DRAFT OF A CHAPTER
Charles
P. Poole, Jr.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Society in Schism
3. Eucharistic Prayers
4. The Tridentine
Mass
5. Priest Where
is Thy Mass?
6. How to Bring About Reform in
the Church
7. Priestly Fraternity of St.
Peter
8. Society of St. Pius X
Predicts Papacy of Benedict XVI
1. INTRODUCTION
The
Priestly Society of St. Pius X was founded in 1969 by Archbishop Marcel
Lefebvre (1905-1991). Lefebvre was an
outspoken supporter of traditional Catholicism, and of eliminating all
restrictions on the celebration of the pre-Vatican II Latin
2. A SOCIETY IN SCHISM
There
was a great deal of tension when Lefebvre condemned many of the reforms
implemented by the Second Vatican Council as heretical, and he instructed the
priests of his Society of Pius X to use of the pre-Vatican II liturgies and the
Latin language in saying Mass, administering the sacraments, reading the Divine Office, etc. The Holy See insisted that he and his
priestly Society conform to Novus Ordo
or post-Vatican II liturgical practices, and he refused to do so. After prolonged discussions and exhortations,
he ordained four bishops, and was subsequently excommunicated in 1988. The Society, now in schism, has sustained its
growth and its promulgation of the practices of what they call traditional
Catholicism. They believe that they are
the true line of the Church, and that the rest of us are the ones in
schism.
The
focal point of their loyalty to Lefebvre, and the rallying cry that sparks
their growth in numbers, is the “proscribed” Tridentine
Mass. This Mass was forbidden in the aftermath of Vatican II because taking
this step seemed necessary to ensure that the new liturgy in the vernacular
would gain acceptance among the people.
By the 1980's the Novus Ordo
liturgy was firmly entrenched in Catholic society, and
the time had come to lift the ban on the Tridentine
Mass. Unfortunately this was not done,
and the Society of Pius X continued to flourish. The Latin Mass, which had been the focal
point of Catholic piety for several centuries, had become the proscribed Mass,
the forbidden Mass, or in more polite language, the Indult Mass.
3. EUCHARISTIC PRAYERS
The Novus Ordo Sacramentary
issued after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) contains four main
Eucharistic Prayers. We will make some
observations on the historical development of the Mass, and then mention how these
four Eucharistic prayers reflect this history.
The Syrian catechetical manual called the Didache,
which dates from the end of the first century, contains some prayers which were
probably recited at Eucharistic celebrations.
However it is Justin Martyr (100-165) who provides us with our earliest
description of the Mass. It is a rather
simple service in which members of the assembly say prayers together, and then
offer each other the kiss of peace.
Sometimes there were readings from the prophets and the Acts of the
Apostles, and a homily was delivered by the presider. Following this, for the Eucharistic
celebration bread and wine were brought in and presented to the presider who recited a long prayer of thanksgiving, after
which all present consumed the consecrated bread and wine. The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome, written about the year 225 AD, contains
the oldest liturgical form of the
Eucharistic
Prayer I, called the Roman Canon, was used in the Latin Mass prior to Vatican
II, and the text of it is given on our website www.consideringpiusx.com and
described in the next section. Early versions of this Canon developed during
the fourth to the sixth centuries, but it did not reach a definitive state until
after the papacy of St. Gregory the Great, who presided over the Church from
590 to 604. The format became further
standardized when Missals with the entire text of the Mass began appearing in
the eleventh century, and they were in general use by about the year 1200. After the Council of Trent (1545-1563) Pope
Pius V issued the Missale Romanum
in 1570, and made it binding throughout the Western Rite of the Church. This Tridentine
Mass format remained virtually unchanged thereafter until the reforms that
followed Vatican II. The text was fixed,
and the only alteration permitted was the addition of saints’ names to the Communicantes and the Nobis quoque.
Eucharistic
Prayer
4. THE TRIDENTINE MASS
The
Mass has traditionally been divided into two parts. The first part, which was formerly called the
Mass of the Catechumens, and is now called the Liturgy of the Word, underwent
some dramatic changes in the aftermath of Vatican II. The opening verse “I will go to the altar of
God, to God who giveth joy to my youth”, followed by
the recitation of Psalm 42, has been discontinued, and the penitential rite
shortened. There are now two Sunday
readings plus the Gospel. A shortened
form of the Confiteor, the same Gloria,
and the same Creed, are said as before.
