Monday, September 15, 2014

Traditional Mass to end at Blackfen

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That's what Fr John Zuhlsdorf says: it will end by the end of Septemeber. According to my sources, which are probably the same as his, this is true. It was announced from the pulpit yesterday by the new Parish Priest, Fr Steven Fisher. It was his second Sunday in the parish.

If it isn't true, no one will be more pleased to put the record straight than I.

Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark did something very unusual in moving Fr Tim Finigan from the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary at Blackfen, to a parish in Margate. The usual thing is that, knowing that there was a long-established group attending the Traditional Mass in the parish, Archbishop Smith appointed a new Parish Priest who was able, and professed himself willing, to carry this on.

It is a tragedy that this hasn't worked. Fr Fisher has decided, for reasons which I'll leave to him to explain, that, having said he would continue to say the EF, he won't after all.

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Photos: a Mass celebrated in Our Lady of the Rosary in happier times. Set here.

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59 comments:

  1. There is, of course, a procedure set out in the motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum for those of the faithful who wish to have an older form Mass in the parish to petition their parish priest. If the people of the parish want the Mass to continue, or be resumed, they should act accordingly.

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  2. It would be useful to hear from the people of Blackfen on this. If they want it to continue, if they could let us know (an on line petition perhaps?) we Catholic bloggers could really bring some pressure to bear?

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    1. I go regularly to the traditional mass at Blackfen and have done since it's introduction by Fr Finigan. My son is 19 years old and has served all masses since he was 8 and prefers the Latin mass. My daughter is 14 and attends regularly as well. I am absolutely livid to read some of these posts about it being for older people. I am a Catechist, UCM member and active volunteer in OLOR Blackfen and feel my choice has been taken away from me. One latin mass a week isn't too much to ask for is it? I cannot believe that after 12 years I will have to look for another parish because my choice has been taken away from me without any say.

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  3. I suspect cessation of the Usus Antiquior at Blackfen, in spite of Fr Fisher's statement to the contrary is because a it was intended to cease. No doubt the bishop is behind this, for whatever reason. Fr Finigan's transfer is probably also intended to disrupt the continuation of the Usus Antiquior.

    It will be interesting to see if he manages to establish it at his new parish, and at a reasonable time, but I doubt it.

    This aggression against the ancient Catholic Mass, particularly when the Novus Ordo, in whatever forms it happens to turn up at any one parish, is simply fading away, with aging congregations and a near complete absence of teenagers and young people.

    Yes we are probably in for a return to another session of the “Spirit of Vat II” with the same disastrous consequences as the first.

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    1. "absence of teenagers and young people"

      You're out of date; it isn't just the young who have disappeared from the Novus Ordo Mass any more - the middle-aged have gone as well.

      The average Novus Ordo parish Mass now has hardly anyone under retirement age.

      I'm now in my 40s and I'm still one of the youngest people at Mass in my parish!

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  4. This is terrible and scandalous news!

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  5. diabolical disorientation as said by sr lucia--that is what is behind this refutation of the true mass!!i went to the latin mass on sunday evening and there were more young people there than at the novus ordo mass in my own parish church.god bless .philip johnson.

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  6. Has the Archbishop got something over Fr. Fisher's head? IF not, WTH is wrong with Fr. Fisher? You don't change something like that to tick people off when you come into a new parish like that to put yourself on a wrong foot right off the bat. 90% guess that this is coming from the Archbishop. Either way, its disgusting this power trip to kick out the Latin Mass.

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  7. The worst of it is that it's not a big surprise. I had thought that with the influence of the Nuncio under the previous papacy, the estimable Fr. Finegan stood a reasonable chance of being elevated. Circumstances having changed, it seems that both Fr. Finigan and his former congregation are reaping the result - the break-up of a stable traditional community. Prayers for them all.

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    1. Anonymous1:08 am

      The break up of believing, practising, committed, knowledgeable Catholic parish. The invocation of geographical boundaries by the priest says it all.

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  8. Although not myself a devotee of the TLM I think its availability in the Church today is valuable and important as a benchmark of what good liturgy can be (not least in the behaviour of congregations). The heavy-handed action at Blackfen is dreadful, as bad in its way as the Vatican’s persecution of forward-thinking progressive theologians (too many to mention).

