Well, in the middle of orientation for my assignment with Booz Allen Hamilton, managed to squeeze in some time watching the USCCB discussion concerning the new Roman Missal english translation debate.

A few thoughts. You have to admire Bp. Trautman (Erie, PA). He kept his powder dry and his plan of attack hidden, saving his very last musket ball for the end.

He raised a motion that the bishops should see the Gray Book of the Antiphons, discuss it and vote on it.

Pretty parliamentary, really.

Background: Cardinal George, as President, had asked in the name of the Conference that the Holy See handle translation of the the antiphons. The Holy See agreed. Eventually, the Holy See sent a Gray book, but it was not distributed to the members.

Bp. Trautman, who said at one point he wasn’t aware of the Holy See’s Gray book, reacted to this departure from procedure saying that the Constitution on Sacred Liturgy requires that competent territorial authority has to approve translations. He calls this a doctrinal issue. I will return to that important point at the end.

Therefore Bp. Trautman put a motion on the floor for the bishops to insist that the ALL USCCB Latin bishops, as a conference, have the chance to work on and approve the Gray Book for Antiphons as produced by the Holy See (huh? Since when does the territorial conference have authority over the See of Peter...never mind..).

This was probably his Waterloo.

The bishops as a body rejected his motion.

Vote on Bishop Trautman’s motion: No=166; Yes=46 DEFEATED.

It remains to be seen how the bishops will eventually deal with this departure from regular procedure in the future.

Unlooked for players on the correct side of this battle were, wait for it...Archbp. Pilarcyk and Cardinal Mahony. They both suggested that, after Bp. Trautman’s motion was addressed, the body of bishops could simply ratify what Card. George had done acting as president of the USCCB in his dealings with the Holy See over the Gray Book for antiphons.

As it was, Bp. Trautman’s last-ditch move to delay the process was rejected by the other bishops. Then Archbp. Pilarczyk made the motion that the bishops let Rome handle the antiphons and the bishops approved the same overwhelmingly.

Vote to remand the antiphons to the CDW: No=20; Yes=194 PASSED

That seems to have been the last hurrah.

At the very moment when Card. George was to announce the results of the vote on Bp. Trautman’s motion, the TelecareTV coverage died...video froze and then went black as the audio died. So, I picked up a tweet from the Twitter feed of @usccbmedia. Thanks to them I learned what happened.

We didn’t learn it from TelecareTV, the second-rate video provider tasked with the coverage. I got it from Twitter.

It was a dramatic moment for more than one reason!

It is not quite time for a Te Deum, but this was a great step forward.

All during the presentation of the various elements for voting, Bp. Seratelli, head of the liturgy committee, reminded the bishops that this meeting, this November meeting, was – ACCORDING TO THE HOLY SEE – the last chance to vote on the English translation of the Missal. After this, the Holy See would take charge and handle the issues that remained open. It seems that the bishops took this to heart...a heart that was no doubt weary and flagging after all these years of delay, discussion, and politicking.

Going back to Bp. Trautman’s motion.

As this was going on I was reminded of what I read in the book that came out under the name of the former papal master ceremonies, Archbp. Piero Marini. He described in detail the workings of the committee (Consilium) that created the current normative Mass under the late Abp. Annibale Bugnini. Marini explained that the Consilium realized they were changing doctrine with the liturgical changes. An objective of Bugnini was to strip the Congregation for Rites of its power and redistribute it to territorial conferences. One of the knives he used was the question of who gets to approve liturgical translations, Rome or the local conferences?

This same dynamic and question returned at this meeting of the bishops, with Bp. Trautman playing the advocate of the old Bugnini/Marini objective.

But it is a sign of the times that the American bishops rejected that position and were content that the Holy See not only approve the translation of liturgical texts but, in the case of the antiphons, actually do the work.

You can see why Bp. Trautman was so intent on this and why he saw it as his last great chance.

But he is a sly one. Perhaps he will find a loaded pistol on the ground even as he abandons his discharged musket.

But, for what it's worth, as one who has vocally, both online since the 1980 and in person since the New Mass was imposed in English at the Easter Vigil in 1973 in the Diocese of Trenton, prayed that a decent translation would come out of the translation cabal (and, even then, with only 3 years of Latin in High School, thought there was something wrong with the 'dynamic equivalence' translation result), I can only be cheered by this turn of events and sudden influx of Clue on the part of our shepherds.

Deo gratias.

This bishop, of Bend Oregon, gets the award for Getting It. May Our Lord richly reward him with greater understanding and years in leading his flock.

