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Home ... the One, True, Holy, Catholic Church
“That
understanding of its sacred dogmas must be
perpetually retained,
which Holy Mother Church once declared; and there must
never be a recession from that meaning under the specious
name of a deeper understanding”
(Blessed Pope Pius IX, 1st Vatican
Council, S.3, C.2 on Revelation, 1870 ex cathedra)
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FOOL!
“But God said to him: Thou fool, this night your
soul will be required of you! And the things you have acquired,
whose will they be?”
(St. Luke
12.20)
To whom is God speaking? For
some who read this now … yes, at this very moment … the answers
is — YOU! Certainly it will one day be you. 100%.
Your priorities suddenly
become quite different, yes?
All your pretensions about the
question of God’s existence — about Heaven and Hell — and about the
way you have lived your life — have come to this: the betrayal
of reality by pretensions that what must be will
not be — and will not come to your door. Not this
night.
The obituaries are filled, row by
row, each day by those whose pretensions — like yours — came to
an abrupt end and reality could be eluded no longer. Don’t
believe me? Open tomorrow’s paper — if you are not in it.
There will be an
accounting — and you think that somehow you alone will be
exempt from it.
Fool!
Do I say this to frighten
you?
No.
God said it —
to save you!
Think on it — and return to
God, to the Church, and to the Sacraments.
The hour is
appointed, and however untimely death, she is never late — and,
strange to say, neither will you be.
I tell you nothing new,
nothing that you have not already known — or at least suspected
— and for all your bravado you move inexorably toward it withal.
“Tomorrow” is a
conjecture at most. Think on that, too.
God is waiting. The next
move is yours — and it may be your last.
You will not hear this from
the pulpit. Sadly it is likely that you have not heard it since Vatican II. But let it
be said, that we may be without excuse:
“Now is the acceptable time.” (2 Cor. 6.2)
For
Heaven’s
sake — and yours — seize it!
Fools that we are, let us not despair!
To despair of the saving love of God is to deny God
for Whom all things are possible
(Saint Matthew 19.26) This is the Parable of the the
Vineyard (Saint Matthew 20. 1-16) — even unto the last moment of our lives on
earth God’s mercy and forgiveness is open
to us!
But for that reason, do not be guilty of the sin of
presumption: thinking that God will save you no matter what, and therefore
do as you will without fear of consequences.
God is loving, but God is also
just.
Let us, then, love God: it
is for
that end that we were created. Not to be successful or powerful or
admired by the world; not to be happy in this life (we will
never be) or free from suffering. Our reason for being is to
love God and to do His will — not ours.
Yes, let us fear Hell — from which Christ delivered all who turn
to Him; those who for His sake deny themselves daily, take
up their Cross, and follow Him (Saint Luke 9.23) against the
raging winds of the world and unseen powers that incessantly
call us to deny Him. This we must not do, for He
has warned us that those who
“deny Me before men, I will also deny him
before My Father who is in Heaven.” (Saint Matthew 10.33)
Yes, Hell is frightfully real — but so is Heaven
where dwells the One Who tells us, “though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though
they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (Isaiah
1.18).
If only we turn to Him, for
“The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us
from all sin.” (Saint John 1.7) and
“Jesus Christ, Who is the faithful witness, the first begotten
of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth, Who hath
loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood”
(Apocalpyse 1.5)
We have nothing to fear — except sin
Avoid it as the deadliest
poison that it is, and hope in the mercy of God. Sin is not only
disobedience to God — it is death to the soul.
We have good reason to fear
Hell because we do not fear sin.
Flee it, and slam the
door on the face of Hell, and him who awaits those who
think it folly.
To God, to Heaven —
there let us fly in a hope that will not disappoint us:
"Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what
things God hath prepared for them that love Him.”
(1 Corinthians 2.9)
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
July 21, 2018
Printable PDF File
Comments? Write us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
Francis as
“the Prince”
and the
Logical Conclusion
of Vatican II
Francis
is the logical conclusion of the Second Vatican Council understood
as the Assisted Suicide of the Church. He is the logical consequent
of nearly every flawed statement, every questionable postulate,
and every sophistical premise either substantive or implicit,
within Vatican II as so many antecedents to a catastrophically
spurious argument. As he himself stated as early as 2013
— but not before a rude slap in the face to all
his predecessors (one still alive: Pope “Emeritus” Benedict):
“In the interview, Francis denounced the
“Vatican-centric” nature of the Holy See administration
and acknowledged that popes past had been infatuated
with the pomp of the
Vatican and its “courtesans.”
and then:
“He said the Second Vatican
Council, the 1962-65 meetings that brought the
church into the modern world, had promised such
an opening to people of other faiths and non-believers,
but that the church hadn’t made progress since
then.”
