Saint Vincent de Paul: escaped captivity under the Muslims and re-converted an apostate

From his very boyhood, Vincent de Paul, born at Pouy in Gascony, was remarkable for his great charity toward the poor. Called from the care of his father's flock to the study of letters and then ordained to the priesthood, he fell into the hands of the Turks, who took him captive into Africa. With his master, an apostate whom he had won back to the faith of Christ, he escaped and went back to France. In the parishes entrusted to him and then as chaplain of the galleys, he zealously undertook the work of the salvation of souls. As diréctor of the Visitation nuns for about forty years, he governed them most wisely. Even in his old age, he worked untiringly for the evangelization of the poor, especially of those who lived in the country. He had founded a Congregation under the name of the Secular Priests of the Missions, and he bound them to this apostolic work by a perpetual vow confirmed by the Holy See. He established many associations for seeking out and aiding the unfortunate and for the education of girls. At length, worn out by bodily mortification, labours and old age, he peacefully fell asleep in the Lord in the year of salvation 1660. Famous for his miracles, he was placed among the Saints by Clement XII, and Leo XIII declared and appointed him the special heavenly patron of all charitable associations in the whole Catholic world which trace their origin in some way to him.

Supreme Liturgical Authority speaks out in groundbreaking text: Summorum Pontificum provides equal standing for both Forms, conditions for participation at Traditional Mass same as in new Mass

Supreme Liturgical Authority, in groundbreaking text, says:

- Summorum Pontificum provides equal standing for both Forms

- Conditions for participation at Traditional Mass same as in new Mass

On July 25, 2013, feast of the Patron Saint of Spain, Saint James the Greater, Cardinal Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, put his signature on the preface to a remarkable work, the doctoral thesis presented by his fellow Spaniard, Fr. Alberto Soria Jiménez, O.S.B., dedicated to a profound canonical consideration of the juridical nature of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, its dispositions related to the forms and uses of the Roman Rite, and the history that led to it.

Fr. Soria is a monk in the abbey of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen (Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos), a Solesmes foundation near the Spanish capital, and his thesis was defended and approved at the Faculty of Canon Law of the University of San Dámaso, the main house for the formation of priests and theologians owned by the Archdiocese of Madrid, on May 29, 2013. The thesis was published just days ago by Spanish publisher "Ediciones Cristiandad" under the title "The Principles of Interpretation of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum" ("Los principios de interpretación del motu proprio Summorum Pontificum"), which is why the Cardinal's text has only now become available.

Cardinal Cañizares' preface is a long presentation of the book, and it obviously includes many references to the work itself – but what makes it particularly special is the depth of the Cardinal’s appreciation for the motu proprio, and his defense (which had always been defended by those of us deeply appreciative of the nature of Summorum Pontificum) that what the motu proprio established in law was nothing less than the juridical equality of both forms of the Roman Rite. It is a groundbreaking text and we have translated below the most important excerpts of the Spanish original. _____________________________________________

 PREFACE OF CARDINAL CAÑIZARES TO THE DOCTORAL THESIS OF FR. ALBERTO SORIA JIMÉNEZ, O.S.B.

We find ourselves before a work that tackles, scientifically, a theme has in the past few years been the object of heated controversies. Nevertheless, from its very beginning two characteristics of this work must be considered: its academic character and the belonging of the author to a community that is faithful to the great principles of the liturgy, but in which the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite is not celebrated. This has allowed him to observe the situation "from the outside," rendering possible the great objectivity reflected in its investigation.

The conception, clearly present both in the motu proprio and in the documents related to it, that the inherited liturgy is a wealth to be preserved, is to be understood in the spirit of the liturgical movement in the line of Romano Guardini, to which Benedict XVI owed so much of his personal relationship with the liturgy since his youth. The detailed and documented history of the process, from its beginnings in the 1970s up until today, that the author of this work presents to us, shows how this legislation was not the momentary result of pressure, not a reflection of the personal and isolated opinion of the Pope, but rather that other persons had long wished for a similar solution. These criteria of the young priest Joseph Ratzinger were consolidated and purified throughout the years, and were taken up by John Paul II, who had considered the possibility of providing appropriate legislation.

