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Beck Family Singers To Jesus Christ Our Sovereign King Regina Caeli Jubila Adoremus In Aeternum Ave Maria William Byrd's Mass O Purest of Creatures Panis for Five Voices: Kyrie, Gloria, Angelicus O Sanctissima Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, O Heart of Jesus, Heart of Agnus Dei Salve Regina God Immaculate Mary O O Jesu Christe Monstra Salutaris Hostia Adoramus Te Esse Matrem Bonus Est Dominus Adoramus Te Jesu Te, Christe We Stand for God Hail Holy Queen Adoro Te Salvator Mundi Ave Maria Ave Maria O Esca Viatorum Adoramus Te Christe Ave Daily, Daily Sing to Mary O God Verum Corpus Praeclara of Loveliness Ave Maris Stella Custos Virginum Panis Tantum Ergo Heart of Mary Angelicus CD, STK# 6637Q $14.95 CD, STK# 6638Q $14.95 • O Magnum Mysterium • Beck Family Singers Encore Beck Family Singers Domine, Non Sum Dignus Missa O Magnum Mysterium Let’s Have a Party Vento Sotille The Keeper A May Song Mother of Kyrie Gloria Credo Gaudeamus Maria Wanders God’s Little Child It Was a Lover and His Sanctus Benedictus Agnus Through a Wood Little Buttercup Lass Irish Prayer Venerabilis Barba Dei Adoro Te Devote Dixit ABC Song 50 States Les Capucinorum La Route Est Longue Maria Benedictus Qui Venit Bergerettes I Counted in the Heaven Little Red Caboose Suliram Le Petit Ecce Quomodo Salve, Festa Ave Maria Bells Je Vous Salue Gregoire The Croppy Boy Je Vous Dies O Sacrum Cor Jesu Marie de Chartres Antoinette Salue Marie The Jolly Coppersmith Duo Seraphim-Tres Sunt It All Began With Mary Ego Sum Song of the Volga Boatman Polorum Regina Caeli O Memoriale Pauper Do Re Mi La Campana Regina Omnium Tuba and the Alto Horn O Sacrum Convivium Orchestra Song Jesus Living in My Old Kentucky Home Advice to CD, STK# 6634Q $14.95 Mischa Russian Bill Song of Farewell. Mary C’est La Cloche. CD, STK# 6635Q $14.95 CD, STK# 6639Q $14.95 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • The Beck Family Musical Series–Graded and Sequential VolUME 1: 1st Grade, 2nd Grade & 3rd Grade • VOLUME 2: 4th Grade, 5th Grade & 6th Grade • VOLUME 3: 7th Grade & 8th Grade The Church realizes the role music plays in forming and maintaining a Catholic family. This collection is meant to be listened to and sung by everybody in the family, but tends very well to classroom use as well. Each CD has songs ranging from campfire tunes to Gregorian Chant with the book providing accompanying sheet music. More challenging music with each higher grade level. Sturdy cover with plastic coil binding so the book lies flat when open. Volume I Book & Three CD’s. 104pp, 8½" x 11", STK# 6631Q $44.95 Volume II Book & Three CD’s. 98pp, 8½" x 11", STK# 6632Q $44.95 Volume III Book & Two CD’s. 63pp, 8½" x 11", STK# 6633Q $39.95 Music books available without CD’s, $13.95 each • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• •• • •• • • • • • • •• •• • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • •• •• •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• •• • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • •• • • • •• • •• 1st Grade Agnus Dei VIII Autumn Fleet, The Ave Maris Stella Aydi Bim Bam Behold, a Simple Tender Babe Boomerang Constitution and the Guerrière, The Dear Angel, Ever at My Side Four Winds, The Goat, the Cat, and the Frog, The Golden Boat I’ll Buy You, A Gratitude Intry Mintry I’ll Sing A Hymn to Mary Limericks Little Bird, The Lullaby to the Infant Jesus May Baskets Now ’Tis Spring O Praise the Living God Postman, The Regina Caeli (Simple) Resonet in Laudibus Sailor’s Life For Me, A Six Little Ducks Sleep Holy Babe Space Ship Stars, The Thou Art the Star of the Morning Tiptoe Trolley, The Wind Song, The 2nd Grade Agnus Dei XI Blessed Trinity Boy with a Rocket, A Brook, The Captain, The Carol of the Birds Crusader’s Prayer, The Cu-cu-ru Cupboard, The Grumbling Joe Hymn of the Angelic Choir Indian Summer Day on the Prairie, An It’s Fun Jesus Dearest Savior Leader of the Band Little Eskimo Lord Jesus, When I Think of Thee Marvelous Ant, The Moon, The Mountain Trail My Donkey Diodoro My Husky Dog O Lord I Am Not Worthy On Christmas Day in the Morning Puer Natus in Bethlehem Salve Regina (Simple) Slumber, Slumber Song of the Saddle Taddle-Daddle Tantum Ergo 3rd Grade Advent Wreath, The Ave Maria Ave Regina Caelorum (Simple) Bells of Paradise, The Deep in the Forest Drum-Major, The Fifty States Fox and the Grapes, The Great Grand-Dad Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All Little Ship, A Mission Bells My Rooster Rose and the Lily, The Row, Row, Row Your Boat Salve Festa Dies Salve Mater Sanctus VIII Shepherds and the Star Shepherd’s Tune, The Sing a Christmas Carol Swing High, Swing Low Tootin’ Turk, The Ubi Caritas Young Girl and the Bird, The Zum Gali, Gali 4th Grade Alma Redemptoris Mater (Simple) Boll Weevil Chinese Evening Song Coasts of High Barbary, The Come Holy Ghost Crux Fidelis Crystal Fountain, The Cuckoo Clock, The Down in Adoration Falling Ecce Nomen Domini Fum Fum Fum Gipsy Life Gloria Laus Golden Slumbers Ho-Li-Ra Jesus Meek and Lowly Kyrie XVII Laetentur Caeli O Sanctissima Oopsy Daisy Oh! 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Ye Infant Martyr Flowers At the Gate of Heaven Carillon, The Confirma Hoc Crow, The Give us the Wintertime Grandfather’s Clock Immaculate Mary Jesus is Born Kyrie I (Paschal Time) Legend of Christ as a Beggar O Come, Divine Messiah O Mary of Graces O Salutaris Hostia Old Refrain, An Our Lord Was Born in Bethlehem Pange Lingua Puer Natus Rio Grande, The Sacris Solemniis Salve Regina (Solemn) Salve Virgo Singularis Song of the Holy Cross To Maelzel Why Are We Waiting? Woodsman, the Oak and the Storm, The 7th Grade All Through the Night Auld Lang Syne Autumn in Spain Ave Regina Caelorum (Solemn) Bluebird, The From Heaven High Haec Dies Hail, Glorious St. Patrick Hail! Holy Queen Happy Shepherds, The Hiking Song It is the Bare and Leafless Tree Jesu Redemptor Omnium Lux Aeterna Ma Bella Bimba Miller of the Dee O God, Almighty Father Quis Sicut Te Regina Caeli, Jubila Rorate Caeli Sanctus II Song of the Breezes Tumba Veni Sancte Spiritus Wind, The Woods in Spring, The 8th Grade A La Nanita Nana Adoramus Te Alma Redemptoris Mater (Solemn) Ave Maris Stella Bell Ringers, The Call of the Sea Chair of Unity Octave Hymn Chimes, The Christmas Lullaby Cor Dulce, Cor Amabile Ding-Dong! Merrily on High Gaudeamus Gloria IX In Paradisum Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming O God of Loveliness On the Alma Prayer of a Soldier Shepherd, The Spring Has Come St. Maria Goretti To Jesus Christ Our Sovereign King Veni Creator Spiritus Vexilla Regis • melodies masterfully rendered by Gerard Garno on the mostchant Magnificat Gregorian beautiful and poetic of instruments—the classical guitar.  Hail Holy Queen  Holy God/Jesus My Lord  Pater Noster  Quis Sicut Te  Te Vous Salve Marie de Chartres  Vidi Aquam  Immaculate Mary  Veni Creator Spiritus  Cor Dulce Cor Amabile  Salve Mater  Adoremus in Aeternum  Christus Vincit  Great St. Jospeh  Come Holy Ghost  Lauda Sion  Non Nobis Domine  O Bone Jesu  Ut Queant Laxis  Domine Non Sum Dignus/Benedictus  On this Day O Beautiful Mother  Ave Maria  Gloria Patri/Oremus Pro Pontifico  When Christ Was Born of Mary Free  O God Almighty Father  Magnificat  Vere Languores Nostres  Jesu Dulce Memoria 27 tracks, 67 minutes, color cover, STK# 6619Q $14.95 “Instaurare omnia in Christo—To restore all things in Christ.” Motto of Pope St. Pius X The ngelus A JOURNAL OF ROMAN CATHOLIC TRADITION 2915 Forest Avenue “To publish Catholic journals and place them in the hands of honest men is not enough. It is necessary to spread them as far as possible that they may be read by all, and especially by those whom Christian charity demands we should tear away from the poisonous sources of evil literature.” —Pope St. Pius X January 2006 Volume XXIX, Number 1 • Kansas City, Missouri 64109 English-language Editor and Publisher for the International Society of Saint Pius X PUBLISHER Fr. John Fullerton EDITOR PART 2 WHY THE NEW RITE OF EPISCOPAL CONSECRATION IS VALID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Fr. Pierre-Marie, O.P. Fr. Kenneth Novak ASSISTANT EDITOR Mr. James Vogel DESIGN AND LAYOUT Mr. Simon Townshend PROOFREADING Miss Anne Stinnett TRANSCRIPTIONS THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT On the Church and the Pope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 LETTER ABOUT DELINQUENT PARENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 André Charlier Miss Miriam Werick OPERATIONS AND MARKETING Mr. Christopher McCann CIRCULATION MANAGER Mr. Jason Greene CONTROLLER Victor Tan SECRETARIES Miss Anne Stinnett Miss Lindsey Carroll Miss Miriam Werick Mr. Jered Gibbs BOOK REVIEW: Christ in the Home by Fr. Raoul Plus, S.J. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Jason T.J.J. Winschel Persons; Principles PART IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 It’s Not About It’s About Origin, Nature, Ends, and Types of Society Amintore Fanfani SHIPPING AND HANDLING Mr. Jon Rydholm The Angelus (ISSN 10735003) is published monthly under the patronage of St. Pius X and Mary, Queen of Angels. Publication offices are located at 2915 Forest Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri, 64109, (816) 753-3150, FAX (816) 753-3557. Periodicals Postage Rates paid at Kansas City, Missouri. Copyright © 2006 by Angelus Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Manuscripts are welcome. They must be double-spaced and deal with the Roman Catholic Church, its history, doctrine, or present crisis. Unsolicited manuscripts will be used at the discretion of the Editorial Staff. Unused manuscripts cannot be returned unless sent with a self-addressed, stamped envelope. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Angelus, Angelus Press, 2915 Forest Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64109-1529. THE ANGELUS SUBSCRIPTION RATES US, Canada, & Mexico Other Foreign Countries All payments must be in US funds only. 1 YEAR 2 YEARS $34.95 $52.45 $62.90 $94.50 2 This article was translated exclusively by Angelus Press from Sel de la Terre (No.54., Autumn 2005, pp.72129). Fr. Pierre-Marie, O.P., is a member of the traditional Dominican monastery at Avrillé, France, several of whose members were ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre and which continues to receive its priestly ordinations from the bishops serving the Society of Saint Pius X which Archbishop Lefebvre founded. He is a regular contributor to their quarterly review, Sel de la Terre (Salt of the Earth). The English translations contained in the various tables were prepared with the assistance of H.E. Bishop Richard Williamson, Dr. Andrew Senior (professor at St. Mary’s College, St. Mary’s, Kansas), and Fr. Scott Gardner, SSPX. WHY THE NEW RITE OF EPISCOPAL CONSECRATION IS VALID PART 2 In the concluding part of a two-part article begun last month (December 2005), The Angelus wishes to settle a debate that has been circulating in traditional Catholic circles in recent months. Some writers have examined the new rite of episcopal consecration and concluded that it must be invalid. Since this would cause manifest problems if it were true and due to the heightened awareness of such a theory, The Angelus presents (for the first time in English) a study of this question concluding that it is valid. 3 F r . P i e r r e - M a r i e , O . P . Having set forth the genesis of the new rite, now we must answer the question: is this rite valid? As we have seen, the prayer for the ordination of a bishop was taken from the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus, also called the Diataxis of the Holy Apostles. Dr. Marcel Metzger, a researcher in canon law and professor of the Strasbourg Theology Faculty, explains its historical context: The relations between Chapter VIII of the Apostolic Constitutions 1 and the Egyptian Church Order, 2 the Testament of the Lord Jesus Christ,3 and the Canons of Hippolytus4 have led researchers to posit a common source, which several researchers have attempted to reconstitute by presenting it as a work of Hippolytus of Rome (d. 235): the Apostolic Tradition. This identification has been contested by other researchers. Basing our judgment upon the work of M. Richard and J. Magne, we prefer the title Diataxis of the Holy Apostles: this document forms the outline of Book VIII of the Apostolic Constitutions and has already been amply studied and reported on, in particular in Dom Bernard Botte’s attempted reconstitution.5 It mainly treats of ordinations, the celebration of the Eucharist, baptism, community meals, prayer and fasting. Origin, date, and author. For those who attribute the authorship of this work to Hippolytus, everything is simple: it would have been compiled at Rome c. 215 to 218.6 But if this attribution is rejected, [as it seems to be] by researchers at present, one can only repeat with J. Magne that it is “an anonymous compilation containing elements taken from different periods.”7, 8 The original Greek has been lost except for a few passages. An ancient, fifth-century Latin version exists which contains a good half of the work.9 Other Eastern versions (Coptic, Arabic, Abyssinian) See the December 2005 Angelus, p.13, n.37. A compilation in use in the patriarchate of Alexandria [c. beginning of the 3rd century]. It is the most ancient document of the collection from which all the others are derived. Dom Botte matches its second half to the Apostolic Tradition. See R. H. Connolly, The So-called Egyptian Church Order and Derived Documents (Cambridge, 1916).–Ed. 3 See the December 2005 Angelus, p.12, n.36. 4 An Alexandrine anthology probably dating from the second half of the 4th century. Edition: R. G. Coquin, Les Canons d’Hippolyte, Oriental Patrology [series] XXXI, 2 (Paris, 1966).–Ed. 5 Bernard Botte, O.S.B., La Tradition apostolique de saint Hippolyte: Essai de reconstitution, LQF 39 (Munster-Westfalen, 1963); abridged version: Hippolyte de Rome: la Tradition apostolique d’après les anciennes versions (SC 11 bis), (Paris, 1968). On the controversy over this document, see these sources: J. Magne, Tradition apostolique sur les charismes et Diataxeis des saints Apôtres (Paris, 1975), pp.23-32; A. G. Martimort, “La Tradition apostolique,” L’Année Canonique, 23 (1979), 159-173; A. Faivre, “La documenation canonico-liturgique,” Revue des Sciences Religieuses, (1980), 297-86; G. Kretschmar, “La liturgie ancienne dans les recherches historiques actuelles,” La Maison Dieu, 149 (1982), 59-63. (Metzger’s note.) [Translator’s note: The trimestrial review La Maison Dieu, dedicated to liturgical matters, was launched in 1945 as the organ of the Liturgical Pastorate Center, itself an arm of the Cerf Publishing Co., an important participant in the Liturgical Movement that culminated in the liturgical changes ushered in by Vatican II. The publishing house was actually founded by a Dominican priest at the request of Pope Pius XI, to offer an alternative to Charles Maurras and his organization, Action Française.] 1 2 enable the text to be reconstructed with a fair degree of certitude. In addition to these translations, we also possess free adaptations, though which lack the same value, such as Book VIII of the Apostolic Constitutions and its Epitome.10 As for the priest named Hippolytus to whom this work is attributed–without certitude–we know little about him: Pope Damasus (366-84) composed an inscription for his grave, proof that his cultus as a martyr was official at that time. Yet the same pope informs us that he was schismatic. It is believed that he was reconciled with Pope Pontian (230-35) while in exile, but this is uncertain. The Roman Calendar [in the Chronography of 354] records under August 13 the feast of Hippolytus with that of St. Pontian. The Apostolic Tradition contains 42 chapters (and a conclusion) which can be divided in three parts: the Constitution of the Church (Chapters 1-14: regulations concerning bishops, deacons, priests, confessors, etc.), Christian initiation (Chapters 15-21: catechumenate, baptism, confirmation, Eucharist), and the usages of the community (Chapters 22-42: rules concerning meals, prayer, etc.). The prayer for the consecration of a bishop is found in Chapter 3, while Chapter 4 gives a Eucharistic prayer utilized by the bishop after his consecration. In fact, it is this prayer that has been taken (with modifications)11 for the second Eucharistic prayer of Pope Paul VI’s new Mass. If we had only this book (of which we know neither the origin nor even the orthodoxy) it would be necessary to scrutinize the prayer of consecration to see if it can validly confer the episcopacy. However, as we have shown, Dom Botte points out See Botte, O.S.B., SC 11 bis, p. 14. J. Magne, Tradition apostolique sur les charismes..., p.86; later, this author even speaks of “pre-Apostolic regulations.” J. M. Hanssens, in La liturgie d’Hippolyte, ses documents, son titulaire, 2nd. ed. (Rome, 1959), p.250, while accepting the attribution of the work to Hippolytus, also thinks that this document contains more ancient elements: it was “both an Apostolic document and the personal work of an author, Hippolytus,” a thesis further developed on p.500. 8 Marcel Metzger, Les Constitutions apostoliques (Paris: Cerf, SC 329,1985), I, 17-18. 9 This document is part of a collection of writings discovered on a Veronese palimpsest. It was published in 1900 by Hauler at Leipzig under the title: Didascaliae apostolorum fragmenta Veronensia latina. A palimpsest is a parchment that has been used more than once, the earlier writing having been scraped off. Thanks to modern techniques, it is possible to read the earlier writing. However, in the case of this manuscript, Hauler used a chemical agent which rendered it impossible to read today using an ultraviolet lamp. Dom Botte thought that, from what he was able to verify with the naked eye and using a magnifying glass, Hauler’s work was careful and can be relied upon for what has now become illegible (Botte, op. cit., p. xvii). 10 F. X. Funk, Didascalia et Constitutiones Apostolorum (Paderborn, 1905), II, 72-96. This writing, also called the Constitutions by Hippolytus, is an extract from the Apostolic Constitutions; however, for some chapters, the text of the Epitome is closer to that of the Apostolic Tradition, notably for the prayer for the consecration of a bishop, of which the Greek is very close to the Latin and Ethiopian versions of the Apostolic Tradition. 11 See Sel de la Terre, 52 (Spring 2005), p.75. 6 7 www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • January 2006 4 that this consecratory prayer was incorporated into two Eastern rites, and it is this fact that determined the Consilium [that is, the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy–Ed.] to accept it. The two rites are the Coptic rite, used in Egypt, and the Western Syrian rite, used notably by the Maronites.12 Let us note in passing that these two rites are perfectly Catholic. This has nothing to do with the rites of “schismatic and heretical Abyssinians,” as one “Coomaraswamist” [see the Dec. 2005 Angelus, n.1–Ed.] pontificated on the Internet on July 11, 2005. Beside the fact that neither the Maronites nor the Copts are Abyssinian,13 this Internet pontificator apparently does not know that the Eastern “schismatics and heretics” use the same rites as the Catholics. To assure ourselves of the validity of Pope Paul VI’s rite, it will suffice for us to place side by side the new consecratory prayer and the two Eastern rites in question. The validity of these two rites can in no wise be called into question, otherwise the Coptic Church (Catholic as well as Orthodox) and the Syrian Church (which includes the Maronites) would have neither bishops nor priests, nor would they ever have had them. We have prepared a fourcolumn comparison (refer to the table on pp.6-9 of this article) with, in order from left to right, Pope Paul VI’s new consecratory prayer,14 the Latin version of the Apostolic Tradition [i.e., “of Hippolytus”–Ed.],15 the Coptic rite, and the Syrian rite. For the latter two texts we have used the Denzinger translation.16 With the four prayers transcribed into the same language, the comparison is made easy. A more complete comparison of all the episcopal consecration prayers of this family is found in a 1919 study by Dom Paul Cagin, O.S.B. (see table on p.16).17 This author compares 11 prayers for the consecration of a bishop of which–in addition to the two we provide–two more are certainly valid: the prayer for the consecration of a Maronite metropolitan [a hierarchical rank between patriarch and archbishop– Ed.] and that for a Coptic metropolitan and patriarch. He summarizes everything in a table of comparison which proves that all these prayers are from one family. All this was known 50 years before Pope Paul VI’s reform, and even before the deviation of the liturgical movement.18 The Latin version of the text of these two rites was attached as an appendix to [Group 20’s] Schema 180 of Aug. 29, 1966. 13 Abyssinia is another name for Ethiopia. The Ethiopians have their own Rite, different from that of the Egyptian Copts. 14 Pontificale Romanum, 1968. The text is the same in the second edition (1990). The document that served as a basis for the new rite was not the Latin version (in column 2), but a reconstitution based upon the Latin version, the Ethiopian version, and the Greek epitome of the Apostolic Constitutions (see n. 10). This explains certain differences between the first two columns. 15 Hippolytus of Rome, La Tradition apostolique d’après les anciennes ver12 THE ANGELUS • January 2006 www.angeluspress.org The comparison between these various prayers seems to us sufficiently eloquent in itself: the new rite contains the substance of the Coptic and Syriac rites. Its validity cannot be doubted without striking from Church history these two Churches from which have come such great saints and doctors: St. Athanasius and St. Cyril of Alexandria (patriarchs of Alexandria), St. John Chrysostom and St. Jerome (ordained priests at Antioch), etc. Will it be necessary to say that these personages were merely pious laymen? In the answers to the difficulties we shall enter into certain discussions in more detail, but it seems to us that the substance of the demonstration is achieved by this comparison. Let it be said, though, that we are only speaking of the validity of the new rite as it was published by the Vatican. We do not speak of the legitimacy of this reform (was it good to suppress the Roman rite and replace it by an Eastern rite?), nor of the validity of the different translations and adaptations of the official right in divers particular cases: because of the generalized disorder that prevails in matters both of liturgy and dogma, there can be serious reasons for doubting the validity of certain episcopal consecrations. For instance, on the occasion of the episcopal consecration of Msgr. Daneels, Auxiliary Bishop of Brussels, Archbishop Lefebvre said: They published booklets for this consecration. For the public prayers, here is what was said and then repeated by the crowd: “Be an apostle like Peter and Paul, be an apostle like the patron saint of this parish, be an apostle like Gandhi, be an apostle like Luther, be an apostle like Martin Luther King, be an apostle like Helder Camara, be an apostle like Romero....” An apostle like Luther?! What intention did those bishops have when they consecrated this bishop, Msgr. Daneels?19 It’s frightening... Has this bishop really been consecrated? It can be doubted, all the same. If that was the intention of the consecrators, then it is unimaginable! The situation is even more serious than we had thought.20 It would be necessary to examine each case. Given the difficulty of the thing, the usage that seems to prevail among traditionalists is to conditionally re-ordain priests ordained by the conciliar Church and returning to Tradition. This prudential measure obviously does not weaken the conclusion of our study on the validity of the new rite in itself. sions, with introduction, translation, and notes by Bernard Botte, O.S.B. 2nd ed., SC 11 bis (Paris: Cerf, 1984). It is the version that was discovered on the Veronese palimpsest and then published by Hauler (see n.9). 16 Henricus Denzinger, Ritus Orientalium Coptorum, Syrorum et Armenorum in Administrandis Sacramentis, 2 vols. (Graz, Austria, 1961). 