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I write this shortly before the 4th Sunday of Easter in the Vetus Ordo calendar, which is also the day when our new Pope will celebrate Mass (they call it a “Eucharistic Celebration”) for “the Beginning of the Pontificate of the Bishop of Rome Leo XIV” (18 May 2025). In the older traditional Missal there is a Votive Mass “in die coronationis Papae… on the day of the coronation of a Pope” used also for the anniversary of the same. But they don’t crown Popes anymore, since 1978 when John Paul I decided not to have the tiara. Subsequent Popes, who left provisions for the liturgies for their burial and the beginning of the next pontificate, left open the option, should a Pope choose, for a crowning with the tiara. None have done it. To do it, it might be necessary severely to adjust the older rite for the coronation: some of the offices and positions of yesteryear which were involved no longer exist. Still, it could be done.
A Pope cannot limit the next Successor of Peter to what he can and cannot do, though for the good of the Church new Popes should change laws and procedures rather than run over them roughshod. They can’t just impose their will and change this or sweep that aside because they would have it so. The fact that a new Pope, having accepted the office, is immediately the Church’s Lawgiver with universal jurisdiction etc. etc. should gently remind certain commentators that words like “in perpetuity” in documents, such as Quo primum of Pius V, do not juridically bind the hand of future Pontiffs (emphasis on “Supreme”). Consequently, for the sake of unity and communion unto the salvation of souls, Popes should use the greatest care to guard our precious worship and tradition, so lovingly handed down by our forebears.
Here is the Collect for the aforementioned Inaugural Mass of Pope Leo XIV:
Deus, qui providentiæ tuæ consilio
super beatum Petrum, ceteris Apostolis præpositum,
Ecclesiam tuam ædificari voluisti,
respice propitius ad me famulum tuum,
et concede, ut, quem Petri constituisti successorem,
populo tuo visibile faciam unitatis fidei
et communionis principium et fundamentum.
TRANSLATION FROM THE OFFICE OF PAPAL CEREMONIES
O God, who in your providential design
willed that your Church be built upon
blessed Peter, whom you set over the
other Apostles, look with favour on me,
your servant, whom you have chosen as
the successor of Peter. Grant that I may
always be for your people the visible
source and foundation of its unity in
faith and communion.
A worthy prayer, particularly that part about “unity in faith”. The newer, Novus Ordo Missale Romanum doesn’t have a Mass for the “day of the coronation” or anniversary, but it has a Votive Mass for the Pope which can be used that way. It has a similar Collect, mutatis mutandis, the first person changed to the third, and so forth.
In the traditional Missale Romanum, the Vetus Ordo or Usus Antiquior as you prefer, in the Votive Mass “in die coronationis” we have this Collect, which we priests will add to our orations on this special Sunday:
Deus, omnium fidelium pastor et rector, famulum tuum Leonem, quem pastorem Ecclesiae tuae praeesse voluisti, propitius respice: da ei, quaesumus, verbo et exemplo, quibus praeest, proficere; ut ad vitam, una cum grege sibi credito, perveniat sempiternam.
O God, the Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, mercifully look upon Thy servant, Leo, whom Thou hast chosen as the chief Shepherd to reside over Thy Church; grant him, we beseech Thee, so to edify, both by word and example, those over whom he hath charge, that he may attain unto everlasting life, together with the flock committed unto him.
Before the massive changes, Popes would say this Collect, again mutatis mutandis, while saying Mass at his own coronation. This invokes the image of the flock following the shepherd into a safe pasture. We pray that the shepherd does well so that the sheep prosper and attain their goal.
Look at the final petition of the apodosis of each of those prayers. In the Novus Ordo prayer there is an emphasis on unity here and now. In the Vetus Ordo prayer there is emphasized the point of it all: everlasting life. There is nothing wrong with orthodox and faithful unity in the Church. That’s wonderful. The point of faithful unity, however, is to attain the happiness of Heaven.
Apart from the Inauguration of a new Pontificate, our context for the 4th Sunday after Easter is, in the liturgical year, our preparation for the Ascension of the Lord. We are now into the second phase of the Season of Easter. Our Mass formularies have shifted from their first emphasis, the Resurrection, now to the Ascension and descent of the Holy Spirit. As with last week, we have for our Gospel reading another pericope from the Last Supper Discourse in John 16. It is a straightforward reading. A point that might need some clarification is the statement of the Lord that “the prince of this world is already judged” or else “the ruler of this world is judged” (RSV). The “árchon toútou kósmou… princeps huius mundi” is the Devil. This image of “archon… princeps” is in Matthew when the Lord refers to Beelzebub the “prince of the devils” (cf. Matthew 9:34; 12:24, Mark 3:22). In John 14:30, Christ says “the prince of this world is coming. He has no power over me.” See also John 12:31.
