March 2008 & February 2008
LETTER FROM THE DISRICT SUPERIOR
My dear brethren,
When Pope Benedict XVI changed the Good Friday prayer for the Jews it was interesting to note the mixed reactions coming from different quarters. Prior to the change the chief rabbis of Israel had sent a letter to the pope expressing their concern at the language of the old form of Mass, whilst the U.S. Ant-Defamation League included the Good Friday prayer on a list of “Top Ten Issues Affecting Jews in 2007,” calling it a theological setback to the reforms of Vatican II and a challenge to Catholic-Jewish relations.”
The Catholic Herald (January 25 2008) welcomed the change for two reasons: firstly, because the language of the old prayer was offensive and constituted an ‘invitation’ to anti-Semitism, and ‘anti-Jewish feeling,’ “which lurks on the fringes of the traditionalist movement!”; secondly, because the change represents the fact that the Tridentine Rite ‘is not set in stone’ and ‘can be revised to take account of the legitimate sensibilities and insights of our own generation.’
Some Traditionalist commentators also welcomed the new version of the prayer no doubt because in itself it appears theologically sound, as it continues to express the necessity of the Jews accepting the Messiah for salvation, and had anyway been slightly revised in 1959 with the suppression of the term ‘perfidious.’
Within the Jewish community some critics have argued that the changes do not go far enough. The Grand Rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, stated on the day after the introduction of the new prayer, 6th February 2008, that since it maintained the phrase asking explicitly for the conversion of the Jews, decades of Judeo-Christian progress had thereby been jeopardised. The Council of Italian Rabbis also issued a statement deploring the fact that the revised prayer still expressed “an idea of dialogue whose goal was the conversion of the Jews to Catholicism, which is obviously unacceptable for us.” Others, such as British Rabbi Jonathon Romain, welcomed the change: “It (the new prayer) gives a clear signal that the Church of today is not the same as the Church of previous centuries. It shows that the Church, like we all have, has entered a new era of religious respect.”
Yet others fear that the alteration could lead to demands for changing further parts of the Good Friday liturgy which also prays for the conversion of heretics (Protestants), schismatics (Orthodox), and pagans (non-Christians). John Allen of the American National Catholic Reporter said, “Creating a precedent for the selective editing of the old rite could open the door to death by a thousand cuts.”
Bishop Williamson, writing on his recent blogspot (dinoscopus.blogspot.com) remarked that “taking out of the 1962 text the references to the Jews’ “blindness,” “darkness” and “the veil over their hearts,” represented a softening of the Church’s solemn criticism of the Jewish religious condition, which in turn will diminish Catholics’ awareness of how especially Jews need the charity of Catholics’ prayers. As such the recent Good Friday liturgy change has ‘done a disservice to Jews’ eternal salvation,’ and might therefore be described as being anti-Semitic!
The Society’s official website (dici.org) stated that : “Since pressures have been brought to bear from outside the Church, the pope has believed himself obliged to change the very venerable Prayer for the Jews which forms an integral part of the Good Friday Liturgy. This prayer is one of the most ancient, dating from around the third century, and hence has been recited throughout the Church’s history, as the full expression of the Catholic Faith.”
The dici article continues, “It should be noted that the commentaries of Cardinal Kasper - which one can believe to have been authorised - lend this intervention an appearance of a true transformation, expressing the new theology of the relations with the Jewish people.” Although the Cardinal, who is the President of the Pontifical Commission for Jewish Relations, expressed his surprise at the Jewish reaction to the prayer, calling instead for mutual respect in diversity, he maintained that the conversion of the Jews was not something the Church would actively pursue as a mission, but rather was a desire which would be fulfilled at the end of time when ’the fullness of nations would enter into the Church.’
Dici concludes that the prayer “is to be situated in the liturgical upheaval which is the characteristic mark of the council and the ensuing reforms. Whilst the necessity of accepting the Messiah for salvation has been conserved, one cannot but deeply regret this change.”