17 Dom Paul Cagin, O.S.B., L’Anaphore apostolilque et ses témoins (Paris: Lethielleux, 1919), pp.274-93. See Annex 2. 18 [Translator’s note: Cf. Didier Bonneterre, The Liturgical Movement (Kansas City: Angelus Press, 2002).] 19 Conference given at Nantes, February 5, 1983. 20 Conference given at Ecône, October 28, 1988. 5 SOLUTION OF THE DIFFICULTIES DEFECT OF FORM 1) It is clear that the new form has nothing in common with the old form since the new rite does not take as its starting point the tradition of the Roman Church, but an Eastern tradition. Pope Pius XII, in his Apostolic Constitution Sacramentum Ordinis of November 30, 1947, defined what constituted the form of ordination in the Roman Rite. Obviously he did not intend to declare null and void the forms of the sacrament in usage in the Eastern Rites. The expression “Spiritus principalis” used to designate the grace of episcopacy occurs in the two rites that we have compared with the form of Paul VI, but also in other Eastern rites.21 Dom Botte explained it this way: The expression “Spiritus principalis” used in the formula of episcopal consecration raises several difficulties and gives rise to various translations in the proposed modern language versions. The question can be resolved provided that a sound method of explication is followed. For indeed there are two problems that must not be confused. The first is that of the meaning of the expression in the original language of Psalm 50. That is the business of exegetes and specialists in Hebrew. The second is the meaning of the expression in the consecratory prayer, which is not necessarily linked to the first. To assume that the words did not change meaning for twelve centuries is a methodological error. And this error is all the more serious in this case as the context in which the word is used in the psalm does not serve to elucidate its meaning. Nothing indicates that the psalmist had the faintest idea of likening the situation of a bishop to that of David. For a Christian of the third century, the expression had a theological meaning which had nothing in common with what a king of Juda could have been thinking twelve centuries earlier. Even if we suppose that principalis is a mistranslation, that would have no importance in this matter. The only problem that arises is to know what meaning the author of the prayer gave to the expression. The solution must be sought in two directions: the context of the prayer and the usage of the word hègemonicos [the Greek word corresponding to the Latin principalis] in the Christian vocabulary of the third century. It is evident that Spirit designates the person of the Holy Ghost. The entire context shows this: everyone keeps silent because of the descent of the Spirit. The real question is this: among all the epithets that might have been suitable, why was principalis chosen? At this point it is necessary to broaden the investigation. The three orders [i.e., bishops, priests, and deacons] have a gift of the Holy Ghost, but it is not the same for each. For the bishop, it is the Spiritus principalis [the Spirit of authority]; for the priest, who forms the bishop’s council, it is the Spiritus consilii [the Spirit of counsel]; and for the deacon, it is the Spiritus zeli et sollicitudinis [the Spirit of zeal and solicitude]. It is clear that these distinctions are made according to the functions of each minister. Thus it is clear that principalis must be correlated with the specific functions of the bishop. It suffices to reread the prayer to be convinced of this. The author begins with the typology of the Old Testament: God has never left His people without a leader, nor His sanctuary without a minister; this is also true for the new Israel, the Church. The bishop is both leader who must govern the new people, and the high priest of the new sanctuary which has been established in every place. The bishop is the ruler of the Church. Hence the choice of the term hègemonicos is understandable: it is the gift of the Spirit apt for a leader. The best translation in French would perhaps be “the Spirit of authority.” But whatever the translation adopted, the meaning seems certain. An excellent demonstration of this was made in an article by Fr. J. Lécuyer: “Épiscopat et presbytérat dans les écrits d’Hippolyte de Rome,” Rech. Sciences Relig., 41 (1953) 3050.22 It can be concluded that the formula is certainly valid, for it has been utilized from time immemorial in numerous Eastern rites; it means the gift of the Holy Ghost that creates the bishop.23 In passing, let us point out that this destroys the objection of Rore Sanctifica (The Angelus, December 2005, p.5), which claims that the essential form contains a Monophysite heresy, an “anti-filioque” heresy, an anti-Trinitarian heresy, and that it is Cabalistic and Gnostic to boot, for according to this view it affirms that the Son receives the Holy Spirit from the Father at a particular moment of His life. In reality, here it involves a gift of the Holy Ghost imparted to the human nature of our Lord. This (created) gift is conferred by the three Divine Persons, as is every work that is external to the Trinity, but it is attributed to the Father (see Jas. 1:17), according to the classical Catholic principle of appropriation. 2) The consecratory prayer of a bishop in the Antiochean Syrian Rite which Dr. Coomaraswamy cites is indeed quite different (continued on p.10) 21 For example, the consecration of the patriarch of Alexandria (“effunde super eum in spiritu tuo hegemonico scientiam tuam”), of the Syrian bishop (“mitte super servum tuum istum Spiritum tuum Sanctum et principalem”), and of the Maronite metropolitan (“effunde virtutem praefecturae Spiritus tui super hunc famulum tuum”): Henricus Denzinger, Ritus Orientalium Coptorum, Syrorum et Armenorum in Administrandis Sacramentis, II, 48, 97, 200. Dom Bernard Botte, “Spiritus Principalis (formule de l’ordination épiscopale),” Notitiae, 10 (1974), 410-11. 23 The gifts of the Holy Spirit in sacred Scripture are called “spiritus.” See Is. 11:2: “spiritus sapientiae et intellectus, spiritus consilii et fortitudinis...” designate the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. 22 www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • January 2006 6 1 2 Pontificale Romanum, editio typica, 1968. Deus et 1968 EDITION La Tradition Apostolique d’Hippolyte, Don Botte (2nd Ed.) Deus et HIPPOLYTUS D O God, O God, O Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi, Pater domini nostri Iesu Christi, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, P C 4 Pater misericordiarum et Deus totius consolationis, Pater misericordiarum et Deus totius consolationis, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, 5 6 7 8 qui in excelsis habitas et humilia respicis, qui in excelsis habitas et humilia respicis, Who dwellest on high but regardest the humble, Who dwellest on high but regardest the humble, qui cognoscis omnia antequam nascantur, qui cognoscis omnia antequam nascantur, c Who knowest all things before they come to pass, Who knowest all things before they come to pass, kn 3 9 Fa (s q W tu qui dedisti in Ecclesia tua normas tu qui dedisti terminos in ecclesia q Thou hast established the plan of thy Church. Thou hast established Thy standard in the Church. W per verbum gratiae tuae, per verbum gratiae tuae, By Thy gracious word, By Thy gracious word, p C th qui praedestinasti ex principio genus iustorum ab Abraham, praedestinans ex principio genus iustorum ab Abraham, Thou hast chosen the descendants of Abraham to be Thy holy people from the beginning, choosing the descendants of Abraham to be Thy holy people from the beginning, qui constituisti principes et sacerdotes, principes et sacerdotes constituens, q Thou hast established princes and priests, establishing princes and priests, W et sanctuarium tuum sine ministerio non dereliquisti, et sanctum tuum sine ministerio non derelinquens, q and didst not leave Thy sanctuary without ministers to serve Thee, and not leaving Thy holy place without ministers to serve Thee, W cui ab initio mundi placuit in his quos elegisti glorificari: ex initio saeculi bene tibi placuit in his quos elegisti dari: q Who, from the beginning of the world wast pleased to be glorified in these whom Thou hast chosen: from the beginning of ages it has pleased Thee well to be given in these whom Thou hast chosen: Et nunc Nunc T And now Now T effunde super hunc electum eam virtutem, quae a te est, Spiritum principalem, effunde eam virtutem quae a te est principalis Spiritus e pour forth on this chosen one that power which is from Thee, the governing Spirit, pour forth on him the power of the governing Spirit which is from Thee quem dedisti dilecto Filio tuo Iesu Christo, quem dedisti dilecto Filio tuo Iesu Christo, 16 Whom Thou gavest to Thy beloved Son Jesus Christ, Whom Thou gavest to Thy beloved Son Jesus Christ, 17 quem ipse donavit sanctis Apostolis, quod donavit sanctis Apostolis, q Whom He gave to the holy Apostles, which He gave to the holy Apostles w qui constituerunt Ecclesiam per singula loca ut sanctuarium tuum, in gloriam et laudem indeficientem qui constituerunt Ecclesiam per singula loca sanctificationem tuam, in gloriam et laudem indeficientem Who founded the Church in every place as Thy sanctuary, unto the glory and unceasing praise who founded the Church in divers places as Thy means of sanctification unto the glory and unceasing praise nominis tui. nomini tuo. in of Thy name. in Da, Da, D Grant, Grant, B 10 11 12 13 14 15 18 19 20 THE ANGELUS • January 2006 www.angeluspress.org of Thy name. W ch p 7 Rite Copte, Dz., Ritus Orientalium, t.2, p.23 COPTIC RITE Consecration du Patriarche Maronite, Dz., Ritus Orientalium, t.2, p.220. MARONITE RITE Dominator Domine Deus omnipotens ...Deus O almighty God, Ruler and Lord ...O God, Pater Domini nostri et Dei nostri et Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi... Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi, Father of our Lord and our God and our Savior Jesus Christ... the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Pater misericordiam et Deus totius consolationis, Father of mercies and God of all comfort, qui in puris altis habitas perpetuo...et omnia videns, (see Line 7) Who dwellest on high forever in splendor...and seest all things, cognoscens omnia antequam fiant, qui omnia, antequam fiant, nosti... knowing all things before they are done, Who knowest all things that are to happen before they occur... qui es in altissimis et respicis humiles, Who art on high but regardest the humble, qui dedisti statuta ecclesiastica qui illuminationem dedisti Ecclesiae Who hast established the foundation of the Church Who hast given light to the Church per unigenitum Filium tuum Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, per gratiam unigeniti Filii tui... through the grace of Thine only-begotten Son... through Thine only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, qui elegisti Abraham, qui placuit tibi in fide... Who chosest Abraham, who pleased Thee with his faith... qui constituisti sacerdotes ab initio... qui principes et sacerdotes ordinasti in sanctuario tuo altissimo... Who established priests from the beginning... Who ordained princes and priests in Thy highest sanctuary... qui non reliquisti locum tuum sanctum sine ministerio, Who did not leave Thy holy place without ministers, qui non reliquisti sublime sanctuarium tuum sine ministerio Who didst not leave Thy exalted sanctuary without ministers qui complacuisti tibi glorificari in iis, quos elegisti: Who hast pleased Himself to be glorified in these whom Thou hast chosen: Tibi, Domine, etiam placuit modo laudari in hoc servo tuo, et dignum effecisti eum, praeesse populo tuo; It pleased Thee also, O Lord, to be praised now in this Thy servant, and Thou hast made him worthy to preside over Thy people; Tu iterum nunc Thou, again, now effunde virtutem Spiritus tui hegemonici pour forth the power of Thy leading Spirit illumina eum et effunde super eum gratiam et intelligentiam Spiritus tui principalis, enlighten him and pour forth upon him the grace and understanding of Thy governing Spirit, quem tradidisti dilecto Filio tuo, Domino nostro Jesu Christo... Whom Thou hast bequeathed to Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ... quem donasti Apostolis sanctis tuis qui datus fuit sanctis tuis... which Thou gavest to Thy holy Apostles Who was given to Thy saints in nomine tuo. in Thy name. Da igitur Bestow, CONTINUED... www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • January 2006 (see Line 22) (continued from previous page) 8 21 22 23 1968 EDITION HIPPOLYTUS cordium cognitor Pater, cordis cognitor Pater, Father, knower of all hearts, Father, knower of all hearts, h t huic servo tuo, quem elegisti ad Episcopatum, super hunc servum tuum quem elegisti ad Episcopatum, s 24 that this Thy servant, whom Thou hast chosen for the office of Bishop, 25 ut pascat gregem sanctum tuum, pascere gregem sanctam tuam, u might shepherd Thy holy flock, to shepherd Thy holy flock, t et summum sacerdotium tibi exhibeat sine reprehensione, et primatum sacerdotii tibi exhibere sine repraehensione, e and may he fulfill before Thee, without reproach, the ministry of the High Priesthood, and to display before Thee, without reproach, the ministry of the Chief Priesthood, serviens tibi nocte et die, servientem tibi nocte et die, ut incessanter vultum tuum propitium reddat incessanter repropitiari vultum tuum that he may without ceasing obtain Thy favor to obtain unceasingly Thy favor et offerat dona sanctae Ecclesiae tuae; et offerre dona sanctae Ecclesiae tuae; and present gifts to Thy holy Church; and to present gifts to Thy holy Church; 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 serving Thee by night and day, serving Thee by night and day, a o p c t G i da ut virtute Spiritus summi sacerdotii habeat potestatem dimittendi peccata Spiritum primatus sacerdotii habere potestatem dimittere peccata I S grant that, by the power of the Spirit of the High Priesthood, he may have the power of forgiving sins Grant him the Spirit of the High Priesthood to have the power of forgiving sins T T secundum mandatum tuum; ut distribuat munera secundum praeceptum tuum secundum mandatum tuum, dare sortes secundum præceptum tuum according to Thy command; that he might distribute gifts according to Thy instruction according to Thy command, to give portions according to Thy instruction s n s et solvat omne vinculum solvere etiam omnem colligationem e and loosen every bond also to loosen every bond a secundum potestatem quam dedisti Apostolis; secundum potestatem quam dedisti Apostolis, according to the power which Thou didst give to the Apostles; according to the power which Thou gave to the Apostles, placeat tibi in mansuetudine et mundo corde, offerens tibi odorem suavitatis, placere autem tibi in mansuetudine et mundo corde, offerentem tibi odorem suavitatis, may he please Thee in mildness and purity of heart, offering to Thee an odor of sweetness, to be pleasing also to Thee in gentleness and purity of heart, offering Thee the odor of sweetness, a c e t s o A T m 35 36 u upon this Thy servant, whom Thou hast chosen for the office of Bishop per Filium tuum Iesum Christum, per quem tibi gloria et potentia et honor, cum Spiritu Sancto in sancta Ecclesia et nunc et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. through Thy Son Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory and power and honor, with the Holy Spirit in the holy Church both now and forever. Amen. THE ANGELUS • January 2006 www.angeluspress.org per puerum tuum Iesum Christum, per quem tibi gloria et potentia et honor, patri et filio cum spiritu sancto et nunc et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. through Thy Son Jesus Christ, through Whom be glory and power and honor, to the Father and to the Son, with the Holy Spirit both now and forever. Amen. COPTIC RITE MARONITE RITE 9 Pater, qui nosti corda omnium, O Father, Who knowest the hearts of us all, effunde pour forth hanc eandem gratiam virtutem tuam super servum tuum N., quem elegisti in Episcopum, super hunc servum tuum, quem elegisti ad patriarchatum, therefore, this same grace upon Thy servant, N., whom Thou hast chosen for the Episcopacy e Thy virtue upon this Thy servant, whom Thou hast chosen to be a patriarch, ut pasceret gregem tuum sanctum, ut pascat universum gregem tuum sanctum that he might shepherd Thy holy flock, that he might shepherd Thy holy, universal flock et ut tibi esset in ministrum irreprehensibilem et summo sacerdotio fungatur sine querela and that he might be for Thee a minister above reproach and may exercise the High Priesthood without reproach orans ante benignitatem tuam die ac nocte, die ac nocte tibi ministrans, of r y t, r t praying before Thy goodness day and night, ministering to Thee day and night, et concede, ut illi appareat facies tua, eumque dignum redde, and grant him to behold Thy countenance, and render him worthy, congregans (conservans?) numerum salvandorum, offerens tibi dona in sanctis ecclesiis. qui tibi attente et cum omni timore offerat oblationes Ecclesiae tuae sanctae, Gathering (preserving?) the number to be saved, offering to Thee gifts in holy churches. who shall devoutly and with all fear offer the oblations of Thy Holy Church, Ita, Pater omnipotens, per Christum tuum, da ei unitatem Spiritus Sancti tui, ut sit ipsi potestas dimittendi peccata et impertire ei totam potestatem, Therefore, almighty Father, through Thy Christ, give to him oneness with Thy Holy Spirit, that he may have the power of forgiving sins grant unto him the fullness of power, (See Line 34) secundum mandatum unigeniti tui Filii Jesu Christi Domini nostri, constituendi cleros secundum mandatum ejus ad sanctuarium according to the command of Thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ, establishing clergy according to His command for His sanctuary et solvendi vincula omnia ecclesiastica... (See Line 34) and loosening all ecclesiastical bonds... quam dedisti sanctis Apostolis tuis, which Thou didst give to Thy Apostles, ut potestate Spiritus tui solvat omnia ligamina, that by the power of Thy Spirit he may loosen all bonds, et placent tibi in mansuetudine et corde humili, offerens tibi in innocentia et irreprehensibilitate sacrificium sanctum incruentum, mysterium hujus Testamenti novi, in odorem suavitatis. And may he please Thee in meekness and humility of heart, offering to Thee in innocence and irreprehensibility the holy unbloody sacrifice, the mystery of the new Testament, for an odor of sweetness. et ut placeat tibi in pura humilitate, caritate illum imple, scientia, discretione, disciplina, perfectione, magnanimitate cum puro corde, dum orat pro populo, dum contristatur pro his, qui stulte agunt, eosque ad auxilium trahit, dum offert tibi laudes et confessiones ac orationes in odorem suavitatis and that he may please Thee in pure humility, fill him with charity, knowledge, discernment, learning, perfection, magnanimity with a pure heart, while he prays for the people, while he weeps for those who act foolishly; may he draw them to seek help, while he offers Thee praise, prayer and acclaim in the odor of sweetness, per Dominim nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum dilectum, per quem tibi gloria, honor et imperium una cum Spiritu tuo Sancto ab aeterno et nunc et omni tempore et in generationem generationum et in saecula infinita. Amen. through our Lord Jesus Christ , Thy Beloved Son, through Whom may Thou be glorified and honored, and with Thy Holy Spirit, from all eternity, now, and in all times, and unto all generations, www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • January 2006 and unto endless ages. Amen. END 10 (continued from p.5) from Pope Paul VI’s rite.24 But the Apostolic Constitution Pontificalis Romani approving the new rite does not refer to this prayer. As we have explained, it was necessary to compare the new rite with the consecration rite of a Maronite patriarch. The doctor simply confused the two rites. Moreover, Dr. Coomaraswamy did not go to the trouble of looking at the Coptic rite, the second rite to which Pope Paul VI referred. When we pointed this out to a “Coomaraswamist,” the answer back was that the Coptic rite was quite close to the Syrian rite, and that that could not affect the demonstration. That answer merits a double zero, and suffices to show that the work of the “Coomaraswamists,” even if it looks impressive (especially by its volume) is in reality worthless. 3) The utilization of the form that is in use in two certainly valid Eastern rites assures its validity. The difficulty raised in this objection cannot open to doubt the fact of its validity, but calls for an explanation of how it can be valid. To respond to the difficulty, two solutions can be offered: 1) Either the designation of the episcopal power by one of its properties (the capacity to receive jurisdiction25) is sufficiently clear, in which case the essential part suffices;26 2) or else the essential part, insufficiently determined, is specified by the context, especially by the expression “summum sacerdotium” [fullness of the priesthood] which follows. This would be an instance of “significatio ex adjunctis” [that is, the full significance of the form is expressed by the surrounding words and ceremonies]: a form that does not fully express the essence of the sacramental grace is expressed by the prayers and the ceremonies which accompany it. Thus, in the traditional Mass, the Offertory manifests the propitiatory aspect of the Mass, and its suppression in the new rite constitutes a grave omission. Nevertheless, it must be pointed out that the Coptic rite does not mention in any way the “completion of the priesthood” anywhere. Only That said, even the consecratory prayer of a bishop in the Maronite rite contains the expression “Spiritus principalis” in the essential part, at least in the translation given by Henry Denzinger, who uses the version of Renaudot in a Florentine manuscript: “Mitte super servum tuum istum Spiritum tuum Sanctum et principalem...” (Ritus Orientalium, II, 97). Dr. Coomaraswamy gives the translation from the Pontifical des Syriens d’Antioche (Liban: Sharfe, 1952), Pt. 2, 204-05: “Send upon your servant here Thy holy and spiritual breath...” (Le Drame anglican, p.49). It seems that there are variants in the Syrian rite. 25 As we have said in the introduction, we are working from the hypothesis that is most unfavorable to the validity of the new rite, namely, the sacramental nature of the episcopacy, in the sense that the episcopal consecration is held to impart some additional element of the sacrament of Orders beyond that which is conferred in ordination to the priesthood. 26 In the sacrament of Extreme Unction, the form of the sacrament is a prayer for obtaining the pardon of sins committed by the divers senses and organs. That is not the essence of the sacrament (which is a grace that fortifies the soul for the moment of death), but one property of it. 27 See Dom Paul Cagin, L’Anaphore apostolique, p.280: “super hunc famulum 24 THE ANGELUS • January 2006 www.angeluspress.org an indirect mention is made of the plenitude of the power of Order in the expression: “May he have the power to constitute clerics according to his order for the sanctuary” (ut sit ipsi potestas...constituendi cleros secundum mandatum ejus ad sanctuarium). 