Pave Benedikt ber biskop Fellay presisere sine synspunkter

Katolsk /

Helt fersk nyhet fra Vatikanets Informasjonstjeneste:

Vatican City, 16 March 2012 (VIS) – Given below is the text of a communique relating to the Society of St. Pius X, released this morning by the Holy See Press Office.

«During the meeting of 14 September 2011 between Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and president of the Pontifical Commission ‘Ecclesia Dei’, and Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the Society of St. Pius X, the latter was presented with a Doctrinal Preamble, accompanied by a Preliminary Note, as a fundamental basis for achieving full reconciliation with the Apostolic See. This defined certain doctrinal principles and criteria for the interpretation Catholic doctrine, which are necessary to ensure faithfulness to the Church Magisterium and ‘sentire cum Ecclesia’.

«The response of the Society of St. Pius X to the aforesaid Doctrinal Preamble, which arrived in January 2012, was examined by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith before being submitted to the Holy Father for his judgement. Pursuant to the decision made by Pope Benedict XVI, Bishop Fellay was, in a letter delivered today, informed of the evaluation of his response. The letter states that the position he expressed is not sufficient to overcome the doctrinal problems which lie at the foundation of the rift between the Holy See and the Society of St. Pius X.

«At the end of today’s meeting, moved by concern to avoid an ecclesial rupture of painful and incalculable consequences, the superior general of the Society of St. Pius X was invited to clarify his position in order to be able to heal the existing rift, as is the desire of Pope Benedict XVI»

Fem sår som påføres Kirken i noen typer messefeiring

Liturgi /

15. januar i år holdt biskop Athanasius Schneider er foredrag i Paris for en gruppe som heter Réunicatho (og som jeg ikke kjenner til). Han holdt et foredrag om liturgien, som kan deles inn i fem hovedpunkter. Jeg tar med hovedpunktene og noen utvalgte deler:

I – Turning our gaze towards Christ

II – The Mass is intended to give glory to God, not to men

III – The Six Principles of the Liturgical Reform

The Second Vatican Council put forward the following principles regarding a liturgical reform:

1. During the liturgical celebration, the human, the temporal, and action must be directed towards the divine, the eternal, and contemplation; the role of the former must be subordinated to the latter (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 2).
2. During the liturgical celebration, the realization that the earthly liturgy participates in the heavenly liturgy will have to be encouraged (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 8).
3. There must be absolutely no innovation, therefore no new creation of liturgical rites, especially in the rite of Mass, unless it is for a true and certain gain for the Church, and provided that all is done prudently and, if it is warranted, that new forms replace the existing ones organically (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 23).
4. The rites of Mass must be such that the sacred is more explicitly addressed (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 21).
5. Latin must be preserved in the liturgy, especially in Holy Mass (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 36 and 54).
6. Gregorian chant has pride of place in the liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 116).

The Council Fathers saw their reform proposals as the continuation of the reform of Saint Pius X (Sacrosanctum Concilium 112 and 117) and of the servant of God Pius XII; indeed, in the liturgical constitution, Pius XII’s Encyclical Mediator Dei is what is most often cited.

Among other things, Pope Pius XII left the Church an important principle of doctrine regarding the Holy Liturgy, namely the condemnation of what is called liturgical archeologism. Its proposals largely overlapped with those of the Jansenistic and Protestant-leaning synod of Pistoia (see “Mediator Dei,” 63-64). As a matter of fact they bring to mind Martin Luther’s theological thinking. …

IV – The five wounds of the liturgical mystical body of Christ

Disse oppsummerer Father Z. slik:

1 Mass versus populum.
2 Communion in the hand.
3 The Novus Ordo Offertory prayers.
4 Disappearance of Latin in the Ordinary Form.
5 Liturgical services of lector and acolyte by women and ministers in lay clothing.

V –The Motu Proprio: putting an end to rupture in the liturgy

In the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict XVI stipulates that the two forms of the Roman rite are to be regarded and treated with the same respect, because the Church remains the same before and after the Council. In the letter accompanying the Motu Proprio, the pope wishes the two forms to enrich each other mutually. Furthermore he wishes that the new form “be able to demonstrate, more powerfully than has been the case hitherto, the sacrality which attracts many people to the former usage.” …

One of the necessary conditions for a fruitful new evangelization would be the witness of the entire Church in the public liturgical worship. It would have to observe at least these two aspects of Divine Worship:

1) Let the Holy Mass be celebrated the world over, even in the ordinary form, in an internal and therefore necessarily also external “conversio ad Dominum”.
2) Let the faithful bend the knee before Christ at the time of Holy Communion, as Saint Paul demands when he mentions the name and person of Christ (see Phil 2:10), and let them receive Him with the greatest love and the greatest respect possible, as befits Him as true God.

