.
I proposed this elsewhere but it received little support.
In order to provide Archbishop Nichols with the best possible support, I have set up an organisation caled "The Catholic Association of Catholic Catholics for Catholic Catholicsm". There are no officers, no membership fees, no meetings. The only condition for membership is to feel able to support Archbishop Nichols in as many of these three ways as possible:
1. Prayer: pray for him every day, or when you can, or at least when you remember. But pray for him.
2. Support him: when he asks Catholic Catholics to get involved in Catholic things, then get involved in them. Write to your MP complaining about the prospect of arbortion factories being allowed to advertise; write to your local newspaper; to the BBC: if you are reading this on-line, then dashing off a quick e-mail isn't too difficult.
3. Get out there for him: if you hear that Archbishop Nichols is going to appear somewhere, then be outside cheering him on, and all the louder if he is wearing decent vestments to process the relics of St Chad, or concelebrating Mass with young priests learning the EF of the Mass, for example.
We shall be Vinsmen and Vinswomen; we will decide that from the start, and ad multos annos, we will thank our Pope for the Archbishop he has sent to us by supporting him in every way we know how, surrounding him in love and prayer so that, properly supported, he can lead us.
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11 comments:
Novel idea! Now what do we do when he supports sex education programmes with his name authorising them? Do we campaign with placards 'down with Vin?' Just wondering as a concerned mom of 10 children.
Dead easy! We start from scratch.
If the Holy Father says that Archbishop Nichols is the man for Westminster, we trust him and decide to support the new A of W.
We're not a bunch of resentful schismatics trying to work out just how unfaithful who was, and when: we accept that this is Easter, the Pope has made his decision, and we will renew our hope and trust in the Church.
Good for you! I'm just a plain heretical schismatic then! Happy to be one!
Yes sometimes when ones children are involved you do become a trifle resentful...but there's no-one going to contaminate my little children with filthy sex ed programmes of the kind Blessed Vincent puts out!
Well, if ++Vincent does try concelebrating in the Extraordinary Form (unless at ordinations or episcopal consecrations), per your suggestion (?), I might just flip from shouting support to hurling green custard, or whatever the ordinary form of showing extreme disgust is nowadays.
Lon, he concelebrated in the OF (in Latin) at the start of the 2007 Merton conference at which the priests were to learn the EF, thus showing his unity with priests from all over the country who had gathered in his Diocese, his blessing on the endeavour they were undertaking, and his gentle reminder that the EF coexists alongside something else: the OF.
At the time Damian had posted a bit sniffily about what the Archbishop was doing, and I replied on his blog:
"Opening the Conference with a Latin celebration of the Ordinary Rite, and then finishing it with a celebration of the Extraordinary Rite feels like a symmetrical way of uniting the priests who are there with the Church's two Uses rather than an act of rudeness. The two Uses are not in opposition to each other: they will complement and enrich one another."
Jackie, I think he's started extremely well, got off on the right foot, I really do. But let's hope there prove to be no exceptions to his so-welcome "I'll be guided by Pope Benedict". Particularly as regards the prospect of sex ed in Catholic PRIMARY schools - truly dreadful!
On that, I'm hoping - given the scope afforded by his new circumstances - for the really Catholic firmness we know he's not afraid to show when a government goes too far. And so hoping are many, many other parents like yourself.
The two Uses are not in opposition to each other: they will complement and enrich one another.Ahem... yep. The "banal and on the spot production" that is the OF (to quote the immortal words of someone) enriching the EF.
A great way to end up at square one - that is the first Advent of December 1969.
Shall I get The Fixer to run up some t-shirts with 'Vinsmen' and 'Vinswomen' emblazoned across the front?
Ottaviani: look here and here for two erudite pieces on what the OF has to offer to enrich the EF.
I'm not that erudite, but will offer another and pastoral change: that of those who cannot communicate nevertheless being able to approach the altar. At the EF Mass I serve at every week we are trying to evolve a way of welcoming those who aren't in full communion in just such a way.
I would be interested to hear of your pastoral plan. The church does teach that non-Catholics and those who live in a state of sin cannot receive Holy Communion. I don't see how you can change that. However I am sure that a blessing is allowed to those who present themselves.
And it strikes me that this hasn't been a problem for non-Catholics too. I am sure through-out the ages, non-Catholics have wandered into church and seen a low mass going on a side altar and wondered what all that is about, without feeling the urge to communicate.
As for the two blog posts you have quoted: I am in favour of new saints being added to the old calendar but this must be a gradual process and not a 'slash and burn' process like we saw in the 1960s. As for the use of vernacular in the Rituale Romanum, I think was has already been provided for in a 1958 instruction from the Congregation of Rites and indeed certain parts of baptism and wedding ceremonies were allowed to be conducted in the mother tongue.
Regarding the new prefaces - I am still out on this one. I believe in 1963 some prefaces were approved to be used ad libitum and so I think why not use those instead of resorting to the prefaces from the Pauline missal. As for the collects, I think Fr. Finnegan is a bit overly optimistic on this. Having propers for every single saint is simply not practical, otherwise the altar missal would be size of Britannica Encyclopedia. Some saints of greater veneration probably do have their own collects but not everyone of them needs this.
The church already experienced an upheaval from tampering with the liturgy in the late 1960s - we don't need a repeat of this again. Plus we are simply not living in a period where we have orthodox liturgists, without an agenda, in the right places in Rome. There are still many die-hard Bugnini fans in the curia and they would love nothing more than to get their hands on something like this and ruin it (again). If anything the new missal is in dire need of re-wiring (if it is to have a future).
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