Primjer apsolutno nevaljane Novus Ordo mise

 

Svećenik u „koncilskoj Crkvi“ zvani Josef Reisenhofer, župa Hartberg biskupija Graz, u Austriji, održao je ovog ljete parodiju od mise. Mimo bitnih pitanja o valjanosti Novus Ordo mise uopće, te svećeničkog ređenja, ovdje imamo jedan primjer apsolutno nevaljane mise, jer osim čudovišnog bogohuljenja na koje je ovdje izašao Novus Ordo, imamo jedan primjer totalne improvizacije kod riječi “pretvorbe”, koje izgovara ovako (za kalež; min 31:46):

 

“Uzmite i pijte iz njega, svi vi, ovo je kalež moje ljubavi, moja krv prolivena za vas, sve vas, za pomirenje i mir. Slavite ponovno i ponovno, tako da ne zaboravite moju ljubav”.

Da li je imao kakvu opomenu od svog biskupa? Izgleda samo da ne snima više ovu uvredu Bogu. A to što će u župi i dalje ići s ovim, to nije problem.

Ovo je jedan drastični primjer koji ukazuje da liturgija nije privatna stvar. Možete imati dozvolu od bilo koga za ova psovanja na Boga, ali to ne će biti misa. Bogu se ne možete rugati?

Čemu se onda čuditi ostalim stvarima što se događaju u društvu?

Sermon for the 23rd Sunday after Pent., Feast of Christ the King, October 24th, 2021 – true restoration (3)

 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen

 

My dearly beloved in Our Lord,

 

Today, on this beautiful and most consoling feast of Christ the King we finish this short series of sermons: What must be the sane principles for a true restoration of all things in Christ, the head, the King?

As Catholics started waking up after the incredible end of Vatican2, they were faced with a very profound dilemma: Where is the Church?

Most Catholics conceived, and still conceive this as a practical problem. Certainly there is a very practical side to it: How do I behave with regards to my parish priest… my bishop… the Pope who obviously have lost their Catholic mind? Every practical problem goes back to a theoretical, ideological or, in the case of the Church, a philosophical or theological problem.

Either way, the question remained and remains: Where is the Church?

° She is in Rome, proposed Msgr Lefebvre. As one train can hide another, the liberal face of Paul VI is hiding his Catholic face. The solution is simple: We just have to check according to our Catholic sense whether his Catholic or his liberal self is speaking at a given moment. We accept whatever we find to be Catholic, in keeping with tradition, and we reject whatever we do not. - He did not notice that he had turned the Church into a monster with two heads by claiming Montini could be something of a schizophrenic regarding the Faith. Also he had placed himself above the Pope. He failed to understand exactly what the Church means by Tradition, and what he meant. The Romans did notice this, according to an article in the Osservatore Romano from 1974! The notion of the Catholic magisterium was dead – but Msgr Lefebvre did not notice he had killed it because its dead body did not yet stink to the heavens… For the lefebvrists, if there is no Pope, where is the Church? It is not possible. There must be a Pope, so why not a “bad”, heretical and apostate occupant of the See of Peter to be the Pope. Otherwise they would be in troubled waters with their teaching about the Church which they had long since shaped to fit their purpose. Particularly by saying that the Church’s Universal Ordinary Magisterium is not infallible, they left the grounds of Catholic teaching – again, for most among them (like myself) without noticing the gravity and the implications of this denial.

 

There is no Pope, others claimed. They would be called “sedevacantists”.

° “Let us make a Pope”, some concluded – and failed miserably, time and again. We have treated this problem of conclavism last Sunday.

° “Just as well”, others concluded, “at least we are free to do as we think fittest.” Indeed one can draw numerous false conclusions from the true observation that there is no Pope. Such a diagnosis is only the starting point from which one needs to tread very carefully lest he get lost on his way. --- Be it noted here, once and for all, that most “sedevacantists”, priests and laity alike, have no theological stance on the question of the Authority, the Pope, but only a prudential or even just a sentimental one. In this they are now being met by many novus ordo Catholics who have had enough of Bergoglio and cannot take any more… but there still is no shred of theological insight in their views. They risk falling back in line with the novus ordo or with one of its numerous tentacles, as the past has proven with many painful examples.

