Thursday, March 01, 2007

A week since the motu proprio

Well, it's the first of March. It's been a week since the motu proprio was released and the ancient rite was released from bondage...

...or so some thought.

Actually, I have it on good authority, from the a volunteer at a parish in Overland Park, who overheard the parish secretary telling the sacristan that he heard the associate pastor talking to the pastor of a church in Kansas City, who knew a seminarian at Mundelein, whose friend from pretheologiate at Conception was a seminarian at the North American College in Rome, and the friend in Rome had dinner with a seminary professor whose housekeeper has a second cousin, and that second cousin is a headwaiter at a ristorante near Ottaviano station which is frequented by some Monsignori in the Pontifical Council for the Family, who were talking about a conversation one of them had had with the janitor who was responsible for cleaning Cardinal Arinze's office, and the headwaiter overheard from the Monsignori that the motu proprio would most certainly be released March 12, the Feast of St. Gregory the Great.

March 12.

It must be true. It must be.

So, call Vegas. Check the line on it, and put your money down.

March 12.

11 comments:

Patrick Kinsale said...

I would love the motu proprio or any other freeing of the traditional Mass. That said, I wonder how many priests would actually commit to doing it, seeing as how so few even bother with the next best thing, the Novus Ordo in Latin.

In many parishes, and especially in dioceses where bishops have already rejected Ecclesia Dei, it will be business as usual.

Anonymous said...

I see the humor, but here's an angle you might not have heard before (or at least, not lately):

What if the Motu Proprio is *never* released? I hear you scoff -- but millions of people have waited in vain for things like this before. The Pope IS allowed to change his mind, you know.

Given the nature of the thing under discussion, who would blame him if he gave in to nerves at the last moment?

I guess if he DOES give in to nerves at the last minute, it will be good for the future of trad bloggers. They'll have something to complain about forever. :)

Ahh. . . . just think about it: A vinegary curmudgeon, scraping away with slate on granite for ten more years. . . .

:)


Ever Anon

Indulterer X said...

The Motu Propio will be released on July 3rd... Why that date, that is the anniversary of the death of Cardinal Bugnini.

That our January 4th, the anniversary of him being exiled from Rome to Iran...

Just my thoughts...

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the German pontiff has a sense of humor as well as history, and wishes to make it clear that the true roots of that thing called the New Mass can be dated to the German town of Wittenberg and the vigil of All Saints (October 31), 1517.

If deliverance doesn't come by the anniversary of Lepanto (October 7), I'm betting on the anniversary of the Ninety-five Theses.

Might be a long summer!

Curmudgeon said...

Kinsale is right, and we can't lose sight of that fact: if the motu proprio just recognizes a right on the part of the priest to use the old rites, and there's no mention of a right of the rest of us to have access to the old rites, then nothing will change.

But it's a step forward; it moves the Church another step towards reconciliation with the Society, and the immediate result might be that a few more modernists Bishops will be scared into being nice to indulterers.

Ultimately, the only thing that would really make an immediate difference for the vast majority of us would be the establishment of a worldwide apostolic administration--a parallel jurisdiction for us--where we're out from under the local chancery thumb. And frankly, as good as that would be for us, and as much fruit as that would bear for the whole Church, it flat ain't gonna happen. It's a wonderful dream, but the political fallout would be too great. (Please, God, prove me wrong).

I have a friend who keeps telling me that the Society will never come back--they'll just keep adding conditions upon conditions upon conditions as the hierarchy seeks reconciliation.

OK, that's fine. Let's think about that.

So, we've chased the mainline Protestants leftward for the last 40 years, seeking unity while they throw up obtacle after obstacle after obstacle. The Anglicans are the best example: Married clergy; women clergy; gay clergy; married lesbian clergy. They'll never come back to be sure, and the only result of the chase has been to infuse modernism at harm to Holy Mother Church.

So fine. Let's say the hierarchy spends the next 40 years chasing Society towards tradition, seeking unity and making concessions, while the Society throws up obstacle after obstacle after obstacle. Say they are never restored as a canonically regular institute. Say at the end of 40 years, the Society is in all-out schism, and heresy too, after all that effort. Nevermind the state of the Society at that point, but ask yourself, "Is the Church better or worse for the chase?"

Anonymous said...

Curmud,

I don't understand your analogy.

How has the Society moved more and more away from Rome in response to Rome's overtures of reconciliation similar to how the mainline protestants have moved more and more in the direction of liberalism?

What added conditions for reconciliation have they made?

There is no analogy here.

Anonymous said...

Let me be clear: I'm not asserting that they have. I'm not close enough to the Society to say either way. This is a continuation of my campaign to make neo's and fellow indulterers think differently about the issue.

Therefore, I'm merely beginning from the premise of a naysaying friend, and assuming arguendo that they're moving further to the "right" (for want of a better one-word description), and asking plainly, whether chasing them in such a direction would be beneficial or harmful to the church.

If you go along with my assumptions (and recognize who I'm talking to, and that in any rhetorical exercise one must start from a point that your audience can agree with), then I think you can see how they might see my analogy...even if you don't see it for yourself.

But of course, in answering you, I've had to show my hand, eh? And an opportunity was lost.

Next time just go along with me.

Patrick Kinsale said...

"Indulterers." I love it. It makes me feel so ... dirty.

Anonymous said...

I've described myself as an "indulterer" for a couple of years now. A little humor and a little self-deprecation is good for me. And it disarms the more sensible sorts of "irregulars." Of course, as evidenced above, there are those irregulars who haven't bothered to read my blog and jump in and try to pick a fight with me now and then. Witness the above. They don't know who their friends are.

But then, that seems to be an even more common problem among us neos and indulterers. We don't know who our friends are.

The Vegas Art Guy said...

I checked and they took the action down off the board just before the 12th so if you did put money down take your ticket back and get a refund... LOL

I hope that you will get your wish for the traditional Latin mass.

Peace...

Delena said...

I very much enjoy your sense of humor! You make us laugh, and you make good points, too!

Semper Fideles!