|
Post by hibernicus on Jan 28, 2019 22:46:38 GMT
This review of a new biography of Mgr Annibale Bugnini makes it sound quite interesting. A few points: (1) The reviewer spells out Bugnini's basic assumptions (participation requires direct intellectual understanding; liturgists should see themselves as engineers rather than gardeners) very well - but I wonder does the book go into more detail about where he got them from? (2) There is no mention at all in the review of Pius XII having initially brought Bugnini to the Vatican, or of John XXIII downgrading him, but the extent to which his relations with Paul VI were vital is brought out very well. (3) The account of Bugnini's post-Vatican years suggests he was a case of pious arrogance rather than Masonic malice. (I wonder does the book discuss the Mason claim or just ignore it?) It is noteworthy that he suggested the EF might be allowed under certain conditions in order to accommodate the SSPX, which contrasts with the staggeringly dismissive attitude he took towards similar suggestions in the late 1960s. If I ever get a copy of this book, I'll post on it. www.catholicworldreport.com/2019/01/27/lament-for-the-liturgy/
|
|
|
Post by hibernicus on Jun 23, 2019 1:05:37 GMT
Just a little niggle. The current CATHOLIC HERALD reports that a forthcoming celebration of the EF Mass at Rochester [Anglican] cathedral will be the first such celebration since the martyrdom of St John Fisher. (1) Was the Roman liturgy used in Rochester in St John's time, or was a local form such as the Use of Sarum employed? (2) Surely Mass was said in the Cathedral under Queen Mary Tudor (1553-58)?
|
|
|
Post by hibernicus on Jul 7, 2019 19:08:35 GMT
I saw the Robert Bresson film version of Bernanos' DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST in the Irish Film Centre this afternoon. One little detail which may be relevant here is that when the priest is saying Mass the only congregation member who attends daily, and who is a governess at the local chateau (presumably therefore educated and urban) says the responses. This implies the dialogue Mass was coming in among certain milieux, but not in a remote area like the rural Pas de Calais (north-east near the Belgian border) where the story is located. I may discuss this film further on other threads.
|
|
|
Post by hibernicus on Jul 15, 2019 21:51:34 GMT
An older relative tells me that many convent schools in the period trained pupils to say the responses from outside the altar rails so that if necessary Mass could be said without a server. Although in the scene in the film there is an altar boy acting as server, it is quite likely that the character is simply recalling her education, rather than engaged in a dialogue Mass as the term is usually applied. (There is also a hint that her praying aloud reflects feelings of guilt and remorse.)
|
|
|
Post by hibernicus on Aug 8, 2019 21:01:13 GMT
Recently read the published diaries of Dorothy Day, THE DUTY OF DELIGHT. There are quite a few references to the liturgical changes. She welcomed the vernacular (she said it made a great difference to be able to understand the prayers, and that the old rite encouraged daydreaming or private prayer) and her references to the altars being turned round suggests she approved of it. (BTW she records both these as happening in New York even before the Council had concluded.) She was much less enthusiastic about the reduction of the liturgy itself - she quotes a friend as saying "No sooner do we begin to understand the prayers than they abolish half of them" and she is annoyed that some priests see prayers as a chore (to the extent of disliking the Rosary, welcoming the removal of the prayers at the foot of the altar and never saying requiem Mass except at funerals). By her last years she definitely thinks the old way of saying Mass was better (though presumably not that it was perfect). Two things that come across about her are that she was a woman of deep prayer and that she handled a lot of extremely difficult and often downright unpleasant people with love. She is also very sad over the Sexual Revolution because she sees a lot of people falling into the same traps she did in the 20s (abortion included). Whatever you may think of some of her political views, she definitely comes across as a saint and makes me feel uncomfortable. BTW I looked up some footage of her on YouTube and I was surprised how soft-spoken she was.
