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CONTROVERSIES

 

THE MASS AND NOVUS ORDO       Controversies:  Mass and Novus Ordo Traditionalism Sedevacantism Evolution Feminism Ecumenism Salvation Vatican II Pope JP II Misc

The Ottaviani Intervention The famous (infamous to some) criticism by Cardinals Ottaviani, Bacci, and unnamed others, of the official Novus Ordo then first being promulgated in full in late 1969 (though Novus Ordo like changes had already begun by 1965/66). A chilling document and critique for those quick to defend the Novus Ordo, particularly given just who Ottaviani was.

 
 

The Case for The Latin Mass Famous and often reprinted essay by the great Dietrich von Hildebrand, on the early changes in the liturgy even before the official promulgation of the Novus Ordo. Yet another uncomfortable essay for defenders of the new liturgy to deal with.

 
 

On Mediator Dei Adam DeVille's remarks, taken from an archive of CIN's old Introibo: Catholic Youth for Tradition mailing list, on Mediator Dei, The Mass, and New Order. Interesting quote, as well, from Taize founder and Vatican II Protestant 'advisor', Max Thurian (keyword: thurian). [See also more complete remarks of Thurian.]

 
 

On Quo Primum EWTN's Director of On-line Services, Jeff Mirus, explaining why Quo Primum is irrelevant and obsolete: essentially that future Popes were allowed to ignore it at will, and/or that "living authority" trumps dead authority. (see bottom of page)

 
 

Traditio Articles Number of older on-line articles archived by Traditio, from traditionalist to sedevacantist, mostly on The Latin Mass and Novus Ordo, including what could be seen as a reply to the Mirus article just above, but also assorted other topics.

 
 

Campos Profession 1982 profession of faith by 25 clerics from Campos, Brazil, strongly condemning the errors often even just tacitly condoned by bishops, and even the Holy See, and praising traditional Catholic practices after that. Also see their "62 Reasons", pointing out errors with the Novus Ordo.

 
 

Holy Mass a Generic Worship Service Donald Hook, in the New Oxford Review, on the truth behind the 'spirit of Vatican II', particularly with regard to the Novus Ordo: ". . . there is no compelling written evidence that Pope John XXIII and the 2,600 bishops who opened Vatican II in 1962, or the many bishops who served until the end of the ecumenical council in 1965, or any of Pope John's three successors, intended the liturgical course that has resulted in the nearly complete alteration of Catholic worship, . . . Yet at the local level, in chanceries and rectories and parish offices and committee meetings, Catholics both clerical and lay are apparently granting themselves permission to emend and revamp all parts of our public worship."

 
 

Assult on the Roman Rite Fr. Mole's criticism of the Novus Ordo, how it came about, what was abused to create it, and sums it up: "In the vocabulary of the Pauline reform, it is called revision but in fact it is the death of the Roman Rite. In saying this, we do not mean that it has actually been put to death. It has been saved providentially thanks to the Traditional Mass movement and John Paul II's motu proprio Ecclesia Dei . . ." .

 
 

Note on the Consecration My own note from the Mass pages, here, drawn from Gamber's book, from the Summa, the catechism of Trent, Scriptures, and of course, the Novus Ordo, suggesting that whatever the putative Latin language norm, the consecration at least in the English ICEL text (and the Spanish and Italian as well, as the GIRM suggests) is false or invalid on its face. Probably a good read before the Likoudis and Whitehead quotes, just below (which seems perhaps intentionally to miss the point).

 
 

Is The New Mass Valid? Though not specifically so, pretty much a rebuttal to my note, above, from ex-SSPX (or ex-Cancun drawing SSPX?), who argue the validity of 'new order', but do not recommend that people attend for its ambiguity, certain omissions, and the 'excesses' which such encourages, as I read it.

 
 

A Theological Critique From a Franciscan site, Bro. Bugnolo attempts to quickly refute various points made by Fr. James Wathen in his, The Great Sacrilege, a criticism of the Novus Ordo.

 
 

Novus Ordo Defended Fr. William Most, EWTN apologist on many issues, takes issue with particular criticisms of the Novus Ordo leveled by sedevacantist, Rama P. Coomaraswamy.

 
 

Novus Ordo, Okay Another defense of Novus Ordo, drawn from the pages Likoudis and Whitehead, 'The Pope, The Council, and the Mass'.

 
 

Latin Mass compared with Novus Ordo From the Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, site: reply to a 'Roman Liturgy Page' from Apr/May 1997, which claimed the Novus Ordo was a 'faithful' revision and has been accompanied by a great revival in The Church, and the like.

