ONLY ONE MONTH FOR OUR GREAT ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE AD PETRI SEDEM

Dear Friends,

In little more than a month we will be meeting again for our pilgrimage in Rome.

https://bit.ly/3RlKgWv

Many of you have already informed us of your presence for these three beautiful days.

If it was true for the 10 previous pilgrimages that we were well aware of the importance of this initiative as a testimony of the traditional people who have come ad Petri sedem, now, faced with the turbulence that has shaken the Church for more than a year, our intitiative of piety and faith appears to be even more essential.

No, the traditional people are not dead, and they head to Rome in great numbers to implore the Church to renew an era of peace, unity and charity.

We also give the floor today to our great friend Professor Rubén Peretó Rivas, the new President of the International Centre for Liturgical Studies, who has recently joined the Coetus but has been a faithful participant in our Roman pilgrimage for more than 10 years.

In Domino,

Christian Marquant

President of CISP

Dear Ruben, would you present the CIEL to us?

The Centre international d’études liturgiques (CIEL), was founded in 1994 with the aim of fostering the piety of the Catholic faithful through a more adequate knowledge of the treasures of the Church's liturgy. Its activity was mainly manifested in the organization of scientific meetings which brought together, between 1995 and 2006, academics and researchers in the field of liturgy, in a framework of study and discussion, which aimed at the deepening of the knowledge of the rites of the Catholic faith. Delegations have also been established in eighteen countries of Europe, America and Asia, with a view to promoting in various ways the revaluation of the Catholic liturgy based on the knowledge of its sources and traditions. I have recently taken over as its chairman, while Father Gabriel Diaz continues to be its scientific director.

Its conferences were resumed in 2020 in Rome, focusing on discussing the diversity of Latin rites. Due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, they had to be suspended but, God willing, they will be resumed once again in February 2023.

Why are you attached to the traditional liturgy?

I can give you my personal testimony: I was born in Argentina, in a deeply Catholic and conservative family of Spanish roots. During the 1970s, while I had to attend the Mass of Paul VI, in a deeply progressive atmosphere at the school of the Marist Brothers, I used to spend some time in my grandfather's library going through old missals and devotionals . I then wondered, even as a child, why this Mass, which I had never seen but which I imagined so beautiful, had been abandoned.

As a young man, at the end of the 1980s, I finally had the opportunity to attend the traditional Mass for the first time. It was in the Dominican rite, celebrated by a pious brother, in a hidden place and only after those of us who attended had promised to keep the secret. Such were the times back then.

Shortly after, I began my studies in Europe, which enabled me to attend the traditional Mass regularly, and to begin to deepen my understanding of the enormous riches it conceals, and, at the same time, to perceive the need for this treasure be known by all Catholics.

My studies in medieval philosophy and patristics have helped me to understand even better the treasure of the traditional Mass, its theological depth, its ability to transmit the sacred and the mysteries of the faith, as well as the beauty that runs through it from beginning to end. And there is no doubt that all these qualities were then lost in the rite reformed by Paul VI.

Why have you become a member of the CISP?

We have been taking part of the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage for several years and we have always been struck by the diversity of the faithful, in terms of nationality, profession, age, culture, who gather in Rome to go and kneel at the tomb of St. Peter in the framework of the celebration of the millennial liturgy of the Catholic Church.

It is an initiative in which all the faithful linked to the tradition should participate in one way or another, to the extent of their possibilities. This is an opportunity to give thanks that, despite all efforts to cancel it, we can still attend the traditional Mass, and to pray to God, at the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles and the first martyrs of our faith, begging that this rite, which has apostolic origins, will never be lost and that Catholic priests and faithful throughout the world may be free to celebrate it. Lately, this is a prayer which has become increasingly necessary. This is why we naturally decided to join forces with the Coetus.

What is your point of view on the current events in the Church regarding the traditional Mass?

The freedom enjoyed by the traditional liturgy and the fullness of its rights within the Church, which was recognized by Pope Benedict XVI, have borne fruits that no one can deny, and which are widespread throughout the world.

Unfortunately, I believe that some people who did not agree at all with this policy and who see in the Second Vatican Council an event of definitive rupture with the "pre-conciliar" Church, managed to induce Pope Francis, in his attitude of openness, to block to a large extent all that his predecessor on the See of Peter had granted.

The current situation is certainly more difficult and delicate than some time ago. However, bonum diffusivum sui, good spreads by itself, as is said in classical philosophy, and the goodness and beauty of the traditional liturgy which began to spread after the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum cannot be stopped, for it is in their nature to spread. We are, it is true, in a period of darkness and confusion, but we must not lose hope, but rather, be patient and cautious, waiting for the better times which will surely come, for the Lord loves and protect those who seek his glory.