The mood among the cardinals designated to reflect upon this theme was favorable [Rorate note: reference to the 1986 commission - cf our 2007 post on the revelation by Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos]. The cardinalatial commission established by John Paul II, in which the influence of Cardinal Ratzinger was undeniable, had proposed to, "eliminate the impression that each missal is the temporal product of each historic epoch," and had affirmed that, "liturgical norms, not being truly and properly 'laws,' cannot be abrogated, but sub-rogated: the preceding ones in the subsequent ones." The demonstration, present in this investigation, that the attitude of Benedict XVI is not so much a novelty or a change of direction, but rather an accomplishment of what John Paul II had already undertook -- with initiatives such as the consultation of the cardinalatial commission, the motu proprio Ecclesia Dei, and the creation of the Pontifical Commission of the same name, the mass of Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos in Santa Maria Maggiore in 2003, or the declarations of the pope to the Congregation for Divine Worship that same year -- is very important.

The history of the process reveals that, from the beginning, the wish to preserve the traditional form of the mass was not limited to integrists, but that people of the world of culture or writers, such as Agatha Christie and Jorge Luis Borges, signed a letter demanding its preservation, and that Saint Josemaría Escrivá made use of a personal indult granted spontaneously by Abp. Bugnini himself. It is also to be noted the concern of Benedict XVI to emphasize that the Church does not discard her past: by declaring that the Missal of 1962, "was never juridically abrogated," he made manifest the coherence that the Church wishes to maintain. In effect, she cannot allow herself to disregard, forget, or renounce the treasures and rich heritage of the tradition of the Roman Rite, because the historical heritage of the liturgy of the Church cannot be abandoned, nor can everything be established ex novo without the amputation of fundamental parts of the same Church.

Another important aspect comes from the reading of the historical narrative in this work: the advances that have taken place throughout these years regarding the pastoral sensibility for these faithful, the greater attention to their persons and to their spiritual welfare. In effect, the legislation was at first [Rorate note: "Agatha Christie" Indult, personal indults, Quattuor abhinc annos, Ecclesia Dei adflicta] very limited, it took into account only the clerical world and it practically ignored the lay faithful, considering that the first concern was disciplinarian: to control the potential disobedience to the newly promulgated legislation. With time, the situation took on a more pastoral aspect, in order to meet the needs of these faithful, which ends up being reflected in the strong change of tone of the terminology being used: it is thus that the "problem" of the priests and faithful who remained attached to the so-called tridentine rite is not mentioned anymore, but rather the "wealth" that its preservation represents.

What was thus created was a situation that was analogous to the one that had been normal for so many centuries, because we must recall that Saint Pius V had not forbidden the use of the liturgical traditions that were at least 200 years old. Many religious orders and dioceses therefore preserved their own rite; as Archbishop of Toledo, I was able to live this reality with the Mozarabic Rite. The motu proprio modifed the recent situation, by making clear that the celebration of the extraordinary form should be normal, eliminating every restriction [todo condicionamiento] related to the number of interested faithful, and not setting up other conditions for the participation in said celebration than the ones normally required for any public celebration of the mass, which allowed for a wide access to this heritage that, while it is by law a spiritual patrimony of all the faithful, is, in fact, ignored by a great part of them. In effect, the current restrictions to the celebration in the extraordinary form are not different from those in place for any other celebration, in whatever rite. Those who wish to see, in the distinction made by the motu proprio of cum and sine populo a restriction to the extraordinary form forget that, with the missal promulgated by Paul VI the celebration cum populo without the authorization and agreement by the parish priest or rector of the church is not allowed either.

