Matthew Hazell Profile picture
Catholic. Liturgy geek. Contributor to @NLMblog and @RorateCaeli. Associate member of @LiturgySociety. (Tweets = personal capacity)
Jul 11 6 tweets 2 min read
(1/6) I recently came across an article from 1997, by Fr Edmund Hill, O.P. (1923-2010)—translator and scholar of St Augustine and who regarded himself as a Vatican II 'progressive'—on the psalms in the Liturgy of the Hours. Some interesting remarks!

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(2/6) On the censoring of the psalms, for example, Fr Hill has this to say (pp. 99-100): "I would voice my strenuous objection to the bowdlerisation of the psalms in both the Latin original of the breviary and in the English and doubtless all other translations..."
Jun 12 8 tweets 3 min read
No. First, Canon 766 limits individual bishops by making it clear that lay preaching in churches is something the conference of bishops has to sign off on first (which further requires the «recognitio» of the Dicastery for Bishops: see «Praedicate Evangelium», n. 110)... Second, the liturgical law of the Church envisages lay preaching **outside of Mass** and only under certain conditions: see «Redemptionis Sacramentum», n. 161... Image
May 5 5 tweets 2 min read
The problem is that the reformed Missal makes it very clear that this overwhelming choice and complication is a feature, not a bug, since complete Mass formularies for marriage are given merely «commoditatis causa», ("for the sake of convenience").
Image To clarify: the TLM has one Mass, with one set of readings and one nuptial blessing.
In the NO, there are 3 Mass formularies (each with their own nuptial blessing and solemn blessing), plus a choice of 9 OT readings, 14 Epistles, 7 responsorial Psalms, and 10 Gospel readings.
Apr 3 4 tweets 2 min read
(1/4) On the 55th anniversary of Paul VI's promulgation of the post-Vatican II Missal, a reminder that Apostolic Constitutions are not preserved from error: quite often in the NO, "the most ancient prayers" have not, in fact, "been revised to accord with the ancient texts"... Image (2/4) As an example, consider Eastertide — of the 45 collects assigned in the 3rd edition of the Novus Ordo Missal:
- only 10 are unchanged from their sources
- 22 were edited before inclusion
- 13 are basically new texts, combined from 2 or more sources
Mar 22 10 tweets 4 min read
(1/10) A thread, if I may...
First, the assertion here is just completely wrong: what will be read at Mass is "brothers and sisters", as permitted by the ESV-CE footnotes and agreed by the Bishops of England & Wales and of Scotland with Crossway (the copyright holders). (2/10) This, in fact, was noted by The Tablet back in May 2021: Image
Jan 26 10 tweets 4 min read
With regard to the question below: one could start with the Una Voce "position papers", collected in "The Case for Liturgical Restoration" (). I'm sure that @LMSChairman or @UnaVoceOfficial would be willing to chat for an article.
But, FWIW, my tuppence: angelicopress.com/products/the-c…

Image 1. We want guaranteed space for silence in the liturgy, such as during the Roman Canon – not the relentless, exhausting gauntlet of constantly being loudly talked at by the priest from across the altar.
Jan 25 7 tweets 3 min read
(1/7) The reformed offertory prayers, explained in 1969 by Fr Carlo Braga, C.M., close collaborator with Bugnini and intimately involved in the liturgical reforms:
"More profound, under the doctrinal aspect, is the change which is found in the offertory..."
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(2/7) "...The difficulty arose especially from the formulas of the offering of bread and wine... These formulas [in the 1962 Missal] unduly anticipate the idea of sacrificial offering which is proper to the Canon of the Mass..."
Nov 14, 2023 13 tweets 3 min read
Excellent interview from ++Gądecki, on the #Synod:
"Some participants managed to talk three or four times. I, oddly enough, was not so lucky. We were encouraged to send positions to the secretariat, but no one seems to have read them so far..." (cont.)
catholicworldreport.com/2023/11/13/wil… "[T]he group of non-bishops involved was very diverse, and the manner in which they were nominated made it questionable whether their views were representative of a given Church, diocese, or parish..."
Oct 30, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
Erm, if the diaconate needs "reimagining" such that it is no longer part of Holy Orders, then it's no longer the diaconate... the ineptitude on display here... well, if this was the state of theological discussion at the #synod... 😬 Image And their Eminences could solve some of their own confusion by re-reading «Lumen gentium» 29 (along with «Sacrum Diaconatus Ordinem», V), which summarises the duties of the diaconate, principal among which (contra ++McElroy) are liturgical duties:
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Jul 12, 2023 7 tweets 3 min read
Others are commenting on the Christological issues in this article - I will merely observe that the assertion by Mgr Irwin (a liturgist!) that "the Roman Missal assiduously avoids using the title “Jesus” without a modifier" is wrong: here are 12 examples of the contrary. https://t.co/bsV7iJspAi






