The Restoration in Progress- Holy Communion and the Papal Mass

Vatican: Receiving Eucharist kneeling will be norm at papal liturgies

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) --

Receiving the Eucharist on the tongue while kneeling before the pope will become the norm at papal liturgies, said the Vatican's liturgist. While current norms allow the faithful to receive the Eucharist in the hand while standing, Pope Benedict XVI has indicated a preference for the more traditional practice, said Msgr. Guido Marini, master of papal liturgical ceremonies.Kneeling and receiving Communion on the tongue highlights "the truth of the real presence (of Christ) in the Eucharist, helps the devotion of the faithful and introduces the sense of mystery more easily," he said in a June 26 interview with the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.Pastorally speaking, he said "it is urgent to highlight and recover" these aspects of the sacredness and mystery of the Eucharist in modern times.Generally at papal Masses, those receiving Communion from the pope stand and the majority choose to receive on the tongue.But starting with a May 22 Mass outside the Basilica of St. John Lateran, two ushers placed a kneeler in front of the altar and the chosen communicants all knelt and received on the tongue.At a June 15 Mass in the southern Italian port city of Brindisi, the pope again distributed Communion to the faithful on the tongue while they were kneeling.In the Vatican newspaper interview, Msgr. Marini was asked if this practice was destined to become the norm in all papal celebrations, and he replied, "I really think so."He said "it is necessary not to forget that the distribution of Communion in the hand, from a juridical standpoint, remains up to now an indult," which is an exemption from a general requirement that is granted by the Vatican to the bishops' conferences which have requested it. He said the pope's adoption of the traditional practice of distributing Communion "aims to highlight the force of the valid norm for the whole church."However, the pope's preference for the traditional practice is not meant to "take anything away from the other" permissible form of standing or receiving the Eucharist in the hand, he said.Msgr. Marini told the Vatican newspaper that Pope Benedict also would be introducing another change to future papal liturgies during his June 29 Mass marking the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the patron saints of Rome.He said the pope would begin wearing a shorter pallium -- a circular woolen band worn over the shoulders with a shorter strip hanging down the front and back -- similar to the kind worn by Pope John Paul II.Pope Benedict had been wearing a pallium similar to ones worn by popes in the first millennium, when the woolen band was wrapped around the pope's shoulders and hung down his left side to just below his knees.Msgr. Marini said the new pallium was chosen for two reasons: "to more heavily underline the continued development this liturgical vestment has had over the span of more than 12 centuries" and to be more practical.The longer pallium the pope had been using created "different and troublesome problems," he said.The newer, shorter pallium is decorated with six red crosses instead of black ones. Like other palliums, the end piece is made of black silk, a symbol of the black sheep which the shepherd rescues and carries over his shoulder back to the flock.The white woolen pallium is a sign of the pope's and an archbishop's authority over the Christian community and the Gospel authority of a shepherd called to carry his sheep, to lead them and to feed them. END

Sovereign Military Order of Malta Audience with Holy Father

Fra’ Matthew Festing, Grand Master of the Order of Malta, was received this morning by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican. The Order of Malta’s commitment in the Middle East, the effects of its medical and humanitarian operations in some of the most tormented areas in the planet, including Myanmar, Mexico and Peru, and its fight against the great pandemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, leprosy and malaria on the African, Asian and American continents were discussed during the long private meeting between His Holiness and the Head of the Sovereign Order. Benedict XVI encouraged the Order to continue its initiatives in favour of the younger generations. The Grand Master was accompanied by members of the Sovereign Council, the Order’s Government. This traditional meeting took place on the feast-day of the Order of Malta’s patron, St. John the Baptist, which falls on 24 June.

From http://www.orderofmalta.org.

June 2008 Letter from the Seminarians of the Institute of Christ the King

The latest Letter from the Seminarians of the Institute of Christ the King can be found here.

The Restoration in Progress- Holy Father Wants Traditional Mass in Every Parish

Pope would like Tridentine Mass in each parish, Vatican official says

By Simon Caldwell Catholic News Service LONDON (CNS)