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To understand liturgical changes, study meaning of liturgy

By Bishop Robert Vasa

BEND — I wrote very briefly last week about the presentation at our presbyteral assembly on the upcoming revised translation of the Roman Missal and I want to reflect a bit more on this topic. It will undoubtedly be a bit difficult for some to accept with peace and tranquility the changes and amendments which are forthcoming for the Sacred Liturgy. The possibility that there may be some difficulty understanding and accepting the changes is understandable. Unfortunately, it can often happen that the reason why we anticipate such a difficulty has less to do with the Sacred Liturgy than it does with our own attitudes. It will indeed be the case that the Church in approving changes to the texts for the Sacred Liturgy will also be asking that we change. In looking at myself, I must admit that I am much less affected by the fact that the sacred language may change than I am by the fact that this change affects me and perhaps, in some ways, also challenges me. [Unlike the inveterate enemy of Rome’s norms for translation, Bp. Trautman, Bp. Vasa seems to have no problem with the idea that sacred language is used in the sacred liturgy.]

If there is one factor for the laity, in my estimation, which will impact on the ease with which changes are accepted or the strength with which they are resisted it is our fundamental understanding of the nature and purpose of the Sacred Liturgy. The frequency with which comments are heard such as, “I really like Father X’s Mass,” or “I find it very difficult to go to Father Y’s Mass,” or “That Mass did not do anything for me,” or the most common, “I don’t get anything out of the Mass” are all indicators of a certain understanding of the nature and purpose of the Sacred Liturgy. Underlying these comments, and many more variations thereof, is a certain concept of the liturgy. The proposed changes present us an opportunity to reflect, even in a significantly self critical way, on our understanding, or misunderstanding, of the meaning and purpose of the Sacred Liturgy. [Hear hear!]

In order to begin to reform or reshape our understanding of the Sacred Liturgy we need to go to the Church and to the catechism which she has given us. There we read and hear that: “Sunday is the pre-eminent day for the liturgical assembly, when the faithful gather ‘to listen to the word of God and take part in the Eucharist, thus calling to mind the Passion, Resurrection, and glory of the Lord Jesus, and giving thanks to God who ‘has begotten them again, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’ unto a living hope.’” (CCC, 1167) Admittedly, the paragraph addresses the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass rather than Liturgy as a whole but the paragraph is instructive. On Sunday, when we gather for Mass, we do so to listen to the Word of God. While there are a number of other ceremonies which accompany the Liturgy of the Word, the reason we gather is to “listen to the Word of God.” [Attention:] There is thus an importance placed on what God gives to us, His Word. We gather to hear it. We also gather to “take part in the Eucharist.” This involves much more than simply being present and receiving Holy Communion. Centrally, it involves “calling to mind the Passion, Resurrection and glory of the Lord Jesus” and giving thanks to God for the salvation which Jesus has won for us.

These are participatory activities which include everyone without exception. Thus it is not only the reader or the servers or the extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion who participate in the Mass but rather everyone is able to fulfill the mandate of the council about “full, active and conscious participation.” This is so because an essential part of the “activity” is listening, offering, remembering, rejoicing, thanking. [NB:] These are all interior actions. [INTERIOR!] Without a doubt the participation also includes responding, singing, standing, kneeling, et cetera but these are to be external manifestations of the fact that we are participating interiorly because simply doing these things is not necessarily the same thing as actively participating. [It is nice to read what a BISHOP writes about this.]

“The Eucharist is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life.’ The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch. The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God’s action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy Spirit. Finally, by the eucharistic celebration we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will be all in all. In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith: Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking.” (CCC 1324-27)

I am particularly struck by the reminder that the Eucharist is the culmination of “God’s action sanctifying the world.” This is what we are called to participate in and belong to when we come to Holy Mass. It is, at the same time, the culmination of the “worship men offer to Christ.” I like to think of our participation in worship as being drawn up into the saving actions of God, being a part of them, remembering and experiencing them and coming away from them knowing that we have been in contact with Him Who is all holy. Ideally, the Eucharist changes us because we celebrate who God is and what he has done and is doing in our midst. As the catechism notes, “Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist,” not vice versa.

The proposed linguistic enrichments of the Sacred Liturgy, or if you prefer, changes, give us the opportunity to reflect upon the Eucharist anew. They certainly give us the opportunity to listen with new ears to new language, to refresh our interior and reflective participation, and to enter more consciously into that which God is doing. If necessary, it provides the occasion for each of us to align our understanding and expectation of the Holy Mysteries more closely with the vision of the Church expressed in the Catechism.

