Lent IV

As Lent turns into Passiontide, the Catholic mind turns more intensely to thoughts of the Cross, to Christ Crucified and to His Sorrowing Mother. The hymn Stabat Mater Dolorosa sets this theme.

It is ascribed popularly to the Franciscan Jacopone di Todi, but is also ascribed by Pope Benedict XIV, with a wealth of scholarship, to Pope Innocent III. It was only in the year 1727 that it entered the Roman Liturgy, being assigned to the feast of the Seven Dolours of Our Lady, on the Friday after Passion Sunday (and before Palm Sunday!).

I have searched in vain for the chant version, so familiar from traditional renditions of the Stations of the Cross. This happy fault forces us to look at the rich inspiriation that the Church's Liturgy has provided for composers of every age.

First in time, of the three examples here is that of Fr. Antonio Vivaldi, composed about 1727, the same year that it was introduced to the Roman Missal, probably for the girls of the Pio Ospedale della Pieta, or State Orphanage of Venice, where he had been on the staff until 1711. The composition is divided into eight sections. The melodies of sections 1 to 3 are repeated in sections 4 to 6. Only the first 10 stanzas of the hymn are used.

The second is the Stabat Mater of the short-lived Giovanni Battista Pergolesi composed in 1736. The German poet German poet Tieck once wrote: "I had to turn away to hide my tears, especially at the place, 'Vidit suum dulcem natum'" in speaking of this setting. The melodies have given rise to some criticism because they were thought to be too cheerful. Of particular note is the line: 'dum e-mi-sit' in that it is marked to be sung intermittently to create a musical picture of the last breaths of Our Lord on the Cross. This device has been copied by other composers.

Finally, we will consider the Stabat Mater of Giacomo Rossini, written in 1832 and revised in 1841. The composition was not intended for liturgical use. It is essentially a performance piece. However, despite the obvious operatic tendencies, this seems not to have been Rossini's intention. Writing of his Petite Messe, he says that his sacred works come of a real religious feeling: "Here it is then, this poor little Mass. Have I written truly sacred music, or just bad music? I was born for opera buffa, as you well know. Not much skill, but quite a bit of feeling - that's how I'd sum it up. Blessed be Thy name, and grant me a place in Paradise".

While the sensuality of the composition has often been regarded as unsuitable for the sanctity of the theme, Rossini's defenders, who included Fr. Taunton, one of Cardinal Manning's Oblates of St. Charles, have said: "critics who judge it harshly, and dilettanti who can listen to it unmoved . . . must either be case-hardened by pedantry, or destitute of all 'ear for music'".

Mother of Sorrows, pray for us!

Beatification Report - Life of John Henry Newman

John Henry Newman was once described as the most dangerous man in England. The words he chose for his memorial read ‘ex umbris et imaginibus in veritate; out of shadows and phantasm into truth’. Perhaps both are equally valid for a man who has caused and continues to cause controversy and yet also to inspire.


John Henry Newman was born in 1801 into an Anglican family and from a young age he felt drawn to religion. After graduating from Oxford University he was ordained as an Anglican minister. In the following years as a minister in Oxford he wrote extensively as he did for much of the rest of his life and was openly critical of Catholicism.

Newman travelled throughout Europe during 1832 visiting Rome which he said was "the most wonderful place on earth". Whilst on these travels he became seriously ill and on his recovery returned to England in the belief that God had work for him to do there. Over succeeding years Newman was a leader of the Oxford Movement which sought to reform Anglican doctrine based on its descent from the early Church and combat the State’s influence over the Anglican Church. Throughout the period Newman became increasingly drawn to the Catholic Faith, beginning to draw parallels between Anglicanism and heresies of the early church.


In 1841 Newman he began living an almost monastic existence with close friends at Littlemore, a period he described in his Apologia as “on my death-bed, as regards my membership with the Anglican Church”. February 1843 saw him publish a retraction in a local paper of all his previous condemnation of Rome and this was followed in September by his resignation of his living as an Anglican minister.

In 1845 Newman was received into the Church by Blessed Dominic Barberi. The conversion of perhaps the best known Anglican minister to Catholicism in a country still rife with prejudice created huge shock. For the remainder of his life Newman experienced misunderstanding and distrust from both Catholics and Protestants.


Of his conversion The Tablet said “…the Anglican Establishment has been deprived of the largest mind and the most penetrating intellect lately to be found, at least among her ecclesiastical children. The least part of what has occurred is that a man informed by profound genius has passed from heresy to the Church; has brought over to the camp of truth the stores of his profound learning, of his active and disciplined intelligence.”

Newman went to Rome to study for the priesthood in 1846 and whilst in Rome he discovered the Oratory founded by Saint Philip Neri in the sixteenth century. On his return to England in 1848 he set up the first English Oratory at Maryvale just outside of Birmingham. Three years later the Birmingham Oratory moved to its present site in Edgbaston on what is now the outskirts of the city centre. Newman along with his fellow Priests, worked with the poor of the city which was rapidly expanding as a result of the industrial revolution.


Newman also went on to establish the London Oratory under Father Faber as well as a school linked to the Birmingham Oratory. A prolific author Newman published a huge array of works, in later life sometimes writing for up to 17 hours a day.


Newman lived out his life at the Birmingham Oratory with the exception of a period in Dublin. In 1851 Newman was invited by the Bishops of Ireland to be rector of a new Catholic University, the formation of what is now part of University College, Dublin. 1855 saw the commencement of the building of the University Church on St Stephen’s Green which Newman felt would “recognise the great principle of the university, the indissoluble union of philosophy and religion”. Whilst the University was not a successful venture the Church remains, a monument to his time in Dublin. I think you can see a certain likeness between the style of University Church in Dublin and the cloister of the Birmingham Oratory

In 1879, when Newman was seventy eight, Pope Leo XIII named him a Cardinal, a rare honour for an ordinary priest. He obtained a dispensation to remain at the Birmingham Oratory. He adopted the motto ‘cor ad cor loquitur’; heart speaks to heart, the theme also chosen for Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the UK.

On 11 August 1890 Newman died at the Birmingham Oratory. On his death the Cork Examiner stated: ‘Cardinal Newman goes to his grave with the singular honour of being by all creeds and classes acknowledged as the just man made perfect.’

It was reported that 15,000 people lined the streets to see Newman’s cortege travel to Rednal where he is buried. This is next to Cofton Park where the beatification is taking place. He is said to have wished to hasten the process of decomposition with the addition of compost to the grave, in obedience to ‘Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return’. It appears this wish was granted; when the coffin was recently exhumed as part of the beatification process no remains of his body were found.


The Times once wrote of Newman ‘whether Rome canonizes him or not he will be canonised in the thoughts of pious people of many creeds in England’. Declared venerable in January 1991 by Pope John Paul II, the 19th September sees his beatification. Should Newman go on to be canonized he would be the first English Saint since the Reformation not to have been a martyr.

Benedict XVI and the Sacred Liturgy

Neil J. Roy & Janet E. Rutherford, editors

Benedict XVI and the Sacred Liturgy is the published proceedings of the first Fota International Liturgical Conference held in Cork, Ireland, in July 2008 and it aims to provide a general overview of some of the more important themes in Benedict XVI’s liturgical writings. It serves as a broad introduction to issues central to Benedict XVI's concern for authentic renewal of Catholic worship, according to the principles set out by the Second Vatican Council, and to his critique of liturgical innovations deviant from those principles. The book explores some of the formative influences on Joseph Ratzinger's liturgical vision and points to the consistent application of those critically assimilated influences over a spectrum of issues facing modern liturgical scholarship: the recovery of the sacred, the cosmic and eschatological dimensions of Christian worship, advocacy of continuity rather than rupture in the liturgical tradition; the need for historical and intellectual honesty in discerning development (as well as in areas such as vernacular translations of the core texts of the Roman Rite); and the renewal of genuine scientific exploration of the sources of the Roman Rite. The book is aimed at a professional and general audience. For the most part, it is easily accessible and plots the map for a series of more specific issues to be dealt with in the Fota Liturgical Conference Series.

Revd Dr Neil J. Roy is visiting assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame, Indiana. Janet E. Rutherford is the hon. Secretary, Patristic Symposium, Maynooth".

Reviews

"The Fota Liturgical series represents an important contribution to the new liturgical movement called for by Joseph Ratzinger as early as 1989. This first volume in the series, Benedict XVI and the Sacred Liturgy, brings together the reflections of liturgical scholars, drawn from North America and Europe, on several of the issues central to that renewal of Christian worship desired by the Second Vatican Council’s constitution on the sacred liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium."
Antonio Cardinal Canizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments

"Long before his ascent to the papacy, Joseph Ratzinger believed that the celebration of the liturgy was not only central to Catholic life, but that liturgical aberrations contributed mightily to post-Conciliar confusion and decline. Benedict XVI and the Scared Liturgy is an excellent starting point for exploring the Holy Father's liturgical vision and concerns as the Church moves to purify and renew the liturgy."
George Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney

Vatican Two Hundredth

Today we've seen our two hundredth visit from the Holy See to this blog. Welcome back, your Holiness!

Venerable Pope Pius XII

Today, the 19th of December, 2009, the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, has received in private audience His Excellency, Archbishop Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. In the course of that audience, the Holy Father has authorised the Congregation to promulgate the decree recognising the heroic virtue of Pope Pius XII and declaring him to be Venerable.

In the modern era, the process of Canonization, of which the decree of heroic virtue is the first step, was firmly established by the Decrees of Pope Urban VIII and Pope Clement XI. By a Bull of 5th July, 1634, Urban VIII definitively reserved to the Holy See the faculty of granting cultus to individuals and prohibited their veneration prior to the judgement of the Holy See.

It had previously been the practice, despite, it must be said, a Decree of Pope Alexander III in 1170, renewed by Pope Innocent III in 1210, for Bishops to render people Blessed at least to be honoured in their own Dioceses, although it was for the Pope to extend such devotion to the Universal Church, which is, to render them Saints in the technical sense. However, the Pope could also make localised Decrees in some cases. For example Blessed (now Saint) Rose of Lima, who Pope Clement declared to be patroness of Peru, and Pope Clement X declared to be patroness of South America, the Philippines and the East Indies, and also Blessed (now Saint) Stanislaus Kostka, who Pope Clement X declared patron of Poland and Lithuania.

Special mention must be made of the monograph of one Prospero Lambertini "the cleverst man in Christendom," once Promoter of the Faith, an official of the S. Congregation of Rites, who would later become Pope Benedict XIV. The monograph was entitled De Servorum Dei Beatificatione et Beatorum Canonizatione and for more than two centuries remained - and to an extent remains - the basic text on the subject. The two examples of Rose of Lima and Stanislaus Kostka are mentioned at lib. I, cap. xxxix of that monograph. Two early editions (1743 and 1749) are available at Google Books. (See if you can spot the reference to vampires when Lambertini discusses the post mortem state!)

The document relating new procedures introduced by Pope Benedict XVI gives a summary of the history of the procedures involved.

Venerable Pope Pius XII, pray for us!

November - Month of the Holy Souls

From Apostolico Consitutio, the Encyclical Letter of Pope Benedict XIV in Preparation for the Holy Year issued on the 26th day of June, 1749:

13. As everyone knows, several months intervene between the issue at Rome of the Bull proclaiming the year of Jubilee and the actual start of this Holy Year. Continuing the ancient practice of the Church, the holy door is opened on the next vigil of the Birth of the Lord; then the Year of Jubilee begins. We use these intervening months to hold missions in different districts of Rome. We highly recommended their usefulness in Our pastoral Edicts when We were Archbishop of Bologna. These appeared in print and were soon translated into Latin. We impress upon the evangelical labourers in missions to instruct the people in order to explain the Catholic doctrine of indulgences and of the universal Jubilee, rather than in purely academic questions of Apologetic and Moral Theology. The faithful must be fully aware that sin and its eternal punishment are remitted by the Sacrament of Penance if one makes proper use of it; however the entire temporal punishment is very seldom taken away. This must be removed either by satisfactory works in this life or by the fire of Purgatory after death. The holy Council of Trent in session 6, chap. 4, and canon 30 of the same session teaches this under the heading de Justificatione. Inform the Christian people of the unfailing treasury in the Church which was constituted by the immeasurable abundance of the merits of Christ and increased by the merits of His saints. Distribution from this treasury has been entrusted by Christ the Lord to His vicar on earth, the Roman Pontiff; consequently the Pontiff prudently decides when these merits can be applied, either by way of absolution for the living or by way of prayer for the dead, provided that the living have destroyed their sin and its eternal punishment by Penance, and that the dead have departed this life united with God in charity. This distribution of merits is in the form of indulgences. When one obtains one, he is freed from the temporal punishment due to sins to the extent granted and defined by the lawful distributor. This we read in the constitutions of the Supreme Pontiffs and especially in the famous Decretal of Our Predecessor Leo X to Cardinal Tommaso de Vio, otherwise known as Cajetan, when he was serving as Apostolic Legate in Germany. The result is that the practice of indulgences is most beneficial to Christians; hence the evil idea which either denies the benefit of indulgences or deprives the Church of the power of conferring them is to be condemned. This was decided by the Council of Trent, session 25, in the decree on Indulgences. Finally, the Christian people must be advised that the Indulgence of the Jubilee year is a plenary one, but is distinguished from other plenary indulgences also distributed on the occasion of the Jubilee by the fact that in a holy year of Jubilee, confessors designated for this purpose receive a wider power both of absolving from sins and of dispensing from certain bonds and impediments which often ensnare the consciences of penitents.