Sunday, August 11, 2019

An Interview with Stephen Bullivant

CWR: Why have Catholics in the UK and US been leaving the Church since Vatican II? by Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille

Theologian and sociologist Stephen Bullivant says a big part of his argument in Mass Exodus is “that the ‘social architecture’ that had sustained and strengthened Catholic life and identity was well on the road to passing away by the time the Council came along.”

Friday, August 09, 2019

Thursday, August 08, 2019

Upholding the Monoepiscopate: One City, One Bishop



What powers does a bishop have that a presbyter doesn't, and why should the bishop have those powers instead of the presbyter? What about scale? (Or "subsidiarity"?) Does unity of Christians in a geographical area require the monoepiscopacy, or can it be achieved through synodality with a limited primacy for one?

A Translation of Barth



English.OP.org

Digitization of Mount Athos Treasures

Wednesday, August 07, 2019

A Dominican Rite First Mass

Archbishop Gullickson on Liturgical Restoration

Jared Ortiz on the Latin Tradition of Deification

Public Orthodoxy: How Catholics Have Always Believed and Taught Deification

The People of God



It goes on to recognize an ecclesiology that sees the sacrament of Baptism as the foundation of the vocation and ministry of every Christian, clergy and laity alike. Thus all the People of God together constitute a single community.

And what of chrismation? No one wants to touch that question - why not? Byzantines and others could easily become polemical with respect to Latin pastoral practice regrading confirmation.

the document

Not Abolished Yet





Edited.
UGCC News

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Necessity?

What is meant by "sinless flesh" here? Is it the same as corruptible? And is it to be identified only with the consequences of Adam's sin on the body, or is there more to it than that (e.g. effects on the soul)?

CWR: The Immaculate Conception Revisited by Dr. Leroy Huizenga

The necessity of the Immaculate Conception does not demand an infinite regress of sinless ancestors, nor does the dogma’s necessity involve ecclesiastical voluntarism. Rather, it’s a necessary part of the Catholic conception of the economy of salvation.



Klaus Hemmerle, Theses Towards a Trinitarian Ontology



New Trinitarian Theologies

Thomas Joseph White #17: What is perichoresis? (I, 42, 5)

Alasdair MacIntyre: Absences from Aquinas, Silences in Ireland

Monday, July 29, 2019

An Encouragement from Rome

But one that is unnecessary and should be undesired.

Honest Historiography as a Path to Reconciliation

CWR: Newman and the problems of Catholic intellectual history by Adam DeVille
With every passing year, I am more and more convinced that too many problems within the Church today, and between Christians, are both historiographical in nature.

A Review of The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter

First Things: Word for Word by Paul V. Mankowski

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Christos Anesti

Christ the Pantocrator

What Notion of Sacrifice?



Compare with:
The Usefulness of Leviticus: Sacrifice for Catholics by Peter Kwasniewski

Debt (and Satisfaction)

Iconography of Byzantine Lead Seals

WCC Article on Its New Chaplain

Questions on Authority in Liturgy

From "Reflections on authority in liturgy today" by Dom Alcuin Reid:

Earlier I asserted that there was a disturbing issue in respect of Pope Pius XII’s exegesis of the premise lex orandi, lex credendi in Mediator Dei whereby he asserts that it is the rule of belief which determines the rule of prayer, and not the other way around. When this was published in 1947 the dangers inherent in this reversal may not have been all that apparent. Sadly, they have become all to clear in the ensuing decades.

For if the Sacred Liturgy (its rites, prayers, chants, and associated arts, etc.) are a “a constitutive element of the holy and living Tradition,” this organism, as handed on in tradition, is itself an essential source for experiencing the Faith and for knowing and reflecting upon what we believe: the Sacred Liturgy is itself theologia prima.5 However, if what we believe determines the rule of prayer, the liturgy can (or ought to) be refashioned according to changes in theology so as to reflect the latter. It is no longer a primary source of theology, but its mirror.

