Happy Third Anniversary, Summorum Pontificum! Many happy returns!

On Saturday 7 July 2007 Pope Benedict XVI issued an Apostolic Letter on the celebration of the Roman Rite according to the Missal of 1962. Click on this post's title for the unofficial Vatican Information Service translation of the official Latin text.

Here are resources for the Traditional Latin Mass:
http://www.ewtn.com/liturgy/traditional/Resources.htm

It's great to hear from many sources that around the USA and the world, more and more seminarians and young priests are learning the Traditional Latin Mass / Extraordinary Form Mass.

It's also great to recall that Pope Benedict XVI has asked seminaries to teach Latin so seminarians will be able to say the Latin Mass and sing Gregorian Chant.

But as we know, many in our hierarchy and clergy had their formation in the 1960's and 1970's. Those were the worst "spirit [sic] of Vatican II" / "new [sic] theology" / loosey-goosey decades of dissent and "throw the baby out with the bath water" error.

Sadly, too many of those members of the hierarchy and clergy are still stuck in that remote, bygone, irrelevant era. They need to update themselves.

They need to see that young people have good ideas. They need to open their minds to new ideas, fresh ideas.

Our hierarchy and clergy need to drop their rigidity and their prejudices against the Latin Mass. They need to start learning about the Latin Mass and all it has to offer themselves and all our fellow Catholics.

They need to become more pastoral and start fostering the Latin Mass in their dioceses and their parishes.

Change is hard for some people. But our hierarchy and clergy need to stop being afraid of change. They need to try new things.

That's what Summorum Pontificum is all about.

Archbishop says: You can't be Catholic and pro-abortion

First off: Thank you very much for being faithful to this blogspot and for being patient with Ole Q for not posting for a couple of weeks. Now:

"You can't be Catholic and pro-abortion!" That's the slogan we see on the t-shirts of pro-life Catholic young people (and older ones, too).

Catholic young people, as a matter of fact, such as those noble young souls whom ushers a while back wouldn't let enter the Cathedral here (no, not St. Vibiana, which, sadly, is history) because they (the pro-lifers, not the ushers) wore those t-shirts.

(The powers that be finally did let the pro-life kids enter God's house that day.)

If memory serves, the usher fuss was at the not exactly edifying service in the Cathedral for the inauguration of pro-abortion, pro-homosexual-agenda Tony Villar, aka Antonio Villaraigosa, as our alcalde / mayor.

By the way, and it's neither here nor there, but far-left-wingers used to call presidential inaugurations in-hog-urations -- until they got one of their own, BHO, elected.

Anyway, pro-life teenagers who proclaim, "You can't be Catholic and pro-abortion!" now have some company: Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis.

You can see what he said in his column in the July 6 issue of his newspaper, the St. Louis Review (click on this post's title). Here are excerpts:

"Since the first century, the Church has addressed the moral evil of abortion and the killing of a defenseless baby in the womb. People who are casual about the sin of abortion and who choose to view it as a political issue rather than the serious moral issue that it is are guilty of violating the Fifth Commandment.

"You cannot be 'pro-choice' (pro-abortion) and remain a Catholic in good standing. That's why the Church asks those who maintain this position not to receive holy Communion. We are not being mean or judgmental, we are simply acknowledging the fact that such a stance is objectively and seriously sinful and is radically inconsistent with the Christian way of life.

"The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council said, 'God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and human life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: Abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes' ('Gaudium et Spes,' No. 51.3). "

So: "You cannot be 'pro-choice' (pro-abortion) and remain a Catholic in good standing."

Sure would be nice if every Ordinary of every See in the USA would say the same thing, no?