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Second Sunday After Pentecost

Laudetur Iesus Christus and happy Father’s Day! Sunday is the second Sunday after Pentecost and depending on parish, it may also be the external solemnity of Corpus Christi. As custom we provide a commentary on the propers for this Sunday’s Mass: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2022/06/heavenly-life-on-earth-secret-of-second.html#.Yq6VoezMKHt

June Festal Latin Masses

Feast of the Sacred Heart – Friday June 24

Nativity of St. John the Baptist – Saturday June 25*

  • 8am – Respect Life Latin Mass, St Ann
  • 8:30am: St. John the Baptist, Tryon (2 hours west of Charlotte)

* The feast of St. John the Baptist normally falls on June 24; however due to the feast of the Sacred Heart occurring on that day this year, the feast of St. John is transferred to June 25. This is confirmed via the FSSP liturgical calendar.

To learn why the feast of St. John the Baptist is transferred to June 25, please see Greg DiPippo’s article on New Liturgical Movement: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2022/06/some-rubrical-notes-for-coming-days.html#.YqwTIOzMKHs

Feast of SS. Peter and Paul – Wednesday June 29

  • 6pm: St. Ann

Latin Mass Community News

  • Holy Face Devotions: Three parishes in Charlotte now offer the Holy Face devotions – a timely and powerful devotion to combat communism (among which abortion is its “anti-sacrament”). As background, in 1843, Sr. Mary of St. Peter, a Carmelite nun in the monastery in Tours, France, received a series of revelations from Jesus telling her that reparation for certain sins were an imperative, and that it was to be done through devotion to the Holy Face.  The primary purpose of this apostolate is to, by praying certain prayers, make reparation for the sins committed against the first three Commandments of the Lord: The denial of God by atheism (communism), blasphemy, and the profanation of Sundays and Holy Days. Devotion to the Holy Face has been referred to as the devotion for Jesus Crucified.  The schedule is as follows:
  • St. Mark – Mondays 2-3pm
  • St. Thomas Aquinas – Tuesdays 6am in the main church
  • St. Ann – Tuesdays 7:30am in the chapel after the Novus Ordo Mass (uses the booklet which takes 15-20 minutes)

Latin Mass & Traditional News

The Problem of ‘Restorationists’

Last week was a busy week in the Vatican regarding the liturgy. On Wednesday, the Holy See published a decree prohibiting a bishop from establishing new religious orders without Rome’s permission – a decision clearly targeting dioceses which may try to establish new Latin Mass religious orders (FYI – inviting in already existing religious orders is still allowed).  This was followed on Thursday by the Holy See’s new head of the Dicastery for Divine Worship, Archbishop Roche, who in a published interview justified the regulation of the Traditional Latin Mass under Traditiones Custodes, because the Vatican II Council was “putting forward a new liturgy”.

However, the most interesting news item from Rome last week was an interview between Pope Francis and editors with several Jesuit journals in Europe. In this exchange, His Holiness expressed the following concerns about “restorationists”:

“It is very difficult to see spiritual renewal using old-fashioned criteria. We need to renew our way of seeing reality, of evaluating it. In the European Church I see more renewal in the spontaneous things that are emerging: movements, groups, new bishops who remember that there is a Council behind them. Because the Council that some pastors remember best is that of Trent. What I’m saying is not nonsense.

Restorationism has come to gag the Council. The number of groups of “restorers” – for example, in the United States there are many – is significant. An Argentine bishop told me that he had been asked to administer a diocese that had fallen into the hands of these “restorers.” They had never accepted the Council. There are ideas, behaviors that arise from a restorationism that basically did not accept the Council. The problem is precisely this: in some contexts the Council has not yet been accepted. It is also true that it takes a century for a Council to take root. We still have forty years to make it take root, then!”

CLMC Comment:

We welcome His Holiness’ comments on a distinct point. Indeed there are many problematic “restorers” in the U.S., who seem to be wedded to the “old fashioned criteria” for “spiritual renewal”.

These groups are called the “1960s restorationists” who cling to the halcyon days of guitars, tambourines, felt banners, polyester vestments, watered down doctrine, dissent, and folk songs in the liturgy – and just can’t let it go. (Moreover, the spiritual children of these “restorers” – some who populate the pews of many Novus Ordo Masses – are actually the ones who deny the validity of the Vatican II Mass – particularly when they deny belief in the Real Presence in the Eucharist offered at Mass, as Phil Lawler noted in an article last December.) These so-called “1960s restorationists” and their often heavy handed behaviors are often a source of strife and division (as seen at the Charlotte Synod last week!). This may in part be why, as early as 1980, Pope John Paul II had to issue an apology for the actions of these “bitter clingers” who even then didn’t realize their retro-party was already ending:

“I would like to ask forgiveness-in my own name and in the name of all of you, venerable and dear brothers in the episcopate-for everything which, for whatever reason, through whatever human weakness, impatience or negligence, and also through the at times partial, one-sided and erroneous application of the directives of the Second Vatican Council, may have caused scandal and disturbance concerning the interpretation of the doctrine and the veneration due to this great sacrament. And I pray the Lord Jesus that in the future we may avoid in our manner of dealing with this sacred mystery anything which could weaken or disorient in any way the sense of reverence and love that exists in our faithful people.” – John Paul II, Dominicae Cenae #12, February 24, 1980

If those in Rome are truly concerned about overcoming opposition to the actual truths (aligned with tradition) contained in the Vatican II Council texts, then the words of Deacon Nick Donnelly (of the U.K.), may be a wakeup call:

“Traditional Catholics uphold the importance Latin and Gregorian Chant to the worship of God (Sacrosanctum Concilium 36 & 116); we teach the truth that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church (Lumen Gentium 14); we warn that atheism is an evil that must be rejected ‘root and branch’ (Gaudeum et spes 21), we defend the sacrament of marriage from the plague of divorce and cohabitation (Gaudeum et spes 47).”

If Church leaders truly wish to overcome these problematic “1960s restorationists”, they should consider embracing not the Mass of Vatican II, but the Mass at Vatican II – The Traditional Latin Mass, the Mass of Ages. From this Mass are where the emerging movements, groups, and even new bishops are sprouting up all over the Church in tiny but growing pockets.

In closing we share Pope St. Pius X’s comment in Notre Charge Apostolique (1910): Indeed, the true friends of the people are neither revolutionaries, nor innovators: they are traditionalists.

What Mass are you attending Sunday?