4) What is important in the sacramental form is its meaning. Now, it is clear that the various modifications introduced do not change the meaning: “Spiritum principalem” in the accusative designates a gift of the Holy Ghost, as we have explained above. This explains why one finds the word Spiritus either in the genitive (designating the Person who gives the gift), as in the Latin version of the Apostolic Tradition; or in the accusative (designating the gift) as in the Canons of Hippolytus, which has “tribuens virtutem tuam et spiritum efficacem,” and as in the new rite. It is truly puerile to think that the addition of the phrase “super hunc electum” changes the meaning of the formula. Moreover, an analogous formula occurs in the form of consecration of a Maronite metropolitan.27 In general, when the several rites are compared, one can see that the differences are important. That proves that our Lord did not specify the form as precisely as He did for baptism or for the Eucharist (where the various formulas are very similar). He left a certain latitude to His Church, and it is futile to split hairs over minor changes that do not affect the meaning. DEFECT OF MATTER The new rite clearly states that the matter of the sacrament is the imposition of hands. Finally, in the ordination of a bishop, the matter is the laying of hands on the head of the bishop-elect by the consecrating bishops, or at least by the principal consecrator, that is done in silence before the consecratory prayer.28 The cause of the difficulty is that the imposition of the Gospels book on the bishop-elect’s head occurs tuum.” Several other rites have “super eum.” Rore Sanctifica suspects that the use of the word “electus” is an allusion to Manicheism: “Now, given the Gnostic nature of the system from which this form comes, it is legitimate, in light of this context, to wonder if the episcopal rite of Paul VI might not be a rite conferring the powers to a Manichean elect.” (Rore Sanctifica, p. 98). This is literally ridiculous. The use of the word “electus” is constant in ordination rites even in the most ancient documents. It suffices to look at page 22 of Rore Sanctifica to see that the word is used in a text which the author dates before the year 300. As for his objection to the usage of the word “Filius” instead of “puer” (see n. 10, Angelus, Dec. 2005), one can simply answer that the Greek word for boy or child has been translated by son in the Latin version...and in Ludolf’s translation of the Ethiopian version; cf. Dom Paul Cagin, L’Anaphore apostolique, p. 275. Rore Sanctifica does not even give his source. It is not a serious work. 28 Paul VI, Apostolic Constitution Pontificalis Romani, June 18, 1968. This is also stated in the rubrics. For example, in the 1990 edition, it reads: “By the imposition of the bishops’ hands and by the consecratory prayer, the gift of the Holy Ghost is given to the elect for his episcopal function.” 11 between the imposition of hands and the consecratory prayer. In the second edition of the Pontifical (1990) several lengthy prænotanda were added. An explanation is given of the ceremony of the imposition of the Gospels in paragraph 26: Since the second prayer is said after the imposition of hands, it can be seen that the imposition of the Gospels book took place between the imposition of hands and the consecratory prayer.37 As for the text of the Statua Ecclesiæ Antiqua, here it is: Episcopus cum ordinatur, duo episcopi ponant et teneant evangeliorum codicem super cervicem eius et uno super eum fundente benedictionem, reliqui omnes episcopi qui adsunt, manibus suis caput eius tangant.–When a bishop is ordained, let two bishops place and hold the Gospels book on his neck, and while the blessing is pronounced over him, let the other bishops present touch his head with their hands.38 By the imposition of the Gospels book on the head of the ordinand during the ordination prayer, and by its placement in the hands of the newly ordained bishop, one of the bishop’s principal duties, the faithful preaching of the Gospel, is highlighted. Let us begin our reply by seeing how the reformers explained the change which they introduced. In 1969 La Maison Dieu published an issue on the new rites of infant baptism and of ordinations, in which it is said: In the article already cited, Dom Botte had this to say about the imposition of the Gospels book: The imposition of hands is followed by the opening of the Gospels book on the head or shoulders of the bishop-elect.39 As I said above, this ceremony is to be found in very ancient liturgical books in Syria. It was introduced at Rome for papal ordination, then was generalized throughout Gaul by the Statuta Ecclesiæ Antiqua, though according to the latter, the Gospels book was supposed to be held by two bishops. They reverted to the ancient tradition: the Gospels book is held by two deacons. No formula expresses the meaning of the ceremony. Only the Byzantine Rite furnishes an explanation: the bishop must be subject to the yoke of the Gospel. This is the only authorized commentary that we have, and it is coherent.40 The first addition was the imposition of the Gospels book during the consecratory prayer. This was an ancient usage in the patriarchate of Antioch. It is difficult to say when it was introduced at Rome, but it was done for papal ordinations, according to the testimony of the Liber Diurnus29: two deacons held the Gospels book open over the candidate’s head. The same rite was introduced in Gaul under the influence of the Statuta Ecclesiae Antiqua,30 but with a variation: the Gospels book was no longer held by two deacons, but by two bishops.31 Here is the text of the Liber Diurnus given in Migne’s Patrology:32 Post litaniam ascendunt ad sedem, simul episcopi et presbyteri. Tunc episcopus Albanensis dat orationem primam: deinde episcopus Portuensis dat orationem secundam: postmodum adducuntur Evangelia, et aperiuntur, et tenentur super caput electi a diaconibus. Tunc episcopus Ostiensis consecrat eum pontificem.–After the litany, the bishops and the priests go up to the faldstool. Then the Bishop of Albano says the first prayer;33 the Bishop of Porto, the second;34 then the Gospels book is brought forward,35 it is opened, and held upon the head of the elect by the deacons. Then the Bishop of Ostia consecrates him pontiff.36 The Liber Diurnus is a collection of formulas used by the Roman chancellery. The rite for papal ordination that it contains was included in the collection of Ordines Romani edited by M. Andrieu under two forms, XL A and XL B. The most ancient probably goes back to the sixth century. [Note by Dom Botte.] 30 The Statuta are an apocryphal collection composed in Gaul towards the end of the fifth century, probably by Gennadius of Marseille; see C. Munier, Les Statuta Ecclesiae Antiqua (Paris, 1960). [Note by Dom Botte.] 31 La Maison Dieu, 98 (2nd trimester, 1969), 113. 32 Liber Diurnus Romanorum Pontificum, Title VIII (Ritus Ordinandi Pontificis), PL 105, 38D-39A. 33 “Adesto supplicationibus nostris omnipotens Deus,” etc. In the 1962 Pontifical, this prayer is said before the litany. This was already the case in the Roman Pontifical in the 13th century before Durand of Mende (Le Pontifical de la Curie romaine au XIIIe siècle, “Sources liturgiques,” 4 (Paris: Cerf, 2004), p.80.–Ed. 34 “Propitiare, Domine, supplicationibus nostris,” etc. In the 1962 Roman Pontifical, this prayer is said after the imposition of hands just before the consecratory prayer. This was already the case in Roman Pontifical of the 13th century (ibid., p.82).–Ed. 35 Migne points out in a note: “In the episcopal ordination, the Ordo Romanus says that the Gospels book is held on the head of the elect not by deacons, 29 In a study that came out in 1957, Dom Botte said: No formula expresses the signification of the ceremony. The Pontifical directs that the book be imposed super cervicem et scapulas [on the neck and shoulders], but the ancient documents have it imposed on the head.... [This rite] certainly represents a real usage of the Church of Antioch, for St. John Chrysostom alludes to it, and as does the Pseudo-Denis later on. It is found in all the rites of the Syrian type.41 Indeed, this ceremony is common in the Syrian rites currently in use. We found it in the ordination rites of Syrian bishops (according to Morin42 and but by bishops.” The prayer begins with the words: “Deus honorum omnium.” The current consecratory prayer says “Deus honor omnium.” It is said that a formula proper to the pope must be added to the sentence: “Et idcirco famulo tuo N. quem ad summi sacerdotii ministerium elegisti, hanc, quaesumus, Domine, gratiam largiaris” and this sentence is found word for word in the 1962 ritual. This confirms that the consecratory prayer of the Roman ritual is very ancient, since the Liber Diurnus dates to the seventh or eighth century, and repeats the formularies of St. Gelasius (492-496) and of St. Gregory the Great (590-604). 37 See the preceding notes (especially n. 33). 38 Charles Munier, Les Statuta Ecclesiæ Antiqua, (PUF, 1958), p.95. 39 The Coomaraswamists thought that their objections were beginning to be taken into account [by ecclesiastical authorities] by the fact that, in a recent episcopal consecration, the imposition of the Gospels book was made on the ordinand’s shoulders and not his head. Yet from this passage it is clear that this variant was recognized by Dom Botte even in 1969. 40 La Maison Dieu, 98 (2nd trimester, 1969), 119. 41 Bernard Botte, O.S.B., “L’Ordre d’après les prières d’ordination,” in Études sur le sacrament de l’ordre, Lex Orandi Series Vol. 22 (Paris: Cerf, 1957), pp.20, 22. 42 Denzinger, Ritus Orientalium, II, 75. 36 www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • January 2006 12 Renaudot43), the Maronite patriarch,44 and Maronite bishops and metropolitans.45 To summarize: the imposition of hands on the head of the ordinand during the episcopal consecration is still practiced today in the Eastern Rites, and it was practiced at Rome formerly. Evidence of the occurrence of the imposition of the Gospels book between the imposition of hands and the consecratory prayer at Rome is contained in the Liber Diurnus.46 How can it be explained that this placement of the imposition of the Gospels book does not break the unity between the matter and form? Here are two justifications of the fact (each of which is sufficient). ● The imposition of the Gospels book does not break the moral unity between the imposition of hands and the consecratory prayer. It must be remembered that the union between the matter and form of a sacrament is a moral union (they concur to signify the same thing), and not a physical union (as exists between a man’s soul and body). There can be an interval between the two as long as the form clearly applies to the matter. Thus in the sacrament of penance, a certain time can elapse between the confession and the absolution. Similarly in the traditional Roman rite for sacerdotal ordination, the matter is the first imposition of hands which is done in silence, while the form is the consecratory prayer that is made a little later.47 Between the two, a prayer to the Holy Spirit is made with hands joined. Ibid., II, 97. Ibid., II, 219-20. 45 Ibid., II, 199. 46 In all the preparatory schemas of the new ritual until Schema 270 of Feb. 1, 1968, the imposition of the Gospels book was placed before the imposition of hands, as in the ancient rite. In the text promulgated by Rome on June 18, the imposition of the Gospels book was placed after the imposition of hands. No explanation for this change was given. Dom Botte did not propose it, but he accepted it, since he speaks of it as a natural thing in his Maison Dieu article which came out the following year. In our opinion, it is purely a practical matter: it is difficult to impose hands on the candidate while the Gospels book is placed upon his head... To remedy the difficulty, the Eastern rituals prescribe an elaborate sequence of raising and lowering the Gospels book. The redactors probably found it simpler to place the imposition of the Gospels book after the imposition of hands, as was already the case in the Liber Diurnus. 47 Pius XII, Apostolic Constitution Sacramentum Ordinis, DS 3860. 48 This is the explanation given by M. Metzger in Les Constitutions Apostoliques II (Bks. III-VI), SC 329, introduction, critical analysis, translation, and notes by Marcel Metzger, pp.78-9 [in the Introduction]. This is the way he explains that in the Apostolic Constitutions no mention is made “of the imposition of hands, but of a gesture of the same significance which can be likened to an extension [of the hands]: the deacons hold the Gospels book open on the head of the ordinand (VIII, 4, 6) at the moment of the consecratory prayer.” 49 According to a text of Severian of Gabala (4th-5th century): “The presence of tongues of fire on the [Apostles’] heads is the sign of an ordination. Indeed, as custom demands up to the present day, since the descent of the Holy Spirit is invisible, that one impose upon the head of whoever is to be ordained high-priest the Gospels book; and when this imposition is made, one must see nothing but a tongue of fire posing on his head; a tongue 43 44 THE ANGELUS • January 2006 www.angeluspress.org Whatever may be the meaning attributed to the ceremony of the imposition of the Gospels book in the new rite (prolongation of the imposition of hands,48 the sending of the Holy Spirit,49 submission to the yoke of the Gospel,50 the munus prædicandi confided to the bishop51), it is clear that it fits into the ceremony of episcopal ordination and that it manifests no intention of interrupting the conferral of the sacrament: that is even more evident in the ancient rite in which the Gospels book is kept on the neck of the bishop-elect during the entire consecratory preface. ● The principal consecrator lifts his hands at the beginning of the consecratory prayer: this gesture is equivalent to the imposition of hands, since moral contact suffices for the sacrament to be validly conferred.52 As for the fact that in the new rite the ordaining bishop must join his hands while saying the essential words of the rite (no explanation is given), one might regret it, but that certainly does not prevent the validity of the rite: in the traditional rite, only the principal consecrator had his hands extended at that moment,53 yet it is certain that the co-consecrators validly consecrated. DEFECT OF INTENTION 1) We have never seen anything to suggest that the new rite was made in view of ecumenism with the Anglicans. The “ecumenical” argument envisaged the Eastern Rites. Let us revisit Dom Botte’s memoirs: because of the preaching of the Gospel; a tongue of fire because of the words ‘I am come to cast fire on the earth.’” (Translated by J. Lécuyer, “Note sur la liturgie du sacre des évêques,” Ephemerides Liturgicæ, 66 (1952), 370. Let us point out that in the traditional rite, the imposition of hands is accompanied by the prayer “Accipe Spiritum Sanctum–receive the Holy Ghost” (Pontificale Romanum [1962], p.69.) 50 This is the meaning given in the traditional Roman rite, a meaning known even by St. John Chrysostom: “It is for this reason, that, during the ordination of priests, the Church also places the Gospels book on the head of the ordinand, so that he, too, may learn that, while he is the head of all, yet is he subject to these laws; commanding all, yet himself commanded by the Law; making laws on everything, yet himself receiving laws from the word (of God).... Consequently, the imposition of the Gospels book on the high-priest signifies that he is subject to an authority.” (Greek Fathers, LIV, 404.) 51 The duty to preach, as Rubric 26 of the prænotanda of the second edition of the Pontifical implies (see above). 52 “That no occasion for doubt may be offered, we command that in any conferring of orders the imposition of hands be made by physically touching the head of the one to be ordained, although even the moral touch suffices for performing a sacrament validly.” (Pius XII, Apostolic Constitution Sacramentum Ordinis, DS 3861 [Dz. 2301]). As for the pretension that the imposition of the Gospels book on the head of the bishop-elect would prevent moral contact between the consecrator’s hand and the ordinand’s head, it should suffice to point out that a priest who forgets to uncover the ciborium validly consecrates the hosts, or that absolution can be conferred through an opaque screen, etc. 53 Consécration des Évêques (Angers: Richer, 1920), p.52: “Alone extending his hands over the elect, the consecrator continues [and says the consecratory prayer].” 13 If I was paying attention to this text it wasn’t because I had just finished a critical edition of it, but because my study of the oriental rites made me notice that the formula always survived under more evolved forms. Thus, in the Syrian Rite the prayer for the patriarch’s ordination was none other than the one in the Testamentum Domini, a reworking of the Apostolic Tradition. The same is true for the Coptic Rite where the prayer for the bishop’s ordination is close to that of the Apostolic Constitutions, another reworking of Hipploytus’ text. The essential ideas of the Apostolic Tradition can be found everywhere. Reusing the old text in the Roman Rite would affirm a unity of outlook between East and West on the episcopacy. This was an ecumenical argument. It was decisive.54 The situation is quite different from that in which the new Mass was redacted, during which the reformers clearly manifested their desire for ecumenism with the Protestants who participated in the elaboration of the new rite. Such a rapprochement and such collaboration with heretics was a danger to the orthodoxy of the faith, and in fact resulted in a new Mass favens hæresim (favoring heresy). In this case the rapprochement is with rites in usage in the East by Catholics as well as by schismatics The fact of desiring to establish cordial relations with these Rites does not manifest a priori any intention dangerous to the faith. And in fact the new rite does not deserve to be characterized as “favens hæresim,” even if one might have other valid reasons for refusing it.55 If there are Anglicans who have adopted (ad libitum) a liturgy similar to Pope Paul VI’s rite, different explanations can be offered: 1) The Anglicans might have doubts about their own rite (even if they corrected the rite declared invalid by Leo XIII), and consequently may desire to have recourse to a certainly valid rite. 2) As it would be humiliating for them to reinstate the rite of the Roman Church which they rejected, it might be for them a less compromising solution to adopt a rite inspired by the Apostolic Tradition that is known to be valid thanks to its usage in the Eastern Rites. 3) The new rite being less explicit than the pre-conciliar Roman rite (to which, over the centuries, additions were made to specify the true nature of the episcopacy against errors), it would be easier for them to accommodate it to their own ideas, introducing slight modifications as needed. An example of a favorable reception is given in a letter from Oscar Cullman to Fr. Bruno Kleinheyer, dated March 19, 1968, after the first episcopal consecration in the new rite, that of Msgr. Hänggi, Bishop of Basel: I consider that the ordination on the occasion of Msgr. Hänggi’s consecration is a very beautiful fruit of the efforts of the Council in liturgical matters. As a Protestant, I can only say that I could have participated completely in this liturgy (a few passages excepted), and that this could also Botte, O.S.B., From Silence to Participation: An Insider’s View of Liturgical Renewal, tr. by John Sullivan, O.C.D. (Washington, D.C.: The Pastoral Press, 1988), p.135. 55 See what we said above at the end of the main answer above. 56 Archives of the German Liturgical Institute (Trier), Kleinheyer drawer, B 130, our translation. 54 be an example for the investiture of the Protestant ministers of the Church.56 Consequently, nothing supports the allegation that conciliar Rome adopted the new rite because they share the ideas of the Anglicans concerning the episcopacy and their non-Catholic intention, even if the new rite is more easily acceptable to the Protestants than the old rite. 2) The most contestable point of doctrine issuing from Vatican II as regards the episcopacy is collegiality. We know that Pope Paul VI himself was obliged to insert a nota explicativa prævia (preliminary explanatory note)57 to the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church in order to avoid a heterodox interpretation being given to the Conciliar text. Here is the passage of this note that especially concerns us: A person becomes a member of the College by virtue of episcopal consecration and hierarchical communion with the head of the College and its members. Cf. Article 22, §1, at the end. In consecration is given an ontological participation in sacred functions, as is clear beyond doubt from tradition, even liturgical. The word functions is deliberately employed, rather than powers, since this latter word could be understood as ready to go into action. But for such ready power to be had, it needs canonical or juridical determination by hierarchical authority. This determination of power can consist in the granting of a particular office, or in an assigning of subjects; and it is given according to norms approved by the highest authority. Such an ulterior norm is demanded by the nature of the case, since there is question of functions which must be exercised by several subjects working together by Christ’s will in a hierarchical manner. It is clear that this “communion” has been in the life of the Church according to circumstances of the times, before it was, so to speak, codified in law. Therefore, it is significantly stated that hierarchical communion is required with the head of the Church and its members. Communion is an idea which was held in high honor by the ancient Church (as it is even today, especially in the East). It is understood, however, not of a certain vague feeling, but of an organic reality which demands a juridical form, and is simultaneously animated by charity. Hence the Commission by practically unanimous consent decreed that it must be written: “in hierarchical communion.” Cf. Modus 40, and also what is said of canonical mission under Article 24. The documents of the more recent Popes dealing with the jurisdiction of bishops must be interpreted in the light of this necessary determination of powers.58 Collegiality was taught by the Council in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium in Articles 22 and 23. These paragraphs are not quoted in the Apostolic Constitution Pontificalis Romani of June 18, 1968, promulgating the new rite, nor in the rubrics Curiously, this preliminary note is published at the end of the Constitution Lumen Gentium in the [French] Centurion edition (1965) [as well as in the Abbott edition from which the English citation below is taken]. 58 [English version: Walter M. Abbott, S.J., ed., The Documents of Vatican II (New York: The America Press, 1966), pp.99-100.] 57 www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • January 2006 14 of the first edition (1968). The second edition (1990), which contains much more developed rubrics, refers to the collegiality of Lumen Gentium in the following passages from the prænotanda: No. 12: By virtue of episcopal ordination and by hierarchical communion with the head and members of the college, one is constituted a member of the episcopal college. The order of bishops is the successor to the college of the apostles in teaching authority and pastoral rule; or, rather, in it [the episcopal order] the apostolic body continues without a break.59 Indeed, as successors of the apostles, bishops receive from the Lord, to whom was given all power in heaven and on earth, the mission to teach all nations and to preach the gospel to every creature, so that all men may attain to salvation by faith, baptism, and the fulfillment of the commandments (cf. Mt. 18);60 the episcopal college, insofar as it is assembled under the one head of the Roman Pontiff, the successor of Peter, expresses the unity, the variety, and the universality of the flock of Christ.61 In the new rite of consecration itself, collegiality is explicitly mentioned in the consecrator’s allocution: Never forget that in the Catholic Church, made one by the bond of Christian love, you are incorporated into the college of bishops. You should therefore have a constant concern for all the churches and gladly come to the aid and support of churches in need. The specific errors related to collegiality (the affirmation of a second supreme authority in the Church, or the existence of a real power of jurisdiction received prior to canonical mission) are not expressed in these passages. Therefore, there is no proof that the redactors wanted to modify the rite with the intention of doing something other than what the Church has always done when ordaining bishops. Nevertheless, one could say that the will to affirm the doctrine of Vatican II on the episcopacy constitutes a supplementary reason to refuse this new rite: without denying its validity, one can deny its liceity. ANSWERS TO THE ARGUMENTS 1) Undoubtedly, if the new rite were systematically invalid, the Catholic Church would be in a piteous state. Nevertheless, it still would not be without a hierarchy. Indeed, the bishops of the Eastern Rites would still remain, as they would continue to benefit from a valid ordination. And in the Roman Church, the bishops of Tradition would remain as well as–though for how long?