Patrimony

We deny to claim "any Superiority to ourself
to defyne, decyde, or determyn any Article or Poynt
of the Christian Fayth and Relligion,
or to chang any Ancient Ceremony of the Church
from the Forme before received and observed
by the Catholick and Apostolick Church."

Norman Simplicity

Norman Simplicity
Click image for original | © Vitrearum (Allan Barton)

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

The Kool-Aid

Don't drink it.

I admire Father Hunwicke's erudition but I must respectfully dissent from S Pius V: the BIG MISTAKE, THE UNIVERSAL MYTH. The new Missal is imposed, and the following is a completely ambiguous afterthought, buried somewhere in the details:

nisi ab ipsa prima institutione a Sede Apostolica adprobata, vel consuetudine, quae, vel ipsa institutio super ducentos annos Missarum celebrandarum in eisdem Ecclesiis assidue observata sit:

[EVERYBODY] unless approved by the Apostolic See from the very beginning of institution, or by custom, which, if that be not the very institution of those churches over the two hundred years old, is constantly to be observed in the Masses so celebrated;

This is bureaucratic speech -- as well as a fairly harsh criterion -- and the ambiguity is designed to insure that most will be completely unclear about whether the exception actually applies to them: therefore, the only safe thing to do is ....

Let's imagine something different. The question then to be put (and answered truly) is:

What is truly a mark of catholicity and of ecumenical significance? Leave out the ARCIC declarations for a moment and the patsy status of the Church of England; if you meet an old-fashioned Anglican on 1st May and you have a conversation about faith, you're already on common ground in celebrating the same feast day. This is how bridges are built! Something substantive and traditional is a predicate. Do not insist upon the latest papal fiat simply because of what Mediator Dei declares about the liturgical authority of the Roman see. That is what leads to estrangement and hatred.

Let's start from a tradition of practice.
First the cake. Then, the theory for cutting it.

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