4 June 2020

Delens vetusta

Like all right-thinking people, I deplore the intrusion of the Feast of the Lord's High Priesthood into Thursday of the former Octave of Pentecost, because it pushes still further back any rapprochement between the Calendars of the two forms of the Roman Rite.

But the OF propers for this new Feast have an interesting fearure. They appear to favour the view called 'Supersessionist', the doctrine hardwired into the liturgical texts of the last two millennia that the New Covenant fulfills, supersedes, the old (Et antiquum documentum novo cedat ritui).

These new texts employ Hebrews 10:5-10 (a document Cardinal Kasper, for obvious reasons, is said to dislike); and include in one of the hymns the phrase "delens vetusta".

I wonder if this phrase survives into the German translation.

4 comments:

prince Matecki said...

Dear Father Hunswicke,
I am not shure whether the the liturgical directories are really synchronised.The online directories for all german dioceses only give:
Thursday of the 9th week in ordinary time.
The liturgical directory for the teutonic order, which I belong to, gives the same.
The general information in the beginning of the directory gives that I am supposed to respect the local directory of the diocese.
The mess from Cologne cathedral this morning, with a member of the chapter celebrating in novus ordo had the (optional) remembrance of Holy Pope John XXIIIrd.
Interstingly, for a remembrance of martyrs yesterday, Karl Luanga and companions, the same elderly canon of Cologne cathedral went straight into the first (roman) canon including the saints and martyrs, obviosly to put Karl Luanga into the same row and tradition.

Protasius said...

Germany has been very slow with translating liturgical texts; there is as yet, eighteen years and tow popes after the Latin version, no official translation of the 3rd Editio typica in the German tongue (except a study edition of the GIRM). My home diocese, the archdiocese of Paderborn, in her ordo does not indicate the feast of the Lord's High Priesthood at all; however, it mentions the possibility of a Mass of the Lord, High Priest, since today happens to be the first Thursday of the month.

frjustin said...

The Feast of the Lord's High Priesthood on the Thursday of the former Octave of Pentecost does not seem to be of universal observance in the OF. Wikipedia says that approval for the feast was first granted by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 1987.

It is observed by the Confraternity of Christ the Priest in Australia and all the Roman Catholic dioceses of Spain. Since 2013, it has been observed in Poland (Decree, 3 April 2013) in the Netherlands the following year, since 2015 in Czech Republic. Since 2018, the feast is observed in England and Wales.

It is not observed in the US, although, as Protasius says, diocesan Ordines for the US mention the possibility of a Mass of the Lord, High Priest, since that happens to be the first Thursday of the month.

prince Matecki said...

@Proteasius
So at least I m not alone, I was wondering.
I know that we still have no official translation of the missale romanum editio tertia typica. But in the old days you would recieve a sheet of paper in the format of the normal altar missal, with the latin texts of the propers including prefations etc pp, and a translation (declared as provisional). You were supposed to put it into the last fifth of you missal so you could at least adhere to the roman liturgical calendar and any new feast. O tempora o mores. Just forgotten like so many other useful things.
And greetings to my old home diocese. I can still remember serving as a very young boy for H.E. Lorenz Cardinal Jaeger, who had been appointed straight from his function as a military chaplain to the see of the archidocese.