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Views from the Choir Loft

“I confess that I was a liturgical nut” says Bishop consecrated by Pope Paul VI

Jeff Ostrowski · April 6, 2016

590 Bishop Gracida Interview 2015 ARLIER TODAY, my friend emailed me a fascinating YouTube interview with Bishop Emeritus René H. Gracida, who fought the Nazis in Germany as a young man and later became a close friend of Pope Saint John Paul II. The interview was conducted by Michael Voris, and you might want to skip to the 1:30 marker, where Bishop Gracida starts talking:

    * *  YouTube • Bp. Gracida Interview (2015)

His Excellency, currently 92 years old, does not mince words about post-conciliar chaos:

“It was the virus of the false spirit of Vatican II.  I was one of them; I was very enthusiastic about some of the reforms of Vatican II. But a little later I came to realize how I had been hoodwinked, and how I had been misled by the progressives.”

When asked about the most concerning areas in the Church today, Bishop Gracida says:

“I have no doubt that the area of the Church’s life that needs the greatest attention is the liturgy. The liturgy is not only worship of God; it is the way we are formed in our faith. So all that has happened in the liturgy since the Second Vatican II that is bad is malforming Catholics even today. So the Novus Ordo—although I have celebrated it, and have appreciated its value at times—I never celebrate it now. All my Masses are in the Traditional Rite because it is the most spiritual, the most reverential, the most clear proclamation of what we believe!”

Then Bishop Gracida explains precisely what he means, ending with a warning:

“When we ruin the liturgy, we remove that which protects the faithful.”

Later on, Bishop Gracida speaks of the “modified” Traditional Rite, by which he means the 1965 Missal. (You can download the 1965 Missal, in Latin & English, as a PDF file.)

AT ONE POINT during the interview, Bishop Gracida is asked when he came to these realizations (see above). His Excellency says:

“I confess that I was a liturgical nut.”

Then he elucidates upon this statement…evening naming names!  It seems that people who pay a monthly fee to Michael Voris can watch the full 3-hour interview. I am not a subscriber, but perhaps one of our readers could give us the “highlights” using the CCW Facebook comments section.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Jeff Ostrowski

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

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20 January 2021 • REMINDER

We have no savings, no endowment, and no major donors. You can help us (please) by subscribing to our mailing list. It’s incredibly easy; just scroll to the bottom of any blog article and enter your email address. Thank you!

—Jeff Ostrowski
19 January 2021 • Confusion over feasts

For several months, we have discussed the complicated history of the various Christmas feasts: the Baptism of the Lord, the feast of the Holy Family, the Epiphany, and so forth. During a discussion, someone questioned my assertion that in some places Christmas had been part of the Epiphany. As time went on, of course, the Epiphany came to represent only three “manifestations” (Magi, Cana, Baptism), but this is not something rigid. For example, if you look at this “Capital E” from the feast of the Epiphany circa 1350AD, you can see it portrays not three mysteries but four—including PHAGIPHANIA when Our Lord fed the 5,000. In any event, anyone who wants proof the Epiphany used to include Christmas can read this passage from Dom Prosper Guéranger.

—Jeff Ostrowski
6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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— Fr. Fortescue describing the “Sarum Use” in 1912

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