The Novus Ordo Missae A Review Article #4

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1 The Novus Ordo Missae A Review Article #4 Dear Friends in the Faith, We thought, with all the confusion spreading in the last year or so regarding the New Mass, that a few short pages dedicated to the Novus Ordo Missae would be helpful. The SSPX used to do a great job reinforcing and explaining these issues but for several years now have been silent (on this and many other issues) so that people are beginning to forget the inherent disorders within the N.O. (also known by the English Translation New Order Mass, or New Mass for short). Let us preface by saying volumes could be written about this one topic and thus it is extremely challenging to attempt to narrow it down to only a few paragraphs. We will endeavor to do so without too much pain for all our sakes. Let us begin at the beginning. The old Latin Roman rite we all know and love: From roughly the time of St. Gregory (d.604) we have the text of the Mass, its order and arrangement, as a sacred tradition that no one has ventured to touch except in unimportant details. - Fr. Adrian Fortescue The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy (1912) p. 173 Our Mass goes back, without essential change, to the age when it first developed out of the oldest liturgy of all. It is still redolent of that liturgy, of the days when Caesar ruled the world and thought he could stamp out the faith of Christ, when our fathers met together before dawn and sang a hymn to Christ as to a God. The final result of our enquiry is that, in spite of unsolved problems, in spite of later changes, there is not in Christendom another rite so venerable as ours. - Fr. Adrian Fortescue The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy (1912) p. 213 So we see from these two short passages that since the earliest times, there has been little alteration at all in the Liturgy of the Mass the most important prayer of our Faith. This fact is of paramount importance. Further: The Missal of St. Pius V was compiled and published in 1570 in obedience to the Fathers of the Council of Trent. This is the Missal that is used today whenever the Traditional Mass of the Roman Rite, commonly called the Tridentine Mass, is celebrated rather than the Mass of Pope Paul VI found in his 1970 Missal....The intentions of the Fathers of the Council of Trent were well expressed by Fr. Fortescue: The Protestant Reformers naturally played havoc with the old liturgy. It was throughout the expression of the very ideas (the Real Presence, Eucharistic Sacrifice, and so on) they rejected. So they substituted for it new communion services that expressed their principles but, of course, broke away utterly from all historic liturgical evolution. The Council of Trent ( ), in opposition to the anarchy of these new services, wished the Roman Mass to be celebrated uniformly everywhere. It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the importance of the traditional Roman Missal from any standpoint. Dr. Anton Baumstark ( ), perhaps the greatest liturgical scholar of this century, expressed this well when he wrote that every worshiper taking part in this liturgy "feels himself to be at the point which links those who before him, since the very earliest days of Christianity, have offered prayer and sacrifice with those who in time to come will be offering the same prayer and the same sacrifice, long after the last fragment of his mortal remains have crumbled into dust. Those who reflect upon the nature of the mystery of the Mass will wonder how men dare to celebrate it, how a priest dares to utter the words of Consecration which renew the sacrifice of Calvary, how even the