    Supporting lovers of Latin as I do, I am wondering if they will support lovers of English like myself who find it hard to worship God using the rebarbative unidiomatic debasement of good English which we now have in the Mass.

    Pope Benedict established the principle that “what earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful.” Why does this not apply to the 1970s version, plain and simple admittedly but at least decent comprehensible English? Even better why cannot there be permission to use the excellent, superbly idiomatic English version of 1998, which was approved by the English-speaking bishops but scuppered – contra vires – by the dictatorial Vatican. As the LMS strove for many years to have its desires legitimated, I hope its members will be sympathetic to this laudable aim.

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    1. Sav,

      May I say that this has little to do with affection for the TLM or with liking Latin.

      It is about the expression of at least eighteen hundred years of the Catholic understanding of the Sacrifice of the Mass for the Redemption of Mankind.

      Pope Benedict XVI did not established anything. He simply reiterated what St Pius V and Gregory the Great and earlier Popes had already established.

      The Catholic Church did not start in 1965 you know. After all, many of this current generation were but in their prime.

      Yes, the Novus Ordo in all its now myriad forms is a valid Form of the Mass (well probably, most anyway) as is the Mosarabic and the Eastern Catholic forms for instance, but the Usus Antiquior is the ongoing, continuing (Vetus ordo), form of the Mass of the Western Church, as specified and confirmed for instance in Quo Primum, and yes, further confirmed by Benedict XVI.

      By the way I am all for forward thinking theologians, so long as their thinking is directed towards deepening our understanding of the great mysteries and not towards trying to prove that the two thousand years of Catholic thought, prior to 1965, was a load of superstitious rubbish.

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    2. That is exactly the sort of theologian I had in mind.

      As it happens, I never did imagine that the Church began in 1965 nor that everything before that date was a load of superstitious rubbish - there is plenty of that around today! As you say, the Novus Ordo is not something new, but a form of the Mass of the Ages, reformed and renewed in accord with the mind of the Church and expressing the same Catholic understanding of the Mass it has always done. How it may or may not be celebrated is a different matter.
      Language surely is important in liturgy and one cannot help finding this or that form of language more conducive to worship. As a student and teacher of Classics I am not much moved by the inferior medieval Latin of the Mass, such a sad come-down after the great Classical authors one tends to study. I find it more natural in any case to worship God in my own mother tongue (which Latin for all its virtues is not), especially seeing that English is one of the finest, richest, most flexible of human language and today's universal lingua franca as Latin once was. This is why I am alienated from God by the gross translationese of the current "English" Mass and do not see why my needs should not be met any less than those of the people who campaign to restore the TLM.

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    3. "Why does this not apply to the 1970s version, plain and simple admittedly but at least decent comprehensible English?"

      Because, while it may be a comprehensible translation, it is not an accurate translation.

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    4. By what criteria of translation is it not accurate? And who decides? Canon law gives authority in such matters to the bishops who approved that translation and its revision in 1998 before the Vatican acting ultra vires effectively overruled their authority. Church law is a fine thing. Would that the Church always lived by its own laws!
      But the point is that a whole generation of Catholics brought up on the 1970s version clearly found it a worthy and sacred vehicle for their worship and according to Pope Benedict, "what earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful.”

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    5. "A whole generation of Catholics brought up on the 1970s version clearly found it a worthy and sacred vehicle for their worship" -- but surely 95% of this particular generation has lapsed???

      My take (as an occasional TLM worshipper) is different: the 1970s worship is like a boring school assembly and it has next to zero sticking power for anyone who has not been rigorously instilled with the concept of the Sunday precept.

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    6. I don't know about 95%, but large numbers had started lapsing long before the 1970s. The TLM did not keep them either.

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    7. when I was at University in 1956, I remember standing on the inside stairs leading up to the Church to hear Mass because it was full to overflowing with all ages including many young people, school, teenagers, students, young working people, as well as the usual oldies.

      No the collapse came Vat II and post Vat II.

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    8. There may be blips here and there, but the decline of formal religion in the West has been in train for at two to three centuries. The biggest recent rate of lapsation in all churches was in the immediate post-World War II period. This is not the
      result of Vatican II and has little to do with what form of the mass is being used.

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    9. Savonarola,

      "By what criteria of translation is it not accurate?"

      I believe there are some Church documents that provide such criteria. (Comme Le Prevoit is not one of them. It has no authority.)