Again, this may not have seemed so dangerous a thing to say in 1947, but by 1967 when what Catholics believed seemed at best to be in flux and at worst in utter turmoil, its potential to underpin a concomitant liturgical revolution was clear. Indeed by 1977 this principle’s potential had been exploited at the official level with a new set of liturgical books reflecting a new theology. At a local level, with very little exercise of liturgical discipline by competent authority, there were extremes: Catholic liturgy was widely regarded as a subjective matter for the local community to “plan,” using even the modern liturgical books with all their options as mere resources rather than receiving them as containing the liturgy given by the Church to be celebrated faithfully. What was believed determined how we prayed: the divergent paucity of the former informed the radical diversity of the latter. There were notable exceptions, of course, but this problem was widespread in both parishes, seminaries and religious communities and, as we know, it manifested itself no more clearly than in the realm of liturgical music.

1. What if a tradition is not being prayed, as was the case for those faithful who did not understand Latin? Monastics and clerics might understand it, but should the normative value of the liturgy rest solely on their participation? How can the sensus fidei/fidelium be exercised properly if the lay people do not understand it? How can there be legitimate development of the liturgy in such an ecclesial environment?

2. What is the source of legitimate development and how is it recognized? (Who has the authority to create or authorize new texts, but the bishops?) Is episcopal approval sufficient, or do the new texts need to be properly received by the Christian faithful as well?

For monastic communities in which all members understand Latin the reception of new liturgical texts composed by members within those communities may not be problematic. Is it enough that they are then adopted by secular priests or bishops for them to be legitimated?

3. Theologia prima - in light of (1) and (2) do we need to re-evaluate the usefulness of the axiom "Lex orandi, lex credendi" or whether it is correct or how it should be understood? How can one pray without not first believing? How can the liturgical texts be put on the same level as Sacred Scripture or oral Tradition? This might be true of the primitive Christian liturgical texts, but is it also true of those texts that replaced them or were added to them?

I am aware that Latin traditionalists are critical even of Mediator Dei but at the moment I cannot see how their concerns are justified because of the above.

4. For me there is also the recurring question of what "sacrifice" means, and how this word has been employed within texts of the Roman rite. Has it been used properly?

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Halki Seminary



Appealing to Vatican II on Participation?

Anyway, on to this part:

His Beatitude Sviatoslav gave two pieces of advice, which he received as a seminarian from his spiritual father Lubomyr Husar. "These tips have personally helped me a lot. The first thing he said - go to the Divine Services as a meeting. Not as a performance, but as a meeting ... We go to the Liturgy, not only to learn something there, to get some information, but to meet God. Moreover, to meet God Who wants to serve me. For Divine Liturgy is a moment when He descends from Heaven to serve me. Therefore, we call it the Service of God," convinces His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

And the second piece of advice: "Go to a meeting with God with this mood: 'God wants to say something to me, and I have to hear.' Believe me, if you go to the Service of God as to something new and different each time, God will speak to you. For the Lord God speaks. There are no two identical Divine Liturgies," says the spiritual leader of Ukrainians.

"And when you go out of worship, ask yourself: 'What did God say to me today?' You will see that you will come out of such a meeting with a full heart and a special word that God says to you," says His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

Who approaches whom? Just a note I wanted to make for continuing research on the notion of sacrifice.

His Beatitude Sviatoslav advised how to revive the Liturgy
Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav at a meeting with the youth during the national pilgrimage to Zarvanytsia shared his advice on how to enliven the Liturgy.


Orthodox Inculturation

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Moscow

One may sigh with some relief that there is some ecclesial sanity in Moscow.

Interfax: Metropolitan Hilarion doesn't consider Moscow "the third Rome" (via Byz, TX)

Sensus Fidei

Is it really helpful to the patriarchate of Rome to have an "International Theological Commission" composed only of Latin theologians?

Anyway, I came across the document by the ITC which I will read more carefully: SENSUS FIDEI IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH* (2014)

The Angelicum











Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Cardinal Mueller on the Amazon Synod Working Document

CNA/CWR: Full text of Cardinal Mueller’s analysis on the working document of the Amazon synod
Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, who was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 and 2017, presented an analysis with a series of [...]

The Angelicum Library



More on the Reform of the Roman Curia

Sandro Magister: Documents. The Two Key Chapters of the Draft On Curia Reform

The Catholic, Apostolic Church

A Voice from the Isles