Summorum Pontificum & the Media Spin

As usual hilarious comments by Fr Z

[Taken from WDTPRS]
Catholics fear [I don’t, do you?] Pope’s revival of traditional ways
By Peter Popham in Rome
Published: 10 July 2007

Pope Benedict XVI faces uproar [The Independent hopes] among liberal Catholics amid signs that he is trying to turn back the clock on an era of modernisation and reform. [The chestnuts are roasting again, friends!]

From today, the Church wakes up to a new set of rules [Would that "wake up" were true! The "new rules" part, however, is not true. Virtually everything in the MP could already have been established by any diocesan bishop. He could have given every priest in his diocese faculties to use all the older books, he himself could use all the books, he could establish parishes, religious communities, etc. etc.] regarding the way in which the Mass may be celebrated. For the first time since 1962 the Tridentine Mass, the form of the service always said in Latin, will be permitted. [Wrong wrong wrong. The MP itself, which the reporter might have read first, states clearly that permission had already been granted in 1986 and explanded in 1988.]

It is the Pope’s personal effort to heal a rift created when the followers of French Archbishop Lefèbvre rebelled, and insisted on continuing the use the Mass introduced at the Council of Trent in the 16th century.

But even before the publication of the new rules the intensity of opposition has shaken the Church. One bishop interviewed by La Repubblica said the day the Pope’s letter was published confirming the reform was "the saddest day of my life". [yawn]

The Pope has confirmed that the existing form of the Mass, dating from the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, [not precisely, but let that pass] will continue to be the standard one, said in the language of the local congregation. [When not said in the official language, Latin.]

But many liberal Catholics see the return of a Mass which, in the form in which it was used until 1962, stigmatised "heretics", "schismatics" [Not nice things to be, really.] and Jews ["The Mass" does not "stigmatize" Jews. Not even the Good Friday prayers do that: they ask what we pray for ouselves: take the veil of blindness from our hearts so that we may be ever more disciples of Christ. It is fair for Catholics to want people to be Catholics.] and which presented the Catholic Church as the only true version of the faith, as a reckless step backwards. [NOT BAKWARD: the Church has always taught this. This is always cutting edge teaching.]

And when they review the changes Benedict has brought to the papal wardrobe, they see a pattern. [Shallow] Ever since his installation in April 2005, the German Pope has been speeding back to the future.

The magnificent papal wardrobe has been steadily modified since Vatican II. Pope Paul VI symbolically laid his splendid tiara on the altar of St Peter’s at the end of the council; it was sold and the proceeds donated to charity. Benedict has yet to buy it back, but he has repeatedly stunned Vaticanologists with the variety of archaic hats, capes and other adornments he chooses to sport.

In his first winter as Pope he donned the snug, Santa Claus-like "camauro" hat, red velvet with a border of white ermine, which had not been worn since John XXIII, who died in 1963. He also affected the "galero", a cowboy-like number in red, and the "greca", the ankle-length cashmere overcoat last worn by Pope Pius XII. He has also moved to restore some of the dignity of the Pope sacrificed by his predecessors in the interests of humility and conciliation. Benedict has been photographed seated in the little-used golden throne in the Vatican’s Sala Paolina, where Pius XII used to receive important visitors on their knees. [This is simply too daft to be believed.]