– a few aged bishops ordained according to the former rite, all of them non-resident bishops. If the new rite were invalid, the Church would not be utterly without hierarchy: still, there would be an almost total disappearance of the Roman Church’s hierarchy, which seems hardly compatible with the special assistance of Providence over this Church, Mother and Mistress of all the Churches. 59 60 See Lumen Gentium, Article 22. See Ibid., Article 24. THE ANGELUS • January 2006 www.angeluspress.org 2) Nor is it possible to make a definitive argument from the fact that the reform was examined by a commission of the Holy Office while Cardinal Ottaviani was Prefect. On the one hand, as we have seen, Dom Botte arranged things in such a way as to sideline the Holy Office’s representative during the meetings of the examining commission. On the other, it must be remembered that Cardinal Ottaviani had gone blind during the last part of his tenure. That is undoubtedly the reason why he began by letting the new Mass pass. Archbishop Lefebvre had to go and see him and insist that he reconsider his decision and sign The Short Critical Study of the Novus Ordo Missae [available from Angelus Press. Price: $8.00–Ed.]. Just as he did with the new Mass, Cardinal Ottaviani could have allowed deficiencies to slip into the new episcopal consecration rite. 3) There is no proof that Archbishop Lefebvre studied the reform of the episcopal consecration. A former seminarian even claimed that Archbishop Lefebvre had been tricked by a false report that presented Pope Paul VI’s reform as being in conformity with the Eastern rites. In fact, it is possible that Archbishop Lefebvre was shown the resemblance between the rite of Pope Paul VI and the Eastern rites, but in that there is no deception. The former seminarian of whom we speak was himself deceived by R. Coomaraswamy and did not notice this resemblance. Consequently, not much can be inferred from Archbishop Lefebvre’s silence, except a certain probability: it is likely that, if the new rite were certainly invalid, as some “Coomaraswamists” claim, then Providence would not have allowed a fact of such importance to escape the notice of a person manifestly chosen by God to guide faithful Catholics in this time of confusion. CONCLUSION We think that we have shown that the reasons for suspecting the validity of the new rite of episcopal consecration as it was promulgated by Rome in 1968 are not at all serious. Moreover, the validity of the new rite could not be called into question without also calling into question the validity of several Eastern rites recognized by the Church from time immemorial. However, as we remarked at the end of the main response, if the new rite is still valid per se, it is quite possible that, owing to bad translations or an adaptation of the rite that strayed too far from the original, or because of a consecrator’s defect of intention, in certain particular cases we could have an invalid ceremony. 61 See Ibid., Article 22. AT B t T o O c w a t t e a i c f o r t e t t g t g s p t m V o o w t a p C w a w G w w a l r t w s f Appendix I: Consecration Prayers THE CEREMONY BEFORE VATICAN II It is truly meet and just, right and for our salvation, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to Thee, holy Lord, Father almighty, eternal God, the honor of all the dignities that by holy orders serve Thy glory; O God, who, in the inspiration of secret and familiar conversation, among other teachings regarding divine worship, commanded Moses to regulate priestly vestments, and then ordered that Thine elect, Aaron, be clothed for the offering of sacrifice in a mystical garment, desiring thus to guarantee the continuity of Thy teaching, that every generation receive from its forebears instruction; and also that the signs of future realities being respected in the old Testament, the reality might be for us more certain than the enigmas of figures. The vesture of the former priesthood indeed represents the ornament of our souls, and it is no longer the honor of vestments, but rather the splendor of their souls which recommends to us the glory of the pontiffs, since that which then pleased the eyes had as object to make the truths that were contained therein understandable. Therefore, to thy servant, whom thou hast chosen for the ministry of perfect priesthood, grant, we beseech Thee, Lord, that this grace which all these vestments, by the glitter of gold, the brilliance of gems, and the variety of skilled handiwork, signified, shine in his conversation and in his actions. Fulfill in Thy priest the completion of Thy ministry, and adorned in the ornaments of all glorification sanctify him with the moisture of heavenly unguent. [Here the anointing of the head takes place while the Veni Creator is sung.] May this unguent, Lord, flow abundantly upon his head, overflow upon his bosom and reach even to the extremities of his body so that the virtue of Thy Spirit may fill him within and protect him without. May the constancy of the law, the purity of charity, and the sincerity of peace abound in him. By Thy gift, may his feet, which must preach peace and announce Thy benefits, be beautiful. Charge him, Lord, with the ministry of reconciliation by word and by deed, by the force of miracles. May he go and preach, not with the oratorical cleverness of human wisdom, but by showing Thy spirit and Thy strength. Give him, Lord, the keys of the kingdom of heaven, that, without glorying in himself, he make use of the power which Thou grantest him to edify and not to destroy. Let all which he may bind or loose on earth, be bound or loosed in heaven. Let the sins which he shall retain be retained, and forgiven to those to whom he has forgiven them. Let whomever he has cursed be cursed, and blessed, whom he has blessed. Let him be this faithful and wise servant whom Thous dost establish, Lord, over Thy family, that he nourish it in due time, and render every 15 man perfect. Let him be active, prudent, hate pride, love humility and truth, and never betray it out of human respect or fear. Let him not make the darkness light, nor the light darkness; evil of good, nor good of evil. Let him give of himself both to the wise and to the simple, so that he profit from the progress of all. Place him, Lord, upon the episcopal see to rule Thy Church and the people confided to him. Be his authority, his might, his strength. Shower upon him Thy blessings and Thy grace, so that Thy gift make him always apt, and Thy grace, prompt to implore Thy mercy. [The consecrator concludes in a low voice, joining hands, and saying the following:] Through Jesus Christ our Lord... R. Amen. THE CEREMONY SINCE 1968 [The principal consecrator lays his hands upon the head of the bishop-elect, in silence. After him, all the other bishops present do the same. Then the principal consecrator places the open Book of the Gospels upon the head of the bishop-elect; two deacons, standing at either side of the bishop-elect, hold the Book of the Gospels above his head until the prayer of consecration is completed. Next the principal consecrator, with his hands extended, sings the prayer of consecration or says it aloud:] God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Father of mercies and God of all consolation, you dwell in heaven, yet look with compassion on all that is humble. You know all things before they come to be; by your gracious word you have established the plan of your Church. From the beginning you chose the descendants of Abraham to be your holy nation. You established rulers and priests, and did not leave your sanctuary without ministers to serve you. From the creation of the world you have been pleased to be glorified by those whom you have chosen. [The following part of the prayer is sung by all the consecrating bishops, with hands joined:] So now pour out upon this chosen one that power which is from you, the governing spirit whom you gave to your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, the Spirit given by him to the holy apostles, who founded the Church in every place to be your temple for the unceasing glory and praise of your name. [Then the principal consecrator continues alone:] Father, you know all hearts. You have chosen your servant for the office of bishop. May he be a shepherd to your holy flock, and a high priest blameless in your sight, www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • January 2006 A 16 ministering to you night and day; may he always gain the blessing of your favor and offer the gifts of your holy Church. Through the Spirit who gives the grace of high priesthood grant him the power to forgive sins as you have commanded, to assign ministries as you have decreed, and to loose every bond by the authority which you gave to your apostles. May he be pleasing to you by his gentleness and purity of heart, presenting a fragrant offering to you, through Jesus Christ, your Son, through whom glory and power and honor are yours with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, now and for ever. R. Amen. Appendix 2: Comparison of Formulas (1919) original version As early as 1919, Dom Paul Cagin, O.S.B., a monk of Solesmes, made a comparison (adjacent at right) of the texts of the consecratory prayers of the Apostolic Tradition and ten other ancient texts, of which four were Eastern rites still in vigor. An image of a summary table [re-typeset below–Ed.] he compiled at the conclusion of his study of the 11 texts is reproduced here (Dom Paul Cagin, L’Anaphore apostolique et ses témoins [Paris: Lethielleux, 1919], pp.274-91). In the column headings, the Apostolic Tradition (referred to as “V” for “Veronese Manuscript”) is on the far left, the consecration of a Coptic bishop (Cc) is seventh from the left, preceded by the Apostolic Constitutions (AC VIII) and the consecration of a Maronite metropolitan (MM). On the far right are the Testamentum Domini (T) and the consecration of a Maronite patriarch (MP). V Eth. Ep CH 2 3 4 (2) (3) 1 2 3 4 (2) (3) 2 3 4 (2) (3) 2 3 4 (2) (3) AC VIII. 1 (36) (36) (39) (36) (36) MM Cc Ct 1 (36) (36) (39) (36) (36) 7 1 2 3 1 (5) (6) 4 5 6 8 9 10 11 13 14 13 14 Da T MP (36) (36) (39) (36) (36) (36) (36) (39) (36) (36) 8 9 21 24 24 24 (40) (40) 26 26 26 26 26 27 28 26 27 28 17 18 19 (17) 21 (41) (2-3) (2-3) (2-3) 36 37 38 39 40 36 37 38 39 40 (40) 25 26 (2-3) (4) (4) (4) (4) (4) (24) (24) (34) (24) 40 THE ANGELUS • January 2006 www.angeluspress.org (17) CH (26) (26) (26) (26) 46 47 46 47 46 47 46 50 5o 50 50 (17) 22 23 (40) 22 23 (40) 22 23 (40) (44) (44) 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 29 30 29 30 32 33 34 35 36 32 33 34 35 36 39 40 39 40 39 40 41 41 26 (5-6) 55 55 55 AC VIII. MM 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 46 47 48 49 50 51 Cc Ct Da T MP 46 47 46 47 42 43 44 45 46 47 42 43 44 45 46 47 42 43 44 45 46 47 50 51 (61) 50 50 50 52 52 52 55 55 55 55 57 58 59 60 61 57 57 57 61 62 61 62 61 62 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 65 66 67 68 78 79 80 81 78 79 80 78 78 80 83 (77) 83 83 (77) 53 54 55 56 (41) 61 29 30 31 32 33 (2-3) Ep 55 22 23 24 Eth. 11 12 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 V 61 61 61 59 60 61 62 60 61 62 65 65 (50) 63 67 68 67 68 67 68 67 67 67 73 73 73 73 73 73 75 75 75 75 76 75 76 (84) 75 83 84 83 77 83 83 83 83 (77) 83 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 70 71 72 73 75 76 78 79 80 81 82 83 (77) Appendix 3: Two Additional Texts 17 We provide here the texts of the prayers for episcopal consecration from the Testamentum Domini and the Apostolic Constitutions. This will enable the reader to verify Dom Botte’s assertion, which we have quoted in our study: Thus, in the Syrian Rite the prayer for the patriarch’s ordination was none other than the one in the Testamentum Domini, a reworking of the Apostolic Tradition. The same is true for the Coptic Rite where the prayer for the bishop’s ordination is close to that of the Apostolic Constitutions, another reworking of Hippolytus’ text. (Botte, An Insider’s View of Liturgical Renewal, p.135) The Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Maronite Rite (Rahmani, p.30, cited in Dom Paul Cagin, pp.286-288.) 1 2 3 TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST CONSECRATION OF THE MARONITE PATRIARCH O God, Who didst make and form all things with power, Who founded the habitable world by the thought of Thy mind, Who bejeweled the crown of all things made by Thee, Who granted to these (men) in fear to follow Thy commands, Who gave us an intellect for truth, and made known to us Thy Good Spirit, O God Who didst make and form all things with power, Who founded the habitable world by the thought of Thy mind, Who bejeweled the crown of all things made by Thee, Who granted to us in fear to keep Thy commands, Who gave us an intellect for truth, and made known to us Thy Good Spirit, Who sent Thine only-begotten Son as our only pure Savior for our redemption, Deus et Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi, Pater misericordiam et Deus totius consolationis, qui in puris altis habitas perpetuo, qui es altissimus, laudabilis, terribilis, magnus et omnia videns, qui omnia, antequam fiant, nosti, apud quem omnia, antequam sint, jam erant, qui illuminationem dedisti ecclesiæ per gratiam Unigeniti Filii tui, prædefiniens ab initio illos qui cupiunt æquitatem et faciunt quae sancta sunt, habitare in mansionibus tuis; Deus Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi, Pater misericordiarum et Deus totius consolationis, qui in puris altis habitas perpetuo, qui es altissimus, laudabilis, terribilis, magnus et omnia videns, qui omnia, antequam fiant, nosti, apud quem omnia, antequam sunt, jam erant, qui illuminationem dedisti Ecclesiæ per gratiam unigeniti Filii tui, prædefiniens ab initio illos, qui cupiunt æquitatem et faciunt, quæ sancta sunt, habitare in mansionibus tuis ; Deus qui omnia in virtute fecisti et formasti, qui fundasti conceptu mentis orbem habitabilem, qui ornasti coronam omnium rerum a te factarum, qui dedisti eis in timore servare jussa tua, qui tribuisti nobis intellectum veritatis, et notum fecisti nobis Spiritum tuum illum bonum, O God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Father of mercies and God of all consolation, Who livest forever in the purest heavens, Who art the Most High, praiseworthy, fearsome, great and all-seeing, Who knowest all things before they are, in Whom all things already were, even before they are, Who granted the Church light through the grace of Thine only-begotten Son, choosing those from the beginning who thirst for justice and do what is holy and right, causing them to live in Thy many mansions, 4 (Denzinger, Ritus Orientalium, t.2, p.220.) Deus, qui omnia in virtute fecisti et firmasti ac fundasti conceptu mentis orbem habitabilem, qui ornasti coronam omnium rerum a te factarum, qui dedisti nobis in timore custodire mandata tua, qui tribuisti nobis intellectum veritatis et manifestasti nobis Spiritum tuum illum bonum, qui Filium tuum dilectum misisti unicum Salvatorem nostrum immaculatum pro redemptione nostra, O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Father of mercies and God of all consolation, Who livest forever in the purest heavens, Who art the Most High, praiseworthy, fearsome, great and all-seeing, Who knowest all things before they are, with Whom all things already were, even before they are, Who grantest the Church light through the grace of Thine only-begotten Son, choosing from the beginning those who thirst for justice and do what is holy, causing them to live in Thy many mansions, qui elegisti Abraham qui placuit tibi in fide, et Henoch sanctum transtulisti ad thesaurum vitæ, qui principes et sacerdotes ordinasti in sanctuario tuo altissimo; qui elegisti Abraham, qui placuit tibi in fide, et Henoch sanctum thesauro vitæ donasti, qui principes et sacerdotes ordinasti in sanctuario tuo altissimo, Domine; Who didst choose Abraham, who pleased Thee in faith, and Enoch whom Thou transported to heaven, Who hast ordained princes and priests unto Thy highest sanctuary, Who didst choose Abraham, who pleased Thee in faith, and Enoch whom Thou transported to heaven, who hast ordained princes and priests unto Thy highest sanctuary, O Lord; CONTINUED... www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • January 2006 18 (continued from previous page) TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST 5 Domine, qui vocasti eos ad laudandum et glorificandum in loco gloriæ tuæ nomen tuum et Unigeniti tui; Domine Deus, qui non reliquisti sublime sanctuarium tuum sine ministerio ante constitutionem mundi et ex mundi constitutione sanctuaria tua ornasti et decorasti princibus (i.e., pontificibus) et sacerdotibus fidelibus juxta formam cælorum tuorum. O Lord, Who hast called these (men) to praising and glorifying Thy Holy name in the place of glory, and of Thine only-begotten Son; Lord God, who hast not left Thy sublime sanctuary without a minister from before the forming of the world, and from the beginning of the world hast bejeweled Thy sanctuary, and decorated princes (i.e., popes) and faithful priests, in the form of Thy heavens. 6 7 8 9 CONSECRATION OF THE MARONITE PATRIARCH qui vocasti eos ad laudandum et glorificandum in loco gloriæ tuæ nomen tuum et Unigeniti tui; Domine Deus, qui non reliquisti sublime sanctuarium tuum sine ministerio ante constitutionem mundi; sanctuaria tua exornasti et decorasti principibus (pontificibus) et sacerdotibus fidelibus juxta formata coelorum tuorum. Who hast called these (men) to praising and glorifying Thy holy name in the place of glory, and of Thine only-begotten Son; O Lord God, who hast not left Thy sublime sanctuary without a minister from before the forming of the world, and from the beginning of the world hast bejeweled Thy sanctuary, and decorated princes (popes) and faithful priests, in the form of Thy heavens. Domine cui etiam nunc collaudari placuit, et dignatus es constituere principes (id est præsidentes) populo tuo, Tibi, Domine, etiam placuit modo laudari in hoc servo tuo, et dignum effecisti eum, præesse populo tuo; O Lord, Who art now pleased to be praised, and dost deign to constitute princes (that is presidents) for Thy people, May he, Thy servant, also please Thee in the way of praise, for Thou hast made him worthy to be set before Thy people, Illumina et effunde intelligentiam et gratiam spiritus tuus principalis, quem tradidisti dilecto Filio tuo Jesu Christo. illumina eum et effunde super eum gratiam et intelligentiam Spiritus tui principalis, quem tradidisti dilecto Filio tuo, Domino nostro Jesu Christo; May Thy governing spirit enlighten and pour forth understanding and grace, which Thou didst give to Thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ. May Thy governing spirit enlighten and pour forth understanding and grace, which Thou didst give to Thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ; Da, Deus, sapientiam, consilium, fortitudinem, virtutem, unitatem spiritus ad faciendum omnia per tuam cooperationem. da ei, Deus, sapientiam laudabilem, fortitudinem, virtutem, unitatem spiritus ad faciendum omnia per tuam cooperationem. Grant, O God, wisdom, counsel, fortitude, virtue, oneness of spirit, for the making of all things through Thy cooperation. Grant unto him, O God, praiseworthy wisdom, fortitude, virtue, oneness of spirit, for the making of all things through Thy cooperation, Concede, Deus, Spiritum tuum sanctum, qui datus fuit sancto tuo, mitte eum Ecclesiæ tuæ sanctæ et puræ, et omni loco, qui laudes tuas canit. Da, Domine, ut servus tuus iste placeat tibi, ad enarrationem gloriæ et laudem incessabilem, ad glorificationes perfectas, ad tempora propitia, ad orationes acceptas, ad postulationem fidelem, ad cogitationem rectam, ad cor humile, ad actionem vitæ et humilitatis ac veritatis, ad scientiam rectitudinis. Concede ei Deus, Spiritum tuum Sanctum, qui datus fuit sanctis tuis, confirma Ecclesiam tuam puram et sanctam et omnem locum tuum sanctum, largire etiam, Domine, ut servus tuus iste, qui placuit tibi, sit ad enarrationem gloriæ et laudem incessabilem, ad glorificationes perfectas et tempori aptas, ad orationes acceptas, postulationes fideles, cogitationes rectas, cor humile, ad actionem vitæ et humilitatis ac veritatis, ad scientiam rectitudinis. Grant, O God, Thy Holy Spirit, who wast given to Thy Holy One, send Him to Thy holy and pure Church, and to all places which sing Thy praises. Grant, O Lord, that this Thy servant may please Thee, for the proclaiming of glory and inexpressible praise, for the perfection of glorifications, for temporal goods, for acceptable prayers, for preaching the Faith, for right knowing, for a humble heart, for the actions of life and humility and truth, and for the knowing of rightness. Grant unto him, O God, Thy Holy Spirit, Who was given to Thy saints; make Thy Church pure and holy, and all Thy holy places; grant also, O Lord, that this Thy servant, who has pleased Thee, may proclaim Thy glory and unspeakable praise, for the perfection of glorifications, for temporal goods, for acceptable prayers, for faithful prayers, right thoughts, a humble heart, for the actions of life, and humility, and truth, and for knowing the truth. THE ANGELUS • January 2006 www.angeluspress.org CONTINUED... (continued from previous page) 10 11 12 13 19 TESTAMENT OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST CONSECRATION OF THE MARONITE PATRIARCH O Father, Who knowest the hearts of all, grant to this Thy servant, whom Thou hast chosen for the Episcopate, that he would feed Thy holy flock, and perform the functions of the High Priesthood without blame, day and night serving Thee, grant that Thy face appear, and make him worthy O Father, Who knowest the hearts of all, pour forth Thy strength upon this Thy servant, whom Thou hast chosen for the priesthood, that he may feed Thy entire holy flock, and that he may perform the office of the High Priesthood without blame, day and night serving Thee; grant also that to him Thy face may appear, and make him worthy, qui tibi diligenter et cum omni timore offerat oblationes Ecclesiæ sanctæ tuæ impertire ei, ut habeat tuum Spiritum pollentem potestate ad solvenda omnia ligamina, quemadmodum Apostolis tuis concessisti. qui tibi attente et cum omni timore offerat oblationes Ecclesiæ tuæ sanctæ, et impertire ei totam potestatem, quam dedisti sanctis Apostolis tuis, ut potestate Spiritus tui solvat omnia ligamina, who shall diligently and with all fear offer the oblations of Thy Holy Church, command that he have Thy promised spirit, with the power of loosening all bonds, as Thou didst give to Thy Apostles, who shall devoutly and with all fear offer the oblations of Thy Holy Church, grant unto him the fullness of power, which Thou didst give to Thy Apostles, that by the power of Thy Spirit he may loosen all bonds, Ut placeat tibi in humilitate, imple illum charitate, scientia, discretione, disciplina, perfectione, magnanimitate cum puro corde, dum orat pro populo, dum contristatur pro his qui stulte agunt, eosque ad auxilium trahit, dum offert tibi laudes, confessiones ac orationes, in odorem suavitatis, et ut placeat tibi in pura humilitate, caritate illum imple, scientia, discretione, disciplina, perfectione, magnanimitate cum puro corde, dum orat pro populo, dum contristatur pro his, qui stulte agunt, eosque ad auxilium trahit, dum offert tibi laudes et confessiones ac orationes in odorem suavitatis That he may please Thee in humility, fill him with charity, knowledge, discernment, learning, perfection, magnanimity with a pure heart, while he prays for the people, while he weeps for those who act foolishly, may he draw them to seek help, while he offers Thee praise, prayer and acclaim in the odor of sweetness, that he may please Thee in pure humility, fill him with charity, knowledge, discernment, learning, perfection, magnanimity with a pure heart, while he prays for the people, while he weeps for those who act foolishly; may he draw them to seek help, while he offers Thee praise, prayer and acclaim in the odor of sweetness, per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum una cum Spiritu sancto ante sæcula et nunc et omni tempore et in generationem generationum et in sæcula interminabilia sæculorum. Amen. per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum dilectum, per quem tibi gloria, honor et imperium una cum Spiritu tuo Sancto ab æterno et nunc et omni tempore et in generationem generationum et in sæcula infinita. Amen. through our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, together with the Holy Ghost, before all ages, now, and in all times, and unto all generations, and unto endless ages. Amen. through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son, through Whom may Thou be glorified and honored, and with Thy Holy Spirit, from all eternity, now, and in all times, and unto all generations, and unto endless ages. Amen. Pater qui nosti corda omnium, huic servo tuo, quem elegisti ad episcopatum, ut pascat gregem tuum sanctum et summo sacerdotio fungatur sine querela, die ac nocte tibi ministrans, concede ut appareat facies tua, eumque dignum redde Pater, qui nosti corda omnium, effunde virtutem tuam super hunc servum tuum, quem elegisti ad patriarchatum, ut pascat universum gregem tuum sanctum et summo sacerdotio fungatur sine querela, die ac nocte tibi ministrans, et concede, ut illi appareat facies tua, eumque dignum redde, END www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • January 2006 20 1 2 3 (PG 1, 1074-1075.) APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS (Denzinger, Ritus Orientalium, t.2, p.23.) COPTIC RITE OF EPISCOPAL ORDINATION Qui es, vere Domine, Deus, omnipotens, Dominator Domine Deus omnipotens Who art truly the Lord, God, almighty, O Lord God Almighty, solus ingenitus ac regem non habens qui semper es, et ante sæcula exsistis; qui nullo indiges, omnemque causam atque ortum superas; solus verus, solus sapiens; qui solus Altissimus es, natura invisibilis cujus cognitio, expers principii; solus bonus ac incomparabilis; qui omnia nosti ante quam fiant occultorum cognitor, innacessus; Domino carens; (See Line 5) alone and unbegotten, having no superior, Who always art, and were before all ages, Who lackest nothing, Who art above all causes, alone true, alone wise, Who alone art the Most High, Whose nature and knowledge is invisible, Who hast no beginning, alone good and incomparable, Who knowest all things before they are, knower of all hidden things, inaccessible, having no lord above Thee, 4 Deus et Pater unigeniti Filii tui, Dei ac Servatoris nostri, conditor universorum per ipsum, provisor, tutor; Pater Domini nostri et Dei nostri et Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi, Father of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, O God and Father of Thine only-begotten Son, our God and Savior, maker of all things through Him, provider, teacher, (See Line 3) 5 une sole ingenite, sine principio nullum regem habens super te, qui es semper et es ante sæcula, infinite et sole altissime, sole sapiens , sole bone, invisibilis in natura tua, principii expers, et apud quem est scientia incomprehensibilis et incomparabilis, cognoscens occulta, cognoscens omnia antequam fiant, the One and Only Begotten, without beginning, having no superior, Who always art, and were before all ages, infinite and most high, alone wise, alone good, invisible in Thy nature, without beginning, with Whom is incomprehensible and incomparable knowledge, Who knowest all hidden things, knowing all before it comes to be, Pater misercordiarum, et Deus totius consolationis; 6 Father of mercies, and God of all consolation, N.B.: For the ordination of Coptic metropolitans and patriarchs: Pater misericordiarum et Deus omnis consolationis. Father of mercies and God of every comfort. For the ordination of Maronite metropolitans: Qui es Pater misericordiarum et Deus totius creaturae. Who art the Father of mercies and the God of every creature. 