Pro Tridentina (Malta)
For the promotion and dissemination of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass in the Archdiocese of Malta and the Diocese of Gozo, as endorsed by the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum promulgated by Pope Benedict XVI (2007) and in the Instruction Universae Ecclesiae (2011). We adhere to the traditional Catholic motto: We are what you once were. We believe what you once believed. We worship as you once worshipped. If you were right then, we are right now. If we are wrong now, you were wrong then.
Sunday, September 1, 2024
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira on the Benedictines
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
How Old Was the Theotokos When She Reposed?
How Old Was the Theotokos When She Reposed?
Monday, August 5, 2024
Closing of churches - Catholicism dying in Europe (including Malta)
The below is just a sample. The situation is much worse:
The Netherlands
In the Dutch province of Friesland, more than 250 of 720 existing churches have been transformed or closed.
The Fatih Camii Mosque in Amsterdam once was the Saint Ignatius Church.
The Church of St. Jacobus, one of the oldest of the city of Utrecht, was converted into a luxury residence.
A library opened in a former Dominican church in Maastricht.
Belgium
In Mechelen, Flanders, in place of a famous church, a luxury hotel now stands. Catholic arches, columns and windows still soar between menus and tables for customers.
In Tournai, the Church of St. Margherita has been transformed into apartments.
Eight centuries after its founding, the Church of the Blessed Sacrament at Binche, a majestic building in the heart of a medieval town close to Brussels, was put on sale for the symbolic sum of one euro.
The Church of St. Catherine, built in 1874, dominates the historic centre of Brussels, the only religious building created in the city at the end of Ancien Régime, and today one of the most protected in the EU's capital, especially after the terror attacks there in 2016. Brussels, however, wanted to convert the church into a fruit market. Only the mobilization of the faithful hindered the city's plan.
The Church of Saint-Hubert in Watermael-Boitsfort now accommodates apartments.
In Malonne, the chapel of Piroy has been transformed into a restaurant.
In Namur, the Saint-Jacques Church was transformed into a clothing store and the Church of Notre Dame, built in 1749 and deconsecrated in 2004, is now a "cultural space."
France
Some years ago, Muslim French leader Dalil Boubakeur suggested turning empty churches into mosques.
In the French region of Vierzon, the Church of Saint-Eloi has become a mosque.
The diocese of Bourges had put the church on sale, and a Muslim organization made a most generous offer to buy the site.
In the Quai Malakoff, in Nantes, the old Church of Saint Christopher became the Mosque of Forqane.
A few years ago, Niall Ferguson, the brilliant contemporary historian, wrote about Europe's future as "the creeping Islamicization of a decadent Christendom."
It is easy to find images of the decay of Europe's Christianity and the growth of Islam in the heart of the old continent.
Every traveller in any modern European city can notice the new mosques being built alongside abandoned and secularized churches, some converted into museums.
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
BREAKING NEWS: Suppression of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite expected soon!
Sources in Rome have told this Blog that next month Pope Francis will issue an Apostolic Exhoration to suppress the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. The only Mass in Latin allowed would be the Novus Ordo Missae.
At this stage it is still unclear what would become of priestly societies, like the Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) and the Institute of Christ the King. They might be given some leeway, although since Traditionis custodes pressure has been building up to curtail the Tridentine Mass.
It is pertinent to note that the Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Bishop Vittorio Francesco Viola OFM, has recently written to the Archbishop of Melbourne, Australia, forbidding him from celebrating the Tridentine Mass in his cathedral and instead allowed him to celebrate the Novus Ordo Missae but in Latin.
Friday, May 31, 2024
Quotes to reflect upon (26)
Gabriele Amorth S.S.P. (1925-2016) was an Italian Catholic priest of the Paulines and an exorcist for the Diocese of Rome.
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Leave behind Tridentine model of priesthood, embrace synodality
As has been the trend during Pope Francis' pontificate, any occasion is good to attack the Catholic Church's pre-Vatican II's teachings. The latest occasion was the following. Original article here.
CWN Editor's Note: On the last day of Parish Priests for the Synod—an international meeting of parish priests at the Vatican — Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, encouraged participants “to become ambassadors of synodality, to be full participants in a synodal Church, to become with all the people of God, missionary disciples of Jesus.”
“Many times their training and their reality have been oriented towards a Tridentine model of the priesthood,” Cardinal Hollerich, the relator-general of the synod on synodality, said of parish priests, in an address to Pope Francis in the presence of participants. “And now they see that the identity they had for centuries is crumbling, and sometimes this identity is lost ... and there is the danger of wanting to build a new identity based on the experience of the past.”
“The identity of priests and parish priests (even bishops) is given to us by the Holy Spirit when we walk with the people,” he continued. “Then the sacraments are no longer the expression of a ritualism in search of identity, but become a true rite where God communicates himself to his people.”
Cardinal Hollerich’s reference to the “Tridentine model of the priesthood” appears to be a reference to the Council of Trent’s teaching on the priesthood, and not simply a reference to the traditional Latin Mass.
The archbishop of Luxembourg, now 65, gained notoriety in 2022 when he said that Catholic teaching on homosexuality is “false.” In 2023, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Hollerich to his nine-member advisory Council of Cardinals.
Friday, April 26, 2024
International Campaign for the Total Freedom of the Traditional Liturgy
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
In defense of Fr Marc Andre Camilleri
The local media, at least some of it, tried to make a show out of a good proposal made by Fr Marc Andre Camilleri, parish priest of Christ the King Parish in Paola.
Sunday, March 10, 2024
Remember the Fatima message!