One can not help but be impressed by a Bishop who knows how to "Bish".

From the always reliable and orthodox National Catholic Register (not that other paper, better used as fishwrap, that comes out of Kansas City...):

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Bishop Walter Nickless:
The 'Spirit' of Vatican II Is a Demon That Must Be Exorcised

Posted by Tim Drake

Friday, October 16, 2009 2:00 AM

I first met Sioux City, Iowa, Bishop Walker Nickless a month ago at the Serra International gathering in Omaha, Neb. Little did I know then that he was working on his bold first pastoral letter since his installation as bishop four years ago.

Ecclesia Semper Reformanda (The Church Is Always in Need of Renewal), released yesterday, takes a look at the impact of the Second Vatican Council and sets forth a plan for the people of Sioux City and beyond. In many ways, it’s a pastoral letter unlike one we’ve yet seen.

Forty-four years after the close of the council, Bishop Nickless says there are many questions that still need to be asked and answered.

“Have we understood the council within the context of the entire history of the Church? Have we understood the documents well? Have we truly appropriated and implemented them? Is the current state of the Church what the council intended? What went right? What went wrong? Where is the promised “New Pentecost”?

Quoting from Pope Benedict XVI’s address to the Roman Curia in December 2005, Bishop Nickless draws attention to the two contrary hermeneutics that arose from the council — one which caused confusion (“a hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture”), and the other which has borne fruit (“hermeneutic of reform”).

“The hermeneutic of discontinuity risks ending in a split between the pre-conciliar Church and the post-conciliar Church,” said Pope Benedict.

Bishop Nickless says that these two rival interpretations have weakened the Church’s identity and mission.

The consequence, says Bishop Nickless, has been a sort of dualism — “an either/or mentality and insistence in various areas of the Church’s life: either fidelity to doctrine or social justice work, either Latin or English, either personal conscience or the authority of the Church, either chant or contemporary music, either tradition or progress, either liturgy or popular piety, either conservative or liberal, either Mass or adoration, either the magisterium or theologians, either ecumenism or evangelization, either rubrics or personalization, either the Baltimore Catechism or ‘experience’ ...”

For a clear example of this type of dualistic thinking, read through America magazine’s “Confessions of a Modern Nun,” by Ilia Delio. There, quoting Dominican Timothy Radcliffe, Delio describes American nuns as being either Concilium Catholics or Communio Catholics.

...

“There can be no split, however, between the Church and her faith before and after the council,” writes Bishop Nickless. “We must stop speaking of the ‘Pre-Vatican II’ and ‘Post-Vatican II’ Church, and stop seeing various characteristics of the Church as ‘pre’ and ‘post’ Vatican II. Only the ‘hermeneutic of reform,’ he says, is valid and “has borne and is bearing fruit.”

“The ‘spirit of Vatican II’ must be found only in the letter of the documents themselves,” writes Bishop Nickless. “The so-called ‘spirit’ of the council … is a ghost or demon that must be exorcised if we are to proceed with the Lord’s work.”

Bishop Nickless goes on to state that, “we have sometimes lost sight of who we are and what we believe, and therefore have little to offer the world that so desperately needs the Gospel. Our urgent need at this time is to reclaim and strengthen our understanding of the deposit of faith,” writes Nickless. He adds that our mission is twofold — both within the Church (ad intra) and to the world (ad extra). He then sets forth a plan for “reclaiming and strengthening our faith, identity and culture as Catholics.”

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Read the entire article here. The Bishop's letter, if you really want to be inspired, is
here.

Imagine, one day, going into a Church of the “Anglican Rite Catholics” (perhaps named) and attending Mass and receiving Communion with the no-longer-separated brethren! Keep praying…

Hat tip to Fr. Z's blog for highlighting this well-written, and for once, balanced story about the Extraordinary Form in Seattle.

Published in the Seattle Intelligencer on Saturday last.

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Saturday, September 26, 2009
Last updated 1:59 p.m. PT
Dominus vobiscum: Latin mass returns to Seattle

By JOEL CONNELLY
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

The chants are stuff of childhood memory for today’s middle-aged Catholics, but a ritual that has lately been resurrected and restored in the Archdiocese of Seattle—the Tridentine rite Latin high mass.

In what he calls a "personal parish, not a geographic parish," Archbishop Alex Brunett a year ago authorized patient advocates of restoring the Latin liturgy to form North American Martyrs parish in Seattle.

