Playing Fast & Loose with the Liturgy

From THE CATHOLIC THING

by Fr. Gerald E. Murray – TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2022

On March 12, Pope Francis went to the Jesuit Church of the Gesú in Rome for a Mass on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the canonizations of St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Francis Xavier. The pope preached at the Mass and concelebrated. He had earlier been scheduled to be the principal celebrant, but Fr. Arturo Sosa, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus, for some reason, was the principal celebrant instead.

Liturgical theology and law do not countenance that a bishop, let alone the diocesan bishop in his own diocese, concelebrate Mass with a priest as the principal celebrant (apart from a grave necessity, such as infirmity). This flows from the nature of the episcopal office: the bishop is the high priest in his diocese. He offers the sacrifice of the Mass for his people, while his priests, co-workers who serve the local Church under his authority, concelebrate with him.

The Mass began with the usual entrance procession. Pope Francis was already seated in a chair near the altar. He wore no liturgical vestments, and thus gave no indication that he was either concelebrating or presiding. He preached without wearing the liturgical garments (mozetta, rochet, and stole) that are prescribed to be worn when the preacher is not the one celebrating the Mass.

He concelebrated, extending his hand and saying the words of consecration, without wearing Mass vestments (alb, stole, and chasuble). This practice is strictly forbidden. In its 2004 Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, the Congregation for Divine Worship stated: “The abuse is reprobated whereby the sacred ministers celebrate Holy Mass or other rites without sacred vestments.”

Is the pope subject to liturgical law? Yes. Can he dispense himself from liturgical laws? Yes, but canon 90 states that there must be “a just and reasonable cause” for a dispensation. Did Pope Francis canonically dispense himself from the requirement to wear liturgical vestments when preaching at and concelebrating Mass? He may have, but the Holy See has given no indication that he in fact did so.

Was there a just and reasonable cause for the pope not to wear the prescribed liturgical vestments? It is very difficult, if not impossible, to assert that such a cause existed in this case.

We are confronted here with a reality that Catholics are all too familiar with in the life of the Church during the past half-century and more – the flagrant flouting of liturgical laws for no apparent reason beyond the preference of the priest celebrant.

Is this an important matter? For some, undoubtedly, such liturgical abuses are insignificant and do not merit any comment. Some will say that the pope can do whatever he wants, and we should not be upset over this or that choice of his: “He must have a good reason, and it is impertinent to question his judgment, because, after all, he is the pope.”

But it is precisely because he is the pope that we should be concerned about his decision to disregard the rules governing the celebration of Mass. The pope is the supreme authority in the Church and as such is called upon to uphold the Church’s laws, lest he scandalize the faithful by giving a bad example. The scandal would consist in giving the impression that, following the example of the pope, any priest is perfectly free to do whatever he wants when it comes to following liturgical law.

It’s no secret that many Catholics have flocked to the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass because they are tired of the widespread liturgical abuses they encounter in the celebration of the New Mass. Pope Francis himself is aware of this.

He brought up this problem in his July 16, 2021 letter to the bishops of the world accompanying Traditionis Custodes, his motu proprio restricting the celebration of the Old Mass: “I am saddened by abuses in the celebration of the liturgy on all sides. In common with Benedict XVI, I deplore the fact that ‘in many places the prescriptions of the new Missal are not observed in celebration, but indeed come to be interpreted as an authorization for or even a requirement of creativity, which leads to almost unbearable distortions.’”

He counseled the bishops: “I ask you to be vigilant in ensuring that every liturgy be celebrated with decorum and fidelity to the liturgical books promulgated after Vatican Council II, without the eccentricities that can easily degenerate into abuses.”

Pope Francis’ own words serve as a rebuke of his decision to concelebrate Mass without liturgical vestments. The sacred character of our acts of worship is fostered and protected when priests and bishops willingly and carefully follow the requirements of liturgical law. The Christian faithful have the right to participate in liturgical prayer without being compelled to experience “unbearable distortions” of good liturgical order. That right depends upon the willingness of priests and bishops to obey what is set down in liturgical law.

There is no clerical privilege that allows priests and bishops to rewrite the rules to suit their own tastes. Yet that is precisely what some priests and bishops will sadly take away from this regrettable instance of papal liturgical abuse.

The worship of God is the sacred duty of the Church’s pastors. The form of that worship is given to them by the Church. It is their responsibility to see to it that every act of liturgical worship is carried out in loving fidelity to what is set forth by the Church in her liturgical laws. Disobedience teaches the wrongful lesson that Church law is unimportant.

This is a recipe for more chaos in the life of the Church. It needs to stop.

A Pachamama nativity scene in St Peter’s?

This article is republished from Libero Quatidiano (Google Translate has come to the rescue again!) It is a very interesting take on this year’s Vatican nativity scene.

Nostalgia. Once it was more fun: it was necessary to dig, carry out an exciting research, consult large books and experts … As in the days of the adventure of “Mary who unties knots”, HERE the cult spread by Bergoglio all over the world that we discovered has a worrying and unexpected magical-esoteric-Masonic background.

Also comes to mind the subtle alchemical connection of his “San José dormido”, HERE , or the engaging and laborious research on his pectoral cross with the Good Shepherd of the Rosicrucian Freemasons HERE

which His Excellency replaced, just a week later, with an Orthodox cross. Let alone a Catholic. As well as – always to the Rosicrucians – we discovered that the dew inexplicably inserted in the new missal belonged HERE .

Now, however, everything is becoming too easy, too obvious. There is no more taste. In 15 seconds flat we found, without fail, the new anti – Catholic catch of the Vatican “crib” whose inauguration is scheduled for this afternoon in St. Peter’s Square. Vatican News explains: “ The Nativity that will be set up for Christmas comes from the village of Chopcca in the Andes. It will be made up of more than 30 pieces and created by five famous artists from Huancavelica … ”.

Immediate Google search: “Chopcca-Pachamama”. Tàc . Here, read with us HERE on page. 198 the volume “ Los Chopcca de Huancavelica” , published by the Ministry of Culture of Peru: “In spite of the intense pastoral work of both Christian doctrines – Catholic and Evangelical – THE PRECRISTIAN CHOPUCHE RITUAL PRACTICES HAVE NOT BEEN UNRADICATED. Dependent on the forces of nature, it REMAINS among the villagers the conception of the world presided over by Apus or Wamanis, SPIRITS who live on the hills, and by the PACHAMAMA , entities which are EXPLICITLY MENTIONED IN THEIR RITUALS.The Apus major in the area, Qaparina and Cobremina, are the highest hills in the region, to which homage is paid with ceremonies and rites during the feasts of the production cycle. In herranza or Santiago, pagapu is performed, a ritual in which offerings are made to the god Apu or to PACHAMAMA for the protection of their animals. Similar rituals are performed during planting, harvesting and other activities that require the help and protection of the Andean deities. It is remarkable that the PRINCIPAL CULTURAL VICTIM of evangelical preaching (Protestant ed) were not the celebrations of the production cycle, where much of the Andean worldview is persecuted by Catholicism since the colonial era, BUT PRECISELY CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS “.

So, while last year you enjoyed the horrifying esoteric-Masonic conciliar ceramic nativity scene of Castelli HERE (what an injustice for the Abruzzo town HERE ) with the horned warrior with a skull on his forehead HERE (typical Christmas character, right?) year touches the PACHAMAMIC CRIB , a tribute to the last population in the world that holds with tooth and nail this bloody pagan cult to which baby llamas are sacrificed and, it is said, once upon a time, also human sacrifices. In fact, out of about 20 animals present, there are at least EIGHT LAMAS in procession.

With all the villages in the world from which a nativity scene could be borrowed, it was necessary to choose Chopcca, where, moreover, Catholic feasts were defeated by Protestantism, leaving room for pagan divinities. Nothing else?

To find out more, read our interview with anthropologist Antonino Colajanni and Bolivian historian Damiàn Galeron HERE

Now, in spite of the Jesuit smokes on “inculturation”, know that the Pachamama is, in terms of form and religious content, the PERFECT ANTI-MADONNA . Nothing justifies continuing to promote its ancient cult, given that in South America, it has been largely supplanted, and for centuries, by the venerable Virgin of Guadalupe.

Now, if Mary is considered by believers to be the Queen of Heaven, the Virgin, the “all-beautiful”, the Woman clothed with the sun, wrapped in a starry mantle, She who welcomes the Word into her womb and who spreads spiritual graces to men of good will, if Our Lady gave birth to the Savior who sacrificed himself for men, Pachamama is, on the contrary, the pagan goddess of the Earth, naked, angular, gaunt, hungry, who demands cruel animal sacrifices (and perhaps once human) to provide material goods in exchange: crops and crops. Some say she would also be pregnant with the Antichrist, but we don’t go that far even though, after all, religious syncretism is a “technically” antichristic process. The definition is in fact given by St. John: it is Anti-Christ who does not recognize Jesus as the son of God. And if in syncretism all religions must be equal, obviously, goodnight to the divinity of Jesus, with all the annexes and connected. Do you understand? Elementary logic.

