Lost in abortion-land

This is a good one. An apologist for Planned Parenthood and abortion in the majority Catholic Asian country of the Philippines says that Pope Benedict's motu proprio on the Missal of Bl. John XXIII should worry women interested in abortion.

Yeah, I didn't get it either. But then for this crowd abortion is the most holy sacrament of the culture of death and everything relates to it. (And they say pro-lifers are obsessed!) As usual, she quotes a pro-abortion Catholic feminist as if she was a spokesperson for all Catholics.

When Pope Benedict XVI recently made his announcement about wider use of the Latin Mass, Catholics all over the world had a lot to talk about all over again. Many Catholics are worried, Bishops included, about what the move represents as a whole, apart from the alien language.

Local feminist, Ms. Rina Jimenez David wrote in the Philippine Daily Inquirer:

"Striking is the Pope's bending over backwards to accommodate the backsliding elements of the Church while remaining resolute in his refusal to meet with and engage in meaningful dialogue with other members of the flock: women and gays in particular. Ironically, scholars say the future of the Church lies precisely in the greater inclusion and involvement of these two sectors of the Catholic faithful."

Rina, a Catholic, recalls attending the Latin Mass as a child and the feeling of exclusion that comes from not being able to understand the mass. She also described the feeling of attending her first English/Filipino mass after Vatican II, calling it liberating and inclusive.

So weird. She gets even weirder when she starts complaining about the recent guidelines issued by the Philippine bishops on how to dress appropriately at Mass. Apparently, modest dress and worship in Latin (she makes the classic error of conflating the 1962 Missal with Latin Mass) are just another attempt by The Man (in this case the Pope and the Church) to oppress women and turn them into baby-making machines.

Suuuuuurrrrre. The title of her blog post is "Lost in Translation." No kidding.

Extraordinary or Ordinary?

Catholic News Service quotes the Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi as saying that Pope Benedict "concelebrates his daily morning Mass in Italian using the current edition of the Roman Missal."

This is an obvious reference to the Catholic World News story from yesterday that Pope Benedict celebrates his private Mass using the Missal of Blessed John XXIII.

A few points to ponder: CNS says that the Pope "concelebrates" according to the Missal of Paul VI. Perhaps we have some Clintonian parsing going on here because, of course, you can't concelebrate under the Extraordinary Usage of the Roman Rite. So can we conclude that when BXVI concelebrates he uses the Ordinary Usage and when he celebrates alone he uses the Extraordinary Usage?

Another point to ponder: The Holy Father, in his motu proprio clearly indicated that we shouldn't call it the "Tridentine Mass" or "Tridentine rite" anymore since it is in fact the same rite and the same Mass in the one Roman Rite. We should call it Extraordinary Use or Mass according to the Missal of Bl. John XXIII.

Yet here is the Catholic News Service, the official news agency of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, calling it the "Tridentine rite" and "Tridentine Mass." I expect such sloppiness from secular news sources, but from the official Catholic news agency? Not good.

Practicing what he preaches

The old saying goes that "if I were Pope..." and presumably you'd make it OK to do something that is now verboten. Of course, what you want to legalize would a priori disqualify you from popehood.

But there are some things the pope can do. Fr'instance, you could free the old Mass because you're already saying it in private.

Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news), who recently issued a motu proprio allowing all Catholic priests to celebrate the old Latin Mass, uses the older ritual himself for his private Mass, CWN has learned.

Informed sources at the Vatican have confirmed reports that the Holy Father regularly celebrates Mass using the 1962 Roman Missal.

And this isn't just since he issued the document last week, but has done so since he became pope. That's some mighty startling news.

What if this motu proprio is just the beginning? What if he has plans for a further reform of the Missal of Blessed John XXIII (so cleverly named by Benedetto to disarm the shills of V2).

Can we look forward to the Missal of Benedict XVI? We can only hope.