Vatican Wreckovates Pantheon

(Rome) 1409 years ago one of Rome's most famous monuments was converted into a church. After just as long a period, almost 50 years after the liturgical reform of 1969/1970, a fixed, so-called altar was erected and consecrated.

On May 13, 609, the Catholic Church Sancta Maria ad Martyres was established from the Pantheon of Emperor Hadrian, the pagan temple dedicated to all the gods.




Pantheon in Rome

The transformation was part of a comprehensive Christianization of Rome. Christianity had overcome paganism. The Christians, who were repeatedly subjected to bloody persecution during the first three centuries of the Roman Empire, hesitated for a long time to adapt the pagan temples to the Christian cult. They waited until the pagan belief in the gods had largely died. Only then did they consider it possible to take over the idol temples. More than 1400 years ago, the solemn purification, the lustration, of the Pantheon took place in this context under Pope Boniface IV (608-615).

The "Pantheon" is a tourist magnet. If you want to see the sights of Rome, you will not miss this building, which will soon be 2050 years old. On Sundays and public holidays regular mass celebrations take place, as well as yesterday for the Solemnity of Ascension and at the same time consecration of the church. While the official website of the tourist attraction did not mention it, a reference to the website of the basilica was found in the days before. The 1409th consecration day should also mean a profound intervention in the presbytery.

The new people’s altar

As usual, the Solemnity was celebrated at 10.30 am yesterday by Canon Mgr. Salvatore Genchi. There is a collegiate staff attached to the basilica, the only surviving one in Rome alongside those at the four Patriarchal basilicas. The pastor is the Italian military bishop.




The main altar so far

However, at 4 pm another Mass, celebrated by the Pontifical Legate, Monsignor Angelo De Donatis, Vicar General of the diocese of Rome, was followed with "the consecration of the new bronze altar in the 1409th year of the consecration of the Basilica.”

Yesterday, a fixed, so-called "people's altar" was consecrated, thus creating that altar duplex with the main altar, which became the strange "characteristic" of the liturgical reform of 1969/1970.

The intervention was quiet and silent, which is why it is not known which representative of the competent office of monuments gave his consent to make the main altar on which over many centuries numerous saints, popes and priests celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass "superfluous" or it may be used to disguise the view. It is a true repression. The altar of the people was erected so close to the steps to the historic main altar that it was made practically unusable for a celebration in the traditional form of the Roman rite.

The artistic statement of the new national altar is described on the Basilica Internet page. In addition, the Apostolic Exhortation Gospel of Gospel is quoted by Pope Francis:

"It is good that every catechesis pays special attention to the ‘way of beauty’ (via pulchritudinis). To proclaim Christ is to show that believing in him and following him is not only true and just, but something beautiful that, even in the midst of trials, life can be filled with new splendor and deep happiness. In this sense, all expressions of true beauty can be recognized as a way to help meet the Lord Jesus. It is not about promoting an aesthetic relativism that could obscure the indissoluble bond that exists between truth, goodness and beauty, but to regain the esteem of beauty in order to reach the human heart and in it shine the truth and goodness of the Risen God” (Evangelii gaudium, 167).

"Shocking exorcism"

On May 13, 609, as can be read in the papal annals, Pope Boniface IV carried out a "shocking exorcism" of the pagan temple before he proceeded to the solemn consecration of the basilica. The temple had been transferred to him the year before by the Byzantine emperor Phocas (602-610). After the outer purification, the gates were opened and the Pope entered the temple, which had not been entered by Christians until then. "An immense crowd" attended the event. The chronicles tell of frightening noises and terrible screams that came from within. The demons and idols "yowled horribly" because they were aware of being driven out. The Pope prayed and consecrated the building to Christ, so that the demons flew out of the old temple amid tumultuous noise.




The new people’s altar

The mystic Anna Katharina Emmerick (1774-1824) also saw in a vision the cleansing and transformation of the Pantheon into a church.

In remembrance of the time of the persecution, Boniface IV consecrated it the Basilica of Our Lady and all the martyrs. In addition he left many relics of martyrs, the tradition reported 28 cars full, under the now repressed main altar. From the formerly gilded bronze ceiling of the dome, Pope Gregory III. (731-741), Gian Lorenzo Bernini 1624-1633 created the nearly 30 meter high canopy above the tomb of the Apostle Prince Peter and the Pope's altar in St. Peter's Basilica.

The basilica houses famous artists, including Raphael. There is also the burial place of the kings of united Italy.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: santamariaadmartyres / MiL (Screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Bishop Orders Return of the Tabernacle to the Middle of the Sanctuary in His Diocese

Tabernacle: All Holy Sacrament of the Altar as the
Center Point of the Sanctuary

(New York) The Bishop of Springfield in Illinois, Msgr. Thomas John Paprocki Joseph, gave instructions to return the tabernacle with the Blessed Sacrament back into the center of the sanctuary in the churches of his diocese. 

