Rorate Caeli

Liturgical dance from all over the world

After the recent post on the Filipino bishop who led the liturgical dancing at his own installation Mass in the presence of his country's cardinals and papal nuncio and many of his brother bishops (The Bishop as the Chief Liturgical Dancer of his Diocese), we would like to post some recent (2012-2013) videos of liturgical dancing from six different locations in North America, South America, Western Europe and Asia. 


We are sometimes unjustly accused of publishing every disturbing piece that comes our way. The fact of the matter is that we have been very restrained in our posting. Through the years we have not posted numerous other examples -- verifiable and genuine ones -- of liturgical abuse (many of them worse than the ones posted below) and of open doctrinal or episcopal dissent that have been brought to our attention.

All the videos posted below are from places that are not "mission areas" in the traditional sense of the term, and where Catholicism has been present for hundreds of years if not more. 

***

Western Europe 

Rome.

Pope's words indicate full synodality is on the way
Catholic communion: with the Bishop of Rome, with the Synod

To confirm in unity. Here I would like to reflect for a moment on the rite which we have carried out. The pallium is a symbol of communion with the Successor of Peter, “the lasting and visible source and foundation of the unity both of faith and of communion” (Lumen Gentium, 18). And your presence today, dear brothers, is the sign that the Church’s communion does not mean uniformity. The Second Vatican Council, in speaking of the hierarchical structure of the Church, states that the Lord “established the apostles as college or permanent assembly, at the head of which he placed Peter, chosen from their number” (ibid., 19). Confirming in unity: the Synod of Bishops, in harmony with the primacy. We must walk on this path of synodality, grow in harmony with the service of the primacy. And it continues, the Council: “this college, in so far as it is composed of many members, is the expression of the variety and universality of the people of God” (ibid., 22). In the Church, variety, which is itself a great treasure, is always grounded in the harmony of unity, like a great mosaic in which every small piece joins with others as part of God’s one great plan. And this should inspire us to work always to overcome every conflict which wounds the body of the Church. United in our differences: there is no other Catholic way to unite us. This is the Catholic spirit: unite in the differences. This is the way of Jesus! The pallium, while being a sign of communion with the Bishop of Rome, with the universal church, with the Synod of Bishops, also commits each of you to being a servant of communion.
Franciscus
June 29, 2013


[Translation according to the Italian final text, including words missing, at the time of posting, from the Vatican Radio translation - which was probably based on the prepared text, not the one actually pronounced.]

For the record
Rumors: Parolin next Secretary of State? Piero Marini next CDW Prefect?

From CNA: New Vatican Secretary of State may be appointed soon:

Rumors have emerged that Archbishop Pietro Parolin, apostolic nuncio to Venezuela, will shortly be appointed as the Vatican's Secretary of State. 
*** 
A skilled diplomat, Archbishop Parolin, 58, served as Vatican undersecretary for relations with States from 2002 to 2009. 

Suggestions of a possible “important appointment” for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul emerged from a couple of different Vatican sources who spoke to CNA at the beginning of this week on the condition of anonymity. 

“The Pope knows that he cannot have an outgoing secretary of state for so long,” one of them said June 26. 

After the first 100 days of his pontificate, the source maintained, “Pope Francis is now in a hurry to have his own staff carry out the reform of the Curia.” 

*** 
Following the appointment of the new Secretary of State, sources say that Pope Francis would also change several of the top-ranking officials of the Curia. 

Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras could be appointed prefect for the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (the so-called “Propaganda Fide”). 

Cardinal Maradiaga is also the coordinator of the Pope-appointed Commission of Cardinals now studying a reform of the Roman Curia. 

At the same time, the current prefect, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, would be appointed Archbishop of Palermo, in Southern Italy. 

A new prefect for the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Sacraments should soon be appointed, as well. 

The current prefect, Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, would be appointed as the successor to Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela as the Archbishop of Madrid, Spain. 
Abp. Piero Marini with Benedict XVI in Mariazell, Austria

To cover his post, Pope Francis would call Archbishop Piero Marini, who was Pontifical Master of Ceremonies during Bl. John Paul II’s Pontificate and now heads the Vatican’s commission for Eucharistic Congresses. 

A source from Spain who works in the archdiocesan curia in Madrid confirmed to CNA on June 28 that Cardinal Rouco Varela has left for Rome [Rorate note: Cardinal Rouco Varela was received in audience by the Pope this week.]. He also said that “the usual reception” held in the nunciature in Madrid for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul has been canceled.


Parolin and Rodríguez Maradiaga (moderator of the Pope's Privy Council) are reasonable names that are often repeated - and it would make sense for the Pope to have his close Honduran friend available at all times.

Now, on the CDW.

For the record: rumors that Cardinal Cañizares Llovera will be sent back to Spain as the next Archbishop of Madrid have been flying about for a year or two already, fanned by the Cardinals's frequent trips back to Spain and stories about his dissatisfaction in Rome. 

Cañizares was already the Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain before his transfer to the Roman Curia, but given the See of Madrid's de facto greater power and influence a transfer for him to Madrid will not be a "demotion", any more than Cardinal Scola's transfer from the Patriarchate of Venice to the Archdiocese of Milan was. 

Before becoming Master of Pontifical Ceremonies under Pope Wojtyla, Piero Marini was the personal secretary of Abp. Annibale Bugnini in the 1970s - and a close friend of his mentor. He was one of the very first prelates received in audience by Pope Francis in the first days of his pontificate.

It is a rumor - but often-repeated rumors have turned out to be right too many times in recent years...

Priest who denounced supposed "ring" under arrest for false accusations
And another priest under arrest

Patrizio Poggi, the priest suspended a divinis who denounced a supposed "ring of homosexual and pedophile priests" in the Roman Curia (previous post here), also on Italian television network La7, is under arrest on an inquiry of false accusation of a crime (calunnia, lit. calumny) conducted by the Carabinieri.

