A study on Summorum Pontificum shows that young people and families are represented above the average in holy masses in the Traditional Rite.
(Bonn) Also katholisch.de , the portal of the German Bishops' Conference, proves a worthy report: A new study confirms that the Masses are attended in the traditional form of the Roman Rite in above-average numbers by young people and families.
The study was presented by the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce (FIUV) and was handed over to the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the end of 2020 . It was created in connection with the survey initiated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in March 2020 . "At the request" of Pope Francis, Cardinal Prefect Luis Ladaria SJ sent a detailed questionnaire to all diocesan bishops and their equals. They had to fill it in and send it back by July 31, 2020 and served to take stock of the implementation and experiences with the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum from 2007. With this motu proprio, Pope Benedict XVI. reminded the universal Church that the traditional form of the Roman Rite lives on in the Church and was never forbidden. Rather, it made it easier for all priests to celebrate in the traditional rite as it was in force until the “liturgical reform” of 1969/70.
Because of the widespread reservations against the ruling head of the church, which can be traced back to gestures, statements and omissions by him during his previous pontificate, the concern spread in traditional Church circles that Francis intended to restrict tradition in the Church again, as it was the case under Paul VI. These fears were fueled because some Italian bishops in the run-up, had demanded just that in strident tones. Added to this was that the Archbishop of La Plata [Gay Smoocher] in Argentina, Msgr. Victor Manuel "Tucho" Fer-nandez , one of the closest Pope intimates, eliminated Summorum Pontificum in 2019 in his diocese.
Little trust was fostered by the usual spiteful anathemas of "Liturgist of the Pope" Andrea Grillo, in addition there was enthusiam showed bythe CDF. Traditionalist circles, however, see this as a serious cause for concern.
The FIUV to tive the Pope and the CDF information on the implementation and experience of Summorum Pontificum, based on data from 362 dioceses and 52 countries.Behind this is an effort to ensure that Rome is given a balanced overall picture.
The hitherto unpublished study was conducted by one of its authors, the Oxford philosopher, president of the Latin Mass Society and secretary of the Federation Una Voce, Joseph Shaw, presentedd in the January issue of the US journal Homiletic and Pastoral Review. In it Shaw stated:
"The association of the extraordinary form with young people and families is neither a myth nor limited to a few countries."
For the German-speaking world, the positive effect of Summorum Pontificum shows that the Mass sites have quadruppled for the Traditional Rite since its entry into force as Pro Missa Tridentina announced in the summer of 2020.
Text: Giuseppe di Nari image: Katholisch.de (screenshot)
The Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Reichenstein: Saturday will see the re-settlement of a former cloister by a Society of Tradition
On the following Saturday, October 14, the consecration and settlement of the monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will take place in Reichenstein. While monasteries are being closed elsewhere because of the lack of vocations, a new monastery is being moved into Monschau by traditional Benedictine monks.
Monschau is located in the Eifel south of Aachen and borders directly on the territory of the German-speaking community in Belgium (Eupen).
In 2007, the German District Superior of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X, Father Franz Schmidberger, announced the intention to found a traditional Benedictine monastery on German soil in which the sacred liturgy will be celebrated in the Immemorial Mass of All Ages. In 2008, after the purchase of the historical monastery by the St. Benedict Society, the key handover of Reichenstein to the Benedictine monks took place.
After 200 years of revival of an old monastery
Church with new monastery buildings and cloister
In the 11th century, the counts of Limburg had erected Richwinstein Castle on a hill on the upper Rur. Having ascended to dukes, they donated the castle in 1131 to the Premonstratensian Order, which had just been founded by St. Norbert of Xanten. The castle was converted into a double monastery, as was customary in the early days of the Order. When this practice was abandoned, the Premonstratensians, Choir Nuns, remained in Reichenstein. Since 1487 it was then a principal choir house. The buildings, including the monastery church, originated in their present form in the late 17th century.
When in 1794, the French revolutionaries occupied Germany on the left bank of the Rhine, the conquest of the Premonstratensian monastery also began its decline. In 1802 Napoleon Bonaparte, in the course of secularization, abolished the monastery together with many other monasteries.
After several changes of ownership, the lawyer Ernst Wilhelm Handschumacher, the Grand Officer of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher, bought the former monastery together with his wife Helma in 1973 and renovated the complex in the 1970s. It was the couple's endeavor that the buildings be returned to their original purpose.
The twelve monks who will settle the monastery next Saturday, come from the Benedictine monastery of Notre-Dame de Bellaigue, built in 2001, connected to the Society of St. Pius X. The monks speak of the "reawakening of the monastery". In 2009, Dom Matthäus Haynos, the priest of the convent in Bellaigue, was given the name of the monastery church and celebrated the first Holy Mass by a new priest of the monastery. To this end, it had been re-established with a neo-Gothic high-altar with a statue of the Immaculate.
