WILL NZ'S BISHOPS EMBRACE THE AMAZON-STYLE MASS?

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https://www.youtube.com/live/gQ9iE12iik4

Pity our poor bishops. While Catholic churches burn down across Europe and Francis ushers in a new, paganistic version of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass they, like bishops all over the world, are stuck with the Synod on Synodality, trying to make it a goer. It's not. 88% of Catholics say it's a dead duck.

So embarrassing. Do New Zealand's bishops really believe in the Synod? And will they embrace the new Amazon rite of the Mass - which funnily enough was engineered by the same big-shot theologian who's advisor to the Synod?

We all know what happened to the world after the Antipope Francis introduced the Pachamama to the Vatican. The chastisement of Covid-19 happened, and is still happening. We saw the parody of the Sacrifice of the Mass at the Olympic Games and now Islam declares unofficial war on the Catholic Church all across Europe. Do the bishops wish to pursue the Synod to its ultimate conclusion - a faux church subbing for the One that is Holy, Catholic and Apostolic?

Mostly they burn in France but most recently in Ireland

https://www.youtube.com/live/tNpkQ5tWk70

 

The highly anticipated and controversial Amazon rite of Mass will enter a three year “experimental phase” later this year, a key theologian has attested.

 

In a new report by Vida Nueva digital, groundbreaking details were revealed about the proposed Amazon rite of Mass – a fruit of the 2019 Amazon Synod held at the Vatican.

 

While not giving any verbatim quotations, Vida Nueva stated that “the Amazon rite will enter the experimental phase – which will last three years until 2028 – at the end of 2024.”

 

The news is arguably the most significant development in relation to the Amazon rite since it was proposed back in 2019.

 

Father Agenor Brighenti, Vida Nueva’s source, serves as the head of the Theological Team of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM) and also advisor to the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA).

 

Brighenti additionally serves as coordinator of “the process of elaboration of the Amazon rite for the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon,” and advocates for the ordination of women to the diaconate and the priesthood, along with married priests. The influential theologian is a key advisor to the current Synod on Synodality.

 

Amazon rite?

The Amazon rite is a product of the highly controversial 2019 Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, or the Amazon Synod. Among the many proposals raised by the Amazon Synod and its final document are the opening of the clerical state to women and admitting married men to the priesthood, in an attempt to make the Church more appealing to Catholics in the region.

 

Additionally, based on the Second Vatican Council’s defense of “liturgical pluralism,” the Amazon Synod’s final document called for “a rite for native peoples” which would be based on their “worldview, traditions, symbols and original rites that include transcendent, community and ecological dimensions.”

In other words, synchretism. 

This “Amazonian rite” would “expresses the liturgical, theological, disciplinary and spiritual heritage of the Amazon,” which would assist the “work of evangelization.”

 

Details have since been scarce on what the rite might look like; however, Pope Francis has suggested it could be formulated in line with the Zaire rite, which has been in use in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1988.

 

 

How's the Hermeneutic of Continuity working out for you?

In a preface to a 2020 book on the Zairean rite, Francis wrote that the rite “is considered an example of liturgical inculturation.”

 

“One feels that in the celebration according to the Zairian rite, a culture and spirituality animated by religious songs with African rhythm, the sound of drums and other musical instruments vibrate, which constitute a true progress in rooting the Christian message in the Congolese soul. It is a joyful celebration,” he commented.

 

Francis directly linked the Zaire rite – replete with local customs, native dancing, singing and clapping – to the forthcoming Amazon rite:

The case of the Zairean rite suggests a promising path also for the possible elaboration of an Amazonian rite, in that the cultural needs of a specific area of the African context are received, without distorting the nature of the Roman Missal, to guarantee continuity with the ancient and universal tradition of the Church. We hope that this work can help to move in this direction. 

 

Development

Following calls from liberalizing forces and key campaigners behind the Amazon Synod, a commission was formed to guide the development of such a rite.

 

In June 2022, the notoriously anti-traditional secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship – Archbishop Vittorio Viola – commented that the formation of an Amazon rite was “on the high seas.”