Pope Benedict XVI would like every Catholic parish in the world to celebrate a regular Tridentine-rite Mass, a Vatican cardinal has said.Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos also told a June 14 press conference in London that the Vatican was writing to all seminaries to ask that candidates to the priesthood are trained to celebrate Mass according to the extraordinary form of the Latin rite, also known as the Tridentine Mass, restricted from the 1970s until July 2007 when Pope Benedict lifted some of those limits.The cardinal, who was visiting London at the invitation of the Latin Mass Society, a British Catholic group committed to promoting Mass in the Tridentine rite of the 1962 Roman Missal, said it was "absolute ignorance" to think that the pope was trying to reverse the reforms of the Second Vatican Council by encouraging use of the rite."The Holy Father, who is a theologian and who was (involved) in the preparation for the council, is acting exactly in the way of the council, offering with freedom the different kinds of celebration," he said."The Holy Father is not returning to the past; he is taking a treasure from the past to offer it alongside the rich celebration of the new rite," the cardinal added.When asked by a journalist if the pope wanted to see "many ordinary parishes" making provision for the Tridentine Mass, Cardinal Castrillon, a Colombian, said: "All the parishes. Not many, all the parishes, because this is a gift of God."He (Pope Benedict) offers these riches, and it is very important for new generations to know the past of the church," said Cardinal Castrillon, president of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei," which works to help separated traditionalist Catholics return to the church."This kind of worship is so noble, so beautiful," he said. "The worship, the music, the architecture, the painting, makes a whole that is a treasure. The Holy Father is willing to offer to all the people this possibility, not only for the few groups who demand it but so that everybody knows this way of celebrating the Eucharist in the Catholic Church."He also said his commission, which also is responsible for overseeing the application of "Summorum Pontificum," the 2007 papal decree authorizing the universal use of the Tridentine rite, was in the process of writing to seminaries not only to equip seminarians to celebrate Mass in Latin but to understand the theology, the philosophy and the language of such Masses.The cardinal said parishes could use catechism classes to prepare Catholics to celebrate such Masses every Sunday so they could "appreciate the power of the silence, the power of the sacred way in front of God, the deep theology, to discover how and why the priest represents the person of Christ and to pray with the priest."In "Summorum Pontificum," Pope Benedict indicated that Tridentine Masses should be made available in every parish where groups of the faithful desire it and where a priest has been trained to celebrate it. He also said the Mass from the Roman Missal in use since 1970 remains the ordinary form of the Mass, while the celebration of the Tridentine Mass is the extraordinary form.The document did not require all parishes to automatically establish a Tridentine Mass schedule, but it said that where "a group of faithful attached to the previous liturgical tradition exists stably," the pastor should "willingly accede" to their request to make the Mass available.Cardinal Castrillon told the press conference, however, that a stable group could mean just three or four people who were not necessarily drawn from the same parish.Later in the day, Cardinal Castrillon celebrated the first pontifical high Mass in the Tridentine rite in London's Westminster Cathedral in 39 years. The event drew a congregation of more than 1,500 people, including young families. None of the English or Welsh bishops attended.

On Father's Day- A Tribute to My Best Friends...

I have a good friend. Actually, I have a lot of good friends. Some are school friends, drinking friends, Church friends, or friends who buy me coffee. Others are friends that I see just once and a while; others are just acquaintances. There are two men, however, that I would call my best friends. No one knows them outside of the world they live in day after day. Yet the impact they have left on that world does not go unnoticed. So since tomorrow is Father's Day, I thought it only fitting to tell you about my two best friends.
The first is my dad, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War and the single most important human influence in my life next to my mother and wife. Although life has often been unkind to him, he has never conceited defeat. In fact, the trials and struggles our good Lord has given him would have crushed other men; but not him. We have not always seen eye to eye on everything. There have been times in fact where I was down right disrespectful to him. Yet through all of my youthful angst, he always dealt with me justly and fairly. I am sorry that I was ever disrespectful to you. I am sorry that I treated you unkindly. Throughout it all, you have been a rock, a true dad, my best friend. I cannot think of a better man to honor on Father's Day, so to you dad, if you are reading this, I love you... Happy Father's Day.
The second man I would call my best friend is Tim Lyons. I met Tim and his family at Holy Family Catholic Church (see my post "God's Parish" here.) He is somewhat of a celebrity, a veritable Good Samaritan as the following article will demonstrate. Tim has a love for his faith that is recognizable the first time one meets him. He is also very self-conscious about his intelligence. Yet despite the fact that he does not have any formal education beyond high school, his understanding of otherwise abstruse concepts is outstanding. I am always amazed how quickly he understands things that take me days and sometimes months to figure out. His intellect and his faith allow him to stay one step ahead of a host of health problems that until recently went unnoticed. Yet, as with everything, he has carried and is carrying his cross joyfully. Thank you, buddy, for being an example to the rest of us Catholic men in the world!
While many people would be hard pressed to find one person they could call a best friend, I have two. To you my best friends, I say God bless you and Happy Father's Day.