Bishop Paprocki, who was appointed in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI., wrote the pastoral letter Ars et celebrandi adorandi to his diocese. In it he points to the rich tradition and teaching of the Church for celebration and adoration of the Holy Eucharist.

The bishop also outlines the historical development over the past decades and is critical of the displacement of the Blessed Sacrament from the center of the chancel and sometimes even its utter removal from the sanctuary. The places in which the Blessed Sacrament was banished, sometimes are not more than rudimentarily adapted closets. This removal of the Blessed Sacrament to often difficult-to-find side chapels has to come to an end.

Pastoral Letter Ars et celebrandi adorandi

Bishop Paprocki of Springfield Illinois in

"With this in mind, in order that more of the faithful will be able to spend time in adoration and prayer in the presence of the Eucharistic Lord, I direct that in the churches and chapels of our diocese, tabernacles that were formerly in the center of the sanctuary, but have been moved, are to be returned as soon as possible to the center of the sanctuary in accord with the original architectural design. Tabernacles that are not in the center of the sanctuary or are otherwise not in a visible, prominent and noble space are to be moved to the center of the sanctuary; tabernacles that are not in the center of the sanctuary but are in a visible, prominent and noble space may remain."

The first part refers to churches which were built before the liturgical reform, the other two parts on churches built afterwards.

Bishop Paprocki calls the believers to mind that the proper reverence for the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is to genuflect. The bishop calls the diocese, to spend more time with the Eucharist to promote Eucharistic Adoration and Eucharistic processions through the streets of the parishes.

The fertile soil of Chicago

The Diocese of Springfield is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Bishop Paprocki comes from the Archdiocese of Chicago and in 1978 was ordained a priest there. In 2003 Pope John Paul II. appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago under Francis Cardinal George. Pope Francis accepted the Cardinal's resignation last September 20  for reasons of age at 77 years. The appointment of Blaise Cupich, his successor, is considered one of the most controversial personnel decisions of the Argentine Pope. Msgr. Cupich is considered one of the liberal outsiders in the US episcopate.

Cardinal George recently exercised strong criticism of Pope Francis. Both Chicago and Springfield have an above average number of priestly vocations. Bishop Paprocki is also a promoter of old Rite institutions in his diocese.

Removal of all Free Standing "Peoples' altars" says Bishop Oliveri

Example of an unnecessary duplication: new "people's altar" before already existing high altar

The measure of Bishop Paprocki is reminiscent of a measure of Bishop Mario Oliveri of Albenga-Imperia, Italy.  Bishop Oliveri was to remove all the "peoples' altars" from the churches of his diocese in which they appeared  because of the presence of a senior, high altar, made an unnecessary duplication and was incomprehensible. These and other measures of the bishop of the Catholic renewal, earned him the enmity of some ideological Church circles.

Against Bishop Oliveri, there was last October in the interaction of internal church staff and unchurched circles a smear campaign started with the intent to obtain his deposition that can be hoped for by Pope Francis (see the report Papal Purges  and their Claques- direction, not allegations decisive? ).  Msgr. Oliveri is still the acting bishop of the diocese.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Springfied diocese / parish Venegazzu
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

Quiz: Modernist Church or Communist Building

Edit: let us know how you do.  Our correspondent got six out of ten correct!

Link to Quiz...

Bishop Fellay Consecrates New Church in Berlin

Berlin (Kathnews). As the Society of St. Pius X. reports on its website, Bishop Bernard Fellay (SSPX) will consecate the Church of St. Peter on the 25th May 2013 in Berlin. It's located in the urban district of Berlin-Wilmersdorf.  The church was built in 2002-2005.  In the simple appearance of Saint Peter, it draws on the eclectic-historicist design. In its interior, the four-bay barrel-vaulted nave surprises with its magnificent Renaissance style, embodied in forms of wall and ceiling painting by the church painter Ralf Lürig. A special feature is the 1900's pipe organ by the English organ builder Albert Keates (1862-1950) with 16 sounding registers a complement of two manuals (keyboards), according to  pius.info.

Photo: St. Peter in Berlin-Wilmersdorf -
Image source: Wikipedia / Bodo Kubrak

Kathnews...