God alone is King. The Devil, as marvelous a creature as once he was before his fall, can never be a King of anything. He can be a kind of “ruler” (read “tyrant”). Fallen angels have a measure of domination over material creation, but they are also restrained by God. Because of Original Sin we too fell under the domination of the Enemy of the Soul. This is why in the ancient rites of baptism there were exorcisms. This is why when priests bless certain objects, important sacramentals, there are exorcisms before the constitutive blessings. When Father blesses an object he tears it away from the “prince of this world” and hands it over to the King. It is no longer for temporal or profane (pro-fanum, “outside the sacred place”) use. These things, and places, are now “sacred”. The new-fangled Book of Blessings, contrary to the older, traditional Rituale Romanum, explicitly in the Preface seeks to eliminate the distinction between invocative blessings (a calling down of God’s favor here and now) and constitutive blessings (rendering a place, thing or person, “sacred”). It seems to me that, when we eliminate, say, the Leonine Prayers after Low Mass, invoking St. Michael the Archangel, and we eliminate constitutive blessings, we are cruising for spiritual bruising. Look around.
On a side note, I found it quite interesting that the new Pope, who took the papal name of his predecessor who wrote the St. Michael Prayer and ordered its use, was elected as the new Successor of Peter on exactly to the day, the 1500th anniversary of the Apparition of St. Michael at Monte Gargano, Italy, one of the geographical points, shrines, along the famed “Sword of St. Michael”. You can draw the straight “Sword” on a map with a ruler from Skellig Michael, Ireland to Mount Carmel in Israel, passing through shrines like Mont Saint-Michel in France and Monte Gargano, all dedicated to the Archangel, thought by some to be the personal Guardian Angel of Popes.
The Epistle reading this week is, like last Sunday, from one of the Catholic Epistles, the Letter of James, that is “James the Just”, the “brother of the Lord”, son of Alphaeus, who was the first bishop in Jerusalem. This “Catholic” doesn’t refer sectarian differences between Catholics and heretic Protestants or separated Orthodox. Greek katholikos is a compound of kata and hólos, meaning “according to the whole”. So, the “Catholic” Epistles or Letters, were not written to a specific community, as were Romans or 1 and 2 Corinthians. They were written to a wider readership, such as a modern papal encyclical might be. As a matter of fact, the Letter of James begins: “To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion…”, that is, to Jews of the “Diaspora”, “scattered” around the ancient world.
James was a disputed letter in the ancient Church. It was acknowledged that it contained good and holy things but at first there was debate about whether it was a writing inspired by God. Even centuries after the canon (roughly “table of contents”) of inspired writings was established, renegade theologians fought against James and denied its divine inspiration. The most famous of these was Martin Luther who infamously called James an “epistle of straw”.
Luther came to espouse a “solfidian” teaching about justification, “sola fide… by faith alone”. James 2:24 says, “a man is justified by works and not by faith alone”, or better from the Greek, “not by faith only”. Luther renders James into German as, “nicht durch den Glauben allein … not by faith alone“. Against his rendering of James, Luther pitted Rom 3:28, “a man is justified by faith apart from works of law.” Luther, in his German translation, inserted a word, “alone”, “allein durch den Glauben … through faith alone.” Luther, seeing that James undermined his solafidian notions, declared that James had “no evangelical character”. When others objected, Luther responded in 1530 in his Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen, his “Open Letter on Translating”:
If your papist makes much useless fuss about the word sola, allein, tell him at once: Doctor Martin Luther will have it so, and says: Papist and donkey are one thing; sic volo, sic iubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas. For we do not want to be pupils and followers of the Papists, but their masters and judges. … The word allein shall remain in my New Testament, and though all pope-donkeys (Papstesel) should get furious and foolish, they shall not turn it out.
That interpolated Latin phrase “sic volo…” is from Satire VI of Juvenal (+2nd c. AD) by which Luther mocked Popes: “I will it, I command it, my will is reason enough.” By the way, it is also in Satire VI that we find the phrase, “quis custodiet ipsos custodes… who will guard the guards?” That’s custodes as in Traditionis custodes. The Latin underscores that when the enforcers of morals are themselves corrupt, it is neigh on impossible to maintain morality. For example, if bishops crack down on traditional liturgical worship in the Vetus Ordo, and then allow all manner of Novus Ordo hijinx to go on, by what right should they expect to be obeyed in regard to the crackdown? Perhaps the answer is found in the Seat of Moses of Matthew 23:1-3.
The Sunday reading from James begins with a reference to the immutability of God, calling Him the “Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (v. 17). Every gift that is good comes from Him. We might conclude that if the gift is not good, it is probably from the “prince of this world”. James then brings in how God is the creator: “Of his own will be brought us forth by the word of truth…” (v. 18). He then presents key elements of Christian behavior:
Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls (vv. 19-21).
How many sins could we avoid if we would bridle our tongues and stay cool under provocation? Do not act impulsively but consider your words and actions. Stay close to the sacraments and use properly blessed sacramentals to reduce the influence of the soul’s Enemy.
Alas, the Epistle reading ends there and does not go on with verses 22-27:
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing. If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is vain. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Faith without works is dead (James 2:17).