An analysis of the election of Pope Francis by Abbe Claude Barthe

A FREE TRANSLATION FROM THE FRENCH SOURCE

An analysis of the election of Pope Francis

Olivier Figueras interview with Father Claude Barthe on the website of the Journal Item:

- The election of the first pope named François is seen as a big change. Is it also your opinion?

- Basically, no. Unfortunately, no.  I mean the context of this election is that a crisis without precedent in the history of the Church, the faith, the transmission of the faith, catechesis, a crisis that is growing. It is linked to a dismantling of the Roman liturgy that reflects and accentuates. It spreads further by secularization (and elimination) of the clergy and religious, and a stunning loss in all of the sense of sin, which basically trivializes the secularization from a moral perspective. We spoke once of non-practicing believers. But today, in France and in a number of Western countries, the practice (of the faith) becomes residual and, in addition, "practicing catholics" who are still far from being all believers. In the rest of the world, especially in countries where the number of priests is important even increasing, the rise of heterodoxy and the lack of theological training is more than scary. This tempest which shakes the Church within the ultra-modernity and of the aggressively secularized world reduced considerably the event of the pontifical election of March 13th, moreover important. But the massive reality remains unchanged: the boat is taking water from all sides, to quote the previous pope.

- Who is the pope François?

- He was born in 1936 in Argentina of an Italian immigrant family (he is 76 years old, that is to say within a few months of age when Pope John XXIII was elected). He joined the Jesuits, was provincial of his order in Argentina from 1973 to 1979. John Paul II appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992, coadjutor (with right of succession) in 1997. He became archbishop of the capital of Argentina in 1998, cardinal in 2001, and the real head of the Church in Argentina.

But I imagine that it is his ecclesiastical profile for which you ask me. Formally, he is a pure product of the Ignatian mold anyway Ignatian upper side of the mold. The new Pope is a man of strong personality, with a strong sense of authority. We have already compared his personality to that of Pius XI, but for my part, I would rather compare to Cardinal Benelli, which has long dominated the Curia of Paul VI.

He is a Jesuit very faithful to his duties, is an ascetic who rises at dawn, spends one hour a day of prayer. Having a great capacity for work, an amazing memory, a flexible intelligence, he has a remarkable capacity for direct control of what it means to govern (he has hardly ever had a private secretary). That said, it is more difficult to govern the universal Church, the Church in Argentina, especially at 76 years old, living since the age of 21 years with virtually one lung and is still really tired the last few years. As to redress the situation of the Church, who can do that today? Pope Francis leaves a diocese, that of Buenos Aires, afflicted with a serious crisis of vocations and undermined by secularism, like so many dioceses in lands that were once Christendom.

He is an intellectual, a cultivated man, and who eminently knows how to popularize: he tries hard to speak with a great simplicity; with the help even, in Argentina, using slang expressions.  His repeated attacks against consumerism, against a diluted religion are very hearty. This also goes to say that he knows perfectly how to communicate, except that his abrupt nature can play tricks on him. It attaches great attention to appointments he made, as he proved in senior positions he held as Provincial of the Jesuits and as Primate of Argentina, to be the "doer" of the bishops of this country . Moral importance increased further after 2005, because he had quickly learned benefited during the conclave that elected Joseph Ratzinger, all the voices of "opposition" to the Dean of the Sacred College then . In Argentina, he was considered almost the Pope, who would have been if, in front of him, had not been elected the Prefect of the former Holy Office. One might as well say as as, except the intensity of his spiritual life, his personality differs greatly from that of the previous pope.

- is he a "progressive" ?

- No! Cardinal Bergoglio was not like the other Jesuit Cardinal of strong personality, Cardinal Martini, which was considered as papable until he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.As well as it was well necessary to understand that the pope Ratzinger was not a "traditionalist", but a man of " right centre " – excuse me these certainly inadequate use of terms but in order to save time– very attentive to different traditional claims which he appropriated partly, notably from liturgical point of view, it is well necessary to hear that the new pope is not a "progressive". To this we must take a detour through his political and social profile.