7 qui in altis habitas, et humilia respicis. Tu qui dedisti leges ac regulas Ecclesiæ, per Christi tui adventum in carne, qui es in altissimis et respicis humiles, qui dedisti statuta ecclesiastica per unigenitum Filium tuum Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, Who livest in heaven, and seest all things below, Thou who didst give laws and rules to the Church, through the coming of Thy Christ in the flesh, Who dwellest on high and seest all things below, Who didst give laws to the Church through Thine only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 (continued from previous page) COPTIC RITE OF EPISCOPAL ORDINATION APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS 8 9 qui ab initio prestitisti sacerdotes in populi tui curationem. qui constituisti sacerdotes ab initio, ut adsisterent populo tuo, Who from the beginning granted priests for the healing of Thy people, Who made priests from the beginning that they would assist Thy people, Abelem in primis, Sethum, Enosum, Henochum, Noam, Melchisedecum et Jobum; qui constituisti Abrahamum et cæteros patriarchas, cum fidelibus tuis famulis, Moyse, Aarone, Eleazaro, Phinee; qui in ipsis desumpsisti principes, et sacerdotes in tabernaculo testimonii; qui Samuelem elegisti in sacerdotem ac prophetam; N.B.: For the ordination of a Coptic metropolitan or patriarch: first Abel, then Seth, Enos, Enoch, Noah, Melchisedech and Job, Who made Abraham and the patriarchs, with Thy faithful servants Moses, Aaron, Eleazar, Phineas, Who in them gave us princes and priests in the Ark of the Covenant, Who chose Samuel as a priest and prophet, Qui elegisti Abraham dilectum tuum ad hæreditatem fidei, et Enoch sanctum transtulisti ad thesauros lucis, propterea quod tibi placuit, qui donasti Moysi mansuetudinem et Aaron plenitudinem sacerdotii, qui unxisti reges ab initio et principes, ut judicarent populum tuum in veritate. Who didst choose Thy beloved Abraham for the inheritance of faith, and transported holy Enoch to the kingdom of light because he was pleasing to Thee; Who didst give Moses meekness and Aaron the fullness of priesthood; Who anointed kings and princes from the beginning that they might rule Thy people in truth. For the ordination of a Maronite metropolitan: Abelem et Seth et Enos et Cainan et Malalaielem et Jared et Henoch et Matusalem et Lamech et Noe et Sem et Melchisedech et Job. Qui apparuisti Abrahamo, Isaaco, Jacobo, Moysi, et reliquis patriarchis cum illis fidelibus et tibi placentibus, Aaron sacerdote et Eleezaro et Phinees, ex quibus constitit sacerdotium et lex testimonii; qui Samuelem elegisti sacerdotem et prophetam. Abel and Seth and Cainan and Malaleel and Jared and Henoch and Mathusala and Lamech and Noe and Sem and Melchisedech and Job. Who appeared to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and to other patriarchs and faithful, pleasing servants, the priest Aaron and Eleazar and Phineas, from whom Thou didst establish the priesthood and the law of testament; Who chose Samuel as priest and prophet, 10 11 12 13 qui sanctuarium tuum sine ministris non reliquisti; qui benevolentia prosecutus es eos in quibus voluisti celebrari. qui non reliquisti locum tuum sanctum sine ministerio, qui complacuisti tibi glorificari in iis, quos elegisti: Who hast not left Thy sanctuary without a minister, Who hast followed with kindness those by whom Thou wishest to be praised. Who hast not left Thy holy place without a minister to please and glorify Thee, upon those whom Thou hast chosen, Ipse nunc quoque, intercessu Christi tui, per nos infunde virtutem principalis tui Spiritus, tu iterum nunc effunde virtutem Spiritus tui hegemonici May Thou now also, through us, by the intercession of Thy Christ, pour forth the strength of Thy governing Spirit, pour forth again, in Thy Name, the strength of Thy encompassing Spirit qui subministratur per dilectum Filium tuum Jesum Christum, N.B.: For the ordination of a Maronite metropolitan: Who servest through Thy beloved Son Jesus Christ, Ut ministerium exhibeat Filio tuo dilecto Domino nostro Jesus Christo. That he may show himself a minister to Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. quemque voluntate tua donavit sanctis apostolis ad te æternum Deum pertinentibus. quem donasti Apostolis sanctis tuis which Thou gave to Thy holy Apostles. and Who by Thy will gavest to the holy Apostles all things pertaining to Thee, Eternal God, 14 Da in nomine tuo, in nomine tuo. Da igitur Grant in Thy name, Grant therefore 15 Deus cognitor cordis, CONTINUED... www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • January 2006 O God, who knowest the hearts of all, (continued from previous page) (continued from previous page) 22 APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS hanc eandem gratiam 16 17 18 19 this same grace, huic servo tuo, electo a te in episcopum, pascere sanctum tuum gregem, et pontificem tuum agere inculpate ministrantem nocte ac die; et placando faciem tuam, super servum tuum N., quem elegisti in episcopum, ut pasceret gregem tuum sanctum, et ut tibi esset in ministrum irreprehensibilem, orans ante benignitatem tuam die ac nocte, to this Thy servant, chosen by Thee as a Bishop, that he would feed Thy holy flock, and conduct the office of the priesthood without fault, serving Thee night and day, being pleasing before Thy face, to Thy servant N., whom Thou hast chosen to be a Bishop, that he may feed Thy holy flock, that he may serve Thee without fault, praying to Thy Goodness day and night, congregare numerum eorum qui salvi fiunt, ac offerre tibi dona sanctæ tuæ Ecclesiæ. congregans [conservans?] numerum salvandorum, offerens tibi dona in sanctis ecclesiis. that he may gather in the number of those who are saved, and offer to Thee the gifts of Thy holy Church. Da illi, Domine omnipotens, per Christum tuum participationem sancti Spiritus; ut habeat potestatem remittendi peccata secundum mandatum tuum, dandi cleros seu ordines ecclesiasticos juxta præceptum tuum, et solvendi omne vinculum secundum potestatem quam tribuisti apostolis; Grant unto him, O Almighty God, through Thy Christ, the participation of the Holy Ghost, that he may have the power of forgiving sins according to Thy command, and the power of giving priests in Holy Orders according to Thy precept, and the power of loosening all bonds according to the power which Thou didst give to the Apostles, 22 gathering [preserving?] in the number of those saved, offering to Thee the gifts in the holy churches, Ita, Pater omnipotens, per Christum tuum, da ei unitatem Spiritus Sancti tui, ut sit ipsi potestas dimittendi peccata secundum mandatum unigeniti tui Filii Jesu Christi Domini nostri, constituendi cleros secundum mandatum ejus ad sanctuarium, et solvendi vincula omnia ecclesiastica, Therefore, Almighty Father, through Thy Christ, grant unto him oneness with Thy Holy Spirit, that he may have the power of forgiving sins according to the command of Thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and the power of consecrating priests for the sanctuary according to His command, and the power of loosening all ecclesiastical bonds, faciendi domos novas orationis, et sanctificandi altaria; 20 21 COPTIC RITE OF EPISCOPAL ORDINATION and the power of creating new houses of prayer, and the power of sanctifying altars, utque tibi placeat in mansuetudine, et mundo corde, constanter, inculpate ac irreprehensibiliter offerendo tibi purum et incruentum sacrificium, quod per Christum constituisti mysterium Novi Testamenti, in odorem suavitatis; et placent tibi in mansuetudine et corde humili, offerens tibi in innocentia et irreprehensibilitate sacrificium sanctum incruentum, mysterium hujus Testamenti Novi, in odorem suavitatis. and that he may please Thee in his mildness, with a pure heart, constantly, without guile or blame, offering to Thee the pure and unblemished sacrifice, which through Christ Thou hast made the sacrament of the New Covenant, in the odor of sweetness, and may he please Thee in mildness and with a humble heart, offering to Thee with innocence and blamelessness the unblemished sacrifice, the sacrament of this New Covenant, in the odor of sweetness. per sanctum Filium tuum Jesum Christum, Deum ac Salvatorem nostrum; per quem tibi gloria, honor et cultus in sancto Spiritu, nunc, et semper, et in sæcula sæculorum. Amen. N.B.: For the ordination of a Coptic metropolitan or patriarch: through Thy Holy Son Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, through Whom be glory, honor, and worship to Thee, with the Holy Ghost now and forever and unto endless ages. Amen. Per quem gloria et honor et potestas et adoratio te decet cum ispo et Spiritu sancto vivificante et consubstantiali tecum nunc, etc. Through whom it is fitting to give glory, honor, power, and adoration to Thee, with Him and with the life-giving Holy Spirit, consubstantial with Thee, now, etc. For the ordination of a Maronite metropolitan: THE ANGELUS • January 2006 www.angeluspress.org Per Filium tuum Jesum Christum, Deum Salvatorem nostrum, per quem tibi convenit gloria et honor et adoratio et Spiritui sancto æqualiter. Through Thy Son Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, through Whom it is meet to give Thee and to the Holy Spirit equally, glory and honor and adoration. END si si no no THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT Let your speech be, “Yes, yes,” “No, no”; whatever is beyond these comes from the evil one. (Mt. 5:37) ● January 2006 Reprint #67 F r. R o g e r C a l m e l , O . P. OF THE CHURCH AND THE POPE This essay by Fr. Roger Calmel, O.P. (1914-75) helps us in these difficult times to preserve our love of the Church. More than 30 years after its first publication, this article retains all its relevance, so much so that it even seems to have been written for our time, in which the crisis in the Church deepens at an unprecedented pace. This essay will help the reader to think clearly, keep the Faith, and maintain serenity in the troubled times we are navigating. 23 THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT “My country has hurt me,” wrote a young poet in 1944 during the purge1 when the head of state [Charles De Gaulle] implacably pursued the sinister job that had been in the works for more than four years. My country hurt me: this is not a truth that one shouts from the rooftop. It is rather a secret one whispers to oneself, with great sorrow, while trying nonetheless to keep hope. When I was in Spain during the 1950’s, I remember the extreme reserve with which friends, regardless of their political allegiance, would let escape certain details about “our war.” Their country was still hurting them. But when it is no longer a question of one’s temporal motherland, when it is a question, not of the Church considered in herself, for from this perspective she is holy and indefectible, but of the visible head of the Church; when it is question of the current holder2 of the Roman primacy, how shall we come to grips with it, and what is the right tone to adopt as we acknowledge to ourselves in a low voice: Ah! Rome has hurt me! Undoubtedly, the publications of the “good” Catholic press will not fail to inform us that, in the last 2,000 years, the Lord’s Church has never known such a splendid pontificate! But who takes these pronouncements of the establishment’s hallelujah choir seriously? When we see what is being taught and practiced throughout the Church under today’s pontificate, or rather when we observe what has ceased to be taught and practiced, and how an apparent Church, which passes itself off as the real Church, no longer knows how to baptize children, bury the dead, worthily celebrate holy Mass, absolve sins in confession; when we apprehensively watch the spread of Protestantizing influences swelling like a contaminated tide without the holder of supreme power energetically giving the order to lock the sluice gate; in a word, when we face up to what is happening, we are obliged to say: Ah! Rome has hurt me. And we all know that it involves something other than the iniquities, in a sense private, which the holders of the Roman primacy were too often wont to commit during the course of history. In those cases the victims, more or less maltreated, could recover from it relatively easily by being more vigilant over their personal sanctification. We must always watch over our sanctification. Only, and this is what was never seen in the past to such a degree, the iniquity allowed to happen by the one who today occupies the throne of Peter consists in his abandoning the very means of sanctification to the maneuvers of the innovators and the negators. He allows sound doctrine, the sacraments, the Mass, to be systematically undermined. This throws us into a 24 great danger. If sanctification has not been rendered all together impossible, it is much more difficult. It is also much more urgent. At such a perilous juncture, is it still possible for the simple faithful, the little sheep of the immense flock of Jesus Christ and His vicar not to lose heart, not to become the prey of an immense apparatus which progressively reduces them to changing their faith, worship, religious habit, and religious life–in a word, to changing their religion? Ah! Rome has hurt me! It would be truly meet and just to repeat gently to oneself the words of truth, the simple words of supernatural doctrine learned in catechism, so as not to add to the harm, but rather to let oneself be profoundly persuaded by the teaching of Revelation, that one day Rome will be healed; that the impostor Church will soon be officially unmasked. Suddenly it will crumple into dust, because its principal strength comes from the fact that its intrinsic lie passes for truth, since it has never been effectively disavowed from above. In the midst of such great distress, one would like to speak in words that are not out of phase with the mysterious, wordless discourse that the Holy Ghost murmurs to the heart of the Church. But where shall I begin? Doubtlessly, by recalling the first truth touching the dominion of Jesus Christ over His Church. He wanted a Church having at its head the Bishop of Rome, who is His visible vicar and at the same time the Bishop of the bishops and of the entire flock. He conferred upon him the prerogative of the rock so that the edifice might never collapse. He prayed that he at least, among all the bishops, not make shipwreck of the faith, so that, having converted after the failures from which he would not necessarily be preserved, he confirm his brethren in the faith; or, if it is not himself in person who confirms his brethren, that it be one of his closest successors. Such is undoubtedly the first consoling thought that the Holy Ghost suggests to our hearts in these desolate days in which Rome has been at least partially invaded by darkness: there is no Church without the infallible vicar of Christ endowed with the primacy. Moreover, whatever the miseries, even in the religious domain, of this visible and temporary vicar of Jesus Christ, it is still Jesus Himself who governs His Church, and who governs His vicar in the government of the Church; who governs in such wise that His vicar cannot engage his supreme authority in the upheavals or betrayals that would change the religion. For, by virtue of His sovereignly efficacious Passion, the divine power of Christ’s regency in heaven reaches that far. He conducts His Church both from within and from without, and He has dominion over the antagonistic world. THE ANGELUS January 2006 Modernist Strategy The strategy of modernism has been elaborated in two stages: firstly, to get heretical parallel authorities whose strings they pull to be mixed with the regular hierarchy; then, engage in a self-styled pastoral activity for universal renewal which either omits or systematically falsifies doctrinal truth, which refuses the sacraments, or which makes the rites doubtful. The great cunning of the modernists is to use this pastoral approach from Hell, both to transmute the holy doctrine confided by the Word of God to His hierarchical Church, and then to alter or even annul the sacred signs, givers of grace, of which the Church is the faithful dispenser. Indeed, there is a head of the Church who is always infallible, always impeccable, always holy, with no interruption or halt in his work of sanctification. And that head is the one head, for all the others, even the highest, merely hold their authority by him and for him. Now, this head, holy and without stain, absolutely separated from sinners and elevated above the heavens, is not the Pope; it is he of whom the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks so magnificently; it is the Sovereign High Priest, Jesus Christ. Papal Authority Before ascending into heaven and becoming invisible to our eyes, Jesus, our Redeemer by the Cross, wanted to establish for His Church, above and beyond numerous particular ministers, a unique universal minister, a visible vicar, who alone holds supreme jurisdiction. He heaped him with prerogatives: Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Mt. 16:18-19). Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith to him: Feed my lambs....Feed my sheep ( Jn. 21:16-18). But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren (Lk. 22:32). Now, if the Pope is the visible vicar of Jesus, who has ascended into the invisible heavens, he is nothing more than vicar: vices gerens, he holds the place but he remains another. The grace that gives life to the mystical Body does not derive from the Pope. Grace, for the Pope as for us, derives from the one Lord Jesus Christ. The same holds for the light of Revelation. He has a singular role as the guardian of the means of grace, of the seven sacraments as well as of revealed truth. He is specially assisted to be the guardian and faithful servant. Yet, for his authority to receive a privileged assistance in its exercise, it must not fail to be exerted. Besides, if he is preserved from error THE ANGELUS January 2006 when he engages his authority in such a way that it is infallible, he can err in other cases. But should he do wrong in matters that do not engage papal infallibility, that does not prevent the unique head of the Church, the invisible High Priest, from continuing the governance of His Church; it changes neither the efficacy of His grace nor the truth of His law. It cannot make Him powerless to limit the failings of His visible vicar nor to procure, without too much delay, a new and worthy Pope, to repair what his predecessor allowed to be spoiled or destroyed, for the duration of the insufficiencies, weaknesses, and even partial betrayals of a Pope do not exceed the duration of his mortal existence. Since He has returned to heaven, Jesus has chosen and procured 263 Popes. Some, just a small number, have been such faithful vicars that we invoke them as friends of God and holy intercessors. A still smaller number have fallen into very serious breaches. Yet the great number have been suitable. None of them, while still Pope, has betrayed nor could betray to the point of explicitly teaching heresy with the fullness of his authority. This being the situation of each Pope and of the succession of Popes in relation to the head of the Church who reigns in heaven, the weaknesses of one Pope must not make us forget in the least the solidity and the sanctity of our Savior’s dominion, nor prevent us from seeing the power of Jesus and His wisdom, who holds in His hand even the inadequate Popes, and who contains their inadequacy within strict bounds. But to have this confidence in the sovereign, invisible head of the Church without straining to deny the serious failings from which, despite his prerogatives, the visible vicar, the Bishop of Rome, the key-bearer of the kingdom of heaven, is not necessarily exempt; in order to place in Jesus this realistic trust which does not evade the mystery of the successor of Peter with his heaven-guaranteed privileges and his human fallibility; so that this overwhelming distress caused by the occupant of the papacy might be subsumed in the theological virtue of hope we place in the Sovereign Priest, obviously our interior life must be centered on Jesus Christ, and not the Pope. It goes without saying that our interior life, while taking into account the Pope and the hierarchy, must be established, not in the hierarchy and in the Pope, but in the Divine Pontiff, in the priest which is the Word Incarnate, Redeemer, on whom the visible, supreme vicar depends even more than the other priests: More than the others, for he is in the hand of Jesus Christ in view of a function without equivalent among the others. More than any other, and in a more eminent and unique way, he cannot THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT 25 THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT leave off