De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

The Benedictine Dom Hugh Somerville -Knapman has written an excellent and incisive blog on the Correctio Filialis here . His jumping off point is some of the bizarre rhetoric spouted by Massimo Faggioli as I noted here recently. Quoting Faggioli on Twitter, Dom Hugh exclaims: his breathtaking self-contradiction needs to be noted: accusing those who support the old Mass of being “rupturist”, he then says that what he labels an “extraordinary form of catholic theology” can have “no possible coexistence” with “an ordinary form of Catholic theology”. How can asserting that modern theological opinion cannot exist with doctrine established over the centuries be anything other than “rupturist”! Faggioli really displays his ignorance in this rant and Dom Hugh appears quite astounded by the depth of it! This either/or approach to Church teaching—either you are modern or you are wrong—as well as his subtle and pernicious cooption of the name of Joseph Ratzinger in apparent support o...

Great post today from Fr Hugh . One of those posts that really resonates and the key insight for me relates to the way that people of a progressive bent appear utterly blind to the obvious, factual folly of their situation. Ergo: In this doctrinaire assertion Fr Baldovin seems to have put to bed his undoubted critical faculties and let ideology do the talking. One might reasonably ask him in reply: how is it relevant that the young Catholics who prefer the old rite never experience its daily reality before the Council? The Catholics of the 1950s never experienced the daily reality of the liturgy of 1517. Or rather, they did. What, in reality, they did not experience was the socio-historical milieu of 1517. But the Roman rite of 1517 was substantially and essentially the same as that of 1950. The old rite no more supports the Middle Ages than it does the Renaissance or the period between the world wars… or today. It supports them all because it transcends them all. It offers persp...

Cardinal Sarah speaking at Sacra Liturgia, flanked by Bishop Dominique Rey (Photo by Lawrence Lew OP) On June 4th, you may remember this post , which referred to the fact that Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments  had called for priests to say Mass facing East, in the time honoured manner, so that both the celebrant and the people face God to whom they pray: "As soon as we reach the moment when one addresses God—from the offertory onwards—it is essential that the priest & faithful look together towards the east." Yesterday saw the beginning of the Sacra Liturgia Conference in London where the opening address was from Cardinal Sarah. Much of what he said has been posted in chunks on their FB page here . But Dom Hugh Somerville-Knapman has an excellent report on the day here . The big news is that Cardinal Sarah reaffirmed his call to celebrate Mass facing East. The Cardinal, the highest authori...