Following are excerpts of a few replies:
Please remove me from your address list. “The new Mass as it was promulgated in 1969 leads us away from the sacrifice of Our Lord and His true priesthood in which we share” I am a priest for 48 years and find this latter statement utterly and deeply offensive. A Priest
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I got your letter. Thanks a lot. Keep up the good work that you are engaged in. A priest
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As
matter of fact I do not have any experience in celebrating the Tridentine
Mass but I am very keen to learn it
A Priest
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(...) But you reject our new rite which was approved at the 2' Vaticanum by all but Four dissident votes : yours. I have been celebrating Holy Mass since 50 years. I have never come across of an official pronouncement that limited the Eucharist to a mere banquet, as your letter suggests, to my utter amazement. You have never looked at the Eucharistic prayers or 'canons' 1 4, to find your critizi totally unfounded. To me, your false presentations appear like slander of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, that is too clear and obvious to see. A Priest.
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... “Times of trouble and confusion ...” You write indeed! I can’t help feeling the Society of St. Pius X has added to the confusion and some of the trouble. You may win a few more friends if the tone of your next letter (not to me!) Is a little more humble and a little less “preachy”. A Priest.
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There were many points in your letter that we could not agree with and so we are writing to request that you take our names off your mailing list. I am in receipt of your letter dated 26 July 2007. If you wish to encourage a closer relationship with each other and are faithful to the priesthood the words of Jesus in John 15 come to mind: “Love one another as I have loved you.” I found the tone of your letter lacking in the love and humility taught by Jesus. A Bishop
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You state twice that the post Vatican II Mass relegates the priest to the position of “the president of some assembly gathered around a meal table, something that any lay person could do”, and further that “the new mass … leads away from the sacrifice of Our Lord and from His true Priesthood”. Have you ever taken the trouble to read the 2nd edition of the General instruction of the Roman Missal issued in 2000?
You further say that “we are receiving requests from Priests to help them in celebrating the Tridentine Mass”. I doubt if you have ever seen or celebrated the Tridentine Mass, as it was promulgated by Pope St Pius V in the sixteenth century. I suspect that what you mean is to celebrate according to the missal of Pope Pius XII as revised by Pope John XXIII.
As I understand it, your society claims that Pope Paul VI did not have authority to alter the missal promulgated by Pope St Pius V. Yet Pope Pius XII introduced drastic changes in the liturgy of the Easter triduum, and nobody seemed to be disturbed by this. It is also significant that the members of Pope St Pius V’s own Dominican order did not use his missal, as a number of dioceses in the Church also did not.
You end off your letter by congratulating the bishops on reinstituting the feast of the Assumption as a holy day of obligation in a way that suggests that before this the Church in South Africa was lacking in devotion to Our Lady. You do not take account of the fact that prior to this decision the feast of Mary the Mother of God on 1st January was a holy day of obligation. Mary’s divine motherhood is a truth of faith more fundamental than her assumption, which is dependent upon it. So that initial decision of the bishops some years ago made a lot of sense. The reason why it has been changed is that the 1st January being in the Christmas holiday season is not a suitable time for a holy day of obligation. Fr. Bonaventure Hinwood
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Thank you for your letter. Could you please post me a copy of the dvd. A Priest
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After reading of the letter to "Dear Brother Priests" by Fr. C. Daniels I would like to receive, please, the offered DVD film with the Tridentine Mass. A Priest
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Please forward me the DVD and any other material to help us with the celebration of the Tridentine Mass. A Priest
I’m not sure that trying to win arguments works in this case – we should be able to share in the intent of the motu proprio and see that there is but 1 latin rite with 2 expressions. As soon as we recognize that unity, we can begin to heal the pains and hurts.
I invite you to that dialogue. As a priest, I also ask that you enter into dialogue (or intensify the dialogue)with the Local ordinary ... A Priest
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Yesterday we had our monthly meeting of all priests of the diocese. Among many other things we also discussed your circular to all Catholic priests, dated 26 July 2007.
