Thursday, March 20, 2008

Zenit interviews Bishop Rifan of Campos

In today's Italian language Zenit, there is an interview with Bishop Rifan of Campos, Brazil. I am certain this will appear in an official translation from Zenit and so I simply present some short excerpts from Bishop Rifan in an NLM translation:

"The benefits of the re-introduction and dissemination in the Church's life of this extraordinary form of the Roman Rite was already mentioned by the current Pope in his motu proprio, when he says that, in the celebration of Mass according to the Missal of Pope Paul VI, it will [help to] demonstrate, more intensely than has happened so far, that sacredness that attracts many to the ancient tradition... Cardinal George of Chicago [wrote]: "... The Holy Father himself, long ago, drew our attention to the beauty and depth of the Missal of St. Pius V. .. The liturgy of 1962... [is] a valuable source of understanding for all other liturgical rites ..."

"When I attended, in 2007, a conference convened in Oxford to teach the celebration of Mass in extraordinary form, over 60 diocesan priests from the United Kingdom there present; the Archbishop of Birminghan, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, said in the opning Solemn Mass that the priests participants who, having learned the Mass in the ancient form, although in their parishes had celebrated Mass in the current rite of Paul VI, would celebrate it much better."

* * *


"Speaking of abuses following from the liturgical reform, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger complained that the liturgy had degenerated into a show which seeks to make religion interesting with the help of elements of fashion... Behind this, there is a lack of genuine spirituality, which [believes] that to attract the people you need to invent new [things]. But the Mass attracts in and of itself, with its sacredness and its mystery. Basically, this [problem] is the decrease in the mysteries of the Eucharistic faith by which you try to compensate with novelty and creativity. When the celebrant wants to become a protagonist, liturgical abuses begin. They forget that the heart of the Mass is Jesus Christ."

More recent articles:


An Illuminated Manuscript of St John’s Apocalypse
In honor of the feast of St John at the Latin Gate, here is a very beautiful illuminated manuscript which I stumbled across on the website of the Bibliothèque national de France (Département des Manuscrits, Néerlandais 3), made 1400. It contains the book of the Apocalypse in a Flemish translation, with an elaborately decorated page before each chap...

Gregorian Chant Courses This Summer at Clear Creek Abbey
Clear Creek Abbey in northwest Oklahoma (diocese of Tulsa: located at 5804 W Monastery Road in Hulbert) will once again be hosting a week-long instruction in Gregorian chant, based on the course called Laus in Ecclesia, from Monday, July 14, to Friday, July 18. The course will be offered at three different levels of instruction:1) Gregorian initiat...

The Feast of St Vincent Ferrer
The feast of St Vincent Ferrer was traditionally assigned to the day of his death, April 5th, but I say “assigned to” instead of “kept on” advisedly; that date falls within either Holy Week or Easter week so often that its was either translated or omitted more than it was celebrated on its proper day. [1] For this reason, in 2001 the Dominicans mov...

Good Shepherd Sunday 2025
Dearest brethren, Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow His steps; Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; Who, when He was reviled, did not revile. When He suffered, he threatened not, but delivered Himself to him that judged Him unjustly; Who His own self bore our sins in His body upon the tree: that...

The Gospel of Nicodemus in the Liturgy of Eastertide
By “the Gospel of Nicodemus”, I mean not the apocryphal gospel of that title, but the passage of St John’s Gospel in which Christ speaks to Nicodemus, chapter 3, verses 1-21. This passage has an interesting and complex history among the readings of the Easter season. For liturgical use, the Roman Rite divides it into two parts, the second of which...

“The Angel Cried Out” - The Byzantine Easter Hymn to the Virgin Mary
In the Byzantine Divine Liturgy, there are several places where the priest sings a part of the anaphora out loud, and the choir makes a response, while he continues the anaphora silently. In the liturgy of St John Chrysostom, which is by far the more commonly used of the two anaphoras, the priest commemorates the Saints after the consecration and ...

The Lavabo
Lost in Translation #124 After the incensation, the priest goes to the Epistle side and washes his hands, reciting Psalm 25, 6-12: Lavábo inter innocentes manus meas: et circúmdabo altáre tuum, Dómine.Ut audiam vocem laudis: et enarrem universa mirabilia tua.Dómine, dilexi decórem domus tuae: et locum habitatiónis gloriae tuae.Ne perdas cum impii...

Spinello Aretino’s Altar of Ss Philip and James
At the very end of the 14th century, the painter Spinello di Luca Spinelli (1350 ca. - 1410 ca.), usually known as Spinello Aretino (from Arezzo) was commissioned to make a frescoed altarpiece for the Dominican church of his native city. The altar itself no longer exists; it was dedicated to the Apostles Philip and James, whose feast is traditional...

A Medieval Hymn for Eastertide
Many medieval breviaries, including those of the Sarum Use, the Cistercians, Carmelites and Premonstratensians, have a hymn for the Easter season which is not found in the Roman Breviary, Chorus novae Jerusalem by St Fulbert, bishop of Chartres, who died in 1029. The original version of the Latin text, and the English translation of John Maso...

Two Upcoming Events from the Durandus Institute
Our friend James Griffin of The Durandus Institute for Sacred Liturgy and Music wishes all our readers a joyous Easter season, by presenting two opportunities, at least for those in southeast Pennsylvania, to celebrate.First, this coming Sunday at 5pm, there will be a solemn Vespers in the traditional Latin rite for the Second Sunday after Easter a...

For more articles, see the NLM archives: