Alfons Maria Stickler - Support For Tradition

Support For Tradition

Stickler consistently defended the position that the Tridentine Mass was never forbidden or suppressed. He believed that the Mass of Paul VI contradicted the true wishes of the Second Vatican Council, and told the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales that its movement "has full legitimacy in the Church".

On 20 May 1995, Stickler stated that in 1986 a commission of nine cardinals (Stickler, Ratzinger, Mayer, Oddi, Casaroli, Gantin, Innocenti, Palazzini, and Tomko) appointed by Pope John Paul II unanimously gave a negative answer to the question "Did Pope Paul VI or any other competent authority legally forbid the widespread celebration of the Tridentine Mass in the present day?" and to the question "Can any bishop forbid any priest in good standing from celebrating the Tridentine Mass?" He said that eight of the nine were in favour of drawing up a general permission declaring that everyone could choose the old form of the Mass as well as the new.

"The Case for Clerical Celibacy: Its Historical Development and Theological Foundations", written by Stickler, was published in 1995 by Ignatius Press. It treats of the theological reasons and scriptural and magisterial roots of celibacy for Catholic priests.

Read more about this topic:  Alfons Maria Stickler

Famous quotes containing the words support and/or tradition:

    Because the young child feels with such intensity, he experiences sorrows that seem inconsolable and losses that feel unbearable. A precious toy gets broken or a good-bye cannot be endured. When this happens, words like “sad” or “disappointed” seem a travesty because they cannot possibly capture the enormity of the child’s loss. He needs a loving adult presence to support him in his pain but he does not want to be talked out of it.
    Alicia F. Lieberman (20th century)

    The instincts of merry England lingered on here with exceptional vitality, and the symbolic customs which tradition has attached to each season of the year were yet a reality on Egdon. Indeed, the impulses of all such outlandish hamlets are pagan still: in these spots homage to nature, self-adoration, frantic gaieties, fragments of Teutonic rites to divinities whose names are forgotten, seem in some way or other to have survived mediaeval doctrine.
    Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)