About 500 people packed into its temporary home, St. Alphonsus Church in Ballard, on Friday night as Brunett presided over a stirring, deeply spiritual high mass. Saber-bearing Knights of Columbus in full regalia escorted the procession. Gregorian music wafted down from the choir loft, while sweet-smelling incense filled the air.

Many women’s heads were draped in lace. Young children, present in large numbers, were quiet as, well, church mice. There were no response readings by the congregation. No laypeople walked to the microphone to read scripture.

The congregation’s participation could be described in two words, prayerful and contemplative.

Only to the once-familiar words "Dominus vobiscum" (May the Lord be with you) did the congregation deliver a full voiced reply, "Et cum spiritu tuo" (And with thy spirit).

The priests, as in pre-Vatican II days, faced the altar. Why? "The same reason a bus driver faces the road and not the passengers: The priest is leading the congregation to the Mount of Calvary," explained Fr. Gerard Saguto, the parish pastor, who arrived from Indiana a year ago.

Fr. Seguto hails from the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, an order of priests founded by Pope John Paul II in 1988 to minister to the increasing demand for the mass in its older form.

In the past several decades, liturgical reform has swept out the old and ushered in a not-always-satisfying new [well put] in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Episcopal Church, which shares many of its worship patterns.

The result has been the "Kumbaya cult" of guitar liturgies with emphasis on informality. Often with a tin ear, language of worship has been "modernized" and adjusted to meet the requirements of political correctness. [This guy gets it!]

A substantial number of the faithful have hoped that older forms of worship could at least be tolerated.

A prominent Episcopalian, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, has lamented the appearance of what he calls "an ordinary and genderless God."

In the Catholic church, the Tridentine rite has hung on for four decades until it received long-sought restoration from Pope Benedict XVI.

Where it survived, from St. Mary Mother of God parish in Washington, D.C., to Old St. Patrick’s in New Orleans—even St. Mary’s Cathedral in far off Sydney, Australia—the pews have been packed.

"We have about 150 regulars, and much larger attendance for a special occasion such as this," said Archbishop Brunett.

Nearby, Fr. Saguto was assuring a visitor: "We’ll get a mass in Tacoma."

The appeal of the Latin mass, in Fr. Saguto’s words, is "an evocation of the sacred." "Look at the world," he added. "There has been a loss of the sense of the sacred, the need for God. The mass conveys a real sense of that need . . . It is raising the heart and the mind to God."

At the well-attended Sunday night mass in St. James Cathedral, known for Gregorian music beautifully sung by a women’s choir, lay people read scripture. Members of the congregation join hands at the Lord’s Prayer. Priests and worshippers exchange a handshake of peace.

The Tridentine rite as practiced by North American Martyrs parish is different. The movement of priests and acolytes around the altar is intricate. There is no spontaneity. "There’s a very intense focus on the sacrificial nature of the mass, of Christ’s presence," said Fr. Saguto.

At a fast-busting dessert reception after Friday night’s mass, Archbishop Brunett joked about Western Washington’s Catholics. "I spend time with Korean Catholics, I spend time with Filipino Catholics, we have a large and growing Hispanic population: We are a very diverse people, and I try to accommodate them," he said.

North American Martyrs parish celebrates a high mass at 11:30 a.m. every Sunday at St. Alphonsus. Archbishop Brunett, 75, is waiting for his successor to be chosen, but told the congregation he hopes to preside when the new parish moves to a church home of its own.

The battle over Latin liturgy has produced rifts in places. In Paris, a breakaway group, the Society of St. Pius X, celebrates the Tridentine Latin mass a few blocks from Notre Dame. In response, the cathedral holds its own Gregorian mass on Sunday mornings. [Post hoc ergo propter hoc?]

Una Voice of Western Washington, a group led by lay people, spent years patiently working to see the Tridentine mass restored. Supplanted by a simpler Latin liturgy during Vatican II (the Second Vatican Council), the rite was brought back by Pope Benedict XVI, who encouraged its use.

Archbishop Brunett praised its local advocates. "The Latin mass community of the Archdiocese of Seattle has been led by lay people, responsible people," he said in his sermon.

"The mass should have a dignity: It should direct us to the Lord in the fullness of our faith," the archbishop added. "No matter how we celebrate the Mass, it should be celebrated with dignity and respect . . . It should be done with reverence and respect."

North American Martyrs parish takes its name from 17th Century French priests who gave their lives carrying their faith to "New France." Several were horribly tortured and scalped.

Joel Connelly can be reached at 206-448-8160 or joelconnelly@seattlepi.com.