If you haven't seen Fr Zed's piece, you should. He reports the message of our Holy Father to the clergy of Sicily. Lace; bonettas [sic]; grandmothers ... the whole rich panoply of the Bergoglian Magisterium is laid out for your delectation.
My fear is that the Vatican equivalent of the Men In Grey Suits will come and carry him off and abdicate him. And we'll never get a pope to equal him.
I suggest you go and read it fast, before the spoilsports claim it's a forgery and it gets pulled off the internet.
PERSONAL NOTE: I've never possessed a lacey alb or cotta. Until a year or two ago I had a very senior biretta, but I think I accidentally mislaid it when I was last at Lanherne ... and I'd had it since I was deaconed in 1967. I f anyone would like to supply these lacunae, perhaps the simplest way would for them to contact Mr Luzar and arrange matters with him.
12 comments:
have just read Fr Zed's piece and well..... I'm lost for words
Dear Father. About vestments;
"Actually, of course, there is a certain symbolism inherent in the liturgical vestments. The fact that the priest wears garments that are not only better but really quite special, distinct from the garments of ordinary civil life, enhance where possible by the preciousness of the material and by decoration - all this can have but one meaning: that he priest in a sense leaves this earth and enters another world, the shimmer of which is mirrored in his vestments."
Voll 1, page 280 "The Mass of The Roman Rite" Joseph A Jungmann S.J.
Bergogloi might be Pope, but we are familiar with the history of coup d'etat, usurpers, and malicious men in positions of power. Perhaps Archbishop Chaput said it best, when he described the current pontificate as being marked by "an inversion, which comes from Satan" He was never disciplined for that observation, which seems to be quite accurate. Nothing PF does is motivated by the desire to save souls. Everything that PF does is marked by hate, rage, division, and a desire to destroy. He is vulgar and demeaning and unjust in his every action. There is nothing holy about him. In fact PF behaves like a demoniac. All of which is the good news. PF can propose, but God will dispose, in his own time and manner. PF will soon be gone, and will be lamented by nobody. In the meantime, offer up what sufferings that you can, and ignore PF where you cannot morally obey some current ukaze of this shabby regime.
The 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia entry for “Lace” (via the New Advent website) contains the following passage: “The two earliest known specimens of lace-worked linen albs are that of St. Francis, preserved at St. Clare's convent, Assisi, and the alb of Pope Boniface VIII, now in the treasury of the Sistine Chapel. The Assisi alb is said to have been worked by St. Clare of Assisi and her nuns, and to have been worn by St. Francis himself (d. 1226). This alb is of hand-woven linen, very fine in texture, and the tela tirata work introduces no less than twenty varieties of polygonal design. Many of these are formed of the Coptic gammadion or symbol of the cross. Symbolic animals and chimeras are also introduced, and the Eastern character of the design is obvious.” An article by Shawn Tribe, “Medieval Lace Albs of St. Francis and Pope Boniface VIII” in the online Liturgical Arts Journal (July 17, 2019), has a photograph of this alb. It’s still in fine condition, in stark contrast to St Francis’s own religious habit (also extant), a brownish rag held together by a few patches. I hope that the Holy Father, whose choice of a papal name suggests esteem for the great saint of Assisi, will recall that the deacon St Francis believed that nothing, including vestments, was too good for the altar of God.
Thank you. Very well said. It's all very discouraging.
Why not give lace a miss and get some apparels in the liturgical colours from Watts? A fine, plain, linen alb with apparels on its skirt and cuffs along with a suitably adorned amice would give very much a patrimony look!
Some Zed-heads have noted the perils of messing with Sicilian grandmothers.
We once had a traditional Sicilian-American priest preach and offer Mass at a retreat in NZ. I remember him stating: "We Sicilians don't make trouble- we end it."
He had some good one-liners. I'd love to hear his response to PF's latest ramble.
Apart from lace's effeminacy - and it pains me somewhat to admit that I agree with pope Francis here - it defeats the entire point of an alb, surplice or rochet, which is to cover - not reveal - the street clothes of the clergy, that is, the cassock. And yes, apparels are better than lace. The fact that this is even an issue just evidences the decay or even degeneracy, in some respects, even of catholic traditionalism (not wrt faith or morals, of course).
AvB.
Fr. Zed also noted that St. Francis is also the patron saint of Lacemakers.
The Sicilian lace worn by priests and altar servers is for the hems and lower sleeves of albs and cottas, which are of course worn over cassocks, never directly over streetclothes. Lace is also sometimes used for the lower hem of altar frontals and other altar decorations.
Lace ornament is a beautiful, graceful and edifying traditional feature of many regions, not just in Sicily: a counterpart of the filigrane Hispano-Italian architectural application of the Baroque. To those unfamiliar with the southern aesthetic it may well seem strange: but pejorative terms such as 'effeminacy' and 'degeneracy' seem very out of time. (Btw, English distinguishes between 'catholic' in lower case, a mundane adjective meaning eclectic, and Catholic for the religion, the latter always in upper case.)
Cassocks are the street clothes of the clergy. They are not a vestment. Albs, surplices and rochets are. The baroque was decadent (and effeminate) and the artistic harbinger of period of overall liturgical decay. Pugin was correct - "gothic" (better called "the international style") is the true indigenous art form of Latin Christendom, and as such, is superior in principle.
AvB.
There is a church in New York City run by the Palottine Fathers, (Our. Lady of Mount Carmel on 115/116 St)that used to send to Italy for extra priests when they needed them, such as around Christmas, or the annual Feast, or if they were otherwise shorthanded. One of these gentlemen was the pastor of a parish in the city of Naples. He was always well covered in lace, and as a privilege of his status, had red backing behind it- making him look very much like a cardinal. I wonder what the reaction of the Neapolitan people would be if their pastors were degraded to a more ordinary status, and those pastors of the city parishes had to dress as lesser clergy do? I suspect that it would not be a pretty sight.
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