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Home ... the One, True, Holy, Catholic Church
“That
understanding of its sacred dogmas must be
perpetually retained,
which Holy Mother Church once declared; and there must
never be a recession from that meaning under the specious
name of a deeper understanding”
(Blessed Pope Pius IX, 1st Vatican
Council, S.3, C.2 on Revelation, 1870 ex cathedra)
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Cardinal Cupich: “We must let go of “cherished
beliefs”
Where do we go when the “Church of Discernment”
Replaces the
Holy Catholic Church?
U.S. Cardinal Blase J. Cupich appointed
by Francis to the powerful Vatican Congregation for Bishops
made the following unimaginable statement: “If Catholics want
to engage in “discernment” like Pope Francis does, they must let
go of “cherished beliefs” and outlined the “rebuilding and
re-imagining of the Church through “discernment” and “dialogue”
— nouveau concepts dear to Pope Francis's vision of a new Church
emerging from the ashes of 2000 years of history, teaching, and
tradition that Vatican II ignited and Pope Francis is determined
to consume in a conflagration that will obliterate all distinctions
between Catholics and Protestants — and perhaps a totally “inclusive”
pan-religious “Faith Community” that will abolish the Roman Catholic
Church — much as the Communist Revolution was to abolish all class
distinctions in the “withering away of the State”. It will be,
as Cupich flatly states, “a revolution”, a process and a Church
that will necessarily have its “own vocabulary”.
“Graduation Day” for Catholics?
Indeed, Cardinal Cupich maintains that we must
graduate from our Catholic “adolescence” into what we presume
he understands as a largely Protestant spirituality based on conscience:
According to Lifesite News, “In June,
the Cardinal interpreted the Pope’s 2016 exhortation Amoris
Laetitia (Joy of Love) as a call for Catholics to graduate
from “an adolescent spirituality into an adult spirituality”
where they will be able to use their “freedom of conscience”
to “discern truth” in their life ... Cupich has argued that
active homosexuals should be able to receive Holy Communion
and is a public supporter of Jesuit priest and homosexualist
Vatican adviser James Martin.” 1
How are we to understand his clearly pejorative description
of genuine Catholic spirituality as “adolescent”? Is the
genuine teaching of the Church condescendingly reduced to
puerility? After 2000 years
is it in need of maturation? Is it not much more a matter of accommodation
— specifically ecumenical accommodation to better align Catholic
with Protestant doctrine and spirituality? Indeed, the admiration of
Pope Francis for the arch-heresiarch Martin Luther and his recent ebullient
“Commemoration” of the Reformation is unmistakable ... and deeply regrettable.
It is an exuberance, it should be noted, equally shared by Cardinal Cupich.
2
What
does it say, however, to the faithful of the past 2000 years? That
they have lived in spiritual immaturity, replete with all the
beautiful Marian devotions (to say nothing of Eucharistic Adoration,
the Holy Rosary, Chaplets, the Brown Scapular, the Sacred Heart of
Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Novenas, Devotion to the
Saints, Acts of Reparation, etc.) and practices that characterized Catholics before (and even
after) Vatican II — and which were the very beliefs and practices which
Luther reviled, together with every splintered Protestant
denomination since?
An “Imaginary” Church?
First let us be clear about terms — specifically the
word “re-imagine” — a trendy “buzz word” which Cupich uses so
sophistically that it eludes not only logic and reason but literally
attains to non-sense.
We can only re-imagine what was
first imaginary to begin with. If we “imagine”
something, it is clear that what we envision does not exist (or,
possibly,
once did and no longer does) — it is so remote from
recollection, so distant in the past, that we no longer have a clear
idea of what it really was and certainly no contemporaneous
connection with it — hence we must resort to imagining what it was,
which is to say that our concept of it is imaginary: it does
not pertain to what actually exists, but what we imagine
might possibly exist or what had existed in
some long-forgotten primeval haze ... but no longer does.
Does this
describe the Holy Catholic Church?
Is Cupich, then, an imaginary
cardinal since the Church that conferred this office upon him is itself
imaginary — as are, eo ipso, her sacraments, doctrines,
dogmas, teachings, and discipline?
