Historic St. Anthony Catholic Church
258 Ohio, Wichita, Ks
2nd St. & Ohio
Two blocks east of Old Town
Sunday Mass at 1:oo
English/Latin missals provided. Join us for coffee and donuts after mass downstairs in the St. Clair/Sunshine room, south exterior basement entrance.
Pastor of St. Anthony Parish: Fr. Ben Nguyen
EFLR Celebrants: Fr. John Jirak, Fr Nicholas Voelker
Master of Ceremonies: Tony Strunk
Choir Director: Bernie Dette


Continuing News

+To submit an article or if you have comments contact me, Mark, at bumpy187@gmail.com.

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Did You Know

Mass Propers, the readings that change everyday, can be found in the red missalettes at the entrance of church?

Fr. Nicholas Voelker celebrates Low Mass Saturdays at 8:00 a.m., St. Mary's Catholic Church, 106 East 8th street, Newton. There is no mass this Saturday, January 30, 2016.


Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Post #168

Topics: Video: St. Dismas Church: Clinton Correctional Facility

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“Remember, O man, that dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return.”

"Support us, Lord, 
as with this Lenten fast
we begin our Christian warfare,
so that in doing battle against the spirit of evil
we may be armed with the weapon of self-denial.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen".
----------------------------------------------
...and now for the necessaries.
Please note: St. Anthony Catholic Church is one of two local churches celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass (EFLR) in the Wichita area. Though this blog is loosely centered around this parish and it's members, Venite Missa Est! is by no means, in any way an official voice of, or for, St. Anthony Parish or the Diocese of Wichita. Venite Missa Est! is strictly a private layman's endeavor.

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Church of St. Dismas
Clinton Correctional Facility 




Church of St. Dismas, the Good Thief is a historic Roman Catholic church at the Clinton Correctional Facility on Cook Street in Dannemora, Clinton County, New York. The church was built between 1939 and 1941 and is large Neogothic inspired stone chapel. It was constructed of fieldstones salvaged from several 19th century stone structures already on the site, including the prison's first cell block. The rectangular building measures 52 feet (16 m) by 132 feet (40 m). It features a steeply pitched, slate-clad gable roof and two massive oak entrance doors with Medieval inspired metal strapwork. A 106-foot (32 m), engaged tower with corner buttresses and an octagonal spire is located at the rear corner.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Post #167

Topics: His Holiness A Double Correction of the Decree of Application?...Light Shining in the Darkness
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“Remember, O man, that dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return.”

"Support us, Lord, 
as with this Lenten fast
we begin our Christian warfare,
so that in doing battle against the spirit of evil
we may be armed with the weapon of self-denial.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen".
----------------------------------------------
...and now for the necessaries.
Please note: St. Anthony Catholic Church is one of two local churches celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass (EFLR) in the Wichita area. Though this blog is loosely centered around this parish and it's members, Venite Missa Est! is by no means, in any way an official voice of, or for, St. Anthony Parish or the Diocese of Wichita. Venite Missa Est! is strictly a private layman's endeavor.

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Pope May Have Ordered Review of the Last Draft in Order to Remove More Restrictions
Monday, March 28, 2011
Rorate Caeli

And this comes from the latest edition of the "ultra-Progressive" French weekly Golias (tip to our friends at Messa in Latino), among other information we and MiL had already reported regarding the instruction on the implementation of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum:

We have learned, from a direct Roman source, that this decree of application has indeed undergone a double correction. At the beginning, it has ben prepared by Mgr. Guido Pozzo, secretary of the Pontifical Commission « Ecclesia Dei », in charge of the matter. Subsequently, Cardinal Levada and his faithful adviser, Mgr. Charles J. Scicluna, a Maltese, had strongly amended the text in a restrictive sense. With the agreement of Cardinal CaƱizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship! Our recent information had thus been precise. [Rorate adds: so had ours.]

Once it had been modified by Levada, the document arrived at the Pope's office. And the latter would not have been pleased with the about-turn that had taken place. It [the draft] was thus replaced, more or less, by the document as it had originally been written by Guido Pozzo. [That is,] In a sense that is more favorable to Traditionalists.
So many things make sense in Golias's account - and dovetail perfectly with what we know - that we give it great credence, though it is still a collection of internal rumors almost impossible to verify with certainty. Our thanks to all who have prayed for this and signed the Petition. 


