News briefs

Oz news:

The Adelaide Latin Mass community has a new website, http://latinmassadelaide.blogspot.com/;

The Priests - three parish priests who do a three tenors number on the sacred repertoire - arrive in Sydney next week, performing on May 5. You can read more about them on the Sydney Archdiocese website. Or listen to them above (the music starts around 2 mins 44);

The traddie priest (and I imagine laity) caravan is headed to Sydney this week for some ordinations to the priesthood for the Sydney Archdiocese scheduled to be held this Wednesday. Please keep the Revs James McCarthy, Andrew Benton and Julian Belich in your prayers. The Rev. James McCarthy, who was one of the deacons at the WYD Papal Mass, has been studying in Rome, and is scheduled to say a mass of thanksgiving at Lewisham on 7 May at 7pm. Please keep all of the ordinands in your prayers.

Around the blogs:

• Do go take a look at the annual Cannonball blog awards, aiming to recognise the smaller blogs. It has categories like 'best blog by a religious who is not Father Z' and 'best blog by a heretic'!;
  
  
• St Anselm redux - make sure you go read Psallite Sapienter's piece on St Anselm, with extensive - and very pertinent to our times - quotes from Pius X's encyclical on the saint talking about state persecution of Catholicism. Then take a look at Sandro Magister on the latest discussion on the significance of the saint from Rome;
  
  
• On the sung mass as the norm - do have a read of the great post by Fr Mark over at Vultus Christi. It is written in the context of the debate over hymns at novus ordo masses going on in places like the New Liturgical Movement, but much of what he says on the priority of the sung over the low mass, and 'of dialogues, antiphons, psalmody, and acclamations' over hymns is equally applicable to the TLM. And he has some important things to say about the training of priests;
  
  
• New Liturgical Movement also has the results of an interesting quizz on the use of vernacular readings at the TLM. I'm not sure it is really a debate we have to have, but...
  
  
• the debate on the reform of the reform seems to be stepping up a notch with some real engagement by the old guard of entrenched novus ordoists according to a book review by Alcuin Reid over at New Liturgical Movement;
  
  
• Athanasius has a challenging post on gnosticism amongst traditionalists - the idea that we have some secret, superior knowledge - and its effects on discouraging recruitment in attendance at the TLM. And those interested in the question of additional prefaces can also go and argue with him on this topic in his latest post! Here's a quote from his post on the problems of traditionalism for us all to ponder:

"Our goal should be to recover the whole Tradition for the Church, and bring everyone into it. That is where we find the problem. Most Traditionalists don't know the tradition, all they understand is they have a Mass they like and it will be here next Sunday when they come back....

One of the chief arguments against the Novus Ordo is that its feel, the mundane way in which it is celebrated, and the original Latin texts are watered down, and lend themselves to a feel of the religion of man, and often you find people who believe in a superiority of progressivism over tradition, elevating the priest to a presiders chair in the middle up high while relegating our Blessed Lord to a broom closet, and then you find trads acting in the same way.

The fact that God gives us the grace to see the problems in the Church is a sign of His mercy, we are so blind we would not see it without that. It is the case that He wants to exact from us a certain level of humility and prayer to make reparation for the disastrous state of the Church. It is not given merely for our benefit. We are not entitled to it. Without that realization we will not bring forth good fruit, and without fasting and prayer we will not endure on the way. Becoming gnostic about our status and what we have is simply becoming that which we are fighting."