 

* “Distinguo – I make a distinction”, said the scholastic theologian Guérard des Lauriers. He applied to the situation of the Church’s Authority, the Pope, the fundamental distinction formal and material. He applied it in a certain analogical manner because the papacy is not a material thing. This is the starting point for most people to get it wrong because they do not look at what he is saying precisely. But theology needs to be precise.

He proves that Montini is not invested with Christ’s Authority. This – the communication of Christ’s authority – is what makes the Pope-elect to be the Pope. This is the next point which people regularly get wrong. They believe that the election and its being accepted by the elected person, automatically makes that person to be the Pope. Think of the Siri-line delirium which has spread among traditionalists! This is normally so, but not if there is an obstacle in the elect’s person. Montini, then, just like Roncalli, may have been truly Popes. But certainly, by the standards of Catholic theology, Montini proves that Our Lord is not with him when he promulgates the final documents of Vatican2 which contain teachings that cannot be reconciled with what the Church had already taught: religious liberty, episcopal collegiality to name just the most obvious ones.

Montini’s successors cannot be true Popes, Popes formally speaking, because they adhere to the same errors. By doing so they refuse to procure the Church’s objective, unchangeable common good, the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Therefore it makes no sense whatsoever to call them the Authority since the authority has to care for the common good; this is its proper ontological meaning.

Thus the arguments of the Thesisinclude the arguments others draw from the fact that the occupants of the See of Peter are heretics and apostates. But it goes much further since it is universal by looking at the situation from the point of view of immutable and unchangeable principles. Unlike the argument of the public heresy of the occupant, the standpoint of the Thesis cannot be challenged or discussed. This is crucial because exactly in this regard the situation of an heretic occupying the See of Peter is new, and proper to our times.

St Robert Bellarmine and many other theologians have discussed probable or possible ways of dealing with this problem, should it occur. But since it has never happened we have no decision by the Church, nor a precedent from which to draw an analogy. “Total sedevacantists” seem incapable of distinguishing between the consequences of heresy or apostasy on the person of a Pope; and the juridical aspect of the office. While it is clear that according to the former – the defection from the true Faith – cuts a person from its relationship with God and the Church, the latter still has its importance, particularly in as much such a person occupies the chair, the ecclesiastical position.

Therefore the Thesis keeps inquiring and establishes that Montini and his successors are popes materially speaking (materialiter). Here is where people usually strike the “panic button”! They do not understand the scholastic notion of being in a material manner. Any being receives its essential form whenever the last disposition to receive this form happens. When an important change occurs, a new substantial form is received.

When you buy a shelf at IKEA, you well know and realize that you buy a shelf, but you do not take home a shelf. It is in a state of “in fieri – to become”. Materially the shelve is there since the parts have been prepared so that a shelf may come about. But the last disposition for the shelf to formally exist is lacking: the correct assembling of the parts. Only once this has been done, can you speak about possessing a shelf fit for the purpose of storing things. If an essential part happens to be missing; or if you assemble the parts incorrectly, you do not have a shelf but a heap of wood, screws etc.

Every comparison limps. The papacy is not a shelve… Once you grasp the concept material-formal you can move on to apply it to any created reality. It is applied to immaterial concepts in an analogical manner, as in the Thesis. The eight of the 24 thomistic theses published on July 27, 1914 by the Roman Congregation of Studies makes this very obvious.

To cut a long story short: The “conciliar popes” should be Popes since they have received the legal designation, an election by competent electors. They ought to be Popes, and they pretend to be. BUT they cannot be true Popes, Popes formally speaking since they pursue a goal which is different from the common good of the Catholic Church. By their habitual and renewed acts they show that they do not possess the Authority given by Jesus Christ to his Vicar on earth.