Where will Catholics faithful to the Magisterium
and the Sacred Deposit of Faith go once this revolution materializes?
To what Church — after the Roman Catholic Church has been
“re-imagined” — indeed, we hold that it was never imaginary
at all
(and therefore in no need of re-imagining) to begin
with, but a beautiful reality in the ugly and impoverished world
of the City of Man? To the nearest Lutheran or Episcopal
“church” with a female priestess — or, for that matter, even a
transgender male-female/female-male “officiant”? The
logic of “ecumenism” does not exclude this blasphemy — indeed it
does not even exclude the mosque!
Of course
this sounds nonsensical. Why? It is nonsense!
We cannot go to a Lutheran church or a Sunni mosque — however ecumenically
magnanimous we are urged to be — for nowhere else apart from the
One, True, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church will a Catholic find Jesus
Christ — in the most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in Holy Communion,
and in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
An “imagined” or “re-imagined”
church has none of these — and never will. In a
word such an “imagined” church — even were “re-imagination”
possible — would be an utter imposter — not the
beautiful and spotless Bride of Christ, but a meretricious
harlot with many “lovers” upon the altars of many religions
in
the world — and of the world. (1 John 2:15)
This is not what Christ called us to. Nor the
Church preceding Vatican II — which is quickly losing traction
as it ineluctably moves to myth.
_______________________
1
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/catholics-must-let-go-of-cherished-beliefs-to-discern-like-pope-francis-u.s
2
https://www.archchicago.org/news-release/-/article/2017/10/24/the-archdiocese-of-chicago-and-the-metropolitan-chicago-synod-of-the-evangelical-lutheran-church-in-america-to-commemorate-the-500th-anniversary-of-th
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Boston Catholic Journal
Sunday 8 July 2018
Printable
PDF Version
Comments? Write us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
Francis as
“the Prince”
and the
Logical Conclusion
of Vatican II
Francis
is the logical conclusion of the Second Vatican Council understood
as the Assisted Suicide of the Church. He is the logical consequent
of nearly every flawed statement, every questionable postulate,
and every sophistical premise either substantive or implicit,
within Vatican II as so many antecedents to a catastrophically
spurious argument. As he himself stated as early as 2013
— but not before a rude slap in the face to all
his predecessors (one still alive: Pope “Emeritus” Benedict):
“In the interview, Francis
denounced the “Vatican-centric” nature of the
Holy See administration and acknowledged that
popes past had been infatuated with the pomp
of the
Vatican and its “courtesans.”
and then:
“He said the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings
that brought the church into the modern world,
had promised such an opening to people of other
faiths and non-believers,
but that the church hadn’t made progress since
then.”
1
He then went
further, to make the paradoxical claim that:
“I have
the humility and ambition to do so,” he said.”
1
In other words,
“I, Francis the celebrated, acclaimed, and
famously humble and unpretentious — propose to fully actualize
all the nonsense embodied in the equally celebrated (albeit
spurious) ‘Spirit of Vatican II’ because
I alone among
all my predecessors have the real
humility — and ambition — that
they lacked — and the iron will to do so!
Bet on it.”
Let us
ponder that for a moment, for it is fraught with significance.
Does a humble
man boast of his humility? Of course not, for he sees
the contradiction inherent in such a question.
More troubling
still is the question: is ambition consonant with
humility in a pope?
At the apex of power (at which Francis now sits)
ambition can dangerously verge on Machiavellian. As Niccolo
observed in his famous work, The Prince,
“Ambition is so powerful a passion in the heart,
that however high we reach we are never satisfied.”
1
How Far?
Machiavelli
was a vehement atheist. Francis is an unbridled progressivist
(radical liberal). In both cases, however otherwise divergent,
the pressing question appears identical: “How far can
I go? What can I get away with? To what extent can I push
the limits of this power vested in me? To the point where
power prevails over truth?”
These are serious questions, especially as they pertain
to the Vicar of Jesus Christ on Earth.
Has the Church, as Francis insists, really been stagnant
for 50 years — until the epiphany of Francis who alone
can achieve what Vatican II proposed — because he alone
has the humility to accomplish this, coupled with an
unbending determination? Is there something disconcerting
about this statement? Even contradictory?
