- Feb 5, 2002
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The common post-conciliar understanding of “communion,” taken to its logical conclusion, often ends in absurdities.
I recently read through Pope Benedict XVI’s explanatory letter of Summorum Pontificum, and I discovered a striking line that I have never noticed before.
Many TLM lovers will be familiar with the famous line from the document: “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful.”
This line has been used—rightly so—to justify the stance of resistance by traditionalists throughout the decades to the apparent abrogation of the Old Mass. In addition, a line from the Motu Proprio states that traditional communities could celebrate the Old Mass “permanently.”
However, in Benedict’s letter that accompanied the Motu Proprio, he wrote something that is quite confusing. In the same paragraph where he spoke of the sacredness of the Old Rite, he then wrote the following: “Needless to say, in order to experience full communion, the priests of the communities adhering to the former usage cannot, as a matter of principle, exclude celebrating according to the new books” (emphasis added).
Hold on a tick. What does this mean?
Continued below.
www.crisismagazine.com
I recently read through Pope Benedict XVI’s explanatory letter of Summorum Pontificum, and I discovered a striking line that I have never noticed before.
Many TLM lovers will be familiar with the famous line from the document: “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful.”
This line has been used—rightly so—to justify the stance of resistance by traditionalists throughout the decades to the apparent abrogation of the Old Mass. In addition, a line from the Motu Proprio states that traditional communities could celebrate the Old Mass “permanently.”
However, in Benedict’s letter that accompanied the Motu Proprio, he wrote something that is quite confusing. In the same paragraph where he spoke of the sacredness of the Old Rite, he then wrote the following: “Needless to say, in order to experience full communion, the priests of the communities adhering to the former usage cannot, as a matter of principle, exclude celebrating according to the new books” (emphasis added).
Hold on a tick. What does this mean?
Continued below.
Is Anyone in “Full Communion” With Rome?
The common post-conciliar understanding of “communion,” taken to its logical conclusion, often ends in absurdities.
www.crisismagazine.com