All priests, unanimously, were uncomfortable about the fact that you wrote to them and tried to justify your position while you at the same time you criticized the policy of the Church to which we are pledging our loyalty. All priests of ... Diocese therefore ask you to discontinue sending your circulars to them. A Bishop
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Thank you very much for your letter explaining your society and about Tridentine mass. I must say it was enlightning, however I would like to know more about the tridentine mass and I would like to request for the DVD as well. A Priest
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In reply to your letter dated 26.07.2007.“Caritas urget me” to inform you that dogma (doctrine) is not static but dynamic! A living baby grows towards maturity otherwise it is dead. What makes the Holy Mass valid is to have the same mind as Jesus as expressed through the Magisterium of the Church. Do not expect a maturing Church to return to its mother’s womb. I respect the Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum of Pope Benedict XVI and accept the Tridentine Mass for the above reason, however, I regret your pontificating: “ Dare I say that you too are in a mist of confusion and darkness. Were you not ordained to offer sacrifice, the Sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ? Were you not ordained to forgive sins and to lead souls to God? Etc.”
For me personally “it is the Mass that matters” because through it I am reminded that as a priest I am to die daily to self and to live for others; “unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies…..”It is not the language that is important it is the intention of the priest, in persona Christi, that matters. Jesus’ priestly prayer was that all may be one. I pray that we too can be one whether it is through the Tridentine Mass or Pope Paul VI’s version as long as Jesus Christ is Lord in our lives. Let us leave the insults aside A Bishop
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I wish to thank you for the wonderful DVD that you sent me regarding the Tridentine Mass. I found it very inspiring and very encouraging. I am sure that it will be most useful to me and I can see that I have a lot of work laid out before me. The commentary is most useful. It is very difficult to guage the rubrics from the flat dimension of a printed page. I think it has been well filmed and well put together. It is a quality production. Thank you for sending it to me and for taking the initiative to make this DVD available. I am sad that this vastly significant and very important Motu Proprio has received such a lame and pathetic response from our SA Bishops. These are indeed troubled times for the Church. A Priest
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Many thanks for the letter I received yesterday. Much appreciated. Indeed I would like you to continue with this communication. A Priest
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I work in a small parish that used to be an outstation. I read your letter of which I was interested. I would like to see how Tridentine mass is celebrated. I am a young priest who was ordained in 2002.
Ordained a priest fifty years ago, my roots reach well into the Latin times of the Mass.Yet, when asked in my home country, while I was on my first holiday after seven years of mission work among the Xhosa People in the Eastern Cape, what I had found hardest in that work, I answered without hesitation: “Having to celebrate the Holy Eucharist with my back to the many congregations I was serving, and doing so in a language they could not comprehend”. There were many other deprivations and inconveniences in a missionary’s life in those days. I do not wish to bother you with mentioning them; but this I had found the hardest. What a relief it was, therefore, when the Second Vatican Council prepared the way for the use of the vernaculars in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, which took effect in 1969.
As the bishop of my home diocese in Germany wrote to the dependance of the Society of St. Pius X in his diocese, after Pope Benedict XVI had written his Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, if the Latin Mass was the only reason why that Society had manoeuvred itself into a Schism, it is now time for it to end the Schism and return without delay into the fold of the Catholic Church. Kindly remove my name from your mailing list. This will not prevent me from keeping you and the Society of St. Pius X (SA) in my prayer. A Bishop
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The teaching of the Church since Pope Pius XII and the mass promulgated in 1969 never let room for any doubt regarding the sacrifice of our Lord and his true Priesthood. The celebration of mass has always been to me much more than 'some banquet'.
The Tridentine Mass also has its history. Therefore it is incorrect to write 'the Holy Mass as it always was offered'. A priest
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(...) Instead of the Lefebvrists returning to the Church, I seem to understand that the Lefebvrists wants the Church to join them instead! A Priest
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I was very happy to have received your letter. It was of great assistance to me, and an eye opener. Most importantly I would like to thank you for the encouraging words that I received about the priesthood, they really came at an appropriate time when I needed to hear them. I would like to keep in touch with the Society of St. Pius X and also request a DVD of the Tridentine Mass. I know it is also in Latin that that is why I would also like other aids to help me master the language and to be able to celebrate the Mass myself. A Priest
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I respectfully ask Father that you not caricature the current liturgy as some assembly gathering around a meal table” as if it were nothing more than a barbeque. This kind of language and the negative bias that underlies it is, I suggest, as offensive to sincere and holy contemporory” priests as “disobedient”, “rebels”, “Lefrebvrists etc. is to you. If dialogue is truly to occur, then both sides must begin with a presumption of good will on the part of the other and a posture of respect. A Priest
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( ...) I thought I’d pay the compliment to you of a few spontaneous and frank observations, which are offered in humility, and in gratitude for your inspiring letter. A Priest