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Light Shining in the Darkness
Journal of the Oriens Society


The gloom which hangs over our society with its social injustice, abortion and the campaign for euthanasia, can easily fill us with fear and turn us to flight into ourselves.


For traditional Catholics, perhaps more than for others, the temptation to adopt a laager mentality is strong. It is one which we should stoutly resist. Our trust in the Catholic tradition should rather make us eager to take the Gospel into the world, to bear the light of Christ into the surrounding darkness: to be, in a word, evangelical.


“Evangelical” is not a term that one easily applies to the traditional Mass. One normally associates “evangelical” with clean-cut young men in dark suits, wide-eyed television preachers or dour Westminster-confession north-enders. At first thought many traditionally minded Catholics would even perhaps reject the description “evangelical” for themselves, as more suited to beardy guitar strummers. Deeper reflection, however, suggests that the evangelical facet of the Church’s life is not one that we can ignore. Each of us is meant to be an evangelist, an apostle, a missionary. Each of us is meant to be imbued with a love for the holy scriptures and a deep love for the Gospel of our Lord. “Evangelical” is a word that we ought to treat both as an honourable title as well as a challenge to live up to. Indeed, there is a sense in which the phrase “evangelical Catholic” is as much a tautology as “traditional Catholic.”


Traditional Catholics are concerned with right worship and right belief as the twin pillars of a good christian life. All the sacraments, ceremonies, dogmas, prayers and customs that we wish to preserve, we wish to preserve precisely because they speak so eloquently of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. They might be old. They might be beautiful. They might (conceivably) arouse nostalgia in people old enough to remember better times. But why we really want them, why we preserve and promote them, is because they show to us the face of Christ and make Him present in our lives. We enter into the life of the living Lord when we enter into the sacred realm of christian worship. This worship transforms us into the likeness of the One whom we worship. Because of this transforming power of the sacraments – in our lives, in our speech, and in our actions – we are able to reveal Christ our Saviour present in and to the world.


The stern transcendentalism of the traditional rites of the Church, moreover, serves to present us with a clear choice by the unambiguous proclamation of the presence of the Triune God. In the jargon of the twentieth century scripture scholars, the traditional Mass is essentially kerygmatic. That is, it proclaims Christ and seeks conversion. It does not cajole, or persuade by degrees. It has no soft edges. It takes no prisoners. It does not try to “meet us where we are at.” The response that it seeks, and frequently accomplishes, is conversion of heart, change of mind, transformation of life. The liturgy is thus the sacramental embodiment of the Church’s teaching, especially that foundational proclamation “Christ died for our sins and is now risen from the dead!” In the liturgy this apostolic kerygma takes flesh and gives us a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.


Recently, at the traditional celebration of the Easter Vigil at Lewisham (Sydney), there were several baptisms and confirmations of adults and older children. Commenting on the long and elaborate liturgy, the mother of three of the children, an aboriginal Australian, put it this way: “Tonight I knew that there is a God, and that He was here with us.” One can think of no better basis for a real evangelical outreach than a liturgy which can elicit such a response. The challenge for traditional Catholics is to take seriously their duty to spread the Gospel, not to be inward turning and tempted to hoard the riches of the liturgy to ourselves, but intent on the salvation of souls. This does not necessarily mean taking to the streets like Mormons, or becoming fanatical God-botherers, or dissipating our energies in a whirl of apostolic activity. It does mean, however, always keeping one eye open for opportunities to bring people to our Lord. Being “evangelical” is not merely an option for the terminally pious, but something which is a necessary part of our christian calling.


Traditional Catholics cannot afford to sit on their hands when it comes to the great issues of our day. The response which we give must be animated, however, by our encounter with Christ in the Holy Liturgy, not simply by a new form of political activism. Of course, we cannot do without the work of political engagement and detailed ethical argumentation on these questions. What is more important, however, is allowing those to whom we speak to hear the liberating voice of the Risen Christ. Just as St Patrick so long ago lit the first Easter fire in Ireland on the Hill of Slane to challenge the darkness of the heathen priests, so too we are summoned by Christ to bring His light to a nation of darkened conscience. As the Holy Father has so often said, when confronted by a culture of death, our response can only be to bring the life of the Risen Christ into the lives of all whom we meet.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Post #166

Topics: The End of Christianity: In the Middle East?