1
He then went
further, to make the paradoxical claim that:
“I have the
humility and ambition to do so,” he said.”
1
In other words,
“I, Francis the celebrated, acclaimed,
and famously humble and unpretentious — propose to fully
actualize all the nonsense embodied in the equally celebrated
(albeit spurious) ‘Spirit of Vatican II’ because
I alone among
all my predecessors have the real
humility — and ambition — that
they lacked — and the iron will to do so!
Bet on it.”
Let us
ponder that for a moment, for it is fraught with significance.
Does a humble
man boast of his humility? Of course not, for he sees
the contradiction inherent in such a question.
More troubling
still is the question: is ambition consonant with
humility in a pope?
At the apex of power (at which Francis now sits)
ambition can dangerously verge on Machiavellian. As Niccolo
observed in his famous work, The Prince,
“Ambition
is so powerful a passion in the heart, that however high we
reach we are never satisfied.” 1
How Far?
Machiavelli
was a vehement atheist. Francis is an unbridled progressivist
(radical liberal). In both cases, however otherwise divergent,
the pressing question appears identical: “How far can
I go? What can I get away with? To what extent can I push
the limits of this power vested in me? To the point where power
prevails over truth?”
These are serious questions, especially as they pertain
to the Vicar of Jesus Christ on Earth.
Has the Church, as Francis insists, really been stagnant
for 50 years — until the epiphany of Francis who alone
can achieve what Vatican II proposed — because he alone
has the humility to accomplish this, coupled with an
unbending determination? Is there something disconcerting
about this statement? Even contradictory?
What is more, we need only look at the anemic state of the Church
following Vatican II: the dearth of clergy, religious,
seminarians — the aging and emptying pews … to see that no such
“stagnation” in the Church occurred. To the contrary,
prior to Vatican II it was a Church full of vitality
in every conceivable metric — and growing exponentially!
To understand how Francis arrives at this spurious conclusion
we must first understand that Francis is the quintessential
product of a unique generation. He is among the last of
that now dwindling generation (thank God) who themselves were
products of the psychotropic culture of the 1960’s — which,
in our rear-view mirror — is a now barely visible, and from
which we cannot speed away fast enough. It has long begun
to fade to fatuity. Most of us have, by now, come to our senses
and recognize this.
A Deadly Age
It was a deadly
age, a noxious age whose poison still leeches into Western society.
At a given stratum it will be percolated through reason,
eventually strained of its poison, and become the historical
nonsense it was — even if it contaminated so much and so many
lives before it was bleached out of our consciousness and finally
became innocuous , together with the psychedelic caricature
of a reality it had never known. Timothy Leary, et alia, “Turned
on, tuned in, dropped out” and in alignment with his not-so-famous
literary micropiece “Design for Dying — Dying? Throw a House
Party! ” — dropped dead.
The Age of Aquarius and the Psilocybin
mushroom are dead and what is left of that sad crop are dying
leaves on a withering tree, fretted by songs still strummed
by the arthritic hands of the elderly on guitars three times
the age of the audience. They are pathetic figures clinging
to a youth that betrayed them to an old age that wasn’t supposed
to happen in the euphoric Flower Days.
In truth it was a miserable age that opiated America; an age that filled
the valleys and made the mountains low — for the coming of
the Flower Child who littered it with filth. It was Woodstock
after the rain and the music stopped: a wasteland of plastic
trash, condoms and roach clips.
The Segue into
Vatican II
Same time, same culture, same euphoria, same mantra against inhibition, same
contempt for authority, same disdain for absolutes. It was the
time to experiment with society, with minds, and — most
sadly — with souls. While students occupied the chancellor’s
office at the university, “liberated” Catholic theologians,
together with Avant-guard bishops and their ecumenically requisite
Protestant advisors occupied the Vatican.