Thank God, Benedict XVI has taken two concrete measures to begin the process of a return from the liturgical Avignon exile, to wit the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum and the reintroduction of the traditional Communion rite. …

Les hele foredraget her.

Pave Benedikts økumenikk

Paven, Økumenikk /

Sandro Magister skriver om hvordan pave Benedikts økumeniske initiativer (overfor anglikanerne spesielt) fungerer i praksis. Noen har vært kritiske til hva paven har gjort, men:

… the Church of Rome is viewed today by the majority of Anglicans all over the world in a much more positive light than in the past, as a valid guardian of shared apostolic traditions, against the modernist tendencies.

As a result, the boundary between Catholicism and Anglicanism has become more open today. And Anglican primate Williams himself, who is a sophisticated theologian, has found in the theological magisterium of Benedict XVI a broadly shared vision.

The ecumenism of Benedict XVI is not one of negotiation, of reciprocal concessions of sovereignty, of the watering down of doctrine, for the sake of creating a structure acceptable to all. It is simply meant to revive fidelity to the roots of the mission of Christians in the world, as intended by Jesus Christ. It is meant to create unity on the basis of this fidelity.

And the choice of the Roman monastery of San Gregorio al Celio, for vespers celebrated together with Anglican primate Williams, was precisely an insistence on these essential roots, «because it was from this monastery that Pope Gregory [the Great] chose Augustine and his forty monks and sent them to bring the Gospel to the Angles, a little over 1,400 years ago.» And from their islands, the English monks then set out again to evangelize Europe. …

Les hele artikkelen her.

Medlem i FSSPs ‘Confraternity’

Generelt, TLM /

Petersbroderskapet (FSSP – stiftet i 1988) er den gruppen av prester som feirer den tradisjonelle messen, som jeg føler meg mest tiltrukket av. For to uker siden var jeg og beøkte dem i Sveits, og i dag har jeg meldt meg inn i deres støttegruppe (Hva kan Confraternity kalles på norsk?). Les mer om denne gruppen bl.a. HER. For noen uker siden (22/2) var denne støttegruppen 5 år, og da skrev lederen, Fr Armand de Malleray, bl.a. følgende om den:

Following a resolution by the last General Chapter (2006) of the
Priestly Fraternity of St Peter, the Confraternity of Saint Peter was
founded on 22 February 2007 as an answer to the petitions of fellow
Catholics desiring to be more closely associated to the ministry of our
Fraternity. Not being a religious order, we do not run a third order as
such, but we could offer our faithful the support of a sodality. From
medieval times sodalities had proved a deeply traditional and efficient
way of sanctification for the laity and for the clergy: such time-proofed
instruments are not obsolete in the current dechristianisation. This is to
our mutual advantage, as CSP members and FSSP members pray for each other
and support each other according to our respective vocations.

Five years later the Confraternity numbers 3,750 worldwide.
As members (Catholic with minimum age fourteen) you commit to: every day:
1) pray one decade of the Holy Rosary for the sanctification of our
priests and for our priestly vocations, 2) and recite the Prayer of the
Confraternity; and every year: 3) have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
offered once for these intentions. …

Dear Friends, the ‘Master of the Harvest’ hears you!
Our international seminaries have been blessed with an unprecedented
intake of 49 and 44 applicants in the last two years, bringing the total
number of our seminarians to 162 – over 80 in each of our seminaries.
Furthermore, whereas many religious and diocesan institutions undergo
dramatic variations, the number of our priestly ordinations is
characterised by a remarkable stability, with an average 12 priests
ordained each year since 2000. Undoubtedly, your dedication and
intercession as members of the Confraternity of Saint Peter are a decisive
factor in those achievements. Thankfully, even more people outside the
Confraternity pray for us daily: but the 3,750 of you do so with the
intention of fulfilling a formal commitment, whence increased merits and
graces….