REFORM OF THE REFORM

I've been convinced for years and now more than ever that there shall not be (short of divine intervention) a wholesale return to pre-conciliar liturgical use across the board anytime in the near future. I cannot fathom short of a miracle of grace that the novus ordo would be abrogated and replaced by the traditional Mass in my lifetime. Sadly, I suspect that until the generations of those whose identity, spirituality and piety (or lack thereof) have been formed by the post-Conciliar liturgy have passed to their reward, there is little hope of a full liturgical restoration to tradition.

I believe rather that since the great majority of Catholics worship daily and weekly according to the Missal of Paul VI (albeit in rupture with tradition and not  in continuity with tradition), there will need to be rather an proliferation of celebrations of the Missal of Paul VI in continuity with the traditional liturgy:  ad orientem, Latin ordinary, Gregorian chant, celebrated with maximum ceremony in as close a proximity with the traditional Mass as possible in order for a complete transition to take place on a grassroots level. The liturgical minimalism which is the trademark of the Missal of Paul VI alongside the widespread liturgical abuse has directly contributed to the loss of faith of whole generations of Catholics.

I liked what the Italian blog 'CORDIALITER' has to say about the subject so dear to my heart:

Years ago the Abbé Claude Barthe gave an interview to the association "Paix Liturgique," in which he said that the traditional Mass can not hope to reintegrate heavily in ordinary parishes without the rebirth of a favorable environment, fed by the vital support of the reform of reform. In this regard it would be hoped that the rite of Paul VI can be celebrated in the most traditional way possible (versus Deum, Communion kneeling, Roman Canon, Gregorian, etc..), Thus creating a favorable environment for the transition to the Tridentine Mass.

I agree with the Abbé Barthe, because experience shows that those who devoutly celebrated in the past with the Missal of Paul VI, after the Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum" have joined the extraordinary form of the Roman rite. Think about the various don Alfredo Morselli, Don Nicola Bux, Father Stefano Manelli, and many others. In short, if all the new priests had celebrated Mass in the traditional way, today the Tridentine Mass would be the "ordinary" form of the Roman rite. Moreover, without a miracle, it would be unthinkable that a priest who used to mangle the liturgy with irreverence and various abuses, suddenly would decide to adopt the traditional Mass.

A PRICELESS GEM FROM THE LATE FATHER HUGH THWAITES SJ

"Whisky with three parts water"

Although he (Father Hugh Thwaites SJ) sometimes offered the Mass in the Novus Ordo form, he did so reluctantly: 

‘Thank God, it’s not often I need to say a Novus Ordo one (to help out in a parish). It’s plain how it’s turned millions of Catholics into liberal Protestants. When I asked him to offer a Mass for several members of a family converting, he remarked: ‘I hope they will be going to old rite Masses – I feel sorry for converts who only know the Novus Ordo Church: whisky with three parts water.’ ~ Fr Hugh Thwaites S.J.

I drink mine neat.

LAMENT FOR THE OCTAVE OF PENTECOST

REPOST FROM 'OFFERIMUS TIBI DOMINE:

TUESDAY, 21 MAY 2013

Where Oh where has my Octave gone?

Because I offer the "old" Mass on some days of the week I occasionally find myself in a rather strange "Twilight Zone" of liturgical time due to the inconsistencies between the two calendars. Today was very strange and rather sad in a way, as in the "old" version this week is the Octave of Pentecost, each Mass complete with Sequence, Gloria and Credo.  It does seem odd that such an important feast as Pentecost was historically given an Octave but is now robbed of it. It has the feel of a "worldly Christmas" - all over on the day and no follow-up.

Fr Z relates the well-known story of Pope Paul VI.  I didn't quite weep but is does seem a pity we no longer have it.

THE DEMOLITION OF MODERNISM

THE DEMOLITION OF MODERNISM

A free translation from 'Cordialiter Blog'

The Church is immortal, so no tyrant ever managed to kill it, not even Nero, Diocletian, Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin. 

Today, however, the Mystical Body of Christ is facing

 an enemy more dangerous than all the previous ones:

 modernism. Unfortunately, the modernist mentality

 has infected many Christians, not only among the lay

 faithful but also among the clergy, as reported 

by St. Pius X in his encyclical "Pascendi." 