On the other hand, the possibility, expressly contemplated in the motu proprio, that in the celebration sine populo the spontaneous presence of faithful be admitted without obstacles (an expression that had provoked more than one ironic remark by the critics of the document) simply allowed for the end of the strange circumstances by which, though celebrated by a priest in a completely regular canonical situation, this mass remained closed to the participation of the faithful simply because of the ritual form being used, form that was on the other hand fully recognized by the Church. The situation of the 1970s -- in which priests who could not adopt the new missal for reasons of health, age, etc, were condemned to never again celebrating the Eucharist with a community, as small as they could be -- was also prevented, which would be seen, according to the current sensibility, as discriminatory. On the other hand, to deliberately restrict the mass cum populo, limiting in practice the celebration of the extraordinary form sine populo, would contradict the words and intentions of the conciliar constitution: "... whenever rites ... make provision for communal celebration involving the presence and active participation of the faithful, this way of celebrating them is to be preferred, so far as possible, to a celebration that is individual and quasi-private." (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 27)
...

It is for this reason that it is absolutely unfounded to state that the prescriptions of Summorum Pontificum should be considered an "attack" against the Council; such an affirmation displays a great ignorance of the council itself, because the fact of offering to all the faithful the chance of knowing and appreciating the multiple treasures of the liturgy of the Church is precisely what this great assembly desired when it declared: "in faithful obedience to tradition, the sacred Council declares that holy Mother Church holds all lawfully acknowledged rites to be of equal right and dignity; that she wishes to preserve them in the future and to foster them in every way (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 4)
...
Another aspect to which this work we present calls attention, and that it is urgent never to lose sight of, is the negative repercussion that these intra-ecclesial debates can have in the field of ecumenism. Amidst the controversy, it is often forgotten that the criticisms made against the rite received from the Roman Tradition also apply to the other traditions, first of all to the Orthodox: almost all liturgical aspects that those who have been opposed to the preservation of the ancient missal strongly attack are precisely the aspect that we had in common with the Eastern Tradition! A sign that confirms this, in contrast, are the enthusiastically positive expressions that arrived from the Orthodox world with the publication of the motu proprio. This document becomes in this way in a key aspect for the "credibility" of ecumenism because, according to the expression of the president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the Unity of Christians, Cardinal Kurt Koch, "it promotes in fact, is we may call it thus, an 'intra-Catholic ecumenism.' " We could consequently say that the premise ut unum sint presupposes the ut unum maneant, in such a way that, as said Cardinal writes, "if the intra-Catholic ecumenism failed, the Catholic controversy on the liturgy would also extend to ecumenism."

Benedict XVI displayed, with his legislation, his fatherly love and understanding for those who are especially attached to the Roman liturgical tradition and who risked becoming, in a permanent way, ecclesially marginalized; it is in this way that, speaking of the matter, he clearly recalled that, "nobody is in excess in the Church," showing a sensibility that anticipated the concern of the current Pope, Francis, for the "existential peripheries." All these undoubtedly present a strong sign for the separated brethren.

But the motu proprio also produced a phenomenon that is for many astonishing and is a true "sign of the times": the interest that the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite elicits, in particular among the young who never lived it as an ordinary form and that manifests a thirst for "languages" that are not "more of the same" and that call us from new and, for many pastors, unforeseen horizons. The opening-up of the liturgical wealth of the Church to all the faithful made possible the discovery of all treasures of this patrimony to those who still ignored them, with which this liturgical form is stirring up, more than ever, numerous priestly and religious vocations throughout the world, willing to give their lives to the service of evangelization. This was reflected in a concrete way in the pilgrimage to Rome last November [2012], in gratitude for the five years of the motu proprio, that assembled pilgrims from all over the world under the suggestive motto "Una cum Papa nostro" and that was, due to its great display, its large attendance, and, above all, due to the spirit that inspired its participants, a measurable confirmation of how correct was this legislation, the result of so many decades of maturation.

The strongest impression left after the reading of this work is that the juridical structure founded by the motu proprio is not limited to being the answer to a problem limited in time, but that is is rather supported upon permanent theological and liturgical principles, thus creating a solid and well-defined juridical situation that makes the matter independent from both currents of opinion and arbitrary decisions. In this way, while, for ones and others, the problem and the debate for years surrounded a judgment on a matter that was ultimately one of a historical nature, Benedict XVI, above the "theoretical" debate, tried to emphasize the need to reach theological coherence and, above all, to obtain an important pastoral result. ...