Please note that the Confraternity is not for lay Catholics only. From the beginning, consecrated persons, either religious or clerics, have been expected to join as well. To this date, over a hundred have. In Great Britain only, for example, already ten parish priests have joined the Confraternity. There are no extra commitments for clergy. The only difference is that priest members would offer the annual Mass for the Confraternity themselves, rather than have it said by another priest. Especially when they feel isolated and sidelined due to their courageous attachment to the Roman traditions, religious and diocesan priests (and future priests) find spiritual solace in joining the Confraternity as added members of our priestly family …

Hva og hvordan man synger i messen – og en bokanmeldelse

Liturgi /

Jeffrey Tucker skriver i et blogginnlegg:

… It is almost a universal fact that the musicians who perform at Mass today do not really understand what it is they are being asked to do. It is not their fault. No one ever explained this to them. There is a massive loss of knowledge out there.

After explaining, and after (they were) taught them how to read square notes and sing the propers, everything changed. The musicians were thrilled and excited. They were shown the north star of Catholic music. They were fired up to get going singing the liturgy rather than merely singing songs as Mass. A few hours of instruction and conversation changed everything. …

For å forstå hvorman og hva man skal synge i liturgien (dvs. messen ordinarium og proprium), kan man kjøpe boken The Musical Shape of the Liturgy – som beskrives slik:

The Musical Shape of the Liturgy, by William Mahrt, is the first full treatise that maps out — historically, theologically, musically, and practically — the musical framework of the Roman Rite in a way that can inform audiences of all types. Mahrt demonstrates that the Roman Rite is not only a ritual text of words, but is a complete liturgical experience that embeds within it a precise body of music that is absolutely integral to the rite itself. In other words, the music at Mass is not arbitrary. It is wedded to the rite as completely as the prayers, rubrics, and the liturgical calendar itself. Everything in the traditional music books has a liturgical purpose. When they are neglected, the rite is truncated; the experience is reduced in splendor. These claims will amount to a total revelation to most all Catholic musicians working today. …

Liturgiske nyheter

Liturgi /

Fr. Ray Blake i England skriver om bestemmelser for liturgien for det anglikanske ordinariatet, som har tydelige tradisjonalistiske tendenser, som på litt sikt kan få betydning for katolsk liturgi generelt:

… it is interesting that Rome’s latest moves on the liturgical front is to restore the more ancient usage, but for the Ordinariate.

As in England, Ordinary Time will no longer be referred to, being replaced by Sundays after Epiphany or Sundays after Trinity, thus ensuring the whole liturgical year is now explicitly anchored and referenced to the mysteries of salvation.
The three “-gesima” Sundays are restored.
Rogation days before Ascension, and the Ember days in the four seasons of the year are restored.
The Octave of Pentecost is restored, to be marked properly except for the readings which will be of the particular weekday.

Already the Ordinariate have announced its liturgy should be eastward facing. The replacement of Ordinary Time is obviously a reflection of calendar of the Book of Common Prayer, but it is probably more than that, the same could be said of Rogation and Ember days but the rest, the -gesimas, the Octave of Pentecost are used by some Anglicans but at least here, it is not mainstream.

This isn’t going to happen tomorrow, if the whole Church is to be carried forward but for the rest of the Church these are interesting developments, one hears rumours of a new Missal being prepared, an Usus Medior; a reconciliation of the Usus Antiquior and Recentior, so there is one Roman Usage, rather than two.

Det gamle dåpsritualet på latin og norsk

Liturgi, TLM /

Jeg har noen få ganger døpt barn etter det gamle dåpsrirualet – siden pave benedikt i 2007 ga alle prester tillatelse til å gjøre dette. (Men av 44 dåp jeg hadde i fjor, var bare 2 etter det gamle ritualet – det må gjerne bli flere.)