      "Canon law gives authority in such matters to the bishops who approved that translation..."

      Actually that's not entirely true. Canon 838 reads as follows:

      1. The supervision (moderatio) of the sacred liturgy depends solely on the authority of the Church which resides in the Apostolic See and, in accord with the law, the diocesan bishop.

      2. It is for the Apostolic See to order the sacred liturgy of the entire Church (universa ecclesia), to publish (edere) the liturgical books, to review their translations into the vernacular languages and to see that liturgical ordinances
      are faithfully observed everywhere.

      3. It pertains to the conferences of bishops to prepare translations of the liturgical books into the vernacular languages, with the appropriate adaptations within the limits defined in the liturgical books themselves, and to publish (edere) them with the prior review by the Holy See.

      So as you can see, the ultimate authority DOES rest with the Holy See. Preparation and publication of the translations is delegated to the bishops' conferences, but the Holy See must approve them. That is what "prior review" means. And the Holy See found the 1998 deeply lacking, in part due to use of inclusive language, additions of entirely new prayers, etc.

      "...a whole generation of Catholics brought up on the 1970s version clearly found it a worthy and sacred vehicle for their worship..."

      A whole generation of Catholics had no choice but to accept what was thrust on them, and a whole generation, with all due respect, really did not know any better.

      Really, this weak stuff to justify what almost everyone (even most progressives) recognize was supposed to be a temporary translation, one rushed and hobbled by obvious weaknesses. We can do better. MR3 is certainly not perfect - yes, it is somewhat clunky in places - but it very much better reflects the actual meaning of the original Latin prayers.

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    10. The word for prior review is recognitio. It could be argued what this means. I do not think it suggests that the CDW has the right simply to override what the bishops have approved, as it did when replacing Comme le prevoit, which was of course authorised in 1969, with Liturgiam authenticam (a long document that says very little about the theory or methodology of translation where the shorter Comme le prevoit has much good sense that any philologist can recognise).

      You could say that when mass was exclusively in Latin Catholics had no choice then but to accept what was thrust on them. Older Catholics I know who remember what the old days were like say how overjoyed they were when they could worship God in their own language. It is very condescending of you to say that they did not know any better.

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    11. Savonarola,

      "Older Catholics I know who remember what the old days were like say how overjoyed they were when they could worship God in their own language. It is very condescending of you to say that they did not know any better.

      And if the language were the ONLY thing that changed in 1965-1970, I would not feel compelled to speak much on the subject.

      In fact, however, language (I concede the genuine popularity of the vernacular at the time) was very arguably the *least* important change made to the Mass. And Catholics who were dismayed at all of those changes had no choice but to put up with them, or go away.

      I do think it's absurd to think that Paul VI had any intention of ceding the Holy See's ultimate authority over liturgical books, especially in so important a matter as the translation. And had ICEL not so radically departed from its actual mandate in the 1998 draft, I think the Holy See would have been more than relieved to make its role a mostly pro forma one.

      At any rate, despite our apparent disagreements, I do want to add that I am pleased that you express support for the availability of the traditional Mass, and I thank you for saying so.

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  9. I'm an outsider, but like Genty, I saw this one coming...I guess we're in for more of the same across the globe.

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  10. Anonymous3:02 pm

    Look at the supposed guarantee on the Linen on the Hedgerow from the new PP, if indeed it is really his comment: be reassured, he said, that I have no intention of coming in and stopping the "10:30 Mass" (no mention of what kind of Mass). In retrospect, was this precise wording deliberate?

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    1. Anonymous3:24 am

      Yes, it looks like it was done so that it could simply be relied upon later. I remember thinking at the time that it was a very odd comment to make. Reparation.

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  11. What's so infuriating, is that apparently the understanding that the Latin Mass (which Fr. Fisher DOES know how to say) would continue...and that promise has been thrown out the window. It doesn't really help either, when apparently, according to reports I've seen people have been yelled at by the new pastor. Did the REALLY think this news would not travel? Or do they just not care and don't care who knows it?

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  12. As for news travelling, it's not called 'Blogfen' for nothing!

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  13. For his sake, I do hope that Fr Fisher is prepared for a major diminution of in the regular attendance and collection as a result of these decisions.

