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Thursday, June 22, 2006

Freeing the Classical Roman Rite
An interview with "the sole bishop in the world in full canonical communion with the Holy See who offers the Classical Roman liturgy exclusively:" Bishop Fernando Rifan says traditionalists must show perfect communion with Pope, tradition.

Here is how His Excellency closes the interview:
    I would like to explain the incorrect and the correct reasons of conserving the Traditional Mass, as we have previously published, [as follows]:

    Why do we love, preserve and prefer the classic liturgical form of Roman rite, The Traditional Mass?

    Would it be only because we are nostalgic or sentimentally attached to past forms of liturgy? This reason alone would not be enough.

    Would it be because we deny the power of the Pope to modify and promulgate liturgical laws? This would be against the Pope's supreme power dogma!

    Would it be because we just consider the New Mass, or Paul VI's Mass, invalid, heterodox, sinful, sacrilegious, or not Catholic? These statements would be against Church's indefectibility dogma and unity of cult dogma, and they have already received the Teaching Church's anathema. Therefore, it [the Novus Ordo's promulgation] is a universal liturgical law, promulgated by Church's supreme authority 34 years ago and adopted unanimously by the whole Teaching Church.

    The real reasons we love, prefer, and preserve the Classical liturgical form of the Roman rite are:

    for a better and more precise expression of our faith in eucharistic dogmas,

    for safety, for protection against abuses,

    for the good of whole Church, in contribution for liturgical crisis' reform,

    for wealth and solemnity of rites,

    for better precision and clarity of rubrics (giving no space to "ambiguities, liberties, creativities, adaptations, reductions, and instrumentalizations," as complains Pope John Paul II in Ecclesia de Eucharistia, nn. 10, 52, 61),

    for the sense of sacredness,

    more wealth and precision of prayers' formulas, in reverence,

    for personal and ritual humility,

    for elevation and nobility of ceremonies,

    for respect, beauty, good taste, piety, sacred language, tradition, and legitimate right recognized by Church's Supreme Authority.

[link via Seattle Catholic]