The Vicariate of the City had already declared Poggi's declarations were false and slanderous.

(Source: Corriere della Sera; tip: Il Blog di Raffaella)

______________________________


In other news, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who had worked in the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See until his indictment weeks ago, was also arrested today in an ongoing investigation involving irregularities in the Institute for Religious Works (IOR). 

Statement of the Holy See spokesman on the matter.

Cardinal Ranjith on the sense of mystery in the liturgy
For the record: the Cardinal's interview with Zenit

(Video originally posted at 6:00 AM of 6/28)

***

Sacra Liturgia Conference Under Way in Rome

Rome, June 27, 2013 (Zenit.org) Edward Pentin

The faithful must be taught the true meaning of the sacred liturgy: that it is “an instrument of communion with the Lord, allowing the Lord to take hold of you, and the Lord absorbing you into his divine mission, and making you experience what a great and privileged moment of communion this is.”

These are the words of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, archbishop of Colombo, in an exclusive interview with ZENIT on the sidelines of Sacra Liturgia 2013, a major international conference in Rome this week. The cardinal, who was previously Secretary at the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, also discussed the importance of formation, Pope Francis’ approach to the sacred liturgy, and the crucial role it plays in the New Evangelisation.

Event: Latin Mass near Padua on June 30


If you live near Padua (Italy), lend your support to this new coetus fidelium trying to establish a regular Traditional Mass in the Shrine of the Madonna del Tresto, in Ospedaletto Euganeo (Padova).

The Mass will take place on Sunday, June 30, at 11:50, with the participation of the Schola "Scriptoria". More information at coetusfidelium.euganeus@gmail.com. We ask our Italian blogging friends also to announce this event in their pages, please.

Pope Francis and the drama of sodomy in the Church and in the Diocese of Rome
The explosive report by La7 network

The affirmation by Pope Francis that there is a “gay lobby” in the Vatican, should not be reduced to an extemporaneous quip, but evaluated and weighed in all of its tragic consequences. “There are truly some saintly people in the Curia, but there is also a current of corruption. There is talk of a “gay lobby” , and it is true, it exists. We have to see what we can do about it.”

The Holy Father pronounced these words during a private audience with the leaders of the Confederation of Latin American Religious (CLAR) which took place in Rome on the 6th of June 2013. It was a private meeting, and the interlocutor was an authoritative body, which [afterwards] drew up a written report of the Pontiff’s conversation. This text was not destined for publication, but it is authentic, demonstrated by the fact that it went all round the world without any refutation from the Holy See.

For the record: Declaration of bishops of Society of St.Pius X on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the episcopal consecrations

1- On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the episcopal consecrations the bishops of The Society Saint Pius X are eager to express solemnly their gratitude towards Archbishop Lefevbre and Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer for the heroic deed they were not afraid of performing on the 30th June 1988. Most especially they would like to express their filial gratitude towards their venerable founder who, after so many years spent serving the Church and the Sovereign Pontiff, so as to safeguard the Faith and the Catholic priesthood, did not hesitate to suffer the unjust accusation of disobedience.

Still there

Benedict XVI, emeritus, strolls joined by Abp. Gänswein, outside the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, in the Vatican.


[Image by @francescograna; tip Elisabetta Piqué @bettapique]

More criticism of Benedict XVI from Cardinal Lehmann

While it's not the first time in the last few months he's done this, the former head of the German Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz, has once again publicly attacked Benedict XVI. 

From The Tablet:

Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz has criticised two major liturgical changes introduced by Pope Benedict XVI.

The former president of the German bishops' conference said that he did not think the co-existence of the old-rite liturgy alongside the new was a good idea, and that the proposed change in the German Missal from saying Christ died "for all" to "for many" was a sign of Rome trying to appease traditionalists.

He complained there were now more Tridentine Masses on offer than there was demand for and questioned the motives of fans of the old-rite Mass. He said enthusiasm for the Tridentine Mass seemed to have "a lot to do with prestige".

Lehmann also questioned why Rome was changing the translation of pro multis to "for many", noting that Pope Benedict had said that both translations were legitimate.

Editorial: "On Syria, that's enough!" (Aid to the Church in Need)

Aid to the Church in Need - France:

For two years, Syria has been at the mercy of international punishment, and we have been asked to watch silently the annihilation of one of the most ancient countries in the world. With the matter being complex and with a unanimity imposed, it is true that the disagreeing voices were bound to be received badly. Yet today, with the American decision to arm the rebels, and the European, particularly French, blind following in the matter, the time has come to put an end to this charade.

In the name of the Syrian population, all confessions together, this operation of destruction must stop. Yes, it is enough!

Yes, the matter is complex, the government is authoritarian, but since when has this authorized the international community to decide the destruction of a nation? Is Syria the sole dictatorship in the region? Should we not include in that Saudi Arabia and Qatar, just to mention those two? And how can pulverizing a nation make it better?

Two years ago, Syria had a growth rate of over 8% and it was, other than Lebanon, the least restrictive nation in the Middle East for Christians. Today, with over 90,000 dead and hundreds of thousands of refugees inside and outside the country, the clear improvement of the situation of the Syrian population is obvious, somewhat like the great service we have rendered to the Iraqi population for 10 years...

Many countries have an interest in the disruption of Syria, beginning with the Americans - for energy-related reasons (control of the production and/or transit of oil and gas, and a hostile maneuver against the Russians) - or the Qataris (anti-Shiite struggle, and a contest for Sunni primacy), but France?

French policy on the Syrian dossier is hardly understandable. What interests do we seek? Is it simply in order to please our American and Qatari patrons? Also there, one is led to believe that France has definitely abandoned all idea of sovereignty. And yet, France, due to its historic links with Syria and the Christians of the East, had a double responsibility and, therefore, specific duties on this dossier.