 

The Catholic theologian must state the Truth. He does so because Our Lord is showing the example, as we hear in today’s Gospel: “For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth. Every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice.” (Jn 18:37) A few verses later Our Lord speaks to Pontius Pilate one last time, teaching him (and us) an all-important lesson, namely that all authority is received from above, ultimately from God. “Pilate therefore saith to him: Speakest thou not to me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and I have power to release thee? Jesus answered: Thou shouldst not have any power against me, unless it were given thee from above. Therefore, he that hath delivered me to thee, hath the greater sin.” (Jn 19:10-11)

Fr Edward Leen, C.S.Sp. rightly states in his book “Why the Cross?”: “’What must I do to be saved,’ is a question that shows an incomprehension of the meaning and conditions of salvation. Religion, with men of religious inclinations who do not labor to keep their minds and wills subject to God’s views, tends habitually to degenerate into ‘formalism’.” (Book 1, ch.3) “It is scarcely necessary to remark that the Saviour does not discredit ‘works’. What He stresses is that only ‘right being’ issues in ‘right doing’.”

 

Please bear with me for having spent many sermons these past months on the very fundamental issues of the present situation! I could not do otherwise since circumstances have pushed me to reflect much upon the fundamentals. I hope I have made it abundantly clear that in my view only the Cassiciacum Thesis gives the priest a valid and solid grounding for his actions in the present situation. It establishes that which is in the Church right now and analyzes it in keeping with the scholastic principles cherished by the Church’s magisterium. From thence flows that which needs to be done. As St Paul says in a concluding remark to the Corinthians: “For we can do nothing against the truth; but for the truth.” (2Cor 13:8)

If any of you require further teaching on the content of the Thesis, I am of course ready to give it to you loyally and frankly. Loyalty and frankness in that case must be a given on both sides.

For the rest I will now return to day-to-day sermons which have come up short lately.

May Christ, the King, live and reign in our mind, will and heart. May he choose us as valiant instruments of a true restoration according to his sovereign will!

Adveniat regnum tuum;

Fiat voluntas tua.

 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

 

P. Arnold Trauner (paterarnold@hotmail.com), njemački i engleski

Sermon for the 22ndSunday after Pentecost, October 24th, 2021 – true restoration (2)

 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen

 

My dearly beloved in Our Lord,

 

Last Sunday we have tried to establish the lines along which the true restoration of all things in Christ can and must happen.

(1) We always need to have before our eyes the end for which we have been created.

(2) God is in charge, not we ourselves. Our human pride and self-will are obstacles, not adequate means of bringing all things back to Christ. God will do His work, with or without us. He can raise children of Abraham from stones…

 

The Greek word which St Paul uses for “restoring” all things in Christ is “anakephalaiosasthai”. It means “to sum up”, “to bring back to the head” which is Christ.

Right away, then, we see the idea and the implications of the hierarchical order. There is no order without hierarchy. That which is higher needs to be placedat the top, that which is lower needs to be below. Christ is the head, we are the members of his mystical body.

We find this idea or principle of order and hierarchy very difficult. It means that our inborn pride makes us choose the first place, the noblest seat at the banquet. But God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. You can be of very humble origins and destined for the highest charges – like Joseph Sarto who ended up being Pope St Pius X. Or it can be the other way round, think of St Aloysius of Gonzaga who was destined by birth to be a princely ruler, but who gave up his birth-right, went to the Jesuits and died even before he was ordained to the priesthood.

God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. In the present situation of the Church where she has been without a visible head, a Pope, formally speaking, since several decades, the speed with which all order falls to pieces is becoming greater and greater. The same principles which are playing out in the politico-sanitary chaos these days, make it that chaos and anarchy seem to be our lot now as members of the Church militant.

We have said last Sunday that a true restoration therefore does not consist in the attempt to re-establish some kind of Catholic life, ancient or recent. Most “traditionalists” have been, and are misled by this kind of concept or idea.

