Pope Francis bans the Tridentine Mass for Franciscan Order

Rorate Caeli writes:

"...our interest in this matter is not so much related to the internal workings and troubles of a particular order... but to the extremely grave precedent the Braz de Aviz Decree sets for the rights recognized (not created!) in Summorum Pontificum, and to the way the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Commission 'Ecclesia Dei' (and the Apostolic Signatura, by the probable limitation of appeal) were short-circuited in a matter of their competence.”

Michael Hoffman’s comment on the preceding: Is it not true that 'traditional Catholics' support papal absolutism, indeed papal dictatorship? Absolute power corrupts absolutely, ergo don’t be too shocked when the people’s liturgical rights are steamrolled by the supreme monarchy that is the papacy. You have a revolutionary serving as pope. He will use the power you and other 'traditional Catholics' concede is his, to violate what are Biblical, apostolic and patristic rights that he has no divine right to derogate or abrogate. Without a mechanism to discipline a pope when he departs from his role as guardian of the faith of Jesus Christ, only masochists would complain about the blows that will inevitably come from a Jacobin pope with a revolutionary agenda to impose. Thanks for this are due in part to the author of Summorum Pontificum, our latter day “Celestine V” (Benedict XVI), who seems destined for the same fate in The Inferno which Dante Alighieri assigned to the other Celestine.
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Pope forbids Franciscan order from offering traditional Tridentine Mass without special permission of the hierarchy

With an Afterword by Michael Hoffman

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Franciscan group forbidden to use traditional liturgy

CWN - July 29, 2013

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=18607

http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350567?eng=y

The Vatican has appointed a new leader for the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, and ruled that all priests of the group must celebrate Mass using the ordinary form rather than the traditional Latin Mass.

The Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate have grown rapidly, and became especially prominent in traditionalist circles. But the group has also been torn by internal disputes-- including disputes over liturgical practices. The Congregation for Religious has now issued a decree that installs an outsider-- a Capuchin, Father Fidenzio Volpi-- as acting superior for the order.

The decree also states that the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate must use the ordinary form of the liturgy. Any use of the extraordinary form must be explicitly authorized by Church authorities, the decree states. This special rule, which applies only to the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, marks a departure from Summorum Pontificum, in which Pope Benedict XVI ruled that priests are authorized to use the extraordinary form for their private Masses without any further approval from superiors.

The decree bears the date of July 11, 2013, the protocol number 52741/2012, and the signatures of the prefect of the congregation, Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, a focolarino,  and of the secretary of the same congregation, Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, a Franciscan. Carballo enjoys the pope's complete trust. His promotion as second-in-command of the congregation was backed by Francis himself at the beginning of his pontificate. It is difficult, therefore, to think that pope Bergoglio was unaware of what he was approving when he was presented with the decree before its publication.

The astonishment stems from the fact that what is decreed contradicts the dispositions given by Benedict XVI, which for the celebration of the Mass in the ancient rite “sine populo" demand no previous request for authorization whatsoever: "Ad talem celebrationem secundum unum alterumve Missale, sacerdos nulla eget licentia, nec Sedis Apostolicae nec Ordinarii sui.

The fact is that one pillar of the pontificate of Joseph Ratzinger has been cracked. By an exception that many fear - or hope - will soon become the rule.

There is a thorough pro-and-con dispute over the “Summorum Pontificum” in a book hot off the presses by Professor Pietro De Marco of the University of Florence and the liturgist Andrea Grillo: Ecclesia universa o introversa? (Edizioni San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo, 2013).

In criticizing the motu proprio of Benedict XVI, Grillo rejects even its prescriptive validity. Because in his judgment, the ancient missal prior to Vatican Council II has been abrogated. And therefore there is no longer any reason that could justify its use. Grillo teaches sacramental and liturgical theology at the Pontifical Atheneum of Saint Anselm in Rome.

Michael Hoffman's Afterword

What do we say about a man who has been granted the authority to tyrannize, as Pope Francis is doing? The media paints him as an  avuncular, "humble" liberal, while they ignore his politically correct inquisition against the ancient Tridentine Mass. Are we doing our duty to God when we respond to this papal tyranny by saying that he is a bad pope or an anti-pope, as it has been said of at least three of the past four popes since 1960? Or might it not be time, at two minutes to midnight on the clock of destiny, to at long last question whether or not giving absolute power to any man --be he pope or potentate-- to nullfy and overthrow, with Leninist revolutionary ferocity, every noble or venerable rite that sanctified millions before him? Does the pope have the "right" to send souls to eternal perdition? We are not afraid to state that it is high time that Catholics rethink the absolute power that was granted to popes incrementally -- during the same centuries which saw the popes grant incremental permission for the mortal sin of usury. If Catholics refuse to think freely on this point with their God-given faculties of reason, they will have only themselves to blame as the popes of the revolution continue to dismantle, with a zeal equal to inquisitorial Protestant tyrants of the past, the Catholic faith of their fathers.

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