This, of course, does not include the numerous spoken antiphons in the Missal, or the sung antiphons in the «Ordo cantus Missae», that use the name "Jesus" with no modifier.
(There's a perfectly good concordance at that I wish people would use more!)latinitas.it/m3/
Jun 5, 2023 12 tweets 4 min read
(1/11) I agree with a lot of what Dr Chapp writes here, though by no means all, as I don't agree entirely with his general view of "radical traditionalism"... though I'd be happy to "dialogue" about that...
Permit me a few comments, if I may: (2/11) I agree that if anything like a "reform of the reform" (IMO the absolute bare minimum of requirements) is going to be any sort of going concern, then an authentic synodality could (nb. could!) be a way of approaching this issue. Image
Jun 3, 2023 5 tweets 2 min read
(1/5) An interesting omission in the Novus Ordo's first reading for Trinity Sunday this year (Year A)...! Image (2/5) As it happens, this is not a one-off for Trinity Sunday: we see the same kind of censorship in the first reading in Year B... Image
Apr 23, 2023 11 tweets 3 min read
Deeply scandalous: the President of the Pontifical Academy for Life is openly in favour of the introduction of laws permitting euthanasia: such laws, he says, "cannot be excluded" & "can constitute the greatest common good that is concretely possible" in modern society. 😡 Image Archbishop Paglia's own appalling remarks can be found here, with the headline "The time has come for a law on assisted suicide": ilriformista.it/sul-suicidio-a…
Apr 5, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
(1/4) Today's 1st lesson in the trad Roman Rite: perfectly suited to Holy Week, esp alongside St Luke's Passion, in which Our Lord sweats drops of his Most Precious Blood (Lk 22:44) before it is spilled on the Cross.

This reading is *nowhere* to be found in the Novus Ordo.

🤨 Image (2/4) And it's not as if this is a mediaeval addition to the Roman Rite. Far from it: Isa. 62:11b + 63:1-7 is found in *all* the ancient lectionaries we have — Würzburg (c. 700); Paris BN lat. 9451 (8th c.); Corbie (c. 772-780); Murbach «comes» (8th c.); & Alcuin (9th c.).
Apr 3, 2023 8 tweets 4 min read
No, I'm actually just taking Cardinal Roche at his words when he says that he thinks "the theology of the Church has changed". It's quite clear what his understanding is – see, e.g., this interview he gave in May 2022 (pics: omnesmag.com/actualidad/vat…, English via Google Transl). ImageImage This is, of course, a recapitulation of what he said to The Tablet in February 2022:
Mar 31, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
Mr Lewis seems to have completely missed the fact that the primary criticism of the Cardinal's comments was that they were just flat out *wrong* – which he might have known if he'd read Pius XII's «Mediator Dei» beforehand. Of course, this encyclical isn't cited in his article... To remind everyone: there has been no change in the Church's theology of the liturgy in this respect: see MD, esp. nn. 85-87 (pic: vatican.va/content/pius-x…).
Mar 29, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
Now, not to beat a dead horse *too* much, but the redaction history of «Optatam totius» 10 is interesting.
It was heavily restructured in the 4th session of the Council, with "the surpassing excellence of virginity" specifically added at this final stage (see AS IV.4, pp. 18-19). Contra @pjfahey, the reason given for this was to make sure that "in the whole of n. 10, the superiority of the evangelical counsel of the renunciation of marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven is clearly affirmed": see AS IV.4, archive.org/details/ASIV.4…, p. 39.
Mar 28, 2023 6 tweets 2 min read
«Si quis dixerit statum coniugalem anteponendum esse statui virginitatis vel coelibatus et non esse melius ac beatius manere in virginitate aut coelibatu quam iungi matrimonio: anathema sit.» (Council of Trent, Sess. XXIV, De Sacr. Matrimonii, Can. 10) Neither Pope Francis in «Amoris laetitia», nor the Catechism of the Catholic Church, nor Pope John Paul II in his "Theology of the Body", nor Vatican II's "universal call to holiness" (LG 40) contradict or change this dogmatic teaching of the Church!
Mar 27, 2023 5 tweets 2 min read
For pity's sake, not this rubbish again... 🤦
catholicreview.org/pre-vatican-ii…
(full sermon at cantalamessa.org/?p=4080&lang=en) Image (1) "Liturgy" does *not* mean "work/action of the people"!
See CCC 1069: "The word 'liturgy' originally meant a 'public work' or a 'service in the name of/on behalf of the people.' In Christian tradition it means the participation of the People of God in 'the work of God.'" Image
Feb 22, 2023 11 tweets 6 min read
(1/9) Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Of course, had it been left entirely up to the Consilium, Ash Wednesday and the days following would have been abolished, with Lent beginning on the 1st Sunday: see Bugnini, "Reform of the Liturgy", p. 307 (pic). Image (2/9) Thankfully, Paul VI intervened, even though he clearly thought Ash Wednesday and the days following were somehow "difficult" and "questionable" for modern man (!): see Bugnini, "Reform", pp. 310-311 (pics). ImageImage
Feb 8, 2023 6 tweets 2 min read
(1/6) Interesting insight from Congar:

"The conservative character of the liturgy allows it to preserve & transmit intact those values whose importance one era may have forgotten, but which the following era is happy to find intact & preserved, so it can live from them again..." (2/6) "Where would we be if liturgical conservatism had not resisted the taste of the late Middle Ages for sensitive devotions, or the individualistic, rationalist & moralizing imperatives of the 18th century, or the criticism of the 19th century..."