“The Establishment” was shut out — in academic, ecclesiastic
and civil society. “Old school” was out. “New school” was in:
a new and radical school of theology and spirituality; new interpretation,
“exegesis”, “hermeneutics”, and now “discernment”. “Dogma”
became “anathema” and “anathema” was finally scrubbed from the
Catholic lexicon altogether: both became something pejorative:
nothing was incontrovertibly true (itself a reflexive contradiction).
Latin as an Ecclesiastical Marker or Identifier was out. Banality was in.
Priests spoke the vernacular and finally realized that they
had nothing to say. Homily became comedy. Comedy became skit.
The Guitar is King! — no longer Christ Jesus.
And the only Choir we know is not of Angels: they ceased their
accompaniment with us when “Liturgists” discarded Gregorian
Chant in favor of the insipid ditties of Marty Haugen who is
Lutheran or the “Saint
Louis Jesuits (not all of whom remain Jesuits, or priests, or
even Christians.”1)
No going back: DNR and the
Church as a Hospice
New vestments, new language(s), new Mass, new spirituality that emphasized
man through a unilateral (Catholics gave up virtually
everything. Protestants relinquished nothing) effort at a newly-reformulated
notion of “ecumenism” instead of salvation. Nun’s and
Sister’s Habits were shortened, then abbreviated, then thrown
out. The new “cool” was the collarless priest, the unidentifiable
Sister. The various “Conferences of Catholic Bishops” (which
have no binding authority) became social, then political. The
Church effectively became the
“field hospital” envisioned by Francis — but it was also the only patient —
mortally wounded, and strapped to it was the purple rescript
DNR (“Do Not Resuscitate or Revive”) upon the inauguration
of Francis as pope with a ready hand on the plug. Vatican II,
it turns out, was really an act of Assisted Suicide as
Francis has more than amply demonstrated and the Church has
become less a “field hospital” than a hospice. “Better that
the one true Church die than acknowledge our mistakes and return
to the business of saving souls as we had done for the
2000 years preceding Vatican II.”
But even the model of a hospice is inadequate, for after the
last Catholic dies, the hospice itself altogether ceases to
be. This is nihilism — not Catholicism — and it has been for
some time.
The Birth of
Theo-Politics
Theo-politics
was born. Peace, Poverty, Immigration, Inclusiveness, Equality,
Linguistic Neuterization in the Liturgy, Feminism, and “Ministries”
without meaning or number became the New Evangel.
“The salvation
of souls”?
Not a chance. That outdated mandate belonged to the 2000 years
prior to the Second Vatican Council — and is something of an
embarrassment to contemporary Catholic priests, theologians,
scholars, and … yes … laymen. Ask yourself: when was the last
time you so much as even heard that phrase at Church?
Modernism — that
“synthesis of all heresies” — replaced every
vestige of the theological concept of Tradition
that is inseparable from the identity of the Church especially
as it is articulated through infallible Church Teaching and
Dogma.
The Kingdom of God became the Polity of Man. Language
was purged of “salvation”, “soul”, “Hell”, “Penance”,
“repentance”, “Mary”, woman, virgin, man, he, she, her, hers,
his, gender, evil, the devil, conversion, sin,
suffering, chastity, mortification — anything that stifled
the desires of men and the ambitions of women. Heaven now has
Open Borders — and they are coterminous with earth.
A Replica or
a Counterfeit?
We built a simulacrum, a meretricious and largely plastic replica of the Kingdom
of Heaven and placed in on earth — complete with electric votive
candles. And yet, for all its semblance we secretly fear
it is counterfeit. It is little wonder that we fear dying
and leaving our Kingdom … for, perhaps, another
and fabled Kingdom of which we heard long ago where Someone
else ruled and in which the totality of man did not abide,
given his sin, selfishness, cruelty, malice and indifference
to God — a place of ceaseless Light and no fire divided from
a chasm of ceaseless fire with no Light.
But we know that Vatican II — or at least it’s true “spirit” abolished
all that 50 years ago. “Everyone and everything goes
to “Heaven” — despite the explicit teaching of
Christ to the contrary (Saint Matthew 7.13-14).
Does this
appalling vision offend you? Have I injured your “sensibilities”?
Reality is like
that — much like the “Reality TV Shows” that you probably watch.
Not every episode has a good ending. Many do not even have a
good beginning — much like Vatican II — and even more apropos
of the spectacle that is Francis as its culmination.
