Sunday 28 November 2010

Folded chasubles...well not quite yet...

When I got to the local railway station this morning a man came up to me and informed me that there were no trains, due to engineering works...I should have checked before leaving but I was in a hurry, having woke up late, so I decided to go to Mass in my parish church instead. I had planned on writing a post about the use of Folded Chasubles, which are older than Advent itself, and had my iPhone handy to take photos at St Magnus the Martyr, but I was prevented from going more's the pity. Someone in my parish had told me that the Holy Ghost had stopped the trains...make of that what you will. Still, there is time yet. I wonder if Trad Catholics think that Anglican Orders are invalid because the folk at St Magnus use Folded Chasubles, which were abolished by the Pope in 1960? If the Magisterium is infallible then earnest desire to revive them in the Church of Rome is surely going against this ''infallible'' Magisterium, which was all wise in doing away with them? Or if this desire is legitimate, and that the abolition of Folded Chasubles was a mistake (or worse), then the Magisterium is not infallible. I lean more towards this interpretation.




After Mass I went to the back of the church to pick up a leaflet and a timetable of services for Christmas when something else quite extraordinary caught my eye. A ''Traditional Catholic Calendar 2011'' compiled by the Latin Mass Society! It was certainly interesting having a flick through, all those lovely photos of 1962 Liturgy, the last wonderful, traditional, edition of the Tridentine Roman Missal before it all went pear-shaped because of the nasty Council subverting the authority of the Holy Father. I took more than these two but at the risk of being too candid about these misguided people I decided not to include all of them. There were lovely traditional Low Masses in evidence, though, and even Pontifical Liturgy at the Faldstool with tasteful Roman cut vestments. This last one is, of course, the crème de la crème.

Joe the Communist strikes again! Of course, as the title page above shows, the Latin Mass Society promotes the ''Traditional Latin Rite'' - erm, what is their yardstick of liturgical orthopraxis though? Pius XII, the last true pope - yea more, the pope of the liturgy? No they're not that insane...could it be that this was what Marcel Lefebvre had chosen nearly 30 years ago, and that the only reason ''62'' is such a big deal is because of his obvious liturgical erudition? I'm sorry but if there is to exist a ''Latin Mass Society'' the least they could do is promote something authentic, and for the good of the Church, and not provide people with the pernicious tosh that they do.

4 comments:

  1. Knock me down with a maniple fringe (Roman cut of course)!

    How wondrously traditional, the ancient feast of San Giuseppe Comunista - it doesn't get much better than that.

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  2. The irony!

    I very nearly missed my coach to Liverpool this morning due to my bus into Manchester having run late because of the poor driving conditions at 6.50. I had already resigned myself to having to go to the "Protecting Veil of he Mother of God" parish in Manchester when I realised that the coach's departure had been simialrly delayed because of the weather so I went to my own parish after all. I returned home from church this afternoon to find a Facebook message from a friend and fellow subdeacon (sent after I had gone to sleep last night), informing me that he is in Manchester this weekend and would be serving for his archbishop who was visiting that very parish this morning. It seems they could have done with a second pair of subdiaconal hands, and it would have given me the opportunity to redeem myself after a rather embarrassing incident before said archbishop just over a week ago.

    It seems that we have both fallen foul of public transportation today, and I remain unconvinced that it was the work of the Holy Spirit in either case, regardless of what your fellow parishioner seemed to think.

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  3. Rubricarius, this calendar costs £7...I can think of far more worthy things to spend my money on.

    If ''traditional'' means Latin and lace then I'll show you a green dog.

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  4. Patricius, any problem with going to St. Mag's *in addition to* a Catholic Mass on Sunday? I do something along these lines often.

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