Westminster (Catholic) Cathedral - where the three Anglican bishops were received into the Catholic Church and will be ordained into the Catholic priesthood.
(Telegraph) - According to the Friends of the Ordinariate website, the former bishops of Fulham, Ebbsfleet and Richborough will be ordained Roman Catholic priests in Westminster Cathedral at 10.30am on Saturday, 15 January, a fortnight after they were received into the Church. Everyone is welcome to attend. By that stage they will already be Catholic clergy, having been ordained deacons on Thursday 13 January...
read full story hereTHE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: The creation of the Anglican ordinariate in England is now upon us. The United States and Canada will likely follow immediately thereafter, as well as Australia and others. The time has come for Pope Benedict's "Reform of the Reform."
REFORM OF THE REFORM...
PHASE 1: Restore the 1962 Missal of Saint Pius V (Traditional Latin Mass) - check √
PHASE 2: Reintroduce traditional Anglo-Catholicism to the worldwide Catholic Church - check √
PHASE 3: Reform vernacular translations of the ordinary mass - check √ (later this year)
PHASE 4: Return of pre-conciliar liturgical traditions - in progress
PHASE 5: Revision of the Missal of Pope Paul VI - in progress (quietly)
PHASE 6: Clarification of disputed conciliar documents - in progress (discussions with the SSPX)
The first three phases are enough to reform the Church all on it's own over the next ten to fifteen years, however, phases four through six will accelerate the reform considerably.
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| Three Anglican bishops, with their wives and three Anglican nuns, are received into the Catholic Church at Westminster Cathedral on January 1, 2011 |
I should point out here that the reintroduction of Anglican Catholicism to the Catholic Church is far more comprehensive than just the English-speaking world. The Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), which was the body that originally petitioned Rome for the ordinariates, has large non-English affiliates in India, Pakistan, Africa, Latin America, Japan, and the Pacific islands. These metropolitan affiliates celebrate the Anglo-Catholic liturgies in their own native languages. So what we are looking at here is a whole new Catholic liturgy, highly traditional, that will have vernacular translations in multiple languages around the world!!! Stop and think about that for a moment. What does this mean for the Novus Ordo liturgy?
Naturally, only time will tell what the future holds. However, we must remember that in spite of everything the current Holy Father has done, he is not finished yet. What he has done so far will correct the Church over the next one to two decades regardless, but the Holy Father is only just beginning his operations. Already the ball is moving on more reforms that will run their course even after he is gone. Remember, the translation reform of the English mass began under Pope John Paul II. When our Polish pontiff expired many people thought that would be the end of his English reform. Not so! What John Paul II start, Benedict XVI has finished, and so it is reasonable to assume that Pope Benedict's reform processes will likely outlive his pontificate, with lasting effects stretching generations into the future. Could this pope be "Benedict the Great?" - the "Glory of the Olives" we've heard about in a prophecy of old? I'll let you be the judge of that.
11 comments; post here:
I think Sir Knight you are jumping the gun a little.
While the anglican ordination is succesfully ongoing, I'm not sure how in other parts of the world (heavily liberalized) that this will take on. For one, in Ontario, there isn't any mention whatsoever of this Anglican rite save for those who read the Catholic Register or follow this closely.
In terms of the Reform of the Reform, I see a couple of roadblocks that will provide difficulty in the next couple of decades.
For one, My generation, the next one to have families and kids will not likely be receptive on a grand scale. You can thank poor catechesis, a sexualized anti-life and self-centered lifestyle for making it such in those nations you cite out for the Anglican Rite. As for those who are left in my generation that do attend weekly Mass (if at all), I'm sure if asked, many do it either as a "you're under my roof" condition with their parents or because it's family tradition. Even if they want to get married in the Church, how many of them will truly raise them Catholic the way you and some of the other Catholic bloggers in USA and Canada have?
Tying into number two. As for the few Catholic youth who are involved, they have to contend with Youth leaders, their parents, and clergy who subscribe to liberal theologies, such as that of Lonergan the Jesuit or others from the 60's/70's/80's era and can thus poison their minds with abberant theology.
Second, the clergy and laity aren't exactly all gung ho either. Just take the Latin mass as example. There is still much opposition to it and priests and bishops are either excuse makers or deny it from being held, regardless of B16's Summorum Pontificum. This is partly due to the clergy's liberal views/theologies that have penetrated their mindsets from being products of the Liberal/feminism/secular 60's and 70's. The other 1/2 is that the good priests fear losing their clergy and hence their collection money if they try something like this which will anger the laity who have such mindset mentioned above and love their Novus Ordo to death (Since when is it "Your" Novus Ordo? It's CHRIST'S!!!!).