 
   

VATICAN II

Copious Critique Dave Armstrong's sort of 'Adoremus' rebuttals to selected portions of various Stephen Hand essays (as found in Hand's book, Crisis of Faith) and various others once found on The Remnant web site. Drops a lot of names and dances around a lot; he defends Novus Ordo, calls The Remnant essentially schismatic, calls certain Vatican II notions "legitimate developments" as discussed by Newman in his last book, and so on.

 
 

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs Fr. Joncas defends his work, and that of others, in coming up with the sort of songs typically sung at the Novus Ordo, for ex.

 
 

Why Do We Sing of Ourselves? From the Adoremus Bulletin, Father Paul Scalia takes issue with the new 'ditties' of the Novus Ordo: ". . . what distinguishes the Mass from all other forms of worship is the re-presentation of Christ's sacrifice. The Mass does not merely recall or reenact Christ's redemptive act but in fact makes present the mystery of faith, the passion, death and resurrection of Christ."

 
 

American Catholic Church Since Vatican II Alternatively stirring and dismissive defense of almost all things done in the name of Vatican II, from this member of the 'American Catholic Church'.

 
 

Michael Davies' Reply to Weakland From the Latin Mass Magazine, nominally a reply to Archbishop Weakland's 'weak' objection to the 'indult', but generally a critique of the failure of various changes in the name of Vatican II.

 
 

What are we to think of Vatican II? CTR essay on the limited scope of Vatican II, as explained by the Popes, themselves, problems with ambiguity, over-reaching in subsequent documents and reforms (such as the 1983 Canon Law), and more.

 
 

CTR FAQ Catholic Traditional's FAQ on assorted topics from sedevacantism, to Communion in the hand, ecumenism, and all the 'usual' topics; with appropriate quotes from councils, encyclicals, showing contradictions between then . . . and now.

 
 

Renewal or Decay? Una Voce article on the fruits of Vatican II: "In 1984, Cardinal Ratzinger stated that the hoped for renewal did not occur, and that this period following the Council has not been a favorable one for the Church. Pope John Paul II has also complained about the same thing."

 
 

Call for a clarification of Vatican II Essay/petition requesting, essentially, that JP II put his papacy on the line by a formal infallible declaration of various things promoted either by, or just in the name of, Vatican II.

 
 

NOR Nov 98 Editorial On why New Oxford Review ads were rejected by the National Catholic Register, (not Reporter) now under new, orthodox management. "On February 12, 1997, the Register banned three other ads. . . . The Register's General Manager, Mario Skertchly, explained the banning to me over the phone by saying that Fr. Kearns found those ads too negative and downbeat about the state of the Church. . . . a layman who is close to the Legionaries of Christ (which took control of the Register recently) . . . phoned me, apparently on his own initiative, to explain . . . the Legionaries are producing lots of good young priests, and . . . must therefore stay on good terms with priests and bishops of all theological persuasions. . . . My reply was: . . . (1) I don't think liberal bishops . . . will be fooled . . . If anything, I said, the liberal bishops' suspicions of the Legionaries will only be intensified . . . (2) A weekly national newspaper has to be a newspaper, not a public relations sheet . . ."

 
 

Communion in the Hand Fr. Paul McDonald's criticism of the optional/mandatory (depending) receipt of Holy Communion in the hand, drawing on the writings of Popes, noting the abuse and lack of reverence, and following the distaste for this practice also expressed by the late Mother Teresa.

 
 

Communion in the Hand an Abuse? Fr. Paul Leonard's article on this, even suggesting the 'spirit of Vatican II' iron fist for failure to comply: priests whose "conscience will not allow them to give Holy Communion in the hand. Priests have been removed from their parishes, . . ." .

 
 

Vatican Praises Purveyor of Heresy John Vennari criticizes the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Sodano, for speaking well of "the radical 'theologian' Hans Kung." He writes: "Sodano knows . . . that . . . Kung was stripped of the right to call himself a Catholic theologian by none other than Pope John Paul II."

 
 

Non-Ordained Faithful and 'ministry' Review of the recent Vatican document concerning abuses of existing Vatican II norms, as such, "clearly aimed at correcting certain widespread violations of canon law pertaining to the exercise of clerical roles by the laity."

 
 

Catholic Protestants Fr. Horvath on heretics, liberalism, and the revolt within The Church following Vatican II, in the name of Vatican II.