 

He also highlighted Pope Francis’ comments and linking of “the inculturation of the liturgy” with the “new evangelization.” Just as the Pope had done in his 2020 book preface, Viola linked the Zaire rite to the proposed Amazon rite, attesting that so-called “inculturation” of liturgy is the “new frontier” for the Church.

 

Results of the various sub-committees studying the proposed rite were presented to the Dicastery for Divine Worship in September 2022. The process was crucially aided by the papal formation of a new episcopal conference in the Amazon region: the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA) in 2021.

READ: Pope Francis establishes ecclesial body to implement controversial Amazon Synod

 

Vida Nueva reported that Brighenti said the proposed Amazon rite was presented to the second assembly of CEAMA this August. After a “phase in communities,” stated Brighenti, the rite will be presented to the Dicastery for Divine Worship.

 

Currently, the theologian said that some 13 commissions are formulating the rite’s details about “the rituals of the sacraments and also thinking about the liturgical year of the Amazon, the liturgical space, the liturgy of the hours, among others.”

 

“We hope that it will be accepted and approved by the Church so that the ecclesial communities can express their faith according to their culture and customs in this immense territory of the Amazon,” he said.

 

Context of news

Brighenti, as noted, is a highly influential theologian in Rome. The fact that he is predicting the rite will officially enter an “experimental phase” before the year is out is a key development for the future of the rite which has found heavy criticism among conservatives and advocacy from liberal voices.

In the meantime, and alongside the quietly developing Amazon rite, the Vatican is currently mulling over another pagan-linked, inculturated rite.

 

READ: Vatican considering ‘Mayan rite’ of Mass after Mexican bishops overwhelmingly approve it

 

The Mayan rite proposed by Mexico’s Catholic bishops is now being examined by the Dicastery for Divine Worship. Though the dicastery has been slow in issuing a statement on the rite – much to the consternation of the Mexican bishops – the rite was drawn up with the key involvement of Dicastery Undersecretary Bishop Aurelio García Macías, suggesting that Vatican approval is a mere formality.

 

LifeSiteNews’ Dr. Maike Hickson has provided an in-depth analysis of the Mayan rite, the draft and final copies of which both she and this correspondent have studied.

 

The final draft of the Mayan rite contains liturgical actions based on, and drawn from, pagan actions. Such a liturgy would then be at the liberty of the individual cleric involved, who would feel at ease incorporating the wider, accompanying pagan aspects of the rituals which the Vatican would have approved.

Such a style gives an insight into the likely future of a similarly inculturated Amazonian rite. https://www.lifesitenews.com/analysis/new-amazon-rite-of-the-mass-to-enter-3-year-experimental-phase/

 

The Synod: a flash version of the tired old parish renewal group

 

Last month a social media intern working for the General Secretariat of the Synod posted a poll on 𝕏 (formerly Twitter). The yes/no poll asked: “Do you believe that synodality as a path of conversion and reform can enhance the mission and participation of all the baptized?”

 

One can imagine the thought process of this young intern. He (or she) is surrounded by people obsessed with All Things Synod. These people have been living and breathing the Synod on Synodality for years, and likely believe it is revolutionary in the life of the Church. If this poll were taken in the Secretariat’s offices, I’m sure the “Yes” votes would have approached 100% of the total. I’m sure this poor intern was expecting similar enthusiasm from the common folk.

 

So what was the result on 𝕏, when actual Catholics in the real world were asked? Not so rosy.

 

 

Out of 7,001 votes, the “No” votes accumulated an astounding 88% of the total. Many of the replies to the poll included pithy remarks such as “Please preach the Gospel” and “We just want the TLM.” The response was so embarrassing to the Synod that it deleted the poll.

 

The irony just oozes out of this overwhelmingly negative response. Synodality, after all, purports to be based on the idea that the Church should listen to the people, to respond to their hopes and desires. The Church need no longer be run in a top-down fashion, we are told. Power to the people!

 

Yet when the people spoke, the Synod officials shut them down because what the people said didn’t go along with what they wanted to hear. I guess it’s not really a people-driven movement after all.

