I want to speak
to you of a very serious novelty: the New Code of Canon Law. I had
not seen any necessity for a change. But if the law changes, the
law changes, and we must make use of it, for the Church can ask
nothing evil from her faithful.
However, when
one reads this new code of Canon Law one discovers an entirely new
conception of the Church. It is easy to be aware of, since John
Paul II himself describes it in the apostolic constitution which
introduces the new Code. ". . . It follows that which constitutes
the fundamental novelty of Vatican Council II, in full continuity
with the legislative tradition of the Church (this is to deceive),
especially in that which concerns ecclesiology, constitutes also
the novelty of the new Code." Hence the novelty of the conception
of the Church according to the Council is equally the novelty of
the conception of the new Code of Canon Law.
What is this
novelty? It is that there is no longer any difference between the
clergy and the laity. There is now just the faithful, nothing else,
on account of the "doctrine according to which all the members
of the people of God, according to the mode which is proper to each,
partake in the triple priestly, prophetic and royal function of
Jesus Christ. To this doctrine is likewise attached that which concerns
the duties and rights of the faithful and particularly the laity,
and finally the Church's involvement in ecumenism!"
This is the
definition of the Church (Canon 204): "The faithful are those
who, inasmuch as they are incorporated in Christ by baptism are
constituted as the people of God, and who for this reason, having
been made partakers in their manner in the priestly, prophetic and
royal functions of Christ, are called to exercise the mission that
God entrusted to the Church to accomplish in the world:"
We are all
faithful, members of the people of God, and we all therefore have
ministries! It is clearly said in the Code: all the faithful have
ministries. They therefore all have the responsibility to teach,
to sanctify and even to direct.
Let us continue
our commentary on this Canon 204: "
having been made partakers
in their manner in the priestly, prophetic and royal function of
Christ, they are called to exercise the mission which God entrusted
to the Church to accomplish in the world, according to the juridical
condition proper to each one." Hence everyone without exception,
without distinction between clergy and laity, inasmuch as they are
the people of God, has the responsibility of this mission entrusted
by Jesus Christ properly to the Church. There is no longer any clergy.
What, then, happens to the clergy?
It is as if
they said that it is no longer parents who have the responsibility
to give life to children but the family, or rather all the members
of the family: parents and children. This is exactly the same thing
as saying today that Bishops, priests and laymen have all responsibility
for the mission of the Church. But who gives the graces to become
a Catholic? How does one become faithful? No one knows any more
who has the responsibility for what. It is consequently easy to
understand that this is the ruin of the priesthood and the laicization
of the Church. Everything is oriented towards the laymen, and little
by little the sacred ministers disappear. The minor orders and the
subdiaconate have already disappeared. Now there are married deacons,
and little by little laymen take over the ministry of the priests.
This is precisely what Luther and the protestants did, laicizing
the priesthood. It is consequently very serious.
This is quite
openly explained in an article in the Osservatore Romano of March
17, 1984: "The role of the laity in the new Code." "The
active function that the laity has been called on to exercise since
Vatican II by participating in the condition and mission of the
entire Church according to their particular vocation is a doctrine
which, in the context of the appearance of the concept of the people
of God has brought about a reevaluation of the laity, as much in
the foundation of the Church as for the active role they are called
on to develop in the building up of the Church."
Such is the
inspiration of the whole new Code of Canon Law. It is this definition
of the Church which is the poison which infects the new laws.
The same can
be said for the Liturgy. There is a relationship between this new
Code of Canon Law and the entire liturgical reform, as Bugnini said
in his book
The Fundamental Principles of the Changing
of the Liturgy.
"The path opened by the Council is destined to change radically
the traditional liturgical assembly in which, according to a custom
dating back many centuries, the liturgical service is almost exclusively
accomplished by the clergy. The people assist, but too much as a
stranger and a dumb spectator." What? How can one dare say
that the faithful are present at the sacrifice of the Mass as simply
dumb spectators so as to change the Liturgy? How must the faithful
be active in the sacrifice of the Mass? By the body or spiritually?
Obviously spiritually. One can draw a great spiritual profit from
assisting at Mass in silence. It is, in effect, a mystery of our
Faith. How many have become saints in this silence of the true Mass!
"A long
education will be necessary for the Liturgy to become an action
of all the people of God." Without a doubt. Then he adds that
he is speaking of "a substantial unity but not a uniformity.
You must realize that this is a true break with the past."
This past is the twenty centuries of prayer of the Church.
Bugnini was
the key man in the liturgical reform. I went to see Cardinal Cicognani
when this reform was published and I said to him: "Your Eminence,
I am not in agreement with this change. The Mass no longer has its
mystical and divine character." He replied: "Excellency,
it is like that. Bugnini can enter as he likes into the Pope's office
to make him sign what he wants." This is what happened to the
Secretariat of State. This is how all these changes happened. They
agreed on it beforehand, and then obtained signatures for some changes,
and then others, and then others.
I said to Cardinal
Gut: "Your Eminence, you are responsible for Divine Worship,
and you accord permission for the Blessed Sacrament to be received
in the hand! They will know that this was published with the agreement
of the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship!" He
replied: "Excellency, I do not even know if I will be asked
for it to be done. You know, it is not I who command. The boss is
Bugnini. If the Pope asks me what I think of Communion in the hand,
I will cast myself on my knees before him to ask him not to do it."
You see, then, how things happened at Rome: a simple signature on
the bottom of a decree and the Church is ruined by numerous sacrileges
... The real presence of Our Lord is ruined, for it is no longer
respected. Then, nothing sacred remains, as was seen at the large
reunion at which the Pope was present, where the Blessed Sacrament
was passed around from hand to hand between thousands of persons.
Nobody genuflects anymore before the Blessed Sacrament. How can
they still believe that God is present there?
It is this
same spirit which inspired the changing of the canon Law as that
which inspired the changes in the Liturgy: it is the people of God,
the assembly, which does everything. The same applies to the priest.
He is a simple president who has a ministry, as others have a ministry,
in the midst of an assembly. Our orientation towards God has likewise
disappeared. This comes from the protestants who say that eucharistic
devotion (for them there is neither Mass nor sacrifice: this would
be blasphemy) is simply a movement of God towards man, but not of
man towards God to render Him glory, which is nevertheless the first
(latreutic) end of the Liturgy. This new state of liturgical mind
comes likewise from Vatican II: everything is for man. The bishops
and priest are at the service of man and the assembly. But where
is God then? In what is His glory sought? What will we do in heaven?
For in heaven "all is for the glory of God," which is
exactly what we ought to do here on earth. But all that is done
away with, and replaced by man. This is truly the ruin of all Catholic
thought.
You know that
the new Code of Canon Law permits a priest to give Communion to
a protestant. It is what they call eucharistic hospitality. These
are protestants who remain protestant and do not convert. This is
directly opposed to the Faith. For the Sacrament of the Eucharist
is precisely the sacrament of the unity of the Faith. To give Communion
to a protestant is to rupture the Faith and its unity.
'Translated
from The official bulletin of the French District of the Society
of Saint Pius X, February 5, 1992
Courtesy of the Angelus
Press, Regina Coeli House
2918 Tracy Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64109
Vol. XV, No.
7, July 1992
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