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Views from the Choir Loft

Yesterday’s Solemn Mass Was An Inflection Point

Jeff Ostrowski · April 29, 2018

89294 Archbishop Alexander Sample Josef Bisig ONSIDER THE ACTIONS taken by three powerful groups in the 1990s: ICEL, OCP, and the USCCB Liturgy Committee. Now, on 29 April 2018, “take a step back” and consider—from among the thousands who attended yesterday’s Solemn Pontifical Mass at the National Shrine—just three clerics. Is this not an inflection point for the Traditional Latin Mass?

(1.) Father Andrew V. Menke
Executive Director
Secretariat of Divine Worship (USCCB)
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Fr. Menke assisted “in choro,” and the narrator points him out at the 2:14:42 marker!

(2.) Monsignor Andrew R. Wadsworth
Executive Director
International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL)

The ICEL executive director narrated the Mass for television!

(3.) Most Reverend Alexander K. Sample
Archbishop of Portland, Oregon
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Oregon Catholic Press

Archbishop Sample is the chairman of the board for OCP Publications!


All this is contrary to what the experts told us.

For example, on 26 March 1995, Fr. Brian W. Harrison wrote:

What all traditionalists really want, of course, is complete equality of status for the old rite of Mass, alongside the new rite. But this, I submit, is simply a pipe dream. It just is not going to happen. Already the head of the Vatican’s Ecclesia Dei Commission, Cardinal Innocenti, has made it clear that in his view the present arrangements permitting the old Mass should be seen as temporary and that the final end in view is the “integration” of traditionalist Catholics into the mainstream worship of the Latin rite—that is, full acceptance of the Mass of Paul VI. Not one of the Cardinals with any chance of being elected as the next pope has given any reason to think that he would grant full equality to the preconciliar rite of Mass, and, indeed, any such decision would probably be unenforceable: it would provoke uproar among most of the world’s bishops…

On 28 January 2007, just a few months before Summorum Pontificum was issued, Fr. Reginald Foster (who worked for four popes) declared categorically 1 that Pope Benedict XVI would not follow through: “He is not going to do it. He had trouble with Regensberg, and then trouble in Warsaw, and if he does this, all hell will break loose.” Then Fr. Foster revealed publicly his thoughts about the Traditional Latin Mass:

It is a useless Mass and the whole mentality is stupid. The idea of it is that things were better in the old days. It makes the Vatican look medieval.

Thousands who attended yesterday’s Mass do not consider the Extraordinary Form a “useless Mass.”



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Needless to say, Fr. Reginald Foster was dead wrong about whether Summorum Pontificum would be promulgated. It’s also instructive to notice how he parrots the secular news media regarding “trouble” in Regensberg and Warsaw.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Archbishop Alexander K Sample, National Shrine Immaculate Conception 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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Due to Covid-19, California has basically been under “lock down” for 11 months, and these restrictions have had quite a detrimental effect on our choral programs. We are frequently limited to just 2-3 singers, on account of regulations by the government and our Archdiocese. However, although the number of singers is quite small, I was struck by the beauty of the singing last Sunday. Listen to this 15-second live excerpt and see if you agree?

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—Jeff Ostrowski

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“Although the Mass contains much instruction for the faithful, it has nevertheless not seemed expedient to the fathers that it be celebrated everywhere in the vernacular. The holy synod commands pastors and everyone who has the care of souls to explain frequently during the celebration of the Masses, either themselves or through others, some of the things that are read in the Mass, and among other things to expound some mystery of this most Holy Sacrifice, especially on Sundays and feastdays.”

— ‘Council of Trent, XII:8 (1562)’

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