When Vatican officials speak of synodality they mean the same thing Democrats mean when they speak of democracy: rule by a progressive elite with a populist veneer. “Democracy” among progressives in America. The Left warns that democracy will be over if someone it doesn’t like is democratically elected, and is so concerned with protecting democracy that it will circumvent democratic processes and have its power brokers anoint a candidate behind closed doors. Then Democracy can be saved.

This is why we have this weird focus on synodality, which is essentially just a bureaucratic process. And it is weird: recently a prominent Argentine theologian commented, “It is not enough to have a synod, it is necessary to become a synod.” What?!?

 

Church leaders promote synodality as the cure for all that ails the Church because synodality is a cover.

 

What is really going on is that progressive factions in the Church failed to implement what they want. What do they want? Just look at what the Anglican church has done for the past century for your answer: official acceptance of contraception, married priests, women priests, looking the other way at divorce, an embrace of homosexuality, and other, mostly pelvic-related, demands.

 

Progressives are smart enough to know that simply declaring these teachings reversed from on high won’t work; there’s too much history behind the traditional teachings. Perhaps too they see how the Anglican church has fallen apart by doing that. So these progressives need a faux process to garner support among the laity and make them think it was all their own idea: synodality!

 

Fortunately, the laity are having nothing to do with it. Their concerns are far more real: raising their kids Catholic, attending a reverent Mass, hearing the full Gospel proclaimed from the pulpit, receiving help to bring their fallen-away loved ones back to the Church. This is what matters to them, not making adjustments to how the Church bureaucracy works. 

This push for synodality isn’t brand new, either. Church officials have been trying it since the close of Vatican II. The progressives saw that the Council itself didn’t give them everything they wanted, so they created an official process to implement the “Spirit of Vatican II.” Thus, the modern synod process—synodality—was born.

 

Germany saw one such synod launched in the early 1970’s. The Würzburg Synod (1971-1975) held debates on the same issues we hear about today from the Catholic Left: celibacy, permission for the divorced-and-remarried to receive Communion, women deacons, etc. This synod was touted as a process for both clergy and laity to gather together to shape the future of the Church. Supporters praised this progressive methodology as a new way to move forward.

One prominent priest in Germany at the time wanted no part of it, however. His name was Fr. Joseph Ratzinger. He wrote:

“People complain that the great majority of the faithful generally show too little interest in the activities of the synod, [but] to me this caution looks more like a sign of health.”

Ratzinger continues:

“[The faithful] don’t want to go on hearing more about how bishops, priests, and high-ranking Catholics do their jobs, but what God wants from them in life and death and what he does not want.“

 

The future Pope Benedict XVI hit the nail on the head. Catholics in the pews instinctively distrust the synod process because they sense it is a cover for injecting progressive poisons into the Church’s bloodstream. Synodality isn’t a process in which the laity’s concerns are heard; it is a process by which they are ignored.

 

So, as yet another session of the interminable Synod on Synodality approaches in October, faithful Catholics should do what the hierarchy is doing to you: ignore it. Just ignore the bureaucrats who love to hear themselves talk. The round tables at which they sit perfectly represent the insular, detached from the outside world, nature of these discussions. Ignoring them is the best bet, as there’s no magisterial authority in these synods, and there’s nothing coming out of them that’s helpful for actually living out the faith in the modern world.

 

Yes, some Catholics will need to point out the errors of the Synod (be assured we’ll do that here at Crisis) in order to inform any confused Catholics about why it should be ignored, but for most Catholics, the best advice I can give is to simply sit this one out. We saw from that 𝕏 poll that Church officials don’t actually want to hear from you, so make sure the feeling is mutual. Instead of getting caught in the synodality mire, Catholics can focus on living the Faith in their families and parishes, sharing it with others, praying often, receiving the Sacraments, and as Fr. Ratzinger said, learning “what God wants from them in life and death and what he does not want.”Why Synodality is a Sham - Crisis Magazine

 

 

"We beseech Thee O Lord, let Thy continual pity cleanse and defend Thy Church"

- Collect, Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost