Friday, August 13, 2021

Traditionis Custodes: A Sterilization Shot

 Why this hardship without a glimmer of grace or compassion?  - A commentary by Fr Daniel-Ange on the most recent Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes 

 Rome (kath.net/as/red)

 Father Daniel Ange is one of the most famous priestly personalities in France and founder of the prayer and evangelism school "Jeunesse Lumiere", from which numerous priestly vocations also emerged.  After 30 years of monastic life (including 12 years in Rwanda), Fr. Daniel Ange felt the call in the 80s to bring the good news to the young people.  At events of the Charismatic Renewal in German-speaking areas, many thousands of people regularly came to his events.

 kath.net publishes a letter from the priest on the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes exclusively for the German-speaking area:

 I am amazed and dismayed by this Motu Proprio.  The least we can say is that it knocks us out!  I share the tears of so many of my friends and relatives.  I pray that they will not be led to bitterness, resentment, if not outright riot and despair.

Why this hardship without a glimmer of grace or compassion?  How can we not be amazed, destabilized?

Of course, among those Catholic brethren who cling to tradition, there are some who - alas!  Oh!  - hardened, rigid, closed, withdrawn into a ghetto, up to and including the refusal to concelebrate at the chrism mass - which is inadmissible.  But wouldn't it have been enough for this small minority to issue a clear warning, combined with the possible threat of sanctions?  Inspired by the Book of Wisdom: “That is why you punish sinners little by little;  you admonish them and remind them of their sins so that they will turn away from wickedness and believe in you, Lord.  But you spared even those because they were human;  you sent wasps ahead of your army to gradually destroy them.  you only carried out the punishment little by little and gave room for repentance.  You knew exactly that their origin was evil and their wickedness innate and that their thinking would not change forever ”(12, 2, 8, 10). [Naturally, no one who contributes here (I hope) agrees with this assessment typical of Charismatics and the dry conservative wing in the Church.]

 Refreshing oases in a desert of general apostasy

But does the Pope know, when he only speaks of France, that there are wonderfully bright groups and communities there that attract many young people, young couples and families?  The sense of the sacred, the beauty of the liturgy, the contemplative dimension, the beautiful Latin language, the docility to the Seat of Peter, the Eucharistic zeal, the frequent confession, the fidelity to the rosary, the passion for the souls to be saved and so many  other elements that they cannot find - alas!  - in many of our parishes.

Aren't all of these elements prophetic?  Shouldn't they challenge, stimulate, drive us?  Wasn't this the intuition of Saint John Paul II in his Motu Proprio "Ecclesia Dei"?

Young people, households and families dominate their communities, with almost 100% attendance on Sundays.  It should not be said that they are nostalgic and anachronistic.  On the contrary: Latin, mass ad orientem, Gregorian chant, cassock: all this is new to her.  It has the allure of novelty.

Is it surprising that monastic communities that hold the Office in Latin and sometimes even the Eucharist according to the Missal of St. John XXIII.  celebrate, flourish and attract a lot of young people?

I am thinking in particular of communities that I have gotten to know personally and that I appreciate and admire, such as those of Le Barroux (monks and nuns) and ND de la Garde, as well as the Missionaries of Mercy in Toulon.  It is not to be said that they are not missionaries!  The Marie Madeleine Chapter with its hundreds of teenagers, not to mention the retreaters who gather there, is grouped around the first.  For the latter, there is no better way to evangelize Muslims and our little pagans on the beaches.  Not to mention the ever-growing Whitsun pilgrimage to Chartres.

Along with the Boy Scouts and the St. Martins Community, this ecclesiastical movement is the one that brings the most priestly vocations to the Church.  I am witness to the wonderful enthusiasm that prevails in the seminary of Wigratzbad in Bavaria, which was founded thanks to a certain Cardinal Ratzinger.

In a world so tough, where the struggle for fidelity to Jesus and His Gospel is a heroic one, where they are marginalized, despised and mocked already in schools and in their families, in which all their values ​​are despised, if not prostituted, in which they feel terribly alone and isolated, so insecure, sometimes on the verge of desperation: why, but why are they denied these few fortresses that give them the strength, the courage, the boldness  to go into the resistance and persevere?  We are in the midst of a tumultuous time for the Church, in the midst of the collapse of faith in the world.  The war against Christ and his Church is unleashed, we are in the middle of a murder-against-prince-of-life duel, young people have more than ever a right to be supported, strengthened, armed, and simply secured.  We shouldn't close some of our most beautiful hideaways to them.  Like a high mountain hut in the middle of deadly crevasses.

