Good news:  the Cathedral Parish of the Bridgeport Diocese now has a daily traditional Latin mass Monday-Friday at 7:00 am at St Patrick’s Church, 851 North Avenue in Bridgeport, CT.   Most of the masses are low, but tomorrow (Aug 28) there will be a missa cantata for the Feast of St. Augustine.

On Tuesday, Sept. 11, at 7 pm,  St. Stephen’s Roman Catholic Church, 141 Washington Ave, Kearny, NJ will offer a sung Requiem Mass in the extraordinary form for the the repose of the victims of September 11, 2001. The Northern Jersey Catholic Chorale  will  sing.

There will be a Solemn Mass for reparation for the sins of the Church at St. Anthony,  1776 Mansion St., the Bronx, on Friday, September 14th at 7 pm for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.

“Join us, and get the word out, as we strive to lift the heavy crosses that have been thrust upon us and seek healing.”

The Heresy of Formlessness

The Roman Liturgy and its Enemy

By Martin Mosebach

Foreword by Robert Spaemann

Translated by Graham Harrison

Revised and Expanded Edition

(Angelico Press, Brooklyn, N.Y. 2018)

This year we welcome a new edition of a book that is, for the Catholic Traditionalist, one of the most basic books of all. Since 2002, The Heresy of Formlessness has remained the best introductory text to Catholic Traditionalism. It provides the substantive reasons for adhering to the Old Rite. Instead of the usual Roman Catholic focus on legal questions of validity and authority, this book takes as its starting point how the Mass – Traditional, “Novus Ordo” and Eastern – is experienced today. For Mosebach combines a novelist’s gift of depiction with great knowledge – both practical and theoretical – of the liturgy in all its forms.

This new edition is a revision of the previous 2006 translation published by Ignatius Press, augmented by six essays, some of which have been published (and translated) before. Jettisoned is Fr Fessio’s unique foreword which criticized the very book it was introducing. But much has changed since 2002 when The Heresy of Formlessness first appeared in German! In those years, the Traditional liturgy – especially in Germany – was very much an underground phenomenon, the province of “outsiders.” Today, especially in the United States in the wake of Summorum Pontificum, the Traditional Mass can be encountered more or less frequently – often celebrated with great ceremony and splendor.

This edition has a new, important foreword by Robert Spaemann – to whom the book is dedicated.  Spaemann outlines for us the German context of The Heresy of Formlessness. In Germany, the opposition of the clergy to the Traditional Liturgy remains fierce and unbroken to the present day. Moreover, the spirit of progressivism has maintained absolute, quasi-totalitarian dominance In Germany for decades now. Spaemann illustrates this with examples of the Novus Ordo liturgies he has experienced everywhere. Given such a closed, asphyxiating environment, in 2002 Mosebach’s book broke all the taboos. Mosebach opened a discussion on the liturgy that the establishment has not been able to silence since.

I don’t see the need to say anything more on the main thrust of this book beyond what I wrote in my original 2003 review.  The new essays in this edition are gems. Consider “Why the Holy Mass must be Sung.” Mosebach starts from the soft fluttering of flights of starlings over Rome, proceeds to considerations on the participation of angels in the liturgy, then draws on the Byzantine liturgy to illustrate how the congregation “represents” the angels – who sing – all leading to and supporting the conclusion that the primary form of the Mass is the sung liturgy! Or “The Last Gospel” where Mosebach argues that its appearance at the end of the mass in the 13th century coincided with the perfection of Eucharistic devotion in the Corpus Christ liturgy of St Thomas Aquinas. This Eucharistic devotion created a renewed focus the Incarnation – it was thus fitting that St John’s Gospel should be read at the end of every mass, where Christ has appeared again. Moreover:

“Those who are committed to the Last Gospel will not agree, either, with the widely accepted custom of permitting the congregation to sing a hymn while this Gospel is being read.  It makes sense for the acolytes to take their places at the foot of the altar during the reading of the Last Gospel in the same way that the Gospel of the day does. As a text that is constantly being read and that many people know by heart, the prologue of St John can be read (un)self-consciously sotto voce while the members of the congregation follow it in their missals. The aim of the prologue is contemplation, the retrospective beholding of a lived reality. At the end of Mass there should be an appropriate silence, as during the confession of sin at its beginning.”

Here we see Mosebach drawing out the meaning of details that even in current celebrations of the Traditional Liturgy are often given summary treatment. But, at the same time, does this discussion not show how far we have come from the days when an indifferently celebrated Low Mass was the best we could hope for? For nowadays in most places the goal is not just survival of the Roman liturgy but to make it as perfect as our poor human efforts can achieve. Let us not delude ourselves: even in the United States the Traditional liturgy remains suspect to the establishment, an anxiously monitored phenomenon. And I do not have to review for the readers of this blog developments elsewhere.  But despite all these shadows, we can affirm that what Martin Mosebach in The Heresy of Formlessness celebrated, predicted and advocated as a lone voice in 2002 has to a not inconsiderable extent been realized. Those who have not read this book owe it to themselves to do so!

This afternoon St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk, celebrated its patronal feast of the Assumption with a solemn Mass, a procession in the church and a celebratory parish dinner. Fr. John Ringley, who has arrived this summer as the new pastor, was the celebrant.

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT, will celebrate the Assumption of Mary this Saturday, August 18th at 4 pm with a solemn Mass, then a parish picnic immediately following Mass. The church will provide hamburgers and hot dogs. Please bring a dessert or side dish to share.