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  14. Athelstane
    From comments made to me up to 20 Standing Orders have been cancelled, Mass attendance at the Sunday TLM 160 down to 50 in one week! I believe that next Sunday will be a low Mass, as the choir have found more welcoming places to sing. I hope Fr. Fisher can find the money to pay for the Sky T.V. subscription.

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    1. He could follow the example of one enterprising priest in my diocese who used to switch on a tape of the clapping Gloria during the Sunday Low Mass. However, unless he was on the ball the tape segued straight into a rendition of "We wish you a Merry Christmas".

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  15. Kyrie eleison...seems like something is up....

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  16. As I have said before the future of the Church will lie with the small number of priests determined to say the Usus Antiquior, and with the Traditionalist Orders, all of them.

    The rest will gradually just fade away.In 20/30 years the Traditionalist orders small in number though are at present, will be the Church.

    If you think 20/30 years is a long time, well the present shambles has been going on for some 50 years now.

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  17. The other TLM options in Kent are. Maidstone, first Sunday of every month. Ashford every second and 5th Sunday. Tenterden every 3rd Sunday and Headcorn every 4th. All said around midday'ish time

    SSPX every Sunday at 8.30am at their church in Herne.

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  18. Anonymous1:12 am

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  19. Also third Sunday of the month at St Mary''s, Chislehurst.

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  20. Et Expecto is, of course, correct to point to the legal rights afforded to TLM local groups in the motu proprio. However, I fear that the creeping (and not so slowly) reality of these times is such that any isolated group now putting its faith in flagging-up what is included in Summorum Pontificum (SP) is likely to have as much success as those scattered Old Rite devotees of yesteryear who sought to flag-up what wasn't included in Sacrosanctum Concilium (e.g. instructions to smash sanctuaries to pieces and the rest of the liturgical vandalism witnessed from 1964 onwards). Papal documents are all very well and good but the experience of the last 50 or so years has surely taught us that they are very easily ignored (start at Veterum Sapientia in 1962 and work your way forward over 52 years to see how many have simply been cast aside as dead letters before even the ink was dry). The post-Summorum Pontificum spring is well and truly over. The "Spirit of These Times" concerning hierarchical responses to SP is now exactly that which prevailed from (at least) 1964 to 2007 regarding other pesky documents, legal or otherwise: just ignore it/them.

    Play the tape through to the very end: to whom should any isolated stable group, like the souls at Blackfen, (having jumped through all the hoops - and how long that could take!) ultimately complain if their legal rights under SP aren’t upheld? The Pope? Tell that to the FFI.

    Time to face a sad reality. The wind has not only changed, it's howling. Hear it? It started to whip-up in those micro seconds on the balcony at St Peter’s in March 2013. “The party’s over!”. Did he say it, didn’t he say it? Doesn’t matter. Someone, somewhere conveyed that very message. And it was frighteningly on the button. His Holiness has since sent a whole series of dog whistle signals to those who wish to hear them. From ditching the red shoes to “who am I to judge?” And regarding the Old Rite…well, first they came for the FFI!

    "Don’t worry, Pope Francis won’t get rid of SP because he can’t”. That’s what we’ve all been re-assuringly telling ourselves for 18 months now isn’t it? True. But he doesn’t have to get rid of SP. He can just send a signal that it’s there to be ignored. Those who wish to do so soon will. We had it so good under Benedict for almost eight years. But - blunt reality - the Pope is on not on our side now, though he’ll never say so. The opposition know so, though. See also the complacent belief in these very hours, days and weeks that dogma won’t be changed at next month’s dreaded Synod concerning Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried - "because it can’t be changed". Again, it doesn’t need to be changed. “The Spirit of the Times” and how it conveys its sub-text message just seeps away. Drip-by-drip eroding away at, erm, brick-by-brick.

    “But Vatican II didn’t say x, y and z…”.

    Didn’t need to.

    “But Summorum Pontificum says…”.

    Doesn’t matter.

    Any local groups attached to the TLM who suddenly find themselves thrust into an FFI or Blackfen situation (don’t think it will happen to you? think again!) will be in for a tough, tough ride from now on - and the more isolated they are, the harder it will be for them.

    = join the LMS, at least to stand a fighting chance. And it is a fight because we’re on a war-footing again. Aren’t we?

    It’s 1964 again folks. Just that this time around there’s the Internet and we’ve also learned the lessons of the last 50 years.

