Cardinal Burke's Pontifical Mass in Australia

Here are some images of the Pontifical Mass which His Eminence Raymond L. Cardinal Burke celebrated yesterday, 12 March 2011, at St. Brigid's, Marrickville, Sydney. Apparently, there was a very good turnout (over 1000 people). H.E. Most Rev Julian Porteous, Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney, also attended the Mass.










Image Source: Catholic Community of Bl. John Henry Newman. See more photographs at the same community's site here.

New Deacons for the ICRSS

Cardinal Burke, the great champion of traditional liturgy, has ordained three new deacons for the Institute of Christ the King at their seminary near Florence on 30 January 2011. On the day before, the Cardinal had led their annual pilgrimage to Treviso, where the heart of St. Francis de Sales, Patron of the Institute, is venerated. Here are some images of both occasions. First the ordinations:










Pilgrimage to Treviso:

The Cardinal before the heart of St. Francis de Sales.







Images from the ICRSS website posted with permission. See the full galery for the ordinations here and for the Treviso pilgrimage here.

New Members of the Congregation for Divine Worship

The Supreme Pontiff has today assigned to the Cardinals elevated at the Consistory of 20 November 2010 their memberships in the various dicasteries of the Roman Curia. Of particular interest to NLM readers will be the Cardinals appointed members of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments:

• Raymond Leo Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura


• Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don, Archbishop of Colombo


• Mauro Piacenza, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy


• Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints


• Kazimierz Nycz, Archbishop of Warsaw


• Velasio De Paolis, President of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See

The first three, in particular, are well known to NLM readers and are reason to be glad.

Consistory for the Creation of New Cardinals 2010

As announced a month ago, this morning the Holiness of our Lord Pope Benedict XVI is holding an ordinary public Consistory for the creation of new cardinals. As mentioned then, among those raised to the sacred purple are two great friends of both the usus antiquior and a reform of the reform, Their Excellencies Archbishops Raymond Burke and Malcolm Ranjith, as well as Domenico Bartolucci, the former maestro of the Sistine Chapel (see a full list here).

Here are some impressions of this morning's celebration.

The ceremony is begun with a fanfare from the inner loggia of St. Peter's Basilica:





The Holy Father pronounces the formula of creation:

Itaque auctoritate omnipotentis Dei, sanctorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli ac Nostra hos venerabiles Fratres creamus et sollemniter enuntiamus Sanctæ
Romanæ Ecclesiæ Cardinales.

Cardinal Amato delivering the address of homage on behalf of the newly created cardinals:


The Gospel is sung:


The new cardinals swear their oath of fealty towrds the Supreme Pontiff and his successors:


Now the Holy Father imposes the red birettas and assigns the titular churches, using the formula:

Ad honorem Dei omnipotentis et sanctorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli, tibi committimus Titulum (vel Diaconiam) N. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. R. Amen.

You can find a list of the titular churches assigned here.

Cardinal Ranjith:



Cardinal Burke, who was assigned S. Agata de’ Goti, the former titular church of the great Papal Master of Ceremonies Enrico Dante and, I might add, of the great bishop of my own diocese, Konrad Count of Preysing, as well as of Giuseppe Pecci, the brother of pope Leo XIII, and of Ercole Consalvi, the famous Secretary of State of Pius VII:


Cardinal Marx, the Pope's successor as Archbishop of Munich and Freising:


Cardinal Bartolucci:


The new cardinals exchange the sign of peace with the other cardinals:

Pope Benedict Announces Creation of New Cardinals

This morning, Our Most Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI announced, that on Saturday, 20 November 2010, he will hold an ordinary public Consistory for the creation new cardinals. Among those elevated to the sacred purple are two great friends of both the usus antiquior and a reform of the reform: Their Excellencies Archbishops Raymond Burke and Malcolm Ranjith. Also noteworthy is the elevation of Domenico Bartolucci, the former maestro of the Sistine Chapel. This, then, is an occasion of joy. Here is a complete list:

Roman Curia

1. Archbishop Angelo Amato SDB, 72, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints


2. Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, 66, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy


3. Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, 68, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture


4. Archbishop Fortunato Baldelli, 75, major penitentiary of the Roman church


5. Archbishop Velasio De Paolis CS, 75, prefect for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See


6. Archbishop Raymond Burke, 62, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura


7. Archbishop Kurt Koch, 60, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity


8. Archbishop Robert Sarah, 65, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum


9. Archbishop Paolo Sardi, 76, pro-Patron of the Order of Malta


10. Archbishop Francesco Monterisi, 76, archpriest of the Basilica of St Paul's Outside the Walls

Residential Cardinals:

11. Antonio Naguib, 75, Patriarch of Alexandria of the Copts


12. Archbishop Paolo Romeo of Palermo, 72


13. Archbishop Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, 57


14. Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz of Warsaw, 60


15. Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, 69


16. Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, 71


17. Archbishop-emeritus Medardo Joseph Mazombwe of Lusaka, 79


18. Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo, 62


19. Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis of Aparecida, 73


20. Archbishop-emeritus Raul Eduardo Vela Chiriboga of Quito, 76

Non-elector Cardinals over 80 years of age:

21. Archbishop José Manuel Estepa Llaurens, 84, Archbishop-emeritus of the Spanish Armed Forces


22. Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, 82, president-emeritus of the Pontifical Academy for Life


23. Monsignor Domenico Bartolucci, 93, the director-emeritus of the Sistine Chapel


24. Monsignor Walter Brandmüller, 81, president-emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for Historical Sciences

Preface of Msgr. Burke to Canonical Commentary on Summorum Pontificum

For a while now, a German Canonical Commentary on Summorum Pontificum by the German latinist and canon lawyer Fr. Gero P. Weishaupt (whom we mentioned here and here) has been available online (link). This commentary has now been published as a book, and the preface to this book was written by H.E. Archbishop Raimond L. Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura. The full text of the preface is available at the German website Summorum Pontificum (link). Here is an NLM translation of a passage of the preface which doubtlessly will raise great interest:

In the second chapter of his commentary, Weishaupt answers a number of practical issues that arise regarding the implementation of Summorum Pontificum and result from recent changes to the discipline of the celebration of the sacraments, such as e.g. those regarding female altar servers or lay people who perform the ministry of lectors or extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. To answer these questions , the commentary correctly applies two general canonical principles.

The first principle requires that liturgical norms, which were in force in 1962, are to be diligently observed for the celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, for these norms protect the integrity of the Roman rite as contained in the Missal of Blessed John XXIII. The second principle states that the subsequent liturgical discipline is only to be introduced in the Extraordinary Form, if this discipline affects a right of the faithful, which follows directly from the sacrament of baptism and serves the eternal salvation of their souls.

The application of these two principles to the cases mentioned leads to the conclusion that neither the service at the altar by persons of the female sex nor the exercise of the lay ministries of lector or extraordinary minister of Holy Communion belong to the basic rights of the baptized. Therefore, these recent developments, out of respect for the integrity of the liturgical discipline as contained in the Missale Romanum of 1962, are not to be introduced into the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite. The commentary presents here in an impressive manner that the mutual enrichment of both forms of the Roman rite is only possible if discipline peculiar to each of the two forms is accordingly carefully observed.

ICRSS Ordinations

The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest has put up photos of their 2010 ordinations. Minor orders were conferred by Msgr. Athanasius Schneider, subdiaconate and diaconate by Msgr. Salvatore Cordileone, and the priesthood by Msgr. Raymond L. Burke. Here is a small selection; you can view all the pcitures at this link.

Pontifical Mass of Msgr. Burke in Essen

Today, Most Rev. Raymond L. Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, celebrated Pontifical Mass in the usus antiquior in the Cathedral of Essen, Germany. The occasion was the annual meeting of Pro Missa Tridentina, a German Una Voce association. The diocesan bishop, Most Rev. Franz-Josef Overbeck, attended in choir and help distributing Holy Communion. The Mass celebrated was of Our Lady of Good Counsel, with second orations pro papa. Here are some first images taken from the live broadcast of the cathedral's webpage.

Above: The deacons sing the confiteor before Holy Communion.


Above: Msgr. Burke distributes Holy Communion above, while Msgr. Overbeck does so below.


Above: General view of the cathedral.


Above: Msgr. Burke sitting with the gremial.


Above: Final blessing.