Så langt har jeg i det gamle ritualet bare brukt latin (og spurt fadderen ekstra på norsk, når han/hun skal svare. Men det fins en norsk utgave av ritualet, der en hel del av ritualet ar oversatt til norsk – mens noen bønner, eksorsismene og selve dåpsformulaeret må sies på latin. Jeg har funnet ritualet i den norske bønneboken fra 1944, og dåpsritualet begynner slik:

Presten tar mot fadderen med barnet ved kirkedøren. Han spør den som bærer barnet:
P.: N hva søker du hos Guds Kirke?
P.: Troen.
P.: Hva gir troen deg?
F.: Det evige liv.
P.: Når du altså vil gå inn til livet, da hold budene. Du skal elske Herren din Gud av hele ditt hjerte og hele din sjel og din neste som deg selv.
Han ånder tre ganger over barnets ansikt og sier:
P.: Vik bort fra ham (henne) du urene ånd, og gi rom for Trøsteren, den Hellige Ånd.
Deretter signer han barnet med korstegnet på pannen og brystet.
P.: Motta korstegnet både på din panne + og i ditt hjerte +. Tro på de himmelske lærdommer og ferdes slik at du kan være Guds tempel.
Presten ber noen bønner på latin om Guds nåde for barnet.

Se hele rutualet på latin og (delvis) norsk her.

Forandringer i kirkemusikken som ikke har noe med musikken å gjøre

Liturgi /

Jeffrey Tucker foreslår her at man heller må forandre bestemmelsene om ordene som skal synges i messen, dvs. at det kreves at messens proprium alltid synges – på latin eller på morsmålet, og så kan andre ting synges deretter.

I Norge synger man vanligvis hymer som passer noenlunde godt til søndagens tema (dvs messer på norsk i Norge, i messer på andre språk er min opplevelse at sangvalget er dårligere), mens messens egne tekster – inngangsvers etc. – blir oftest ignorert. Men Tucker opplevde nylig en messe som var mye verre:

At a Mass I attended on the first Sunday of Lent, for example, the choir sang a processional that had nothing to do with Lent, fully three offertory songs that were unrelated to the liturgy or (in the case of one of them) even to Christianity (so far as I could tell), and the communion song shouted repeatedly that “God is amazing!” but I failed to find that text anywhere in my liturgical books.

So let’s say you went up to this choir leader in charge and said: “Instead of those crazy songs, you really should be singing Gregorian chant, just as the Vatican demands.” Would this song leader have any clue at all where to begin? He would not have the music in front of him. He wouldn’t know what to sing and when. As for the official chant books such as the Graduale or the Gregorian Missal, the notation and the language are completely foreign to him. He would be totally clueless how to actually implement the demand.

This situation is true in probably three quarters of American parishes today, and even those parishes where there is a Gregorian schola, there are other Masses controlled by the Life Teen band or some other guitar group that wants nothing whatever to do with chant and refuses even to learn what it is all about. They won’t budge. …

Kirken har utallige ganger sagt hva som bør synges i liturgien, messens proprium og gregoriansk sang har første plass etc., men dette har alltid blitt ignorert eller omtolket. Derfor foreslår Tucker:

… Is this a counsel of despair? No. Absolutely not. There is a way out of this whole problem. Interestingly, it is not through further pronouncements on music and musical style. The Church needs to change its current legislation dating from 1967 that permits other texts to replace the proper texts of the Mass.

The problem text came in section 32 of Musicam Sacram: “The custom legitimately in use in certain places and widely confirmed by indults, of substituting other songs for the songs given in the Graduale for the Entrance, Offertory, and Communion, can be retained according to the judgement of the competent territorial authority.”

This sentence seems innocuous. It’s tempting to read past it. Should a legitimate custom be retained? Sure, why not? Actually, what this sentence permitted, for the first time in the history of the universal Church, was the complete throwing out of the Mass propers that had been largely stable throughout the whole history of the Roman Rite and formed the basis of Gregorian chant in the first place. The “indult” quickly became the universal practice.

This is the sentence that needs to be repealed, erased, and replaced, because it is this sentence that unleashed the musical chaos and confusion. This is the reason for why the choir is free to totally ignore the liturgy and sing any old song that they happen to have handy in place of the actual text that the liturgy is asking us to sing.

Any Vatican commission on music that is actually effective in our times needs to state very plainly, admitting no exceptions, that this universal practice of throwing out Mass propers in favor of just about anything is absolutely repealed. It must state very plainly that the proper text of the Mass, whether drawn from the Missal or Roman Gradual or from the Simple Gradual, must be the text that is sung. Period. Only after this text is sung in some setting may other songs be introduced. …

Les hele artikkelen her.

Konselebrasjon – bare sammen med biskopen?

Liturgi, Teologi /

Sist søndag presenterte kardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, prefekt for Liturgikongregasjonen, en bok skrevet av Msgr. Guillaume Derville, kalt «La concélébration eucharistique. Du symbole à la réalité».

I sin bokpresentasjon sa kardinalen bl.a. følgende om konselebrasjon:

… “Beauty, then, is not mere decoration, but rather an essential element of the liturgical action, since it is an attribute of God himself and his revelation. These considerations should make us realize the care which is needed, if the liturgical action is to reflect its innate splendour.”

That is to say: the liturgy, and within it the act of concelebration, will be beautiful when it is true and authentic, when its innate splendour is really reflected. It is in this context that we should understand the question posed by the Holy Father regarding concelebrations with a large number of priests: “For my part,” said the Pope, “I have to say, it remains a problem because concrete communion in the celebration is fundamental, and I do not consider that the definitive answer has really been found. I also raised this question during the last Synod but it was not answered. I also had another question asked regarding the concelebration of Mass: why, for example, if a thousand priests concelebrate, do we not yet know whether this structure was desired by the Lord?” …

… The Council did indeed decide to widen the faculty for concelebrating in accordance with two principles: that this form of celebration of the Holy Mass adequately manifests the unity of the priesthood, and that it has been practised up to now in the Church both in the East and in the West. Hence concelebration, as Sacrosanctum Concilium also noted, is one of those rites that it is fitting to restore “according to the primitive rule of the holy Fathers.”

In this sense, it is important to look, however briefly, into the history of concelebration. The historical panorama that Msgr. Derville offers us, even if it is —as he modestly points out— only a brief summary, is sufficient to let us glimpse areas of obscurity, that show the absence of clear data on Eucharistic celebration in the earliest times of the Church. At the same time, and without falling into a ingenuous “archaeologism”, it does provide us with enough information to be able to state that concelebration, in the genuine tradition of the Church, whether eastern or western, is an extraordinary, solemn and public rite, normally presided over by the Bishop or his delegate, surrounded by his presbyterium and by the entire community of the faithful. But the daily concelebrations of priests only, which are practised “privately”, so to speak, in the eastern Churches instead of Masses celebrated individually or “more privato”, do not form part of the Latin liturgical tradition. …

Hele teksten hos Zenit.org – jeg leste det først hos Fr. Ray Blake.

TLM i Danmark – Sorg i København

Liturgi, TLM /

Jeg leste nettopp et innlegg på nettstedet ‘Katolsk Tradition’, som ble postet søndag – etter at den tradisjonelle messen ikke ble feiret slik man hadde regnet med:

I dag var ca. 50 katolikker mødt op i Jesu Hjerte kirke for at høre messe efter den traditionelle ritus. Da præsten af ukendte årsager udeblev, fejrede en af de stedlige præster så i stedet en messe efter ny ritus (for den del af menigheden, som ikke gik hjem). Det skal bemærkes, at der ved Jesu Hjerte kirke er mindst tre præster, som er uddannede til at fejre den traditionelle messe, herunder den præst, som valgte at fejre messen efter ny ritus.

Det må samtidig være tilladt at minde om Pave Benedikts ord i Motu Propriet fra 2007 (art 5):

“I sogne hvor der er en stabil gruppe af troende som er knyttet til den ældre liturgiske tradition, skal sognepræsten villigt imødekomme deres ønske om at fejre Messen efter ritus i den Romerske Messebog offentliggjort i 1962, og sikre at disse troendes velfærd harmonerer med sognets sædvanlige pastorale omsorg, under biskoppens ledelse og i overensstemmelse med Canon 392, idet han undgår splittelse og fremmer hele Kirkens enhed.”

Det er med sorg vi må konstatere, at dette fortsat er fremtid i København.

Heller ikke i vårt land har den tradisjonelle messen så veldig gode kår, men det er nå offentlig messe annen hver søndag i Oslo, bl.a. førstkommende søndag. SE HER.

Når man knapt klarer å gå i søndagsmessen

Katolsk, Liturgi /

Elizabeth Scalia skriver ofte mye interessant på First Things og andre steder, og skriver denne uka om hvor vanskelig det er å gå i en katolske søndagsmesse – og for hennes bror, som går i messen hver dag, er det visst nesten umulig.