After the Creed some prayers are omitted, and the Lavabo (hand washing)
prayer is shorter. A Preface and the
Sanctus are said as in the past. Thus
significant changes, many of them abridgements, have been made in the Mass up
to the beginning of what was formerly called the Canon, and is now the choice
of a Eucharistic Prayer. Eucharistic
Prayer I, or the Roman Canon, is very close in wording to the Tridentine Canon, so if is chosen then there are very few
changes in the remainder of the Mass, except that the Last Gospel is no longer
said.
To
demonstrate this, on the website www.consideringpiusx.com
we provide a detailed comparison of the wording of the Canon in the Missale Romanum (1941 edition)
and the Latin language Roman Canon or Eucharistic Prayer I taken from Appendix
IV of the post Vatican II Sacramentary (1985 edition). This word for word comparison indicates that
the texts of the two are almost identical, although their rubrics are sometimes
worded differently. Toward the end there
are some minor changes between the two versions, but these are not substantial
in nature. Thus, if a priest celebrates a Novus Ordo Mass in Latin, which requires no permission or indult,
the essential part of the Mass which he says is almost identical with its Tridentine counterpart.
Most of the Mass of the Faithful, now called the Liturgy of the
Eucharist, is nearly the same. It is the
beginning, the Mass of the Catechumens, or the Liturgy of the Word, which
differs.
The
schismatic Society of St. Pius X website provides answers to 15 frequently
asked questions about the Society.
Question 5 is “Why should Catholics have nothing to do with the Novus Ordo Missae?” It replies that the new rite is “a liturgy
for a modernist religion which would marry the Church and the world,
Catholicism and Protestantism, light and darkness.” The claim is made that this new Mass mixes
four Catholic elements (a priest, bread and wine, genuflections, and signs of
the cross, etc) with three Protestant or heterodox elements (a table,
common-place utensils, communion under both kinds and in the hand, etc.). In actuality the so-called table is just as
valid an altar as the turned around ones of the pre-Vatican II liturgies, the
utensils are not common-place, and the practices of communion under both kinds
and in the hand are not innovations, but rather a return to ancient Church
practices. More serious is their claim
that “these Masses can be of doubtful validity,” and “any Catholic who is aware of its harm,
does not have the right to participate.”
The close identity between the Tridentine
Canon and Eucharistic Prayer I, explained above and demonstrated on the
website, renders these two assertions fatuous.
5. PRIEST WHERE IS HY MASS?
During
February 2004 the Society of St. Pius X published a 195 page book entitled
“Priest Where is Thy Mass?; Mass, Where is Thy
Priest?”, and in an announcement it claims to have sent a copy of this
book to every Catholic priest in the
6. HOW TO BRING ABOUT REFORM IN THE CHURCH
There
have been many times in its long history when the Church has been in need of
reform, and quite often saintly individuals stepped forward to dedicate
themselves to bringing about the needed changes. Transforming an entrenched status quo is not
an easy task, and many of the reformers throughout history spent part of their
lives in exile, such as Hippolytus, d. 236, Pope
Cornelius, d. 253, Athanasius, d. 373, John Chrysostom,
d. 407, Pope Martin I, d. 655, Anselm,
d. 1109, Anthony Mary Claret, d. 1870,
and John Eudes, d. 1680. Down through the ages successful reformers
fought their battles, and won their victories, within the confines of the
Church, as loyal but dissatisfied members.
Examples are Gregory
More
information on this topic can be found at our website mentioned above. On this site we describe the successful
efforts of
7. PRIESTLY
FRATERNITY OF ST. PETER
The Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Petri, or Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter,
founded in 1988 at the initiative of Pope John Paul II, is a clerical Society
of Apostolic Life that has, as its spiritual and liturgical center, the ongoing
use of the traditional sacramental rites of the Latin Church. Its aim is to carry out the Church’s mission,
through the operation of parishes, schools, and other apostolic works across
the world, by means of its specific sacramental apostolate, under the authority
of local bishops. The Fraternity was
established at the initiative of the Holy Father as part of an ongoing effort
to make the traditional rites of the Holy Mass and the Sacraments available to
the faithful who desire them. It is playing the role within the Church that the
Society of St. Pius X is trying to play while remaining outside the
Church. For further information on the
Fraternity visit their website at www.fssp.com .
8. SOCIETY OF
ST. PIUS X PREDICTS PAPACY OF BENEDICT XVI
In 1989
The Society of St. Pius X published the book “Archbishop Lefebvre and the
