'The theology of the Old Rite is that of the cult of God, and the theology of the New Rite is that of the cult of man...'

Liturgical lawlessness in Medjugorje with Cardinal Schoenborn on 31st December 2009. 

Have a read of Rorate Caeli's blog.

The blog author has posted an essay by a Priest, Don Pietro Leone, who holds degrees in both classics and philosophy. Rorate Caeli introduces the essay by informing us that, 'This holy priest has taught philosophy in both America and Europe at the university and seminary level. He is a priest of the Tridentine Rite and member of one of the institutes under Ecclesia Dei. He divides his time between pastoral and academic work and has recently completed a book on Catholic marriage from a philosophical and theological standpoint.'

It is, I think you will agree, a breath-taking denunciation of the post-Concilliar Church. It is a highly quotable work. Here are some snippets...

'What has happened is that the Oblation of the Divine Victim to God by the Church has been replaced by the oblation of bread and wine to God by His people.'

'The New Rite is no longer concerned with dangers, enemies, and a personal response on the part of God, but merely seeks God’s help as a form of “generic universalism”. In effect, the creators of the New Rite separate Grace from sin, and in the final analysis (in a Pelagian move) from the human condition itself, so that it becomes no more than “an unnecessary adjunct” (un soprammobile, appunto). What has become important is “commitment” (impegno), with its social, activist, moralist thrust, and in relation to an ideal not immediately given (p. 25).

'Holy Communion is usually received in the hands (a practice which Bucer prescribed explicitly in order to deny belief in the Real Presence (see above), and which became one of the hall-marks of the denial of Catholic eucharistic teaching ) and is often distributed moreover not only to standing communicants but also by lay ministers - where the New Rite has “out-Cranmered Cranmer” (MD p. 518).'

The abolition of Latin was the work of the “liturgical experts”. Michael Davies comments (p. 368): “Cardinal Heenan testified that Pope John himself did not suspect what was being planned” by them, “There can be no doubt that the Fathers were deliberately misled…”

'Evelyn Waugh wrote of the proponents of liturgical change in the “Tablet” (15th February 1964, MD p. 83): “we had looked upon them as harmless cranks who were attempting to devise a charade of second-century habits…suddenly we find the cranks in authority.”

What spirit informs these intellectuals? Not so much that of “the man of to-day”, but that of fallen man, and they have accomodated the liturgy to him. Both the Old and the New Rite address fallen man, then, but the Old Rite does so in order to elevate him with Grace to the path of salvation, while the New Rite does so in order to flatter him and to re-assure him that he in his proper place.

Now the spirit of fallen man is the spirit of the World , and the deliberate introduction of the spirit of the World into the Church is nothing short of a revolution. We refer to Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of Michael Davies’ book “Pope Paul’s New Mass”, being the third volume in the trilogy “Liturgical Revolution”. The chapters bear the respective titles: Revolutionary Legislation, Reform or Revolution? and a Successful Revolution. As he states (p. 81): “the purpose of a revolution is to overthrow the existing order”, and shows how this existing order was destroyed and a new order created.'

'The conclusion of this essay is two-fold: one, that the theology of the Old Rite is Catholic, and the theology of the New Rite is Protestant; two, that the theology of the Old Rite is that of the cult of God, and the theology of the New Rite is that of the cult of man.'

Interesting stuff...