Cantalamessa Combines Iconoclasm and Fideism in One Homily

'When we enter ornate and clean Basilicas, adorned with crosses, sacred images, altars and burning lamps, we most easily conceive devotion. But on the other hand, when we enter the temples of the heretics, where there is nothing except a chair for preaching and a table for making a meal, we feel ourselves to be entering a profane hall and not the House of God.’   -St. Robert Bellarmine


Edit: it’s been a while since anyone has paid him much mind.  He’s had some terrible and mostly incoherent sermons in the past with many errors that have a lot in common with the error of religious indifferentism. Coming from the point of view of the laity anyway, it’s difficult to see how the views of Father Cantalamessa square with the views constant in the Church.  It would be nice to have some clarification.

Here, later on in his Good Friday sermon, it’s difficult to see how Father Cantalamessa could be talking about anything else but the destruction of the Catholic Faith and the things of the religion Itself, of course he means also the destruction or the dismissal of its sacramentality.  He wouldn’t be the first wayward religious to have entertained heretical ideas.

Heresy is ugly.

[Zenit] We must do everything possible so that the Church may never look like that complicated and cluttered castle described by Kafka, and the message may come out of it as free and joyous as when the messenger began his run. We know what the impediments are that can restrain the messenger: dividing walls, starting with those that separate the various Christian churches from one another, the excess of bureaucracy, the residue of past ceremonials, laws and disputes, now only debris. 

In Revelation, Jesus says that He stands at the door and knocks (Rev 3:20). Sometimes, as noted by our Pope Francis, he does not knock to enter, but knocks from within to go out. To reach out to the "existential suburbs of sin, suffering, injustice, religious ignorance and indifference, and of all forms of misery." 

As happens with certain old buildings. Over the centuries, to adapt to the needs of the moment, they become filled with partitions, staircases, rooms and closets. The time comes when we realize that all these adjustments no longer meet the current needs, but rather are an obstacle, so we must have the courage to knock them down and return the building to the simplicity and linearity of its origins. This was the mission that was received one day by a man who prayed before the Crucifix of San Damiano: "Go, Francis, and repair my Church".

Link to Fiore’s Circles... 

To Boldly Go Where no Liturgy Has Gone Before

Edit: There was a lot of liturgical and architectural experimentation going on before the Second Vatican Council.  Here is one such attempt, sixty years hence.

This is the 60th Anniversay of the 35th International Eucharistic Congress in Barcelona --  this is a monumental altar which is today the Plaza of Pius XII along The Avenue of the Generalissimo (now Diagonal) in Barcelona.  It was the first Eucharistic Congress after World War II.  Courtesy Francisco de Morandé

Humorous Forms For the New Liturgy: Architectural Modernism

Editor: Bewildering, but not surprising. Notice how the indeterminate forms and bare spaces can accomodate ambiguity and foster religious indifferntism, that erroneous idea that all religions are equal.  This space could accommodate practically any event, a blood drive, a barmitzva, an autopsy, a house closing, almost anything, that is, except for the Mass of All Ages.  


An Old Liberal Bishop has rolled out a wire table for the believers in a stilted presentation.

New Table in the Hospital Chapel in Klagenfurt

(kreuz.net, Klagenfurt) The Old Liberal Bishop Alois Scharz von Gurk has blessed a newly constructed hospital chapel in the city of Klagenfurt population 94.000.  The Diocese reported this from its press office at the beginning of December.  [Ho-ho-ho]

Klagenfurt am Wörtersee is the capital of Kärnten.

Bishop Schwarz took this opportunity to  consecrate a wire table, which could pass for a counter top.

The metal construction was designed by Architect Dietmar Feichtinger, who had planned the entire clinic.

The humorous form will serve as a table for the New Mass.
 
The Bishoip used the rite with oil, incense and fire -- which could have been used for an actual altar -- also for the wire table.

Every Wire Strand is an Apostle

For his Sermon, Bishop Schwarz dared a comical allusion.

The twelve wire strands which are fastened to the counter, represent in the tortured imagination of the Bishop, the Twelve Apostles:

"The close circle of friends around Jesus held this house and that table, on which the bread was broken and the wine, the blood of Christ served as the redemption of the world," he mystified.

According to the witness of the Gospel, there was only one apostle under the Cross -- namely John -- usually.

A Symbol of the New Desolation

The bare chapel was described by Bishop Schwarz as "sanctified and sanctifying place of the power of God".

He also thanked the alleged artist, Karl Brandstätter, the one who can be blamed for the inarticulate window glass in the desolate room.

The Bishop explained that people would find "the Savior" in that bare room.

"There are many people who have access to God, some, who seek him, som, who speak with him, without knowing who he is, and some, who still don't know him that he seeks, the God of their life"  -- testified Msgr Schwarz Soundwave.

From kreuz.net...

No SSPX Priests Allowed in Vienna's Cathedral Book Store

The New Book About "Hetzendorf" by Publisher 'Facultas'

Today a book was ordered in Vienna, that didn't just bring the local Archdiocese to snort.  The first drops of sweat are flowing.