What is more, we need only look at the anemic state of the Church
following Vatican II: the dearth of clergy, religious,
seminarians — the aging and emptying pews … to see that no such
“stagnation” in the Church occurred. To the contrary,
prior to Vatican II it was a Church full of vitality
in every conceivable metric — and growing exponentially!
To understand how Francis arrives at this spurious conclusion
we must first understand that Francis is the quintessential
product of a unique generation. He is among the last of
that now dwindling generation (thank God) who themselves were
products of the psychotropic culture of the 1960’s — which,
in our rear-view mirror — is a now barely visible, and from
which we cannot speed away fast enough. It has long begun
to fade to fatuity. Most of us have, by now, come to our senses
and recognize this.
A Deadly Age
It was a deadly
age, a noxious age whose poison still leeches into Western society.
At a given stratum it will be percolated through reason,
eventually strained of its poison, and become the historical
nonsense it was — even if it contaminated so much and so many
lives before it was bleached out of our consciousness and finally
became innocuous , together with the psychedelic caricature
of a reality it had never known. Timothy Leary, et alia, “Turned
on, tuned in, dropped out” and in alignment with his not-so-famous
literary micropiece “Design for Dying — Dying? Throw a House
Party! ” — dropped dead.
The Age of Aquarius and the Psilocybin
mushroom are dead and what is left of that sad crop are dying
leaves on a withering tree, fretted by songs still strummed
by the arthritic hands of the elderly on guitars three times
the age of the audience. They are pathetic figures clinging
to a youth that betrayed them to an old age that wasn’t supposed
to happen in the euphoric Flower Days.
In truth it was a miserable age that opiated America; an age that filled
the valleys and made the mountains low — for the coming of
the Flower Child who littered it with filth. It was Woodstock
after the rain and the music stopped: a wasteland of plastic
trash, condoms and roach clips.
The Segue into
Vatican II
Same time, same culture, same euphoria, same mantra against inhibition, same
contempt for authority, same disdain for absolutes. It was the
time to experiment with society, with minds, and — most
sadly — with souls. While students occupied the chancellor’s
office at the university, “liberated” Catholic theologians,
together with Avant-guard bishops and their ecumenically requisite
Protestant advisors occupied the Vatican.
“The Establishment” was shut out — in academic, ecclesiastic
and civil society. “Old school” was out. “New school” was in:
a new and radical school of theology and spirituality; new interpretation,
“exegesis”, “hermeneutics”, and now “discernment”. “Dogma”
became “anathema” and “anathema” was finally scrubbed from the
Catholic lexicon altogether: both became something pejorative:
nothing was incontrovertibly true (itself a reflexive contradiction).
Latin as an Ecclesiastical Marker or Identifier was out. Banality was in.
Priests spoke the vernacular and finally realized that they
had nothing to say. Homily became comedy. Comedy became skit.
The Guitar is King! — no longer Christ Jesus.
And the only Choir we know is not of Angels: they ceased their
accompaniment with us when “Liturgists” discarded Gregorian
Chant in favor of the insipid ditties of Marty Haugen who is
Lutheran or the “Saint
Louis Jesuits (not all of whom remain Jesuits, or priests, or
even Christians.”1)
No going back: DNR and the
Church as a Hospice
New vestments, new language(s), new Mass, new spirituality that emphasized
man through a unilateral (Catholics gave up virtually
everything. Protestants relinquished nothing) effort at a newly-reformulated
notion of “ecumenism” instead of salvation. Nun’s and
Sister’s Habits were shortened, then abbreviated, then thrown
out. The new “cool” was the collarless priest, the unidentifiable
Sister. The various “Conferences of Catholic Bishops” (which
have no binding authority) became social, then political. The
Church effectively became the
“field hospital” envisioned by Francis — but it was also the only patient —
mortally wounded, and strapped to it was the purple rescript
DNR (“Do Not Resuscitate or Revive”) upon the inauguration
of Francis as pope with a ready hand on the plug. Vatican II,
it turns out, was really an act of Assisted Suicide as
Francis has more than amply demonstrated and the Church has
become less a “field hospital” than a hospice. “Better that
the one true Church die than acknowledge our mistakes and return
to the business of saving souls as we had done for the
2000 years preceding Vatican II.”