How to imagine that we can arm the rebels when everyone knows the porousness of the Syrian rebellion with the Islamist milieux linked to Al Qaeda? Who could explain the absurdity that there exists with arming in Syria those whom France combats in Mali? And, after Syria, how not to foresee already the disruption of Lebanon? Do we seek the disappearance of Christians also there?

What about the Syrian population? That seems to be the last concern of our strategists. Today, from the viewpoint of the whole Syrian population, and particularly for Syrian Christians, this chaos, instituted, fed, and financed in great measure from the outside, is purely and simply a crime. It is time for this to stop, and that a political solution be found as quickly as possible, in order to spare the civilian population exiled to the depths of hell. Yes, truly, that is enough!

NEVER SILENT - Marriage between a man and a woman: a non-negotiable value - Do not negotiate: Reject "pseudo-marriages"


None of us, in fact, belongs exclusively to himself or herself: one and all are therefore called to take on in their inmost depths their own public responsibility.

Marriage as an institution is thus not an undue interference of society or of authority. The external imposition of form on the most private reality of life is instead an intrinsic requirement of the covenant of conjugal love and of the depths of the human person.

Today, the various forms of the erosion of marriage, such as free unions and "trial marriage", and even pseudo-marriages between people of the same sex, are instead an expression of anarchic freedom that are wrongly made to pass as true human liberation. This pseudo-freedom is based on a trivialization of the body, which inevitably entails the trivialization of the person. Its premise is that the human being can do to himself or herself whatever he or she likes: thus, the body becomes a secondary thing that can be manipulated, from the human point of view, and used as one likes. Licentiousness, which passes for the discovery of the body and its value, is actually a dualism that makes the body despicable, placing it, so to speak, outside the person's authentic being and dignity.


When new forms of legislation are created which relativize marriage, the renouncement of the definitive bond obtains, as it were, also a juridical seal.

In this case, deciding for those who are already finding it far from easy becomes even more difficult. Then there is in addition, for the other type of couple, the relativization of the difference between the sexes.

The union of a man and a woman is being put on a par with the pairing of two people of the same sex, and tacitly confirms those fallacious theories that remove from the human person all the importance of masculinity and femininity, as though it were a question of the purely biological factor.

Such theories hold that man - that is, his intellect and his desire - would decide autonomously what he is or what he is not. In this, corporeity is scorned, with the consequence that the human being, in seeking to be emancipated from his body - from the "biological sphere" - ends by destroying himself.

If we tell ourselves that the Church ought not to interfere in such matters, we cannot but answer: are we not concerned with the human being? Do not believers, by virtue of the great culture of their faith, have the right to make a pronouncement on all this? Is it not their - our - duty to raise our voices to defend the human being, that creature who, precisely in the inseparable unity of body and spirit, is the image of God?
Benedict XVI
Christmas Address to the Roman Curia
December 22, 2006
[Human] love is the privileged path that God chose to reveal himself to man and in this love he calls human beings to communion in the Trinitarian life.

This approach enables us also to overcome a private conception of love that is so widespread today. Authentic love is transformed into a light that guides the whole of life towards its fullness, generating a society in which human beings can live. The communion of life and love which is marriage thus emerges as an authentic good for society.

Today, the need to avoid confusing marriage with other types of unions based on weak love is especially urgent. It is only the rock of total, irrevocable love between a man and a woman that can serve as the foundation on which to build a society that will become a home for all mankind.

...there are mounting threats to the natural composition of the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman, and attempts to relativize it by giving it the same status as other radically different forms of union. All this offends and helps to destabilize the family by concealing its specific nature and its unique social role.
Benedict XVI
Address to the Diplomatic Corps
January 8, 2007

...no law made by man can override the norm written by the Creator without society becoming dramatically wounded in what constitutes its basic foundation. To forget this would mean to weaken the family, penalizing the children and rendering the future of society precarious.



Worship pleasing to God can never be a purely private matter, without consequences for our relationships with others: it demands a public witness to our faith. Evidently, this is true for all the baptized, yet it is especially incumbent upon those who, by virtue of their social or political position, must make decisions regarding fundamental values, such as respect for human life, its defence from conception to natural death, the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one's children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms. These values are not negotiable. Consequently, Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature. There is an objective connection here with the Eucharist (cf. 1 Cor 11:27-29).
Benedict XVI
Sacramentum Caritatis

[Reposted; original post: 2008]

For the record: Pope Francis confirms De Paolis mission
Purification of Legion of Christ reaches new stage

The letter sent by Pope Francis to Cardinal de Paolis was released today:

To my Venerable Brother Cardinal Velasio De Paolis

In an audience on May 27th, you explained the progress of the ministry of Delegate for the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ which my beloved predecessor, Benedict XVI, entrusted to you on June 16, 2010.

I would like to thank you for having brought me up to speed on what you have done in fulfilling this delicate task. As well, I would like to assure you that I have carefully considered what you presented to me in the report you sent with your letter on May 10th, as well as the content of the prior reports and the material regarding the Apostolic Visitation which took place in 2009 and 2010.

The Devirilization of the Liturgy in the Novus Ordo Mass
[Exclusive article]

Fr. Richard G. Cipolla, Ph.D., D. Phil.(Oxon.)
Weymouth
June 5, 1944

The correspondence between Cardinal Heenan of Westminster and Evelyn Waugh before the promulgation of the Novus Ordo Mass is well known, in which Waugh issues a crie de coeur about the post-Conciliar liturgy and finds a sympathetic, if ineffectual, ear in the Cardinal.[1]   What is not as well known is Cardinal Heenan’s comment to the Synod of Bishops in Rome after the experimental Mass, Missa Normativa, was presented for the first time in 1967 to a select number of bishops. This essay was inspired by the following words of Cardinal Heenan to the assembled bishops:

At home, it is not only women and children but also fathers of families and young men who come regularly to Mass. If we were to offer them the kind of ceremony we saw yesterday we would soon be left with a congregation of women and children.[2]

