WheretheNovusOrdoLeads

Another article about the abuses associated with the liturgical abuse par excellence, the Novus Ordo Missae, may seem superfluous and redundant. After all, so many articles and books have been written over the years as to make a reiteration of what are patently obvious points an exercise in sheer tedium. Believe me, I was exhausted for months after I completed an analysis of the final 212 paragraphs in the General Instruction to the Roman Missal in an eight day span in August of 2002. Having to review basic points about the horrors of the Novus Ordo Missae over and over again is never an enjoyable task at all.

Nevertheless, there are times when it becomes necessary to reiterate the obvious points about where the logic of the Novus Ordo Missae leads in order to try to convince traditionally-minded priests who are still offering it to cease once and for all from participating in what is an offense to God under the best of circumstances and an abomination under the worst of circumstances. The photograph pasted below, which I viewed as a result of a link that was sent to me by a reader, is proof that it is indeed sometimes necessary to point out the obvious over and over and over again.

First, the Novus Ordo Missae is the synthetic product of an unprecedented exercise in liturgical manufacturing. The Immemorial Mass of Tradition was not invented by a committee, no less one that was headed by a man, Annibale Bugnini, suspected of being a Freemason and advised by six liberal Protestant observers (who made their "observations" in coffee breaks so that those comments could be read into the record by Consilium's bishop-members). The Immemorial Mass of Tradition was taught in all of its essential elements by Our Lord to the Apostles before He Ascended to the Father's right hand in glory on Ascension Thursday.

Second, abject lies were told by Bugnini and company about where the various constituent elements of the Novus Ordo originated. Far from being the "recapturing" of some allegedly simpler liturgy in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, a claim that was itself an exercise in the antiquarianism condemned by Pope Pius XII in Mediator Dei in 1947, the Novus Ordo Missae borrowed heavily from the now defunct Gallican Rite, from various Oriental Rites, from various strains of Protestantism, and even from the "table prayers" of Talmudic Judaism.

Third, while ignoring all of the mistranslations of the Latin editio typica of the Novus Ordo Missae into vernacular languages, the edito typica itself contains a less full expression of the Catholic Faith than is found in the Immemorial Mass of Tradition. References to the miracles of various saints have been changed, if not eliminated altogether (See Richness Beyond Compare). Various parts of the Ordinary of the Mass, including the Confiteor, have been watered down. All references to a God Who judges, to the possibility of the loss of one's immortal soul for all eternity, and to the need of doing penance for one's sins have been changed or eradicated (see Paragraph 15 of the General Instruction to the Roman Missal and my analysis of same in G.I.R.M. Warfare).

Fourth, the "Eucharistic Prayers" that have been added since 1969--and the changes made to the Roman Canon itself--do not make clear the sacrificial nature of the Mass.

Fifth, the General Instruction to the Roman Missal requires the novelty of laity in the sanctuary during the offering of Holy Mass. Young boys and adult males are permitted by the special permission of the Church to enter the sanctuary as altar servers in the Mass, serving as the extension of the hands of the priest, who is a male. No other personage, male or female, is permitted in the sanctuary. This is not so in the Novus Ordo Missae, where the priest sits at almost every Mass as a proliferation of laity "participates" in reading and singing. This blurs the distinction between the sacerdotal, hierarchical priesthood of the ordained priest and the common priesthood of the lay faithful. It also obliterates the sacrosanct nature of the sanctuary during Mass, thereby eliminating the sense of the timelessness of the unbloody re-presentation of the Son's one Sacrifice to the Father in Spirit and in Truth on the wood of the Holy Cross.

Sixth, the hands of the non-ordained are permitted to distribute Holy Communion at Holy Mass. This is a double sacrilege, involving the touching of the Sacred Species by the hands of the non-ordained and the arrogation unto them of functions reserved solely to the ordained.

Seventh, the distribution of Holy Communion in the hand, which has been sanctioned officially since 1977 (after years of this sacrilege being permitted at the parish and diocesan levels without Roman approbation), has made sacrilege an accepted part of almost every offering of the Novus Ordo Missae in the world. The hands of the non-ordained must never touch, no less distribute, the Sacred Species. The number of consecrated Hosts dropped (or placed into pockets or purses or books, some of which have been used in black Masses) and the amount of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that has been spilled is known only to God, Who is deeply offended by the callous manner in which His own Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity is manhandled and desecrated on a regular basis.