confirming his brethren in the faith–he or his successor. The Church is not the mystical body of the Pope; the Church with the Pope is the mystical Body of Christ. When the interior life of Christians is more and more focused on Jesus Christ, they do not despair, even when they suffer an agony over the failings of a Pope, be it an Honorius I or the rival Popes of the Middle Ages, or be it, at the extreme limit, a Pope who fails according to the new possibilities of failing offered by modernism. When Jesus Christ is the principle and soul of the interior life of Christians, they do not feel the need to lie to themselves about the failures of a Pope in order to remain assured of his prerogatives; they know that these failures will never reach such a degree that Jesus would cease to govern His Church because He would have been effectively prevented by His vicar. He would yet hold such an erring Pope in His hand, preventing him from ever engaging his authority for the perversion of the faith which he received from above. True Obedience An interior life centered as it should be on Jesus Christ and not on the Pope would not exclude the Pope, or else it would cease to be a Christian interior life. An interior life focused as it should be on the Lord Jesus thus includes the vicar of Jesus Christ and obedience to this vicar, but God served first; that is to say, that this obedience, far from being unconditional, is always practiced in the light of theological faith and the natural law. We live by and for Jesus Christ, thanks to His Church, which is governed by the Pope, whom we obey in all that is of his purview. We do not live by and for the Pope as if he had acquired for us eternal redemption; that is why Christian obedience can not always nor in everything identify the Pope with Jesus Christ. What ordinarily happens is that the vicar of Christ governs sufficiently in conformity with the Apostolic tradition so as not to provoke major conflicts in the consciences of docile Catholics. But occasionally it can be otherwise. And exceptionally things can be such as to cause the faithful to legitimately wonder how they can hold fast to tradition if they follow the directives of this Pope? The interior life of a son of the Church who would set aside the articles of Faith concerning the Pope, obedience to his legitimate orders, and prayer for him would have ceased to be Catholic. On the other hand, an interior life which includes yielding to the Pope unconditionally, that is to say, blindly in everything and always, is an interior life which is 26 necessarily subject to human respect, which is not free with regard to creatures, which is exposed to many occasions of compromise. In his interior life, the true son of the Church having received with his whole heart the articles of the faith with regard to the vicar of Christ prays for him faithfully and obeys him willingly, but only in the light, that is to say, only while the Apostolic tradition and, of course, the natural law are preserved whole and entire. Holy Church, Sinful Churchmen Let us remember the great prayer at the beginning of the Roman Canon, in which the priest, having earnestly implored the most clement Father by His Son Jesus Christ, to sanctify the spotless sacrifice offered in first place for Ecclesia tua sancta catholica, continues thus: “...una cum famulo tuo Papa nostro...et Antistite nostro....” The Church has never envisaged him saying: “una cum SANCTO famulo tu Papa nostro et SANCTO Antistite nostro,” while she does have him say, “for Thy HOLY Church.” The Pope, unlike the Church, is not necessarily holy. The Church is holy with sinful members, among whom are we ourselves; sinful members who, alas! do not pursue or no longer pursue holiness. It can even happen that the Pope himself figures in this category. God knows. In any case, the condition of the head of the holy Church being what it is, that is to say not necessarily that of a saint, we should not let ourselves be scandalized if trials, sometimes very cruel trials, befall the Church because of her visible head in person. We must not let ourselves be scandalized from the fact that, subjects of the Pope, we cannot, after all, follow him blindly, unconditionally, always and in all. Layman’s Right The Lord, by the Pope and the hierarchy–by the hierarchy subject to the Pope–governs His Church in such a way that it is always secure in the possession and understanding of its tradition. On the truths of the catechism, on the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice and on the sacraments, on the fundamental structure of the hierarchy, on the states of life and the call to perfect love, let us say on all the major points of tradition, the Church is assisted in such way that any baptized Catholic having the faith clearly knows what he must hold. Thus the simple Christian who, consulting tradition on a major point known to all, would refuse to follow a priest, a bishop, an episcopal conference, or even a Pope who would ruin tradition on this point, would not, as some charge, be showing signs characteristic of private judgment or pride; for it is not pride or insubordination to discern what the tradition is on major points, or to refuse to betray them. Whatever may be the collegiality of bishops, for example, or the secretary of the Roman Congregation THE ANGELUS January 2006 who uses subterfuge to arrange things so that Catholic priests end up celebrating the Mass without giving any mark of adoration, no exterior sign of faith in the sacred mysteries, every faithful Catholic knows that it is inadmissible to celebrate Mass making this display of non-faith. One who would refuse to go to such a Mass is not exercising private judgment; he is not a rebel. He is a faithful Catholic established in a tradition that comes from the Apostles and which no one in the Church can change. For no one in the Church, whatever his hierarchical rank, be it ever so high, no one has the power to change the Church or the Apostolic tradition. On all the major points, the Apostolic tradition is quite clear. There is no need to scrutinize it through a magnifying glass, nor to be a cardinal or a prefect of some Roman dicastery to know what is against it. It is enough to have been instructed by the catechism and the liturgy prior to the modernist corruption. Too often, when it is a question of not cutting oneself off from Rome, the faithful and priests have been formed in the sense of a partly worldly fear in such a way that they feel panic-stricken, that they are shaken in their consciences and they no longer examine anything once the first passer-by accuses them of not being with Rome. A truly Christian formation, on the contrary, teaches us to be careful to be in union with Rome not in fear or without discernment, but in light and peace according to a filial fear in the Faith. For it must be said, first of all, that on the major points the tradition of the Church is established, certain, irreformable; then, that every Christian instructed in the rudiments of the Faith, knows them without hesitation; thirdly, that it is faith and not private interpretation which makes us discern them, just as it is obedience, piety and love, and not insubordination, which make us uphold this tradition; fourthly, that the attempts of the hierarchy or the weaknesses of the Pope which would tend to upset this tradition or let this tradition be upset will one day be overturned, while Tradition will triumph. Tradition Will Triumph We are at peace on this point. Whatever may be the hypocritical arms placed by modernism in the hands of the episcopal collegialities and even of the vicar of Christ, tradition will indeed triumph: solemn baptism, for example, which includes the anathemas against the accursed devil will not be excluded for long; the tradition of not absolving sins except after individual confession will not be excluded for long; the tradition of the traditional Catholic Mass, Latin and Gregorian, with the language, Canon, and gestures in conformity with the Roman Missal of St. Pius V, will soon be restored to honor; the tradition of the Catechism of Trent, or of a manual exactly in conformity with it, will be restored without delay. On the major points of dogma, morals, the sacraments, the states of life, the perfection to which we are called, the tradition of the Church is known by the members of the Church whatever their rank. They hold fast to it without a bad conscience, even if the hierarchical guardians of this tradition try to intimidate them or throw them into confusion; even if they persecute them with the bitter refinements of modernist inquisitors. They are very assured that by keeping the tradition they do not cut themselves off from the visible vicar of Christ. For the visible vicar of Christ is governed by Christ in such wise that he cannot transmute the tradition of the Church, nor make it fall into oblivion. If by misfortune he should try to do it, either he or his immediate successors will be obliged to proclaim from on high what remains forever living in the Church’s memory: the Apostolic tradition. The Spouse of Christ stands no chance of losing her memory. “Quod Ubique, Quod Semper...” As for those who say that tradition is a synonym of sclerosis, or that progress occurs by opposing tradition, in short, those who conjure up the mirages of an absurd philosophy of becoming, I recommend the reading of St. Vincent of Lerins3 in his Commonitorium and the careful studying of Church history: dogma, sacraments, fundamental constitution, spiritual life, in order to descry the essential difference which exists between “going forward” and “going astray”; between having “advanced ideas” and “advancing according to right ideas”; in short, distinguishing between profectus (development) and permutatio (change). Even more so than in times of peace, it has become useful and salutary to us to meditate on the Church’s trials by the light of faith. We might be tempted to reduce these trials to persecutions and attacks coming from the outside. But enemies from within are, after all, even more to be feared: they know better the weak points; they can wound or poison where or when it is least expected; the scandal they provoke is much more difficult to overcome. Thus, in a parish, an anti-religious institution will never succeed, whatever it does, in ruining the faithful as much as a high-living, modernist priest. Equally, the defrocking of a simple priest, though more sensational, has consequences far less baneful than the negligence or treason of the bishop. THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT THE ANGELUS January 2006 27 THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT Ultimate Scandal Be that as it may, it is certain that if the bishop betrays the Catholic faith, even without abandoning it, he imposes on the Church a much heavier trial than the simple priest who takes a wife and ceases to offer holy Mass. What then can be said of the kind of trials that the Church of Jesus Christ would suffer were it to come by the Pope, by the vicar of Jesus Christ in person? Merely raising this question is enough to make some hide their faces in their hands and push them to the brink of crying blasphemy. The mere thought torments them. They refuse to face up to a trial of this gravity. I understand their feeling. I am not unaware that a sort of vertigo can grip the soul when it is placed in the presence of some iniquities. “Sinite usque huc– Suffer ye thus far,”3 Jesus in agony said to the three Apostles when the rabble of the high priest came to arrest Him, drag Him before the tribunal and to death, Him who is the eternal High Priest. Sinite usque huc. It is as if the Lord were saying: “The scandal can indeed go that far, but let it go, and follow my recommendation: Watch and pray, for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Sinite ad huc: “By my consent to drink the chalice, I have merited for you every grace while you were sleeping and left me all alone. I obtained for you in particular the grace of a supernatural strength that is up to every trial, even the trial that can come upon the Church by the Pope’s own doing. I have made you able to escape even that vertigo.” On the subject of this extraordinary trial there is what Church history says and what Revelation about the Church does not say. For nowhere does Revelation about the Church say that the Popes will never sin by negligence, cowardice, or worldliness in the keeping and defense of the Apostolic tradition. We know that they will never sin by making the faithful believe in another religion: that is the sin from which they are preserved by the nature of their mandate. And when they engage their authority in such a way as to invoke their infallibility, it is Christ Himself who speaks to us and instructs us: that is the privilege with which they are robed as soon as they become successors of Peter. But if Revelation instructs us in the prerogatives of the papacy, nowhere does it say that when he exercises his authority below the threshold of infallibility, a Pope will never become Satan’s pawn and favor heresy up to a certain point. Likewise, it is not written in sacred Scripture that, though he cannot formally teach another religion, a Pope will never go so far as to sabotage the conditions indispensable to the defense of the true religion. The 28 possibility of such a defection is even considerably favored by modernism. Thus, Revelation about the Pope nowhere guarantees that the vicar of Christ will never inflict on the Church the trial of some major scandals; I speak of serious scandals, not just in the domain of private morals, but rather in the religious sphere properly socalled, and, so to speak, in the ecclesiastical domain of faith and morals. In fact, the Church’s history teaches us that this sort of trial inflicted by the Pope has not been spared the Church, although it has been rare and not prolonged to an acute stage. It is the contrary that would be astonishing, when we consider the small number of canonized Popes since the time of Gregory VII who are invoked and venerated as the friends and saints of God. And it is more astonishing still that the Popes who suffered very cruel torments, like Pius VI or Pius VII, were never prayed to as saints, neither by the Vox Ecclesiae, nor by the Vox populi. If these Pontiffs, who nonetheless had to suffer so much as Popes, did not bear their pain with such a degree of charity as to be canonized saints, how can we be astonished that other Popes, who looked upon their position from a worldly point of view, would commit serious breaches or inflict on the Church of Christ an especially fearful and harrowing trial. When they are reduced to the extremity of having such Popes, the faithful, priests and bishops who want to live the life of the Church take great care not only to pray for the Supreme Pontiff who is the subject of great affliction for the Church, but first and foremost they cleave to the Apostolic tradition, the tradition concerning dogma, the missal and the ritual, the tradition on the interior life and on the universal call to perfect charity in Christ. St. Vincent Ferrer In such a juncture, the mission of the Friar Preacher who, undoubtedly among all the saints worked the most directly for the papacy, that son of St. Dominic, Vincent Ferrer (1350?-1419), is particularly enlightening. Angel of Judgment, Legate a latere Christi (from the side of Christ), causing the deposition of a Pope after exercising towards him infinite patience, Vincent Ferrer is also, and from the same inspiration, the intrepid missionary full of benignity, abounding in prodigies and miracles, who announces the Gospel to the immense multitude of the Christian people. He carries in his heart of an apostle not only the Supreme Pontiff, so enigmatic, obstinate and hard, but also the whole flock of Christ, the multitude of the hapless, humble folk, the “turba magna ex omnibus tribubus et populis et linguis–the great multitude...of all...tribes, and peoples, and tongues” (Apoc. 7:9). Vincent understood that the major concern of the vicar of Christ was not, indeed was far from, faithfully serving the holy Church. THE ANGELUS January 2006 The Pope was placing the satisfaction of his own obscure will to power ahead of everything. But if, at least among the faithful, the sense of the life of the Church could be reawakened, the concern to live in conformity with the dogmas and the sacraments received in the Apostolic tradition, if a pure and mighty wind of prayer and conversion were to unfurl upon this languishing and desolate Christendom, then doubtlessly there would come a vicar of Christ who would be truly humble, who would have a Christian conscience about his super-eminent charge, who would preoccupy himself with exercising it to the best of his ability in the spirit of the Sovereign High Priest. If the Christian people could rediscover a life in accord with the Apostolic tradition, then it would become impossible for the vicar of Jesus Christ, when it comes to upholding and defending this tradition, to fall into certain derelictions, to abandon himself to lying compromises. It would be necessary that, without delay, a good Pope, and even a holy Pope, succeed the bad or misguided one. Worthy Flock, Worthy Shepherd But too many of the laity, priests and bishops in these days of great evil, when trial overtakes the Church by the Pope, would like order to be restored with their having to do nothing, or almost nothing. At most will they agree to mutter a few prayers. They even balk at the daily Rosary: five decades offered daily to our Lady in honor of the hidden life, the Passion, and the glory of Jesus. In this vein, they have very little interest in deepening their understanding of that part of the Apostolic tradition that applies directly to them in a spirit of fidelity to that tradition: dogmas, missal and ritual, interior life (for progress in the interior life obviously is a part of the Apostolic tradition). Each in his station of life having consented to lukewarmness, they take scandal at the fact that neither is the Pope, in his place as Pope, very fervent when it comes to upholding for the entire Church the Apostolic tradition, that is to say, to faithfully fulfilling the unique mission confided to him. This view of things is unjust. The more we need a holy Pope, the more we ourselves must begin by putting our own lives, by the grace of God and holding fast to tradition, in the path of the saints. Then the Lord Jesus will finally give to His flock the visible shepherd of whom it will have striven to make itself worthy. This was the lesson of St. Vincent Ferrer at an apocalyptic time of major failings by the Roman Pontiff. But with modernism we are in the midst of experiencing even greater trials, reasons all the more compelling for us to live even more purely, and on all points, the Apostolic tradition; on all points, including a real tending towards perfect charity. And yet, in the moral doctrine revealed by the Lord and handed down by the Apostles, it is said that we must tend to THE ANGELUS January 2006 perfect love, since the law of growth in Christ is part and parcel of the grace and charity which unite us in Christ. A Fundamental Mystery There is indeed both transcendence and obscurity in the Church’s dogma relative to the Pope: a supreme pontiff who is the universal vicar of Jesus Christ, yet who nonetheless is not sheltered from failings, even serious ones, which can be quite dangerous for his subjects. But the dogma of the Roman Pontiff is but one of the aspects of the fundamental mystery of the Church. Two great propositions introduce us to this mystery: firstly, that the Church, whose members are recruited from among sinners, which we all are, is nonetheless the infallible dispenser of light and grace, dispenser by means of a hierarchical organization, dispenser governed from heaven above by its head and Savior, Jesus Christ, and assisted by the Spirit of Jesus. On the other hand, on earth, the Savior offers by His Church the perfect sacrifice and nourishes it by His own substance. Secondly, the Church, holy Spouse of the Lord Jesus, must have a share in the Cross, including the cross of betrayal by her own; but for all that she does not cease to be sufficiently assisted in her hierarchical structure, beginning with the Pope, and to be on fire enough with charity; in a word, she remains at all times holy and pure enough to be able to share in the trials of her Spouse, including betrayal by certain members of the hierarchy, while keeping intact her self-mastery and supernatural strength. Never will the Church be subject to vertigo. If, in our spiritual life, the Christian truth concerning the Pope is rightly situated within the Christian truth about the Church, by that light shall we overcome the scandal of all the lies, not excluding those that can befall the Church by the vicar of Christ or by the successors of the Apostles. When we think of the Pope now and of the prevailing modernism, of the Apostolic tradition and perseverance in this tradition, we are more and more reduced to considering these questions only in prayer, only in an unceasing petition for the entire Church and for him who, in our days, holds in his hands the keys of the kingdom of heaven. He holds them in his hands, but he does not use them, so to speak. He leaves the gate of the sheepfold open at the approach of thieves; he does not close these protective doors which his predecessors had invariably kept shut with unbreakable locks and bolts. Sometimes, as is the case with post-conciliar ecumenism, he even pretends to open what will forever be kept shut. We THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT 29 THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT are reduced to the necessity of never thinking of the Church except to pray for her and for the Pope. It is a blessing. Nevertheless, thinking of our Mother, the Spouse of Christ, in this piteous condition does not diminish in the least our resolve to think clearly. At least, let this indispensable lucidity, lucidity without which all courage would flag, be penetrated with as much humility and gentleness as the vehemence with which we assail the Sovereign Priest, that He make haste to help us. Deus in adjutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina. May it please Him to charge His most holy Mother, Mary Immaculate, with bringing us as soon as possible the effective remedy. Translated exclusively for Angelus Press and abridged by Miss Anne Stinnett from the French-language version of SiSiNoNo (Courrier de Rome, Nov. 2005, pp.1-5). The original text was first published in the review Itinéraires in 1973 and included in the anthology A Short Apologia for the Church of All Time (1987). Fr. Roger-Thomas Calmel, O.P. (1914-75), was a prominent French Dominican and Thomist philosopher, who made an immense contribution to the fight for Catholic Tradition through his writings and conferences, notably as a regular contributor for 17 years to Jean Madiran’s Itinéraires. His most enduring influence is through the traditional Dominican Teaching Sisters of Fanjeaux and Brignole in France who operate 12 girls’ schools in France and the US. Translator’s note: The épuration, a purge of “German collaborators” occurred after the Normandy invasion and the end of the war, resulting in the killing of a 100,000 Frenchmen. For example, acclaimed poet Robert Brasillach was executed on this charge (Cf. Sisley Huddleston, France: The Tragic Years, an Eyewitness Account of War, Occupation and Liberation [Devin-Adair Co., 1955]). 2 This was written in 1973–Ed. (1987 ed.). 