Below is an extract from an article, ironically entitled Call for a return to Faith and spiritual obedience published in today’s Scottish Catholic Observer, penned by the eminently disobedient, Bishop Philip Tartaglia. The SCO has yet to move into the 21st century; they do not publish all articles online (they struggle with sales in parishes, obviously) and so only the introduction to Bishop Tartaglia’s article is published on the SCO website, with an instruction to buy the hard copy if you want to read the rest. Don’t bother. Here’s (most of) the rest…
Bishop Tartaglia in his own – quite shocking – words…
“… Media coverage of the Pope’s visit has chosen to highlight liturgical issues, as if to suggest that preparation for the Pope’s visit will be marred by damaging splits in the Catholic community over the liturgy… The truth is that priests are not breaking down bishops’ doors to ask for training to celebrate Mass in the extraordinary form nor are many of them freely choosing to celebrate Mass in that form, as they might do, if they wished. Chatting to one of my younger priests about this matter, he said to me that he had no inclination to say Mass in the old form, even if he respected it for what it had been to many generations of Catholics. He said that he got his Faith and vocation to the priesthood from his experience of the Mass as it is, and he was happy with that. (Ed: now there’s a very sensible priest. He knows the mind of his bishop! If I thought for a second that priests were career-minded, I’d say “there goes a potentially very successful career priest!” The fact is that the bishop is supposed to be a leader: wherever he leads, the clergy will follow. Bishop Tartaglia has made his views known on the old rite Mass. Goodness, given how open he has been with lay correspondents, revealing his dislike, to put it mildly, of the TLM, one can only imagine what he says to his priests on the topic…)
It also has to be said that there is little spontaneous demand from Catholics for Mass in the extraordinary form. Such provision as there is, some of it long-standing, centrally located and prime-timed on a Sunday morning, is vastly under-used. Why would bishops put pressure on priests to celebrate a form of Mass they do not want to celebrate and for tiny numbers of the faithful too, when most parishes only have one priest who is fully occupied on Sundays and holy days providing Mass in the ordinary form? It just does not seem to make pastoral sense. (Ed: well the bishops thought nothing of making priests say a Mass that nobody had asked for, a Mass, moreover, concocted by a Freemason priest with the help of 6 Protestant Ministers. Nobody asked for that, if I recall. I remember clearly being one of those faithful who was open mouthed when the fact that we were getting a “new Mass” was announced. I also remember being open mouthed when priests who felt they could not abandon the old rite were persecuted and punished for their trouble. So, don’t gimme, “can’t force my priests to say the old Mass”. You forced plenty to say the new).
In my experience as a bishop, the case for Mass in the extraordinary form in Scotland is seriously weakened by militant ultra-traditional groupings (Ed: plural? really? Who are they?) who propagate the false doctrine that the Mass in the ordinary form and Mass in the extraordinary form are not one and the same Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and that Mass in the extraordinary form is superior to the ordinary form, which should be suppressed. They explicitly deny the teaching of the Second Vatican Council on ecumenism and on religious freedom. (Ed: these “teachings” are not binding on the faithful. They are novelties condemned, consistently, by previous popes).They also frequently and egregiously disrespect the memory of Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II, and have the nerve to express huge reservations about the person and ministry of Pope Benedict XVI. (Ed: only if and when we attack the Petrine Ministry, may you criticise us. We are entitled to express, as robustly as we wish, our concerns about these Vatican II popes who have introduced errors into the Church. Thankfully, none of these errors have been pronounced binding on the faithful, so we remain loyal to the papacy and always will, for Christ will not abandon His Church – despite unfaithful popes and bishops.) What bishop would seriously want this kind of influence around his diocese? What bishop would want one of his priests or one of his parish churches associated with such a group? (Ed: what bishop would not alert his people to unsavoury groups working within the Church? Who are these “militant, ultra-traditional groups”? I’d like to know to warn my friends in Paisley to have nothing to do with them. It would be, clearly, a charity to name these groups, not to say, an important episcopal duty to protect the faithful.)