But even the model of a hospice is inadequate, for after the
last Catholic dies, the hospice itself altogether ceases to
be. This is nihilism — not Catholicism — and it has been for
some time.
The Birth of
Theo-Politics
Theo-politics
was born. Peace, Poverty, Immigration, Inclusiveness, Equality,
Linguistic Neuterization in the Liturgy, Feminism, and “Ministries”
without meaning or number became the New Evangel.
“The salvation
of souls”?
Not a chance. That outdated mandate belonged to the 2000 years
prior to the Second Vatican Council — and is something of an
embarrassment to contemporary Catholic priests, theologians,
scholars, and … yes … laymen. Ask yourself: when was the last
time you so much as even heard that phrase at Church?
Modernism — that
“synthesis of all heresies” — replaced every
vestige of the theological concept of Tradition
that is inseparable from the identity of the Church especially
as it is articulated through infallible Church Teaching and
Dogma.
The Kingdom of God became the Polity of Man. Language
was purged of “salvation”, “soul”, “Hell”, “Penance”,
“repentance”, “Mary”, woman, virgin, man, he, she, her, hers,
his, gender, evil, the devil, conversion, sin,
suffering, chastity, mortification — anything that stifled
the desires of men and the ambitions of women. Heaven now has
Open Borders — and they are coterminous with earth.
A Replica or
a Counterfeit?
We built a simulacrum, a meretricious and largely plastic replica of the Kingdom
of Heaven and placed in on earth — complete with electric votive
candles. And yet, for all its semblance we secretly fear
it is counterfeit. It is little wonder that we fear dying
and leaving our Kingdom … for, perhaps, another
and fabled Kingdom of which we heard long ago where Someone
else ruled and in which the totality of man did not abide,
given his sin, selfishness, cruelty, malice and indifference
to God — a place of ceaseless Light and no fire divided from
a chasm of ceaseless fire with no Light.
But we know that Vatican II — or at least it’s true “spirit” abolished
all that 50 years ago. “Everyone and everything goes
to “Heaven” — despite the explicit teaching of
Christ to the contrary (Saint Matthew 7.13-14).
Does this
appalling vision offend you? Have I injured your “sensibilities”?
Reality is like
that — much like the “Reality TV Shows” that you probably watch.
Not every episode has a good ending. Many do not even have a
good beginning — much like Vatican II — and even more apropos
of the spectacle that is Francis as its culmination.
__________________________________________
1
Associated
Press
http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2013/10/pope_francis_urges_reform_want.html
2
https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otr.cfm?id=3844
3
Niccolo
Machiavelli — The Prince
Geoffrey K. Mondello
for the Boston Catholic Journal
April 19, 2018
Printable PDF Version
Comments? Write us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
ROMAN MARTYROLOGY
Sunday July 15th
in the Year of Grace 2018
Season after Pentecost
This Day, the Fifteenth Day of July
At Bamberg, St. Henry I, emperor, who kept
perpetual chastity with his wife Cunegunde,
and induced St. Stephen, king of Hungary, with nearly all his kingdom,
to receive the faith of Christ.
At Porto, the birthday of the holy martyrs Eutropius,
and the sisters Zosima and Bonosa.
At Carthage, blessed Catulinus, deacon,
whose glories were proclaimed by St. Augustine in a sermon to his people,
and the Saints Januarius, Florentius, Julia and
Justa, martyrs, who were entombed in the church of St. Faustus.
At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Philip, Zeno,
Narseus, and ten children.
In the island of Tenedos, St. Abudemius, a martyr,
who suffered under Diocletian.
At Sebaste, St. Antiochus, a physician,
who was decapitated under the governor Adrian. On seeing milk flowing
from his wounds instead of blood, Cyriaeus, his
executioner, was converted to Christ and endured
martyrdom.
At Pavia, St. Felix, bishop and martyr.
At Nisibis, the birthday of St. James, bishop
of that city, a man celebrated for great holiness, miracles and
erudition. He was one of those who confessed the faith during the
persecution of Galerius Maximian, and afterwards, in the Council of
Nicea, condemned
the perverse heresy of Arius, by opposing to it the doctrine of consubstantiality.