(I Norge er dette heldigvis nokså mye bedre; mange menigheter har en stille fromesse, og flere steder har også høymessen både passende og god sang og musikk, og folk oppfører seg ganske fromt før, under og etter messen. Men rett skal være rette; jeg har selv opplevd noen messer som jeg bare med store vanskeligheter har klart å lide meg gjennom.)

Slik skriver hun:

… I think what my brother and I are missing is the sense of reverent anticipation that used to precede Sunday mass when, in the spare minutes before the processional, people used to kneel and collect themselves; they gathered their thoughts, remembered an intention, let go of what was frivolous and finally sighed a big, cleansing, quieting breath in preparation for the great prayer of the mass. If people spoke at all, they whispered; they were reverently aware of Christ present in the tabernacle and considerate of their neighbors at prayer.

Perhaps it is different where you worship, but in my parish—and I would count mine as one of the “quieter” and “more reverent” in our area—that sort of preparation is nearly impossible. The choir and musicians are noisily setting up, talking and laughing. The people in the pews—of all ages—are “being community” with such a boisterous disregard for time or place that a priest recently halted his robing to stride out from the sacristy and call, “excuse me! This is not a movie theater; it’s not Grand Central Station. Have a little consideration, please. There might actually be a couple of people here who are, you know . . . praying.”

Before beginning his homily, Father apologized for the intemperate tone, but his point was valid. We used to have a sense of “sacred spaces,” wherein one behaved differently than everywhere else. The lobby or narthex of a church was for chatting; once you entered the nave, you quieted down. …

Hun har også en blogg – der hun denne uka tar opp mye av det samme.

Organisert protest mot pave Paul VI i 1968

Katolsk, Teologi /

Etter tips fra en leser leste jeg i dag et stykke skrevet av kardinal James Stafford i 2008, og nylig postet på nytt på denne bloggen, og hvordan protesten i USA mot Pave paul VIs encyklika Humanæ vitæ (på norsk her) foregikk. Da encyklikaen ble offentliggjort 29. juli 1968, hadde noen tydeligvis allerede laget en strategi for hvordan pavens budskap skulle nedkjempes. Slik skriver kardinal Stafford:

In his memoirs, Cardinal Shehan describes the immediate reaction of some priests in Washington to the encyclical: “[A]fter receiving the first news of the publication of the encyclical, the Rev. Charles E. Curran, instructor of moral theology of The Catholic University of America, flew back to Washington from the West where he had been staying. Late [on the afternoon of July 29], he and nine other professors of theology of the Catholic University met, by evident prearrangement, in Caldwell Hall to receive, again by prearrangement with the Washington Post, the encyclical, part by part, as it came from the press. The story further indicated that by nine o’clock that night, they had received the whole encyclical, had read it, had analyzed it, criticized it, and had composed their six-hundred word ‘Statement of Dissent.’ Then they began that long series of telephone calls to ‘theologians’ throughout the East, which went on, according to the Post, until 3:30 a.m., seeking authorization to attach their names as endorsers (signers was the term used) of the statement, although those to whom they had telephoned could not have had an opportunity to see either the encyclical or their statement. Meanwhile, they had arranged through one of the local television stations to have the statement broadcast that night.”

The Cardinal’s judgment was scornful. In 1982 he wrote, “The first thing that we have to note about the whole performance is this: so far as I have been able to discern, never in the recorded history of the Church has a solemn proclamation of a Pope been received by any group of Catholic people with so much disrespect and contempt.”

(My) personal Peirasmòs, the test, began. In Baltimore in early August 1968, a few days after the encyclical’s issuance, I received an invitation by telephone from a recently ordained assistant pastor to attend a gathering of some Baltimore priests at the rectory of St. William of York parish in southwest Baltimore to discuss the encyclical. The meeting was set for Sunday evening, August 4. I agreed to come. Eventually a large number of priests were gathered in the rectory’s basement. I knew them all. ….

My expectations of the meeting proved unrealistic. I had hoped that we had been called together to receive copies of the encyclical and to discuss it. I was mistaken. Neither happened. After welcoming us and introducing the leadership, the inner-city pastor came to the point. He expected each of us to subscribe to the Washington “Statement of Dissent.” ….

Ingen av prestene på møtet hadde fått lese Humanæ vitæ, men likevel var det bare den unge presten James Stafford som våget å nekte å skrive under protesten. (Dette ser man om man leser videre – HER.)