While this is not the entire situation, I do acknowledge that there is some small hope. The JPII generation who got to experience World Youth Days have been leaning back to traditionalism and have even generated on the whole more vocations to tradtional religious orders and the priesthood. Also, slowly and surely, more youth are considering the Church either because of youth initiatives, and/or like myself from Internet emersion and "waking up" as it were. I "took the red pill, Morpheus" as it would be from the Matrix. Finally, more Latin masses are popping up either as regular weekly occurences or as special occasions by Priests and Bishops. As Fr. Z on WDTPRS says "Brick by Brick."
Still, this growth is not as large as one would think. The next generation (of traditionally minded priests) priests won't be hitting up parishes in the Western Nations till a couple of decades down the road, while the liberal generation still lingers. As for the Youth, we still have to contend with our fellow parishoners and leaders of that liberal mindset, and if we don't want to be ostracized from our Church and its activities or ministries, we have to be civil unless we get higher education or positions in our parishes.
Sorry to put a damper on things Sir Knight, but I'm just putting things into a more real perspective.
Squire YCRCM
Sir Knight, the 6 phases you mention are going to take a longer time frame than this pontificate. Let us pray that Benedict's successor will be of the same mind and accomplish vigorously what he has started in his counter-revolution. Pete Frey
In going with the theme of the previous 2 comments, there is a parish in Sterling Heights Michigan, Ss Cyril & Methodius. They are one of the only parishes in the state that offer the Extraordinary Form every week (at Saturday 6PM). Yet if you go to one of thier EF Masses, you will find no more than 15 to 25 people attending. Being one of the only EF Masses offered in the entire state, you would think every EF Mass would be packed, traditional Catholics from all across the area would attend every week. But it is not so. Perhaps not many people are aware Ss Cyril & Methodius offers the TLM. Any and all people reading this who live near Sterling Hts MI, or know someone who does, please get the word out and make the TLM at this parish more succesful. All Catholics who love or are interested in the TLM should be attending it at this parish. If we want to have, in the future, a choice between a TLM, an AUM, and a NOM, those who live in this area need to show support for the TLM, or else all we will never have a choice, and all we will have is the NOM. Please spread the word to all Catholics thru your blogs, forums, word of mouth, all ways of communicating, Ss. Cyril & Methodius has the Extraordinary Form Mass every single Saturday at 6PM, and get the attendance up from 15 to 25 people to standing room only.
3) is actually restoring the true and proper translations of the Latin Pauline Missal.
All in good time folks. Shortly after the Holy Father was elected pope, he was shown pictures and video of liturgical abuses occurring all over the world. His response: he told us to be patient and that all these things would be addressed and dealt with slowly.
The purpose of this pontificate is not a "quick fix." The Holy Father knows the sickness in the Church is deep, and it cannot be healed with short acting medicine. Therefore, he is creating remedies that are slow acting but permanent in nature. This is not an "earthquake" of reform, as many want, but rather a subtle "tectonic shift" deep under the surface of the Church, changing the whole course of our direction relatively unnoticed by 95% of the Novus Ordo culture.
The TLM and AUM or (AOM), will provide safe refuge for those who are already aware of the Church's chronic liturgical and catechesis problems. Once the islands of refuge are prepared, the next step of the Holy Father is to begin surgery on the NOM itself. Yes, the current translation correction is part of that, but he hasn't started cutting yet. The translation correction (to be enacted this year) is just the pre-operative prepping.
Yes, I suspect the reforms underway will take much longer than his pontificate to implement, and that's okay, because I am firmly convinced that he is setting them up to continue automatically even after he is gone. Of course he's also stacking the college of cardinals too, but that is just incidental. Stopping the reforms after Benedict XVI has initiated them would be a major pontifical act, and I'm sure the next pope (whomever he may be) will have far more pressing issues to address as the Novus Ordo culture continues to implode while the enemies of the Church outside step up their persecution of Christians.
