Monday 7 January 2013

Damian's knickers in a twist

He is, of course, such a trust worthy source of gossip news!

It really does not follow that, just because the faculty at Oscott are not making arrangements for the celebration of the Extraordinary Form in the seminary, they are acting in disobedience to the wishes of Pope Benedict XVI. When un-thinking trads take Damian's word for it and make infallible pronouncements about "Oscott liberals", "nonsense", "disgrace" and "catacombs", one wonders whether Catholic blogging is worth the maniple candle.

If, as Damian reports, the ecclesial authorities responsible for Oscott are keen that their aim
should be to educate and train seminarians in the Ordinary Form so that they can celebrate it well and be able to draw out its full potential, including the use of the riches of our Latin liturgical tradition in music.
they do seem to be echoing Pope Benedict's words in his letter that accompanied Summorum Pontificum:
For that matter, the two Forms of the usage of the Roman Rite can be mutually enriching: ..... The celebration of the Mass according to the Missal of Paul VI will be able to demonstrate, more powerfully than has been the case hitherto, the sacrality which attracts many people to the former usage. The most sure guarantee that the Missal of Paul VI can unite parish communities and be loved by them consists in its being celebrated with great reverence in harmony with the liturgical directives. This will bring out the spiritual richness and the theological depth of this Missal.
My own more careful(ie less sarcastic) analysis of the provisions of Summorum Pontificum can be found here and, if you read it, you will see that Pope Damian's knee jerk conclusions with regard to the policy being adopted at Oscott do not follow by any means.

1 comment:

Joe said...

I did receive a comment shortly after this post, which spoke highly of the experience of studying at Oscott College during Mgr Crisp's time as Rector.

Since the comment was anonymous, and in the context of this post, I was unsure of the potential implications of posting that comment and so decided at the time not to post it. (I am wary of posting comments when I do not fully understand "where they are coming from".)

However, in the light of Fr Tim's observations on the appointment of a new Rector at Oscott - http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/new-rector-for-oscott.html - it seems appropriate to offer at least the "headline" of that comment.