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“Remember, O man, that dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return.”

"Support us, Lord, 
as with this Lenten fast
we begin our Christian warfare,
so that in doing battle against the spirit of evil
we may be armed with the weapon of self-denial.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen".
----------------------------------------------
...and now for the necessaries.
Please note: St. Anthony Catholic Church is one of two local churches celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass (EFLR) in the Wichita area. Though this blog is loosely centered around this parish and it's members, Venite Missa Est! is by no means, in any way an official voice of, or for, St. Anthony Parish or the Diocese of Wichita. Venite Missa Est! is strictly a private layman's endeavor.

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The End of Christianity in the Middle East?
Oriens
Journal of the Oriens Society
BY EDEN NABY, JAMSHEED K. CHOKSY | NOVEMBER 2, 2010

The brutal bombing of a church in Baghdad may be the final straw for this 2,000 year old minority community.
Screaming “kill, kill, kill,” suicide bombers belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq, a militant organization connected to al Qaeda in Iraq, stormed a Chaldean church in Baghdad on Sunday. A spokesman for the group subsequently claimed they did so “to light the fuse of a campaign against Iraqi Christians.” The assailants’ more immediate grievance seems related to a demand that two Muslim women, allegedly held against their will in Egyptian Coptic monasteries, be released. When Iraqi government forces attempted to free approximately 120 parishioners who had been taken hostage, the terrorists — who had already shot dead some of the churchgoers — detonated their suicide vests and grenades, slaughtering at least half the congregation.

But the massacre in Baghdad is only the most spectacular example of mounting discrimination and persecution of the native Christian communities of Iraq and Iran, which are now in the middle of a massive exodus unprecedented in modern times as they confront a rising tide of Islamic militancy and religious chauvinism sweeping the region.

Christians are the largest non-Muslim religious minority in both Iraq and Iran, with roots in the Middle East that date back to the earliest days of the faith. Some follow the Apostolic Orthodox Armenian Church. Others subscribe to the 2,000-year-old Syriac tradition represented mainly by the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq and by Aramaic speakers widely known as Assyrians in both Iraq and Iran.

Iraqi and Iranian Muslim leaders claim that religious minorities in their countries are protected. In September, former Iranian president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani reassured the patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East that religious minorities are respected and safeguarded in Iran. Yet members of Iran’s Christian denominations, like their Jewish, Zoroastrian, Mandean, and Baha’i counterparts, don’t feel safe. A member of the National Council of Churches in Iran, Firouz Khandjani, lamented in August, “We are facing the worst persecution” in many decades, including loss of employment, homes, liberties, and lives, he said, “We fear losing everything.”

In Iraq, Chaldean and Assyrian Christian communities have witnessed increasing violence by militant Muslims against their neighborhoods, children, and religious sites since the U.S. invasion. Even pastors are not safe — two died in the recent Baghdad bombing; many have been killed by Sunni and Shiite Iraqis since 2003. In Iran, other clergymen, including members of the Armenian, Protestant, and Catholic churches, have been arrested, kidnapped, imprisoned, tortured, or even summarily executed, over the past three decades.

“Many Christians from Mosul have been systematically targeted and are no longer safe there,” said Laurens Jolles, a UNHCR representative, in 2008, after Chaldean women were raped while their men, including Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, were tortured and killed in warnings to Christians to abandon their homes and livelihoods. In Iran, Christian clerics have been targeted — Tateos Mikaelian, senior pastor of St. John’s Armenian Evangelical Church in Tehran was assassinated in 1994, as was Bishop Haik Hovsepian Mehr, who headed the evangelical Assemblies of God Church.