Eighth, the General Instruction to the Roman Missal's penchant for endless options in the offering of the Novus Ordo Missae make any discussion of a a fixed rite laughable and absurd. A liturgical rite must convey the permanence and immutability of God and the permanence and immutability of man's need for Him as He has revealed Himself solely through His true Church, the Catholic Church. A liturgical rite that admits of ceaseless changes and endless options, some undertaken in the name of the ideology of "inculturation" of the Gospel, produces instability in the souls of the faithful, leading them to believe that God and His truths are mutable. Paragraph 395 of the General Instruction to the Roman Missal makes it almost impossible to distinguish "approved" liturgical experimentations from "unapproved" improvisations.

Ninth, the 1997 edition of the General Instruction to the Roman Missal's support for the "free-standing" altar and for Mass facing the people continues to undermine the Christocentricity of the Mass and the fact a priest's personality and celebratory "style" are utterly unimportant in the context of offering Holy Mass. A priest is an alter Christus who acts in persona Christi. Our focus is on a priest's actions as Christ, the Chief Priest and Victim of every Mass, not on his own personality. No liturgical rite of the Catholic Church featured this harmful Protestant novelty prior to the 1960s.

Tenth, the calendar of the Novus Ordo Missae, completing the revolution that began in 1955, offends God by eliminating the feasts of a great number of saints, some of whose sacrifices in defense of the Faith have been disparaged as never having taken place! The number of Octaves, which served to extend the celebrations of important feasts, were reduced from fifteen to three in 1956, and from three to two in the Novus Ordo Missae. The nomenclature used to describe the Sundays of the year was changed after nearly two millennia of usage. The words of Pope Saint Pius V, which warned against any changes to the Missal he propagated in 1570, have been ignored with impunity, resulting in a loss of the sense of the sacred, a loss of belief in the Real Presence, and a loss of devotion to the great saints of the first centuries of the Church.

In short, as can be seen from this brief and far from exhaustive list of problems with the Novus Ordo Missae, the Novus Ordo Missae, which is itself an abuse against God and the souls for whom He shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood, generates one abuse after another as the Faith is undermined at every turn. The rotten fruit of the Novus Ordo Missae can be seen in the photograph below, found on the website of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker:

http://lacatholicworker.org/g/Summer-2005/96_Fr_Steve_Kelly_celebrates_liturgy.jpg.html

96 Fr. Steve Kelly SJ celebrates liturgy

Such a travesty would have been unthinkable in the age when the Immemorial Mass of Tradition was accepted for what it is: the normative Mass of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Yes, it is doubtful that the scene above was actually a Mass. However, the scene above purports to be a photograph of a Mass. Take it from one who used to think that we could "fight" scenes such as the one above: such scenes are the logical, inexorable result of the very false foundations of the Novus Ordo Missae. No priest who offers the Novus Ordo Missae can take refuge or comfort by saying, "Well, I don't do such things." There is no difference between offering God prayers that do not fully communicate the truths of the Catholic Faith--prayers that do not communicate fully the sacrificial nature of the Mass--and the scene above. Priests who offer the Novus Ordo Missae are offending God and making it possible for scenes such as the one above to take place. It is a only a short step from the invasion of the laity in the sanctuary and the distribution of Holy Communion in the hand to lay people gathering around a priest in lay clothes offering baguettes at an alleged Consecration. And what happens to the archbishops and bishops in whose sees such travesties take place? Nothing. Indeed, they are promoted to the College of Cardinals, as has happened just today, February 22, with the Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, William Levada, the former Archbishop of San Francisco in whose archdiocese countless travesties in the context of Holy Mass took place. Is anyone talking about removing Roger Cardinal Mahony's red hat in light of the travesty above? Hardly.

Once again, therefore, I must plead with traditionally-minded priests to stop offering the Novus Ordo Missae. This is especially important for priests who know how to offer the Mass of Tradition and do indeed offer it from time to time, if not regularly. How can a priest who knows that the Mass of Tradition offers God the fullness of the honor and glory that are His rightful due pretend that the offenses given to God in the Novus Ordo Missae do not exist or do not demand him to cease giving such offenses?