__________________________________________
1
Associated
Press
http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2013/10/pope_francis_urges_reform_want.html
2
https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otr.cfm?id=3844
3
Niccolo
Machiavelli — The Prince
Geoffrey K. Mondello
for the Boston Catholic Journal
April 19, 2018
Printable PDF Version
Comments? Write us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
ROMAN MARTYROLOGY
Monday July 23rd
in the Year of Grace 2018
Time after Pentecost
This Day, the Twenty-Third Day of July
The birthday of the holy bishop Apollinaris,
who was consecrated at Rome by the Apostle Peter, and sent to Ravenna,
where he endured for the faith of Christ many different tribulations.
He afterwards preached the Gospel in Aemilia, where he converted many
from the worship of idols. Finally, returning to Ravenna, he terminated
his confession of Christ by a glorious martyrdom under the Caesar Vespasian.
At Le Mans, in France, St. Liborius, bishop and
confessor.
At Rome, St. Rasyphus, martyr.
In the same city, the martyrdom of St. Primitiva,
virgin and martyr.
Also, the holy martyrs Apollonius and Eugenius.
The same day, the birthday of the holy martyrs
Trophimus and Theophilus, who received their crown of martyrdom
by being beaten with stones, scorched with fire, and finally struck
with the sword, in the time of the emperor Diocletian.
In Bulgaria, many holy martyrs whom the
impious emperor Nicephorus, whilst he was devastating the churches of
God, put to death in various ways by the sword, the halter, arrows,
long imprisonment, and starvation.
At Rome, the saintly virgins Romula, Redempta,
and Herundines, mentioned by Pope St. Gregory in his writings.
In the same city, the departure from this life of
St. Bridget, widow, whose sacred body was
taken to Sweden on the 7th of October. Her feast is celebrated on the
8th of that month.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors,
and holy virgins.
Omnes sancti Mártyres,
oráte pro nobis. ("All ye Holy Martyrs, pray for us", from the
Litaniae Sanctorum, the Litany of the Saints)
Response: Thanks be to God.
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Roman Martyrology
by Month
Why the
Martyrs Matter
Each day we
bring you a calendar, a list really,
of the holy Martyrs who had suffered
and died for Christ, for His Bride the
Church, and for our holy Catholic Faith;
men and women for whom — and well they
knew — their Profession of Faith would
cost them their lives.
They could have repudiated all three
(Christ, Church, and Catholic Faith)
and kept their lives for a short time
longer (even the lapsi only postponed
their death — and at so great a cost!).1
What would motivate men, women, even
children and entire families to willingly
undergo the most evil and painfully
devised tortures; to suffer death rather
than denial?
Why did they not renounce their Catholic
Faith when the first flame licked at
their feet, after the first eye was
plucked out, or after they were “baptized”
in mockery by boiling water or molten
lead poured over their heads? Why did
they not flee to offer incense to the
pagan gods since such a ritual concession
would be merely perfunctory, having
been done, after all, under duress,
exacted by the compulsion of the state?
What is a little burned incense and
a few words uttered without conviction,
compared to your own life and the lives
of those you love? Surely God knows
that you are merely placating the state
with empty gestures …
Did they love their wives, husbands,
children — their mothers, fathers and
friends less than we do? Did they value
their own lives less? Were they less
sensitive to pain than we are? In a
word, what did they possess that we
do not?
Nothing. They possessed what we ourselves
are given in the Sacrament of Confirmation
— but cleaved to it in far greater measure
than we do: Faith and faithfulness;
fortitude and valor, uncompromising
belief in the invincible reality of
God, of life eternal in Him for the
faithful, of damnation everlasting apart
from Him for the unfaithful; of the
ephemerality of this passing world and
all within it, and lives lived in total
accord with that adamant belief.
We are the Martyrs to come. What made
them so will make us so. What they suffered
we will suffer. What they died for,
we will die for. If only we will! For
most us, life will be a bloodless martyrdom,
a suffering for Christ, for the sake
of Christ, for the sake of the Church
in a thousand ways outside the arena.
The road to Heaven is lined on both
sides with Crosses, and upon the Crosses
people, people who suffered unknown
to the world, but known to God. Catholics
living in partibus infidelium, under
the scourge of Islam. Loveless marriages.
Injustices on all sides. Poverty. Illness.
Old age. Dependency. They are the cruciform!