    Haven’t we?

    AMDG -

    GWAM

    (LMS Member)

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    1. "The party's over" I think the Pope was referring to the 1960's and 70's horror show. As for that howling gale, I can only detect a refreshing breeze of Tradition that is slowly blowing away the cobwebs. Dr Shaw has more than adequately detailed the growing Traditional movement on this excellent blog.

      While the unpleasant flatulence coming the sterile and decaying spirit of Vatican II may be nauseous, it will soon pass.

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    2. Unfortunately, if rumours are to be believed, Piero Marini is to be appointed as Prefect of the CDW.

      The carnival is just starting....

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  21. Blackfen unity
    http://eucharistandmission.blogspot.it/2014/09/blackfen-unity.html

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  22. Maybe everyone should calm down and await the facts? If events are as reported in certain quarters then it appears to be a scandal in the genuine sense of the word, as is anything that damages peoples faith. But we have only heard rumours from one side and silence from notable quarters.

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  23. PS - Father Tim was moved to a larger parish with two churches and a full scale hospital. That is promotion not exile and is the sort of move that would be expected for a priest of his age and experience. I saw that actually as a sign of respect from the Archbishop. His replacement was known to say the EF. I honestly don't think Archbishop Smith could have done more and he is well liked by local clergy both high and low (even I recall dear old Fr Mildew spoke well of him)

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  24. Gungarius: these are the facts. What more do you want?

    The Archbishop's attitude is not in question here - not by me, anyway,

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  25. I was refering to some of the wilder comments here and elsewhere not the original post Joseph.

    I'm also saddened by reports elsewhere of alleged resignations, subscription cancellings, words being had with the PP and congregations halving.

    If things are not perceived as they should be then the new PP should at first, in charity, get the benefit of the doubt, not immediate taking of umbrage. The possibility of constuctive dialogue once the pp has settled in and got to know people a bit more then comes.

    Of all the things reported, the alleged halving of the congregation after one just week is the saddest. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies.

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  26. You won't get jutice using the deeply flawed SP of the liberal modernist Benedict XVI. many of you are so naive - can you not see that the intention has been all along to ensnare traditionalists and then swipe away The Latin Mass - he wanted to hybridise it in the long term. Wake up!
    The authority for Sacred Tradition in the liturgy comes from Pope St Gregory The Great and Pope St Pius V "Quo Primum". There is a perpetual right this Holy Mass in Latin. All popes accepted this without question until the revolution of Gay Paul VI and his liberal modernist succesoors. This pope now wants to destroy all tradition and especially The Latin Mass - has anyone heard Benedict XV protesting? Of course not: you will never hear it because he had no intention of perpetuating The Latin Rite. he only wanted to exploit it for his eventual hybridised version.

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  27. Anonymous8:22 pm

    On a slight acquaintance I found Fr Fisher to be generous of spirit and an all-round good guy; and he has in the past given willingly of his time to the TLM. Instead of inviting him to “explain” his actions as pastor within his own parish, the EF community might usefully consider how the unqualified support of such an individual can (apparently) be lost. I don’t think the LMS welcomed the potential intrusion to their private club represented by the advent of Summorum. The Society’s failure to embrace the democratic spirit and provisions of the motu proprio always threatened to be costly. With an ageing membership and a briefly supportive papacy, this was the original Window of Opportunity. Perhaps the lights are now going out.

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    1. I confess it: yes, I'm baffled. I've no idea what this chap is saying. He seems to be torn between attacking the Faithful at Blackfen who've had their Mass taken away, and attacking the LMS, but what for, I really have no idea.

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  28. Anonymous3:19 am

    It is the new priest who by his words and actions unilaterally broke up the true church community, centred around the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. His reported words to the congregation, his announcing that the Blessed Sacrament could be received in the hand just before Holy Communion at the traditional Mass, his ending of all traditional Masses, Benediction, appears to have no excuse. It was clearly planned.

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  30. I think things have reached the stage where some sort of official response from the diocese is needed. Whatever the truth or not of the allegations, it appears something happened which caused a congregation of over 100 to fall by over 50% in a week. Given that the Church requires all Catholics to attend Sunday Mass under pain of serious sin, this in itself, if true, is a scandal in the geniune meaning of the word whatever the cause of it.