It is not enough to produce priests who distribute the Sacraments and blessings indiscriminately! Exchanging quality for quantity is never a good idea. “But we cannot survive without the Mass, without Confession…” [Believe me: Most of those who have regular and easy access to the priest, to the Sacraments, live very poorly! “Quotidiana vilescunt – daily things become vile.” Humans are creatures of habits, as we say (“Der Mensch ist ein Gewohnheitstier.”). Therefore it takes a constant effort not to succumb to the devastating effects of routine.] The Church has given clear rules, based on her teaching, practice and experience, with regards to the training of priests. They cannot be laid aside or forgone without serious consequences. In all other aspects of the life of the Church it is the same. Before we seek to know what to do, we need to scrutinize what the Church thinks and teaches.

Here also it is true that there should be no panic, but for the general “traditionalist” crowd this has no importance. The Church and the salvation of souls is God’s work primarily, not ours. We need to co-operate, and not to pretend to be the principal actors. Those who think they have to solve the crisis in the Church, and who are skipping stages to get there, are doing themselves and others no good.

The simple reason for this is: This situation is unprecedented, and God has not, so far, given us the means to solve such a problem.

There is a consistent theological explanation of what this situation means and what it entails, the Cassiciacum thesis of Bp Guérard des Lauriers. But since most people cannot read or think, they jump to conclusions and believe that Bp Guérard is pretending to give a solution which in their eyes is wrong. He explicitly states and writes otherwise! But they insist that the thesis says and means that the occupant of the See of Peter will convert, that then he will be ipso facto the Pope, and that this is the only solution possible. Nothing is further from the truth.

Those who pretended and pretend that a conclave is the solution have been proven wrong many times. They are wrong in principle because how would they even justify that those gathering – be they bishops of the sacramental order – have a valid legal title to be electors? Let them show a divinely signed patent or brief! They have been proven wrong in fact because their attempts have resulted in a good dozen of pretended “popes” over four decades. They have accidentally done a lot to discredit the position which holds that there is no Pope. But since they do not worry about theology, but rather about distributing Sacraments indiscriminately, they do not even realize that they torpedo the foundations of their own house. There is some distance between survivalism and trying to survive in difficult circumstances.

Those who act as if it were enough to ordain priests without having given them ground solid training and formation, are wrong in principle because the Church has clearly indicated the way to be followed. The Council of Trent in particular has established a framework which has allowed the Church to operate well throughout the troubled “modern” times. To pretend that the era of Trent is now revolved (I can give you the name and address of a priest who has affirmed this to me repeatedly…) means that you are half-way at least into modernism. They are wrong in practice because such priests can only cause pity. Often enough they act like the French “working priests” of the 1950s and 1960s who pretended that by living and working among the godless crowd, they would be able to convince souls of the truth. I am not saying that they are working priests – although such ones do exist – but that they lack the basic insight and understanding of what the priest is and always will be, and what he has to do. That our times are more deeply disturbed than before does not, and cannot change the order which God has laid down for the Church, the ark of salvation!

So where is the solution? Who will operate a true restoration of all things in Christ?

Only Christ is able to do so, as has been the case all throughout the history of the Church. He uses the means he chooses. They are human instruments, like the Emperor Sigismund who through prudent diplomacy and sometimes with pressure opened the way for the election of one Pope replacing the three existing claimants, thus ending the great western schism. At other times Christ used miraculous or quasi-miraculous events to restore peace and order in the Church. He made known to St Catherine of Sienna a secret vow which the Pope in Avignon had made to return to Rome. She therefore pressured the Pope to fulfill his vow, and thus the scandal of the Popes residing outside Rome for decades ended.

We should have no doubt that Christ knows what he is doing. “He hath chastised us for our iniquities: and he will save us for his own mercy.” (Tob 13:5) “Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous…” “Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.” (Mt 6:25.34) Our solicitude stems from the little trust we have in Christ’s promise. The Church founded by him is the New and everlasting Alliance in His Precious Blood. It is very simple. And it is very stupid of us not to believe wholeheartedly in this extraordinary divine promise!

