The Bishop's Weekly Column from the Parish Bulletin

OUR LADY OF FATIMA

CATHOLIC CHURCH

Motu Mayhem or

"Not in my diocese !"

November 5, 2007

Cardinal Pell of Sydney, Australia after offering the
Tridentine Mass in his Cathedral on Saturday November 3rd, 2007
(definitely a bishop in tune with Pope Benedict XVI !)

Today is "Guy Fawkes" night, the day when traditionally an effigy of a man of that name is burned on bonfires all over England. The anniversary of the "Gunpowder plot" in which post-reformation Catholics sought to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London and return a Catholic monarch to the throne of Great Britain. The use of fireworks makes this the annual equivalent of July 4th in the United States but with a different intention behind the celebration.

"Fireworks" have very much been de jour of late in the State of Florida, more specifically with regards to the Motu Proprio on the restoration of the Tridentine Rite of Mass.

It is said that the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei is feverishly working on a document to interpret the MP for the sake of the many recalcitrant bishops who are doing their level best to thwart the Pope. One such case came to my attention only yesterday after the second Mass in Spring Hill. A priest of the (Latin Rite) Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg (in Dade City, Florida, to be precise) decided to avail himself of the provisions of the MP (which is his right since it was specifically conceded to all priests of the Latin Rite by Pope Benedict XVI without the need for permission of the local bishop). He began offering Mass at 1.30 pm on Sundays. The latest rumor suggests that the "matter" has been explained to him by "higher authority" and that he needs a "stable" group of 60 before such a Mass can take place.

This is simply stunning, or so it would appear, since according to Bishop Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee the bishops of Florida had made 50 the norm. Happily, however, Rome will soon "clarify" the issue of what constitutes a "stable group" and we can well judge what that will be.

The "higher authority" in question is no stranger to frustrating the "legitimate aspirations" (as Pope John Paul II called them) of those who feel an attachment to the "previous liturgical disciplines". In the late 1990s, after the death of a Trad priest well into his 90s (whom I had the privilege of anointing before he departed this world), his chapel approached the diocese inquiring about the possibility of bringing in the Fraternity of St. Peter to minister to their needs, the subtitle of this column was the response they received - as they say "from the horse's mouth" !

+TF