Oh, I know. There will be priests who say that they are worried about their flocks, who might be subjected to a Modernist priest if they are seen to "abandon" their parishes to offer the Mass of Tradition. There is a simple answer to that concern: love God first and seek to give Him what is His due. Each of us, priest and layman alike, must do what is right without regard to the consequences. Father Stephen Zigrang, for example, has had the consolation of about fifteen families follow him from his former parish in Channelview, Texas, to Queen of Angels in Dickinson, Texas, in the nearly three years since he ceased to offer the Novus Ordo Missae and was unjustly penalized by Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza, who believes in the heresy of the enduring nature of the "Old Covenant God made with the people of Israel." Some of the faithful will follow priests who embrace the fullness of Tradition without compromise. Some will not. Regardless of results, however, priests must do what is right, praying that Our Lady will help their sheep to follow them to the sure refuge of the Mass of Tradition, where God is best worshiped, where our souls are more fittingly sanctified, where the fullness of the Catholic Faith is completely expressed without one iota of change or diminution or ambiguity. What applies to priests applies to those of us in the laity: we must avoid all contact with the Novus Ordo Missae, including the necessity of moving to seek out the Mass of Tradition on a daily basis if we live in an area where our baptismal birthright as Roman Rite Catholics is not available.

As my dear wife said to Father Paul Sretenovic when we met with him at the North Star Diner in Wayne, New Jersey, on Friday, December 3, 2004: "How much longer can you keep offending God?" This is a question that each priest who knows the harm of the Novus Ordo Missae must ask himself. How can a priest who knows that Communion in the hand is a sacrilege continue to commit it? It is no defense to say that one is only following "orders." Such has always been the defense of those who have followed unjust orders, including the Nazi generals and lawyers and doctors during the Third Reich. And as horrible as the murder of the innocent under cover of state law is, sacrileges committed against God in the context of the Holy Mass are worse crimes. Indeed, they are the worst crimes imaginable as they dishonor the Blessed Trinity and put into jeopardy the sanctification and salvation of human souls. Thus, I ask again: how can any priest who knows and who accepts the harm of the Novus Ordo Missae continue to offer same? "Obedience" to unjust decrees is no defense. The English Martyrs resisted a "Mass" that was a precusor of the Novus Ordo Missae. So must we. So must our priests.

Consider the words of Pope Saint Pius V in Quo Primum about the simple fact that no priest may be censured for the offering of the Mass of Tradition, nor may any priest be forced to offer Mass in any other way than the Mass codified in the Missale Romanum he propagated in 1570:

Furthermore, by these presents [this law], in virtue of Our Apostolic authority, We grant and concede in perpetuity that, for the chanting or reading of the Mass in any church whatsoever, this Missal is hereafter to be followed absolutely, without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment, or censure, and may freely and lawfully be used. Nor are superiors, administrators, canons, chaplains, and other secular priests, or religious, of whatever title designated, obliged to celebrate the Mass otherwise than as enjoined by Us. We likewise declare and ordain that no one whosoever is forced or coerced to alter this Missal, and that this present document cannot be revoked or modified, but remain always valid and retain its full force notwithstanding the previous constitutions and decrees of the Holy See, as well as any general or special constitutions or edicts of provincial or synodal councils, and notwithstanding the practice and custom of the aforesaid churches, established by long and immemorial prescription - except, however, if more than two hundred years' standing.

This plea is being made principally to priests who know how to offer the Mass of Tradition and who recognize the truths presented in this brief commentary. There are priests who may be traditionally-minded but who do not know how to offer the Mass of Tradition at this point. Fine. There are places for them to learn, as I noted in Defending Catholic Tradition Without Fear of the Consequences about a year ago now (see especially the interview with Father Patrick J. Perez in that article). However, those priests who know how to offer the Mass of Tradition and who see how the Novus Ordo Missae leads of its inherently harmful nature to the photograph pictured above must take the manly action that other priests have taken in recent years (and that many have taken in the past thirty years). The Novus Ordo Missae is part and parcel of a new theology that includes the errors of ecumenism and religious liberty. Does one really want to communicate to the faithful that we can be oblivious about fundamental errors as we offer one offense after another to the majesty of God Himself?

We turn, as always, to Our Lady, the Help of Christians, begging her to move the hearts of her Divine Son's priests to offer Him only the Mass that He taught the Apostles to offer. Much may not change in our lifetimes. Indeed, there will be no change until Russia is consecrated by a pope to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart with all of the world's bishops. We must, however, continue to pray for our priests, both those who have embraced Tradition and have suffered the sting of unjust and illicit penalties and those who need to embrace Tradition fully and without any concessions to the Novus Ordo Missae. We need our priests. We need our priests to offer us what is our rightful due as Catholics of the Roman Rite: the Mass of Tradition.