Today is the “Mission Sunday”. The Church prays that the divine Master may send more workers for bringing in his harvest. Let us humbly make our contribution towards this unchanging goal and necessity.

Next Sunday, which will be the feast of Christ the King, we shall make a few concluding remarks to this brief series of sermons on true restoration of all things in Christ.

 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

P. Arnold Trauner (paterarnold@hotmail.com), njemački i engleski

Sermon for the 21st Sunday after Pentecost, October 17th, 2021 – true restoration

 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen

 

My dearly beloved in Our Lord,

 

In today’s Gospel we have heard the terrible story, a parable of a servant whose huge debt is canceled. That same servant is unwilling to cancel his fellow servant’s small debt.

Today we also commemorate Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. She has been the instrument chosen by Our Lord to establish devotion to his Sacred Heart in the Church, firmly and universally. She has had to pay a dire price for obeying Our Lord. Her life was similar to that of all Saints, and also to that of true mystics to whom Our Lord grants great favors. To Bernadette Soubirous, the seer of Lourdes, Our Lady said: “I do not promise you a happy life on earth, but I promise you eternal glory in Heaven.”

During these last Sundays of the liturgical year, the Church directs our thoughts, prayers and meditations to the last things, the last ends: death, judgment, Hell, Purgatory and Heaven.

“In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin.” (Sir 7:40) The consideration of the end of our life also means that we must consider its goal. Either we accomplish that for which God has made and created us, or we fail. If we succeed, we will spend eternity participating in divine bliss, seeing God face to face. If we fail, we will continue to exist, but in the most miserable of conditions, being definitely excluded from seeing God and even from any possibility of ever seeing Him.

The consideration of the goal of our life also means that we must draw conclusions for how we lead our life here on earth, “in this valley of tears” (Salve, Regina). The tears are many, necessarily, because the earthly paradise, the garden of Eden with the tree of life has been lost and will not come back. With it the ease and facility to make our way to Heaven have been lost. We are left, luckily not to our own devices, but to an arduous and tearful journey.

St Paul speaks of re-establishing all things in Christ (Eph 1:10), and the last canonized Pope, Pius X, had chosen these words for his episcopal motto: “Omnia instaurare in Christo”.

True Catholics today must busy themselves with participating in this true restoration of all things in Christ. Certainly the restoration of all things in Christ will only be definitively accomplished with and after Christ’s last coming to judge the living and the dead. Still, we are not meant to sit back and relax while waiting for it to happen – be it only because it just might not happen while we are alive. “Man liegt, wie man sich bettet.” – “You sleep according to how you have made your bed.” One dies as one has lived. We need to practice the “ars moriendi – the art of dying”, as the Christian ages have put it. We must live virtuously, imitating Our Lord and living from his redeeming grace.

True restoration therefore does not consist in the attempt to re-establish some kind of Catholic life, ancient or recent. Most “traditionalists” have been, and are misled by this kind of concept or idea.

“We must live like the Apostles, or the early Christians.” Well – start breeding lions for the arena…

“I would have liked to live in the Middle Ages.” Fine – get rid of electricity, of your car, of the 100.000 other things which you find so pleasant, then we shall talk about it…

“All was well in the Church under Pope Pius XII.” He himself would have told you otherwise… Vatican2 did not fall out of the sky on a blue morning (except maybe in the mind of Roncalli).

Only last Sunday St Paul has told us: “See therefore, brethren, how you walk circumspectly: not as unwise, but as wise: redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” (Eph 5:15-16) He was not speaking about the coronavirus and the great reset, to be sure. He knew and wrote that “the days are evil”. They are evil because the evil of sin, of disobeying God, is in us as a consequence of sin, both original and personal. That evil does not go away for as long as we live. In another place the same Apostle writes: “I so fight, not as one beating the air” (1Cor 9:26). St Paul certainly was not a day-dreamer or someone thinking he was born into the wrong epoch or century. He knew that time is one of God’s precious gifts to us, His creatures. We have to redeem the time, “re-emere – to buy back”. If we do not make good use of our time, if we do not make all efforts possible to restore all things in Christ in the time and age where God has put us – then we shall certainly miss out on God’s promise of timeless, unending happiness.

