Continues.
It is not surprising that the elimination of the Roman Prayer of Episcopal Consecration caused, and causes, some disquiet. It has, of course, been a godsend to sedevacantist controversialists. I imagine they thank God for it daily. But scholars of today, far beyond that narrow constituency, have good reason to feel some discomfort when they contemplate the replacement Consecratory Prayer which was inserted by Coetus XX of Hannibal's post-Consiliar Consilium.
Coetus XX was headed by Dom Bernard Botte, a liturgist of considerable distinction. Unfortunately, however, Botte was the man who had edited - and thus had some personal stake in - the Traditio Apostolica. This is an early third century work which Was written by Hippolytus, a claimant to the See of Rome, and which Does give us a pretty fair picture of the early liturgical tradition of the Roman Church. Except that it Wasn't and it Doesn't. We need not blame Botte for what he believed about 'Aptrad'. Our own beloved Dom Gregory Dix thought the same, and had himself edited this 'venerable' text. Frankly, everybody then thought that it was the bee's knees. But few scholarly revolutions can match the complete reversal in academic consensus, between the 1960s and now, about what Aptrad actually is. My sermon to you today: it is profoundly unwise to gather every egg one can lay one's hands on and cram them all into one single risky basket ... which is what the self-confident liturgical committee-men of the 1960s did. Mesmerised by 'Hippolytus', under the leadership of a scholar who personally and academically had invested a great deal in 'Aptrad', they allowed 'Hippolytus' to provide them with Eucharistic Prayer 2 which, because of its brevity, became overnight the Prayer almost universally employed by celebrants of the 'Roman Rite'. And, from this same dodgy source, they foisted upon the Roman Church Aptrad's Prayer of Episcopal Consecration. Annibale and his turba punica committed the cardinal error of assuming that the scholarly assumptions of their own age were a definitive certainty which would never be overturned. And, in this preposterous over-confidence, they 'Hippolytised' the Roman Rite.
Let me be clear. I do not blame Botte and his collaborators for being wrong. They were bigger men than I am, and I am probably wrong about more things now than they were then. I blame the structures of authority and the assumptions of 'conciliar' omnipotence which allowed the wholesale imposition of the flawed academic fashions of one brief period. As Cardinal Ratzinger did, I blame a post-conciliar pope ... a man who was more than un' poco Amletico.
So are episcopal consecrations according to the 'Hippolytised' Pontifical valid?
Continues.
Oops, ABS posted the uncorrected version.
ReplyDeleteThis is the one meant for posting;
The Second Vatican Council was held in the 1960s, the very same epoch in which man became scientifically sophisticated enough to prepare the world to accept the fake moon landing and if we can successfully fool the world into believing that the moon landing was real then there is no real barrier for us to stop faking that The Lil' Licit Liturgy is part of the continuity of Tradition.
Jettison the Lil' Licit Liturgy and restore The Real Mass as normative.
This isn't rocket science.
from mike hurcum
ReplyDeleteFr I thank you for the second last, or is it the penultimate paragraph concerning and your condemnation of the semi blasphemous misuse of hierarchical power.
Maybe I am missing a great and learned irony in ABS's submission. As I follow his argument, if we free ourselves from conspiracy theory, and accept, as most rational people do, that the Moon landings did indeed occur, then by his logic it follows that the new Episcopal Consecration in indeed valid and within the continuity of Tradition.
ReplyDeleteIs this what he meant to imply? An obtuse path.
I would rather reply upon the principle of indefectibility of the Church - there are fewer and fewer Bishops consecrated by the ancient Rite, and this would mean that we now have very few true bishops, that indeed most of our priests are not ordained, and that soon the Church will cease to be. We have been promised this cannot happen.
I truly pray daily that situation does not arrive. I use Moses prayer for false priests adapted for the New Testament priesthood. I pray that Rome was founded by the Charity of two wolves and thank God for them but I ask that the present wolves in Rome are confounded and sent someplace else. Psalm 107 or 8 starts God do not be silent in my praise for the mouths of wicked and deceitful men are opened against me. The confusion asked for does come, Remember at all times as Teresa Higginson prayer, "Father of All I feign would say as did Your Son most moments of every day My God Thy will be done.
ReplyDelete