This heroic and zealous pontiff also claimed that they

 are not far from the truth those who 

consider the Modernists the most dangerous enemies of the Church.

The disasters made by the modernists will never be able 

to completely destroy the Church, in fact there shall always

 remain a healthy part of the People of God. In fact, 

I have the impression that the worst of the modernist crisis 

is behind us, and that we shall begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

 In part, this is due to the fierce and brave resistance of the 

forces that oppose the modernist tyranny. 

The "traditional movement" draws to itself more and more members

 and now is a painful thorn in the side of the modernist army.

Which is forced to unstoppable and ruinous retreat.

 But this retreat is due in large part auto-demolition

of modernism under the weight of its own heresies. 

The followers of modernism assert that all religions are equal, 

all go when they die "ex opere operato" into Paradise, 

it is not necessary to confess because God already knows our sins, 

those who have a supernatural vision of life are retrograde,

 dogmas change according to the seasons, and many other such errors, 

it is clear that in this way they draw souls away from their churches,

neither do they have more vocations.

 Their average age is higher and higher, they fail to attract young people, 

The massive conflict against the "synthesis of all heresies" could go on

 for many years, but now the tradition can raise its' fist in victory.

SOURCE

The Octave of Pentecost: A Proposal for Mutual Enrichment by Gregory DiPippo

From the New Liturgical Movement- a brief synthesis on the changes to the Roman Calendar and a call to restore the sacred Patrimony of these observances.

The Octave of Pentecost: A Proposal for Mutual Enrichment

by Gregory DiPippo

This week is one of the liturgical seasons where the discrepancies between the two forms of the Roman Rite are most evident; the Extraordinary Form retains the Octave of Pentecost, with its three Ember Days, while the Ordinary Form does not. The presence of such discrepancies is an absolutely anomalous situation in the history of the Roman Rite, and indeed of the whole of Catholic liturgy. This anomaly will be noticed more and more as the number of churches where both forms of the Rite are routinely celebrated grows; to invent an example, the clergy and faithful will more regularly see in the same parish a 9 a.m. Sunday Mass in green for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, and the 10:30 Mass in violet for Sexagesima. Such a thing was unknown before 1969, and was extremely rare before the 1988 motu proprio Ecclesia Dei.

The Proper of the Seasons (‘Proprium de Tempore’ or ‘Temporale’ in Latin) is built around the most ancient and important features of the Christian year, the shorter cycle of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, and the longer cycle of Lent, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost. Over the centuries, the Church enriched the two cycles with many additions, such as the Ember Days and the various octaves and vigils. The Wurtzburg Lectionary, a manuscript of the mid-7th century, and the Murbach Lectionary of roughly a century later attest between them to all of the same seasonal observances from Advent to Pentecost as the Missal of St. Pius V, lacking only the Minor Litanies and the octave of the Ascension. Most of these features are of course quite older than the manuscripts; for example, St. Leo the Great (444-461) preached on the Ember Days, and believed them to be of apostolic origin. Only one feature of the Proper of the Seasons as attested by these early manuscripts has disappeared, the “Pascha annotinum”, which was a commemoration of the previous year’s Easter and the baptismal anniversary of the catechumens.

The Minor Litanies were introduced into the liturgy of Rome in the reign of St. Leo III (795-816), but had been established in Gaul by St. Mamertus of Vienne over three centuries earlier; the octave of the Ascension was added by St. Leo IV in 847. Before the 20th century, only two further additions were made to the Temporale; no further subtractions were made until 1969. The feast of the Holy Trinity was first instituted in the diocese of Liège by Bishop Stephen in the early 10th century, but only quite slowly received throughout the Roman Rite; Pope Alexander II (1061-73) famously remarked that he saw no more need for a feast of the Trinity than for a feast of the Unity. To Liège also belongs the honor of having first celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi, officially promulgated for the universal Church in 1264 by Pope Urban IV. This feast was also slow to be received in some places, but by the 15th century, both of these observances had become universal; the Proper of the Seasons was thus received into the Tridentine reform unaltered, and remained exactly the same for almost four centuries, with one addition. The feast of the Sacred Heart, added to the General Calendar by Bl. Pius IX in 1856, was definitively added to the Proper of the Seasons in 1928 by Pius XI, who clearly wished to underscore the great importance of the feast and devotion by making it the first such addition in nearly 700 years.

