Return to The Reign of Mary No. 129
The Reign of Mary
Vol. XXXVIII, No. 129: Letter from the Editor
March 16, 2008
Palm Sunday
Dear Readers,
Praised be Jesus and Mary. We are again at the commencement of Holy Week, that most blessed time of year, when the liturgy forcefully reminds us of the sufferings and death of our Divine Redeemer. No doubt you are well aware of the controversy that has been swirling around the Holy Week liturgy during the past couple of months. It deals with the prayer in the traditional liturgy on Good Friday for the conversion of the Jews.
Readers of this magazine will recall that last summer Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) gave permission for priests to use the traditional Latin Mass (according to the 1962 missal of John XXIII), as the extraordinary liturgy, while the Novus Ordo of Paul VI would remain the ordinary liturgy. This permission also applied to the use of the pre-Vatican II Holy Week liturgy. In granting this permission, Benedict XVI likely did not anticipate the furor it would generate among the Jews. (After all, they have been used to the conciliatory spirit of Vatican II, in which any efforts to convert them are forbidden.)
In the wake of this criticism, the Vatican announced that the prayer would be rewritten. It appears that Benedict XVI tried to walk a tightrope in the revised prayer: not offend the Jews nor alienate traditionalists. In the final product he ended by offending both groups. The authorities were quick to pacify Jewish leaders. Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Conciliar Church’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, wrote to “Chief Rabbi David Rosen” on February 13 to assure him that the prayer does not speak “about the conversion of the Jews, as some Jewish critics wrongly affirm.” He also reiterated that the dialogue between the Jews and the Vatican “presupposes that both Jews and Christians maintain their identities and remain free to express their respective faiths.” In other words, praying or working for the conversion of the Jews is absolutely out. Kasper assures the Rabbi that there is nothing about missionary activities in the new prayer.
Nor should this surprise us. After all, John Paul II and Benedict XVI have both on various occasions spoken of the Old Covenant as never having been revoked by God. Yet this idea is at variance with what the Church has always taught. Pope Benedict XIV, in Ex Quo Primum of March 1, 1756, referred to the “precepts of the old Law which, as everybody knows, have been revoked by the coming of Christ.” In the same document this true Pope (not to be confused with Benedict XVI) wrote that “the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law were abrogated by the coming of Christ and they can no longer be observed without sin after the promulgation of the Gospel.” This is the traditional teaching of the Church.
But this is not the spirit of Vatican II and the Conciliar Church. In his excellent article on this subject of the change in the Good Friday prayer for the conversion of the Jews (see the February 20 article “Defending the Truth is Never any Kind of Game” on the web site: www.christorchaos.com), Dr. Thomas Droleskey quotes a sermon of a Father Raniero Cantalamessa. This priest, a Franciscan who has been the preacher to the papal household for some years, states that “we Christians … have lost the right (to convert the Jews) by the way in which this was done in the past.” This is just one example that could be cited. After all, did not both John Paul II and Benedict XVI visit Jewish synagogues without ever mentioning the need to believe in Jesus Christ as the Redeemer, Whose coming was predicted so clearly by the prophets?
Sadly, Jesus continues to be crucified by the modernists of the Conciliar Church, who call for His death much as the Jews did of old. In effect, they are saying: “Not this Man and His teachings, but our modernist ideas and the spirit of Vatican II. Away with the Church as it existed before Vatican II; let it be crucified.” These may sound like harsh words, but we must recognize the evil of false doctrine, which leads to the loss of millions of souls for whom Christ shed His precious blood. May God have mercy upon our world and open the eyes of those blind to the evils of this new religion.
Dear friends, while we grieve over the sufferings of Christ and the part we had in them, let us also not fail to rejoice at the celebration of His resurrection. Just as Our Lord rose from the dead in proof of His teachings, so also His Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, will one day rise gloriously. It is for us to pray, do penance and persevere. It is not for us to lose hope, just because we do not see an end to the evils of our day.
We priests and religious who produce the Reign of Mary are determined to continue our efforts to bring this publication to your mailbox four times a year. We will continue to bring you a publication that treats of the serious issues we face, while at the same time offering encouragement to live your faith. As I take over the duties of managing editor, I would like to especially thank Fr. Francisco Radecki, CMRI, for all his labors over the past couple of years. Although the great distance of his residence from our publishing headquarters at Mount Saint Michael has made this change advisable, he will continue to provide a summary of the news and other contributions.
We also thank you our readers for your support and invite your comments. Be assured of our heartfelt wish and prayers that you will enjoy a most blessed Easter.
In the service of Jesus and Mary
Fr. Benedict Hughes, CMRI
(Email Father)