What the Cardinal was referring to lies at the very heart of the Novus Ordo form of the Roman Mass and the attendant and deep problems that have afflicted the Church since the imposition of the Novus Ordo form on the Church in 1970.[3]   One might be tempted to crystallize what Cardinal Heenan experienced as the feminization of the Liturgy. But this term would be inadequate and ultimately misleading. For there is a real Marian aspect of the Liturgy that is therefore feminine. The Liturgy bears the Word of God, the Liturgy brings forth the Body of the Word to be worshipped and given as Food. A better terminology might be that in the Novus Ordo rite of Mass the Liturgy has been effeminized. There is a famous passage in Caesar’s De bello Gallico where he explains why the Belgae tribe were such good soldiers. He attributes this to their lack of contact with the centers of culture like the cities. Caesar believed that such contact contributes ad effeminandos animos, to the effeminizing of their spirits.[4] But when one talks about the effeminization of the Liturgy one risks being misunderstood as devaluing what it means to be a woman, womanhood itself. Without adopting Caesar’s rather macho view of the effects of culture on soldiers, one certainly can speak of a devirilization of the soldier that saps his strength and resolve to do what a soldier has to do. It is not a put-down of the feminine. It rather describes the weakening of what it means to be a man.

This is the term, devirilization, that I want to use to describe what Cardinal Heenan saw that day in 1967 at the first celebration of the experimental Mass.[5]    In its Novus Ordo form, what Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio: Summorum Pontificum somewhat cumbersomely, if understandably, calls the Ordinary Form of the Roman rite, the Liturgy has been devirilized. One must recall the meaning of the word, vir, in Latin. Both vir and homo mean “man”, but it is vir alone that has the connotation of the man-hero and is the word that is often used for “husband”. The Aeneid begins with the famous words: arma virumque cano. (“ I sing of arms and the man-hero.”) What Cardinal Heenan presciently and correctly saw in 1967 was the virtual elimination of the virile nature of the Liturgy, the replacement of masculine objectivity, necessary for the public worship of the Church, with softness, sentimentality and personalization centered on the motherly person of the priest.

The people within the Liturgy [6]   stand in a Marian relationship to the Liturgy: attentiveness, openness, pondering, waiting to be filled. Within the Liturgy it is the priest as father who pronounces, announces and confects the Word so that the Word may become Food for those who stand within the supreme activation of the Ecclesia that is the Liturgy.[7]   It is the priest who offers Christ to the Father, and it is this act that contains the defining role of what it means to be a priest. And so the role of the priest as father makes his role distinct not merely in function but in the very ontology of sexuality.[8]    The priest stands at the altar in persona Christi, in persona Verbi facti hominem, and this not merely as homo, which word in a sense transcends sex, but in persona Christi viri: in a sense homo factus est ut fiat vir, ut sit vir qui destruat mortem, ut sit vir qui calcet portas inferi: God became man in order that he might be that man-hero who would destroy death and crush with his own foot the gates of hell.

The devirilization of the Liturgy and the devirilization of the priest for all practical purposes cannot be separated. In what follows I wish, however sketchily and incompletely, first to talk in more specific terms about the devirilization of the Liturgy itself in the Novus Ordo form of the Roman rite. Secondly I will address the the necessary (coming from the devirilized rite) devirilization of the priest using specific examples.

The description of the Roman liturgy using adjectives like “austere”, “concise”, “noble” and “simple,” is commonplace among many who have written about the liturgy in the modern liturgical movement of the twentieth century. Many of these writers, however, have romanticized this austerity of the Roman rite or have used it to further their own agenda of stripping the rite of the organic growth of the ages, labeling such organic growth with censorious terms like “Gallican accretions “or “useless repetitions”. Rather than denoting the Roman rite as austere, an adjective that arguably has puritan overtones, it is better to speak of the masculinity or virility of the traditional Roman rite. To do necessarily demands a definition of masculinity in this context. This is somewhat difficult, and this question needs deeper study. But I will offer several characteristics of the traditional Roman rite that help to explain what I mean about the inherent masculinity and virility in the context of that rite.[9]

First, masculinity is opposed to sentimentality—not to sentiment, but to sentimentality. There is an absence of any trace of sentimentality in the Traditional rite, also called the Extraordinary Form. This is seen in its collects and prayers that are succinct and to the point without sacrificing beauty of language, and in its rubrics that prevent the personality of the priest from inserting his own feelings and choices into the rite itself. If we take note of Cardinal Newman’s insight that sentimentality is the acid of religion, meaning that it destroys true religion, then the rubrics of the Traditional rite are the little purple pill that prevents the reflux of sentimentality into the liturgy.[10]

Sacra Liturgia Conference - Bp. Dominique Rey's introductory remarks

25 June 2013


Your Eminences, Your Excellencies, dear friends: -

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Pontifical University Santa Croce for Sacra Liturgia 2013.

We have come together from more than 35 countries throughout the world. Welcome!

Your tax dollars at work!

Dollars, pounds, euros...: if your country is listed among the hilariously named "Friends of Syria" (i.e. the Sunni axis, plus America, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy), then your tax money is indirectly supporting this - from AsiaNews:


The Custody of the Holy Land announced the death of Fr Franҫois Mourad (photo), a Syrian monk, and the assault of the Franciscan monastery of St Anthony of Padua in Ghassanieh, a predominantly Christian village in the district of Jisr al-Shughur in the province of Idlib, near the border with Turkey.

Fr Halim Noujaim, a Franciscan priest, said in a letter to the Custodian that Frs Hanna and Firas, both Franciscan religious from Kanaieh (Latakia), went to Al-Ghassaniyah to collect Fr Franҫois's body, confirming that the convent had been partially destroyed.

In his letter, Fr Halim issued an appeal to the West, underlying the dangers of helping armed anti-Assad rebels, who support religious extremists responsible for several attacks against the Christian minority.
See also: Vatican mourns victim of Syrian bloodshed.

