A MAN-MADE LITURGY ;  A MAN-MADE CHURCH ?
                               Fr. P Rosari                        
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As most of you are aware, the Traditional rite of the Mass and the
Sacraments are one of the Church's most ancient treasures having
been handed down to us by our Lord and His apostles. 

In the Traditional Mass, we have an unbroken tradition of at least
1200 years of identical prayers and a tradition of more than 1,500
years of use of any number of prayers and readings that were unchanged
during all that time.

The Canon of the [Traditional] Mass has come down to us unchanged
from the very earliest times of Christianity of which we have the
slightest liturgical record. It was considered to be so holy that
laity were not permitted to read it-- only a priest could.

Pope Paul VI introduced additional canons in the Novus Ordo, and
-changed- the Traditional canon of the Mass, with the simple words:

   "But besides this, We have decided to add three new canons
        to the eucharistic prayer. "

        This is unheard of!  When Pope John XXIII added St. Joseph to
the canon, most were outraged that he had dared to touch the canon of
the Mass. 

Now, the traditions of the Church were attacked with the introduction
of the New Mass. With the full consultation of six Protestant ministers,
a new rite was created. Msg. Bugnini, who was later discovered to be
a Freemason, led this liturgical revolution. We have his own words in
his book as well as the following from the Vatican's official newspaper:

   " We must strip from our Catholic prayers and from the Catholic
     liturgy everything which can be the shadow of a stumbling block
     for our separated brethren that is for the Prostestants " 

                          --L"Osservatore Romano 19 March 1965

Thus, a New Mass was created to please Protestants and this was done
with the help of heretic 'ministers' consulting!  This almost mimicks
the Protestant Revolt as we shall see below. Dr. Adrian Fortescue, the
foremost liturgical authority, writes:

"The Protestant Reformers naturally played havoc with the old liturgy.
It was throughout the expression of the very ideas the Real Presence,
Eucharistic Sacrifice and so on) they rejected. So they substituted for
it new Communion services that expressed their principle but, of course,
broke away utterly from all historic liturgical evolution."

Thus, in composing new services the Protestant Reformers "broke away utterly
from all historic liturgical evolution".  It was the composition of new
services which caused them to break away.

Writing of Cranmers Prayer Book, which was substituted for the real Mass
in England, another historian writes :

"This prayer book of 1549 was as clear a sign as a man might desire that a
doctrinal revolution was intended and that it was, indeed, already in progress.
Once these new sacramental rites, for example, had become the habit of the
English people the substance of the doctrinal reformation, victorious now in
northern Europe, would have transformed England also. All but insensibly, as
the years went by, the beliefs enshrined in the old, and now disused rites,
and kept alive by these rites in men's minds and affections; would disappear,
without the need of any systematic missionary effort to preach them down."

In other words, when for decades the faithful were forced to worship as
Protestants they became Protestants. Their faith had been destroyed by
a liturgical revolution.  No-one will deny that the Novus Ordo resembles
Protestant services rather closely, both in letter and in spirit. Hence
the serious danger which the Novus Ordo poses to our souls.

What we wish to emphasise here is that the new rites are man-made.

The Traditional rites of the Church come down to us from the apostles
and our Lord Himself, they are the approved and recieved rites of the
Holy Roman Church. The Traditional Mass is the same Mass that our saints
attended or offered. It is the Mass which has been offered by over
260 popes.  In adopting the Novus Ordo, we risk losing touch with the
Church. We feel ourselves in a new Church... and we wonder if the saints
of the last few centuries would recognize her as the same Church which
our Lord found. 

"The radical and deliberate alteration of ritual leads inevitably to
the radical alteration of belief as well. This radical alteration
causes an immediate loss of contact with the living past of the
community, which comes instead to be a deadening burden.

The desire to shed the burden of the past is incompatible with Catholicism,
which accepts history as an organic development from ancient roots and
expresses this acceptance in a deep respect for Tradition." (Hitchcock) 

The new rites as the name implies are -novelties- . They are man-made just
like the Protestant liturgies are. This tells us something, and we shall
use the words of Pope St. Pius X. to express it:

"Here is another difference between true and false reformers which you, 
Venerable Brethren, have often encountered. The latter "seek their own 
interests, not those of Jesus Christ." ... 

They are distinguished one from the other in yet another way. The false 
reformer "trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm." The true reformer 
places his trust in God and seeks His supernatural aid for all his strength
and virtue...

They make the road crooked and, so wrapped up in reforming that they forget
God, they are always trying to make these crystal springs so cloudy or arid
that the flock of Christ will be deprived of their waters. In this respect
the false reformers of former days are even surpassed by their modern
followers."

  Could it be the Novus Ordo has surpassed Cranmer liturgical "reform"?
 
The saints and popes have always warned about novelties. There is nothing
new in the Catholic Church -- she does not change. Her teachings are eternal.
Men, throughout the ages, have always tried to change the Church to suit
their own ideals. They have always failed because the Church is also
indefectible:

"Countless philosophical systems, of every possible form, have taken sides
 against her, claiming to be her masters, boasting to have destroyed her
 teaching and demolished her dogmas of faith by proving their absurdity.
 One after the other, however they have passed into oblivion." (St. Pius X)

Pope Benedict XV writes of the mind-set of those who set about to change
and reform everything that :

"Infatuated and carried away by a lofty idea of the human intellect, by
which God's good gift has certainly made incredible progress in the
study of nature, confident in their own judgment, and contemptuous of
the authority of the Church, they have reached such a degree of rashness
as not to hesitate to measure by the standard of their own mind even the
hidden things of God and all that God has revealed to men.

Hence arose the monstrous errors of "Modernism," which Our Predecessor
rightly declared to be "the synthesis of all heresies," and solemnly
condemned. We hereby renew that condemnation in all its fulness, Venerable
Brethren, and as the plague is not yet entirely stamped out, but lurks here
and there in hidden places... 

We exhort all to be carefully on their guard against any contagion of the
evil, to which we may apply the words Job used in other circumstances:

It is a fire that devoureth even to destruction, and rooteth up all things
  that spring (Job xxxi. 12).

Nor do We merely desire that Catholics should shrink from the errors of
Modernism, but also from the tendencies or what is called the spirit of
Modernism. Those who are infected by that spirit develop a keen dislike
for all that savours of antiquity and become eager searchers after novelties
in everything: 

In the way in which they carry out religious functions, in the ruling of
Catholic institutions, and even in private exercises of piety. Therefore
it is Our will that the law of our forefathers should still be held sacred:

       Let there be no innovation; keep to what has been handed down."

If we wanted to be Protestants; if we wanted to pray like Protestants,
we would go to their services.  The Novus Ordo is a grave danger-- not
only is it an innovation and a denial of what has been handed down to
us, but it is also a liturgy written with the help of Protestants.

        If we give up what has been handed down to us, then what shall
be left? We shall be like salt that looses its savour-- no longer of any
use but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men.

        Those who still continue to be involved in the Novus Ordo need
to give this some serious thought.   Keep the Faith.

APPENDIX:                  
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       "It behooves us unanimously and inviolably to observe
        the ecclesiastical traditions, whether codified or
        simply retained by the customary practice of the Church." 

                           St. Peter Canisius, Doctor of the Church
                           Summa Doctrinae Christianae

        "It is unlawful to alter the established customs of the
         Church ... Remove not the ancient landmarks which thy
         fathers have set."  -- St. Peter Damien