FINALLY! I can rant about a rant!

Thank goodness to the Varsitarian for putting this out.  I met a Dominican priest who promised me to give a copy of the proceedings on the UST talk about the New translation of the Missal and the ongoing Liturgical Reform.

I have heard how the old guy ranted and here is the Varsitarian's take on what happened.

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A BENEDICTINE liturgist has criticized Pope Benedict XVI for trying to turn back the clock in bringing back the old liturgy, saying the growing movement promoting a “reform of the reform” was threatening to derail changes brought by Vatican 2.  [And aint those changes soooo beneficial to the Church, right Fr. Anscar?  Go to the Muslim lands and find out for yourself!]

“Dark clouds are forming ominously on the Western horizon. They move hurriedly and decisively toward the direction of the sun that burns radiantly in the sky. They cast upon it stronger shadows to hide it from view. Suddenly it is dusk, before the appointed time. In reality of our day, the realness is called by the passing clouds. This cannot put the clock back to yesterday’s evening hours,” Fr. Anscar Chupungco, O.S.B. said in his speech during the 2nd Annual Edward Schillebeeckx Lecture last February 22 at the UST Hospital auditorium.  [The lecture was named after a dissident Dominican theologian.  And here the liturgist who got booted out of Sant Anselmo is ranting.  Will tell you the personal reasons why this is not a purely liturgical or theological matter.]

The forum discussed the Vatican’s recent approval of the new English translation of the Mass, which takes effect on Advent in the United States.

Other priests in the forum, such as Fr. Mitchell Joe Zerrudo of the Diocese of Cubao and Jesuit Fr. Timoteo Ofrasio, welcomed the changes in the English version of the Roman Missal, which adhere to the Latin and are closer to the biblical texts. [And you might wonder why the old man is ranting!]

“In general, the new translation of the Roman Missal will be more formal and theologically deeper, more provocative emotionally and intellectually,” Ofrasio told students of the Central Seminary and the Ecclesiastical Faculties.  [And that is something wrong that Chupungco is hitting hard?]

Ofrasio said there was a need to preserve the Mass and guard against tendencies to tinker with the liturgy. [Uh-oh.  The dreadful Misa ng Sambayanang Pilipino comes to mind.  That awful liturgy is a complete concoction from the cauldron, ehem, desk of THAT liturgist which an old cardinal, who was promoted by THAT GUY UPSTAIRS to become HIS VICAR ON EARTH, prevented, according to my sources in Rome, from being allowed to be said in the Philippines.  Oooooo!  No matter he is so cranky!  Imagine the stress he was since April 2005.  Ha!]

The traditionalist movement in the Church, which is critical of changes in the Mass following the Second Vatican Council, scored a victory [Huh?] in 2007 when the Pope issued the “motu proprio” Summorum Pontificum. The decree liberalized the use of the Traditional Latin Mass, or the Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal, in which the priest and the congregation offered Mass facing one direction.  [because John Paul II ordered a commission of cardinals to study if the Second Vatican Council or Paul VI juridically abrogated the Missal of Pius V.  The findings of the commission?  No law was put out banning the old Missal, not even Vatican II.  And guess who is one of the cardinals?  Yup.  Joseph Ratzinger.]

The 1970 New Order of the Mass released by Pope Paul VI in the wake of Vatican 2 permitted the use of the vernacular in the liturgy, with the priest facing the people.  [which is an abuse because Sakosakong Kutsilyo, uhm, Sacrosanctum Concilium said "may" not "must" face the people.  Look at the rubrics of the 1970 Missal.  It instructs the priests when to face the people.  What does that mean?]

Last year, the Vatican approved the new English translation of the Mass of Vatican 2, which, critics claim, contained a number of errors. Pope John Paul II last revised the New Mass in 2000, but the English edition had to wait until the release of translation guidelines in 2007 in 2007.

Chupungco, head of the Paul VI Institute of Liturgy in Malaybalay, Bukidnon, [petri dish of liturgical dissenters in the Philippines] placed the changes in the context of the liturgical “reform of the reform” pushed by Benedict XVI even before he became pope. [Ha?  What?  Who?]

He said there was a need to distinguish between papal decrees and the “theological musing” of Joseph Ratzinger, who, as head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope John Paul II, wrote the celebrated book Spirit of the Liturgy, which decried abuses in the aftermath of Vatican 2.  [So does that change the fact that the guy who had liturgical musings is now sitting on Peter's Chair?  GROW UP!  Wait till you become Pope!  Which...you know...will..NEVER HAPPEN!  Because..tick...tock...tick...tock...As Father Z says, the biological solution is catching up on you.]

In the book, Ratzinger said changes in the liturgy undermine the sacrificial nature of the Mass as worship, placing the focus on the priest and tending to celebrate the community.  [No wonder the fans of Fr. Chupungco hate candles and the crucifix on the altar because it abstracts the face of the priest.  No wonder Fr. Chupungco does not want ad orientem aka ad Dominum worship here in the Philippines!  Did you come to the Mass to look at each others faces from across the table?]

