48th
Document
RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ANCIENT DISCIPLINE OF THE CHURCH.
PROHIBITING THE TRANSLATION INTO THE VERNACULAR LANGUAGES OF THE PRAYERS OF THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS.
SOLEMN PROHIBITION OF THE POSSESSION BY THE FAITHFUL OF MISSALS, WHETHER IN THE VERNACULAR, BILINGUAL OR IN LATIN.
We, Supreme Pontiff, Vicar of Christ, Successor of Saint Peter, Servant of the Servants of God, Patriarch of El Palmar de Troya.
We, as Universal Teacher and Guide of the Church, wish to speak a little about the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to wit:
The Hour has struck to put each thing in its place. The moment has come to separate the wheat from the cockle, to put the light on the candlestick for all the Church to be able to see what pertains to the different members of the Mystical Body of Christ,- which is to say, to give to each member of the Church the place that is rightly his, and no other. Given this brief exposition, one can clearly and precisely understand that the time is come to separate the Ministerial Priesthood from the rest of the faithful, whatever be the consequences. The right moment has come to say to the lay faithful that they have the sacred obligation wholly to renounce the usurpation of those most sacred rights that by Divine Law pertain exclusively to the priests of the Lord.
We, as Universal Doctor of the Church, desire most vehemently to determine, in accord with the sound doctrine of Holy Mother Church, the place that pertains to each one, in such wise that, henceforth the faithful may not dare to usurp what pertains to the ministers of the Lord. For it is most manifest and clear that every act of usurpation of the sacred rights of the Priests of the Lord is abominable in the eyes of God. And, the frightening calamities the world today is undergoing give proof of how true this is. These calamities are a clear manifestation of the Holy Wrath of God against mankind,- since men, with brazen arrogance and manifest pride, have usurped most sacred rights that belong only to the Ministerial Priesthood, and never to the common priesthood. It is so, that with the deepest sadness of heart, we must explain that these abominable and erroneous usurpations are not the fault only of the lay faithful, but - which is sadder - are the fault principally of the very priests of the Lord, who have not been able, or have not cared with holy energy, to defend their lawful rights, rights that are impressed on the soul of the priest by the very Sacrament of Orders. To such priests, We say with Christ: "Because you are lukewarm, I will vomit you out of my mouth."
We, as Universal Doctor of the Church, view the historical panorama of the Church, with stupefaction to the point that we find ourself disheartened on seeing how the very priests of the Lord have allowed themselves to be deprived of their legitimate rights. When the priests of the Lord allow themselves to be deprived of their rights, they commit a grave crime against God and the Church,- since a priest who is not able, or does not wish to defend his rights, is useless as a guardian of pure orthodoxy. Failing to act, he shows himself to be a coward who has not the courage to stand up to the faithful and claim those rights of his that they have usurped. When the priests of the Lord are incapable of defending themselves against the invasion of the faithful, they show that they do not trust in God Our Lord, who separated them from the rest of men. To be sure, most of the faithful,- if not all,- know, or at least intuitively sense, that there are rights which belong only to the Ministerial priests, since God, in his infinite Wisdom, has impressed in the souls of the faithful the respect they owe to the priests, as the legitimate representatives of the Most High among the faithful. It is obvious that the previous statement is to be understood of a correctly formed conscience, since unhappily there are many faithful who cannot discern spirits, and so, with badly formed conscience, they cannot discern the precepts that God has impressed in their souls. Hence the great necessity of the faithful to be guided by a good spiritual director in order to prevent the Devil from sowing confusion.
Since the earliest Christian times, Satan has tried, with every possible means, to destroy the Holy Church of God. History confirms the fact in the numberless heresies that have issued form the very bosom of the Church, heresies that have sowed the cockle to destroy the wheat, or at least to destroy many ears of the wheat. For centuries and centuries, all the heretics have taught that the priest is only another of the faithful, to whom is given the honour of presiding. With this cursed doctrine, they have, little by little, led the faithful to lose the respect and veneration they owe to the priests.
Since We do not wish to make the present Document very extensive, we turn now to consider the divine cult.
We find the moment to be the right one for re-establishing the ancient discipline of the Church, concerning the Sacred Liturgy, in order to put an end to the abomination of desolation. To this end we take up the sword and, with all valour and responsibility, we say: "It is enough!" This Our declaration shows clearly and precisely that we pledge ourself to put the axe to the root, whether it please the faithful or not.
We declare, dismayed, that these abominable usurpations have not risen suddenly during the recent years,- but rather that they have a sad history,- at least of three centuries.
We wish, without further digression, to speak about the missals of the faithful, those with which you are so familiar through the fault of the priests themselves, who have put into the hands of the faithful the prayers that the celebrant recites in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This ought to never to have been permitted, since, through this permission, the enemies of the Church saw a favourable opportunity to sow confusion and profane the House of God. The enemies of the Church extended their deadly and destructive poison through translation into the vernacular languages, both of Sacred Scripture as well as of the prayers of Holy Mass. It would be interminable to speak in detail of the plans of destruction formed by the enemies of the Church. As proof of such plans, it suffices to consider the decomposition and putrefaction of the apostate Church of Rome. This putrefaction is particularly obvious in the new mass of Rome, mass that is a Lutheran supper. Here we come to the crucial point, since, with the Lutheran supper of the Official Church of Rome, there come to light the plans of destruction, elaborated and manipulated by the enemies of the Church, under the inspiration of the cursed and satanical French Revolution, offspring of all previous revolutions, all of which were preparing the opportune moment when the priests would no longer have the respect and veneration of the people, in order thus to attack their authority, and usurp their power. This they apparently accomplished. It is clear that they did not count on the promise of Christ, to be with the Church until the consummation of the ages, so that the powers of Hell would never prevail against her. As the fulfillment of this promise, the enemies of Christ were disarmed on the 6th August 1978, when Christ personally placed on Our brow the Sacred Tiara.