It was also owing to his prayers, and those of bishop Alexander, that
Arius received at Constantinople the condign punishment of his iniquity,
the extravasation of his intestines.
At Naples, in Campania, St. Athanasius, bishop
of that city, who suffered much from his wicked nephew Sergius, by whom
he was driven from his see. Consumed with afflictions, he departed for
Heaven at Veroli, in the time of Charles the Bald.
At Palermo, the finding of the body of St.
Rosalia, virgin of Palermo. Being miraculously discovered in
the time of the Sovereign Pontiff, Urban VIII, it delivered Sicily from
the plague in the year of the Jubilee.
At Campo in Italy, the birthday of St. Pompilio
Maria Pirrotti of St. Nicholas, confessor, a member of the Congregation
of Poor Clerks Regular of Pious Schools of the Mother of God, who spent
his entire life in safeguarding the salvation of souls. He was registered
among the saints by Pope Pius XI.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors,
and holy virgins.
Omnes sancti Mártyres,
oráte pro nobis. ("All ye Holy Martyrs, pray for us", from the
Litaniae Sanctorum, the Litany of the Saints)
Response: Thanks be to God.
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Roman Martyrology
by Month
Why the
Martyrs Matter
Each day we
bring you a calendar, a list really,
of the holy Martyrs who had suffered
and died for Christ, for His Bride the
Church, and for our holy Catholic Faith;
men and women for whom — and well they
knew — their Profession of Faith would
cost them their lives.
They could have repudiated all three
(Christ, Church, and Catholic Faith)
and kept their lives for a short time
longer (even the lapsi only postponed
their death — and at so great a cost!).1
What would motivate men, women, even
children and entire families to willingly
undergo the most evil and painfully
devised tortures; to suffer death rather
than denial?
Why did they not renounce their Catholic
Faith when the first flame licked at
their feet, after the first eye was
plucked out, or after they were “baptized”
in mockery by boiling water or molten
lead poured over their heads? Why did
they not flee to offer incense to the
pagan gods since such a ritual concession
would be merely perfunctory, having
been done, after all, under duress,
exacted by the compulsion of the state?
What is a little burned incense and
a few words uttered without conviction,
compared to your own life and the lives
of those you love? Surely God knows
that you are merely placating the state
with empty gestures …
Did they love their wives, husbands,
children — their mothers, fathers and
friends less than we do? Did they value
their own lives less? Were they less
sensitive to pain than we are? In a
word, what did they possess that we
do not?
Nothing. They possessed what we ourselves
are given in the Sacrament of Confirmation
— but cleaved to it in far greater measure
than we do: Faith and faithfulness;
fortitude and valor, uncompromising
belief in the invincible reality of
God, of life eternal in Him for the
faithful, of damnation everlasting apart
from Him for the unfaithful; of the
ephemerality of this passing world and
all within it, and lives lived in total
accord with that adamant belief.
We are the Martyrs to come. What made
them so will make us so. What they suffered
we will suffer. What they died for,
we will die for. If only we will! For
most us, life will be a bloodless martyrdom,
a suffering for Christ, for the sake
of Christ, for the sake of the Church
in a thousand ways outside the arena.
The road to Heaven is lined on both
sides with Crosses, and upon the Crosses
people, people who suffered unknown
to the world, but known to God. Catholics
living in partibus infidelium, under
the scourge of Islam. Loveless marriages.
Injustices on all sides. Poverty. Illness.
Old age. Dependency. They are the cruciform!
Those whose lives became Crosses because
they would not flee God, the Church,
the call to, the demand for, holiness
in the most ordinary things of life
made extraordinary through the grace
of God. The Martyrology we celebrate
each day is just a vignette, a small,
immeasurably small, sampling of the
martyrdom that has been the lives of
countless men and women whom Christ
and the Angels know, but whom the world
does not know.
“Exemplum enim
dedi vobis”, Christ said to His
Apostles: “I have given you an example.”
And His Martyrs give one to us — and
that is why the Martyrs matter.
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Contributing Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
Note: We suggest that you explore
our newly edited and revised
“De SS. Martyrum Cruciatibus — The Torments
and Tortures of the Christian Martyrs”
for an in-depth historical account of
the sufferings of the Martyrs.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE ROMAN
MARTYROLOGY
By
J. Cardinal
Gibbons, Archbishop Baltimore
THE ROMAN MARTYROLOGY is an official
and accredited record, on the pages of which are
set forth in simple and brief, but impressive words,
the glorious deeds of the Soldiers of Christ
in all ages of the Church; of the illustrious Heroes
and Heroines of the Cross, whom her solemn verdict
has beatified or canonized. In making up this long
roll of honor, the Church has been actuated by that
instinctive wisdom with which the Spirit of God,
who abides in her and teaches her all truth, has
endowed her, and which permeates through and guides
all her actions. She is the Spouse of Christ, without
spot or wrinkle or blemish, wholly glorious and
undefiled, whom He loved, for whom He died, and
to whom He promised the Spirit of Truth, to comfort
her in her dreary pilgrimage through this valley
of tears, and to abide with her forever. She is
one with Him in Spirit and in love, she is subject
to Him in all things; she loves what He loves, she
teaches and practices what He commands.
If the world has
its
“Legions
of Honor”,
why should not also the Church of the Living God,
the pillar and the ground of the truth? If men who
have been stained with blood, and women who have
been tainted with vice, have had their memory consecrated
in prose and in verse, and monuments erected to
their memory, because they exhibited extraordinary
talents, achieved great success, or were, to a greater
or less extent, benefactors of their race in the
temporal order, which passeth away, why should not
the true Heroes and Heroines of Jesus, who, imitating
His example, have overcome themselves, risen superior
to and trampled upon the world, have aspired, in
all their thoughts, words, and actions, to a heavenly
crown, and have moreover labored with disinterested
zeal and self-forgetting love for the good of their
fellow-men, have their memories likewise consecrated
and embalmed in the minds and hearts of the people
of God? If time have its heroes, why should not
eternity; if man, why should not God?
“Thy
friends, O Lord, are exceedingly honored; their
principality is exceedingly exalted.”
Whom
His Father so dearly loved, the world crucified;
whom the world neglects, despises, and crucifies,
God, through His Church, exceedingly honors and
exalts. Their praises are sung forth, with jubilation
of heart, in the Church of God for ages on ages.
The wisdom of the
Church of God in honoring her Saints is equaled
only by the great utility of the practice thus consecrated.
The Saints are not merely heroes; they are models.
Christ lived in them, and Christ yet speaks through
them. They were the living temples of the Holy Ghost,
in whose mortal bodies dwelt all the riches of His
wisdom and grace. They were in life consecrated
human exemplars of divine excellence and perfection.
Their example still appeals to our minds and to
our hearts, more eloquently even than did their
words to the men of their own generation, while
they were in the tabernacle of the flesh. Though
dead, they still speak. Their relics are instinct
with sanctity, and through them they continue to
breathe forth the sweet odor of Christ. The immortality
into which they have entered still lingers in their
bones, and seems to breathe in their mortal remains.
As many an ardent, spirit has been induced to rush
to the cannon's mouth by reading the exploits of
earthly heroes, so many a generous Christian soul
has been fired with heavenly ardor, and been impelled
to rush to the crown of martyrdom, by reading the
lives and heroic achievements of the Saints and
Martyrs of Christ. Example, in its silent appeal,
is more potent in its influence on the human heart
and conduct than are words in their most eloquent
utterances.
The Church knows
and feels all this, in the Spirit of God with whom
she is replenished ; and hence she sets forth, with
holy joy and exultant hope, her bright and ever-increasing
Calendar of Sanctity of just men and women made
perfect and rendered glorious, under her unearthly
and sublime teachings. In reading this roll of consecrated
holiness, our instinctive conclusion is, precisely
that which the great soul of St. Augustine reached
at the very crisis of his life, the moment of his
conversion
“If
other men like me have attained to such sanctity,
why not I? Shall the poor, the afflicted, the despised
of the World, bear away the palm of victory, the
crown of immortality, while I lie buried in my sloth
and dead in my sins, and thus lose the brilliant
and glorious mansion already prepared for me in
heaven? Shall all the gifts, which God has lavished
upon me, be ingloriously spent and foolishly wasted,
in the petty contest for this world's evanescent
honors and riches, while the poor and contemned
lay up treasures in heaven, and secure the prize
of immortal glory? Shall others be the friends of
God, whom He delights to honor, while I alone remain
His enemy, and an alien from His blessed Kingdom?”
