On July 26, I posted an article on the Holy Cross Parish Facebook page from Lifesite News titled, Vatican rumblings: Pope Francis aiming to end Latin Mass permission. Then, on August 24, I posted an article from Vatican Radio titled, Pope Francis: Liturgical reform is irreformable. These articles remain posted and you can read them on the Holy Cross Parish Facebook page:
I hope that you will “Like” our parish Facebook page and become a Follower of it. It is updated regularly with important news and events.
Many frustrated traditional Roman Catholics chose to ignore these reports or tried to explain them away. But their worst fears have now been realized.
On September 3, the Vatican released an, Apostolic Letter issued Motu Proprio of the Supreme Pontiff Francis MAGNUM PRINCIPIUM by which Canon 838 of the Code of Canon Law is modified. An English translation of this Moto Proprio was published on Saturday, September 9, by Rorate Caeli.
Magnum Principium does indeed make the the Liturgical Revolution of Vatican II irreversible. It also supersedes Pope Benedict's Summorum Pontificum making the suppression of the traditional Latin Mass possible in any diocese and in whole countries without right of appeal, and ensures that the modest “reform of the Reform” made under Benedict XVI will soon be a mere footnote in history.
On Sunday, September 10, The Remnant Newspaper published an article Online titled, Francis Empowers Bishops to Establish Their Own Liturgical Regulations. The article reports, “Pope Francis has issued a motu proprio, Magnum Principium, a modification of Canon Law 838, which grants bishops’ conferences greater control over the translation of liturgical texts. This includes the power to make adaptations which the bishops deem appropriate for their regions… Paragraph §4 makes it clear that the pope has now given bishops the power to determine much of the Church's liturgical direction. ‘Within the limits of his competence, it belongs to the diocesan bishop to lay down in the Church entrusted to his care, liturgical regulations which are binding on all.’ This opens the door, not only to greater liberty in translating liturgical texts, but to creativity in drafting their own texts and rules.”
The article continues, “The new motu proprio also supersedes Pope Benedict's Summorum Pontificum, which dispensed priests from the need to obtain episcopal permission to say the Traditional Latin Mass. With the new ruling, an episcopal conference can now rule that the offering of the Latin Mass is forbidden in a given diocese, or in an entire country, so that traditional Catholics no longer have the option of appealing to Rome for help. The episcopal ruling is now Church law.”
You can read the entire article here: https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=3407:francis-empowers-bishops-to-establish-their-own-liturgical-regulations
The problems in the Roman Church do not stem from Vatican II. Vatican II is the fruit, not the root of the problems.
The first two Oecumenical Councils, the Councils of Nicea in AD 325, and Constantinople in AD 381, produced the Creed of the Universal Church — the Nicene Creed — and the third Oecumenical Council placed anyone who would dare to change the Creed under anathema (Condemnation). That Creed was professed unchanged for centuries in both the East and the West. Tragically, early in the 11th century the Roman Patriarchate added the so-called Filioque Clause (“and the Son”) to the Nicene Creed, falling under the anathema of the third Oecumenical Council. This caused the Great Schism of 1054, in which the Roman Patriarchate became separated from the other four ancient Patriarchates (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem), giving birth to what would become known as the Roman Catholic Church. Search the annals of history, nowhere will you find the Church of the first millennium called the Roman Catholic Church.
Adding the Filioque Clause to the Nicene Creed was no small thing. It was not merely a canonical infraction because it was added unilaterally and without Catholic consent, but was of monumental importance doctrinally. The Filioque Clause is nothing less than the Arian heresy applied to the Holy Spirit. This led to the neglect of the Work of the Holy Spirit in the post-Schism West, and then to a reaction in the opposite direction in the excesses of the Charismatic Movement in modern Roman Catholicism. The Orthodox Church never lost sight of the Work of the Holy Spirit and therefore has never had a Charismatic “renewal.” You can read more on the seriousness of the Filioque heresy in an article titled, FILIOQUISM IS ARIAN SUBORDINATIONISM APPLIED TO THE SPIRIT:
When a branch is broken from a tree it begins to wither and die. If it is not grafted back onto the tree in time the rot becomes irreversible. The larger the branch the longer it takes for it to decay and rot away. The decay in the Roman Church began in 1054, with the Roman Schism and has continued for almost a millennium. In 1517, some five centuries after the Roman Schism, came the Protestant Revolution which shattered the Roman Church forever. Then came Vatican I, and the separation of the Old Catholics who said that a New Catholic religion was invented at the Council with the declaration of papal infallibility which had no warrant in Sacred Scripture and was an innovation contrary to Apostolic Tradition. That was followed less than a century later by what has become known as the “French Revolution in the Church” at and in the wake of Vatican II.
As we have seen, the problem did not begin at Vatican II. It is much older than that. Vatican II is the fruit, not the root of the problem. Popes John XXIII and Paul VI, and all of the bishops participating in the Second Vatican Council, had been baptized, raised, educated, formed, ordained and consecrated in the pre-Vatican II Roman Church. Yet, they all accepted the doctrinal and liturgical revolution at the Council. Today, the decay and rot that had begun to set in 1054, has become obvious for all to see.
Genuine Catholicism is found in the Orthodox Church and nowhere else. The Orthodox Catholic Church has never experienced a Reformation, Counter Reformation or a “French Revolution in the Church.” The Orthodox Church is unchanged and unchanging, and with the fall of Soviet Communism is resurgent, and is experiencing a New Springtime.
The Western Rite has been restored and the Western Church is being rebuilt. There are now Western Rite congregations and monastic communities in the Patriarchates of Moscow and Antioch, and in Europe in the Patriarchates of Romania and Serbia, with the Western Rite Communities of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) being the largest, most widespread and fastest growing. You can find more information on Western Rite Orthodoxy here:
The term “Orthodox” means both “correct doctrine” and “correct worship,” and these are what so many Roman Catholics have been longing for since the Vatican II Revolution and the chaos and corruption that have followed it. Traditional Roman Catholics will find all that they have been longing for in the Orthodox Catholic Church:
“This is the faith of the Apostles, this is the faith of the Fathers, this is the faith of the Orthodox, this is the faith which has supported the whole world” (From the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the First Sunday in Lent). We love being Orthodox! You will too. You will be welcomed home with love and open arms. Come and see!
