The Latin Mass Society has played a blinder, according to Dame Thompson, for inviting Archbishop Raymond Burke (right), an American archbishop to celebrate the Gregorian rite at Westminster without asking permission of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor.According to the Dame this is all about the Cardinal sabotaging the traditional liturgy. Of course, it's really to do with etiquette. If I was Cormac (or any other bishop) I'd be livid if any organisation within the Church invited a prelate from another territory to celebrate Mass in the mother church of the diocese without clearing it first.
Thompson reports that the LMS has had to "go through the humiliating business of contacting Archbishop Burke in Rome" to withdraw the invitation. Very much a case of mea maxima culpa.
It's nothing to do with which rite one prefers: This is simply a case of bad manners.
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The former (thank goodness!) Abbot of Quarr, Cuthbert Johnson, did this with monotonous regularity. Archbishop Vincent Nichols and Cardinal George Pell were both invited by him to preside at confirmations at Quarr, etc, without consulting the local bishop, Crispian Hollis. The latter did not do anything about it, though he might have done if they had been invited to preside in his own cathedral. I think this is the point - the cathedral is where the local Ordinary has his cathedra, and therefore there are accepted protocols which need to be followed when someone else presumes to inhabit the said chair.
In the case of Raymond Burke, Burke is indeed a berk; and it should be a cause for rejoicing that this opinionated man should have been given the thumbs-down.
Don't think much of Dame T's new photo at the head of his blog. The previous one just made him look like a weirdo (well, there you are). In the new one, he just looks like a sad, old, tired chap (well, there you are again). It's about time he gave us all a treat by retiring.
Not just a breach of etiquette, I suspect. The LMS's subtext in inviting overseas grandees is 'look how the English bishops don't support the old rite'. Cormac's done the right thing in slapping them down.
And let's remember, the Cardinal done this to stop the celebration of the Gregorian rite!! Oops! Sorry – fell for the Damist approach – if he'd wanted to do that he could have stopped the celebration altogether. Heaven forbid – was he tearing the LMS off a strip?
I did, of course, mean "the Cardinal had done this".
My guess is that LMS ignored protocol, courtesy etc last year with Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos. Also that CMOC wanted to show support but within proper ecclesial context of the diocese - he has offered a central London parish solely for EF Triduum this year and asked a diocesan priest to take responsibility.
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