Kirke i Oslo kan selges til katolikkene

Generelt, Katolsk /

Vårt Land har i dag en interessant artikkel om situasjonen for Den norske kirke i Oslo, der de skriver:

Femten menigheter kan bli til sju i Oslo. To kirker kan bli solgt. Dette er blant forslagene som en topptung arbeidsgruppe i Oslo bispedømmeråd nå legger fram. De to kirkene som foreslås solgt, er Bredtvet i Groruddalen og Markus kirke i Oslo sentrum. …

… I dag er den gjennomsnittlige medlemsprosenten for Den norske kirke om lag 50 prosent i Østre Aker prosti, som omfatter mesteparten av Groruddalen. Blant annet i indre Oslo øst, som er en del av domprostiet, er kirkemedlemsandelen enda lavere. …

… Bredtvet og Rødtvet slås sammen. … Bredtvet kirke selges, eventuelt leies ut til Oslo katolske bispedømme.

Forøvrig er dette første helg det er katolske messer i Bredtvet kirke; lørdag kveld og søndag kl 09.00.

Pave Benedikt – en av de aller eldste paver

Paven /

I dag – 2. mars – er pave Benedikt eldre enn pave Johannes Paul II var da han døde – fra katolsk.no:

Torsdag den 1. mars 2012 ble pave Benedikt XVI (84) den eldste paven på over hundre år. I dag er han like gammel som sin forgjenger, den salige pave Johannes Paul II (1978-2005), var da han døde, og om 46 dager, den 16. april, feirer han sin 85-årsdag.

Den eldste paven i kirkehistorien var Leo XIII (1878-1903) eller Vincenzo Gioacchino Pecci, som døde i en alder av 93 år. Hans forgjenger, den salige pave Pius IX (1846-1878) eller Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, som er den paven etter den hellige Peter som har regjert lengst, oppnådde en alder av 85 år og knapt ni måneder. På 1700-tallet ble pave Klemens XII (1730-1740) eller Lorenzo Corsini nesten 88 år gammel.

En snever forståelse av hva et moderne demokrati bør være

Apologetikk, Generelt /

Eskil Skjeldal er stipendiat i teologisk etikk ved Det teologiske Menighetsfakultet, og skrev i går en kronikk i Aftenposten om angrepet på legenes reservasjonsrett mot abort. Han skrev bl.a.:

Regjeringens manglende forståelse for legenes ønsker, kan skyldes en snever forståelse av hva som skal være et «ekte» etisk problem. Abort er et etisk dilemma, og man må ikke nødvendigvis ha en religiøs tro for å være enig i det. Uansett hva slags syn man har på fosterets verdi, er abort en avslutning av et spirende menneskeliv. Men regjeringens steile holdning viser en ny og demokratifiendtlig logikk: Nå kan du miste jobben dersom du forstår abort som et etisk dilemma. Slik regjeringen ser det, bryter abort med det som skal være «statlig aksepterte» etiske dilemmaer. Dersom religiøs tro kan være årsaken til at et etisk dilemma oppstår, virker dilemmaet uakseptabelt for regjeringen. Etter mitt syn har de dermed både en snever forståelse av religiøs tro, men også av hva et moderne demokrati bør være. …

Les hele kronikken her.

Ratzinger om liturgien i 1998: Problemer med den tradisjonelle liturgien

Liturgi, Paven /

I femte og siste del av min gjengivelse av kardinal Ratzingers foredrag om liturgien i 1998, understreker han at det faktisk var alvorlige problemer med den tradisjonelle liturgien på starten av 60-tallet. (Dette er ting det er viktig for tradisjonalister å ta alvorlig; observasjoner fra en person som kjente Kirken ut og inn fra før andre verdenskrig. De fleste av oss som lever i dag har jo bare lest oss til informasjon om liturgien før Vatikankonsilet.):