Those whose lives became Crosses because
they would not flee God, the Church,
the call to, the demand for, holiness
in the most ordinary things of life
made extraordinary through the grace
of God. The Martyrology we celebrate
each day is just a vignette, a small,
immeasurably small, sampling of the
martyrdom that has been the lives of
countless men and women whom Christ
and the Angels know, but whom the world
does not know.
“Exemplum enim
dedi vobis”, Christ said to His
Apostles: “I have given you an example.”
And His Martyrs give one to us — and
that is why the Martyrs matter.
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Contributing Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
Note: We suggest that you explore
our newly edited and revised
“De SS. Martyrum Cruciatibus — The Torments
and Tortures of the Christian Martyrs”
for an in-depth historical account of
the sufferings of the Martyrs.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE ROMAN
MARTYROLOGY
By
J. Cardinal
Gibbons, Archbishop Baltimore
THE ROMAN MARTYROLOGY is an official
and accredited record, on the pages of which are
set forth in simple and brief, but impressive words,
the glorious deeds of the Soldiers of Christ
in all ages of the Church; of the illustrious Heroes
and Heroines of the Cross, whom her solemn verdict
has beatified or canonized. In making up this long
roll of honor, the Church has been actuated by that
instinctive wisdom with which the Spirit of God,
who abides in her and teaches her all truth, has
endowed her, and which permeates through and guides
all her actions. She is the Spouse of Christ, without
spot or wrinkle or blemish, wholly glorious and
undefiled, whom He loved, for whom He died, and
to whom He promised the Spirit of Truth, to comfort
her in her dreary pilgrimage through this valley
of tears, and to abide with her forever. She is
one with Him in Spirit and in love, she is subject
to Him in all things; she loves what He loves, she
teaches and practices what He commands.
If the world has
its
“Legions
of Honor”,
why should not also the Church of the Living God,
the pillar and the ground of the truth? If men who
have been stained with blood, and women who have
been tainted with vice, have had their memory consecrated
in prose and in verse, and monuments erected to
their memory, because they exhibited extraordinary
talents, achieved great success, or were, to a greater
or less extent, benefactors of their race in the
temporal order, which passeth away, why should not
the true Heroes and Heroines of Jesus, who, imitating
His example, have overcome themselves, risen superior
to and trampled upon the world, have aspired, in
all their thoughts, words, and actions, to a heavenly
crown, and have moreover labored with disinterested
zeal and self-forgetting love for the good of their
fellow-men, have their memories likewise consecrated
and embalmed in the minds and hearts of the people
of God? If time have its heroes, why should not
eternity; if man, why should not God?
“Thy
friends, O Lord, are exceedingly honored; their
principality is exceedingly exalted.”
Whom
His Father so dearly loved, the world crucified;
whom the world neglects, despises, and crucifies,
God, through His Church, exceedingly honors and
exalts. Their praises are sung forth, with jubilation
of heart, in the Church of God for ages on ages.
The wisdom of the
Church of God in honoring her Saints is equaled
only by the great utility of the practice thus consecrated.
The Saints are not merely heroes; they are models.
Christ lived in them, and Christ yet speaks through
them. They were the living temples of the Holy Ghost,
in whose mortal bodies dwelt all the riches of His
wisdom and grace. They were in life consecrated
human exemplars of divine excellence and perfection.
Their example still appeals to our minds and to
our hearts, more eloquently even than did their
words to the men of their own generation, while
they were in the tabernacle of the flesh. Though
dead, they still speak. Their relics are instinct
with sanctity, and through them they continue to
breathe forth the sweet odor of Christ. The immortality
into which they have entered still lingers in their
bones, and seems to breathe in their mortal remains.
As many an ardent, spirit has been induced to rush
to the cannon's mouth by reading the exploits of
earthly heroes, so many a generous Christian soul
has been fired with heavenly ardor, and been impelled
to rush to the crown of martyrdom, by reading the
lives and heroic achievements of the Saints and
Martyrs of Christ. Example, in its silent appeal,
is more potent in its influence on the human heart
and conduct than are words in their most eloquent
utterances.