European Ordination Season - Rome

The first of the ordination ceremonies mentioned by us in our "European Ordination Season" post took place in Rome, in the Personal Parish of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP), on June 22. 

Images of the ordinations of Fr. Yousef Marie and Fr. Magdala Maria, of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer ("Transalpine Redemptorists") are available here.

Fr. Massimo Botta, FSSP, a man of the Latium, was the one for whom the ceremony was held in Rome. 

Congratulations to all three!

(UPDATED) The Bishop as the Chief Liturgical Dancer of his Diocese

UPDATE: A reader forwarded to us an article from the Philippine bishops' conference's own news agency reporting on the installation after it happened. The article speaks of the bishop and some priests dancing for a whole minute to the loud cheers and sustained applause of the congregation:

At least 42 cardinals, archbishops and bishops from all over the Philippines and several local and provincial government leaders attended the occasion.  

The Papal Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Guiseppe Pinto and Cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle, Gaudencio Rosales and Ricardo Vidal were Evangelista’s concelebrants.  

During the offertory, priests and laypeople performed the “Caracol,” a traditional dance of the Cavite natives as they offer gifts to the bishop bringing a lively atmosphere inside the church. 

The people broke into loud cheers and sustained applause when the bishop joined the priests in dancing after the offertory that lasted for a minute.

***

The following is part of a report that was forwarded to Rorate by a Filipino reader. Edited for this posting.

This report is absolutely timely with our publication of Fr. Cipolla's "The Devirilization of the Liturgy in the Novus Ordo Mass".

The news agency of the Filipino bishops' conference reported this on June 3:

MANILA, June 3, 2013—Newly-appointed Bishop of Imus Most Rev. Rey Evangelista is set to be installed in solemn ceremonies at 9 a.m. on June 5 at the Our Lady of the Pillar Cathedral by Papal nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Giuseppe Pinto. 


Evangelista’s installation will be graced by the presence of three Filipino cardinals: Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, Archbishop-emeritus of Manila; Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, Archbishop-emeritus of Cebu; and Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, Archbishop of Manila. 


“Aside from the three cardinals, more than 50 bishops from all over the country also confirmed their attendance in this momentous event,” Fr. Allan Valero, the parish priest of the Cathedral-parish said. 


Arrival honors and welcome ceremony will be held in front of the Cathedral to formally welcome the new bishop. 


One of the highlights in the installation will be the traditional dance of Caviteños, known as ‘Caracol’, during the offertory. 


Valero said the traditional dance will be performed by the lay faithful who will offer the gifts to the bishop. 


“Those faithful are coming from communities that we call ‘mananayaw’ or from the old towns in Cavite. But I’m not sure if Bishop Rey will dance,” Valero said. 


According to him, when then Imus Bishop Tagle was ordained and installed as bishop of Imus, he joined the dancing. 


But Valero believes Bishop Evangelista will try to dance ‘Caracol’.

The 'Caracol' is a dance sung to native tunes (not always religious) that dates back to the Spanish era, but it is traditionally danced in some Filipino towns during outdoor Marian processions but never inside a Church or during Mass. It is unfortunate as the pictures of the installation Mass show that the bishop actually danced during the Offertory.





New FSSP Apostolate: Minneapolis-St.Paul

A new apostolate of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter has been announced - now, in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis - the Archdiocese announced it today.

From the letter of Archbishop Nienstedt:

After consultation with your parish trustees and your parish pastoral council, as well as the presbyteral council, a representative body of priests from across the Archdiocese, I have accepted The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter’s offer to send two of its members to care for the parish of All Saints, which has been without a pastor for more than a year.

Father Peter Bauknecht and Father Simon Harkins will begin their service at All Saints on July 3, 2013. Fr. Bauknecht will serve as pastor.

As you may know, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter is a Catholic Clerical Society of Apostolic Life dedicated to providing Catholics access to the Extraordinary Form of the liturgy according to the liturgical books of 1962. You can find out more about The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter at their website: www.fssp.org. Mass in the Extraordinary Form will begin to be offered at All Saints while Mass in the current form to which you are accustomed will continue to be offered. A Mass schedule will be established, in consultation with All Saints parish leadership.

Please join me in welcoming Father Bauknecht and Father Harkins. I will be praying for these priests as they begin service in your parish and I ask that you join me supporting their work through prayer, as well. 
[Tip & source: FSSP]

Civilization


L. van Beethoven
Missa solemnis in D Major

Music is a part of all cultures and, we might say, accompanies every human experience, from pain to pleasure, from hatred to love, from sorrow to joy, from death to life. We see that in the course of the centuries and millennia, music has always been used to give a shape to what is impossible to express with words, because it awakens emotions otherwise difficult to communicate. It is not, therefore, by chance that every civilization has given importance and value to music in its various forms and expressions.

Music, great music, relaxes the mind, awakens profound sentiments and is, as it were, a natural invitation to raise one's mind and heart to God in every situation of human existence, both joyful and sad. Music can become prayer.
Benedict XVI
Address following concert at Paul VI Hall
October 17, 2009

Do not be afraid of telling the truth, follow the Baptist!

Today, in many parts of the world, there are martyrs: man and women who are imprisoned, killed for the sole reason of being Christian. And they exist in a larger number than in the first centuries of the Church.

But there is also daily martyrdom, that does not include death but is also a "losing of life" for Christ, accomplishing one's own duty with love, according to the reasoning of Jesus, the reasoning of the gift [of oneself], of sacrifice. ...

But, in the end, ... [John the Baptist] was killed because of the truth, when he denounced the adultery of king Herod and Herodias. How many people pay a steep price for allegiance to truth! How many upright men prefer to walk against the current, other than denying the voice of conscience, the voice of truth!
Franciscus
Angelus
June 23, 2013

Catholic Kryptonite

From the official website for WYD 2013 in Rio: pictures of the design for the "Campus Fidei" currently being set up in Guaratiba. This is where Pope Francis will hold vigil with the youth on the evening of July 27, and celebrate the closing Mass of WYD on July 28.