It must also be noted that many of the features of the traditional Proper of the Seasons are specifically Roman in origin. The shorter Advent (the Ambrosian Advent and the Byzantine fast of the Nativity both begin in mid-November), the Ember Days, the season of Septuagesima, Passiontide as distinct from Lent (a feature which is more evident in the Office than in the Mass), and the Major Litanies are all originally Roman practices, some of which were adopted by other rites, and some not. The Roman Temporale is in this respect the richest and most developed of all of the western rites.

As the Roman Rite was adopted in western Europe and beyond in the early Middle Ages, the Proper of the Seasons was taken on as part of it with almost perfect uniformity, although there was no central liturgical authority to compel the individual churches to receive it in toto. The various features of it remained common to all of the Roman Rite’s usages and variants until 1969; thus, the first Sunday of Advent, for example, was the first Sunday of Advent every year in every church which followed the Roman Rite anywhere in the world. (Small differences from the Roman practice do occur before Trent, but they are minor and rare; after Trent, they are unheard of.)

The Second Vatican Council’s decree on the liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium nowhere suggests that the Temporale should be altered, or that any feature of it should be suppressed. Indeed, article 107 of the same constitution clearly presumes that it will not be changed: “The liturgical year is to be revised so that the traditional customs and discipline of the sacred seasons shall be preserved or restored to suit the conditions of modern times.” This statement is in perfect harmony with the mind of the great scholars of the Liturgical Movement such as Dom Guéranger, Fr. Fortescue and Bl. Ildefonse Schuster, who wished for traditional observances such as the Ember Days to be more deeply inculcated into the spiritual lives of the faithful, as an intrinsic part of the Church’s liturgical patrimony.

Despite what the Council says on the subject, the Proper of the Seasons was notably altered in the Novus Ordo. The four sets of Ember Days, Septuagesima, the Major and Minor Litanies and the octave of Pentecost were all suppressed; Passiontide was effectively subsumed into Lent. Even before the Council, the 1955 simplification of the rubrics suppressed four octaves of the temporal cycle (Epiphany, Ascension, Corpus Christ and the very late Sacred Heart) and one vigil (Epiphany); the vigil of Pentecost was deprived of its very ancient baptismal character in the Holy Week reform of the same year.

One of the best possible examples of the mutual enrichment of the two forms which the Holy Father spoke of in Summorum Pontificum would be restoration to the post-Conciliar liturgy of at least some of the major features which were eliminated from the Proper of the Seasons; most prominent among them would be the octave of Pentecost, the suppression of which famously brought Pope Paul VI to tears. Likewise, it is very difficult to see what was gained by the removal of Septuagesima, the loss of Passiontide, and the shortening of the Triduum. The traditional rite’s more gradual approach to the Passion and Resurrection impresses their importance upon us more effectively, as Pope Paul noted when he compared the four stages of preparation for Easter to the “bells calling people to Sunday Mass. The ringing of them an hour, half-hour, fifteen, and five minutes before the time of Mass has a psychological effect and prepares the faithful materially and spiritually for the celebration of the liturgy.”

Likewise, it would an excellent idea not only to restore the fast days of the traditional rite such as the Ember Days to the Novus Ordo, but also to restore at least some of the fasts themselves, most of which had been mitigated or abolished long before Vatican II. The constant tradition of the Scriptures, the Fathers and Catholic spiritual writers down to our own age is unanimous on the spiritual benefits of fasting, and we could hardly imagine an age more in need of this particular sign of contradiction. It would be an excellent thing if the recent decision of the English bishops’ conference to restore abstinence from meat on Fridays were imitated throughout the Catholic world; it would be even better if such abstinence was restored to its proper place as part of the Church's liturgical life, as it was in antiquity and remains among Byzantine Christians.