The Church knows
and feels all this, in the Spirit of God with whom
she is replenished ; and hence she sets forth, with
holy joy and exultant hope, her bright and ever-increasing
Calendar of Sanctity of just men and women made
perfect and rendered glorious, under her unearthly
and sublime teachings. In reading this roll of consecrated
holiness, our instinctive conclusion is, precisely
that which the great soul of St. Augustine reached
at the very crisis of his life, the moment of his
conversion
“If
other men like me have attained to such sanctity,
why not I? Shall the poor, the afflicted, the despised
of the World, bear away the palm of victory, the
crown of immortality, while I lie buried in my sloth
and dead in my sins, and thus lose the brilliant
and glorious mansion already prepared for me in
heaven? Shall all the gifts, which God has lavished
upon me, be ingloriously spent and foolishly wasted,
in the petty contest for this world's evanescent
honors and riches, while the poor and contemned
lay up treasures in heaven, and secure the prize
of immortal glory? Shall others be the friends of
God, whom He delights to honor, while I alone remain
His enemy, and an alien from His blessed Kingdom?”
It is a consoling
evidence of progress in the spiritual life in this
country to find the Martyrology here published,
for the first time, in English, and thereby made
accessible, in its rich treasures of Sanctity, to
all classes of our population. It will prove highly
edifying and useful, not only to the members of
our numerous religious Communities of both sexes,
but also to the laity generally. Every day has here
its record of Sanctity; and there is scarcely a
Christian, no matter how lowly or how much occupied,
who may not be able to daily peruse, with faith
and with great profit, the brief page of each day's
models of Holiness. These belong to all classes
and callings of life; from the throne to the hovel,
from the Pontiff to the lowest cleric, from the
philosopher to the peasant, from the busy walks
of life to the dreary wastes of the desert.
Let all, then, procure
and read daily the appropriate portions of this
Martyrology. Its daily and pious perusal will console
us in affliction, will animate us in despondency,
will make our souls glow with the love of God in
coldness, and will lift up our minds and hearts
from this dull and ever-changing earth to the bright
and everlasting mansions prepared for us in Heaven!
Imprimatur,
J. Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop Baltimore, Maryland
1916
Printable PDF
Version
THE APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION
“QUO
PRIMUM
”
(and what
“Forever”
really means)
“From
the very first,
upon Our elevation to the chief Apostleship,
We gladly turned our mind and energies
and directed all out thoughts to those
matters which concerned the preservation
of a pure liturgy, and We strove with
God's help, by every means in our power,
to accomplish this purpose. For, besides
other decrees of the sacred Council
of Trent, there were stipulations for
Us to revise and re-edit the sacred
books: the Catechism, the Missal and
the Breviary. With the Catechism published
for the instruction of the faithful,
by God's help, and the Breviary thoroughly
revised for the worthy praise of God,
in order that the Missal and Breviary
may be in perfect harmony, as fitting
and proper —
for it is most
becoming that there be in the Church
only one appropriate manner of reciting
the Psalms and
only one rite for the
celebration of Mass
— We deemed
it necessary to give our immediate attention
to what still remained to be done,
viz, the re-editing of the Missal
as soon as possible.
Hence, We decided to entrust this work
to learned men of our selection. They
very carefully collated all their work
with the ancient codices in Our Vatican
Library and with reliable, preserved
or emended codices from elsewhere. Besides
this, these men consulted the works
of ancient and approved authors concerning
the same sacred rites; and thus
they have restored the Missal itself
to the original form and rite of the
holy Fathers. When this work
has been gone over numerous times and
further emended, after serious study
and reflection, We commanded that the
finished product be printed and published
as soon as possible, so that all might
enjoy the fruits of this labor; and
thus, priests would know which prayers
to use and which rites and ceremonies
they were required to observe from now
on in the celebration of Masses.
Let all everywhere adopt and observe
what has been handed down by the Holy
Roman Church, the Mother and Teacher
of the other churches, and let
Masses not be sung or read according
to any other formula than that
of this Missal published by Us.
This ordinance applies
henceforth, now, and
forever,
throughout all the provinces of the
Christian world, to all patriarchs,
cathedral churches, collegiate and parish
churches, be they secular or religious,
both of men and of women — even of military
orders — and of churches or chapels
without a specific congregation in which
conventual Masses are sung aloud in
choir or read privately in accord with
the rites and customs of the Roman Church.
This Missal is to be used by all churches,
even by those which in their authorization
are made exempt, whether by Apostolic
indult, custom, or privilege, or even
if by oath or official confirmation
of the Holy See, or have their rights
and faculties guaranteed to them by
any other manner whatsoever.
This new rite alone is to be used
unless approval of the practice of saying
Mass differently was given at the very
time of the institution and confirmation
of the church by Apostolic See at least
200 years ago, or unless there has prevailed
a custom of a similar kind which has
been continuously followed for a period
of not less than 200 years, in which
most cases We in no wise rescind their
above-mentioned prerogative or custom.
