Smasher Lagru

In order to celebrate the Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal, several challenges must be dealt with.

First, the 1962 Roman Missal must be celebrated with all of the rubrics in place. These would include a sanctuary that has 3 steps, an altar rail, and an altar that does not face the people and is permanently attached to a wall.

The priest must use all of the approximately 400 rubrics required for a licit and valid celebration of the Mass.

The priest must be able to use the Latin language in the appropriate fashion.

All of the vestments must be those that are approved for the 1962 Roman Missal

There must be a stable community that desires and will benefit from the celebration of the 1962 Rite.

There are also some effects on the participants in these Masses.

Women, for instance, would not be permitted to be present at the Baptism of their children. Women would also need to be "Churched" (a rite of purification after childbirth) before they could return to the sacraments.

There would be no lectors or eucharistic ministers.

The readings for Mass would be from the one year and not three year cycle.

All servers would have to be male.

So where do we go from here?

Some priests in the Anchorage Archdiocese are now being trained in the Latin language. They are also learning the rubrics of the "old Mass."

We are discerning potential locations for the liturgy.

We are exploring potential physical changes in the sanctuary.There is still much work to be done and I ask that you continue to pray as we try to discern the best way to implement the teachings of this Apostolic Letter.

You like his approach?  Threaten women, divide the Church.  I'm surprised he hasn't mentioned the Jews!


The other pulpit in Pisa Cathedral, 1300s

Bishop Farquhar, filled with joy at the appointment

So it's Bishop elect Treanor after all.

And in case you were forgetting why we didn't want Donal McKeown, his comments below on hearing the news:

I was really thrilled when I heard about the nomination of Monsignor Noel Treanor as the new Bishop of Down and Connor.   I first got to know him when we were students together for two years in the Irish College in Rome over thirty years ago.   In the intervening years – particularly recently – I have met him at a number of international conferences where he was playing a leading role.

Furthermore, he comes from North Monaghan , not far from where my own grandfather grew up.   Indeed, some of his connections were Treanors.  So we might even be distant relations!

I know that he is highly esteemed across Europe for his wide range of talents and experience.   His appointment opens up a whole range of new and exciting possibilities for the Church in Down and Connor and I am really looking forward to working with him here in the spreading of the Gospel and building up the Church family in this diocese.


Bishop Mc Keown, puts best face on

It's always about him, isn't it, I mean who gives a damn where his grandfather came from.  And does anyone really believe he was "thrilled" by the news?  The reality is that the Paddy, Tony and Donal regard it as a disaster, not as bad as Vincent Twomey would have been mind, but a disaster none-the-less.  Having to bring in someone from outside when you have two serving auxiliaries, and not a bishop but a priest.  Says a lot about the state of Down and Connor.  I shall keep my optimism going for as long as I can and hope the BBC has a camera outside Paddy Powers to see who's redeeming the bets.

Something a little different for the moment, a sort of art imitating life, or more correctly life imitating art.

Alain Robbe-Grillet, the French novelist and film maker died on 18^th February 2008.  He was one of the figures most associated with the trend of the nouveau roman.  His first published novel was The Erasers, in 1953. It resembles a detective novel, but contains within it a deeper structure based on the story of Oedipus. The detective is seeking the assassin in a murder that has not yet occurred, only to discover that it is his destiny to become that assassin.

Wikipedia says of him:

Further to my earlier post about the conflict between the Archbishop of Dublin and the emeritus Archbishop of Dublin, some people have told me I am too mean to Diarmuid and too nice to Des.  And probably that is correct - I suffer from a rather obscure condition known as ecclesiastical stockholm syndrom by proxy.

And I rather suspect, on mature reflection that Diarmuid, at least the shallow part of him, is only too delighted by the proceedings since it merely confirms him as the open guy who wants to help everyone find the truth and his predecessor as the secretive, well, criminal.  The less shallow part, buried somewhere beneath his many chins (or has he no chin, I can't really tell) must wonder where the Church will end up when this is all over.



As someone has said, when the toothpaste is out of the tube it's very hard to put it back in - but if it's Sensodine you can at least use it to numb the pain.  Perhaps we need to change the tubes.  Speaking of which, about the next bishop of Down and Connor... Well nothing only silence and questions and the Administrator of the Cathedral wondering if he'll still be doing the Chrism Mass with Paddy Walsh or getting ready for an instillation/ordination.

Meanwhile around the country, the percentage of parish priests over seventy is rocketing and the percentage of priests under forty is, well virtually non-existent.  Where will it end?  Doubtless there will be groups of Nazgul hovering around to pick through the pieces (Legionnaries of Christ), eager to move on now that the founder has "gone to heaven" to quote their own site.

Already bishops are having to provide cover in parishes, which is unheard of, and a real delight for all concerned.  As Minnie tries to get the bishop out the door and stop him telling her more funny farmyard tales from Randalstown or yet another amusing footballing anecdote.  At least Fr X can be relied on to get and out quick and knows the right answer when you say, "would you like some tea".