Christmas 2008

A blessed Christmas to everyone and many thanks to the people whom I have met this year.

Announcement: Christmas Mass Schedules Extraordinary Form

Come and join us in celebrating the Nativity of our Lord the Extraordinary way: with a sense of the sacred and mystery.

Parish of the Lord of the Divine Mercy
Sikatuna Village, Quezon City
Missa Cantata Midnight Mass December 25, 12:00AM
Missa Cantata Midday Mass 1:30PM
Low Mass Octave days of Christmas 8:00AM except
Missa Cantata Sunday within the Octave 1:30PM

St. Jerome Emiliani and Sta. Susana Parish Church
Ayala Alabang, besides Ayala Town Center
Christmas Carols December 24, 10:30PM
Missa Cantata December 24, 11:00PM
with live telecast via NBN Channel 4
starting at 10:30PM

Upcoming Christmastide Papal Liturgies

Some points of interest in the upcoming Papal Liturgies:

Translation from New Liturgical Movement:

The Midnight Mass will be preceded by a short prayer vigil which concludes with the Kalenda, the Christmas Proclamation, which had heretofore been included in the Mass itself, whereas Msgr. Marini notes that this placement corresponds better to its nature, since the "Roman Martyrology foresees the singing of the Kalenda on the day of the vigil of Christmas at the end of Lauds or of a Little Hour of the Liturgy of Hours".

The Holy Father will not wear cope and mitre for the Urbi et Orbi blessing, but choir dress. To forestall any rash comments, this is not without precedent, as may be seen from the accompanying picture of Pius XII imparing the Urbi et Orbi blessing on Easter 1952. The choice would seem to be connected to the fact that the Pope does not publicly celebrate the Missa in die, and is therefore not vested prior to the blessing. Msgr. Marini explains that it is "a solemn benediction which is not connected to a particular liturgical rite."

After Pontifical Vespers on 31 December there will again be Eucharistic Adoration to signify, in the words of Msgr Marini, "the centrality of adoration in the life of the Church and of the disciples of the Lord."

Pope Benedict will wear a Roman chasuble for the Mass of the Epiphany.

The Mass of the Baptism of the Lord will again be celebrated in the Sistine chapel ad orientem. As Msgr. Marini explains "this means that at some points the Pope will turn towards the Crucified, thus underlining the correct orientation of the Eucharistic celebration. This is not about turning the back to the people, but about assuming the same orientation as the assembly, which precisely looks toward the Crucified."

RH Bill: -"fertility control bill" says bioethics experts

Source: CBCPNews

MANILA -- The much hyped controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Bill 5043, that is being deliberated in Congress, is more of a “pregnancy prevention” or "fertility control bill" than maternal health bill, say bioethics experts.

In a colloquium held November 13 at the Dominican-run University of Santo Tomas (UST) - Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, leaders of the Southeast Asian Center for Bioethics, Medicine's Department of Bioethics, the Bioethics Society of the Philippines, Catholic Physicians' Guild of the Philippines, and the Philippine Nurses Association made a "consensus statement" that opposed the RH Bill in its present form.

The bill cleverly, although erroneously, styles itself as anti-abortion while promoting birth-control methods that are "potentially abortifacient agents," said bioethics experts comprising doctors and other health professionals.

Fr. Fausto Gomez, OP, president of the Southeast Asian Center for Bioethics and a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life of the Holy See, said maternal health problems should be solved not by an "anti-birth policy" but by "means that are socially and economically based."

Gomez added that all the means to be employed should respect the dignity of life and of persons, citing the consensus statement:

"In the pursuit of the authentic common good, let us appreciate the obligation to ensure that no other aims or goals, no matter how pressing, obscure will overshadow our value of and respect for life and the dignity of the person and the family."

"The advocates of the RH bill exaggerate maternal health problems contrary to the government's own statistics that show pregnancy complications are not a leading cause of death among Filipino mothers," UST's student paper, The Varsitarian, reported.

As health professionals, the bioethics members said they are of the same intention in protecting the mother during her reproductive years. "This bill, however, does not address the problems of reproductive health in a holistic manner and focuses mainly on pregnancy prevention," a statement said.

They also criticized that the bill "must consider the rights of others involved, specifically the unborn, and those tasked with their care." The statement also stressed that "the anti-abortion stance of the bill is contradicted by the promotion of contraceptive agents (IUD and hormonal contraceptives) which actually act after fertilization and are potentially abortifacient agents."

The bill is self-contradicting on abortion but advocating methods that hinder conception, said Dr. Josephine Lumitao of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery and UST Hospital, which is a country's premier health service institute.

While the bill denies support for abortion, it promotes hormonal contraceptives and intrauterine devices, which prevent conception, and abortifacients, that destroy the fertilized egg, Lumitao said. She explained that hormonal contraceptives, in the form of a pill, skin patch, or injection -- all widely available in the market -- contain hormones that prevent ovulation, and render the outer layer of the uterus
unfavorable for implantation of the fertilized egg, which leads to its death due to lack of nutrition.

Intrauterine devices, a contraceptive placed inside the uterus, prevent implantation.

"Is it not contradictory if the bill promotes abortifacient methods?"

Pontifical Mass Ordinary Form Ad Orientem Posture

Last December 13, 2008, his Excellency Bishop Angel Hobayan D.D., bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Catarman, celebrated a Pontifical Mass according to the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite in Latin and using the ad orientem/ad apsidem posture at the St. John the Baptist Parish in the City of San Juan, Archdiocese of Manila.

