The Bishop's Weekly Column from the Parish Bulletin

OUR LADY OF FATIMA

CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Zone of Danger

Meet Father Dominique Bourmaud of the Society of St. Pius X (here balancing my walking-cane which I used for the compulsory hikes during seminary training). Father Bourmaud was my professor of Gregorian Chant in the first year. He used to call the interval between B and C the "Zone of Danger" since the interval is just a half-step, tonally speaking, rather than a whole step. The same applies to the interval between E and F. The human ear naturally wants to make a whole step at these points.

Danger Zone is the expression that springs to mind with regards to the implementation of the Motu proprio. Until yesterday I have been advocating a "wait-and-see" policy before really expressing any thoughts on the issue. Yesterday, however, problems surfaced in the State of Florida as a whole. A few weeks ago Bishop Victor Galeone of the Diocese of St. Augustine issued secret directives that practically forbid the use of the 1962 missal by priests in his territory. Yesterday it was revealed that Bishop John Ricard of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee has taken the same norms and imposed them on his priests. In doing so, Bishop Ricard revealed that these statutes have been adopted throughout the whole of Florida.

While I agree entirely that an Ordinary has the right to legislate for his diocese in matters pertaining to the liturgy, an important point is to be borne in mind: the universal legislator is the Pope and local legislation which contradicts universal legislation must and should be contested in Rome. However, I am not overly optimistic about that, especially if the silent revolt begins to spread through the episcopal ranks.

So what are these contentious norms ? Here are a few:

a/ a stable group = 50 (Rome never mentioned a number)

b/ no priest is allowed to say the Trad Mass without the Bishop's OK and not before submitting to some test as to whether he knows Latin and/or the rubrics. On paper this would be a good idea, but in reality yet another obstacle.

c/ The Trad Mass cannot be the exclusive way of saying Mass. In other words every parish must have the Novus Ordo.

Here's the rub: if a church offering the Trad rites exclusively wished to reconcile with Rome, would they now be obliged to offer the NOM as well ? According to the Florida bishops the answer would seem to be "yes". The objection is made but the Motu proprio allows for the establishment of personal parishes - yes but only with the Bishop's agreement. I know of a case where a priest dialoged along these lines but was told he would have to be ready to offer the New Mass when help was needed.

The Pope's letter, it has been pointed out to me, that accompanied the Motu proprio had these two very interesting sentences:

Needless to say, in order to experience full communion, the priests of the communities adhering to the former usage cannot, as a matter of principle, exclude celebrating according to the new books. The total exclusion of the new rite would not in fact be consistent with the recognition of its value and holiness.

I dismissed the words as a sop to the liberals who opposed the de-restriction of the traditional rites. Now, upon reflection, these words can admit of a rather sinister interpretation. I put before you a construct (and I emphasize it is just that) that I thought long and hard about yesterday evening:

Imagine a priest wants to reconcile with Rome, makes it known through channels, and eventually a deal is offered: the diocese is willing to take the parish on as a quasi-personal parish, but there is a twist, the priest must agree to minister to the local Hispanic community and offer the Novus Ordo in Spanish. The argument would be something like "Well you know Spanish, Father, and we are short staffed, Spanish is a dialect of Latin, it's not as though it would be in English" etc. etc. The priest would be in a quandary - you see the Pope has made it very clear that in order to be reconciled, a certain openness to the New Mass would also be required. Where the Pope says in principle we cannot refuse, a demonstration of the principle will be required in practice. Then the next step would be, "Well you've offered the Novus Ordo in Spanish why not now in English ? After all it's your mother tongue !"

Thus we find after 40 years of resistance, Trads will be required to accept what we have been fighting against all along !

Like Father Bourmaud, balancing my walking-cane above, Trads will have a lot of juggling to do if they want recognition from Rome these days ! I'm beginning to think that wary eye of Bishop Willimason, is not too far from the mark after all. With him I also add Kyrie eleison !

+TF