Of course, there are also a very large number of differences between the calendars of Saints’ feasts in the two forms of the Roman Rite, and this seems to be the cause of much debate and angst in some places. The 1962 calendar has far more Saints on it, (some would say too many), and several important feasts were moved from their traditional days in the 1969 Calendar or suppressed. This problem will also come to be noticed more and more in those churches where both forms of the Roman Rite are habitually used, especially when it comes to the feast of a patron Saint, for example. However, the presence of multiple calendars within the Roman Rite is per se much less problematic than having two different Temporalia. The Proper of the Seasons was traditionally a uniformly observed part of the liturgy throughout the Roman Rite, as it is in other rites, but there have always been significant differences in the calendars of Saints’ days from one diocese to another, and even between one major church and another within the same diocese. In 1924, the calendar of St. Peter’s Basilica contained 57 feasts which were not on the General Calendar of the Roman Rite; a great many of these were also not kept in the rest of the diocese of Rome. Prior to the liturgical reform of St. Pius V, August 5th was the feast of the Dedication of St. Mary Major in Rome, the feast of St. Dominic in the Order of Preachers and several dioceses, St. Oswald in England, and the Transfiguration in Liège. This is only one of many examples of such variation in local calendars that could be noted, both before and after the Tridentine Reform.

The question of the calendar of Saints may therefore be regarded as less pressing in terms of future liturgical reform; I would add that there is one particular feature of the post-Conciliar reform which should prove particular useful in resolving it. I think it is generally agreed that the calendar of 1962 is a little over-full, and the calendar of 1969 a little meager. The introduction of the optional memorial in the Ordinary Form resolves the problem very nicely; the calendar can be stuffed as full as you like with Saints, but the keeping of feasts need never prove excessively repetitious. On the other hand, the keeping of Saints’ days as commemorations, which is very common in the Tridentine period, but almost gone from the Novus Ordo, should be re-introduced into the latter to honor those Saints who are not kept with a full feast. This would also restore the integrity of the various liturgical seasons of the Temporale, which in the Ordinary Form are not mentioned at all when a feast occurs.

MY BELOVED PET DACHSHUND BEANIE IS GONE...

I lost my beloved pet companion of almost 10 years Franz-Josef or "Beanie" as I lovingly called him today (Saturday May 18). I had been gone 4 weeks visiting my family in Montana and upon return Sunday,  he had lost weight and was vomiting. I took him this past Tuesday to the vet clinic and they did blood work and found his blood sugar to be dangerously high. There was hope during the week of saving him. He was lucid the whole time. I took him for a short walk on Thursday.  I rescued Beanie from the animal shelter. My hunch was that he had belonged to an elderly person and upon their death he had no place to go. I gathered this from his sensitive nature and that he seemed to have been spoiled. I don't know exactly how old he was (anywhere between 12 and 13 would be a good guess). Right now I am feeling a very deep loss and sense of emptiness. He was very dear to my heart. I asked God for a miracle to spare him for a few more years but it was not mean't to be. I humbly ask you to remember me in your prayers. I miss him beyond measure... Thank you LORD for this great gift.

MY FOND RECOLLECTION OF THE PENTECOST PILGRIMAGE FROM PARIS TO CHARTRES

On Pentecost weekend of 1992, I had the great grace to make the 3 day walking pilgrimage from Notre Dame de Paris to Chartres in France. I must say that this experience was a pivotal one in my faith pilgrimage as a Catholic. It was when I finally felt I had authentically arrived at and experienced the Catholic faith of our fore fathers. It was at that time that I came to a clear realization of what it means to be authentically Catholic.   It was at that moment that I knew that to be Catholic was to be a traditionalist.

I cannot begin to express the emotion and feelings with which I was overwhelmed while making this 75 mile walking pilgrimage with nearly 10,000 others of one mind, heart and spirit. Arriving at Notre Dame de Paris that morning with thousands of others to be sent forth. It took some hours winding, praying and singing through the streets of the metropol of Paris before arriving at the first stop for Holy Mass in a forest. I shall never forget the bell ringing for communion time and thousands kneeling on the rocky ground at a rope to receive Our Lord. I remember the utter exhaustion of arriving at our campsite in the evening and an adoration chapel was set up and falling asleep to the sound of hymns sung by thousands outside the chapel/tent. We went over hills and through dales through verdent forests and wheat fields. Picturesque landscapes opened before us as one only sees in Europe. We would come through villages and were welcomed by villagers with tears in their eyes weeping at the sight of so many openly proclaiming their faith. They (the villagers) offered us cups of water and bread for our journey. We went through heat, hail stones and drenching rain.  I was surrounded by pilgrims from all over the globe from as far away as Argentina. I felt a part of something that was so much bigger than myself. I was making a journey hallowed by centuries of pilgrims.  At the end of the pilgrimage I promised myself that I would try to return each year. Unfortunately, it never came to pass. I hope perhaps some day to be able again to accompany those and to renew my own fervor and dedication to my Catholic faith. If God wills it to be.

