It should come as no surprise that the statement issued by Bishop Trautman of Erie, PA on the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum is as weasily as the politically-correct translations he would have us suffer. The bishop issued a statement that is clearly a shot across the bow for priests and pastors in his diocese. “Don’t even think of trying to celebrate a Latin Mass without my say so.” is the message. You be the judge. My emphases and [comments].
Statement from Bishop Trautman on Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic letter “Summorum Pontificum”Most Reverend Donald W. Trautman, S.T.D, S.S.L., Bishop of Erie, issued the following statement on July 9, 2007 regarding Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic letter “Summorum Pontificum”:
The recent apostolic letter of Pope Benedict XVI on widening the use of the liturgical books of 1962 is prompted by his desire to reach out to those Catholics in schism [It seems that no matter how many times this gets corrected, they still say it. So it must be true.] because of their non-acceptance of the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. [Only the crazies you see, nobody who accepts V-II wants it.]
The Second Vatican Council, an ecumenical council of the Church [in case you didn’t know], restored and adapted the liturgy recommending vernacular languages for the worship life of the Church [ he must have forgotten about V-II mandating the retention of Latin, oops.] Pope Benedict, sensitive to those still clinging [what are the young clinging to?]to the Tridentine Latin Mass (the 1962 missal) and liturgical rites prior to Vatican II, now grants a more generous application of that former liturgy.
Since the Diocese of Erie already permits the celebration of the Tridentine Mass in two locations, St. Ann Parish in Erie and St. Bernadette Parish in Saegertown, I do not foresee a pressing pastoral need on the part of our people. [The diocese of Erie is composed of the thirteen counties of Northwestern Pennsylvania with a Catholic population of about 225,000. Geographically, it is the largest diocese in the state covering 9,936 square miles! Yup, two is plenty.]
In the future, I will be issuing diocesan norms to help apply and order the specifics of the pope’s letter. Priests who might want to celebrate the Tridentine Mass [before being banished to the smallest coal town in Pennsylvania] will be given a rubrical and Latin exam to comply with the pope’s own statement, “The use of the old missal presupposes a certain degree of liturgical formation and some knowledge of the Latin language.” [One can only imagine the type of exam that the good bishop will concoct…Please translate the entire Webster’s dictionary into Latin, you have 30 minutes…starting now.]
Further, there will be need to ascertain that the common good of the parish prevails and to ascertain what constitutes a stable community [Oooh, the hurdles he will think up for this one!] of those requesting the 1962 missal. We must keep in proper perspective [read, my perspective] the pope’s more generous use of the liturgical rites prior to 1962. The pope himself has said: “It is clearly seen that the new missal will certainly remain the ordinary form of the Roman rite.”
Remember, according to Bishop Trautman we are too stupid to understand ‘sullied’, ‘unfeigned’, ‘ineffable’, ‘gibbet’, ‘wrought’, and ‘thwart’. There is no way you would understand Latin. Priests will need to pass a 17-part exam in triplicate before being allowed to celebrate this mass for schismatics. Any bets on what the bishop will consider a ‘stable’ community?
Bishop Trautman’s message to his priests, “Not in my diocese.” My ineffable revulsion for what the Bishop has wrought to thwart the motu proprio is unfeigned.
July 13, 2007 at 4:36 am
From the Diocese that brought us Sister Joan Chittester . . .
If Trautman can read the Motu Proprio and come up with this wild interpretation, is it any wonder that he presides over the translations of the Mass and renders them so far from what the Latin says.
I feel srory for the priests there. Even tough he can’t really forbid them to offer the TLM, he can make their lives hell.
Intimidation is a powerful weapon – and often the choice of bullies and cowards.
It gets harder each day to keep the promise of obedience and respect. I would be in the confessional every hour in that diocese.
July 13, 2007 at 4:41 am
Well said anon!
July 13, 2007 at 5:58 am
“Priests who might want to celebrate the Tridentine Mass”…
hmm…
how about “Priests serving parishes where the pastor has been approached by a stable group of parishioners requesting the Extraordinary (Latin) use of the Rite”
July 13, 2007 at 3:35 pm
The faithful and priests in Erie need to speak to the Ecclesia Dei commission about this. This has to be the most nonsensical and manipulative repsonse to Summorum so far.
July 13, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Ah, the fireworks are starting and now we will find out who the enemy really is and it’s not the SSPX.
July 13, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Absolutely diabolical. What was that about those who choose to attend SSPX Masses taking care not to fall into the “schismatic mentality”? The only place I can find any whiff of schism is in the novus ordo parishes and with bishops like this around, no wonder. I wish I was in that diocese because I would recruit like mad to get the kind of “stable community” he couldn’t ignore. What a dreadful bishop.
