Saturday, February 8, 2020

11 Ways for Bishops to Reform the Clergy


1. Eliminate communion in the hand, including "the cup." For rare occasions of both species make intinction the norm.
2. Orient all Masses.
3. Have a weekly Extraordinary Form High Mass in the Cathedral.
4. Enforce clerical dress (Roman collar with cassock/clerical suit) with a $500 fine.
5. Confession/spiritual direction of women/children must be in a traditional confessional, with a wall between priest and penitent.
6. Enforce priestly celibacy law according to Canon 1395, with strict penalties for external sins against the 6th commandment.
7. Promote and encourage the norms for recitation of the Breviary as per Vatican II, to be chanted in common, in Latin (SC, 99-101). Have Latin Vespers chanted daily, especially on Sundays and Solemnities, in the Cathedral, by all the clergy and staff of the chancery and Cathedral rectory.
8. Promote the traditional fasts and penances, according to the pre-Vatican II norms, e.g. Fridays, Lent, Feast Day Vigils, Ember Days.
9. Have annual diocesan-wide Cathedral patron feast pilgrimage with a Solemn High Extraordinary Form Mass, encouraging all the parishes to walk in procession, in prayer and penance, in testimony.
10 Have annual diocesan-wide Corpus Christi processions for reparation, again culminating at the Cathedral Solemn High Extraordinary Form Mass.
11. Make altar boys/men the diocesan norm. The girls/women may form female scholae, serve as ushers, hospitality, etc.

I emphasize the Extraordinary Form of the Liturgy for its lack of ambiguity and because the common language and Rites of the Church are a great instrument of unity. Of course the homily would be in the vernacular(s). The language barrier is overcome by familiarity with the sacred rites and by providing worship resources in the pews with the necessary texts and translations. Besides, many people have pocket phones through which to access all relevant materials. The greatest obstacle to Latin in the liturgy is ideological and wrong-headed and must be overcome.

The Cassock Fine: Clergy Reform 101