In the arid desert of a society in which "the quiet apostasy of man who believes to be happy without God" (John Paul II) is gaining ground, these groups and communities are true and refreshing oases.  Her most beautiful flowers are the young people and even children who have reached the shining heights of holiness.  How could one not mention Anne-Gabrielle Caron of the Parish of the Missionaries of Mercy in Toulon, whose beatification process has already begun?  And the little martyr Jeanne-Marie Kegelin in Alsace, whose two brothers are priests of the Fraternité S.Pierre.  (Provided that is not the reason that would delay this thing).

 A sterilization syringe?

After all that, how can one understand that the Pope is apparently only aiming at their annihilation, dissolution, pure and simple liquidation?  By simply applying the standards now imposed?  This can be seen in the fact that their priests are torn out of their parishes and they are forbidden from planting new parishes: isn't that a kind of sterilization syringe?  That no new priest of the ordinary rite can celebrate the so-called Tridentine Mass without the permission of his bishop, who is obliged to obey Roman guidelines.

John XXIII  is no longer part of the Roman rite, since its "only expression" is now the unique missal of Paul VI.  This rite is ipso facto a thing of the past, is outdated and is in a vacuum without weight ...

Isn't this a stab in the back or rather in the heart of our dear Benedict XVI?  His stroke of genius was to save this Rite by simply making it the second variant or form of the only Roman Rite.  What courage did he need!  And this was by no means out of pure diplomacy or ecclesiastical politics, as the Motu Proprio suggests.  How many times has he not affirmed that this Rite, which sanctified the Christian people, watered the whole Church and produced so many fruits of holiness over so many centuries, is now fully right and an integral part of the Latin and Roman Liturgy.

It was a scandal to try to eliminate them 60 years ago.  And suddenly, with the stroke of a pen, it is overridden by a Pope who is certainly less liturgical than Benedict XVI.

Will Benedict XVI.  in his monastic retirement have to ask his successor for permission to celebrate this Rite again, which he loved so much and which he knew how to save so masterfully?

 Risk of split or underground?

 Here, too, our Holy Father's intention is certainly well and good: to protect communion among God's people.  However, the effect is likely to be exactly the opposite.

I am trembling: many might simply be tempted to join Ecône and the Society of St. Pius X, who generously shook hands with Pope Francis in the Year of Mercy.  About 40 years ago they heroically parted from Archbishop Lefebvre and returned to the Mother Church in Rome, where they were welcomed with open arms by Pope John Paul II (how could the luminous figure of John Paul Hivernat of Ecône and then Rome and Versailles be forgotten, in the wake of holiness).  And now they are forced to say: “You don't want us anymore: We are going back to where we came from”.  So many sacrifices have been made for nothing!  John Paul II and Benedict XVI.  loved and understood us, as did many wonderful and courageous bishops, and we were betrayed overnight.

In short, there is a real danger of "schisms that will flourish on all sides when abrupt bishops exercise their power over rigid abbots" (G. Privat).  Otherwise the temptation is great to go underground ...

 Doesn't the Trinitarian community mean intra-Catholic ecumenism?

 Isn't the ecclesial communion that of the Most Holy Trinity (Jn 17), i.e. that of beauty in all its diversity?  The greater the differences - provided that they are lived as a complement - the more beautiful the Church.  Isn't being different a condition for fertility?  Why is it so difficult for us to receive, accept and love these baptized brothers and sisters with their sensitivity, their longings, their specific charisms, even and especially when they are not our own?  Why should we impose our own preferences on young people who are already so sensitive?  There is even a congregation dedicated to them in Rome.  We admire their magnificent divine liturgies, whether Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian, Syrian, Maronite, Melchite, Russian-Byzantine or Greek, and we refuse to accept the Latin and Roman liturgy in their traditional form!