Bellaigue is a subsidiary of the Benedictine monastery Santa Cruz in Brazil. The first four monks came to France in 1999. After ten years, 25 monks were already living in the Auvergne, so a daughter-foundation could be established. For several years, a Benedictine convent has been built, a few kilometers from Bellaigue.
For years there have been urgently needed renovations in Reichenstein, as well as modifications and new buildings. The monks will supply their own heating with 36 hectares of forest belonging to them. The construction of the new cloister was started in 2015. 2017 saw establishment of a provisional central chapel. It will serve the monastic community in the coming four years for the liturgy "in order to be able to reconstruct the monastery church into the central, worthy and sacred space of the entire monastery."
This coming Saturday, Reichenstein will be officially established as a subsidiary of the monastery of Bellaique and be populated by a monastic community.
The program
At 9.45 o'clock Terce and then consecration of the monastery.
At 10:30 am Solemn High Mass in honor of the patroness of the monastery, the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
At 12.30 pm, Sext with welcome and luncheon for the faithful gathering to celebrate this memorable day with the Benedictines.
At 2.30 pm None and then coffee and cake.
At 4 pm Vespers and Sacraments.
At 5 pm, is the establishment of the cloister with the main gate closed.
The Society of St. Benedict, which is legally responsible for the repair of the buildings, regularly informs about the developments and the progress of the construction work with the "Monastery News." They will be occupied with the young monastic community for several years, as the actual monastery with cloister must be rebuilt (see plan).
"We want to build a school for the Lord's ministry. Everything without exception is to be done in this monastery for the glory of God, so that in all God God may be glorified."
This is how Br. Bernhard OSB writes in the latest edition of the "Klosternnachrichten."
Since 1 October 2017 Holy Mass in Reichenstein has been celebrated every day on workdays, Feast Days, Saturdays and Sundays at 7:20 am and 11:15 am in the Immemorial Roman Rite.
All of the faithful are invited to blessing and settlement of the monastery on 14 October.
(Bordeaux / Rome) Nine months after the elections for the appointment of a new Superior General and a new General Council of the traditional Instituts du Bon Pasteur and the subsequent internal conflict is now before the decision of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. The Commission, which is under the Institute since 2006, has appointed a provisional administrator, who has a mandate of six months. Its mission is to prepare new elections for the governing bodies at this time and carried out under his supervision. The Institute of the Good Shepherd was made up of former members of the Society of St. Pius X. and established that because they no longer wanted to endorse their canonically irregular status.
The Institute, based in Bordeaux, is in contrast to the SSPX, recognized as a society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right of the Church in 2006 and placed under the Ecclesia Dei Commission.
In spring 2012 a visitation of the Institute by the Ecclesia Dei Commission came to the election of the Institute. The visitation by the then-Secretary of Ecclesia Dei, Monsignor Guido Pozzo, had caused quite a stir and considerable unrest in tradition-bound circles. It had been put out as an example within the SSPX, as a reason why the Brotherhood should not agree to any agreement with the Holy See. Rome had demanded and required of the Institute an appropriate consideration of the Second Vatican Council in priestly formation, to reconsider the categorical exclusion of the celebration of the New Rite and to recognize the Catechism of the Catholic Church in its 1997 edition as the authoritative compendium of Catholic doctrine.
At the General Chapter on 5 July, a new Institute's director was chosen for younger members, who were critical of the Roman terms. The New Superior General, Father Roch Perrel, however, was a choice that was disputed by the founders and former Superior General, Father Laguérie, due to procedural deficiencies in Rome. In one of his first acts as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller appealed which took place on the 30th of July 2012 and ordered the repeat of the elections.
This recent decision of Rome dealt at first sight with neither of the two warring sides fairly. They also denied the claim of Abbé Philippe Laguèrie to continue to be the rightful superior general. Elections under Roman supervision will provide clarity and bring peace back to the Institute. Long periods of time are considered problematic, in which ambiguity and uncertainty prevail: first nine months until the decision of Rome and now another six months to the elections. The majority of the Institute, it was possible, despite the adverse circumstances, to be faithful to the the founding charism with the necessary peace and serenity. This solid foundation made possible the growth in the Institute by new entrants and seminarians in the last few months.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Institut du Bon Pasteur
Translation: Tancred
AMGD
NB: innocent until otherwise proven. Flowers can indeed grow in inhosptable places and help can come unlooked from afar.