_________________________________
Our good wishes and prayers go to Sister Theresa Carmela (Brucciani) who made her Profession and First Vows at the Carmel of the Sacred Heart in Quievrain, Belgium on the 11th February 2008, Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Most of her family were present for the solemn occasion, and Holy Mass was celebrated by her brother, Father John Brucciani, who is stationed at the Society’s priory in Toulouse, France. The silence of the cloister was temporarily filled with the sounds of young voices - Sister’s numerous nephews and nieces - coming from the parlour. On retiring to her cell she found it full of flowers along with an adorned statue of Our Blessed Lady. Deo Gratias!
At the seminary of St Cure d’Ars, Flavigny, France, Mr Guy Bevan received the cassock on the Feast of Candlemas, along with twelve other first year seminarians. Surrounded by his family and friends as well as former class-mates from Camblain l’Abbé, I was also happy to have been present for the occasion, my last visit to Flavigny having been over twenty-years ago!
Following the sad demise of Mr Robin Pannell, I am happy to announce that Carmel Books and its invaluable apostolate of Catholic literature will be continuing as before under the management of Mr Maurice Marshal, himself a fellow Traditional Catholic and long-time friend of Mr Pannell.
Please note a change in the previously announced seminar on Modernism by Bishop Williamson. This has been postponed to a later occasion, and will be replaced by an evening conference in London on the encyclical Quanta Cura on Friday 4th April 2008.
May I draw your attention also to the different pilgrimages scheduled for this year, including Vadstena, Sweden (May1-3), Chartres, France (May 10-12), Canterbury (July 25-27), Walsingham (September 6-7), and Lourdes (October 25-27). Further details of these Pilgrimages may be obtained from St George’s House. I am also happy to announce that there will again be summer camps for children; please see the details elsewhere in this newsletter.
St Michael’s School continues to do well under Fr Summers thanks to the dedication of the entire staff. As always the school represents an important financial burden for the District and so any Lenten alms in this regard will be gratefully received!
As we continue our preparations for Holy Week and Easter, may our Lenten efforts help us to appreciate always more the great price and mystery of the Redemption:
Now because Christ’s passion was the sufficient and superabundant satisfaction for human guilt and the consequent debt of punishment, His Passion was a kind of price, which paid the cost of freeing us from both obligations . . . Christ rendered satisfaction, not by giving money or anything of that sort, but by spending for us what was of the highest value. He gave Himself, and therefore His Passion is called our redemption. [St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, III,48,4]
With every good wish and blessing,
Father Paul Morgan
Superior
February 2008
My dear brethren,
At the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Blessed Lady in Lourdes, Pope Benedict XVI has announced a year of papal indulgences for all those who would perform a public or private devotion in honour of Our Lady of Lourdes.
In so doing the pope has again revived and publicised the immemorial custom of granting spiritual favours from the Church’s treasure-house, and this contrary to the popular misconception that indulgences are things from the sordid past!
An indulgence is a remission of some or all of the temporal punishment due to sins committed during one’s lifetime. It may be applicable to the dead by way of suffrage. Traditionally the partial indulgences were counted in days, quarantines and years, being equivalent to the corresponding periods of penance as practiced in the early Church.
To obtain a partial indulgence it suffices to be in a state of grace, to complete the prescribed prayer or word, and to desire to obtain the indulgence. The conditions for a plenary indulgence include going to Confession within the week preceding or following the prescribed work, receiving Holy Communion on the eve of, or within the week following, the prescribed work, praying for the intentions of the Pope, and a spirit of detachment even from venial sin.
Pilgrims visiting Lourdes can obtain a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions anytime from December 8th 2007 to December 8th 2008. They are meant to visit the parish church where St Bernadette was baptised, the Soubirous family home, the Massabielle grotto, and the chapel where the saint made her First Communion. From the 2nd to the 11th February 2008 those who visit any public sanctuary, shrine or other pace dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes may also win the indulgence by praying the creed, the Pater and a prayer to the Blessed Virgin.
Whilst encouraging you to benefit from this opportunity, not least by our pilgrimage to Lourdes at the end of October, please remember in your prayers Sister Theresa Carmela (Brucciani) who will make her first vows at the Carmel of Quievrain, Belgium, on the Feast of Our Lady Of Lourdes, 11th February 2008.