3 Translator’s note: A monk and ecclesiastical writer of southern Gaul (d. c. 450), famous for the practical rule he enunciated, by which the faithful can steer clear of heresy in troubled times: “Magnopere curandum est ut id teneatur quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est–What all men have at all times and everywhere believed must be regarded as true.” 4 Translator note: Douay-Rheims translation. Alternate: “Let them have their way in this” (Msgr. Ronald Knox version).E 1 Society of Saint Pius X District of the United States of America REGINA COELI HOUSE 2918 Tracy Avenue Kansas City, Missouri 64109 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED EDITOR’S NOTE: With this installment of the Angelus Press English-Language Article Reprint of SiSiNoNo, the Editor, with the agreement of the Publisher, is discontinuing the planned series (started October 2005, No.66) “On the Nature of Modern Thought.” It has become apparent that the series will have to run for as long as two years to be completed and is extremely difficult in both its writing and understanding. The author, Dr. Paolo Pasqualucci, when contacted by Angelus Press, claimed that there could be no satisfactory way of presenting his treatise in either simpler or shorter form. The Editor apologizes both to him and to any readers disappointed with this decision. He is sorry for making a premature judgment to translate and publish the series. For readers of Italian, the series of issues containing Professor Pasqualucci’s study may be obtained by writing to Customer Service, SiSiNoNo, Via Madonna degli Angeli n. 78, I–00049 Velletri, Italy, or to sisinono@tiscali.it; telephone: [39] (6) 963-5568.–Ed. $1.95 per SISINONO reprint. Please specify. SHIPPING & HANDLING US/Canada Foreign $.01 to $10.00 $3.95 $10.01 to $25.00 $5.95 $25.01 to $50.00 $6.95 $50.01 to $100.00 $8.95 Over $100.00 9% of order $7.95 $9.95 $12.95 $14.95 12% of order AIRMAIL surcharge (in addition to above) Canada 8% of subtotal; Foreign 21% of subtotal. Available from: ANGELUS PRESS 2915 Forest Avenue Kansas City, MO 64109 USA Phone: 1-800-966-7337 www.angeluspress.org NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID KANSAS CITY, MO PERMIT NO. 6706 Letter About Delinquent Parents A n d r é 31 C h a r l i e r This famous educator of international renown wrote in 1954 lamenting the weakness of parents to demand what is demandable from themselves and from their children. Is deliquency a heritage passeed to the next generation? Dear Parents, Several years ago, I used to write Letters to Parents, but I stopped because finally I saw no point in doing so. They hardly persuaded anyone except people who were already persuaded. Many would write to me, “How right you are!” without going beyond this token approval. Well, I have too little time to myself to be writing to no avail. If I am writing to you once more today, it is because I feel compelled to do so. After all, a man to whom you have confided the education of your sons must tell you what he thinks of the upcoming youth. You have a moral responsibility, as do I, and you must be made to face the reality. The portrait that I have to draw for you is a general view not limited to what I have observed at the school. From what I have to say, may each one of you take in what he will or can. What I find most striking in this generation is its lack of virility. And why is this?–Simply because you have never demanded anything of them. You have been preoccupied simply with seeing to it that your sons are happy, and you have anticipated all their desires. From the early days of their childhood you have gratified them in every way. How do you expect them to form the idea that life is difficult and that only the difficult things are of real interest; and that all joys have a cost, and that the nobler they are the more effort is required to obtain them. Everything has always been given to them, and they find it normal www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • January 2006 32 that everything be given to them; they even consider it their due. And since culture and knowledge do not come by themselves, they see in it a sort of injustice. They are not far from considering themselves victims because Latin and Mathematics do not reveal their mysteries for nothing. This comes from the fact that in the education you have given them, they have always received everything for nothing. You have been victims of the universal demagoguery and of modern liberalism which consider that authority is a vestige of the dark ages. You have repudiated authority; you have wanted to please your sons so that they would love you, but you will not be more loved than our fathers were, and perhaps you will be less esteemed by your children themselves when they are old enough to judge. For you have not taught them that everything has to be earned, and that worthwhile things cost dearly. They have never needed to earn the pleasures that you have given them; they have never learned to do something they did not want to do. Indeed, it is not something pleasant in itself, for example, to learn Latin or German declensions. When I was a child, I learned to do the things I was told to do without arguing, and from this I received an immense benefit. But how your sons argue about everything! They never stop. Nothing finds approval before their eyes. They judge everything by their immediate pleasure. Do not be surprised that they lack obedience, discipline, respect, and a sense of duty. And then, you have so satisfied them that they no longer desire anything, and I have never seen anything more distressing than young people without desire. The absence of desire is a strange happiness. Do you find me pessimistic? The professors at the school whom I know tell me exactly the same thing. Even in the conversations that I have with you, you agree with what I say, only you forget to apply it to yourselves. You do not realize that you are extraordinarily concerned about everything involving health, food, “comfort,” vacations–and studies, too, since at the end there is the coveted degree to get–but do you ever think about your sons’ souls? One day you will have to answer to God for them, but meanwhile what sort of men are you giving to your country? Yet you know that life is not easy. Your professional duties are heavier and heavier. You are pained to see how your homeland’s place in the world has shrunk, how she disappoints her allies because she does not work enough, because she does not know how to govern her own house, because she wastes her strength in futile discussions. Do you believe that a soulless generation will be able to heal our nation of the evils that assail her? For we are in the process of forming the most mediocre generation that our nation has ever had, because our sons no longer know how to take on anything the least bit difficult. They have, moreover, found an easy way to escape, the refuge of the weak: they lie. They lie to you, and you do not notice it. As THE ANGELUS • January 2006 www.angeluspress.org for me, I must waste precious time untangling their lies. I have never had such difficulty in establishing in the school a climate of honesty. It would not be so if you had inculcated in them the sentiment that the rules are greater than us and must be respected. But because you are who you are–and we are anarchic–you involuntarily give them the feeling that they can get around them. For the Sunday outing, I have established the rule that they must be back by 5pm, because at that time there is either study hall or an office in the chapel; but every Sunday students return late. I established the absolute rule that the children must not have any pocket money, but you give them some behind my back, which involves them in a lie and produces sometimes quite serious consequences. Yet you must care about education since you have confided your sons to us. But you shift upon us the burden of doing the things you have not the courage to do yourselves. You have abdicated. I realize that, given the moral atmosphere of the modern world, the task of parents, if they want to fulfill it conscientiously, is an almost heroic task. Well then, it is necessary to take it as it is, and not evade it. No one can replace you, and ultimately you will answer for your children. Do you know what happens even in religious houses of education? The educators are quite simply overwhelmed, so they take an interest in the few better students and leave the great mass of the mediocre to their mediocrity. There are still a few of us here to do a job that no one wants to do any more and with which no one helps us, from any point of view. So do not make us completely disgusted by giving us the feeling that what we do with great difficulty here is too often being undone at home. Getting back to work after summer vacation has never been as difficult as it was this year, because it was too soft, too idle, and too comfortable. And especially, when you come here, get rid of the idea that these poor boys absolutely must be consoled for the misfortune of being a boarder by having lots of candy or a lavish meal or what have you. I try to treat them like men, and believe me when I tell you that it is not easy. Being a man does not consist in arguing and perpetually discussing everything. It consists in courageously and generously assuming one’s responsibilities in an order that is greater than ourselves. So do as I do. Do you find that heroic? Be heroes, then. There is nothing else to be done. Posted on the SSPX French District website La Porte Latine (Dec. 8, 2005). Translated exclusively by Angelus Press. André Charlier (1895-1971) was a renowned French educator. A convert to the Catholic Faith at 18, he began his teaching career in 1921. For many years he was headmaster of the École des Roches, at Maslacq. Letters he addressed to the elder boys were later collected and published under the title Lettres aux Capitaines. His other miscellaneous writings were published under the title Que faut-il dire aux hommes (What Must Be Said to Men, 1964) which was honored by the Académie Française. 33 BOOK REVIEW What Kind of Soul am I? ● Requisites for a Happy Marriage ● The Four Bonds of Conjugal Union ● United Striving for Sanctity ● A Father’s Answer to His Daughter ● The Impossibility of Having Children? ● Some Feminine Traits ● Masculine Treason ● The Power of a Smile ● Man’s Virtues versus Women’s Virtues ● The Art of Giving Children Faults ● Praiseworthy Vanity ● A Devastating Disposition ● Courageous Fathers ● Friendly Argument ● The Prayer of the Married ● Love versus Maternal Instinct ● The First Years ● The Untimely Laugh ● Training of the Emotions ● Training in Generosity ● Family Affections ● The Secularism of Christians ● A Defaulting Father ● Training in Social Responsibility ● Training to Confidence ● etc.... TITLE: Christ in the Home AUTHOR: Fr. Raoul Plus, S.J. PUBLISHER: Gardner Brother Publishers DISTRIBUTED: Angelus Press. Price: $18.95 REVIEWER: Jason T.J.J. Winschel SUMMARY: Over 170 brain-byte meditations for the married and for those whose God’s will is marriage. Practical and profound, and a real help to those who wish a holy family, parentally and for its children. When we defend the family we do not mean it is always a peaceful family; when we maintain the thesis of marriage we do not mean that it is always a happy marriage. We mean that it is the theatre of the spiritual drama, the place where things happen, especially the things that matter. It is not so much the place where a man kills his wife as the place where he can take the equally sensational step of not killing his wife.—G.K. Chesterton (Quoted in Brave New Family, p.24) In the natural as well as in the supernatural sphere the family takes a prominence accorded no other institution. It precedes and eclipses all others in the natural world, even the State. Meanwhile, it is the setting in which the incarnate God lived and developed, submissive to the wills of His mother and foster father for 30 years before baffling the world in His public ministry. Thus, one cannot be surprised upon reflection to note that the family, and the home that it creates, is the place where “things happen, especially the things that matter.” Indeed, the family is the foundation of human society, but it is also the springboard from which saints are propelled to heaven. With this twofold function in mind, Fr. Raoul Plus, S.J., wrote the series of meditations bundled together as Christ in the Home. Recently re-released by Gardner Brothers, this volume from 1951 evinces sentiments derived from the experience of years of world war. And yet, the message is as timeless as the subject it treats. Moreover, while the diseases that rack modern society and even clamor for acceptance as positive goods (e.g. homosexual marriage, divorce, children orphaned by two incomes, contraception, abortion, etc.) had not utterly overrun the world of the early 1950’s, the context thus provided has two positive implications for this book: 1) It places the reader in a saner time, away from such distractions, where the natural law could be somewhat taken for granted and www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • January 2006 34 the true focus on the purpose of marriage, the family, and the home can be discerned without first establishing what should be naturally self-evident. 2) On the other hand, the roots of all these present-day aberrations can be found in man’s unchanging nature. Man is selfish and self-indulgent. He has a tendency toward materialism, a tendency most dangerous when material largesse is available. By 1951, material decadence beckoned Americans who had struggled through Depression and World War II to find themselves flourishing, part of an economic behemoth that had the world as her dependent. When Fr. Plus addresses the perils of selfish materialism in the family in 1951, he too condemns the above-mentioned errors of today which spring from the same root. Thus, while set in a context made foreign by the passage of time, this book is perfectly contemporary in its essentials. It cannot be stressed too highly that Christ in the Home is a book of meditations intended “as points of departure into deeper realms of thought and prayer.” If one reads it as a continuous narrative he will find this volume disjointed and frustrating. Of this the author warns us up front. His goal is to supernaturalize the reader’s perception of the family through consideration of the divine purpose and end of marriage. Fr. Plus defines this end in regards to the married couple: Marriage…is to help each other to sanctity and to rear saints for heaven; to possess Christ themselves as completely as possible and to give Christ to their children. St. Thomas Aquinas says that all of our actual acts are either good or bad in light of our duties to God. In this same vein, Fr. Plus induces us to analyze our every action in the married life in light of its relation to our supernatural end. He seeks thereby to supernaturalize the practical aspects of courtship, marriage and child-rearing. He brings Christ into the home. Following a few opening thoughts on vocations, Fr. Plus’s series of meditations are divided into three distinct sections. The first concerns courtship and marriage, the second building the home, and the third the training of children. Throughout, Fr. Plus stresses with St. Augustine that everything in life “should be referred to God.” Yet he does not thereby refuse legitimacy to natural sentiments and attachments; he does not demand a life of reclusive Catholicism. This book is not written by, for, or about someone who is so detached from the world as to barely recognize its existence. The aim is to supernaturalize the natural, not to deny it. As a consequence, in this book that is peppered with myriad quotes, Fr. Plus mixes his spiritual with secular references. He does so with finesse and THE ANGELUS • January 2006 www.angeluspress.org perspicacity, gleaning what appropriate wisdom is available from non-Catholic writers (indeed highlighting their errors, too) as well as from the wellspring of the Gospel and the words of the saints. Though the references may sometimes be foreign, the sentiments are timeless, and they are all smoothly interwoven. Thus, from plays, songs, poems, books and letters we learn of and the author acknowledges the “incomprehensible power of the heart in love,” of the notion of the “up-to-date mother,” and of those “terrible children” who, not coincidentally, “record with unerring fidelity the examples they witness.” To these and many other practical scenarios he elucidates in attractive manner a supernatural perspective that helps the reader to see how to respond or how to avoid a situation in light of the divine mission of the family. The author, whether from reading, his time in the confessional or otherwise, has gained keen insight into the life and challenges of the home. He understands, and even empathizes, with those who are courting, married, or are parents. As a result, the subjects of the meditations have a balance as well as an immediacy about them–they are realistic while spiritual and consequently powerful. Fr. Plus was renowned as a man of Catholic Action. Taking to heart St. Ignatius’s meditation on the two banners of Christ and the devil, he himself picked up that of Christ and sought more recruits. (The title of another of his recently re-released volumes, Winning Souls for Christ, now out of print again, bespeaks as much.) Just as St. Ignatius made an adventure out of the spiritual battle, Fr. Plus turns the making and sustaining of a home into the adventure of a lifetime. The family he terms the “workshop of life for earth, the workshop of eternity.” We must be prepared before we go to work. Therefore, he warns the bedazzled courtiers to beware the blindness of the heart while instructing them as to what truly to look for in a future spouse, all the while reminding them that marriage is a severely taxing task. He begs the newly married to supernaturalize their love while indicating that there is only one thing lost from natural love in the process–selfishness. The married must relish sacrifice. To be sure, sacrifice is what the family is all about; but that is precisely the challenge that makes it an adventure, and the reward can be no greater whether here on earth or in heaven hereafter. To succeed they must first love God, then love the good qualities in their spouse, but finally and certainly no less important, they must bear with the bad. In order to fulfill these goals, they must pray before and after marriage for each other and together. Indeed, through mutual reading and meditation on the selections in this 35 book, the married or future spouses would go a long way toward this end. As for children, Fr. Plus offers one of his many quotes to capture the adventure of raising the little ones. He describes an incident in which a throng of people have gathered in Paris to honor a brave sailor who had circumnavigated the globe in a “small skiff.” But in the crowd that had gathered about the famous sailor, [a] newspaper man found himself next to a family of rather humble means to judge by their appearances, although they did not lack dignity. There were five children with the father and mother, all modestly and neatly dressed. The father was explaining to his sons, “Oh, what an admirable type this Gerbault! What a hero!” “I shared this idea,” commented the reporter, “but I thought that father was also a hero to pilot a skiff loaded down with children on the Parisian ocean as he was doing.…I even wondered if it were not more admirable than to guide a boat on the high seas with only oneself to think of.” It is a truism of any age to say that the world is fraught with perils, and a habit of mankind to suggest that their age is among the worst; nevertheless it is hard to imagine many periods since the advent of Christendom that rival our own in this regard. Let the adventure begin! Fr. Plus is ready to arm parents with the means to raise and train their children to weather the storm. Because Christ in the Home is a book of meditations, the chapters are short. The title of each makes clear its purpose. This allows the reader either to read straight through (albeit one meditation at a time) or else to focus on a topic of his choice. With over 150 different meditations it is easy to find one that is relevant. In the section on marriage, the author addresses how man and wife can become truly united, while treating each other as tabernacles of God, “in order to serve” Christ better. He discusses the differences between men and women and how they complement each other by divine design. He warns against an unnatural rivalry when roles become blurred. In several prescient meditations, Fr. Plus discusses birth control and the harm it does to each other and society at large, no less than to God, as it contravenes the purpose of marriage and places self-indulgence above sacrifice for God. In the section on the home, the author induces his readers to consider the many different facets of the married couple’s responsibilities to their children as well as to each other. From remaining faithful to remaining cheerful and avoiding excess asceticism, Fr. Plus sets the bar high, but inspires the reader to reach it. He stresses good example and family prayer, and explains how and why. In this section, he offers glimpses into the distinct workings of the minds of men and women. Armed with this kind of insight, it may cease to be the miracle of which Chesterton speaks when man does not kill his wife. Finally, the section on training children sheds light on the minds (and the limits thereof) of the littlest one in the home. The author exhorts parents to realize that training begins immediately upon the arrival of the baby, and that that reality must be consistently borne in mind from that point on. He then elucidates principles about how that training should occur, all the while begging the reader to consider and meditate upon the profundity of this duty that God has deigned to give them. One flaw stands out in this book. Throughout Christ in the Home one finds evidence of the time period in which it was written. And while Catholicism in America saw a certain renascence in the 1950’s (Patrick Buchanan’s Right from the Beginning provides great anecdotal evidence), it also witnessed the ongoing emasculation of Catholic spirituality within the family. Religion was “women’s work.” Unfortunately, in this vein, Fr. Plus seems all too prepared to cede the spiritual leadership of the family to the mother. As much as he discusses the importance of the father being the head of the household in all else, he quickly excuses him from leading the prayers and other things spiritual, suggesting even that, “often husbands are grieved to the depths of their being because they see that their wives do not draw the family to God” (emphasis mine). If the men fail to lead, then the advice proffered throughout this book concerning the training of children (especially boys) in spiritual affairs likely will, too. Christ in the Home inspires deep thought about “the theatre of the spiritual drama, the place where things happen, especially the things that matter.” Besides the fruits derived from the meditations contained herein, the engaged and the married will benefit from the sage practical advice. Indeed, Christ in the Home will reinvigorate those who are already married while providing them with perhaps some new ideas and a refreshed Christian perspective on their sacred vocation and its duties. Jason T.J.J. Winschel and wife Tina are the parents of four boys and a girl. He holds degrees in History and Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh. He teaches History at the middle and high school levels in the North Allegheny School District. He and his family attend the Latin Mass at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Carnegie, Pennsylvania. www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • January 2006 36 Persons Principl It’s Not About It’s About A CATECHISM OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING Part IV With another installment, The Angelus continues the serialization of the book Catechism of Catholic Social Teaching by Amintore Fanfani (translated by Fr. Henry J. Yannone, The Newman Press, 1960), which will run monthly until its conclusion. He was the author of articles and books on economics, including Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism, available from Angelus Press for $14.95. HEADING ONE: MAN AND SOCIETY CHAPTER 3. Necessity, Origin, End of Authority and Obedience Required By It 27) Is authority necessary in society? In order that the members of society may move effectively and unitedly toward the common end, it is necessary to have an authority governing them. Leo XIII: In every association and community of men necessity itself compels that some should hold preeminence; lest society, deprived of a prince or head, by which it is ruled, should come to dissolution and be prevented from attaining the end for which it was created and instituted. (Diuturnum, p.50, §3) Leo XIII: But now, a society can neither exist nor be conceived in which there is no one to govern the wills of ns; ples : 37 A m i n t o r e individuals, in such a way as to make, as it were, one will out of many, and to impel them rightly and orderly to the common good. (Diuturnum, §7) Leo XIII: But no society can remain united without someone in command, directing all to strive earnestly for the common good. Hence, every civilized community must have a ruling authority. (Immortale Dei, §2) Pius XII: The democratic state, whether it be monarchial or republican, should, like any other form of government, be entrusted with the power to command with real and effective authority....And if men, using their professional liberty, were to deny all dependence on a superior authority possessing coercive power, they could by this very fact cut the ground from under their own dignity and liberty–by violating, that is, the absolute order of beings and purposes. (Christmas Message, 1944) Who is the of authority? 