One notices a return to mystery, and to adoration and the sacred, and to the cosmic and eschatological nature of the liturgy. To this, the Oxford Declaration on the Liturgy of 1996 bears witnesses. On the other hand one has to admit that the celebration of the ancient liturgy was too lost in the realm of the individual and the private. One must admit that the communion between the priest and the faithful was lacking. I have great respect for our ancestors who during the Low Mass, said the prayers «during Mass» which their prayer book recommended. Certainly one cannot consider that as the ideal of the liturgical celebration! Perhaps, these reduced forms of celebration are the fundamental reason why the disappearance of the ancient liturgical books had no importance in many countries and caused no pain, There was never any contact with the liturgy itself. On the other hand, where the liturgical movement had created a certain love for the liturgy, where this movement anticipated the essential ideals of the Council -for example the prayerful participation of all at the liturgical action- there was a greater pain at the liturgical reform undertaken too much in haste and limiting itself often to externals. Where the liturgical movement never existed the reform did not -it first pose a problem. The problems arose in a spasmodic way where a wild creativity made the sacred mystery disappear.

This is why it is so important to obey the essential criteria of the Constitution on the Liturgy, which I cited above, even if one celebrates according to the Ancient Missal. At the moment when this liturgy truly touches the faithful by its beauty and depth, then it will be alive and there will be no irreconcilable opposition with the new liturgy -provided that these criteria are truly applied as the Council wished.

Hele foredraget kan leses her.

Noen dager i Lausanne

Generelt /

Fra tirsdag til lørdag denne uka er jeg på en liten retrett hos prestevenner (i FSSP) i Sveits, det meste av tida i Lausanne – samt en dagstur til Fribourg. Noen rolige dager, med tid til bønn, messefeiring, og samtaler om teologiske og liturgiske spørsmål.

Ratzinger om liturgien i 1998: Egentlig to måter å forstå Kirken på

Liturgi, Paven /

I fjerde del av min gjengivelse av kardinal Ratzingers foredrag om liturgien i 1998, sier han at det heller er ulike matter å feire messen på og forstå Kirken på – heller enn to ulike riter – som er problemet:

The alarm of which we have spoken is so great, I think, because one is contrasting two forms of celebration with two different spiritual outlooks. One is contrasting two different ways of perceiving the Church and Christian existence. The reasons for this are several. Firstly, one judges the two liturgical forms by their exterior elements and arrives at the conclusion that there are two fundamentally different outlooks. That the new liturgy be celebrated in the vernacular, facing the congregation and that there be great leeway for creativity and the active exercise of roles by the laity, is considered essential by the average Christian. On the other hand, it is deemed essential that the old liturgy be in Latin, the priest face the altar, that the rite be strictly controlled and that the faithful follow the Mass by praying privately without having an active role. From this view appearances and not what the liturgy itself considers important, are essential for a liturgy. One must realize that the faithful understand the liturgy from visible concrete forms and that they are spiritually impregnated by them and that the faithful do not penetrate easily the depths of the liturgy.

The contradictions and oppositions which we have enumerated do not come from either the spirit or the letter of the Council documents. The Constitution on the Liturgy itself does not mention at all celebration facing the altar or the congregation. On the matter of language, it says that Latin must be conserved while at the same time giving the vernacular a larger role, «especially in the readings, the directives and in some prayers and chants» (SC 36:2). As to lay participation, the Council insists firstly and generally, that the liturgy is essentially the business of the entire Body of Christ, Head and members, and so it belongs to the entire Body of the Church «and it is consequently intended to be celebrated in community with the active participation of the faithful.» And the text makes clear that «in liturgical celebrations, everyone one, minister or faithful, in fulfilling his function, does only and fully what belongs to him by virtue of the matter and the liturgical norms» (SC 28). «To promote active participation, one will encourage the acclamations of the people, their responses, the chant of the psalms, antiphons, canticles and other actions and gestures and bodily positions. One will observe a holy silence in its time» (SC 30).

Here then are, the Council directives. They can give everyone matter for reflection. There is unfortunately a tendency, amongst some modern liturgists, to develop the ideas of the Council in one direction. One overturns the intentions of the Council, acting in this way. The role of the priest is reduced by some to the purely functional. The fact that the entire Body of Christ is the subject of the liturgy is often deformed to the point where the local community becomes the self-sufficient subject of the liturgy and it allots the various roles. There also exists a dangerous tendency to minimalise the sacrificial nature of the Mass and to make the mystery and the sacred disappear under the so-called imperative pretext of making oneself more easily understood. Finally, one notices the tendency to fragment the liturgy and the unilateral emphasizing of its communitarian character by giving the assembly the power to decide about the celebration.

Hele foredraget kan leses her.

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