Quotes to reflect upon (18)

"They (the Modernists) exercise all their ingenuity in an effort to weaken the force and falsify the character of Tradition, so as to rob it of all its weight and authority.  But for Catholics nothing will remove the authority of the second Council of Nicea, where it condemns those “who dare, after the impious fashion of heretics, to deride the ecclesiastical traditions, to invent novelties of some kind.... or endeavor by malice or craft to overthrow any one of the legitimate traditions of the Catholic Church”; nor that of the declaration of the fourth Council of Constantinople: “We therefore profess to preserve and guard the rules bequeathed to the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, by the Holy and most illustrious Apostles, by the orthodox Councils, both general and local, and by every one of those divine interpreters, the Fathers and Doctors of the Church.” Wherefore the Roman Pontiffs, Pius IV and Pius IX, ordered the insertion in the profession of faith of the following declaration: “I most firmly admit and embrace the apostolic and ecclesiastical traditions and other observances and constitutions of the Church” - St. Pius X, Encyclical Pascendi Dominci Gregis, 8 September 1907

 

An anticlerical and gay activist on the Tridentine Mass

 

The Maltese-Australian lawyer Joseph Carmel Chetcuti needs no introduction to the Maltese public. He himself admitted in a comment 10 months ago as follows: 

"I have been described as anticlerical and I have embraced that description with pride. Clericalism is not grounded in the New Testament. It is merely a fabrication of some men designed to benefit these very men. In recent years clericalism has benefited a closeted homosexual and pedophile hierarchy. They even proclaim their own 'saints'. And as a gay activist I am proud to have played a very minor role towards the devastation of clericalism. With the advent of modern gay liberation, the seminaries and friaries have virtually been obliterated. And I was one of those who left the friary for gay liberation. What the Catholic Church needs now is a reformation from within. But of course they will blame modernism and secularism and atheists and agnostics and what have you. A nice way to deflect attention from the miserable way these clerics have run the church."

In his book, Queer Mediterranean Memories,  Chetcuti speculates on the sexual orientation of various prominent people including Saint Paul and Saint George Preca among others.

It came therefore as a welcome surprise when, in a recent exchange of views with Pro Tridentina (Malta) he said the following (my emphasis) about the Tridentine Mass:

" Oh pleeease! Whom are you kidding? Try pulling the other leg. BTW, I was there and present at a mass when Marcel Lefebvre visited Australia many moons ago.

...

Well it is many years ago. I think it was in the 1980s as I moved to Melbourne in late 1982. There is no denying, however, that the Tridentine mass has a sense of magic (or better still, a sense of wonder) which is lacking today. He reminded me a bit of Gonzi!"

 

Msgr. Georg Ratzinger on the Tridentine Mass

In what is likely to be my last post, at least for the foreseeable future, I would like to quote what Msgr. Georg Ratzinger - the Pope's elder brother - had to say about the liturgy, soon after the promulgation of Summorum Pontificum:

"One lives the liturgy with great intensity, and the modernists swear by their new discoveries. Everyone who cannot join in with the new then strikes back with equal violence. I must confess that as far as the liturgical realm is concerned many an awkward word has been dropped and many an awkward novelty has been introduced. However, I would not, as I said, condemn the liturgical reform in its entirety.

With the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum by Pope Benedict XVI the celebration of the so-called Tridentine Mass has been freely given as an extraordinary rite for all the faithful without special permission. I myself often receive letters from people from Munich, Regensburg and from other places, for whom it is truly an inner concern to be able to celebrate the old liturgy again. Certain people did not succeed in finding themselves in the new liturgy. Helping such people is I believe a concern. I must confess that I personally have few problems, but there are people of deep religiosity who cannot be reconciled to the new liturgy. They simply miss a lot that their liturgical celebration and their faith used to enliven and deepen, and that is missing in the current liturgy." (31 August 2007 published on the Wiener Zeitung)

Points to reflect and ponder upon...