Why Christians? Of the many justifications offered by al Qaeda and other fanatical groups in Iraq, and by hard-line mullahs in Iran, one is repeated most often: These indigenous Christians are surrogates for Western “crusaders.” As early as 1970, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa accusing Christians in Iran of “working with American imperialists and oppressive rulers to distort the truths of Islam, lead Muslims astray, and convert our children.” Fearing a backlash against their institutions and lives, Christians have often made efforts to prove their loyalty, as when Iranian Assyrians wrote to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in September denouncing American Christians who wished to burn Qurans as “enemies of God.”

But the roots of Christian decline in the Middle East actually date back centuries. In Iran, intolerance toward all non-Muslim minorities took a sharply negative turn from the 16th century onward with the forced Shiification of Iran by the Safavid dynasty. The early 20th century saw pogroms against Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christians in the Ottoman Empire and northwestern Iran. Under the Pahlavi shahs, Assyrians, Armenians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and Baha’is regained some of their rights and came to represent the modernizing elements of 20th century society. But the Islamic Revolution of 1979 undercut all those advances. Prejudice and oppression now occurs with impunity.

The numbers speak for themselves: The population of non-Muslims in Iran has dropped by two-thirds or more since 1979. From Iran, these groups flee to Turkey and India — often at risk to life and limb through the violence-ridden border regions of Iraq and Pakistan. The number of Assyrian Christians in Iran has dwindled from about 100,000 in the mid-1970s to approximately 15,000 today, even as the overall population of the country has swelled from 38 million to 72 million people over the same period. In Iraq, Christians are fleeing in droves. U.N. statistics indicate that 15 percent of all Iraqi refugees in Syria are of Christian background, although they represented only 3 percent of the population when U.S. troops entered in 2003. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that between 300,000 to 400,000 Christians have been forced out of Iraq since 2003. And Christians have left because the message from Sunni militants and Shiite ayatollahs is crystal clear: You have no future here.

There is now an alarming possibility that there will be no significant Christian communities in Iraq or Iran by century’s end. Christian schools, communal halls, historical sites, and churches are being appropriated by national and provincial governments, government-sponsored Muslim organizations, and radical Islamist groups. Economic and personal incentives are offered to those who adopt Islam. Last month, the Vatican convened a major summit to find ways of mitigating this crisis, noting that “Christians deserve to be recognized for their invaluable contributions … their human rights should always be respected, including freedom of worship and freedom of religion.”

There is a faint glimmer of hope. On Aug. 5, the U.S. Senate adopted Resolution 322 expressing concern for religious minorities in Iraq. The quick, though unsuccessful, attempt by the Iraqi government this weekend to rescue the Christian hostages appears to have been in response to such American pressure — no official Iraqi interventions had occurred in previous attacks.

In Iran, however, the persecution of Christians continues unabated. Two Protestant pastors, arrested in post-presidential election crackdowns, face the death penalty. An Assyrian pastor was arrested and tortured in February 2010 and faces trial too.

The Senate resolution noted that “threats against the smallest religious minorities … jeopardize … a diverse, pluralistic, and free society,” words applicable in full measure to Iran as well. Will Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government heed this call? It’s doubtful. But one thing’s for certain: If the world doesn’t champion religious freedom openly and vigorously, he won’t have to.


Friday, March 25, 2011

Post #165

Topics: Saint Gabriel and the Annunciation: The Archangel and Our Lady...The Traditional Latin Mass: In Seminaries?


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“Remember, O man, that dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return.”

"Support us, Lord, 
as with this Lenten fast
we begin our Christian warfare,
so that in doing battle against the spirit of evil
we may be armed with the weapon of self-denial.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen".
----------------------------------------------
...and now for the necessaries.
Please note: St. Anthony Catholic Church is one of two local churches celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass (EFLR) in the Wichita area. Though this blog is loosely centered around this parish and it's members, Venite Missa Est! is by no means, in any way an official voice of, or for, St. Anthony Parish or the Diocese of Wichita. Venite Missa Est! is strictly a private layman's endeavor.

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The Annunciation and Saint Gabriel 
By Professor Plinio CorrĆŖa de Oliveira
The American society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property

http://www.tfp.org/tfp-home/plinio-correa-de-oliveira/the-annunciation-and-saint-gabriel.html
 

The following is a reflection on Saint Gabriel and the Annunciation. It comments on both the archangel and Our Lady since the feast of Saint Gabriel the Archangel is on the vigil of the Annunciation.