1. Our Lady came to warn the world that if people do not stop offending God another, worse war than the First World War (fighting was still going on in 1917, the year of the apparitions) will start. It did, the Second World War took place between 1939 and 1945. And it seems likely that we're on the eve of a more devastating World War (see further in points 6 and 8).
Sunday, February 18, 2024
Quotes to reflect upon (25)
We are conscious today that many, many centuries of blindness have cloaked our eyes so that we can no longer see the beauty of Your Chosen People nor recognize in their faces the features of our privileged brethren.
We realize that the mark of Cain stands upon our foreheads. Across the centuries our brother Abel has lain in the blood we drew, or shed tears we caused by forgetting Your love.
Forgive us the curse we falsely attached to their name as Jews. Forgive us for crucifying You a second time in the flesh. For we know not what we did.
Monday, February 5, 2024
A church to be turned into a mosque?
According to traditional Catholic sites, apparently American, the Archdiocese of Malta is considering the selling of one of the Carmelite churches that are expected to pass from the Carmelite Order to the Archdiocese. It is rumoured that it will be sold for usage as a mosque.
Fgura appears to be one of the churches that the Provincial Chapter of the Maltese Carmelite Province is considering to release. Hopefully, such drastic measures will not be put in place, considering also that Fgura is just one parish.
As Pro Tridentina (Malta) we're not informed whether the above websites are correct or not. But, as Maltese Catholics, it's important that clarifications are made.
Friday, January 26, 2024
Biblical Concept of Time by Prof. Goswin N. M. Habets
I. The Hebrew Concept of Time and HistoryA. Israel had a concept of time very different from ours.The Western concept of time and history cannot be applied adequately to Israel.1. Our concept is linear: past - present - futureThe Western concept is also absolute and abstract.This is an a priori to every event; there is already time before the events.We can put any events on the time line.
Israel’s concept of time was not linear, absolute, abstract. No word exists in the Bible to express this. Some examples follow:
- Jer. 50:16 time of harvest
- Jer. 8:15 time of healing
- Gen. 38:27, Mic. 5:2 time of giving birth
- Gen. 29:7 time to gather animals
- Ruth 2:14 time of a meal
- Ps. 1:3 time for giving fruit
- Ps. 104:27 time to give food
'yom = “day” - from dawn to sunset (as distinct from 'laylah, “night”); unity of the calendar; same value as ‘et.
- Gen. 2:4 day in sense of occasion, event of creation
- Dt. 4:32 day that God created man on the earth
- Dt. 9:7 the day when you came from Egypt - the occasion of Exodus.
- Qoheleth 3:1-8 time imposed on every circumstance. Every event is determined by the time assigned to this event.
- Ps. 31:16 “My times are in Your hands.”
Western concept of time is eschatological. Humanity is directed toward a final fulfillment.
- Gen. 8:22 “all the times of the earth.”
Contrasts - two contrary concepts indicate totality. Succession of times rhythmic - cyclical vision of time. This conception of cyclical, anti-eschatological time of Archaic Yahwism did not remain so. Israel gradually elaborated an eschatological concept of time. The point of departure was the Feasts: Sabbath, Passover, Unleavened Bread, In gathering.
- Passover: pastoral origin; rite practiced by nomadic or semi-nomadic shepherds.
- Sacrifice of first fruits of the flock. Rite known before stay in Egypt.
- Unleavened Bread: feast of sedentary people, Canaanite origin; an agricultural feast.
- Periodic cycle of nature; beginning of Spring. Thanksgiving.
The Hebrew Concept of Time and History SummaryWestern Biblical1. Linear Punctum temporisAbsolute RelativeAbstract Concrete
2. Eschatological Non-eschatological in Archaic YahwismCyclical (Gen. 8:22)(Feasts) LinearEschatological (Dt. 16:1)
Ex. 23:15 Feast of Unleavened Bread: symbolized Birth of People of Israel.
Passover and Unleavened Bread joined
a. Chronological coincidence:Nomads (1st full moon of Spring);
Unleavened Bread - (1st Gathering of grain)
b. Eating Unleavened Bread part of both rites.
c. Symbolism: strictly related
Passover - 1st event of Exodus
Unleavened Bread - Last event
Together - whole event
Gilgal - conquest of the Promised LandSchechem - Covenant on SinaiFeast of Booths - Providence in the desertPassover - Exodus celebrated in familiesBethel - Patriarchs
Israel recognized these events as successive, as a “becoming” as history that was intelligible. Gestalt: each part takes its significance from being in relation with each other part and the whole.
Short biography: Born in the Netherlands in 1938, Fr. Goswin N.M. Habets became lecturer (professore incaricato) of Biblical theology within the Faculty of Theology at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum (APRA) in 1977. He was highly esteemed by his students. One of his most interesting courses was the one on prophets. For decades, Fr. Goswin would go to the back entrance of the sacristy at 07:00 to celebrate Mass on the Altar of St. Pius X in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. The Dutch priest travelled a lot and Malta was one of his favourite places. Here he had several friends, including former altar boys who had served at St. Peter's Basilica over the years.
When he fell ill, Fr. Goswin asked a young American priest if he would be able to keep the Altar of St. Pius X “warm” for him. Afterwards, one morning, Fr. Goswin came by the sacristy to ask the sacristan and some of the senior altar servers to be ready for the American priest with vestments and cruets as soon as he entered — the trick that the more experienced priests in and around the Vatican had perfected.
Fr. Goswin died on 7 March 2005. A few hours after his death, a person who had attended his lectures stated that, after teaching the Old Testament throughout his life, Fr. Goswin was now ready to be examined on the New Testament.