28) source Since authority is necessary to the life of society, God, who willed society, is the source of all authority. Leo XIII: Hence, every civilized community must have a ruling authority, and this authority, no less than society itself, has its source in nature, and consequently has God for its author. It follows, then, that all public power must proceed from God: for God alone is the true and supreme Lord of the world. Everything, without exception, must be subject to Him, and must serve Him, so that whosoever holds the right to govern, holds it from one sole and single source, namely, God, the Sovereign Ruler of all. “There is no power but from God” (Rom. 13:1). (Immortale Dei, §2) Pius XII: The dignity of political authority is the dignity deriving from its sharing in the authority of God. (Christmas Message, 1944) F a n f a n i (1908-99) Former Prime Minister of Italy and a professor of Economic History at the Catholic University of Milan, Italy. 29) What current errors exist with regard to the origin of authority? It is erroneously believed that authority was derived from a free pact entered into at the beginning of society, or that authority resides in the people, or that authority cannot come from God since there is no divine law. Leo XIII: Those who believe civil society to have arisen from the free consent of men, looking for the origin of its authority from the same source, say that every person has put himself into the power of the one man in whose person the whole of those rights has been centered. But it is a great error not to see, what is manifest, that men, as they are not a nomad race, have been created, without their own free will, for a natural community of life. It is plain, moreover, that the agreement which they allege is openly a falsehood and a fiction, and that it has no authority to confer on political power such great force, dignity, and firmness as the safety of the State and the common good of the citizens require. (Diuturnum, §8) Leo XIII: [The error of the rationalists] which falsely usurps to itself the name of reason, as it lures and whets the appetite of excelling which man naturally possesses, and gives loose rein to unlawful desires of every kind, has easily penetrated not only the minds of a great multitude of men but to a wide extent civil society also....It has been given out that public authority neither derives its principle, nor its majesty, nor its power of governing from God, but rather from the multitude, which, thinking itself absolved from all divine sanction, bows only to such laws as it shall have made at its own will. (Quod Apostolici Muneris, §2) Leo XIII: What naturalists or rationalists aim at in philosophy, that the supporters of liberalism, carrying out the principles laid down by naturalism, are attempting in the domain of morality and politics....These followers of liberalism deny the existence of any divine authority to www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • January 2006 38 which obedience is due, and proclaim that every man is the law to himself. So arises that ethical system which they style independent morality, and which under the guise of liberty, exonerates man from any obedience to the commands of God, and substitutes a boundless licence. (Libertas, §12) What false principles have led to the of a divine origin of authority? 30)denial The false principle of absolute equality of all men, the principle of sovereignty of the human reason, the principle which denies the existence of positive supernatural laws or their influence upon political life have led to a denial of the divine origin of authority. Leo XIII: [Of all the principles of naturalism] the main one lays down that as all men are alike by race and nature, so in like manner all are equal in the control of their life; that each one is so far his own master as to be in no sense under the rule of any other individual; that each is free to think on every subject just as he may choose, and to do whatever he may like to do; that no man has any right to rule over other men. In a society grounded upon such maxims, all government is nothing more nor less than the will of the people, and the people, being under the power of itself alone, is alone its own ruler. It does choose, nevertheless, some to whose charge it may commit itself, but in such wise that it makes over to them not the right so much as the business of governing, to be exercised, however, in its name....And since the populace is declared to contain within itself the springhead of all rights and of all power, it follows that the State does not consider itself bound by any kind of duty towards God. (Immortale Dei, §10) Leo XIII: The fundamental doctrine of rationalism is the supremacy of the human reason, which, refusing due submission to the divine and eternal reason, proclaims its own independence, and constitutes itself the supreme principle and source and judge of truth....The end of all this can readily be foreseen, especially when society is in question. For, when once man is firmly persuaded that he is subject to no one, it follows that the efficient cause of the unity of civil society is not sought in any principle external to man, or superior to him, but simply in the free will of individuals; that the authority in the State is then taken to come from the people only; and that, just as every man’s individual reason is his only rule of life, so the collective reason of the community is regarded as the supreme guide in the management of all public affairs. Hence the doctrine of the supremacy of the greatest number, and that all right and all duty reside in the majority. (Libertas, §12) Leo XIII: The first and most pernicious type of liberalism is that which on one hand rejects and destroys completely all authority and every divine law both natural and supernatural, while on the other it holds that the constitution of society is dependent upon the will of the individual and that the supreme power flows from THE ANGELUS • January 2006 www.angeluspress.org the people as from its primary source. Then, comes the system which does recognize the natural law of God and even admits its necessity, but absolutely rejects all supernatural positive law....Ultimately, there are the followers of a third type of liberalism who declare that both the life and the conduct of the individual are subject to divine laws, but these laws must exercise no influence upon the government. (Letter to the Archbishop of Bogota) What social dangers arise from the of a divine origin of authority? 31) denial By the denial of a divine origin of authority, the unstable whim of the majority, the will of the more aggressive group or the interests of the group in power, becomes the norm of authority. Thus, all gauge of the good and the just being lost, anything that suits one’s inclination becomes licit, and the way is opened to every sort of tyranny by the strong and the shrewd. Leo XIII: A supreme authority which is derived from the will of the masses rather than from God, supreme, eternal and omnipotent principle of all things, loses its most august character and degenerates into an artificial sovereignty, having as its basis the unstable and changeable will of the people. Who can fail to see such consequences in modern laws? Too often, in fact, these laws express the abuse of power by the mass and the dominating will of one political party. (Giunti al Venticinquesimo Anno) Leo XIII: Once ascribe to human reason the only authority to decide what is true and what is good, and the real distinction between good and evil is destroyed; honor and dishonor then differ, not in their nature, but in the opinion and judgment of each one; pleasure is the measure of what is lawful; and, given a code of morality which can have little or no power to restrain or quiet the unruly propensities of man, a way is naturally opened to universal corruption. With reference also to public affairs: authority is severed from the true and natural principle whence it derives all its efficacy for the common good; and the law determining what it is right to do and avoid doing is at the mercy of a majority. Now this is simply a road leading straight to tyranny. The empire of God over man and over civil society once repudiated, it follows that religion, as a public institution, can have no claim to exist, and that everything that belongs to religion will be treated with complete indifference. (Libertas, §12) 32) What benefits arise from the doctrine of the divine origin of authority? Once the divine origin of authority is admitted, the right to govern becomes a legitimate function of the one invested with authority, while others have a duty to obey him. The power of governing, 39 however, must be exercised according to truth and justice, without destroying at any time the freedom of any one of the subjects. Authority as derived from God, must function within the limits of natural and divine positive laws, as a supreme guarantee of justice and truth, the common good and the personal rights of the individual. Leo XIII: With regard to reconciling liberty with authority–two things which are very much confused in theory and extremely far apart in practice–Christian teachings are of immense benefit. First of all, if everyone accepts the thesis that in any form of government whatsoever the authority is derived from God, it follows that someone must have the legitimate right to rule while others have the duty to obey. Nor is this against man’s dignity; because it is God to whom obedience is given even more than to man, God will hold to a much graver account those who do not represent His authority according to law and justice. On the other hand, the liberty of each individual cannot ever be suspected or abused. In order to avoid doing injustice to anyone, such liberty must be in accord with truth and justice: these are necessary requirements for public order. (Praeclara Gratulationis) the doctrine of the divine origin of authority contrary to the 33) Ishuman designation of the one invested with authority? To say that authority comes from God does not mean that God ordinarily designates the person who is to be invested with authority. Normally, he is designated by the community, according to methods differing from time to time and from place to place. Leo XIII: Those who may be placed over the State may in certain cases be chosen by the will and decision of the multitude, without opposition to or impugning of the Catholic doctrine. And by this choice, in truth, the ruler is designated, but the rights of ruling are not thereby conferred. Nor is the authority delegated to him, but the person by whom it is to be exercised is determined upon. (Diuturnum, §4) Leo XIII: There is no question here respecting forms of government, for there is no reason why the Church should not approve of the chief power being held by one man or by more, provided only it be just, and that it tend to the common advantage. Wherefore, so long as justice be respected, the people are not hindered from choosing for themselves that form of government which suits best either their own disposition, or the institutions and customs of their ancestors. (Diuturnum, §4) 34) What is the purpose of authority? Authority exists in order that the common good and the good of the individual members of society may be more easily and perfectly obtained. Leo XIII: Those who rule states should understand that political power was not created for the advantage of any private individual; and that the administration of the State must be carried on to the profit of those who have been committed to their care, not to the profit of those to whom it has been committed. (Diuturnum, §12) How is the authority derived God to be exercised? 35)from Authority derived from God must be exercised with justice and fatherliness, and to the advantage of all the members of society. Leo XIII: [God] has always willed that there should be a ruling authority, and that they who are invested with it should in some measure reflect the divine power and providence over the human race. They, therefore, who rule should rule with even-handed justice, not as masters, but rather as fathers. For the rule of God over man is most just, and is tempered always with a father’s kindness. Government should moreover be administered for the well-being of the citizens, because they who govern others possess authority solely for the welfare of the State. Furthermore, the civil power must not be subservient to the advantage of any one individual, or of some few persons, inasmuch as it was established for the common good of all. (Immortale Dei, §2) 36) What is the foundation of human laws and whence do they derive their binding force? Authority is the foundation of human law, which, if it contains precepts of natural law, derives its binding force from the eternal law. Leo XIII: For, since the force of law consists in the imposing of obligations and the granting of rights, authority is the one and only foundation of all law–the power, that is, of fixing duties and defining rights, as also of assigning the necessary sanctions of reward and chastisement to each and all of its commands. But all this, clearly, cannot be found in man, if, as his own supreme legislator, he is to be the rule of his actions. It follows therefore that the law of nature is the same thing as the eternal law, implanted in rational creatures, and inclining them to their right action and end; and can be nothing else but the eternal reason of God, the Creator and Ruler of all the world. (Libertas, §6) Leo XIII: For, what reason and the natural law do for individuals, that human law, promulgated for their good, does for the citizens of states. Of the laws enacted by men, some are concerned with what is good or bad by its very nature. They command men to follow after www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • January 2006 40 what is right and to shun what is wrong, adding at the same time a suitable sanction. But such laws by no means derive their origin from civil society; because, just as civil society did not create human nature, so neither can it be said to be the author of the good which befits human nature, or of the evil which is contrary to it. Laws come before men live together in society, and have their origin in the natural, and consequently in the eternal law. The precepts, therefore, of the natural law contained bodily in the laws of men have not merely the force of human law, but they possess that higher and more august sanction which belongs to the law of nature and the eternal law. (Libertas, §7) 37) Is authority deserving of respect and obedience? Legitimate authority must be respected and obeyed not in a half-hearted way but conscientiously. Leo XIII: Whence it will behoove citizens to submit themselves and to be obedient to rulers, as to God, not for their majesty; nor for the sake of pleasing, but through conscience, as doing their duty. (Diuturnum, §9) Leo XIII: To despise legitimate authority, in whomsoever vested, is unlawful, being a rebellion against the divine Will; and whoever resists such authority rushes wilfully to destruction. (Immortale Dei, §2) Leo XIII: The law of nature, no less than that of Christ, enjoins respect for all such as in their several degrees hold office in the State, and further enjoins obedience to their lawful commands. This is the only attitude worthy of a man and a Christian, and ought to be accepted heartily and as a matter of duty, “for conscience’ sake.” (Graves de Communi, §8) 38) Is disobedience to authority ever permitted? If the authority commands a thing contrary to the natural or divine positive laws, then there arises a duty not to obey it, for authority without justice is null and void. Leo XIII: The only reason which men have for not obeying is when anything is demanded of them which is openly repugnant to the natural or the divine law, for it is equally unlawful to command and to do anything in which the law of nature or the will of God is violated.... And yet there is no reason why those who so behave themselves should be accused of refusing obedience; for if the will of rulers is opposed to the will and the laws of God, they themselves exceed the bounds of their own power and pervert justice; nor can their authority then be valid, which, when there is no justice, is null. (Diuturnum, §11) THE ANGELUS • January 2006 www.angeluspress.org 39) Is insurrection against authority permissible? It is not permissible to rebel unjustly against a lawfully constituted authority. However, if by unjust and other dishonest acts the one in power destroys the very foundation of authority and leads society to ruin, then it is permissible with honest and appropriate means to defend society and oneself against injustice, taking care that no greater harm is caused than was intended to be avoided. Leo XIII: And if at any time it happens that the power of the state is rashly and tyrannically wielded by princes, the teaching of the Catholic Church does not allow an insurrection on private authority against them, lest public order be only the more disturbed, and lest society take greater hurt therefrom. And when affairs come to such a pass that there is no other hope of safety, she teaches that relief may be hastened by the merits of Christian patience and by earnest prayers to God. But if the will of legislators and princes shall have sanctioned or commanded anything repugnant to the divine or natural law, the dignity and duty of the Christian name, as well as the judgment of the Apostle, urge that “God is to be obeyed rather than man.”(Quod Apostolici Muneris, §7) Pius XI: The Church...condemns every unjust insurrection or violence against constituted powers. On the other hand...whenever these powers arise against justice and truth even to destroying the very foundations of authority, it is not to be seen how those citizens are to be condemned who unite to defend themselves and the nation, by licit and appropriate means, against those who make use of public power to bring it to ruin. If the practical solution depends on concrete circumstances, we must however on our part recall to you some general principles, always to be kept in mind, and they are: 1) That these revindications have reason of means, or of relative end, not of ultimate and absolute end; 2) that as means to an end, they must be licit actions and not intrinsically evil; 3) that if they are to be means proportionate to the end, they must be used only in the measure in which they serve to obtain or render possible in whole or in part, the end, and in such manner that they do not cause to the community greater damages than those they seek to repair; 4) that the use of such means and the exercise of civic and political rights in their fullness, embracing also problems of a purely material and technical order, any violent defense, does not enter in any such manner within the competency of the clergy or of Catholic Action as such. (Nos Es Muy Conocida, Encyclical of Pope Pius XI On the Religious Situation in Mexico) Taken from Amintore Fanfani, Catechism of Catholic Social Teaching (The Newman Press, 1960), pp.25-37. For chapel vestibules? Friends and family? “Doubting Thomases”? Doomsdayers? why the New Rite W E of Episcopal Conse- N cration is Valid Rarely does Angelus Press reprint an article from a current issue, but it has done so with “Why the New Rite of Episcopal Consecration Is Valid.” For years people have been suggesting that the new rite does not suffice to create bishops, and without bishops there are no priests or cardinals, and without cardinals...there is no Pope! From there it is a simple step to conclude that the Roman Church, but for the few bishops consecrated according to the old rite, is now without a hierarchy! From suggestion to affirmation, and restricted circles to the dining tables of traditional Catholics worldwide the question is being debated. In Fr. Pierre-Marie’s study, a serious, complete, and cogent answer to the question has been prepared. Following the Thomistic method, he strongly states the case against the validity of the new rite...and then more strongly exposes the reasons for it. Includes exposition of the drafting of the new rite as told by the man in charge, Dom Bernard Botte, lengthy quotations from unpublished letters from the official archives, and parallel comparisons of the new rite against the ancient Eastern rites that served as a basis for the new rite in the Western Church. 36pp, STK# 8150Q $2.95 Both Parts I and 2 together in one handy publication. 2006 Liturgical Calendar ITE D M I L PPLY E SU LAB L I AVA Sofanctuaries Sacrifice Altars and Churches of Catholic Tradition Our best ever. the peoples’ favorite. 10¾" x 10¾" Full color throughout, STK# CAL2006 $9.95 NOWB LE LA I A V A 2006 Ordo Illustrated Catechism for Little Children A very unique catechism for children around the age of First Holy Communion. Profusely illustrated in full color. Eleven chapters covering, in 96 questions: God, the Holy Trinity, the Angels, Man, Sin, Our Lord, Grace, Confession, Communion, Confirmation and the Blessed Virgin. Chapters include the common Q&A format, along with a “reading” which is broken into separate points and which explains the answers more thoroughly, an illustrative story, sidebars on the lives of child-saints, and a “Words to Explain” section. The centerfold (to the right) is an EXCELLENT depiction of the workings of Sanctifying Grace...sometimes a difficult concept to communicate to children. You will NOT be disappointed. 48pp, softcover, 17 illustrations, STK# 8132Q $7.95 Compiled to assist priests who celebrate Mass and pray the Divine Office in accordance with the 1962 rubrics. All proper dating of feasts and ecclesiastical activities. For lay people who want to follow the Liturgical Year in greater detail. US and foreign chapel directory in the Appendix. STK# 5065. $12.00 N EW CAN YOU TELL THIS BOOK BY ITS COVER? The Liberal Illusion by Louis Veuillot Poems, Schemas, Introduction, and Chapter Summaries by Bishop Richard Williamson Louis Veuillot’s mid-19th century condemnation of liberal Catholicism throws a flood of light on the crisis of Church and world following on the Second Vatican Council. Catholics who read The Liberal Illusion will grasp, once and for all, that the crisis is primarily due not to Vatican II, but to a centuries-long struggle between Revelation and Revolution. Vatican II was merely a decisive moment in that struggle when power within the Church passed from the servants of Revelation to the deluded victims of the Revolution. This edition offers readers a pictographic overview and outline in the form of a unique fold-out insert to provide them with a thread to connect together the 38 chapters. Bishop Williamson helped us to prepare this book to be studied. The Schema at the front unfolds so the chapter numbers are exposed, giving the reader Main Parts, Subdivisions, Tickets for Chapters, and One-line Summaries. This chart gives a horizontal breakdown of the book. The Game Plan is available on the reverse side. This chart-like analysis is a vertical breakdown of the main principles (whether they be right or wrong) and their consequential sub-principles which have become the battlecries of modernity. Each short chapter is preceded by a crunch paragraph authored by Bishop Williamson summarizing its contents. 146pp., softcover, double-sided color fold-out, STK# 8147Q $12.95 Unique, color, fold-out insert contains helpful study guides to help the reader make the most of this book. 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