Damien Thompson reports that the celebration of the Traditional Mass has been banned at Oscott Seminary. According to a letter to the students from the Dean it is the bishops who oversee the running of the college who have "made it clear that the Extraordinary Form was not to be celebrated here".
I find this hard to believe, but if this is really so, then it is outrageous and very odd, given the Church's legislation in this area, emanating directly from the Holy Father. Make up your own minds from the texts governing the celebration of, and the instruction on how to offer, the Extraordinary Form.
From the LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI TO THE BISHOPS ON THE OCCASION OF THE PUBLICATION OF THE APOSTOLIC LETTER "MOTU PROPRIO DATA" SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM ON THE USE OF THE ROMAN LITURGY PRIOR TO THE REFORM OF 1970, (21):
"Let us generously open our hearts and make room for everything that the faith itself allows."
From the PONTIFICAL COMMISSION ECCLESIA DEI INSTRUCTION ON THE APPLICATION OF THE APOSTOLIC LETTER SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI GIVEN MOTU PROPRIO:
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[8] and, where pastoral needs suggest it, the opportunity to learn the forma extraordinaria of the Roman Rite. [8] Cf. Code of Canon Law, Canon 249; Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, 36; Declaration Optatum totius, (13).
From Monsignor Pozzo, former Secretary of "Ecclesia Dei", who said in May 2011 that the Holy Father
"wants to help all Catholics to live the truth of the liturgy so that, knowing and participating in the old Roman form of celebration, they understand that 'Sacrosanctum Concilium' wished to reform the liturgy in continuity with tradition,"
On the video DVD produced by the FSSP/EWTN to instruct about the older form of Mass the Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos said that parishes and priests should make available the Extraordinary Form so that “everyone may have access to this treasure of the ancient liturgy of the Church.” He also stressed that, “even if it is not specifically asked for, or requested” it should be provided. Interestingly, he added that the Pope wants this Mass to become normal in parishes, so that “young communities can also become familiar with this rite.”
6 comments:
In view of your current posting about the (non)teaching of the traditional Mass in British seminaries you might find these links informative.
Bishop Robert C. Morlino of Madison, Wisconsin, told his seminarians – 32 in number! – that it was his expectation that all of them learn how to say Mass in the Extraordinary Form before they are ordained. He did not say that they would be required to use it all the time, but that they must know how to use it. If seminaries are not offering the opportunity to learn the older form, they could go to workshops or find priests who could help them to learn it.
Surely this is the correct and enlightened approach. The bishop is being obedient to the Holy Father, and showing his fatherly concern for the best education of those in his care.
http://www.knightsofdivinemercy.com/2012/08/15/a-bishop-explicitly-charges-all-his-seminarians-to-learn-the-extraordinary-form-wherein-fr-z-rants/
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/08/a-bishop-explicitly-charges-all-his-seminarians-to-learn-the-extraordinary-form-wherein-fr-z-rants/
Compare, also, the enlightened approach of the North American College in Rome which for the past four years has invited Mons Richard Soseman of the Congregation for the Clergy to come into the college to teach the traditional Mass to the seminarians. I have been to this college and spoken to seminarians who are gratefuly benefitting from this tuition.
It is long past the time that our bishops and seminary rectors be held to account over their mishandling of this matter. If they do not care for the traditional Mass then that is their private concern: what they cannot do, and should not be allowed to do, is to impose their own personal negative bias on young men who have offered their lives in the service of God, and deny them the fullness of Catholic teaching in matters of the sacred liturgy. I know of many young priests and seminarians, not only in this country, who are deeply unhappy that they are not allowed to even express an interest in the older form of Mass without jeopardising their futures. Not only is it shameful, it is also damaging to the newly-ordained priests in that their formation has been deficient, and it is damaging to the faithful in that there is a deliberatly engineered shortage of priests who are capable of celebrating the traditional Mass. One is entitled to ask for an explanation from our bishops about their policy. Let them explain why the traditional Mass is so bad for us spiritually that they are so determined that it is suppressed in our seminaries.
There is something deeply unsettling about bishops who have such a determination to deprive their clergy and the faithful of the spiritual riches of the Church. And they are also depriving us of priests because I know of quite a number of young men who have been refused entry to seminary because of their conservative, orthodox, and traditional views, and others who have 'had to leave' because their views were discovered.
To my knowledge Oscott has produced several orthodox/traditional priests in recent years.
I know one bishop, now retired, who appeared not to believe in the 'ordained priesthood' but looked forward to a lay led church - and preached as much at the ordination anniversary of a priest friend. He had been the rector of a seminary.
This decision is pastorally short-sighted. Presently, the majority of Catholics who want to worship according to the Old Rite, have to leave their own parish and find others where their needs are met. This can involve travelling some distance. They are no longer part of any parish life, but become an itinerant "Latin Mass community".
If more priests were able, and willing, to celebrate the Traditional Mass in their own parishes, these Catholics could then remain members of such: and the "Mutual Enrichment" of which Pope Benedict XVI speaks might become a reality.
In my opinion the Church should not be appointing men as bishops UNLESS they can celebrate both forms of the Roman Rite. They are surely not 'complete' bishops unless they can, at least, understand where their more traditional clergy are, spiritually.
We often have heard of bishops who were quite prepared to allow their clergy to 'do their own thing' with regard to the celebration of Mass and, it must be accepted, that EF Masses were enabled purely & simply because of this allowance.
As to seminarians being unable to learn the EF Mass as part of their formation we must look into the not too distant past when certainly 1 president of a seminary in England not only allowed doubtful Mass rubrics but actually celebrated using these rubrics.
Perhaps we are fortunate that so many of our more recently ordained clergy have turned out as well as they have i.e DESPITE some of the training they received
Having already sent a letter to the Catholic Herald about the absurd dancing antics at Liverpool on Sunday, I now find myself repeating myself in so much as this is yet another aberration of the rules endorsed by those who seem to think they know better than Rome!
Pray for them!
Kevin, thank you for sending a letter to the Catholic Herald. This needs to be seen by Rome.
I was utterly shocked to see this video. I just hope something can be done.
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