In fact, if from both forms of the celebration spring up clearly the unity of the faith and the oneness of the Mystery, this can only be a reason for profound joy and gratitude. Therefore, the better the liturgy is lived, each one in his own form, with an openness of heart that overcomes exclusions and prejudices, then it will be possible to live that, "unity in the faith, freedom in the rites, charity in all." ...

We entrust to the Mother of God the age of grace in which we are living. She will lead us to the Son, in whom we can trust. It will be He who will guide us, including in turbulent times, so that we may rediscover the path of faith and thus enlighten each time more clearly the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ. Contributing to this end will undoubtedly be the present book of Fr. Alberto Soria, O.S.B., a great work of research that will render important service to liturgical reconciliation and, consequently, to the new evangelization, and to a unity that is each day greater, real, and effective, in the bosom of the Church. Once again my most cordial congratulations and my greatest gratitude to its author for this magnificent work, a great service that otherwise so proper to a son of Saint Benedict.

Antonio Cañizares Llovera
Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the
Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
Rome, July 25, 2013
Saint James the Apostle, Patron of Spain _____________________________

- We thank Paix liturgique, via Yves Daoudal, for bringing our attention to the text, which we translated directly from the Spanish original, available at the Abbey website (en español).

- Since the original text is very long, it is possible that some excerpts of the original text may be included as updates to the above translation in the near future -- we believe, nevertheless, that we have included the most important aspects of the text.

Source: Rorate Caeli

Saint Henry, Emperor and Confessor, "the Pious", protector of the Pope and founder of bishoprics

Henry, surnamed the Pious, was first Duke of Bavaria, then King of Germany, and finally Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. He devoted himself zealously to the spread of religion. The bishopric of Bamberg, which he had founded with his family wealth, he made tributary of St. Peter and the Roman Pontiff. He received Benedict VIII when he was a fugitive and restored him to his See. To protect the Roman Church, he undertook a war against the Greeks and recovered Apulia, which they had held for a long time. Protected by divine aid, he fought the barbarian nations more with prayers than with force of arms. When Hungary was still pagan, he gave his sister in marriage to its king, Stephen, who was baptized and brought the whole kingdom to the faith. Henry joined matrimony with holy virginity, and when he was near death he restored St. Cunegunda, his wife, as a virgin to her family. Finally, even more famous for his holiness than for his temporal rule, he was called to the reward of the heavenly kingdom in the year 1024, and was added to the number of the Saints by Eugene III.

Saint John Gualbert: Reconciled to a mortal enemy through the Sign of Christ's Holy Cross

John Gualbert, born of a noble Florentine family, took up a military career at his father's wish. His only brother, Hugh, was slain by a relative, and it happened that on Good Friday, attended by armed soldiers, John met the slayer alone and unarmed on the road where they could not avoid each other. Because of John's reverence for the sign of the holy Cross, which his enemy, seeing death at hand, made with his arms in supplication, John graciously spared him and received him as a brother. Then he went to the Church of St. Minias, where, as he adored the Crucified, the image bent its head to him. Moved by this, he gave up the military life and, at the persuasion of St. Romuald, then living in the hermitage of Camaldoli, he put on the monastic habit. Later he founded a monastic Order under the Rule of St. Benedict in Vallombrosa, which had as its primary aims to do away with the stain of simony and to promulgate the apostolic faith. Full of virtues and merits and blessed with the companionship of Angels, he went to the Lord in his seventy-eighth year, the 12th day of July, 1073, at Passignano.

When it comes to gestures that restore the grace of Faith, "the customer is always right".

Remember the old saying, "The customer is always right"? When it comes to Faith I believe that well-worn adage holds true. If a parishioner says a simple phone call can restore Faith then I say, whenever in doubt, make the call.

God uses simple human contact to bring us into an experience of His compassion and love. All we need to do is to cooperate with His grace and miracles can happen.

A story from Fox News about a woman who called the Vatican after her son died to say that she lost her Faith makes the point well:

"On Friday, weeks after Nicolo made the call, she awoke at 6:40 a.m. to find a missed call and voice message on the cellphone sitting in her living room from a man — speaking in accented English — who identified himself as a representative from the Vatican.

"The voice of an older man, who Nicolo believes is the Pope, can be heard in the background at the beginning of the recording.