|
|
|
Post by maolsheachlann on Aug 9, 2019 8:56:00 GMT
Recently read the published diaries of Dorothy Day, THE DUTY OF DELIGHT. There are quite a few references to the liturgical changes. She welcomed the vernacular (she said it made a great difference to be able to understand the prayers, and that the old rite encouraged daydreaming or private prayer) and her references to the altars being turned round suggests she approved of it. (BTW she records both these as happening in New York even before the Council had concluded.) She was much less enthusiastic about the reduction of the liturgy itself - she quotes a friend as saying "No sooner do we begin to understand the prayers than they abolish half of them" and she is annoyed that some priests see prayers as a chore (to the extent of disliking the Rosary, welcoming the removal of the prayers at the foot of the altar and never saying requiem Mass except at funerals). By her last years she definitely thinks the old way of saying Mass was better (though presumably not that it was perfect). Two things that come across about her are that she was a woman of deep prayer and that she handled a lot of extremely difficult and often downright unpleasant people with love. She is also very sad over the Sexual Revolution because she sees a lot of people falling into the same traps she did in the 20s (abortion included). Whatever you may think of some of her political views, she definitely comes across as a saint and makes me feel uncomfortable. BTW I looked up some footage of her on YouTube and I was surprised how soft-spoken she was. I have bcome a fan of Blue Bloods, an American TV drama about a family who are all connected to law enforcement in some way-- most are members of the NYPD, and the paterfamilias (Tom Selleck) is the Chief Commissioner. They are a Catholic family, we regularly see them saying grace at Sunday dinner, and Catholicism is present in the series in various ways. In one episode, Tom Selleck admits during a press conference that he disagrees with the Church on homosexuality. He says: "Well, I do believe that the Church is a little behind the times on this, but then I still miss the Latin Mass. So, next question". I think this is quite a realistic detail. A lot of left-leaning Catholics seem to have a fondness for the Latin Mass, even if they wouldn't be committed enough to seek one out. (And then there are conservative Catholics like me who are perfectly contented with the vernacular Mass.)
|
|
|
Post by hibernicus on Mar 11, 2020 20:48:34 GMT
A discussion of Fr Louis Bouyer's views on the liturgy. Handle with caution as the author is a former Catholic traditionalist who is now a "continuing Anglican" and describes himself as a modernist in doctrine though not in liturgy. He does bring out fairly clearly that Bouyer, despite his criticisms of Bugninism, was not straightforwardly traditionalist. I am saying this as a statement of fact rather than a value-judgment; the beginning of wisdom is the ability to learn from others without projecting your own ideas onto them (i.e. (a) recognising that they don't necessarily agree with you (b) understanding that it is possible that on some issues they may be right and you may be wrong.) sarumuse.wordpress.com/2020/03/10/romantic-and-patristic-liturgy-in-louis-bouyer/
|
|
|
Post by hibernicus on May 20, 2020 22:04:51 GMT
Fr Vincent Twomey discusses the proposal for an "Amazonian rite" and the ambiguity about whether this would represent local adaptations or be equivalent to one of the Eastern Rites. He thinks that the idea that a Rite can be invented by a committee of liturgists, rather than developing over time and reflection, is a serious flaw. Fr Twomey also gives some examples of good and bad inculturation from his own missionary experience in New Guinea. The latter includes adopting a local animist ritual without realising that it was restricted to men and women were forbidden to witness it under drastic penalties, with the result that every woman in the congregation fled from the church as soon as they realised what it was: www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/05/20/what-wrong-with-an-amazonian-rite/
|
|
|
Post by hibernicus on Aug 25, 2020 20:43:20 GMT
|
|
|
Post by hibernicus on Oct 15, 2021 20:25:16 GMT
This article on the extent and limits of papal authority contains a most extraordinary statement. Apparently Mgr Bugnini tried to "reform" the Rosary in the following manner: (1) The Our Father to be said only once. (2) Public recitation to be limited to a single decade. (3) The non-biblicl part of the Hail Mary (i.e. "Holy Mary...etc) to be suppressed. (It is not clear whether this bright idea was for general application or applied only to the Rosary.) This sounds like an April Fool's joke but it is a horribly plausible one because it chimes with some of Bugnini's general approaches - that repetition is bad and to be suppressed, perpetual alertness is to be favoured rather than the altered state of consciousness which comes from repetition and familiarity, and widespread, even universal popular practice is of no value whatsoever as compared to the theories of selected liturgical experts: www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/10/13/are-there-limits-to-papal-power/Theodore Dalrymple's article on a modernist/brutalist architect which discusses the view that every age should be a tabula rasa in which what is there should be torn down and replaced, on the understanding that the replacements will in their turn be torn down, indicates a similar mindset: www.takimag.com/article/the-end-of-an-error/I don't usually link to Takimag because it has some very unpleasant contributors with problematic racial views, but I'll make an exception in this case.
|
|
|
Post by hibernicus on Mar 26, 2022 18:55:17 GMT
Have been reading Jacinta Prunty's history of the refuges/Magdalen asylums run by the order of Our Lady of Charity in the Dublin Archdiocese. One minor detail which I noticed is that Mass started being said in the vernacular in these convents in 1965 - a reminder that there wasn't an abrupt changeover when the Novus Ordo came in in 1968/9, but that changes has already begun earlier.
|
|