We will comment on this passage taken from Saint Luke:

“And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God.

Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end.

And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man?

And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: Because no word shall be impossible with God.

And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.”

*          *          *

As far as I can recall, the only thing we know of Saint Gabriel, the Archangel is found in this episode. He was sent by God to deliver this magnificent message to Our Lady. We can have some idea of what this archangel is like by looking at the nature of the task he was given. There is a correlation between the angel and his virtue on the one hand, and the mission he receives from God, on the other. Through one, we can make conjectures about the other.

Thus, what was the message that Saint Gabriel, which means “the strength of God,” took to Our Lady? It is a message that affirms the Incarnation of the Word and therefore the greatest act of power and domination that God could exercise upon the world. With the Incarnation of the Word, God was preparing to rescue the world. In doing this, He, who is king of the world by right, also became king by conquest. Thus, He – the second Person of the Blessed Trinity – entered the earth to conquer on the cross, in this special way, He established His kingship upon the world.

“Behold the king has come! He is going to reign!”
Saint Gabriel must be seen, therefore, as announcing the victorious entry of Our Lord Jesus Christ into humanity. He was like a herald that goes before a victorious king overcoming all obstacles in his way and announcing: “Behold the king has come! He is going to reign!” This is a first view that we have of this archangel.

Another view we must have is that of the devotee of Mary par excellence. He was the one who made the first Hail Mary; he was the one who gave Our Lady a message that revealed to her who she was. For up until that moment, according to all the interpretations I have read, she did not know she was to become the Mother of God. She prayed for the Messias to come soon to the earth and also that she might become the servant of His Mother so as to render her some small services. That was her great ambition.

When Gabriel the Archangel came and announced that she herself was going to be the Mother of the Messias, he made her, so to speak, understand who she was. His message explained to her why she had continuously received an immense river of graces throughout her life. She understood the depth of the sanctity for which she was called. The angel’s announcement made her comprehend her own mission.

Hence, when he made this revelation to Mary, he rendered Her this outstanding service, which was an act of supreme nobility ordered by God. As a result, this act established a very special bond between Saint Gabriel and Our Lady. In this sense, he was a kind of prophet who manifested to Our Lady what her whole life would be like and what her mission would be. Thus, another aspect of this archangel’s personality is a great union with Our Lady and a great devotion to her.

Finally, we can consider another side, which is the manner in which he gave his message. It was impregnated with a great purity. No message is more chaste than this one, which announced the virginal maternity. It showed such a love for purity on the part of God, that, in order to safeguard Our Lady’s virginal chastity, He decided on a way to conceive Our Lord Jesus Christ that involved no work of man: She would be the Spouse of the Holy Ghost.

In the Annunciation, the archangel is particularly protective of her purity and chastity. If we were to see him, he would inspire in us a thousand desires and acts of admiration and longing to possess purity to a eminent degree.

From this, we can draw some applications for the prayers we can still address to him today. Saint Gabriel announced the coming and triumph of the Messias to Our Lady and thus to all men. We should ask that he now announce the recovery of God’s effective kingship upon the earth through the coming of the fulfillment of the Fatima message.

Today we are in a situation that is even worse than that of the ancient world before Our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we can ask that Our Lord Jesus Christ reign once again, that He establish His reign on earth in Mary and through Mary, and that this period of darkness in which we find ourselves come to an end. He has done one thing, let Him do the other. He had the key to do it to close the era of antiquity, and thus opened a new epoch. Let Him close this era and open the Reign of Mary.

Second: we should ask Saint Gabriel for an enormous, superabundant devotion to Our Lady and that this devotion grows every instant until the end of our lives.

Third: we should ask him for a most ardent, intransigent, vigilant and therefore most militant love of purity; and to have every form of revulsion and disdain for impurity in every way and degree. This is what we should ask him. May he thus protect us and bring us closer to Our Lady.