"A Vatican spokesman could not immediately confirm if it was indeed His Holiness in the background on Nicolo’s message, but she is taking it on faith.

“' I missed it by 10 minutes,' she said. 'I couldn’t believe it. I had to play it several times.'

" 'I’ve always loved my faith, but when your child is taken, you can’t help but question it,' said Nicolo, who described herself as a devout Catholic. 'It renewed my faith and belief in God.'

"After receiving comfort from the Holy See, her faith has been restored. “ 'I want him to know I love him. He has helped me so much in my time of grief. There are no words to describe what this phone call has done for me.' "

If you dress better for work than you do for Mass don't expect your children to think Mass is more important than work. #SundayBest

— Father Kevin Cusick (@MCITLFrAphorism) June 4, 2014

On the Occasion of the 30th Jubilee of the Fordham Class of ‘84

By Father Kevin M. Cusick Welcome class of ‘84, spouses, family and friends. This Mass is the occasion for expressing through Faith our gratitude for our years at Fordham and to thank Almighty God for the blessings our formation and education have brought into our lives. Things have changed a lot since 1984. Don’t they always? There are even new ways of bridging time through memory as I found in my recent experience: through a smartphone, a post on Twitter by an Italian man, and a video on Youtube on the internet, all of which did not exist in the 1980's, I viewed something I witnessed firsthand together with many of you in September, 1981: the Central Park reunion concert of Simon and Garfunkel. At the time for me it was a mere "event" and the place to be because 500,000 other people thought the same thing. Now it serves as a window into the past, my past and ours, and with that trip back in time the emotions, even a sense of loss. Confronting the passage of years in any way brings us against the barriers and limitations imposed upon us by time. We need a bridge over those waters. Looking back in Faith, however, enables us to see even now that Christ was and is the “bridge”. Some of you may remember the Sunday night Masses at 10 pm in the University church crowded with young believers, many of us among them. Another memory which is we encounter it through time past shows us that even then the Lord was at work through our Faith. Priests and the Pope are often referred to as a "pontifex" or bridge builder. That is because our role is to serve your Faith so that Christ becomes the bridge of our lives, here on earth with heaven as the goal. There is no greater distance possible than that between here and heaven and it is one we cannot span by ourselves. God builds the bridge for us if we cooperate with Him through incorporation of our lives in His Son who by dying destroyed our death and rising restored our life. The darkest line of that song Art Garfunkel sings so beautifully is, "I'm on your side, oh, when times get rough and pain is all around, like a bridge over troubled waters I will ease your mind." As some of you know I have served in the military as a veteran and chaplain for over 20 years now, and one of the most difficult pastoral challenges I faced was to help a widow and her children bury their young husband and father. My grief was great as well because he was a very close friend of mine on board the aircraft carrier IKE as a faithful Catholic man. Each of us have our own stories to tell of the troubled waters that shake the foundation of our lives and beyond which we must find a bridge if we are to carry on: the death of a parent, spouse or child: so much more real in comparison from the mere ripples that disturbed our very blessed days during our youth here at Fordham: studying for exams or trying to find a date for the senior ball. And the death of our Fordham classmates for whom we pray today in a particular way at the Lord's Altar. And that is now where we turn for it is Christ in fact who has been our bridge through Faith over troubles great and small, more evident through the lens made possible by our mature Catholic Faith and therefore also now the Divine Object of our greater love and worship. "I'm on your side": now, more than ever, over thirty years after experiencing that concert in Central Park as a young Fordham student together with so many others, this song is essentially for me about Christ, the "pontifex", the One who builds the “bridge over troubled waters" through the grace of Faith. Today as I celebrate this holy Mass, a Holy Sacrifice which is also "ours" because we all offer this prayer through the grace of our Baptism, we do so for all of you and for our Fordham College '84 classmates living and deceased. I rejoice in the Faith that bridges every distance forced upon us by time because in Him whom we have believed we touch Eternity. As we go up to the Lord's Altar for the Eucharist let us ask that our Faith may be in Him always for each of us this daily and lifelong bridge over the passing waters of time toward His eternity. Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.