    If what is alleged to have happened at the Domine Non Sum Dignus is true, then that is particularly disturbing. Many people go to the EF because rightly or wrongly they are appalled and scandalised at Cramnerian and post Cramnerian practices occuring at Novus Ordo Masses such as communion in the hand, standing for communion, no plate being used at communion to catch fragments, shaking hands at the pax domini, girl altar servers and regular use of extraordinary ministers in non extraordinary situations, none of which were mandated by the council. That they do this is, of course, an implicit rebuke and criticism of the England and Wales heirachy, who have chosen to allow these practices in England and Wales, and could forbid them tomorrow if they wanted to. I think this is what infuriates the heirachy more than anything else.

    Given that Cramner introduced communion in the hand, among other things, with the intention of undermining "superstitious" belief in the real presence, it is not unthinkable to construe that rejecting communion in the hand, by going to the EF, is an implicit accusation of Heresy against the heirachy. It is therefore, I suspect, seen as a major act of "civil disobedience" against the heirachy by some of them.

    Therefore that the apparent core of the matter at Blackfen revolves around an alleged attempt to introduce such novus ordo rubrical innovations is very significant indeed, especially because this is not the first time Archbishop Smith has had this attempted under his watch causing scandal which reached the national press, as Mr Thompson reported a few years back http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/3681981/More_on_Cardiffs_cancelled_Latin_Mass/

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  31. Anonymous10:50 am

    Gungarius, don't worry about "Cramnerian [sic] practices". He's been dead these 450 years, mate. Let it go.

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  32. @Cathprogrocker. Cramner may be dead but his heresy (that belief in the real physical presence of Our Lord in the most Blessed Sacrament is nothing more than superstitious nonsense) is most definitely alive and well. And those who agitated for and introduced communion in the hand illicitly before browbeating Paul VI to permit it, were well aware of this.

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  33. Anonymous1:05 pm

    Dr Shaw, you are wrong. The people of Blackfen haven't had their Mass taken away. Unlike Catholics in the Middle East, they can worship freely in Pope Francis' Church - indeed, they have a choice of time-slots in which to do so. If that isn't to their taste, let them join another Church, or make up their own, like the late unlamented Ian Paisley.

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    1. Well, for some reason the law of the Church disagrees with you. Under Summorum Pontificum, the laity have a right to ask for the EF, and their pastors are politely commanded to find a way to provide them with one. This has been taken away from them at Blackfen. They can indeed go elsewhere - but it is very unjust to force them to do so.

      Clearly you aren't a canonist. Even so, read SP for yourself.

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  34. Anonymous4:22 pm

    Yawn..... No , Dr Shaw. If the good folk of Blackfen want the TLM, let them petition for it as SP provides. If the conditions (stabiliter etc) are met, they should get it. If they can't be bothered to do so, they should stop whingeing.and acting as if they were a persecuted minority..

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    1. You really haven't been paying attention. There *was* a stable group, and Fr Fisher *ended* the Mass which they had been attending for many years.

      I suspect if they need to prepare a formal petition, they will take it to a priest who is not as hostile to the EF as Fr Fisher has proven to be. No one wants Mass celebrated through gritted teeth. That fact, however, doesn't absolve Fr Fisher of wrongdoing.

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    2. Anonymous7:51 pm

      Ah, now we reach the heart of what being a supposed lover of the Old Mass means. Do the good people of Blackfen use the tool given to them to demand the Old Mass, or when it comes down to it, are they actually not that “bovvered”? Why doesn’t the LMS get behind them, if you’re Outraged of Woodstock? As I suggested in an earlier comment, you’d rather exist in a rarefied wannabe intellectual ghetto, instead of mixing with the hoi-polloi. BTW, I don’t recall any mention in Summorum of whether priests are hostile or otherwise.

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    3. The good people will use it when it is opportune and necessary to do so. Can't you read?

      No, indeed, SP doesn't say anything the hostility of the priest, so it's lucky people have common sense, isn't it?

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    4. Anonymous8:13 pm

      I've no idea what your latest comment is supposed to mean, but I would ask you, in Christian charity, to stop insulting me with comments such as "you haven't been paying attention" and "can't you read". This is not very presidential, coming from the Chairman of the Latin Mass Society. But don't worry, Joe, I forgive you. Lots of love.....

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    5. No, it was a genuine question. Are you questioning my sincerity? How rude!

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