Vienna (kat.net/KAP) The Catholic Church in Scandinavia grows, and even the numbers of home grown priests climbs: as reported by a communique from Stift Heiligenkreuz on the Spring convocation of the Northern Bishop Conference it reads, there are already 60 young men from the region, who are seminarians from Scandinavia studying for the priesthood. Many of them are converts from the Lutheran National Church.
According to cautious estimates, there are at present in the seven Diocese of Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and islands about 500,000 Catholics. The number grows rapidly; the trend is counter to the rest of Europe. The reasons for this are mobility, growing numbers of refugees, conversions as well as a large number of baptisms.
According to the communique the general convocation was held to approve the statutes for seminary rectors. In the text, the Bishops also stressed their thanks to Benedict XVI. and blessings for the successor Francis. The Northern Bishops Conference meets till Wednesday in the University of Heilegenkreuz.
Copyright 2013 Katholische Presseagentur, Wien, Österreich (www.kathpress.at) Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
(Winona) A few days ago the Society of St. Pius X presented a project to build a new Seminary in the USA. The St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary will be set up in Buckingham County in the state of Virginia. The new construction has become necessary because of the current shortage of space in the current structure. The new seminary will offer room for 135 seminarians, to incorporate even room for the faculty and a guest house for lectures, seminars and priestly ordinations. The internet site advertises the New Seminary Project, it also shows the two month old periodical Ad Orientem and a video about its progress.
The current priestly seminary in Winona was established in 1981, in order to provide for the education of interns of the north American Society. The number of candidates became so large in the course of time that new solutions for the amount of space had to be found. The existing seminary has a capacity for about 75 people, with a full compliment of seminarians and professors it runs to more than 100. The orderly operation of a seminary is affected with a corresponding tightness. For various reasons the purchase of a used ecclesiastical installation was impractical, so a new structure was decided upon.
As an essential element for the creation of an actual space for priestly formation a rural, peaceful area was sought for the seminary. The plans and the computer model of the project is available on the internet. The architecture of the seminary complex is based on the sober severity of the Benedictine reform movement of Cluny, as Francesco Colafemmina of Fides et Forma noted. The total cost is estimated at about 40 million dollars.
The buildings of the current seminary in Winona is being planned to serve as a school after the completion of the new seminary. If the building proceeds as planned for the first phase of building, the move to the new seminary is planned for autumn 2014.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi Bild: New Seminary Project Translation English: Tancred
In the brochure about the new school was spread, it states that it is a 'free Catholic school with a traditional pedagogy, which has paid off and with a family atmosphere by the support of parents." The leaflet also refers to several articles from the canon law, especially to Canon 1374, which stipulates that:
"Catholic children should not frequent non-Catholic, neutral, or mixed schools, namely, those that allow non-Catholics to attend. Only local Ordinaries can make decisions in accord with instructive norms from the Apostolic See concerning circumstances of things and any necessary precautions that will prevent the danger of perversion, [and] whether these things can be tolerated and such schools used."
(New Delhi) In the Diocese of Itangar in the Indian province of Arunachal Pradesh the Catholic Church is experiencing extraordinary growth. The main reason for this are unexplained healings, which the Diocesan Bishop, Msgr John Kattrukudiyl reported on his visit to Germany, to which he was invited by the Papal aid organization "Kirche in Not".
Since 1980, the number of Catholics in the outlaying areas in north east India has grown 40 percent. The Bishop has continually received reports of healings, which "amaze". On first reaction one is inclined to "skepticism" said Msgr. Kattrukudiyl, "really the persons concerned are absolutely convinced that they have been healed by divine intervention."
The Bishop described a man who seeked out the Church after he had married a Catholic wman. "Upon becoming a Catholic one asked him to pray for a cripple. The next day, the cripple stood up and went on his own feet to Church". After his conversion, he's been an especially active member of the Catholic community.
Msgr. Kattrukudiyl is familiar with the skepticism, which which many in Europe would greet these reports of miracles. He has received this mainly in western countries. But against all of these doubts, "there are many healings, reported to me, which we simply can't ignore."
The Bishop has looked for an explanation in the rellative youth of his Diocese. "It is the experience of a very young Church, which is experiencing the same grace, as in the times of the Apostles," as miraculous healings were common, as reported by the New Testament.
A common pattern is shown by the various unexplained healings. The miracles happen, after the faithful gather in a house to pray in common where someone is sick. "People, who have been sick for a long time, were healed. These people are living the experience of the early Church." The healings through prayer have led the Church to spread quickly.
The situation of the Church in this area has improved significantly.
The Church isn't just tolerated, but is recognized and praised for its humanitarian activities. About one fifth of the population confesses Christianity.
Translated: Tancred
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Wikicommons