 It would only be logical if we standardized all monastic or religious life!  Benedictines, Cistercians, Carmelites, Poor Clares: Goodbye!  All spiritual movements should be unified in all their troublesome variety.  Neo-Catechumenate, Focolare, Charismatic Renewal, Oaza, Communione e liberazione: exit!  Benedictine, Carmelite, Franciscan, Dominican, Jesuit, Vincentine, Salesian etc. Traditions and sensibilities: trash!  In the bin!

 No and no, unity is not uniformity, but diversity!  Community is not horizontality, but complementarity!

Saint John Paul II put it aptly in his Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei: “But it is also necessary that all pastors and other believers become aware anew that the diversity of charisms and traditions of spirituality and apostolate is not  are only legitimate, but represent a treasure for the Church;  in this way unity in diversity becomes beauty - that harmony which the earthly Church, stimulated by the Holy Spirit, lets rise to heaven ”.

 Will you hear the screams and tears of your own children?

 Has the Holy Father gauged the effects, if not the earthquake, that such intransigence threatens to wreak within the Church and even outside the Church?  That an atheist with an undeniable charisma like Michel Onfray dares to admit that he is "dismayed".  He said, “The Latin Mass is the legacy of the genealogy of our civilization.” And with his usual sarcasm, which of course I don't share, “For those who believe in God, the Latin Mass is that compared to the Mass on the long calm river which is a multi-purpose hall like today's Roman Basilica of St. Augustine... Augustine's contemporary Roman basilica is comparable to a multi-purpose hall in a block of flats: one looks in vain for the sacred and transcendent.”

Has he thought of the shock that our brothers will experience in the holy Orthodox Churches?  They were reassured by the Motu Proprio of Benedict XVI, who is valued by them as a great theologian: that the Latin Church would faithfully preserve and protect a liturgical Rite that has endured for centuries.  And now they ask the anxious question: Aren't we going to throw it away?

Did he foresee the probable earthquake among so many young people, young couples, entire families who will be destabilized, unsettled, discouraged and led to revolt?  Up until now they have loved their Pope Francis - as lovable and confusing as he is - they have been loyal to the Roman Magisterium, and now they are here, threatened by doubts, suspicion, if not rejection, with the bitter impression of being betrayed, denied  , if not to have been betrayed.

 How can we not cry with them?

May at least a great wave of baptized compassion, brotherly and fatherly affection of our bishops, ardent prayers surround them, comfort them, support them, encourage them, welcome them.  Eager.  Generous.  That is, loving.

Dear Holy Father - whom I love, cherish and admire -, on behalf of many of my friends, young and old, I dare to convey to you, in all childlike simplicity, my deep sorrow.  But, inspired by a maddened confidence, I venture to hope that, with the many tears on the cheeks of your own children, you will have the courage and the humility to reconsider such an unrelenting decision, despite your last words: "In spite of everything  speaks against it, even if it is worth a special mention ".

 Against all hope, I hope!

 Brother Daniel-Ange

 July 23rd, 40th anniversary of my ordination, at the International Eucharistic Congress in Lourdes

 

 (c) the translation from French by kath.net

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

11 comments:

David O'Neill said...

What a wonderful expression of the feelings of so many who love the TLM. How can a Pope (the Shepherd of the Flock) not see that he is threatening the UNITY of the Church by this motu proprio? I attend both forms of the Roman Rite (except where the celebrant is on roller skates or wearing a funny mask) & find no difficulty. The situation is quite different when we travel abroad - as we do frequently. In past days our Latin/English missal got us through Mass as the content was the same. Now we have Mass in the local language, added to which are (possibly) local variations. Result? An incomprehensible Mass which gives little sacrality - and WHY?

Constantine said...

Unfortunately, the Pachamamma Pope is the logical organic development from the Assisi Popes. All religions praying together for "Peace", against "Climate Change", and for "Social[ist] Justice", putting aside and praying with and for anything everyone has in common except the Christologically and Theologically correct Dogmas needed to be Catholic.

Anonymous said...