It is a consoling
evidence of progress in the spiritual life in this
country to find the Martyrology here published,
for the first time, in English, and thereby made
accessible, in its rich treasures of Sanctity, to
all classes of our population. It will prove highly
edifying and useful, not only to the members of
our numerous religious Communities of both sexes,
but also to the laity generally. Every day has here
its record of Sanctity; and there is scarcely a
Christian, no matter how lowly or how much occupied,
who may not be able to daily peruse, with faith
and with great profit, the brief page of each day's
models of Holiness. These belong to all classes
and callings of life; from the throne to the hovel,
from the Pontiff to the lowest cleric, from the
philosopher to the peasant, from the busy walks
of life to the dreary wastes of the desert.
Let all, then, procure
and read daily the appropriate portions of this
Martyrology. Its daily and pious perusal will console
us in affliction, will animate us in despondency,
will make our souls glow with the love of God in
coldness, and will lift up our minds and hearts
from this dull and ever-changing earth to the bright
and everlasting mansions prepared for us in Heaven!
Imprimatur,
J. Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop Baltimore, Maryland
1916
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THE APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION
“QUO
PRIMUM
”
(and what
“Forever”
really means)
“From
the very first,
upon Our elevation to the chief Apostleship,
We gladly turned our mind and energies
and directed all out thoughts to those
matters which concerned the preservation
of a pure liturgy, and We strove with
God's help, by every means in our power,
to accomplish this purpose. For, besides
other decrees of the sacred Council
of Trent, there were stipulations for
Us to revise and re-edit the sacred
books: the Catechism, the Missal and
the Breviary. With the Catechism published
for the instruction of the faithful,
by God's help, and the Breviary thoroughly
revised for the worthy praise of God,
in order that the Missal and Breviary
may be in perfect harmony, as fitting
and proper —
for it is most
becoming that there be in the Church
only one appropriate manner of reciting
the Psalms and
only one rite for the
celebration of Mass
— We deemed
it necessary to give our immediate attention
to what still remained to be done,
viz, the re-editing of the Missal
as soon as possible.
Hence, We decided to entrust this work
to learned men of our selection. They
very carefully collated all their work
with the ancient codices in Our Vatican
Library and with reliable, preserved
or emended codices from elsewhere. Besides
this, these men consulted the works
of ancient and approved authors concerning
the same sacred rites; and thus
they have restored the Missal itself
to the original form and rite of the
holy Fathers. When this work
has been gone over numerous times and
further emended, after serious study
and reflection, We commanded that the
finished product be printed and published
as soon as possible, so that all might
enjoy the fruits of this labor; and
thus, priests would know which prayers
to use and which rites and ceremonies
they were required to observe from now
on in the celebration of Masses.
Let all everywhere adopt and observe
what has been handed down by the Holy
Roman Church, the Mother and Teacher
of the other churches, and let
Masses not be sung or read according
to any other formula than that
of this Missal published by Us.
This ordinance applies
henceforth, now, and
forever,
throughout all the provinces of the
Christian world, to all patriarchs,
cathedral churches, collegiate and parish
churches, be they secular or religious,
both of men and of women — even of military
orders — and of churches or chapels
without a specific congregation in which
conventual Masses are sung aloud in
choir or read privately in accord with
the rites and customs of the Roman Church.
This Missal is to be used by all churches,
even by those which in their authorization
are made exempt, whether by Apostolic
indult, custom, or privilege, or even
if by oath or official confirmation
of the Holy See, or have their rights
and faculties guaranteed to them by
any other manner whatsoever.
This new rite alone is to be used
unless approval of the practice of saying
Mass differently was given at the very
time of the institution and confirmation
of the church by Apostolic See at least
200 years ago, or unless there has prevailed
a custom of a similar kind which has
been continuously followed for a period
of not less than 200 years, in which
most cases We in no wise rescind their
above-mentioned prerogative or custom.