Where the Novus Ordo Leads

by Thomas A. Droleskey

February 22, 2006
Where the Novus Ordo Leads by Thomas A. Droleskey Another article about the abuses associated with the liturgical abuse par excellence, the Novus Ordo Missae, may seem superfluous and redundant. After all, so many articles and books have been written over the years as to make a reiteration of what are patently obvious points an exercise in sheer tedium. Believe me, I was exhausted for months after I completed an analysis of the final 212 paragraphs in the General Instruction to the Roman Missal in an eight day span in August of 2002. Having to review basic points about the horrors of the Novus Ordo Missae over and over again is never an enjoyable task at all. Nevertheless, there are times when it becomes necessary to reiterate the obvious points about where the logic of the Novus Ordo Missae leads in order to try to convince traditionally-minded priests who are still offering it to cease once and for all from participating in what is an offense to God under the best of circumstances and an abomination under the worst of circumstances. The photograph pasted below, which I viewed as a result of a link that was sent to me by a reader, is proof that it is indeed sometimes necessary to point out the obvious over and over and over again. First, the Novus Ordo Missae is the synthetic product of an unprecedented exercise in liturgical manufacturing. The Immemorial Mass of Tradition was not invented by a committee, no less one that was headed by a man, Annibale Bugnini, suspected of being a Freemason and advised by six liberal Protestant observers (who made their "observations" in coffee breaks so that those comments could be read into the record by Consilium's bishop-members). The Immemorial Mass of Tradition was taught in all of its essential elements by Our Lord to the Apostles before He Ascended to the Father's right hand in glory on Ascension Thursday. Second, abject lies were told by Bugnini and company about where the various constituent elements of the Novus Ordo originated. Far from being the "recapturing" of some allegedly simpler liturgy in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, a claim that was itself an exercise in the antiquarianism condemned by Pope Pius XII in Mediator Dei in 1947, the Novus Ordo Missae borrowed heavily from the now defunct Gallican Rite, from various Oriental Rites, from various strains of Protestantism, and even from the "table prayers" of Talmudic Judaism. Third, while ignoring all of the mistranslations of the Latin editio typica of the Novus Ordo Missae into vernacular languages, the edito typica itself contains a less full expression of the Catholic Faith than is found in the Immemorial Mass of Tradition. References to the miracles of various saints have been changed, if not eliminated altogether (See Richness Beyond Compare). Various parts of the Ordinary of the Mass, including the Confiteor, have been watered down. All references to a God Who judges, to the possibility of the loss of one's immortal soul for all eternity, and to the need of doing penance for one's sins have been changed or eradicated (see Paragraph 15 of the General Instruction to the Roman Missal and my analysis of same in G.I.R.M. Warfare). Fourth, the "Eucharistic Prayers" that have been added since 1969--and the changes made to the Roman Canon itself--do not make clear the sacrificial nature of the Mass. Fifth, the General Instruction to the Roman Missal requires the novelty of laity in the sanctuary during the offering of Holy Mass. Young boys and adult males are permitted by the special permission of the Church to enter the sanctuary as altar servers in the Mass, serving as the extension of the hands of the priest, who is a male. No other personage, male or female, is permitted in the sanctuary. This is not so in the Novus Ordo Missae, where the priest sits at almost every Mass as a proliferation of laity "participates" in reading and singing. This blurs the distinction between the sacerdotal, hierarchical priesthood of the ordained priest and the common priesthood of the lay faithful. It also obliterates the sacrosanct nature of the sanctuary during Mass, thereby eliminating the sense of the timelessness of the unbloody re-presentation of the Son's one Sacrifice to the Father in Spirit and in Truth on the wood of the Holy Cross. Sixth, the hands of the non-ordained are permitted to distribute Holy Communion at Holy Mass. This is a double sacrilege, involving the touching of the Sacred Species by the hands of the non-ordained and the arrogation unto them of functions reserved solely to the ordained. Seventh, the distribution of Holy Communion in the hand, which has been sanctioned officially since 1977 (after years of this sacrilege being permitted at the parish and diocesan levels without Roman approbation), has made sacrilege an accepted part of almost every offering of the Novus Ordo Missae in the world. The hands of the non-ordained must never touch, no less distribute, the Sacred Species. The number of consecrated Hosts dropped (or placed into pockets or purses or books, some of which have been used in black Masses) and the amount of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that has been spilled is known only to God, Who is deeply offended by the callous manner in which His own Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity is manhandled and desecrated on a regular basis. Eighth, the General Instruction to the Roman Missal's penchant for endless options in the offering of the Novus Ordo Missae make any discussion of a a fixed rite laughable and absurd. A liturgical rite must convey the