VATICAN COUNCIL II IS DOGMATIC. WE ARE NOT MORE LIMITED BY HALF A CENTURY OF ERROR. WE HAVE FOUND THE MISSING LINK.WE NOW KNOW HOW TO CONSISTENTLY, SYSTEMATICALLY AND REGULARLY CREATE THE HERMENEUTIC OF CONTINUITY WITH TRADITION WHEN READING VC2
Vatican Council II was a political Left document which has a built in weakness, an error, which permits us to interpret it in harmony with there being exclusive salvation in the Catholic Church.We simply do not confuse what is hypothetical as not being hypothetical.The Council Fathers and Pope Paul VI wrongly interpreted LG 8, LG 14, LG 16,UR 3,NA 2,GS 22 etc as being objective, visible in the flesh cases in the present times (1949-1965).Now we must look at LG 8 etc as being only theoretical and speculative always.They exist only in our mind.They cannot be anything else for us on earth.So we do not project them as practical exceptions for the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus(EENS), the Syllabus of Errors of Pope Pius IX etc.
The Council is dogmatic.It supports Feeneyite EENS.There is no development of doctrine when the false premise( invisible cases are visible in 2021) is avoided.The Council supports the dogma EENS as it was known to the missionaries in the 16th century.This is a big setback for Pope Benedict and Pope Francis.We are no more limited by half a century of error.We have found the missing link.We now know how to consistently,systematically and regularly create the hermeneutic of continuity with Tradition when reading VC2.-Lionel Andrades

Anonymous said...


WE ARE CATHOLICS AND NOT LEFTIST POLITICIANS

Wikipedia’s interpretation of Vatican Council II, EENS, Fr.Leonard Feeney etc is political.The false premise is used to interpret all Magisterial documents.Not a single Catholic or Catholic organisation has issued a correction.
Similarly Nicole Winfield in her report on Traditionis Custode for the Associated Press,interpreted Vatican Council II with the false premise to create a fake rupture with extra ecclesiam nulla salus(EENS).No one has issued an official or unofficial clarification or correction.
Eric Sammons in his report of May 25,2021 for Crisis magazine,used the Wikipedia citation on Fr. Leonard Feeney.In general, the new Editor in Chief interprets the Vatican Council II, the Creeds, Catechisms and EENS with the irrational premise which would put him in conflict with 16th century EENS , the Athanasius Creed, the Syllabus of Errors and traditional ecclesiocenterism.To reject the Athanasius Creed is serious stuff.
Even centre right political parties have not corrected this leftist doctrine on the Internet.We are Catholics and not politicians.

Anonymous said...

The Germans are behind this as much as the Reformation and V2.
Never forget, German men sit to pee.

Amos said...

lol JPII was not our friend. These guys have to stop swooning over JPII and recognize he's not a true saint as one of the first steps towards fixing the mess.

Albrecht von Brandenburg said...

Er, no - it's the Italian episcopate.

Mick Jagger Gathers No Mosque said...

Unitatis redintigrato

All in the Church must preserve unity in essentials. But let all, according to the gifts they have received enjoy a proper freedom, in their various forms of spiritual life and discipline, in their different liturgical rites, and even in their theological elaborations of revealed truth.

Constantine said...

"..even in their theological elaborations of revealed truth". Is not acceptable as a orthodox Catholic statement.

Anonymous said...


POPE FRANCIS WANTS INCULTURATION WITH VATICAN COUNCIL II INTERPRETED WITH THE FALSE PREMISE TO CREATE IDEOLOGY SUPPORTED BY THE LEFT : MESSAGE TO LATIN AMERICAN CONFERENCE ON RELIGIOUS LIFE

When Pope Francis and the Confederation of Latin American and Caribbean Religious(CLAR) commonly interpret Vatican Council with a false premise, inference and non traditional conclusion it supports the Leftist ideology. It is ideological.
So presently there is inculturation in the Latin American and Caribbean countries,like also those in Asia and elsewhere, but with the ideological interpretation of Vatican Council II.
If there was Holy Mass in the vernacular in these countries and if they interpreted Vatican Council II with the rational premise there would be harmony with the traditional ecclesiocentrism of the Catholic Church.This would be opposed by the Left and Pope Francis would consider Vatican Council II ideological.
He would want an inculturazation with the leftist ideology.