These groups sometimes contend that the problems in the Church come from the liturgy and that all will be well if we go back to an earlier form of the liturgy. This is an erroneous and somewhat simplistic analysis. (Ed: phew! That lets us off the hook. We hold to no such simplistic analysis. We know that the restoration of the Mass is but one part of the solution to this terrible Church crisis – see our threads on Professor Groome, re-ordering of sanctuaries, priesthood etc. Phew! For a minute I thought he was having a go at Catholic Truth…)
The problems in the Church today do not come from the liturgy; they come from a lack of Faith and a spirit of disobedience. (Ed: hear hear. But that disobedience includes the liturgy. Bishop Tartaglia knows perfectly well that there is extensive and illicit use of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion at novus ordo Masses. That is blatant disobedience, never mind the hostile attitude towards the TLM).
And these are the result of hostile philosophical trends which originated in the 18th and 19th centuries, and which came to fruition in the 20th century. (Ed: Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion? Really?)
These trends developed while we were celebrating Mass in an older form. (Ed: Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion? Really?) Mass in the older form did not cause these trends nor prevent them developing. Similarly, Mass in the newer form did not cause the problems in today’s Church, even if the liturgy has sometimes focused these problems. (Ed: what does that mean?) Mass in whatever form nourishes the Faith of those who participate (Ed: I disagree. Didn’t nourish my faith at all, Quite the reverse) but may not prevent evil things from undermining the Church. Faith and holiness are the antidotes to the Church’s problems, not a wholesale return to an earlier form of the Mass. (Ed: the two things, “faith and holiness” are integral to the old rite Mass).
Of course, none of that is to contradict or gainsay the rightness or the wisdom of the Pope’s Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum in which the Holy Father gives a very generous permission for the celebration of Mass in the extraordinary form. And where priests wish to celebrate Mass in that form, they may freely do so both privately and publicly. But, as I read the Pope’s words, permission stops short of promotion. (Ed: then please read it again, Bishop and put it together with the interview from Monsignor Guido Pozzo that I sent you in my letter dated 30 November, 2009, where it is made clear that the Pope wants the old rite Mass in every parish).
The Pope’s document places no obligation on bishops to promote Mass in the extraordinary form. Mass in the ordinary form must remain the norm for our liturgies. (Ed: we’ll see…) When he issued his Motu Proprio in July 2007, the Holy Father promised a review after three years. The time for that review must be soon. If it takes place, one of the things I would hope to see clarified is precisely this point about permission, provision and promotion.
In the meantime, I, as a bishop, would certainly not attempt to dissuade one of my priests who on his own initiative chose to introduce that form of the Mass into public worship of his parish. (Ed: that, frankly, I do not believe. Having read Bishop Tartaglia’s letters to two separate, unconnected individuals, telling them, in words of one syllable, what he thinks of the old rite Mass and their request for it in the diocese, I simply do not believe him. Let any Paisley priest come forward and prove me wrong. Give me concrete details of arrangements to learn the TLM and a date for your first TLM – I’ll make a point of attending it myself. I repeat, I do not believe, for a second, that Bishop Tartaglia would not seek to dissuade any priest of his, who wished to offer the TLM on a regular basis, in his parish). But so far none has, and I can see why; they don’t sense any personal spiritual need to do it and they do not recognise any compelling pastoral need to do so. But if that should change, I will be the first to take due cognizance of that fact.
This is not to say that there are no problems with liturgical practice in Scotland, a point well made by some commentators…At the same time, I distance myself from the allegation reported in the media coverage that Mass is commonly celebrated by Scottish priests in a casual or sloppy way. Priests do not routinely deny the Church’s Faith in their homilies. Priests do not routinely set up unworthy liturgies. My experience of priests in my own diocese and elsewhere is that they try to offer worship which is celebrated according to liturgical norms, which is devout, which communicates the mysteries of the Catholic Faith, which is accessible and participative, and which includes the best music they have in their parish resources. In my experience, priests want to bring Christ to their people in the liturgy and in their pastoral activity.The liturgy remains a work-in-progress (emphasis added) but, in the main, priests celebrate it well. (Ed: oh well, then, that’s OK – who cares if God is worshipped shabbily as long as “in the main” he is not thus insulted…) That’s why the people are not generally clamouring for something else. (Ed: they’re not clamouring for something else because they don’t know what else is available – since the bishops have made sure that Summorum Pontificum has been kept well away from parish bulletins, announcements, church websites etc.)
So, when the Pope comes, everyone can be certain that any liturgy that the Holy Father celebrates in Scotland will include the best music, the best ceremonial, and the best liturgical practice that we can manage. But above all, the Pope’s Mass will make the living Christ present o his people.