July 13, 2007 at 8:39 pm
How old is Trautman?
Is he near that, o so special age, when a mandatory letter is sent to the Pope tendering a resignation?
I Hope So!
July 13, 2007 at 8:48 pm
He needs to be reported to the Pontifical Commision “Ecclesia Dei”
July 13, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Anonymous,
You would not have to be in the confessional every day because you are not morally bound to obey a Bishop who is in schism!
Look up the definition of schism in the Catholic Dictionary.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founder & Chairman
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc., http://www.crcoa.com
July 13, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Resignation? Piffle! Burn the heretics!
July 13, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Exactly. Any priest or layman in the Diocese may send a letter (as soon as possible) to PCED, with a copy of Trautman’s statement, asking for clarifications on:
-(1) May a priest be forced to undertake the exams mentioned in the letter to celebrate: (a) Mass “sine populo” (Art. 2, 4 of Summorum Pontificum); or (b) Mass “cum populo” (Art. 5)?
-(2) May a priest be canonically punished solely for exercising his right of freely celebrating Mass “sine populo” (Art. 2 and 4)?
-(3) May a bishop compel a priest not to exercise his right to freely choose the use (ordinary or extraordinary) for his daily Mass “sine populo” (Art. 2)?
-(4) May a bishop compel the faithful not to freely attend a Mass “sine populo” celebrated by a priest according to the rules of Art. 2 and 4?
-(5) May the answers to this letter be made public?
The petition may be sent to:
Pontificia Commissio “Ecclesia Dei”
Palazzo della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede,
Piazza del Sant’Uffizio, 11
00193
Roma
ITALIA
President: His Eminence Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos
Secretary: Rev. Mons. Camille Perl
July 13, 2007 at 11:13 pm
I trust the good bishop will be testing ALL priests on their knowledge of Latin, in accordance with Canon 249, which requires that priests should know Latin ‘well’.
July 14, 2007 at 12:39 am
I sense the bishop’s novus ordo knees are shaking. He should be reprimanded and disciplined to the full extent of canon law. Clear and blatant disobedience to the Pope. May God have mercy on his soul. Anybody have his e-mail address? I’m getting really tired of this episcopal disobedience.
July 14, 2007 at 1:15 am
I think the practice of interpolating comments [in red], especially in documents with which the poster disagrees, is counter-productive. I say this because even when the inline comments are appropriate, they tend to lessen the impact of the original and to overwhelm the open-minded reader.
In the present case, I felt that the inline comments were a bit strident, and couldn’t easily see why they might arise from the text commented on. When, later, I found the original text without interspersed comments, I realized that the comments I’d earlier objected to were, if anything, a bit too restrained!
July 14, 2007 at 1:49 am
I am shocked tat such traitors exist amongst the bishops in this country. Hoe can thisd bishop expect any respect from his priests when he himself disobeys the Successor of Saint Peter. It only roves how very right Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre was/is. And as a priest of the Roman Rite, it truly saddens me.
July 14, 2007 at 3:15 am
He is seventy-one. Four more years. He should be called on the carpet and asked to resign. They should make an example of him or the whole effort by Benedict will be thwarted. This has to be dealt with firmly without delay for the good of the Church. Trautmann is defying the pope’s call for inner reconcilation.
July 14, 2007 at 3:20 am
On second thought, forcing him to resign (which they won’t do) would make him a martyr in the eyes of the liturgical bullies.
Instead, some means has to be found to declare publicly that he misrepresented the Holy Father’s intention; he needs to be embarrassed. I don’t know how that can be done because any publication of a “clarifiction” will reach only those of who care and pay attention, not to the CINOs who need to hear it. Somehow he needs to be embarrassed and read the riot act in such a way that the other bishops finally get the message.
But how to do that?
July 14, 2007 at 3:24 am
They should kick him upstairs, appoint him to an obscure post in the Vatican–let him scrub the floors in the Vatican Museums with a toothbrush. No, that’d still make him a martyr.
Appoint him to an undersecretaryship in the Commissio Ecclesia Dei! Give him a typewriter and a fax machine and assign him to write statements on the liturgy 8 hours a day but make sure the fax machine faxes them into oblivion day after day.
July 14, 2007 at 3:46 am
Makes a better Freemason than Bishop.
July 14, 2007 at 4:33 am
Read and weep.
Trautmann not only considers himself a liturgical expert and brags about having been a peritus, he has been elected chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy yet again.