2 most saintly layman dares to set foot in the building where it is being offered. Terribilis est locus iste: hic domus Dei est, et porta coeli; et vocabitur aula Dei. ("Awesome is this place: it is the house of God, and the gate of heaven; and it shall be called the court of God.") It is natural that the Church, the steward of these holy mysteries, should clothe them with the most solemn and beautiful rites and ceremonies possible. It is equally natural that the book containing these rites should appropriate to itself some of the wonder and veneration evoked by the sacred mysteries themselves. This veneration for the traditional Missal is well expressed by Dom Cabrol: The Missal, being concerned directly with the Mass and the Holy Eucharist, which is the chief of the Sacraments, has the most right to our veneration, and with it the Pontifical and the Ritual, because those three in the early Church formed one volume, as we have seen when speaking of the Sacramentary. The Church herself seems to teach us by her actions the reverence in which the Missal should be held. At High Mass it is carried by the deacon in solemn procession to read from it the Gospel of the day. He incenses it as a sign of respect, and it is kissed by a priest as containing the very word of God Himself.... The Missal has come into being gradually through the course of centuries always carefully guarded by the Church lest any error should slip into it. It is a summary of the authentic teaching of the Church, it reveals the true significance of the mystery which is accomplished in the Mass and of the prayers which the Church uses. (Michael Davies, A Short History of the Roman Mass, pp ) We have included these few passages at the expense of brevity to demonstrate with what utter reverence and careful safeguarding Holy Mother Church always held the Liturgy of the Mass. With these thoughts in mind, let us move forward to the blasphemous Novus Ordo Missae. Luther understood very clearly that the Mass is the heart and soul of the Church. He said: 'Let us destroy the Mass and we shall destroy the Church' - Archbishop Lefebvre, Open Letter to Confused Catholics, p. 30 We must not forget that the conciliar reforms of the liturgy, the reforms of the Bible, the changes in the internal structure of the Church, of the constitution of the Church all these things are a result of the ecumenical spirit. That is clear, since Protestants were present for the changes in the Mass six Protestant ministers were photographed with Pope Paul VI who thanked them for having come to participate in the liturgical commission, which transformed our Catholic Mass! Everything was done in this ecumenical spirit: liturgical reforms, catechetical reforms, an ecumenical Bible which is sold in the bookstore at the Vatican. There was then, a considerable Protestant influence. (Archbishop Lefebvre, Conference in Germany, October 29, 1984) We could never so eloquently summarize the innovations in the Novus Ordo as the good Archbishop Lefebvre has done. We include a few paragraphs from Open Letter to Confused Catholics wherein he describes how the New Mass is drawn heavily from the heresies of Martin Luther. This distinction is of paramount importance. When we realize the poisons in the New Mass, we can understand better why we must avoid it at all costs; we understand why we must avoid those prelates and priests who -while pretending to be traditionalists tell us that the Novus Ordo can give grace and nourish our souls. Listen to these words of a true Shepard, with worry and concern for his flock written in every line, warning us over and over not to attend these Masses: Now we can see that the Novus Ordo Missae, that is to say the new order adopted after the Council, has been drawn up on Protestant lines, or at any rate dangerously close to them. For Luther the Mass was a sacrifice of praise, that is to say an act of praise, an act of thanksgiving, but certainly not an expiatory sacrifice which renews and applies the Sacrifice of the Cross. For him, the Sacrifice of the Cross took place at a given moment of history, it is the prisoner of that history; we can only apply to

3 ourselves Christ's merits by our faith in his death and resurrection. Contrarily, the Church maintains that this sacrifice is realised mystically upon our altars at each Mass, in an unbloody manner by the separation of the body and the blood under the species of bread and wine. This renewal allows the merits of the cross to be applied to the faithful there present, perpetuating this source of grace in time and in space. The Gospel of St Matthew ends with these words, "And behold, I am with you all days, even until the end of the world. " The difference in conception is not slender. Efforts are being made to reduce it, however, by the alteration of Catholic doctrine of which we can see numerous signs in the liturgy. Luther has said "Worship used to be addressed to God as a homage, henceforth it will be addressed to man to console and enlighten him. The sacrifice used to have pride of place but the sermon will supplant it." That signified the introduction of the cult of man, and in the church, the importance accorded to the "liturgy of the word". If we open the new missals, this revolution has been accomplished in them too. A reading has been added to the two which existed, together with a "universal prayer" often utilised for propagating political or social ideas; taking the homily into account, we often end up with a shift of balance towards the "word". Once the sermon is ended, the Mass is very close to its end.... The new Mass, even when said with piety and respect for the liturgical rules, is subject to the same reservations since it is impregnated with the spirit of Protestantism. It bears within it a poison harmful to the faith. The innovators take good care not to reveal to the faithful their desire to fall into line with Protestantism. - Archbishop Lefebvre, Open Letter to Confused Catholics, pp if they are going to the New Mass slowly, slowly they change their mind and become, slowly, slowly Protestant. It is very dangerous to go to the New Mass regularly, each week, because the New Mass is not some accidental change, but it is a whole orientation, a new definition of the Mass. It has not the same definition as the True Mass. ( Archbishop Lefebvre, Interview, St. Michael s Mission, Atlanta, April 27, 1986) And we have the precise conviction that this new rite of Mass expresses a new faith, a faith which is not ours, a faith which is not the Catholic Faith. This New Mass is a symbol, is an expression, is an image of a new faith, of a Modernist faith Now it is evident that the new rite, if I may say so, supposes another conception of the Catholic religion - another religion. (Archbishop Lefebvre, Sermon, June 29, 1976) "This union which liberal Catholics want between the Church and the Revolution is an adulterous union adulterous. This adulterous union can only beget bastards. Where are these bastards? They are [the new] rites. The [new] rite of Mass is a bastard rite. The sacraments are bastard sacraments. We no longer know whether they are sacraments that give grace. We no longer know if this Mass gives us the Body and the Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.... The priests emerging from the seminaries are bastard priests." (Archbishop Lefebvre, Homily preached at Lille, August 29, 1976) There are innumerable more warnings from the Archbishop that, for the sake of brevity, cannot be included here. But we can easily see how vehemently the Archbishop warned us away from this New Mass. Therefore it is with shock and dismay that we began to hear of Bishop Williamson (starting in 2015) publicly counseling laity that it was permissible to attend this New Order Mass. How is this possible to hear these words from a son of the Archbishop?! And how can those priests who are loyal to the man and not the doctrine of our Faith, how can they look us in the eye and tell us that Bishop Williamson is correct? It is clear they are banking on our ignorance of these matters, they think we can be bribed us with the sacraments and that we will cave in and accept these poisonous new doctrines. Friends, they underestimate us! We proudly stand with the saints and martyrs who faced death rather than compromise one iota of the Faith and thus deserved to hear those words from Our Lord Jesus Christ:

4 His Lord said to him: Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matthew 25:21 To quickly summarize a few important distinctions, the 60+ reasons to not attend the New Mass have famously been noted in traditional circles for a number of years we have included the most salient points: 2. Because the changes were not just slight ones but actually "deal with a fundamental renovation... a total change... a new creation." (Msgr. A. Bugnini, co-author of the New Mass.) 18. Because six Protestant ministers collaborated in making up the New Mass (George, Jasper, Shepherd, Kunneth, Smith and Thurian). 20. Because enough Catholic theology has been removed that Protestants can, while keeping their antipathy for the true Roman Catholic Church, use the text of the New Mass without difficulty. Protestant Minister Thurian said that a fruit of the New Mass "will perhaps be that the non-catholic communities will be able to celebrate the Lord's Supper using the same prayers as the Catholic Church." (La Croix 4/30/69) 21. Because the narrative manner of the Consecration in the New Mass infers that it is only a memorial and not a true sacrifice (Protestant thesis). 26. Because the New Mass was made in accordance with the Protestant definition of the Mass: "The Lord's Supper or Mass is a sacred synaxis or assembly of the people of God which gathers together under the presidence of the priest to celebrate the memorial of the Lord." (Par. 7 Introd. to the New Missal, defining the New Mass, 4/6/69). 29. Because the New Mass contains ambiguities subtly favoring heresy, which is more dangerous than if it were clearly heretical since a half-heresy half resembles the truth! 36. Because the nature of the New Mass is such as to facilitate profanations of the Holy Eucharist, which occur with a frequency unheard of with the traditional Mass. 37. Because the New Mass, despite appearances, conveys a New Faith, not the Catholic Faith. It conveys Modernism and follows exactly the tactics of Modernism, using vague terminology in order to insinuate and advance Error. 44. Because the abolition of the traditional Mass recalls the prophecy of Daniel 8,12: "And he was given power against the perpetual sacrifice because of the sins of the people" and the observation of St. Alphonsus de Liguori that because the Mass is the best and most beautiful thing which exists in the Church here below, the devil has always tried by means of heretics to deprive us of it. 48. Because the New Mass embodies numerous errors condemned dogmatically at the Council of Trent (Mass totally in vernacular, words of Consecration spoken aloud, etc. See Condemnation of Jansenist Synod of Pistoia), and errors condemned by Pope Pius XII (e.g. altar in form of a table. See Mediator Dei). 49. Because the New Mass attempts to transform the Catholic Church into a new, ecumenical Church embracing all ideologies and all religions right and wrong, truth and error a goal long dreamt of by the enemies of the Catholic Church.

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