Fr. Z Weighs in Again and Reiterates that the SSPX is NOT IN SCHISM!

Editor's Comment: Fr. Z has been consistent in saying that the SSPX is NOT IN SCHISM. Can anyone out there produce a "proper decree properly composed and promulgated?" I have yet to see one! I suggest people read the blog post and then read the comments which are interesting and present both sides of the question. 

ASK FATHER: Is it a sin to contribute for a side altar at an SSPX chapel?

Posted on 16 January 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Is making a sponsorship to an SSPX church a sin, if one doesn’t support being in Schism.  I have a deep love for Our Lady of Guadalupe for example and would like to support the side altar in her honor.

I assume that the SSPX chapel has a plan to create or renovate a side altar and a collection is being taken up.

A couple things.

First, we cannot accept the premise.  The SSPX, the claims of dilettantes notwithstanding, is not in schism.  When proper authority issues a proper decree properly composed and promulgated, we can review this.  Until then, charity dictates that people should back off and attend to their own affairs. [Read the rest at Fr. Z's blog.]

Sunday Meditation: Enough Already with the Hordes of "Extraordinary" Ministers of Communion

Do we really need all these "extraordinary" ministers?

I went to the Tridentine Mass today in Front Royal at St. John the Baptist. It's my Mass of choice if I can do it. Why? It's reverent, filled with a number of large devout families many with babes in arms, and, perhaps best of all, it is quiet, a respite from a world that's "all noise" as Screwtape would have it. There is no loud choir laughing and chatting in the back before Mass starts. There is no cantor who can't sing from the rear but has to come up to the sanctuary to perform.

Aside from an occasional crying infant the Church is quiet. One can actually adore Our Lord in union with the community all of us silently worshiping together. In a world desperately in need of silence, that is a real gift! And come to think of it, I don't think I've ever heard a cell phone ring at the Latin Mass. Hmmm.... Are people more aware of what they are doing, perhaps?

Is Your Parish Studying the New Translation?

The new Sacramentary translations go into effect at the Vigil Mass for the first Sunday of Advent about eight months from now. My parish is running a series introducing the changes which bring the Mass into closer alignment with the Latin. The Latin doesn't change at all, but the English will be more in accordance with what the Latin really says rather than the "dynamic equivalency" of the former translation (which wasn't equivalent at all).

I'm delighted to see the changes and I look forward to a more beautiful Mass with more poetic language that is appropriate to the solemnity of liturgy. "From east to west" becomes "From the rising of the sun to its setting...." Who can complain about that?

Is your parish preparing the people for the new translation?  Are people talking about it? Are people complaining about it? What's going on where you live?