Sources: Rio 2013 and TPC.

Take your concert and do whatever you want to do with it

Paul VI Hall
June 22, 2013
Pope misses Vatican concert due to other commitments
Published June 22, 2013

Organizers say Pope Francis didn't show up for a concert in the Vatican due to other commitments.

The pontiff was expected at a Beethoven concert, but Monsignor Rino Fisichella told the audience just before the concert was to start that Francis couldn't make it due to "commitments that could not be postponed." He did not elaborate.

The pope was smiling with no signs of tiredness when he greeted worshippers at a Mass in St. Peter's earlier Saturday. Unlike his predecessor Benedict, who was well-known as a music lover, Francis has shown scant interest in music, liturgical or otherwise.

Papal spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said he had nothing to add to Fisichella's statement, and that the pope has confirmed his Sunday commitments.
Update:
La Stampa's Vatican Insider adds that the Pope said the following:

For the entire afternoon, Francis did not leave his room at [Domus] Sanctae Marthae and simply told his associates: "I am not a Renaissance Prince who listens to music instead of working."*

[Several sources, including Fox News. It was a concert that had been long planned in honor of the Year of the Faith and in the presence of the Supreme Pontiff, with the Orchestra of the Italian public broadcaster, RAI, held in the Paul VI Hall, a few yards from the Domus Sanctae Marthae.]

*Rorate note: this was the exact text at Vatican Insider at posting time: "Per l'intero pomeriggio Francesco non si è mosso dalla sua camera a Santa Marta e ai suoi collaboratori ha semplicemente detto: 'Non sono un principe rinascimentale che ascolta musica invece di lavorare'." After our blog and an Italian blog expressed our surprise, the author, Giacomo Galeazzi, modified it somewhat, keeping its general sense - we saved the original article in our repository. We emphasize that the main news is the absence itself, and the empty chair, not the alleged comment.

¡Ay, qué lindo! - The end of the Wojtyla-Ratzinger "conservative" gap:
On Liberation Theology, and everything else, Church rolls back to 1978

Now that the "reactionaries" are gone, we are at last free to move back to where we were just 35 short years ago: it's morning again in the Vatican.

(The Last Supper, Liberation-Theology-style)
"The Latin American ecclesial and theological movement known as 'Liberation Theology', which spread to other parts of the world after the Second Vatican Council, should in my opinion be included among the most important currents in 20th century Catholic theology." This authoritative and glorifying historical evaluation of Liberation Theology did not just come from some ancient South American theologian who is out of touch wit the times. The above statement was made by Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which Ratzinger headed in the 1980’s, after John Paul I appointed him to the post. [Source: Vatican Insider; tip: several readers.]

Now, strictly for argumentative purposes (that is, assuming as such that it could be placed within the limits of orthodoxy), we are willing to understand the actual influence of Liberation Theology. The evidence seems strong that, regardless of its many intrinsic problems, Liberation Theology "politicized" Catholicism in Latin America at the exact moment in which it needed to be more "spiritual" and liturgical than ever - and the new Liberationist Church was abandoned in droves in favor of those groups (particularly Pentecostal communities) that offered the faithful the spiritual solace they wanted. On the other hand, those who wished to be "political" just abandoned the Church in favor of real political groups. The result was the collapse of Catholicism throughout the region. The strong attempt to resurrect Liberation Theology in recent years begs the question of how on earth this could do any good to the Church in Latin America in its current situation when it only led to disaster in the past. On the resurrection of Liberation Theology, the question is cui bono?...

Considering our broad and strong readership in Latin America, we would like to ask our friends in the region or from the region: did Liberation Theology achieve a true strengthening of the Church in Latin America, or in your country in particular, following the Council? In other words, did its deep influence in the region, in particular following the Medellín Conference, increase the Church's ability to reach souls and save them? Please, feel free to articulate your thoughts in Spanish or Portuguese if you so prefer. 

Fidem servavi, the name of the Encyclical of the two Popes?

Fidem servavi, "I have kept the faith" (2Tm iv, 7), should be the name of the encyclical on Faith, written by Benedict XVI and co-authored and signed by Pope Francis - at least according to some Italian sources, in particular Franca Giansoldati, religious correspondent for Il Messaggero.

It should be released in the fall.

Cardinal Dolan to Muslims: don't lose your faith!


Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York and head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, told a group of infidels this week that they should not convert to the One, True, Catholic and Apostolic Church and save their souls.

On a recent visit to a mosque, he told the Muslims there that their plight was similar to that of Catholic immigrants 150 years ago, and they face the same challenge of "how to become loyal, responsible, patriotic Americans without losing their faith." 

His Eminence went on to say how the Muslims take their "faith" in the one, true God.

Below is the video, and here is a link to a story with more direct quotes from the Cardinal (cue the spokesman to "clarify" once again what His Eminence really meant):


(h/t reader)

Let this give us hope! (part 2)

Yesterday, we brought you the story (here) of the Redemptorist priests in Limerick, Ireland, and the scandal they have caused with their balloon Masses and novena, their mocking of the Traditional Latin Mass and their praise of Masses for -- and run by -- the Gay [sic], Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender groups, all while attacking Catholics praying the Rosary outside those Masses for their conversion. 

Today, one of the priests took to the pulpit and decried certain "blogs" (read: Rorate) he read today, filled with "radical, entrenched, fundamentalist" people who just can't understand the new faith they believe in at this church -- the faith of Assisi. He did this all to the praise of the local bishop who was in attendance and spoke. 

Some key points, which you'll see in the quick video (h/t reader) below:

First, Rorate is speaking out against them, because they are inclusive and sympathetic towards others. - No, we pointed out only their actions and their words -- they disrespect God in His house, they embrace openly practicing homosexual groups, not out of true charity and a message of conversion, but out of acceptance for their "lifestyle."

