hæl, i Puglia.

Jeg håper å kunne fortsette bloggen fra Roma, litt avhengig av hvordan det teknisk legger seg til rette, med internett-tilkobling osv.

Ikke alle engelske katolikker er positive til Ordinariatet

Katolsk, Økumenikk /

Tina Beattie underviser i ‘Katolske studier’ ved Roehampton University og svarer på spørsmål om hvorfor enkelte engelske katolikker har reservasjonen overfor pave Benedikts generøse tilbud til tradisjonelle anglikanere. Hun sa i går i et program på BBC Radio 4:

… I don’t want to call it a problem, but I think many of us are perplexed about what this means in terms of the Catholic Communion, and indeed obviously for relations between our two Churches. The Catholic Church has a unity that’s not based on likemindedness or sameness, and it’s very puzzling to know how this very homogenous, small group of likeminded people, offered a quasi-independent place within the Catholic Communion, is going to fit in and become part of us.

And is your objection partly to do with the fact that you don’t like what they stand for? Particularly on the question of women’s role in the Church?

I’m not happy about that, no. …

… shouldn’t you just welcome them into your Church?’

We should. And I think we…

You’re not really doing that… You’re saying you’d rather not have them.

That’s why I’m not saying it’s a problem, I think we’re perplexed. We don’t know yet what this welcome means. If I go to a mass of the Ordinariate, is that..? Obviously it’s part of the same Eucharistic Communion, but then, why does there need to be this separation? I welcome the riches of the Anglican liturgy coming into the Roman Catholic Church. There’s a lot to celebrate. They can bring with them enormous wealth that maybe we’ve lost in our rather more watered-down traditions. I think they’ll find that the Roman Catholic Church is a lot less aesthetic in its worship than High Anglicanism. So, there’s a big process of adjustment ahead, and of course we want them to do that. But I think many of us would feel happier if we were welcoming individuals, who’d come in – I’m a convert; I know what it feels like to make that change – if it was individuals coming in with a more open and positive attitude to why they were coming, maybe. …

Les mer om dette her.

Hvordan feirer en prest best messen?

Liturgi, TLM /

Jeg leser nå Michael Davies’ bok ‘Pope Paul’s New Mass’. der han helt i starten av boka siterer hva en prest skriver i 1974. Det er veldig interessant å lese om hvordan presetne før 1970 lærte å feire messen, hvor forskjellig det er fra måten de fleste prester tenker på i dag (men kanskje det er bare oss prester som er interesserte i slike spørsmål):

I remember how, when, as a young priest, I was preparing to say my first Mass, I was drilled most strictly and told to drill myself in such a way that every word and gesture of mine at the altar of sacrifice would be exactly correct.

Everything – tone of voice, blessings, bows, genuflections, turn-rounds to the people, height and breadth at which one held extended arms–had to be as laid down in the rubrics, exactly correct. Why? Because, at the altar, one was performing the noblest action open to a human being; the sacrifice of God’s Son to God. It followed, both logically and theologically, that one had to bring to it every ounce of reverence of which a human being was capable.

And because human beings are made up of body and soul, it followed further that every word spoken, every bodily gesture undertaken, had to be tuned in with the utmost reverence to this supreme act of worship, the highest to which any man could ever aspire. Human nature being what it is, individual idiosyncrasies would come out to take from reverence, if priests were left to themselves in the matter of words and gestures at Mass.

It followed that idiosyncrasies had to be cut to a minimum. Hence, the rubrics, which bound all priests at Mass; depersonalizing them, so to say, in the interests of the reverence which men had to put forth when they offered sacrifice to God. How else could they acknowledge adequately in their hearts their total dependence on Him Who had made them from nothing, except that they manifested it in every bodily gesture that was theirs at Mass? If the mouth speaks out of the fullness of the heart, the converse is also true; the heart is filled with reverence if the mouth of the celebrating priest is trained to speak with a reverential tone and the body to express itself in a whole series of dignified gestures. I do not think I need press the point.

Man is not a desiccated calculating machine. He is a human being made up of body and soul. He worships with the whole of himself. Precisely for that reason the celebrating priest was never left to himself in the Old Mass. He was made to conform to a celebrating code; depersonalized in the interests of the dignity that had to surround the supreme sacrifice. It has always been that way wherever men have offered sacrifice, paid honor where honor is due. After all, one does not go to see the Queen in an old pair of jeans and tatty tennis shoes. I think the point is made. (Fr. Paul Crane, SJ. Christian Order. April 1974; 240-241)

Å knele i kirken viser vår åndelige holdning

Liturgi /

Hos zenit.org kunne vi lese følgende fredag – om feiringen av liturgien – de skrev også noe lignende for noen få dager siden:

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reads: «In the liturgy of the New Covenant every liturgical action, especially the celebration of the Eucharist and the sacraments, is an encounter between Christ and the Church» (CCC, No. 1097). … In this encounter the initiative, as ever, is the Lord, who presents himself in the heart of the Church, risen and glorious. In fact, «if the figure of Christ does not emerge in the liturgy, who is its principle and is really present to make it valid, we would no longer have the Christian liturgy, completely dependent on the Lord and sustained by his creative presence» (Benedict XVI, To the Bishops of Brazil [North 2], April 15, 2010). …