With all respect for the Andean religions, the iconography of Pachamama and his cult therefore constitute, in fact, a macroscopic reversal of the figure of Mary , to whom on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, on 8 December, Bergoglio has just dedicated a basket of white roses (perhaps costing 50 euros?) left there, on the balustrade of the monument in Piazza di Spagna, in the dark of a gloomy and lonely dawn. The excuse was “to avoid the gatherings”, which nevertheless did not seem to worry Bergoglio a couple of days earlier in Cyprus and Greece, given the swarms of crowds. An alternating current Covid, therefore.

In short, a distressing repetitiveness. They are letting go, they no longer even try to disguise a behavior perfectly consistent with the well-known program: the Marian cult, together with Transubstantiation, being primarily identities of Catholicism, must be removed, given that, as Bergoglio declared in La Stampa on March 13, 2021 HERE   ” We must not waste the crisis, but use it to build a New World Order” . If he says so, we can believe him.

In fact, for this Masonic project we need a new syncretistic religion that sends all the Catholic paraphernalia into the attic. A fascinating operation, but very risky given that, at least according to the “forecasts of the specialists”, from the prophet Daniel to Padre Pio, it should not end very well. In fact, as we have shown in 44 chapters of investigation (never denied) that you will find HERE at the bottom, there is already an unsolvable problem: Bergoglio is not the pope as Benedict XVI has never abdicated, so nothing he did. in eight years it is valid. We are therefore talking about hot air.

By the way, if you want to hear the real pope on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, feast your ears and – for those who are believers – your soul, with this luminous intervention by the Holy Father Benedict on December 8, 2012. HERE

“The voice of God – the Pope teaches – is not perceived by remaining on the surface, but by descending to a deeper level where the forces that act are not the economic and political ones, but the moral and spiritual ones. It is there that Mary invites us to go down to be in tune with God’s action ”.

(Other than sacrifices of baby llamas). This appeal by Benedict XVI is striking, just over two months after his retirement in the impeded seat, remaining pope hidden under the non-existent papacy emeritus.

And in fact, to understand his ” Plan B”, one must exactly renounce (at least inwardly) one’s material interests , position income, Bergoglian flattery, 8 x 1000 … One must descend into silence, where pure and disinterested intelligence acts logic, that of the Logos , the Incarnate Word. Only with concentration, the spirit of truth and reason will it be possible to understand the question by attuning to the action of the Vicar of Christ.

And we do not consider it accidental that, as the reader Anna Maria Conti tells us, the true Holy Father, just yesterday, wanted to appear in a photo holding a REAL CRIB.

Masons on the Church – Then and Now

Humanum Genus, Pope Leo XIII’s great encyclical warning against Freemasonry, was promulgated in 1884. In it, the Pope condemned Masonry and other secret societies in the most direct and unambiguous way. The scathing nature of his reprisal can be evaluated by the response from Masons of that time.

From the Bulletin of the Symbolic Scottish Grand Lodge:

Freemasonry cannont help but thank the Supreme Pontiff of the last encyclical. Leo XIII, with unquestionable authority, and wth great luxury of evidence has demonstrated once again that there is an unbridgeable gulf between the Church of which he is the representative, and the Revolution, of which Freemasonry is the right arm. It is good that the skeptics cease to entertain vain hopes. All must get used to the new order which does not recognise any other foundation than that of science and human reason, in the spirit of authority and spirit of liberty.

Enrico Delassus, “Il problema dell’ora presente”, Desclèe e C. Tipografi-Editori 1907, vol. 1, p 39. (Via Fr Villa.)

Contrast this appraisal with laudatory comments from the Masons in our present day. The following is a press release from Italy’s Grand Lodge, made after the election of Jorge Bergoglio in 2013.

The Catholic Church has chosen as Pope the Jesuit Jorge Mario Bergoglio who assumed the name of Francis. A clear-cut choice, away from the logic of the Roman Curia and of the temporal power. From the first moment on, Pope Francis, a man who comes “nearly from the end of the world,” rejecting the ermine robe and gold cross and replacing it with an iron cross, made his first tangible act. In his first words of greeting he fostered a desire for dialogue with the world and with mankind, nurturing the vivid hope for laymen and nonbelievers that change is underway. Maybe this is really what the world expects and what it expected. A new Church that knows how to reconnect love with truth in a confrontation among institutions not entrenched in the defense of their own power. It is that same hope for which the world — and especially Latin America, where the Masons Simon Bolivar, Salvador Allende and the same Giuseppe Garibaldi [especially while in Brazil] among the many who have given liberty to those peoples — has always longed for.

A message that Freemasonry itself perceives a sharp break with the past and one which is turned now to listening to the poor, the marginalized and the weakest. To the new Pontiff we send our best wishes for his good work for years to come.

Luciano Nistri, Grand Master GLVDI

(As found at OnePeterFive)