Second, traditionals, us "radical, entrenched fundamentalists," are the ones in need of prayers. - We are all in need of prayers, and certainly thank all who wish to pray for us: thank you!

Third, just like they accept disordered communities with no message of the Church's true teaching and let them run the Masses, Jesus reached out to Jews and Gentiles. - It's the same thing, right? They're like "Jesus".

Fourth, traditionals are Pharisees. - (Yawn).

Fifth, Catholics are not the "only group that can be saved" because we get a lot wrong. - Yes, we do: for instance, letting some unbelievable men be ordained; their success may be measured, e.g., by the demographic death spiral of the Church in Ireland.

Enjoy the video. Then pray and do penance for these priests and the bishop applauding their diabolical work.


Apocalyptic: Pray for the Church in Syria, it experiences the Great Tribulation!

"Remember in your prayers the Church in Syria, 
which now has God for its shepherd, instead of me."
(Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Romans)
______________________
The presence here today of the Patriarch of Alexandria of the Copts and of the Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans; of the Papal Representatives in the Holy Land and in Syria; of the Auxiliary Bishop of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem; and of the Custody of the Holy Land, carries my heart to the Holy Places of our Redemption, but also renews in me the vivid ecclesial concern for so many brothers and sisters who live in a situation of insecurity and seemingly interminable violence which does not spare the innocent and most helpless. Constant and trusting prayer is required of us believers, that the Lord might grant the longed-for peace, joined to sharing and concrete solidarity. I would like to renew once more, from the depths of my heart, an appeal to the leaders of nations and of international organisations, to believers of every religion, and to women and men of good will to put an end to all suffering, to all violence, to all religious, cultural and social discrimination. The confrontation that sows death should give place to the encounter and the reconciliation that brings life. To all those who suffer I say forcefully: never lose hope! The Church is close to you, the Church walks with you and sustains you! I call upon you to do everything possible to alleviate the grave necessities of the stricken populations, especially of Syria. The beloved Syrian people . . . the ever increasing number of refugees and displaced persons. Saint Ignatius of Antioch himself asked the Christians of Rome: “Remember in your prayers the Church in Syria . . . Jesus Christ Himself will look over it, and your charity” (Letter to the Romans, IX,I). We too, you and I, repeat, “Remember in your prayers the Church in Syria . . . Jesus Christ Himself will look over it, and your charity.” I entrust the innumerable victims to the Lord of life, and I implore the Most Holy Mother of God that she might console the many people who are experiencing the “great tribulation” (Rev. 7:14). And it is truly a great tribulation!
Franciscus
June 20, 2013

Pope Francis: "I will tell you something: today, before leaving the house..."

... In the Church therefore, there is a variety, a diversity of tasks and functions; there is not flat uniformity, but the wealth of gifts that the Holy Spirit distributes. However, there is communion and unity: all are in relation with each other and all combine to form a single vital body, deeply attached to Christ. Let us remember well: being part of the Church means being united to Christ and receiving from Him the divine life that makes us live as Christians, it means remaining united to the Pope and the bishops who are instruments of unity and communion, and it also means learning to overcome personal favoritisms and divisions, to understand each other better, to harmonise the variety and wealth of each one; in a word, to better love God and the people near us, in the family, in the parish, in the associations. In order to live, body and limbs must be united! Unity is superior to the conflicts, always! Conflicts, if they’re not resolved well, separate us from one another, separate us from God. Conflict can help us grow, but it can also divide us. Let’s not take the path of division, of fights among ourselves! All united, all united with our differences, but united, always: this is Jesus’ path. Unity is superior to conflicts. Unity is a grace that we must ask from the Lord, so that He may free us from the temptations of division, of struggles among us, of selfishness, of gossip. How much harm gossiping does, how much! Never gossip about the others, never! How much damage comes to the Church from divisions between Christians, from being biased, from petty self-interests!

The divisions among us, but also the divisions among the communities: Evangelical Christians, Orthodox Christians, Catholic Christians, why are we divided? We must seek to bring unity. I will tell you something: today, before leaving the House [Domus Sanctae Marthae], I spent forty minutes, more or less, half an hour, with an Evangelical pastor and we prayed together, and sought unity. But we must pray among ourselves as Catholics and also with the other Christians, pray that the Lord may give us unity, unity among us. But how can we achieve unity among Christians if we Catholics are unable to achieve it among ourselves? To have it in our family? How many families fight and are divided! Seek unity, the unity that makes the Church. Unity comes from Jesus Christ. He sends us the Holy Spirit to create unity.

Franciscus
June 19, 2013

For the record: Decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship on the insertion of the name of St. Joseph into Eucharistic Prayers II, III and IV

The website of the Holy See today published the text of the decree on the insertion of the name of St. Joseph into Eucharistic Prayers II, III and IV, although the contents have already been widely disseminated in the last few days after the embargo was prematurely broken.

It is noteworthy that the decree -- implementing the first change to the Latin text of the Novus Ordo Missae since 2008, when alternative formulae for the dismissal at the end of Mass were approved -- speaks of this insertion as already having been approved by Benedict XVI, while its implementation was left to the current Pontificate. 

DECREE


Exercising his paternal care over Jesus, Saint Joseph of Nazareth, set over the Lord’s family, marvelously fulfilled the office he received by grace. Adhering firmly to the mystery of God’s design of salvation in its very beginnings, he stands as an exemplary model of the kindness and humility that the Christian faith raises to a great destiny, and demonstrates the ordinary and simple virtues necessary for men to be good and genuine followers of Christ. Through these virtues, this Just man, caring most lovingly for the Mother of God and happily dedicating himself to the upbringing of Jesus Christ, was placed as guardian over God the Father’s most precious treasures. Therefore he has been the subject of assiduous devotion on the part of the People of God throughout the centuries, as the support of that mystical body, which is the Church. 

