Cyprian :

The moral of the story is 1) Don't lower your guard, 2) Don't entrust your kids' formation to novus ordo Catholics.

Cyprian said:

This comes from the same pope who said: "Rock music... is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the experience of being part of a crowd and by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects."
I guess you can have it both ways? You like Gregorian chant? That's cool. You dig acid-jazz-sacred fusion? That's cool, too. It's all part of the new synthesis.
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I'm sorry but I have to disagree with you. This doesn't come from the same pope because it wasn't Pope Benedict XVI who arranged or was promoting these rock concerts. These WYDs are unfortunately organized by the bishop's conference and we can't expect much from them. They were mostly formed in modernist seminaries and therefore are mostly liberals. The same happened to the Papal visit to Brazil. The National Bishop's Conference of Brazil even tried to invite a pro-abortion singer to sing at a festival after the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Fortunately a lot of traditionalists made their voices heard and the singer was prohibited from going to the concert. The Holy Father entrusts the bishop's conference to prepare everything for these big events and the bishops do a horrible job at it. Although I'm really sad that these concerts are going on during in the WYD2008 I don't think we should be blaming the Holy Father since he is not the one administering the WYD2008 site which is promoting these events. What we should do is pay close attention to what he's teaching during the WYD2008. Here's a little something that brought me joy this morning.

"Dear friends, life is not governed by chance; it is not random. Your very existence has been willed by God, blessed and given a purpose (cf. Gen 1:28)! Life is not just a succession of events or experiences, helpful though many of them are. It is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful. It is to this end that we make our choices; it is for this that we exercise our freedom; it is in this – in truth, in goodness, and in beauty – that we find happiness and joy. Do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty, and subjective experience displaces truth."

"How can it be that domestic violence torments so many mothers and children? How can it be that the most wondrous and sacred human space – the womb – has become a place of unutterable violence?

My dear friends, God’s creation is one and it is good. The concerns for non-violence, sustainable development, justice and peace, and care for our environment are of vital importance for humanity. They cannot, however, be understood apart from a profound reflection upon the innate dignity of every human life from conception to natural death: a dignity conferred by God himself and thus inviolable."

For the entire text go to this link http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2008/july/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20080717_barangaroo_en.html

In Christo,
Paulo

Cyprian :

I just saw that the French pilgrims to WYD celebrated Bastille Day last Monday. I wonder how many of those poor kids know what really happened, the mass murder of priests and nuns, blood in the streets. I don't think any reenactments were planned for WYD.

Cyprian :

Thank you Paulo for the positive message from Pope Benedict.

The responsibility for WYD lies with the Holy See. According to the official WYD Fact Sheet: "World Youth Day was established by Pope John Paul II in 1986 as an annual event to reach out to the youth of the world." Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, has observed the phenomena for more than two decades and cannot be ignorant of the rock-concert venue. Either he lacks the courage to change the event, or he believes that heavy metal concerts can be used for good. The latter is what I refer to as the new synthesis.

Dear Cyprian,

I agree with you that something should be done on the Holy See's end so that this doesn't continue to happen. But the text that you quoted from the WYD fact sheet doesn't even come close to saying that it is the responsibility of the Holy See to oversee every single aspect of the WYD. It would be impossible to have a WYD in Australia (thousands of miles away from Rome) without the assistance of the bishop's conference that can deal with the logistics and everything necessary to pull it off. All that the text says is that the WYD was established by Pope John Paul II in 1986.
Therefore, I continue to think that it is not appropriate to make it seem like Pope Benedict XVI was responsible for the headline of the WYD. That's my 2 cents on this subject.

In Christo,
Paulo

PS: Stuff like this http://youtube.com/watch?v=kk_KhRG8J4c that happened 2 weeks ago in Brazil with Bishop Fernando Rifan Apostolic Administrator of the Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney concelebrating in a New Mass bothers me a bit more than this terrible headline. It hurts just to think that many americans give financial and moral support to this bishop. Maybe you should blog about it.

Lets continue to pray for the Church and the True Mass.

Cyprian :

Sorry to hear that Bp. Rifan did it again. This is part of the new synthesis, too.

Back to WYD. I think this can be explained by the distinction of substance and accidence. Who performs, or what genre of rock, are the accidents. The responsibility for the accidents lies with the organizers. That there are rock concerts is the substance. The responsibility for the substance lies with the initiator, which is the Holy See.

You might be right but I look at it a little bit differently. For me the accidentals are the stuff that happens around WYD and the essential is what the Holy Father will say and do in these events specially in the liturgy. Did you know for example that the Holy Father will only give communion to kneeling catholics and on the tong during Mass on Sunday? This has never happened in any WYD events. Things like this is what is essential to me.
See the whole article below:

IN a return to tradition, the Pope will tomorrow offer communion to kneeling Catholics, and preferably on the tongue rather than in the hand.