Verteidigung der Tradition: Die unüberwindbare Wahrheit Christi.

(In Defense of Tradition: The Invincible Truth of Christ)

By Roberto de Mattei (German translation by Wolfram Schrems)

Foreword by Martin Mosebach

2017 Sankt Grignion Verlag, Altötting

(Original Italian edition, 2011)

The current age of the Church is of unmatched doctrinal confusion. Every dogma, every rule of morality is directly challenged by those within the church. And those claiming supreme teaching authority are exacerbating the confusion. Pope Francis has formally taught doctrines hardly reconcilable with the prior course of Catholic teaching. He has also confirmed, “with magisterial authority” the practices (presumably liturgical) of the Second Vatican Council. And then there is the series of canonizations of the heroes of Catholic modernity. This has left Catholics – particularly those who imagined themselves papal loyalists – in an increasingly dire situation. Professor Roberto de Mattei in this slim volume offers intellectual assistance.

The first half of In Defense of Tradition is a review of pre-conciliar church history. Critical moments are highlighted in which the institutional church and specifically the papacy initially failed to stand up to political and theological challenges. These existential crises finally were surmounted or contained only by the joint action of all members of the Church: the ordinary laity, the doctors of the church, the councils, the episcopate, the new religious orders, the papacy – and, we should not forget, the secular rulers. In the course of these conflicts issues such as the possibility of papal heresy and the duty to correct hierarchs and even popes were freely discussed and acknowledged.

We may wonder about the purpose of the first half of this book. Is it addressed to those few remaining true blue Catholics (like Opus Dei soldiers?) who conceive of church history as one triumphant progress under the day-to-day direction of an always infallible papacy? For I would expect that readers interested in a book like this (and who perhaps have read previous works of de Mattei and Mosebach) would be familiar with most of these historical facts. Rather, I think this historical outline “lays the foundation” for the specific discussion of tradition in the second half of this book. For it shows that exclusive concentration on the actions and pronouncements of the hierarchy and the papacy is an inadequate historical and theological basis for understanding the Church and its history. Yes, the Church and the papacy did endure these assaults in the past. But what then was the principle that enabled the Church to survive?

Now the most significant part is de Mattei’s theological exposition of the meaning of tradition in the second half of his book. For it was though faithfulness to tradition that the prior crises of the Church were overcome. What is tradition? It is the deposit of faith handed down from Christ to the Church. Indeed, for the first decades of her existence, the Church had to rely exclusively on tradition – the first scriptures were only gradually being written. This tradition is the true “rule of faith” made manifest in many ways over the course of history but above all in the liturgy.

Relying on extensive theological literature, de Mattei in particular takes pains to distinguish tradition from the Church’s teaching authority or magisterium (itself a very late concept to develop). The magisterium is not a “source” of truth or creator of tradition, but rather an authority or “function” bestowed upon the Church.

De Mattei clearly expounds and defines the sources of theological truth, the meaning of “Church” and the meaning of magisterium. He warns against the concept of a free-floating magisterium as the ultimate criterion of truth. Outside of the “solemn magisterium” the so-called “ordinary magisterium” can acquire a character of infallibility only when it is in harmony with tradition. De Mattei also takes issue with the notion of “hermeneutics” as the key to discerning tradition. For that concept introduces a “subjective” element which shifts the focus from objective tradition to the interpreting subject.

This precious second half of In Defense of Tradition provides the Catholic reader with the clearest and most succinct exposition of these issues of which I know.

Marin Mosebach has contributed a forceful introduction to the German translation of de Mattei’s book. For there has been a very significant shift in the ecclesiastical context since 2011, the year of this book’s original publication. At that time, the author did have to define and justify tradition against the claims of the Second Vatican Council and its implementors. But he also had to defend the authority of Pope Benedict XVI against a renewed tide of anti-papal rage fostered by the Catholic progressives and specifically by the Catholic church in Germany. Today, under Bergoglio, we have both the greatest rupture with Catholic doctrine and practice since the 1960’s combined with unlimited assertions of the scope of the magisterium.

Mosebach brings out some points more explicitly than in the original text, e.g.,

“After the First Vatican Council a papalist theology arose that greatly exceeded the definition of the papal office in Catholic tradition. The consciousness of the strict anchoring of the pope in tradition faded – the excesses of the political claims of the medieval popes found their equivalent in the exaggeration of their spiritual authority in the 19th and 20th centuries. It could appear to the naive believer that infallibility extended to every imaginable aspect of life and that the plenary authority of the pope permitted even the abolition of tradition. As this then actually occurred at a most sensitive spot – I am referring to the liturgical reform of Pope Paul VI – the first doubts arose regarding this theology…”

Mosebach then provides a frank discussion of the reign of Francis, in which it often appears that the pope is less concerned about transmitting what is specifically Catholic than in following the agenda of the mass media. Mosebach states:

Roberto de Mattei wants to show his readers how to remain a Catholic loyal to the pope without as a consequence becoming deaf and blind.

In Defense of Tradition answers a real need. This brief handbook and guide will serve well in this time of crisis. Evidence of the interest in this text was the presentation of this book on July 9 at a well-attended conference in Munich with both de Mattei and Mosebach (among others) speaking. Fortunately, we understand an English translation will be forthcoming shortly.

(Translations are mine for which I ask the reader’s forbearance)