(kreuz.net, Wien) This evening Heidemarie Seblatnig presented her new book "Hetzendorf and the Iconoclasim of the Second Half of the 20th Century" in Vienna according to neo-Conservative videosite 'gloria.tv'.

Mrs Seblating has been a university lecturer at the Institute for Architectural Science at Technischen Universität Wien.

 Her book contains selections from nine authors.  Within the most recent iconoclastic attack on the Catholic Church is dealt with, which has raged since the 50s.

 The seminarian Michael Wimmer addressed the Iconoclasm as the rejection of ecclesiastical identity.

The Italian architect Ciro Lomonte asserted in his selection that the forms of expression in modern architecture do not work with Catholic Liturgy.

The aesthetic and institutional back ground of the late historical church building has been dealt with by Viennese Art Historian Inge Scheidl.

Under the provocative title "Altar Lights on the Firewood Crate" the Art Historian Mario Schwarz is also included in the volume.

The German Historian, Publisher and Luther researcher Gerhard Scuder writes about Martin Luther and his one of the causes of modern Iconoclasm.

Other authors are from the German Oratorian Father Uwe Michael Lang of the Congregation for Liturgy and the new Bavarian Cardinal Walter Brandmüller.

I Had to Wait Outside

Already the pre-history of this relevant and captivating book shows its explosive force.

The books should have been introduced in the Viennese Cathedral book store -- in the immediate vicinity of the Cathedral of St. Stephen.

Mrs. Seblatnig had won the Dogmatic Theologian of the Society of Pius X., Father Matthias Gaudron, as a consultant  for the book's presentation
.
Actually, then the Cathedral book store scrubbed the entire book presentation. Because of the Christmas business it basically can't give any more book presentations.

According to 'gloria.tv' the old Liberal Viennese Auxiliary Bishiop Helmut Krätzl is presenting his new hate book against the Church in the Cathedral bookstore.

Mrs Seblating was forced then to give the book presentation in the Schottenstift in the City Center.

Note: Hetzendorf was once the hunting lodge of the Hapsburgs.  It's now being used by a fashion school.

The Bauhaus and Tradition: New Criterion

One thing this recent review doesn't tell us is the unmistakeable debt modern ecclesiastical architecture owes to the Bauhaus school. The Bauhaus rejected the traditional and more human historical school of art paedagogy and created an absolutist vision which came to dominate the skylines and living spaces of European and American cities for the last 40 years. Bauhaus' architectural rejection of tradition mirrors the Catholic Church's own struggles with modernity as liberal enemies within the Catholic Church attempted to put their heresy in stone and legitiize their attacks on the traditional doctrine, practices and morality.

One might say that the Bauhaus established a workshop for heresy.

The Bauhaus lasted exactly as long as Germany’s Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and is its principal cultural achievement. But the revolutionary school of art and design is also an achievement of modernism itself, for it answered a most vexing question: Was it possible to make a viable institution out of a movement that had arisen out of conflict with institutional authority, and which drew its focus, vitality, and sense of purpose from that conflict? Merely to demolish one bastion of academic authority, such as the imperious École des Beaux Arts, and to replace it with another would hardly have been worth the struggle.

One forgets that modernism before the Bauhaus was a volatile, many-sided, centrifugal affair and that there was little reason to believe that its various factions and groupings—whether Cubist, Futurist, or Constructivist—could ever make common cause. At times, their insistence on stylistic orthodoxy could rival that of the École (one thinks of El Lissitzky and Malevich purging Chagall from the Vitebsk School of Art). Yet the Bauhaus, by enforcing no aesthetic conformity and by promulgating no official style, proved to all that a modernist institution need not repeat the failings of its academic predecessors. Such an omnivorous and receptive stance was perhaps only possible in Germany, which, historically, had been accustomed to draw on the lessons of France, Italy, and elsewhere and to mix the results freely.

Link to original...

New Architectural Appeal to the Holy Father

Appeal to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the return to an authentically Catholic sacred Art

Veni, Creator Spiritus
mentes tuorum visita
Imple superna gratia
quae tu creasti pectora

Art is an inexhaustible and incredible treasure of catechesis. For us it is also a
duty to know and understand well. Not as sometimes art historians do,
interpreting it only formally, according to the artistic technique. Rather, we must
enter into the content and revive the content that inspired this great art. It seems
really a duty - also in the formation of future priests - to become familiar with
these treasures and have the ability to transform them into a living catechesis that
is present in them and speak to us today.
(Benedict XVI - Holy Father's meeting with the parish priests and
clergy of the Diocese of Rome - February 22nd 2007)

Hat tip to beloblog, Link with some commentary

The link to the proposal is here.