If the FSSP and SSPX go back to Tradition while putting aside Vatican Council II interpreted with the false premise,this produces the wrong ideology for Pope Francis. It is not that of the ADL and those who are working for a universal religion with the Anti Christ present .This is the political ideology all bishops will have to support, to approve Mass in any rite, vernacular or Latin.
If the FSSP and the SSPX begin to offer Mass in the vernacular and interpret Vatican Council II with the rational premise, they could show Pope Francis that the political ideology, either way, does not depend upon the liturgy.The new doctrines are created when Vatican Council II is intentionally interpreted without the rational premise by the present two popes, the cardinals and the bishops.

By Courtney Mares
CNA, Aug 14, 2021 Pope Francis warned against misuse of the liturgy that places an emphasis on ideology in a video message sent Friday to a Latin American conference on religious life.
“Let us not forget that a faith that is not inculturated is not authentic. For this reason, I invite you to participate in the process that will provide the true sense of a culture that exists in the soul of the people,” Pope Francis said in the video sent on Aug. 13.
“When this inculturation does not take place, Christian life, and even more so the consecrated life, ends up with the oddest and most ridiculous Gnostic tendencies. We’ve seen this, for example, in the misuse of the liturgy [where] what is important is ideology rather than the reality of the people. This is not the Gospel.”
The pope’s video message was featured at a virtual conference organized by the Confederation of Latin American and Caribbean Religious (CLAR).
Pope Francis: Nostalgia is the 'siren song of religious life'
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/248689/pope-francis-nostalgia-is-the-siren-song-of-religious-life

Anonymous said...


WE ARE IN AN IMPORTANT TIME IN THE CHURCH. THERE IS A BREAK THROUGH TOWARDS CATHOLIC TRADITION.SOMETHING NEW HAS BEEN DISCOVERED

We are in an important time in the Church.There is a breakthrough towards Catholic Tradition.This is not with standing what we see and hear all around us.Something new has been discovered.It is not really new. It was there before before all of us all the time but it was not noticed. It is the discovery of an unknown objective error.It is responsible for the liberalism in the Church. Now we can check that liberalism.It has has been attributed to Vatican Council II.But the specific cause was not known.
The new disovery is not a new theology or some new philosophy. It is simply discovering an empirical error being made by just about every one in the Catholic Church.It was a wrong way of physically looking at things and then creating a New Theology upon this practical error.
So now we simply do not look at things in the wrong way and we do not create the New Theology.And just this way of looking takes us back to the traditional Catholic Theology.Nothing is added.
We still have the same Vatican Council II before us. No changes are to be made.But we simply look at the Council differently.And theology changes. It goes back to the past times.The Middle Ages and the Church Fathers.
This is going to change newspaper headlines and reports on Vatican Council II.They may not like the Council any more.But there will be no choice. Since only one rational interpretation is possible. Only one. And now they are all using the irrational one.It is no more an option. Since now we know. The people know.
There is no more a break with Tradition in the name of Vatican Council II.This is irrespective if the Mass is in Latin or the vernacular.The whole Church theologically will have to go back to Tradition.
Pope Francis will no longer be able to use the false premise to interpret Vatican Council II and force it upon the Church. There now is an alternative.More people are getting to know about it.The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith does not have a monopoly on the interpretation.They have been choosing an irrational version of Vatican Council II for political reasons.The whole Church has been following them thinking this was Magisterial. But now we know that the irrational interpretation, which is a break with the past Magisterium cannot be the work of the Holy Spirit. It is human error.
After over 50 years we are on an even keel on Vatican Council II. It is no longer a problem. –Lionel Andrades
Lionel Andrades
We have a new interpretation of Vatican Council II.The Council is dogmatic and not only pastoral.There are two interpretations of Vatican Council II.One is rational and the other is irrational. One is Magisterial and the other, the common one, with a false premise, cannot be Magisterial.
It is the same for the Creeds and Catechisms.There can be two interpretations.There are two interpretations of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus. One with the fake premise and the other without it.
Why should Catholics choose an irrational version ? It is also heretical, non traditional and schismatic.
There is a rational option which is traditional.There is no break with the past Magisterium of the Catholic Church.
Blog: Eucharist and Mission (eucharistandmission )
E-mail: lionelandrades10@gmail.com