 
 

Two Different Churches On the question of getting rid of black for funeral Masses, the 'question man' from the Franciscan 'Mt. Read Friars' quotes Trent in a flat-out criticism of the 'spirit of Vatican II' - the church of today, not The Church.

 
 

Lack of Vocations? John Quinn (not the old archbishop), in an older article from Crisis Mag, wonders if the seminary enrollment shortage is not artificially created, in part, by those opposed to a celibate priesthood, or to faithful Catholics in general.

 
 

Catholic in Name Only? Kieron Wood's report on the falling away of the Irish people, which article was sparked by an Irish Times newspaper survey.

 
   

TRADITIONALISM

The Society of St. Pius X in Schism? Michael Davies, perhaps surprizingly to some, argues very vehemently in the negative - that the SSPX, particularly Archbishop Lefebvre for both his views and his consecrations, was not in schism; even compares the late Archbishop with St. Athanasius himself. [The old TCR web site also once had a copy of this, followed by a lengthy essay by Peter Vere arguing, instead - yes - and which is now the only essay to appear at the 'new' TCR).

 
 

Who sent the Society of Pius X ? Sort of a strange counter-argument to the above, from a sedevacantist who insists Marcel Lefebvre was originally ordained by an auto-excommunicated freemason in, Cardinal Achille Lienart.

 
 

Foundational Acts Simultaneously a statement of purpose by the founder of one of the 'indult' orders, concerning an understanding of the documents of Vatican II in terms of established Catholic teaching, and his criticism of the late Archbishop Lefebvre.

 
 

Emergence of Conservative Catholicism Christopher Ferrara's extensively footnoted defense of 'traditionalism' in a chapter from a larger work, essentially takes on the 'middle of the road' so-called 'conservatives', the bureacrats, the Adoremus crowd. Quoting Michael Davies from 1977, "The prevailing attitude among so many of the clergy is to accept a particular belief or attitude not because it has an inherent and enduring truth or value, but because it happens to be the current policy." And the critique of the 'conservatives' - "The 'conservatives' wrongly deduce that since there is no appeal to any human authority from a decision of the Roman Pontiff, his authority must for all practical purposes be regarded as absolute, and the faithful must . . . embrace all of the papally-approved post-conciliar reforms."

 
 

What Happened to the Counter-revolution? Michael Matt's now famous article from just last year, from the pages of his Remnant magazine, where he goes after even the 'indulters', and raises the flag of uncompromising orthodoxy - as if to say extremism in the defense of truth or virtue is no vice.

 
 

"Traditional" Heresies Fr. Giles, Franciscan of the 'Mt. Read Friars', takes traditionalists to task, from Matt and The Remnant, to the Order of St. John, SSPX of course, those who attend 'indult' Masses, Fr. Gruner (Fatima Crusader), and so on.

 
 

Traditionalism: True and False EWTN/Adoremus 'expert', Colin Donovan, who while nodding in the direction of criticizing liberal abuses, basically just takes the traditionalists to task for failing to embrace not merely the Novus Ordo, but likely all of the innovations offered in the name of the Second Vatican Council. The traditionalists, he seems to conclude: ". . . do not fully embrace the teaching and discipline of the Roman Pontiff, but want instead to decide for themselves the direction of the Church . . ." .

 
   

SEDEVACANTISM

Michael Davies against sedevacantism Michael Davies essay on the near impossibility of an heretical Pope, perhaps even in his private opinion, but basing the argument on any formal attempted reversal/denial of dogma de fide.

 
 

Pope JP II - Heretic Sedevacantist chart of 101 points of heresy charged against His Holiness, JP II, often drawn from his books and personal opinions, and contrasted with the relevant Catholic teaching from past Pope or council.

 
 

Popes and the Modern Crisis Perhaps subtitled - Against the Sedevacantist - is Br. Andre Marie's essay on the possibility of an pretender to the Holy See, and a criticism of sedevacantism.

 
 

The Siri Thesis William Peters on, what I believe is a sedevacantist idea, of a "Siri Thesis" - namely that Italian Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, said to be Pope Pius XII's hand-picked successor, but not ultimately elected by the conclave, was in fact the true pope.

 
   

SALVATION

Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus "Outside The Church there is no salvation", explained by the famous Catholic convert, abolitionist and author, Orestes Augustus Brownson. [see also a few bits of his other work on-line]

 
 

St. Benedict Center Feeneyite group which claims loyalty to the Holy See, and the particular occupant, and provides numerous essays defending their position on Baptism, explaining the heresy of Americanism, responding to criticism from The Remant, HPR and others, and having articles on various other issues, as well.