permanence and immutability of God and the permanence and immutability of man's need for Him as He has revealed Himself solely through His true Church, the Catholic Church. A liturgical rite that admits of ceaseless changes and endless options, some undertaken in the name of the ideology of "inculturation" of the Gospel, produces instability in the souls of the faithful, leading them to believe that God and His truths are mutable. Paragraph 395 of the General Instruction to the Roman Missal makes it almost impossible to distinguish "approved" liturgical experimentations from "unapproved" improvisations. Ninth, the 1997 edition of the General Instruction to the Roman Missal's support for the "free-standing" altar and for Mass facing the people continues to undermine the Christocentricity of the Mass and the fact a priest's personality and celebratory "style" are utterly unimportant in the context of offering Holy Mass. A priest is an alter Christus who acts in persona Christi. Our focus is on a priest's actions as Christ, the Chief Priest and Victim of every Mass, not on his own personality. No liturgical rite of the Catholic Church featured this harmful Protestant novelty prior to the 1960s. Tenth, the calendar of the Novus Ordo Missae, completing the revolution that began in 1955, offends God by eliminating the feasts of a great number of saints, some of whose sacrifices in defense of the Faith have been disparaged as never having taken place! The number of Octaves, which served to extend the celebrations of important feasts, were reduced from fifteen to three in 1956, and from three to two in the Novus Ordo Missae. The nomenclature used to describe the Sundays of the year was changed after nearly two millennia of usage. The words of Pope Saint Pius V, which warned against any changes to the Missal he propagated in 1570, have been ignored with impunity, resulting in a loss of the sense of the sacred, a loss of belief in the Real Presence, and a loss of devotion to the great saints of the first centuries of the Church. In short, as can be seen from this brief and far from exhaustive list of problems with the Novus Ordo Missae, the Novus Ordo Missae, which is itself an abuse against God and the souls for whom He shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood, generates one abuse after another as the Faith is undermined at every turn. The rotten fruit of the Novus Ordo Missae can be seen in the photograph below, found on the website of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker: http://lacatholicworker.org/g/Summer-2005/96_Fr_Steve_Kelly_celebrates_liturgy.jpg.html Such a travesty would have been unthinkable in the age when the Immemorial Mass of Tradition was accepted for what it is: the normative Mass of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Yes, it is doubtful that the scene above was actually a Mass. However, the scene above purports to be a photograph of a Mass. Take it from one who used to think that we could "fight" scenes such as the one above: such scenes are the logical, inexorable result of the very false foundations of the Novus Ordo Missae. No priest who offers the Novus Ordo Missae can take refuge or comfort by saying, "Well, I don't do such things." There is no difference between offering God prayers that do not fully communicate the truths of the Catholic Faith--prayers that do not communicate fully the sacrificial nature of the Mass--and the scene above. Priests who offer the Novus Ordo Missae are offending God and making it possible for scenes such as the one above to take place. It is a only a short step from the invasion of the laity in the sanctuary and the distribution of Holy Communion in the hand to lay people gathering around a priest in lay clothes offering baguettes at an alleged Consecration. And what happens to the archbishops and bishops in whose sees such travesties take place? Nothing. Indeed, they are promoted to the College of Cardinals, as has happened just today, February 22, with the Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, William Levada, the former Archbishop of San Francisco in whose archdiocese countless travesties in the context of Holy Mass took place. Is anyone talking about removing Roger Cardinal Mahony's red hat in light of the travesty above? Hardly. Once again, therefore, I must plead with traditionally-minded priests to stop offering the Novus Ordo Missae. This is especially important for priests who know how to offer the Mass of Tradition and do indeed offer it from time to time, if not regularly. How can a priest who knows that the Mass of Tradition offers God the fullness of the honor and glory that are His rightful due pretend that the offenses given to God in the Novus Ordo Missae do not exist or do not demand him to cease giving such offenses? Oh, I know. There will be priests who say that they are worried about their flocks, who might be subjected to a Modernist priest if they are seen to "abandon" their parishes to offer the Mass of Tradition. There is a simple answer to that concern: love God first and seek to give Him what is His due. Each of us, priest and layman alike, must do what is right without regard to the consequences. Father Stephen Zigrang, for example, has had the consolation of about fifteen families follow him from his former parish in Channelview, Texas, to Queen of Angels in Dickinson, Texas, in the nearly three years since he ceased to offer the Novus Ordo Missae and was unjustly penalized by Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza, who believes in the heresy of the enduring nature of the "Old Covenant God made with the people of Israel." Some of the faithful