Let this give us hope! Brick by ... oops

Well, so it's not exactly in the mold of St. Gerard or Blessed Francis Seelos. But, it'll certainly raise up a new generation of Church Militant and force open those shuttered Irish seminaries, right? 


One of the most disturbing parts of this is that the Redemptorist rector of the church chastised the adults who were, God willing, mortified at what they saw: "Older people, you're not doing it. If you don't do it, you'll be put out."

Haven't most traditionals heard those same words over the last 50 years, more or less?

UPDATE:

Yesterday, a Redemptorist priest of this same Church proved -- as if we needed proof -- that how you pray is certainly how you believe.

Watch the video below of his sermon. Father explains how he's "glad" he never saw the old Mass in Latin, or learned Latin or saw the Mass where the priest turns his "back to the people" because Vatican II "returned the Mass to the people" and we should be "creative in our liturgies."

Then, more disturbing, he reflects on a "special and different" Mass he attended in Soho "prepared for and by" the GLBT community that "deeply moved" him and was "very, very impressive."

Was anything wrong with this according to Father? Only that there was a group of Catholics outside the church saying a Rosary for their conversion, which Father found "appalling."



These priests may want to listen to this sermon to know how to truly convert souls to the One, True Faith.

"Got a revolution, got to revolution!"
45 years of Pontificalis Romani and the new Roman Rite

Forty-five years ago, on June 18, 1968, Pope Paul VI signed the Apostolic Constitution Pontificalis Romani, which put into effect the first part of the first completely new liturgical book in the history of the Church imposed for use throughout the Latin Church, the new Rite of Ordination of Deacons, Priests, and Bishops of the new Roman Pontifical.

It was not a mere liturgical reform, but a brand new product, a fruit of the frenetic work of the Consilium ad Exsequendam Constitutionem de Sacra Liturgia, under the presidency of Cardinals Lercaro and Gut and with the unifying influence of Monsignor Annibale Bugnini. After the profound reforms of some liturgical texts and rubrics in the post-Conciliar years, the New Rite of Ordination was something else entirely: a radically new text for a new People of God.

Dom Bernard Botte, chairman of the subcommittee for the New Pontifical inside the Consilium, recalled with his characteristic modesty the events which led to the new text of the rite of Episcopal Consecration (or, rather, Ordination):

The reform of these rites imposed a delicate problem: was it necessary to return purely and simply to the primitive tradition and to suppress all the subsequent additions, or should these alterations, which were justified by a largely millennial tradition, be preserved? ... To suppress with one stroke all which had been added throughout the centuries would be against the very laws of life. On the other hand, the Roman Pontifical could not anymore be considered an untouchable monument elevated to its perfection by a master of ceremonies of the 13th century. The study of the early tradition, on the other hand, made clear that, in many of its points, a deviation of the true tradition had taken place. A superficial revision of the text, therefore, could not be enough

The commission charged with the reform chose an intermediate way: to preserve, in the Roman tradition, whatever could be kept or adapted without compromising the essence. I say keep or adapt for certain rites, while themselves legitimate, could appear falsified by the formula which accompanied them .
...

Formula of Ordination:

What bolstered the formula of Hippolytus was, in first place, its doctrinal wealth and its clarity.

After the reading of the text [of the new formula of episcopal ordination], many Fathers [members of the Consilium] were delighted, yet others remained in doubt, and some were certainly hostile to the idea. What prevailed in the decision [favorable to the new text] was the ecumenical value of the text.
...
["L'ordination de l'évêque". Published in La Maison-Dieu, 98, 1969/2, p. 113-126]

In his short memoir (published in English as "From Silence to Participation: An Insider's View of Liturgical Renewal"), Dom Bernard Botte would recall the almost feverish mood of the Consilium which needed the temporary approval of the new text by the appropriate Roman authorities as soon as possible so that the first "New Episcopal Ordination" might take place - it was the ordination of the famous Swiss liturgist Anton Hänggi as Bishop of Basel, which took place on February 11, 1968.

The text of the new Rite, "De Ordinatione Diaconi, Presbyteri et Episcopi", was then approved by Pope Paul along with his Apostolic Constitution on June 18. Other new texts for rites included in the Roman Pontifical would be published in the following years.

What was then considered "solid scholarship" regarding the reliability of the liturgical formulas of "The Apostolic Tradition", by the Pseudo-Hippolytus, is very much disputed today (an introduction to contemporary criticism of the Pseudo-Hippolytus is available here).

Such formulas were, nevertheless, the basis for the Consilium's decision on the new rites of ordination in the Latin Church. The validity of such formulas is not in question*. Yet the lack of prudence and foresight of the scholars and prelates who approved, abetted, and promoted this upheaval is not immune to criticism.

This bold destruction of centuries of Catholic liturgy, of the gentle accumulation of layers of contributions added by men of all ages, by a committee of scholarly bureaucrats of the 20th century, who believed they were somehow "outside" History, that they could sit in judgment of their forefathers in the Faith and pick and choose what was "historical" and what was not, what was the "true tradition" and what was a distortion of it - this still strikes any observer as the epitome of arrogance and carelessness, of hatred for the magnificent edifice of Western liturgy.

It is curious to observe that those ecclesiastical bureaucrats, in their respectful meetings and silent work had the same attitude - if not the same mindset - of the barbarous youth protesting throughout Western Europe and North America in that year of 1968: they mistrusted all that was established, they needed to build something new, whatever it might be, to reflect modern thought, to attract "the man of today"... even if, in the case of the liturgists, their brilliant novelties were presented as refurbished antiquities, especially if they had a "trustworthy" Eastern appearance.

The New Roman Rite was born, exactly 45 years ago today.

____________________
*cf. "Why the New Rite of Consecration is Valid", by Fr. Pierre-Marie, O.P., first published in Le Sel de la terre; translated and printed by The Angelus; more convincing arguments were penned by Brother Ansgar Santogrossi, O.S.B., and published by this weblog in 2007.

[Repost (original post, 2008)]