THE FRANCISCAN POVERTY OF HIS HOLINESS PIUS XII

TAKEN FROM THE TESTIMONY OF A NEPHEW OF POPE PIUS XII

"Pius XII loved concretely and not in words, all human beings especially those who suffered. This love led him to want to suffer like them, to impose on himself the same privations under which they were forced undergo. During the war he knew that many men suffering from hunger, and he deprived himself of food that he could have had in abundance. When the bombing began, many people remained homeless and were forced to deal with the rigors of the cold without heating, with few clothes in conditions of severe poverty. Thinking about those families, Pius XII during the war, did not wish his apartment to be heated. His hands and feet are swollen, full of chilblains. He found it difficult to type, to hold the pen in his hand, he was not in good health, but he still would not heat his apartment. When sugar and coffee became scarce in Italy, my uncle stopped drinking coffee and until the end of the war drank not one more cup of coffee. He sent the stocks of sugar and coffee in the Vatican to the city's hospitals for the sick.

In public, my uncle would always look perfect, flawless.  He represented the Church, he felt so strongly the meaning of the supreme dignity of his office. His behavior and his clothes, outwardly, were impeccable as those of a sovereign. But in fact he was very poor. After his death, we found that his bedding was poor: he had only three shirts, which were worn and patched, he would often changed the starched cuffs, only because those could be seen. He had two or three pairs of shoes which were continuously adjusted and resoled. During the war years he gave everything he had to the poor, all the money he received. When he died, he left nothing to anyone, because he had nothing. As we all were able to see looking at the photographs published after his death, he slept in a bare room, on a cot of iron. "

SOURCE

Don Divo Barsotti a prophet for our times taken from "Christian Order"



Don Divo Barsotti with Giacomo Cardinal Biffi

Don Divo Barsotti 1915-2006

The Widening Rift

SANDRO MAGISTER

In a new book sent to the printing press in recent days, Professor Enrico Maria Radaelli — philosopher, theologian, and beloved disciple of one of the greatest traditionalist Catholic thinkers of the twentieth century, the Swiss Romano Amerio (1905-1997) — cites three passages taken from the unpublished diaries of Fr. Divo Barsotti (1914-2006).

"Diabolical Pride"

In them, this brilliant and esteemed mystic and spiritual master — who in 1971 was called to preach the Lenten exercises to the pope and to the Roman curia — expressed strong criticisms of Vatican Council II. Fr. Barsotti wrote:

I am perplexed with regard to the Council: the plethora of documents, their length, often their language, these frightened me. They are documents that bear witness to a purely human assurance more than to a simple firmness of faith. But above all I am outraged by the behaviour of the theologians.

The Council is the supreme exercise of the magisterium, and is justified only by a supreme necessity. Could not the fearful gravity of the present situation of the Church stem precisely from the foolishness of having wanted to provoke and tempt the Lord?Was there the desire, perhaps, to constrain God to speak when there was not this supreme necessity? Is that the way it is? In order to justify a Council that presumed to renew all things, it had to be affirmed that everything was going poorly, something that is done constantly, if not by the episcopate then by the theologians.

Nothing seems to me more grave, contrary to the holiness of God, than the presumption of clerics who believe, with a pride that is purely diabolical, that they can manipulate the truth, who presume to renew the Church and to save the world without renewing themselves. In all the history of the Church nothing is comparable to the latest Council, at which the Catholic episcopate believed that it could renew all things by obeying nothing other than its own pride, without the effort of holiness, in such open opposition to the law of the gospel that it requires us to believe how the humanity of Christ was the instrument of the omnipotence of the love that saves, in his death.  READ MORE HERE