will follow priests who embrace the fullness of Tradition without compromise. Some will not. Regardless of results, however, priests must do what is right, praying that Our Lady will help their sheep to follow them to the sure refuge of the Mass of Tradition, where God is best worshiped, where our souls are more fittingly sanctified, where the fullness of the Catholic Faith is completely expressed without one iota of change or diminution or ambiguity. What applies to priests applies to those of us in the laity: we must avoid all contact with the Novus Ordo Missae, including the necessity of moving to seek out the Mass of Tradition on a daily basis if we live in an area where our baptismal birthright as Roman Rite Catholics is not available. As my dear wife said to Father Paul Sretenovic when we met with him at the North Star Diner in Wayne, New Jersey, on Friday, December 3, 2004: "How much longer can you keep offending God?" This is a question that each priest who knows the harm of the Novus Ordo Missae must ask himself. How can a priest who knows that Communion in the hand is a sacrilege continue to commit it? It is no defense to say that one is only following "orders." Such has always been the defense of those who have followed unjust orders, including the Nazi generals and lawyers and doctors during the Third Reich. And as horrible as the murder of the innocent under cover of state law is, sacrileges committed against God in the context of the Holy Mass are worse crimes. Indeed, they are the worst crimes imaginable as they dishonor the Blessed Trinity and put into jeopardy the sanctification and salvation of human souls. Thus, I ask again: how can any priest who knows and who accepts the harm of the Novus Ordo Missae continue to offer same? "Obedience" to unjust decrees is no defense. The English Martyrs resisted a "Mass" that was a precusor of the Novus Ordo Missae. So must we. So must our priests. Consider the words of Pope Saint Pius V in Quo Primum about the simple fact that no priest may be censured for the offering of the Mass of Tradition, nor may any priest be forced to offer Mass in any other way than the Mass codified in the Missale Romanum he propagated in 1570: Furthermore, by these presents [this law], in virtue of Our Apostolic authority, We grant and concede in perpetuity that, for the chanting or reading of the Mass in any church whatsoever, this Missal is hereafter to be followed absolutely, without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment, or censure, and may freely and lawfully be used. Nor are superiors, administrators, canons, chaplains, and other secular priests, or religious, of whatever title designated, obliged to celebrate the Mass otherwise than as enjoined by Us. We likewise declare and ordain that no one whosoever is forced or coerced to alter this Missal, and that this present document cannot be revoked or modified, but remain always valid and retain its full force notwithstanding the previous constitutions and decrees of the Holy See, as well as any general or special constitutions or edicts of provincial or synodal councils, and notwithstanding the practice and custom of the aforesaid churches, established by long and immemorial prescription - except, however, if more than two hundred years' standing. This plea is being made principally to priests who know how to offer the Mass of Tradition and who recognize the truths presented in this brief commentary. There are priests who may be traditionally-minded but who do not know how to offer the Mass of Tradition at this point. Fine. There are places for them to learn, as I noted in Defending Catholic Tradition Without Fear of the Consequences about a year ago now (see especially the interview with Father Patrick J. Perez in that article). However, those priests who know how to offer the Mass of Tradition and who see how the Novus Ordo Missae leads of its inherently harmful nature to the photograph pictured above must take the manly action that other priests have taken in recent years (and that many have taken in the past thirty years). The Novus Ordo Missae is part and parcel of a new theology that includes the errors of ecumenism and religious liberty. Does one really want to communicate to the faithful that we can be oblivious about fundamental errors as we offer one offense after another to the majesty of God Himself? We turn, as always, to Our Lady, the Help of Christians, begging her to move the hearts of her Divine Son's priests to offer Him only the Mass that He taught the Apostles to offer. Much may not change in our lifetimes. Indeed, there will be no change until Russia is consecrated by a pope to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart with all of the world's bishops. We must, however, continue to pray for our priests, both those who have embraced Tradition and have suffered the sting of unjust and illicit penalties and those who need to embrace Tradition fully and without any concessions to the Novus Ordo Missae. We need our priests. We need our priests to offer us what is our rightful due as Catholics of the Roman Rite: the Mass of Tradition. Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us. Saint Joseph, pray for us. Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us. Saint Peter Damian, pray for us. Pope Saint Gregory the Great, pray for us. Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us. Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us. Saint Philomena, pray for us. Saint John Mary Vianney, pray for us. Blessed Jacinta, pray for us. Blessed Francisco, pray for us. Sister Lucia, pray for us.


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