However, if this Missal, which we have
seen fit to publish, be more agreeable
to these latter, We grant them permission
to celebrate Mass according to its rite,
provided they have the consent of their
bishop or prelate or of their whole
Chapter, everything else to the contrary
notwithstanding.
All other of the churches referred to
above, however, are hereby denied the
use of other missals, which are to be
discontinued entirely and absolutely;
whereas, by
this present Constitution,
which will be valid henceforth, now,
and
forever,
We order and enjoin that nothing must
be added to Our recently published Missal,
nothing omitted from it, nor anything
whatsoever be changed within it under
the penalty of Our displeasure.
We specifically command each and every
patriarch, administrator, and all other
persons or whatever ecclesiastical dignity
they may be, be they even cardinals
of the Holy Roman Church, or possessed
of any other rank or pre-eminence, and
We order them in virtue of holy
obedience to chant or to read the Mass
according to the rite and manner and
norm herewith laid down by Us
and, hereafter, to discontinue and completely
discard all other rubrics and rites
of other missals, however ancient, which
they have customarily followed; and
they must not in celebrating Mass presume
to introduce any ceremonies or recite
any prayers other than those contained
in this Missal.
Furthermore, by these presents [this
law], in virtue of Our Apostolic authority,
We grant and concede in perpetuity that,
for the chanting or reading of the Mass
in any church whatsoever,
this Missal is hereafter to be followed
absolutely, without any scruple of conscience
or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment,
or censure, and may freely and lawfully
be used. Nor are superiors,
administrators, canons, chaplains, and
other secular priests, or religious,
of whatever title designated, obliged
to celebrate the Mass otherwise than
as enjoined by Us. We likewise declare
and ordain that no one whosoever is
forced or coerced to alter this Missal,
and that
this present document
cannot be revoked or modified,
but remains always valid and retain
its full force
notwithstanding
the previous constitutions and decrees
of the Holy See, as well as any general
or special constitutions or edicts of
provincial or synodal councils, and
notwithstanding the practice and custom
of the aforesaid churches, established
by long and immemorial prescription
— except, however, if more than two
hundred years' standing.
It is Our will, therefore, and by the
same authority, We decree that, after
We publish this constitution and the
edition of the Missal, the priests of
the Roman Curia are, after thirty days,
obliged to chant or read the Mass according
to it; all others south of the Alps,
after three months; and those beyond
the Alps either within six months or
whenever the Missal is available for
sale. Wherefore, in order that
the Missal be preserved incorrupt throughout
the whole world and kept free of flaws
and errors, the penalty for
nonobservance for printers, whether
mediately or immediately subject to
Our dominion, and that of the Holy Roman
Church, will be the forfeiting of their
books and a fine of one hundred gold
ducats, payable ipso facto to the Apostolic
Treasury. Further, as for those located
in other parts of the world, the penalty
is excommunication latae sententiae,
and such other penalties as may in Our
judgment be imposed; and We decree by
this law that they must not dare or
presume either to print or to publish
or to sell, or in any way to accept
books of this nature without Our approval
and consent, or without the express
consent of the Apostolic Commissaries
of those places, who will be appointed
by Us. Said printer must receive a standard
Missal and agree faithfully with it
and in no wise vary from the Roman Missal
of the large type (secundum magnum
impressionem).
Accordingly, since it would be difficult
for this present pronouncement to be
sent to all parts of the Christian world
and simultaneously come to light everywhere,
We direct that it be, as usual, posted
and published at the doors of the Basilica
of the Prince of the Apostles, also
at the Apostolic Chancery, and on the
street at Campo Flora; furthermore,
We direct that printed copies of this
same edict signed by a notary public
and made official by an ecclesiastical
dignitary possess the same indubitable
validity everywhere and in every nation,
as if Our manuscript were shown there.
Therefore, no one whosoever
is permitted to alter this notice of
Our permission, statute, ordinance,
command, precept, grant, indult, declaration,
will, decree, and prohibition. Should
anyone dare to contravene it, know that
he will incur the wrath of Almighty
God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter
and Paul.”
Given at St. Peter’s
in the year of the Lord's Incarnation,
1570, on the 14th of July of the Fifth
year of Our Pontificate.
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