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Good Shepherd Sunday

Christus Resurréxit! Resurréxit Vere! Sunday is the 2nd Sunday after Easter, otherwise known as Good Shepherd Sunday. The name is derived from Sunday’s gospel reading (John 10:11). Dr. Mike Foley has a reflection for the Collect prayer from this Sunday’s Mass:  http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/04/the-freefall-collect-of-good-shepherd.html

Respect Life Latin Mass – Saturday April 24, 8:00AM:

St. Ann will offer its 4th Saturday Respect Life Latin Mass  next Saturday at 8am. Mass is typically followed by prayers at the abortion facility (700 S. Torrence Street) or people can pray a Holy Hour of Reparation in the Church (led by a deacon).

Latin Mass and Traditional News

Traditional Nuns open new Convent in Ardee, County Louth, Ireland: Despite the state of the world today, there is still hope and good news in the Church. In fact while the Irish government publically suppresses the Catholic faith under the guise of a health dictatorship, a new traditional convent is set to open in County Louth, where Sister Adorers, the traditional nuns affiliated with the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, will be taking ownership of a 170 year old convent. The Institute is a religious order of priests which offer the Latin Mass exclusively and operate parishes throughout the world. The nearest apostolates to Charlotte is in Columbus, Ohio and Pittsburgh, PA.

A New Convent for the Sister Adorers in Ardee, Co. Louth

Traditional Sermon – An excellent sermon by a Latin Mass priest on having hope in the joy of the resurrection rather than fear of a virus:
http://reginaprophetarum.org/audio/20210411-The-Resurrection-Cause-of-Joy-or-Cause-of-Fear.mp3

Bishop Athanasius Schneider offers Latin Mass in home Cathedral: His Excellency, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop in Kazakhstan (whom many will fondly remember his 2017 to our community), offered his home cathedral’s first Latin Mass during its regularly l schedule in the presence of his Archbishop: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/04/easter-mass-with-bishop-schneider-in.html

The Chains of Evil – Traditional Perspective on Abortion-linked Vaccines: In one of the best summaries to date of the traditional Catholic teaching on the immorality of abortion-linked vaccines, we are pleased to share this essay written by a traditional priest, who analyzes the issue and demonstrates in a clear way that abortion-linked vaccines are immoral because abortion and its connections remain present in COVID-19 vaccines, and the scientific basis for the Vatican’s theological opinions do not and have not existed.  Regrettably, many faithful priests and bishops misunderstand or are misinformed on such a critical issue and we need to pray for them to embrace the traditional theological and philosophical approach the Church held for 2,000 years.

We reply that the co-operation is not remote and passive, but proximate and active, for the evil in question in fact consists not in one single past event, but in the proximate and active participation in a process which extends from the original abortion to the very act of injection itself. This process is not simply a concatenation of discrete and isolated events, but a continuous, unbroken chain extending from the extraction of the child from the mother’s womb and culminating in the vaccination, as the last link of the chain. We call this chain a ‘chain of evil’ corresponding to the ‘cell-line’, in virtue of the moral value that supervenes upon the physical continuum.

https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2021/04/don-pietro-leone-chains-of-evil.html#more

(For more articles see last week’s CLMC post: https://charlottelatinmass.org/2021/04/11/low-sunday-update-2/)

Traditional Latin Mass vs. Modernism: Can the Two Forms Coexist Peacefully?

In his Easter Sunday bulletin, Fr. Reid, perhaps by providence, noted that the needs of the Novus Ordo and Latin Mass parishioners are often in conflict with each other, and that there is a liturgical divide in the parish. As we noted a few weeks ago, we completely agree and observed that both Masses have different theological perspectives which create different spiritual needs. The Latin Mass also contains its own liturgical calendar, language, rituals, traditions, customs and culture. Yet Father’s comments couldn’t have come at a more critical time as the debate over the Novus Ordo vs. Latin Mass has heated up in the past week.

Last week, Fr. Thomas Reese SJ, the former head of the Jesuit’s America Magazine, dissenter, and certainly no fan of the Traditional Latin Mass, penned an article in which he called for the banishment of the Latin Mass, and specifically to ban the youth from attending it. While this appears to be designed to grab headlines and perhaps disturb our interior peace (only if we permit it), our focus will simply acknowledge the simple reality that after 50 years the Latin Mass and Novus Ordo are radically different Masses and essentially different “rites” that cannot be reconciled.

As Dr. Peter Kwasniewski wrote in his recent book Reclaiming Our Roman Catholic Birthright:

“The reality, I’m afraid is this: The Novus Ordo and the Traditional Latin Mass cannot ultimately sit peacefully next to each other because their principles are incompatible.  The most serious defenders of the Novus Ordo…are quite clear that the new rites embody and advance a new theological vision born of Vatican II, one that “revises” or “completes” (but, in effect, repudiates) the Tridentine Legacy [emphasis added].

There can be an uneasy truce, but the things in themselves tend in opposite directions, as we would expect, since they have contrary origins. The usus antiquior (e.g. Latin Mass – CLMC) comes to us by tradition…The Novus Ordo is the creation ex nihilo of papal power, in 1969.”

As one of our late CLMC members once noted, the differences between the Traditional Latin Mass and Novus Ordo spirituality are similar to the differences between contemplative and active religious orders. While no analogy is perfect, once can appreciate how contemplative nuns would not fit well being assigned into an active teaching order/convent (or vice versa).  Ultimately, at some point, a nun’s call to a contemplative life would come in conflict with a teaching order’s mission (or vice versa).  A similar application could be argued for having a one form of the Mass (Latin) permanently in a parish of another form (i.g. Novus Ordo). With two different theological outlooks and spiritual needs, it can become difficult to manage in the long run, in some places.

At some point, Dr. Kwasniewski argues, this uneasy truce will no longer be workable. While we are not arguing for an cessation of all Latin Masses in Novus Ordo parishes, as the Fr. Reese article signals, this “uneasy” truce may be coming to an end quicker than one may have hoped and a long term plan is needed. Ultimately, as the CLMC prays for each March, full sacramental and parochial life in Extraordinary Form will be needed to meet the spiritual needs of the Latin Mass faithful. There are many ways a diocese and bishop can facilitate this. Have we reached that point in Charlotte? Perhaps that can be left for a future e-mail update.

To wrap up, we share two articles which address Fr. Reese’s desperate comments in various ways:

In the interim, let us remain hopeful, joyful, and remember Christ still reigns and he loves the Latin Mass so much that He permitted it to nourish his Church for 1,600 years and counting.