_________________________
Bishop Fellay’s recent visit to bless the two new churches in Gateshead and Leicester went well, and it was encouraging to see that many faithful and friends had travelled from different parts of the country in spite of the weather, railway delays and diverted flights following the crash at Heathrow.
Whilst the Fathers from London, and the choir, in the person of Fr John McLoughlin, were delayed due to the trains, the timely arrival of Fr Anthony Mary CSSR and a number of Brothers, including some of the Eastern Rite, from the monastery on Orkney, allowed the solemn blessing ceremony at The Church of the Holy Name of Jesus in Gateshead to start on time.
Following a few hectic days of final repairs, alterations and cleaning, not to mention the setting up of the Pontifical Mass, the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus looked splendid with its restored stained-glass, brought to full effect by the midday sun, and its new Stations of the Cross erected just the day before in the nave of the church. These stations had been acquired a number of years before by Father Black, but only recently restored at Saint Saviour’s House, Bristol. Fitting in well with the proportions of the church, the new stations certainly help create a truly Catholic atmosphere in this former Anglican edifice.
The pontifical ceremony for the blessing of a church begins with the bishop blessing the outside walls, thereby dedicating the building to a sacred use, assisted by the clergy and servers and followed by the faithful.
Processing in to the church to the chant of the Litany of the Saints, the pontiff subsequently blesses the inside walls, and then the floor, crosswise, so as to sanctify the place of worship, now become ‘the House of God and the Gate of Heaven,’ where the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be offered.
Bishop Fellay developed at length these themes during his sermon, and also made reference to the Motu Proprio as a critical moment in the combat for Tradition and papal authority.
With the safe arrival of the group from London, which also included the Brothers and Oblate Sisters from St Michael’s School, the Sung Pontifical Mass at the Throne proceeded, accompanied by the solemn and melodious strains of the fine pipe organ.
Following Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament was reserved for the first time in the new tabernacle and the flickering flame of the sanctuary lamp now shines out as a beacon to faithful souls in the North-East.
A buffet lunch in the over-crowded church hall then refreshed all those who had participated in the four-hour ceremony before some had to leave for train connections whilst others remained in prayerful thanksgiving for Benediction. After some thirty-five years of attending Mass in the Royal Station Hotel in Newcastle, the day may be seen as the culmination of the prayers and aspirations of many, both living and dead, who have worked to uphold Catholic Tradition. Please God that this work, so laboriously undertaken, may continue to bear fruit as a living testimony to Archbishop Lefebvre whose modest stained-glass image is to be found in the new Lady chapel.
The sung pontifical ceremony in Leicester at the Church of Saint Anne the following day was somewhat simpler given that most of the Fathers were on their Sunday Mass-circuits, but was no less dignified or fervent. Father Alan Rolph, to whom the Leicester Mission owes so much these recent years, was unable to attend due to a slight fall, but was certainly present by his prayers and remembered by all the faithful.
It was gratifying to see - and occasionally to hear (!) - the numbers of young families who make up much of the Leicester congregation, and the Superior General was happy to meet a good number of the faithful afterwards in the course of the convivial buffet lunch served in the church hall. The Bishop’s visit ended with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament following which he travelled to London in view of his return to the Mother House in Menzingen, Switzerland the following day.
As in Gateshead, our sincere thanks to all those who made the Leicester blessing and Mass such an occasion to remember and cherish, not least to Bishop Fellay himself for having accomplished the busy weekend schedule with great devotion. Deo Gratias!
Please remember in your prayers the following two ladies who are presently trying their vocations in the convent, namely Miss Carmel Gill with the Poor Clares in Morgon, France, and Miss Monica Nish-Purdie with the Society’s Oblate Sisters in Salvan, Switzerland. On the home front, Reverend Mr Hakan Lindstrom is now helping at St Michael’s School, Burghclere so as to gain some valuable pastoral experience.
Whilst wishing you many graces through your generous works of prayer, almsgiving and fasting this Lent, please note the three-day recollection to be preached by Father Leo Boyle at Bristol, 21st-23rd February.
Yours sincerely in Jesus and Mary,
Father Paul Morgan