However, if this Missal, which we have
seen fit to publish, be more agreeable
to these latter, We grant them permission
to celebrate Mass according to its rite,
provided they have the consent of their
bishop or prelate or of their whole
Chapter, everything else to the contrary
notwithstanding.
All other of the churches referred to
above, however, are hereby denied the
use of other missals, which are to be
discontinued entirely and absolutely;
whereas, by
this present Constitution,
which will be valid henceforth, now,
and
forever,
We order and enjoin that nothing must
be added to Our recently published Missal,
nothing omitted from it, nor anything
whatsoever be changed within it under
the penalty of Our displeasure.
We specifically command each and every
patriarch, administrator, and all other
persons or whatever ecclesiastical dignity
they may be, be they even cardinals
of the Holy Roman Church, or possessed
of any other rank or pre-eminence, and
We order them in virtue of holy
obedience to chant or to read the Mass
according to the rite and manner and
norm herewith laid down by Us
and, hereafter, to discontinue and completely
discard all other rubrics and rites
of other missals, however ancient, which
they have customarily followed; and
they must not in celebrating Mass presume
to introduce any ceremonies or recite
any prayers other than those contained
in this Missal.
Furthermore, by these presents [this
law], in virtue of Our Apostolic authority,
We grant and concede in perpetuity that,
for the chanting or reading of the Mass
in any church whatsoever,
this Missal is hereafter to be followed
absolutely, without any scruple of conscience
or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment,
or censure, and may freely and lawfully
be used. Nor are superiors,
administrators, canons, chaplains, and
other secular priests, or religious,
of whatever title designated, obliged
to celebrate the Mass otherwise than
as enjoined by Us. We likewise declare
and ordain that no one whosoever is
forced or coerced to alter this Missal,
and that
this present document
cannot be revoked or modified,
but remains always valid and retain
its full force
notwithstanding
the previous constitutions and decrees
of the Holy See, as well as any general
or special constitutions or edicts of
provincial or synodal councils, and
notwithstanding the practice and custom
of the aforesaid churches, established
by long and immemorial prescription
— except, however, if more than two
hundred years' standing.
It is Our will, therefore, and by the
same authority, We decree that, after
We publish this constitution and the
edition of the Missal, the priests of
the Roman Curia are, after thirty days,
obliged to chant or read the Mass according
to it; all others south of the Alps,
after three months; and those beyond
the Alps either within six months or
whenever the Missal is available for
sale. Wherefore, in order that
the Missal be preserved incorrupt throughout
the whole world and kept free of flaws
and errors, the penalty for
nonobservance for printers, whether
mediately or immediately subject to
Our dominion, and that of the Holy Roman
Church, will be the forfeiting of their
books and a fine of one hundred gold
ducats, payable ipso facto to the Apostolic
Treasury. Further, as for those located
in other parts of the world, the penalty
is excommunication latae sententiae,
and such other penalties as may in Our
judgment be imposed; and We decree by
this law that they must not dare or
presume either to print or to publish
or to sell, or in any way to accept
books of this nature without Our approval
and consent, or without the express
consent of the Apostolic Commissaries
of those places, who will be appointed
by Us. Said printer must receive a standard
Missal and agree faithfully with it
and in no wise vary from the Roman Missal
of the large type (secundum magnum
impressionem).
Accordingly, since it would be difficult
for this present pronouncement to be
sent to all parts of the Christian world
and simultaneously come to light everywhere,
We direct that it be, as usual, posted
and published at the doors of the Basilica
of the Prince of the Apostles, also
at the Apostolic Chancery, and on the
street at Campo Flora; furthermore,
We direct that printed copies of this
same edict signed by a notary public
and made official by an ecclesiastical
dignitary possess the same indubitable
validity everywhere and in every nation,
as if Our manuscript were shown there.
Therefore, no one whosoever
is permitted to alter this notice of
Our permission, statute, ordinance,
command, precept, grant, indult, declaration,
will, decree, and prohibition. Should
anyone dare to contravene it, know that
he will incur the wrath of Almighty
God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter
and Paul.”
Given at St. Peter’s
in the year of the Lord's Incarnation,
1570, on the 14th of July of the Fifth
year of Our Pontificate.
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