Posted on 05/14/2024 4:43:01 PM PDT by ebb tide
Was she the cause of the 1984 Indult?
At OnePeterFive we promote what we term the “godfathers of Tradition” – those men and women who fought for the ancient Roman Rite and the Faith since the Iconoclastic revolution of the 1960s. As younger generations provide fresh energy to the Trad movement, it is not only an obligation of justice and piety to give our Trad godparents their due, but it is also a spiritual necessity in the new period of iconoclasm which was inaugurated by Traditionis Custodes.
The figures of Dietrich and Alice von Hildebrand loom large in the history of the Trad movement not only in these United States, but also in Europe. Dietrich von Hildebrand, among of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century according to Joseph Ratzinger (and, apparently, Pius XII), was the founder of an important Traditionalist institution, The Roman Forum, which still holds their summer symposium every year in Gardone, Italy. We have published some of these lectures here at OnePeterFive, and we will be publishing more in the weeks to come. Stay tuned.
Dietrich von Hildebrand died in 1977. Shortly after this his widow, Dr. Alice von Hildebrand, made one of her own first great acts for the traditionalist movement: confronting St. John Paul II about the Latin Mass. She writes about this in the new text from the Hildebrand Project, Remnant of Paradise: Selected Essays:
In 1980, I was granted the extraordinary privilege of a private audience with His Holiness Pope John Paul II. Knowing that John Paul had a great admiration for my late husband, I dared make the request. It was granted so fast, I could hardly believe it.[1]
After she entered into the presence of the Vicar of Christ, she began the audience by numbering a few things on her mind – she thanked him for his audience, his acts against Küng, and lamented the state of Catholic seminaries. “His Holiness listened carefully and seemed to express his approval,” she remembers.
The thing that struck me most was his presence. I truly had the impression that this man—who carried the whole burden of the Church on his shoulders—was giving me his full attention and could have repeated back my every word. He was fully there, as if my modest message mattered to him.
This accords with the testimony of many different voices, including Bishop Schneider[2] in Christus Vincit that, despite faults of various kinds in the person and papacy of Karol Wojtyła, he was indeed a man of great holiness and prayer, a “Pope for All Seasons.” To his great credit Papa Wojtyła, despite being firmly in the zealous camp of Communio, having led a Catholic revival against Communism as bishop of Kraków in the name of Vatican II and the Novus Ordo,[3] opened his ear to the most controversial comment from the humble yet bold widow:
My main concern, however, was the fact that the Tridentine Mass had been prohibited. Indeed, some bishops declared that if a person attended the so-called Old Mass on Sunday, he would not thereby fulfill his Sunday obligations. I introduced the question as follows: “Your Holiness, in the last years of his life, my husband was much concerned about an ethical question, namely, whether it is ever legitimate to prohibit a holy tradition. Should not formal prohibitions be limited to what is evil or harmful? The Tridentine Mass has been a precious heritage for centuries, said by all priests until a few years ago. One thing was to introduce a new, valid liturgy, quite another was to prohibit one that all the fathers of Vatican II had prayed during the council.” The pope was silent for a brief moment, and then say, “Your husband is no doubt one of the very great ethical thinkers of the twentieth century.” I knew that the pope would consider this seriously. Soon afterwards he gave the indult [of 1984].
It is unclear how much this indult was a direct result of Alice von Hildebrand’s intervention, or was more due to the influence of the then-newly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, or both. In any event, the pious boldness of this great Trad godmother, Alice von Hildebrand, should be remembered and praised in the history of our movement, along with all the other contributions of the Hildebrands. Alice von Hildebrand’s action was imitated by the French Trad godmothers who confronted Pope Francis in a similar, yet grander way, as depicted in Mass of the Ages, episode III.
It was because of our Trad godfathers fighting for the Roman Rite and the Faith in darker times than these, that the Trad movement is what it is today. Let us honour our Trad godfathers and godmothers. Thank God for them, and may we imitate our French Trad godmothers who themselves imitated the godmothers who came before them. This is the Marian element in the Trad movement, without which our cause will fail.
[1] Alice Von Hildebrand, Remnant of Paradise: Selected Essays (Hildebrand Project, 2023), 85ff.
[2] Athanasius Schneider, Christus Vincit (Angelico Press, 2019), 37.
[3] On Wojtyła’s fight against Nazism and Communism before and after Vatican II, see T. S. Flanders, City of God vs. City of Man (Our Lady of Victory Press, 2021), 397, 400, 416-417, 421-423, 447-451
Ping
It is unrealistic to expect all future priests to learn Latin.
However, many parishioners find Latin mass to be comforting.
The Catholic Church should try to continue to offer Latin mass.
Novus Ordo enthusiast?
The Mass of the Ages is worth learning Latin for.
“It is unrealistic to expect all future priests to learn Latin.”
As vulgates such as Old French and Old Spanish diverged from Latin, the ecclesiastical Latin used at Mass was something of a “foreign language” for *all* Catholic priests from roughly 800 A.D. onward.
So... question... why was it realistic to expect all priests from 800 to 1969 to learn Latin, but no longer is?
that said, all this stuff about Latin is nice, but it isn’t the real language spoken by Christ.
so when I go to Mass, I get little out of the Latin, because I don’t know the language. The priest would be better off saying the Mass in Korean, Russian, Chinese or any other language I get it that the early Popes spoke Latin, but it means nothing to me. Neither does facing the altar.
Why? All priests prior to VCII said their Masses in Latin and all laymen, including children, attended those Latin Masses.
Are we getting more stupid or just plain lazy?
They’re still supposed to learn Latin at seminary; far from “unrealistic,” it’s a requirement.
That is not one of the arguments for the traditional Latin Mass. Christ was able to speak all languages.
Latin is still the official language of the Church. The new Mass is officially in Latin. There are missals in the vernacular and Latin so that those who don't know Latin can follow along. These existed before the new Mass and no one had a problem using them.
I respect the fact you seem to like the Latin Mass. And sure, Latin was used extensively by the church for hundreds of years. The second Vatican council allowed Masses to be said in the vernacular of local churches in the languages of the people. This was supposed to make the liturgy more comprehensible to the faithful, fostering a stronger sense of participation and understanding. So back to what I said, I get very little from a Latin Mass. our church doesn’t have such missals. I feel like I did as a kid where nothing means anything to me….
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