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The Traditional Latin Mass in Seminaries? The Magic Circle will Have a Fit
By Damian Thompson
The Telegraph


Will it soon be a requirement for Catholic seminarians to learn to say the Traditional Latin Mass? Bobbie Mickens made this claim in the Tablet a couple of weeks ago – just think how livid he must be at the prospect! – and now John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter is saying exactly the same thing. He reckons that Ecclesia Dei’s forthcoming instruction on the implementation of Summorum Pontificum will “call for seminarians to be trained not just in Latin, but in the older rite itself, at least so they will know how to execute it faithfully and understand what’s being said”.
Magic Circle nightmare: conservative seminarians
Allen’s piece is headed “April may be cruel month for relations with traditionalists”, which I find puzzling. Cruel? What he means is that some traditionalists will be upset by (a) the instruction’s apparent refusal to allow diocesan seminaries to ordain priests according to the pre-Vatican II ritual and (b) the collapse of negotiations with the SSPX.

Actually, I think most traditionalists will be relaxed on both counts (not to say relieved that the instruction doesn’t revoke their privileges, as they had feared). It doesn’t greatly matter which rite of ordination is used if a priest is perfectly free to celebrate in the Extraordinary Form. As for the SSPX negotiations, did anyone seriously think they were going to succeed? The Lefebvrists won’t budge on Vatican II any more than the C of E will accept papal infallibility. It’s a shame, but there you go.
In contrast, the proposal to teach all seminarians to celebrate the Tridentine Mass is a seriously big deal. In many ways it’s as radical asSummorum Pontificum itself.

According to John Allen, bishops around the world “haven’t exactly bent over backwards” to make the Old Mass widely available since 2007. That sounds about right. In England and Wales, most dioceses don’t flagrantly disregard Summorum Pontificum – but they don’t need to. On paper, the self-implementing features of the motu proprio challenge the power of the bishop: a priest doesn’t need permission to celebrate the EF. In practice, it’s easy to turn the document into a dead letter, since most parish priests come from a Vatican II generation unsympathetic to traditional rubrics and most lay people have never been near a Tridentine Mass and don’t know what they’re missing.

I don’t think the older form of the Roman Rite will ever supplant the vernacular liturgy. But we won’t discover the true level of demand for it until there are priests happy to celebrate it – offering it, perhaps, as an early morning service like BCP Holy Communion in Anglican parishes, or as the centrepiece of particular feast days. Most of the pious young Catholics I know agree with Pope Benedict that the Ordinary and Extraordinary forms of the Roman Rite should complement each other – but then they’re lucky enough to live in or near London, where the Old Mass is unusually accessible.
The nightmare for diehard opponents of the EF is the formation of a generation of priests who know how to use the 1962 Missal and are perfectly happy to do so in every diocese.

This is only a guess, but I reckon that half our current seminarians would like to be taught how to say the Old Mass – an unthinkable proportion 30 years ago, when today’s senior clergy were training for the priesthood. However, these students are smart enough to keep their mouths shut. Seminaries are run by the Magic Circle: until recently, rectors had no difficulty picking out the matey-but-deferential liberal students who would be tomorrow’s monsignors; now the supply of liberals has all but dried up, and they face the tougher task of distinguishing moderate conservatives from secret traditionalists.
The last thing they want – absolutely the last thing – is for every seminarian to be trained to celebrate the “Mass of the Ages”. Not only would this make it more difficult to root out undesirable traddies, but it would also eventually carry the ancient liturgy into parishes untouched by Summorum Pontificum. That would be a disaster from the Magic Circle’s point of view. The promotion of the Extraordinary Form even as an occasional alternative in local churches would accelerate a cultural shift towards traditional Catholicism that the hierarchy is already struggling to control.

The ramifications of an instruction to seminaries to teach students the Extraordinary Form – and enough Latin to know what they’re saying – are enormous. For that reason, I expect a very big effort to circumvent any such obligation. We can’t be sure that Mickens’s and Allen’s sources are right about the document, of course; but we can be certain that bishops and seminary rectors have heard the same rumours and are working on a contingency plan. If the instruction tries to force the Old Missal into seminaries, then liberal canon lawyers will be crawling all over it the second it appears, looking for loopholes. And if there aren’t any, then expect lots of delaying tactics and excuses involving lack of staff, resources, time etc.
And all this just as the new English Missal is coming in. We do live in interesting times.