Here is what the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei (housed on the ground floor of the Palazzo Sant'Uffizio, above) has ruled on the issue:
"1. The legitimate use of the liturgical books in use in 1962 includes the right to the use of the calendar intrinsic to those liturgical books.
2. While in accordance with Canon 1246 §2 of the Code of Canon Law the Episcopal Conference can legitimately transfer Holydays of obligation with the approbation of the Holy See, it is also legitimate to celebrate the Mass and Office of those feasts on the days prescribed in the calendar of the liturgical books in use in 1962 with the clear understanding that, in accordance with the legitimate decision of the Episcopal Conference, there is no obligation to attend Mass on those days.
3. Thus, in accordance with nn. 356-361 of the Rubricae Generales Missalis Romani of 1962, it is appropriate to celebrate the external solemnity of Holy Days on the Sunday to which they have been transferred by the Episcopal Conference, as has been customary in many other countries hitherto."
So what does that mean?
It means that there is no obligation to attend on the weekday and no obligation to replace the Sunday with the Feast. You are simply obliged to attend one or the other.
That means that we do NOT, REPEAT NOT, have to change the Sunday to the Feast Day.
We can carry on as the Church always did in the past and celebrate the Feast day on its proper day and keep the Sunday as a Sunday.
The Bishop's Conference Secretariat, in saying the opposite and pretending that we were obliged in the traditional rite to celebrate the Feasts on the Sunday, were, and are, simply...
WRONG!
Given the ancient traditions of the Church and given the vicious tendency of too many bishops to do whatever they can to disrupt the celebration of the old rites, there really could never have been much doubt about this false proposal being anything much more than the usual wrecking amendment.
Let us not forget that these are the guys who have just appointed as bishop in charge of Catechesis the most heterodox bishop in the country, Kieran "You don't have to go to confession" Conry, currently pretending that he is Ordinary of Arundel and Brighton.
Catechesis? What? Are they kidding?
You might as well put Henry VIII in charge of restoring the Monasteries, or Julius Streicher in charge of re-building the Jewish Temple!
Kieran "Does this face look bovvered" Conry thinks we all go to confession too much.
He has his Novus Ordo Corpus Christi Mass on the Thursday, defiantly disobeying his own laws. Given his public and pertinacious adherence to public heterodoxy, does anyone really think this guy is still Ordinary of A & B?
He has his Novus Ordo Corpus Christi Mass on the Thursday, defiantly disobeying his own laws. Given his public and pertinacious adherence to public heterodoxy, does anyone really think this guy is still Ordinary of A & B?
To cap it all, our Kieran has so much contempt even for his own laws, that he is, in any case, celebrating Corpus Christi on the Thursday in his own Cathedral, including procession, even though it will be defiantly Novus Ordo. One rule for him, another rule for every one else, seems to be his motto.
How logical is that?
Go figure!
But then what do you expect from a man who has about as much respect and reverence for the ancient traditions of the Catholic Church as John Calvin or Martin Luther.
Sorry to say it but this man is simply a complete disgrace.
...
I think it's fair to say that KC probably doesn't want anything to do with the procession at all - far too orthodox - but there are some powerful influences round that way.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as far as I remember, last year's Mass was a votive Mass. anyone know for sure?
A line of enquiry worth pursuit would be the extent to which the Bishop of A&B is master in his own house: how far is he bound by endowment?
ReplyDeleteOf course he isn't bound, except in the financial sense ...
...and bad though things may be in A and B, at least we (at least in our parish) don't have stuff like this on the front of our newsletter. Yet.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jameswilliam-reading.org.uk/documents/17May2009.pdf
Sadly quite a few priests, supposedly supporters of the old rite, are caving in and celebrating the Ascension on a Sunday as well as a Thursday.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the diocese of Westminster will do on June 29th, when the dedication of the Cathedral will occur on the preceding Sunday. Will they insist that Ss. Peter and Paul be transferred too?
The fort is betrayed by those who were meant to defend it.
With the new Archbishop of Westminster to be installed on Thursday, not on Sunday, dare we hope that a return to the right way of doing things is on the cards?
ReplyDelete