But Sir Knight, as Joan pointed out, the numbers of mass goers to the TLM is still pathetically small, and in no small mesure due to the "comfort zone" created by the NOM, and the lack of familiarity with latin. Of course, the anglican use will indeed show novus ordo-ists how liturgy SHOULD be done, but again you have the comfort zone syndrome. I am sure the pope is all too aware of the problems with the mass and other aspects of catholic life in parishes. But to simply wait for things to change slowly seems, as i have always maintained, papal malfeasance. If sacrilege is taking place, the pope needs to stop it yesterday. We have had 40 years of papal "waiting" (and i fully realize the church thinks in terms of centuries) but inaction has been at the root of the crisis in the church. Pete Frey
Pete, you know that schism is inevitable. The Church must be prepped before the scalpel is applied. Once the cutting begins, the schism will occur, like a malignant parasite leaping out of the body once it becomes obvious that the end is near. Things will happen fast Pete, but it will be the schismatics making it happen. They will be the driving force. Before that happens though, everything must be prepped, so their influence over the whole body is negligible. They are capable of doing much harm when they rip themselves out of the Church. To save the Church from devastation everything must be prepped and put in order first.
In the mean time, traditionally-minded Catholics have the TLM and AUM as refuge. Yes, there are not many now, and I suspect numbers will remain small for a while. In this you can see how serious the infection of Modernism is, and you can begin to appreciate how delicate of a procedure the pope is about to put the Church through.
"We have had 40 years of papal "waiting" (and i fully realize the church thinks in terms of centuries) but inaction has been at the root of the crisis in the church."
Pete I second you in your opinion. While the Church does operate gradually but permanently with regards to the Catholic faith, I think a second type of aggorigamento needs to occur: The Church must now become fully awakened and fast-acting unlike its past. I do applaud what B16 has done already (and much quicker than perhaps some popes e.g. 2 years in his mandate with summorum pontificum) but more catching up must be done.
This past century has seen such rapid advances in technology and living alone in its own wright and two world wars. It's as if Pandora's box opened widely from the little crack that was present.
Furthermore in the last 40+ years, the world got a nasty edge to its sword and struck heavily at the heart of the Church after Vat-II. Thanks to the influences of modernism, feminism, and liberalism all at once combined with increases in technology and the secularization of society, our faith took a nosedive. Also, those who were already liberal leaning, used V-II as an excuse to promote these influences all the way down to the laity, hence killing off note one but two generations (or even three including many of my generation?) of the faithful in the Church. The internet has also added to that edge a deadly poison, with easily accesible content from pornography (sexual sin) to anti-Church propaganda.
B16 in all his wisdom, along with the rest of the bodies in the Church, have to realize that if we are going to duel with the secular world/Satan and at least have a marginal footing once again in this world, they have to step it up again and 1) start utilizing the very tools of this secular world to promote the faith 2) train up and send out those who are still remaining as part of the New Evangelization, and 3) clean house within the Church to rid itself of those dying liberal branches of the 60's/70's/80's theology and 4) make more apostolic exhortations against liturgical abuses and perhaps even start disciplining some of its wayward bishops who do get in the way of good priests who are faithful to the Magisterium.
TCK I know you have responded to Pete, but I worry still that the speed isn't fast enough. To me it's comparable to the analogy of the genetic developmental rates of humans vs bacteria/cancer cells. Bacteria can acquire new genes or cancer cells, mutations, fairly easily and become even more drug-resistant and therefore deadly within a matter of short time. Humans need thousands of years to weed out bad alleles or acquire new mutations to adapt to their environment. I feel like the world/liberal "catholics" are like bacteria or cancer cells that are acquiring genetic benefits faster than Dr. Benedict and the hospital of the Catholic Church can create powerful antibiotics or cancer treatments to cure the disease. I fear that when Dr. church finally has to perform radical surgery to excise the cancer, it will have been metastatic already and all his medications or skill will not be enough to heal the patient permanently.
If the Church doesn't step up quickly to meet the speed of the culture of the world with its "preparations", we might just be looking at a modernized version of TCK's picture in "Blood of the Martyrs" in developed countries.
Squire YCRCM
well said Young Canadian. Pete Frey
My only comment is that Pope Benedict said he would rather have a smaller Church but a pure one.
This leads me to believe that he does have plans and knows that many will break with the Church. If they do, they will be like the Anglicans/Episcopalians and will have to leave their buildings and start with nothing. Also many of the liberal Bishops and priests are getting older and from what I have read many of the younger ones are much more traditional. Our Holy Father can only do so much at one time, however I feel he sees schism coming. My priest is older and celebrates the TLM each Sunday, along with the OF, but it is done with reverence and he faces East and we have an altar rail and receive on the tongue. There is still hope, although we can't determine when the hammer will fall.
Another sign of hope only briefly mentioned above is our aging hippy era bishops and priests who will be replaced by B16 and Marc Cardinal Ouellet and of course our very own Archbishop Richard Anthony Burke at the helm of the congregation of bishops:) Mighty satisfying if I do say so myself.
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