Motu Realism
September 17, 2007

The two Josephs leading the cultural revolution...

It has begun. On Friday morning I was glued to the television set for a few minutes before heading over to the church to hear confessions. Yes, just like Catholics everywhere, I was watching the televised Mass from Mother Angelica's Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament and not the usual Novus Ordo but the Tridentine Rite. As the organ began crashing out and the processional cross was carried out the words of John Paul II commenting on Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ came to mind. Reportedly the late Pontiff said: "It is as it was." Yes on Friday morning, it was again as it was

Two and a half years ago I told my people, "What one Pope did away with, another Pope can restore." I referenced in this regard the suppression of the Divine Mercy devotion under the pontificate of Blessed John XXIII and its resurrection by Pope Paul VI and its complete restoration and propagation by Pope John Paul II. Two and a half years later and the stroke of a pen has restored to all Catholics their liturgical heritage.

The internet has been awash with photographs of solemn high Masses all around the world. Two US seminaries have begun offering a weekly community Mass and will train all its seminarians in both rites so they will be prepared to offer them "in the field" as it were. Ronald Reagan was the man who initiated the era of "trickle down economics"; you pass legislation favorable to the creation of a climate where the economy can thrive. Unconsciously, Pope Benedict seems to have taken a leaf from Reagan's playbook; create an environment where the older liturgy can flourish. The battle royal over this has yet to take place.

As I sat watching the opening of the Mass with the Franciscan Poor Clare nuns singing what must have been their first Nos autem in many years (the opening words of the introit for the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross) floods of tears welled up and only one double-barreled question was on my mind: how could they have abandoned the beauty of this liturgy for 40 years - how could they have so blithely given it up ? Watching the solemn Mass was a joy, the moves I had made as a subdeacon, as a deacon and then as a priest, every movement, every gesture was like listening to the strains of a familiar piece of music just anticipating each note a little just before it was played. I wonder now, what some of the youngest of that community made of what was probably their first "Latin Mass". Products of the Novus Ordo, it must have seemed strange to them; to me, however, it was perfectly familiar since this is the only part of liturgical Catholicism that I have ever really known.

There were a few liturgical anomalies, but since this isn't the MC Monday-morning quarter-back session we will let the liturgical fumbles (as Bishop Williamson would call them) pass here.

In the run up to this Mass, I had energetically hoped that the celebrant might be Father Josef Bisig and when he emerged last Friday I was not disappointed. Father Bisig was the first Superior General of the Fraternity of St. Peter, not only that he was one of the founding fathers. Father Bisig had been a member of the Society of St. Pius X as Superior of the SSPX German district. When the consecration of the 4 Society Bishops took place in 1988, Fr. Bisig and a number of his SSPX confreres approached Rome to see if the agreement signed by Archbishop Lefebvre and the then Cardinal Ratzinger which Lefebvre had signed in May of that year, but subsequently repudiated might not be applied to them. He was not disappointed and the Fraternity of St. Peter was born. Fr. Bisig patiently nurtured the Fraternity for the first ten years of its existence and as a result of the trail he and others blazed in the short 19 years since the inception of the Fraternity of St. Peter many "indult" communities have seen the light of day. The existence of the indult communities and of the Trad resistance, the largest being the Society of St. Pius X has been the reason the Motu proprio saw the light of day. There was another reason why I wanted to see Fr. Bisig: he is a spiritual son of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The first televised Motu Mass was offered by a son of the Archbishop that kept the Latin Mass on the map. It was almost as though the Archbishop's dream had been fulfilled (well at least in part) - the Latin Mass was back.

That was the Sound of Music version but now for reality - 40 years of crumbling Faith just doesn't go away with the wave of a wand, but it is a start. I quite believe Bishop Williamson to be right when he said that once you turn on the tap, the waters of grace will flow again and how much the thirsty need to drink from that grace ! Liturgy, though, is not just a ceremonial. I have seen immaculate Trad liturgies that were spiritually barren since all the pomp and circumstance was for the honor and glory of men. I have seen reverent and dignified celebrations of the Novus Ordo; the question is one of sacrality. I was chatting with a parishioner after Mass last week, and I quite agreed with him that the issue was not one of language (Latin or any other language) it was of sacredness and that is lacking in many deformed liturgies which the Pope in issuing this legislation himself referenced. Restore the sense of the sacred and you nourish the piety of the laypeople who only want to glimpse a little vision of heaven that can make life's journey to the Lord worthwhile. 

On Saturday I received in the mail a letter from the Latin Mass Magazine offering me a DVD on how to say the Tridentine Mass. I had to laugh at that. A DVD on how to say the Novus Ordo  would have been of more use if that were my inclination ! I have trained men to say the Tridentine Mass ! Little by little the trickle-down will take its effect and efforts like these should attract our prayerful support. Don't bash the modern priests - love them - pray for them ! Some are trying to do their best. In that letter it said that one priest in Minnesota asked his parish if they would like to have a regularly celebrated TLM. To his astonishment almost every hand in the congregation was raised when he asked for a show of hands ! One of my parishioners - in his 80s - has been on to his local priest for the Latin Mass. He travels some distance and does not reside in the diocese of St. Petersburg. Today he asked me for the address of Ecclesia Dei - he knows his rights - and I, for one, would like to see what comes of all of this !

When one thinks of how we can make something of all of this, I think of the legacy of the Second Vatican Council. Even after more than 40 years since its close, the Church has not yet even begun to take stock of that event, perhaps even two generations from now shall the full repercussions be seen. Thus the legacy of Summorum pontificum will be written long after I have left this world. Hence to all you arm-chair pundits out there - too close to call !

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