Tomorrow, Tuesday, I shall be off ... Deo volente et trenis* permittentibus ... to hear the Mighty and most Eminent Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke addressing the English Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, at the Brompton Oratory.
A man who truly merits the ancient Christian technical term of Confessor. Entirely and confidentially just between ourselves, I think of him as Leo XIV.
It occurs to me that 6 January 2020 will be twenty five years since his Eminence was consecrated Bishop, and embarked upon an Apostolic career which has been so timely, so necessary, and so fruitful in the life of the Catholic Church. (Incidentally: Cardinal Burke's episcopal 'pedigree' includes Prospero Lambertini, aka Benedict XIV; and Henry Cardinal Stuart, quondam Duke of York, aka Henry IX, King de jure of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland.)
Comes the time, comes the man! Behold the man!
Eis polla ete, Despota! Ad multos annos, plurimosque annos!
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*Well, 'hamaxostichis', according to the Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis. But I prefer the more linguistically and philologically relaxed process of adopting the modern Italian term. Recondite coinages from the Greek seem to me to smell rather of the Bibliotheca. And in daily use, I rather suspect that a cumbersome five-syllable word would, in any real language, get abbreviated or adapted very quickly. You travel on a hamaxostichus if you like; I'll catch the treno. If the omnibus (the pasi?) gets me to the station on time ...
Dear Father. ABS and The Bride were at The Brompton Oratory several years ago to assist at Lil' Licit Liturgy in Latin and while the singing of the Oratorians was smashing, chopping the offertory's head off (along with other prayers) does seem way out of place for that place.
ReplyDeleteIs The Real Mass ever offered there?
I must admit that for me the jury is still out on Cardinal Burke. He was archbishop of St. Louis and thus followed Peter Richard Kenrick, who opposed ultramontanism and refused to support the declaration of papal infallibility. Cardinal Burke has never said anything pertinent on this burning issue. The Vatican Council I of course was adjourned before the council could defined the infallibility of the Church throughout its hierarchy including the way within the infallible church the laity has also a role. Fr. Robert Murray SJ, explained this long ago in an essay. I do not recall whether it was published in the Heythrop Journal or New Blackfriars. But it explained the infallibility of the pope as expressing just one way in which council articulated the infallibility of the church, marking its apostolic character to which St. Paul gave voice whenever he described an item of doctrine as a "pistos logos." Cardinal Burke's behaviour in St. Louis indicated he was definitely not of the same mind as Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick. In fact, Raymond Cardinal Burke forced St. Stanislais Kosta out of the church through his insistence that it conform to current post. Vatican I canon law. His action in this case reminds us of the present pope's attempt to grab the assets of the Franciscans of the Immaculate.
ReplyDeleteCardinal Burke has backed Vatican II without any qualms until the present supreme pontiff booted him from the Apostolic Signatura. Yet Vatican II is the problem for any traditional Catholic. It is of course not prudent for a prelate to come out against it. His only protest seems to revolve around its recommended strictures on episcopal attire, particularly the cappa magna. The latter garment he dons on every seemingly appropriate occasion. Many of our brothers and sisters seem to believe that he is the voice of traditional Catholicism on the basis of this alone. Of course, when he Bishop” Burke of La Crosse, Wisconsin, he is said to have allowed a genetic male to be accepted as a religious in a congregation co-founded by “her” in the 1990s, the so-called “Franciscan Servants of Jesus”.
Finally, let us not forget what the Brompton Oratory has always represented in English Catholic life: the spirit of ultramontanism, epitomized in Cardinal Manning, no great friend of Blessed John Cardinal Newman. I would dine with his eminence with an extremely long spoon. He and his cohorts will be of interest only if they succeed in ridding us of the present menace to Catholicism and the suppression of Vatican II, followed by a definition of the infallibility of the Church in fuller sense than was possible at the time of Vatican Council I.
What's wrong with 'via ferrea' as in the Roman Ritual?
ReplyDeleteAh, Signor Mussolini. At least he made them run on time.
Didn't have the energy to face the treni from east Kent and go to the Mass last night. Was hoping it would appear on Youtube. I know, not the same thing.
ReplyDelete