Concelebrating priest was Rev. Father Abraham Arganiosa, C.R.S and Master of Ceremonies is Rev. Father Carlos Estrada, an Opus Dei priest.

The Pontifical Mass was the culminating event of the 2008 Apologetics Seminar and Apologetics Convention organized by the Defensores Fidei Foundation.

A Canonistic Notes on Summorum Pontificum

From the New Liturgical Movement

The first 2008 issue of Liturgisches Jahrbuch ("Liturgical Yearbook") contains some very clear and sound notes from a canonist's perspective on the implications of Summorum Pontificum. This is all the more surprising and gratifying as Liturgisches Jahrbuch is a quarterly edited by the German Liturgical Institute (Deutsches Liturgisches Institut), the centre of German liturgical "officialdom" maintained by the German Bishops' Conference. The article (Liturgisches Jahrbuch 1/2008, p. 3 ff.) is written by Prof. Norbert Lüdecke who teaches Canon Law at the University of Bonn. A summary of the article is given in the current issue of Una Voce Korrespondenz, the quarterly of the German Una Voce association (4/2008, p. 371 ff.), of which a summary appeared, on December 1st, 2008, on the website kath-info.de, which we present to you here in an NLM translation:

1. The bishops may issue "annotations and instructions for the implementation" of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, but they may not add "new mandatory content" (cf. the analysis of the "guidelines" of the German Bishops' Conference by Prof. Georg Muschalek).

2. The "guidelines" of the German Bishops' Conference of 27 September 2007 are not binding upon the individual diocesan bishop.

3. The celebration of the Missa sine populo is, except in the case of insurmountable obstacles, to be allowed "at any legitimate place". "Restrictions of the usus antiquior to certain places or times by particular law are (...) inadmissible."

4. In a Missa sine populo (literally translated: "Mass without people") the faithful may participate sua sponte (i.e. without compulsion). They may also advert other faithful to this Holy Mass.

5. For a group, which according to the Motu proprio is a prerequisite for the celebration of a Holy Mass with the people, the number of three persons is sufficient. The diocesan bishop cannot establish a higher minimum number.

6. The parish priest must not discriminate against Masses according to the old use "by keeping them secret or scheduling them at times difficultly accessible".

7. "The Pope has not ordered that the parish priest could meet the request of interested faithful. He has mandated that the parish priest must do so"(Lüdecke).

8. Faithful whose right to Holy Mass in the older use is being denied by the parish priest do not only have the possibility, but the duty to inform the diocesan bishop about this.

9. "Applications" for the traditional liturgy are "not petitions of grace or favour." "Parish priests as well as diocesan bishops are legally held to meet this request" (Lüdecke).

10. The consent of the bishop to a Holy Mass according to the old use instituted by a parish priest according to the desire of faithful is not required.

11. Laypeople as extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion and women as altar servers are not allowed in the traditional liturgy.

....

Latest Liturgical Events in the Philippines

By: Carlos Antonio Palad
(Cross-posted from Rorate-Caeli.)

1. Tomorrow, December 13, 2008, Memorial of St. Lucy, His Excellency Bishop Angel Hobayan, the Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Catarman, will offer Holy Mass (Novus Ordo) ad orientem in the San Juan Pinaglabanan church, San Juan, Metro Manila.

The Mass will entirely be in Latin except for the reading, the Gospel and the General Intercessions. The propers will be sung from the Graduale Romanum of 1974.

The fact that this Mass will be offered ad orientem had occasioned some controversy, accounting for my late posting of the news of this coming event.

Bishop Angel Hobayan is one of the strongest supporters in the Philippine hierarchy of Latin in the liturgy. He visited (and gave a homily at) the CIEL International Conference in 2002. He twice offered Pontifical Low Mass (1962 Missal) earlier this year (Ash Wednesday and Laetare Sunday) as well as another Pontifical Novus Ordo Mass (Latin and ad orientem) at Jaleville chapel (Paranaque City, Metro Manila) last September 28, 2008.

2. Low Mass according to the 1962 Missal is now offered everyday from Monday to Friday in Calamba, Laguna (Diocese of San Pablo) by Fr. John Paul M. Villanueva. More details to be posted soon.

3. The Tridentine Latin Mass - St. Jerome community, based in St. Jerome Emiliani Parish (Alabang Town Center, Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila, under the Diocese of Paranaque) is announcing that its Christmas Eve Mass according to the 1962 Missal will be televised by the National Broadcasting Network (Channel 4), the Philippines' state TV channel. The live broadcast will begin at 11:00 P.M. of December 24. Details of the Mass will be posted once finalized and certain.

New Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline

¨The Holy Father has accepted the resignation presented by His Eminence Card. Francis Arinze, having reached the age limit, from his position as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and has named to succeed him in the same position His Eminence Card. Antonio Cañizares Llovera, up to now Archbishop of Toledo (Spain).¨

Translated Source: Rorate Caeli
Original Source: Holy See Press Office



Photo Credits: Daily Peeps

Father Zerrudo's Sacerdotal Anniversary

On the first Sunday of Advent, 2008, Father Michell Joe Zerrudo on his 15th sacredotal anniversary celebrated a solemn High Mass with Father Joseph Skelton who served as deacon and Msgr Moises Andrade as subdeacon.

Feast of Christ the King (Extraordinary Form)

Father Moises Cabrera of Sta. Perpetua Parish Church Diocese of Cubao celebrated a solemn High Mass in solemnity of Christ the King (old calendar) with Fr. Erwin Dela Cruz as deacon and Fr. Michell Joe Zerrudo as subdeacon at the Parish of the Lord of the Divine Mercy.