(2-26-14)
*****
Summorum Pontificum is the 2007 apostolic letter from Pope Benedict XVI that allowed universal access to the Tridentine Mass and sanctioned the terminology of “ordinary” and “extraordinary” forms of the one Roman Rite
A radical Catholic reactionary who goes by “Vincentius” was bashing me and other converts in the usual empty-headed, ridiculous fashion that we hear so often, on a reactionary discussion board. His words will be in blue:
Protestant pastors and ministers such as Mark Shea, James Akin, Scott Hahn, Gerry Matatics, David Armstrong, et al., who converted, have never completely shed their protestant mindset,
Only Scott Hahn and Matatics were pastors; I was a campus evangelist and apologist. I would love to confront this guy one-on-one, as to who has more Protestant tendencies and beliefs: me or him. That would be fun . . .
but rather these folks believe that “trimmings” of their former faith — an antithesis to the Catholic faith — need to be included as part of a more comprehensive one (subsumed), which in that case, we cannot honestly say that their conversion is totally accomplished, integral and whole. And these people make their living from the Church by giving lectures, seminars, TV appearances (the darlings of EWTN), and put out book after book, presenting their notion of what the Catholic Faith is. Their constant denunciation and assault against traditional Catholics simply demonstrate that they know nothing of the traditional Church. The restoration of the Church will have to exclude them unless they faithfully become Catholic — in every true sense of the word.
I don’t do TV or lectures or seminars, but I do write books. I have received hundreds of reports of folks coming into the Church by God’s grace, partially because of my writing. I’d ask this clown what he has done to help bring people into the Church, and what has caused him to become so pompous, pharisaical, and judgmental?
The Holy Father’s Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum, as expected, has been received with great alacrity and positively by those who long awaited the restoration of the Traditional Latin Mass codified by Pope St. Pius V.
I thought it was great, and lauded it as soon as it came out, since he expressed the position I had held since 1990 at my conversion: complete freedom to attend the Old Mass if one wished to. I had done it myself, and my parish was one of the few in metro Detroit that offered the TLM under the Indult.
Also, as expected, the reactionaries (who hold that the Catholic Church was established by decree of the Second Vatican Council in 1965),
Only an absolute idiot would believe something that stupid. It’s attempted sarcasm, sure, but totally fails, because it’s based on a lie, not the truth . . . In any event, we see the obligatory Vatican II bashing.
have had and are still having their field day in decrying — to say the least, criticizing — the mind and motive of Benedict XVI.
Is that so? How fascinating, then, that at this very moment, I am defending Pope Benedict XVI and Summorum Pontificum against those (either “traditionalists” or radical Catholic reactionaries) who want to declare that the “reform of the reform” is dead. Somehow they lost their great joy in 2007 about Summorum Pontificum and now interpret it as (amazingly) meaning that the pope was actually advocating the extraordinary form while denigrating the ordinary, as they do. So I’m defending what they are supposed to love and I’m supposed to hate, according to this nitwit . . . and already taking plenty of arrows for it from outside observers. How the mighty have fallen!
Among these reactionaries are neo-Catholics
Ah, there is the famous (idiotic) word, coined by sedevacantist Matatics himself (how ironic) and greatly spread by reactionary Chris Ferrara in his trash-talking book, The Great Facade (2002).
who are converts from evangelical and fundamental Protestantism, who, it seems, have not divested themselves of their protestant baggage and completely embraced the Catholic ethos, but have brought this excess baggage along with them after crossing the Tiber.
Is that so? This would have to be unpacked, and is a Big Lie. Sometimes when I have heard this groundless criticism, it’s based on my citing a lot of Scripture in my arguments, as if popes and councils and Church fathers don’t massively do that, and as if Scripture is somehow owned more by Protestants; thus, these critics buy Protestant propaganda that that is the case. Again, extremely ironic. The Catholic view is that we revere Sacred Scripture as much as any Protestant does.
Now that they are “firmly entrenched” and have become bona fide citizens of the City of God, they believe that it is incumbent upon themselves to arrogate the appellation, “Catholic Apologist,” and thus have instituted their interpretation of what Catholicism is.
Wow! We’ve done all that, huh? First of all, I was already part of the Body of Christ by virtue of baptism, according to Trent, not just Vatican II. Lay apologetics is strongly encouraged by the Church, as I have often documented. I need not run through my own credentials, but for starters, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J.: a saintly man whom very few “traditionalists” or reactionaries would dare to disparage (catechist for St. Teresa of Calcutta), wrote the Foreword to my first book way back in 1994. I’ve also had Imprimaturs for my writing, including from my own bishop.
Yes, I am a Catholic apologist, and honored to be so by God’s grace. The apologist defends Holy Mother Church (not his own private version of that). My last book was a defense of Pope Francis, while the reactionaries are running around like mad dogs seeing who can come up with the most ludicrous lie and put him down the most.
Now I am defending Pope Benedict, while those who call themselves “traditionalists” (I call them radical Catholic reactionaries) want to dissent against Summorum Pontificum and pretend that he doesn’t advocate the New Mass as well as the old, as a developed continuity of the Roman Rite. Imagine that!? I’m half-Protestant, yet I vigorously defend this pope and the last (and JPII before them) — a most un-Protestant thing to do — over against the reactionaries. It’s a very strange world, ain’t it?
*****
Photo credit: Pope Benedict 16th’s visit to Genoa on May 18th 2008. Photograph by “Dongio” [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license]
***
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In