The Bishop's Weekly Column from the Parish Bulletin

OUR LADY OF FATIMA

CATHOLIC CHURCH

Pope Benedict's Christmas Presents
(to the Church)

December 26th, 2007

"It is as it was !"

When Pope Benedict XVI stepped onto the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica on Christmas day at Noon it looked as though the clock had turned back over 40 years. The throne of Pope Leo XIII, the precious miter of the short-lived Pope John Paul I, the cope of Blessed John XXIII and the Cardinal deacons (suppressed under John Paul II) vested in matching dalmatics (matching Pope Benedict's XVI traditional Roman cope that is) the phrase uttered by the late John Paul II after watching Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ: "It is as it was" came to my mind. When Darío Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos (the Trad czar pictured in the miter on the extreme left of the photograph above) took up the book to read out the formula announcing the indulgences attached to the blessing the Pope was about to give, I imagined that instead he was reading the text of the soon-to-be-released "clarifications" of the Motu proprio and that was being done urbi et orbi as well. Well I can imagine can't I ?

Despite all the thrills and spills of the liturgical accoutrements that Monsignor Guido Marini the younger (standing right of the Pope) has achieved since relieving Archbishop Piero Marini as papal master of ceremonies (and in a mere matter of weeks) there is real reason to hope that much more of Benedict's quiet revolution will take place at a steady pace in the future.

Consider this: we have a family that travels well over an hour one way to get to Mass. Sometimes they cannot make it and they settle for the best they can hope for at their parish church. I am sure God rewards them for their many sacrifices. However, this year at Christmas they didn't have to make the arduous trek to Spring Hill for Mass, they were able to attend (for the second time) a Mass in the traditional rite in their parish. It seems to me that this is precisely the reason behind Pope Benedict's Apostolic Letter Summorum pontificum of July this year - a greater access for the laity to their liturgical patrimony.

That, however, was not the only reason for my "optimism" this Christmas season, since this Mass that was offered was the midnight Mass in the parish church. For Catholics there is always an added attraction about a Mass celebrated in the middle of the night, in the silence of creation, just as Our Divine Savior "slipped into" our human history and "dwelt amongst us". The real issue is this: for Catholics desiring to attend midnight Mass at that particular church the only Mass available was the traditional form. Thus all those who came (and even the recalcitrant make an appearance at that Mass don't they ?) had no other option for Mass but to witness the liturgical heritage of the Catholic Church which had been outlawed for almost 20 years (1969-88), grudgingly allowed by some bishops under Pope John Paul II after the 1988 indult or celebrated by people such as myself in the so-called tradi-resistance movement that kept faith with Tradition whilst a wave of turbulence seemed to engulf the Church threatening to drown her. The exposure to this rite is precisely what Pope Benedict has desired, and when the midnight Mass in your local Church is the "extraordinary" form I think even the most begrudging trad type would have to admit the Pope has won "one for the Gipper" (so to speak). That wasn't the Mass they got last year at this time if they had one at all !

Okay, then, it's a start. The enemies of Tradition within the hierarchy are many, but it's a testimony to the resilience and the indomitable spirit of Pope Benedict that he plows ahead no matter what.

Now to the sede extremists and right wing SSPXers who read this column in droves, have we become an end in ourselves ? Was resistance all about creating a parallel church ? Wasn't it rather all about being the "pilot light on the gas stove" (as Bishop Williamson used to say) waiting for the Pope to turn on the gas ? It seems the gas has been turned on but some of the burners aren't functional. They aren't functional because during the period whilst the "gas was off" some new burners were installed that just weren't compatible with the old stove. It remains to be seen what the mechanic will do about this.

Then on a liturgical note, I watched the midnight Mass from Rome. Most Catholics tune it in for a spell don't they ? Even sedes will do that so they can feast their eyes on any little aspect of liturgical "aberration" and report it on their blogs as fast as their vicious feverish fingers can type. One new or rather old addition (new because it hasn't been seen since Paul VI and old because it was newly restored by Monsignor M. the younger) was the 7th candle.

The crucifix is back in the middle (where Cardinal Ratzinger said it should always be) but count the candles...there are seven. The tallest one stands directly behind the crucifix and it is a sign that the celebrant of the Mass is the diocesan bishop, in this case Pope Benedict XVI. When was that last seen ? Answer before I was born (literally !) Liturgical purists poring over their dusty Matters Liturgical will scream at me: "But the candles should not be higher than the cross !" Well we can't have everything can we ?

+TF

PS. Merry Christmas everyone and thank you Holy Father for the greatest gift as it begins to gather steam Summorum pontificum !