… The liturgy, and in a special way the Eucharist, «is the encounter and unification of persons; the Person, however, who comes to meet us and desires to be united to us is the Son of God» (Benedict XVI, To the Roman Curia, Dec. 22, 2005). The individual and the community must be aware of being before him who is thrice Holy. Hence, the necessary attitude is one full of reverence and of a sense of wonder, which gushes from knowing oneself in the presence of the majesty of God. Was this not perhaps what God intended to express when he ordered Moses to take off his sandals before the burning bush? …

In reality, physical gestures express and promote «the intention and spiritual attitude of the participants» (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, No. 42), and enable one to overcome the danger that snares every Christian: habit …

Because of this, «a convincing sign of the effectiveness that the Eucharistic catechesis has on the faithful is surely the growth in them of the sense of the mystery of God present among us. This can be verified through specific manifestations of reverence toward the Eucharist, to which the mystagogic way should introduce the faithful» (Benedict XVI, «Sacramentum Caritatis,» No. 65). …

We see in the first place genuflection, which is done «by bending the right knee to the ground, signifies adoration, and therefore it is reserved for the Most Blessed Sacrament, as well as for the Holy Cross from the solemn adoration during the liturgical celebration on Good Friday until the beginning of the Easter Vigil.» (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, No. 274). The bowing of the head instead means reverence and honor. …

Father Juan Silvestre is a professor of liturgy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross and a Consultor of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, as well the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.

Agneskerk in Amsterdam kondigt twee pontificale Missen aan

TLM /


Søndag 10. april feirer Københavns biskop, msgr Czeslaw Kozon, en (tradisjonell latinsk) pontifikal høymesse i St Agneskirken i Amsterdam. FSSP er ansvarlig for arbeidet i denne kirken.

Jeg vet ikke hvorfor biskop Kozon skal feire denne messen i Amsterdam (kanskje noen andre vet), men det er en hyggelig nyhet – og det er faktisk ikke så vanskelig å lese nederlandsk:

De Agneskerk in Amsterdam is de rectoraatskerk van de St. Petruspriesterbroederschap in Nederland. In deze parochie wordt uitsluitend de traditionele Latijnse liturgie gevierd. Op hun site kondigen zij voor dit jaar twee opmerkelijke H. Missen aan in de Tridentijnse ritus: «In het jaar 2011 zullen we enkele bijzondere gasten in onze kerk mogen verwelkomen. Allereerst op zondag 10 april (Passiezondag) Zijne Hoogwaardige Excellentie mgr Czeslaw Kozon, bisschop van Kopenhagen. Hij zal die zondag celebrant zijn in een pontificale Hoogmis.

Kilden til nyheten her – tips fra Rorate Cæli.

Ikke alle er ivrige deltakere i den økumeniske bønneuka

Økumenikk /


En katolsk prest i England, Fr Ray Blake, skriver på sin blogg at han ikke er så veldig entusiastisk mht til kristen enhet – eller han ser vel ikke muligheten for seg at det kan skje, i alle fall med de forskjellige protestantiske kirkesamfunn. Slik skriver han:

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity for most of us is about lukewarm tea and stale biscuits in a damp church hall, making friends or building relationships with people who one will never ever share visible unity. It is important but I think to be honest people might be more enthusiastic if spoke about The Week of Prayer for Christian Friendship, or even Christian Co-Operation.

The great act of unity that preceded the Week of Prayer, the setting of the Ordinariate and the ordination of Fr Newton and companions highlighted the possibilities and aim of Christian Unity. For Catholics Christian Unity isn’t fuzzy nor is there anything ambiguous about it but an acceptance of the fullness of the Christian faith by other Christians. With the ancient Churches there can be real dialogue because we start from a common understanding of God, I mean a God who is Triune and Incarnate and who communicates directly through the sacraments and Tradition, with liberal post reformation Christians one sometimes wonders whether we have more in common with orthodox Jews and Muslims, at least they believe in a God who speaks to us, who gives us more than take it or leave it morality. …

Han har altså større håp om at det skal være mulig å komme til enhet med de ortodokse kirkene, og (legger han til) med de katolske gruppene som i dag ikke har fullt fellesskap med Den katolske Kirke:

The real focus of Unity ought to be first of all amongst ourselves. Is it too much today to make a distinction between those in schism and those in heresy. One of the important burdens laid on Bishops by the Second Vatican Council is to be the minister of unity, nothing new the Church has always seen him is as the focus of communion, the model of the Good Sherpherd reminds us that the Bishop is supposed to go in search of the lost sheep.

I was heartened to read the Bishop of Nice, Mgr Louis Sankalé had been to tea, or at least visited the local SSPX, strange that it should be news. Strange that it should be more acceptable to welcome into one’s pulpit or lead prayers in one’s church the local female liberal Methodist minster but trying to invite a priest of the Society of Pius X would throw up all types of problems and worst, suspicions!

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