Why do I put these thoughts to you? Because there are many “traditionalists” who have some vague idea of how necessary it is to restore all things in Christ. But they do not get their starting point right because they fail to properly assess and understand the nature of the times we are living in. There is a broad spectrum of errors. It reaches from those who believe that things are just slightly off their “normal” course, to those who are convinced that the end of times must be imminent. Both are right and wrong, depending on what point of view we consider. The problem is that even in whatever they are right, they are right for the wrong reason!

It is true that the state of the Church is abnormal, in just one point. But they get that point wrong, believing that “the authorities” are malfunctioning or permitting abuses to happen. They do not understand that the Church is deprived of her Authority because there is no Pope, formally speaking. The practical consequences of what they do, and of what we do, could not be greater.

It is true that we are approaching the end of times. But they get that point wrong because they believe that the coming of Christ must be imminent. The Thessalonians believed the same thing at the time of St Paul who set them right (cf. 2Thes 2:2). Each one of us gets closer to his grave at a ratio of 24 hours per day. The same is true for the end of times and the General Judgment. It is getting closer one day at a time. This is self-evident. Christ, at the same time as he invites us to discern the signs of the times, clearly tells us, though, that no-one knows the moment of the end of times. We may think that the world will end soon – but we cannot be sure about it. Therefore it is certainly wrong and perverse to act upon such an assumption.

There is no Catholic panic-button! I have mentioned this several times, and I think it is very important. As Catholics we should not panic, not even in our greatest trials, particularly not in our last agony; but recommend ourselves to God who is in charge in a sovereign manner, at all times and everywhere. This is the necessary consequence of our belief in divine Providence. Too many have convinced themselves that “they” - the Freemasons… the enemies of the Church… Klaus Schwab… or whoever or whatever - are in charge. This erroneous stance reflects the deep-seated ignorance and pride of the fallen human nature: I amin charge, I need to control my life, and if possible also the lives of those around me.

Poor them! Poor us! How difficult it is for us to acquire the spirit of Our Lord, the spirit of the Beatitudes. “See therefore, brethren, how you walk circumspectly: not as unwise, but as wise.“

At the same time as the devil’s helpers, the enemies of Christ’s Cross, do according to their diminished intelligence and sick will, God does His work, mostly ignored by the world and undetected. Again and again we witness today how Our Lord really means what he says: “And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father. For I tell you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” (Mt 3:9) Persons of all walks of life are coming to the true faith. Again, remember what Our Lord told the Jews when the Roman centurion humbly asked him to heal his servant, but that he was not worthy that Jesus enter under his roof: “And I say to you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 8:11)

We need to convince ourselves that God does not need our goods: “I have said to the Lord, thou art my God, for thou hast no need of my goods.” (Ps 15:2) God does not need us! But He honors us if He wants to make use of us for His glory and for the coming of His kingdom – “Thy kingdom come…” If we forfeit our place and role in the divine plan, God has no trouble finding a replacement. God has nothing to gain, nothing to lose. In His infinite bounty He desires to let us participate in His eternal and unalterable glory and bliss. We have everything to gain if we act according to our demand: “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven”. If we act otherwise, if we do as we will, we lose everything.

Let us therefore learn to discern that which essential or formal in all things. Let us learn to remit the other one’s debt because we also have been forgiven a lot, by fellow human beings, and above all by God! “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.” Let us learn to serve God here and now, and not in a mirage of the past or of the future! Only if we detach ourselves from the world and from our own self-will and self-love, can we be fit and apt instruments for the true restoration of all things in Christ. This is the example given to us by Our Lady, the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, the Mother of God.

 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

P. Arnold Trauner (paterarnold@hotmail.com), njemački i engleski