The final World Youth Day mass at Sydney's Randwick racecourse will attract up to half a million worshippers and will be beamed to as many as a billion viewers around the world.

A firm believer in the importance and beauty of liturgical traditions, the Pope will seek to set an example to a massive audience with his return to pre-1960s ritual.

"The Holy Father has requested that those whom he gives communion to will kneel, and his preference is that they receive communion on the tongue," said Father Mark Podesta, an official World Youth Day spokesman.

However, these preferences will not apply to the crowds at the racecourse, who could be pressed for kneeling space.

"His request is not a mandate for the church, it's merely an indicator," Father Podesta said.

"He is concerned with the question of reverence.

"(Standing and receiving the host in the hand) could be open to irreverence. It's a reminder for those who watch it that this is very special."

The mass will also include a recital in Latin of the Our Father prayer, and a few other words in Latin, Father Podesta added. World Youth Day was an international event, he said, and the language of the church was Latin.

"World Youth Day is about communicating with youth," he said. "The Pope's message will be made in a way that youth can most easily identify with."

Latin was largely lost to Catholic churches after the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican that began in 1962 - which the Pope attended as a young theological adviser.

It permitted masses to be celebrated in the vernacular, much to the horror of traditional Catholics such as the writer Evelyn Waugh, who said the changes made going to church "a bitter trial".

According to a report in the Inside the Vatican magazine, Australia will be one of the first places in the world outside Italy where these changed customs will be used in a papal liturgy.

"Australia is a country well known for lax liturgical practices following in the wake of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, and this was particularly evident during liturgies celebrated by John Paul II on visits there in 1986 and 1995," the report said.

"After criticism of liturgical music at a recent mass celebrated by Pope Benedict in Washington DC, there was much debate over whether, despite an evident return to older customs in the Holy See, liturgical committees would follow a similar pattern in a country like Australia."

In July last year, the Pope issued an apostolic letter announcing greater use of the Tridentine or Latin mass.

World Youth Day director of evangelisation Stephen Lawrence said Vatican II had never demanded the removal of all Latin - it only said that priests could use the vernacular.

"We don't want Latin completely removed," he said. "I think he's keen to make sure the Vatican II implementation actually happens. The common practice up until now is there hasn't been much use of Latin."

Cyprian :

Thanks again Paulo. We're very encouraged with the return to reverent reception of Holy Communion at Papal Masses.

Back to Bp. Rifan. Should we run an article criticizing the bishop for concelebrating the Novus Ordo? Doesn't Pope Benedict concelebrate the Novus Ordo? Why single out Bp. Rifan?

Why single out Bp. Rifan??? That is an easy one. Because it was bishop Rifan who said in the past that "because we are catholics and want to keep with fidelity our faith and catholic identity, we CAN'T participate in the liturgical celebrations of the new Rite of the Mass with it's ambiguous ecumenical character and protestant nature, therefore OFENSIVE to God, Our Lord." Pe F. Rifan (Quer agrade quer desagrade) p.88 Gráfica Lobo, 1999

That is the BIG difference. One used to condemn the New Mass and is now concelebrating it and the other never condemn the New Mass but is working on reforming it and recently assigned the Congregation of Divine Worship to study some necessary changes to make the Novus Ordo more orthodox.

In particular, the Pope is said to have the intention to restore Latin for the formula for the Eucharistic consecration within the Mass in the "vernacular language", i.e. the one celebrated in the different national languages. The same could happen to the formulae of Baptism, Confirmation, Confession and of the other sacraments. In addition, the exchange of peace among the faithful during the Mass, which today takes place prior to the distribution of the Eucharist, could be anticipated (as in the Ambrosian rite) to the offertory so as not to disturb the recollection that precedes Communion.

Cyprian :

Your argument pivots on whether the new Mass is "OFFENSIVE to God" or not.

If it is offensive to God, then both the pope and Bp. Rifan offend God. If it is not offensive to God, then Bp. Rifan misspoke in 1999 and may have subsequently changed his mind. He might have publicly retracted the statement, and if so, we shouldn't use it. In any case, I'll leave the flogging of Bp. Rifan to the trad police.

Well, I guess the same goes for your comments on the WYD headline. Maybe the pope changed his mind about rock music. Last time I checked there is nothing in the Magisterium that explicitly condemns this style of music OUTSIDE of the liturgy.
I guess I'll just leave the flogging of the Pope to you. =)

In Iesu et Maria.

Cyprian :

Great reply, Paulo!

By "trad police" I had in mind an old Remnant article where they tied the bishop to wild horses and dragged him over the Sante Fe trail. It got ugly. In contrast, you've been quite charitable here, especially considering that I've been giving you a hard time!

In the Immaculate Heart of Mary.