We wish to point out to the faithful certain facts concerning the missals of the faithful, which many of you probably value. So it is necessary for you to know that you have in your hands the translation into the vernacular of the prayers of Holy Mass, in open opposition to the most sacred laws of Holy Mother Church, since these laws have been violated, trampled underfoot and laughed to scorn by the enemies of the Church. During centuries and centuries the faithful did not know the prayers that the celebrant recites at the Altar of the Lord. We give the following proof:
Our venerated predecessor, Pope Alexander VII, in 1661, prohibited most severely, under pain of Excommunication, the translation into the vernacular of the prayers of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Our venerated predecessor, Pope Saint Pius VI, in 1794, in the Bull "Auctorem Fidei", confirmed the previous prohibition against the propositions of the illegitimate Council of Pistoia.
Our venerated predecessor, Pope Saint Pius IX, the Great, in 1857, renewed the prohibition against translating the prayers of Holy Mass, under pain of excommunication.
We, as Universal Doctor of the Church, teach that the faithful have no right to know the prayers that the celebrant recites in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And this truth is proved by the sense of Holy Mother Church during centuries and centuries since apostolic times. As proof, the following consideration suffices: in the first centuries, Latin was the language of many peoples, because of the extension of the Roman Empire. For quite some centuries, it can be said, the faithful understood Latin. Hence the norm for the celebrant to recite the most important and sublime prayers of the Mass in a low voice so that the faithful might not hear them,- and thus to cover the mass under a veil of mystery. This practice shows that the faithful ought not to know the prayers that the celebrant recites at Mass.
We, with Our Apostolic Authority, prohibit most severely, under pain of excommunication, the translation of the prayers of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass into the vernacular languages.
We, with Our Apostolic Authority, prohibit most severely, under pain of excommunication, the handing over of missals to the faithful.
We, with Our Apostolic Authority, prohibit under pain of excommunication that the faithful assist at Mass with Missals in their hands. We hurl this excommunication also against those Missionary Bishops or Priests who, in their respective dioceses, permit the faithful to assist at Holy Mass with missals in their hands.
We, with Our Apostolic Authority, prohibit most severely, under pain of excommunication, that any of the faithful have missals in their homes.
We, with Our Apostolic Authority, impose most severely, under pain of excommunication, on all the faithful, the obligation to hand over to the missionaries their own missals, for them to deliver to this Apostolic See to be consigned to the flames. This most severe obligation is imposed on all the faithful without exception, allowing no privilege or excuse of just reasons, including even family mementos,- since obedience to the Vicar of Christ comes before kinship.
We, with Our Apostolic Authority, abolish any possible privilege of the past, of any nation whatsoever, regarding this question.
We, as Universal Doctor of the Church, with the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ, with that of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and of Our Own, solemnly declare:
If anyone dare to say that the prayers of the Mass ought to be translated to the vernacular languages, Let him be Anathema.
We, with the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ, with that of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and of Our Own, solemnly declare:
If anyone dare to say that missals ought to be given to the faithful in order to follow the Mass or to know its prayers, Let him be Anathema.
We, with the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ, with that of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and of Our Own, solemnly declare:
If anyone dare to keep any missal in his possession, let him be a thousand times execrated from the Holy Church of God.
No one can licitly disobey these most severe orders that God inspires Us to impose, not even for having invested much money in the purchase of such missals. To such a one We say with Our Apostolic Authority: "If you value your money more than the orders of the Vicar of Christ, may God’s curse fall upon you and cast you into Hell, to burn forever with your cursed money."
We, with Our Apostolic Authority, prohibit most severely, under pain of excommunication, handing over to the faithful missals that are only in Latin, since here the principle is that the faithful have no right to know the prayers that the celebrant recites at Holy Mass.
We, with our Apostolic Authority, ordain, under pain of excommunication, that all the faithful who have in their possession Latin Missals, hand these over to the missionaries.
We, as Common Father of the faithful, wish paternally to give guidance for problems or obstacles that might arise. To wit:
Let us suppose that one has a prayer book, or other book full of marvelous piety or excellent spiritual doctrine, and that, as it might happen, some of these books also contain the prayers of the Holy Mass. It is understood by the expression, prayers of Holy Mass, those that occur from the beginning to the end. Then, as logical consequence, one must remove the pages that contain the prayers of Holy Mass, making sure that there does not remain in the book any of the prayers of Holy Mass. With this guidance, two things become possible: the first, to obey the order of the Vicar of Christ,- the other, to retain that family book of piety, if, naturally, the book contains nothing contrary to Catholic dogma.
We do not wish to extend the present Document, bearing in mind that the venerable Fathers of the Holy and Great Palmarian Council are preparing a treatise on the Mass, in which these things will be treated at length.
We give all the faithful the following information:
On the night of 5th-6th September, We convened an extraordinary session for urgent motives, of the Holy Council, in order to hear from the venerable Fathers of the Council their opinions on the matters that occupy us in the present Document. The Venerable Fathers of the Holy Palmarian Council, gathered and reunited in the Holy Ghost, were with one accord all in agreement with these dispositions. With that is reflected the age-old sense of Holy Mother Church concerning the Sacred Liturgy.
We, in our heart, feel the desire to extend and amplify the present Document and to speak of the Mystery of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We wish however to leave this work to the Holy Council, in which, as is logical, We shall actively intervene.
Given in Seville, at the Apostolic See, the 11th September, Feast of Our Crowned Mother of El Palmar, in the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ MCMLXXX, the Third of Our Pontificate, and Palmarian Jubilee Year.