But Chupungco, who had served as president of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in Rome and consultor to the Congregation for Divine Worship and Congregation for Catholic Education, [Wow!  With all those credentials, they think he looks better and more credible than being the Prefect of CDF, theologian, cardinal and pope?  If ever you were an HR guy, who would you hire?  NEXT!]  said these moves were coming at the expense of “active participation,” pointing out that the old prayers and language had long been discarded. [NOT!  Here he goes again.  For the likes of Chupungco and his ilk, active participation is bordering on the laicization of the liturgy, a blurring of the roles of the ordained and the baptized.  The laity almost always becomes like the priest.  Ever see the army of EMHCs in your Sunday Mass?  He thinks this is all nostalgia.  Well, it is not.  Lex orandi, lex credendi.  What you see is what you get.  No wonder more Catholics today do not even value life or even support the RH Bill, because nothing today is held sacred thanks to the work of Chupungco and his padawans who trivialized the Mass and made it more of an entertainment showcase and a social gathering rather than becoming a silent but active witness to the Sacrifice of Calvary!]

It’s too simplistic to claim that before Vatican 2, many churchgoers became saints by simply going to Mass, he said. [Who ever said that?  Remember that there are a lot of bad guys and good guys before Vatican 2 as well as after Vatican 2.  Non sequitur!  NEXT!]

“The agenda is an attempt to retrieve the discarded liturgical practices and paraphernalia, sometimes at the expense of active participation,” he said. “This movement has entered the Philippine shores, those that manifest the use of the defunct Latin language [Huh?  Law schools use Latin.  The scientific community uses Latin.  Well, maybe an interdict will be even issued to this dissident in Latin.  How is that for defunct?  Who is now defunct huh?] and the singing of distant generations. It is no longer a requirement to understand what is said, sung, or read,” Chupungco said.  [No longer required?!?!  THEN WHY ARE OUR SONGS AND PRAYERS IN THE VERNACULAR?!?!?!  Or because he is ranting because liturgical innovators like him will be out of a job?  Remember, the Traditional Mass is precise in its rules and rubrics.  No room for creativity and dancing, aka active participation.  See where this is all coming from?]

Chupungco said liturgical tradition is not necessarily Church Tradition (with the capital “T”) that must be preserved through the ages. The need to emphasize the sacred nature of the Mass need mean involve turning back the clock, he added.  [Here is the paradigm of these Bugnini spawns.  Everything that happened before Vatican 2, bad.  Everything that they did, especially after Vatican 2, good.  So, for them the liturgical innovations that crept into the Traditional Latin Mass does not help to emphasize the sacred nature of the Mass so his brand of Mass and inculturation (belch!) of the liturgy makes the Mass more, God help me write the next word!, SACRED?  Good grief!]

“The liturgy does not need to be backtracked to its early context that was understood after the Council of Trent, which the Pope is trying to revive, but should be “in the atmosphere of mysterium tremendum et fascinans (a mystery that creates fear and yet fascinates).”  [Like his Misa ng Sambayanang Pilipino?  NOT!]

Meanwhile, Ofrasio, a professor of systematic theology at the Loyola School of Theology, said it was the Church’s prerogative to promote “renewed evangelization.” 

Pointing to various liturgical innovations, he said the Mass is not “free [for priests] to tinker with and change depending on their understanding.”  [Special delivery and served to Fr. Anscar!  BOOM!]

“The Mass is a treasure entrusted to them by the Church which they must cherish, guard, and preserve,” Ofrasio said. “The Mass that they celebrate is not their Mass. It is the Church’s, given to them, entrusted to them by God through the Church. [The priest] is just a steward.”  [Compare it with the Misa ng Sambayanang Pilipino!]

Zerrudo, parish priest of the Lord of the Divine Mercy Parish in Quezon City, said: “We should not be afraid of the coming of the new translation.”

He said the new translation of the liturgy also called for a new translation of music for the Mass using the Latin liturgical text.

“Much of the liturgical reform is really academic – the books, the prayers, the rites were studied, revised, and rearranged by experts,” Zerrudo said.

Zerrudo, whose parish offers the Traditional Latin Mass every day, is an alumnus of the Central Seminary.

The Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan is taking the lead, implementing some changes in the Mass effective March 9, Ash Wednesday.  [And why is the CBCP silent on this?  Because Fr. Diwa is sitting as the Executive Secretary of the CBCP Commission on the Liturgy.  And, oh, he is Fr. Chupungco's protege.]

“The English translation of the third edition of the Roman Missal will soon receive the approval of the Holy See to be used for the entire Philippines. Even before the actual implementation of the new English translation, some phrases and responses in the Order of the Mass have been decided on by the Apostolic Instruction Liturgicam Authenticam foremost among which is the translation ‘Et cum spiritu tuo’ which was translated in the 1970 Missal as ‘And also with you,’” Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in a circular last February 11.

As a result, the new response to the priest’s greeting, “The Lord be with you,” is “And with your spirit.”

Before the consecration, when the priest says “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God,” the people’s response is “It is right and just,” instead of “It is right to give him thanks and praise.”[The Cebuanos actually got this right.  But why the Tagalogs did not?  Because the Tagalogs based it on the wrong English translation and not on the Latin.  Guess the Cebuanos know Latin more than the Tagalogs?  But...but...but...isn't that DEFUNCT?  HA!]

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With all this rant and attacks against the Holy Father, let us judge the photos shall we?

Here is what Fr. Chupungco wants. Active participation and inculturation.

And here is what he hates.

Which gives you more a sense of the sacred?

Is he suffering from a case of cognitive dissonance or it is simply a case of an axe to grind against the man who cost his job?

If he is really the great liturgists that he is, then what has he done to stop liturgical abuse in the Philippines, huh?

Hate to see a brilliant mind go cranky!

Such a waste!