"FLECTAMUS GENUA, (KNEEL or GENUFLECT?), and The JEWS
1958 "SOME NOTES ON HOLY WEEK...FLECTAMUS GENUA...
Throughout the Restored Order the rubric directs that all should kneel and pray silently for
a short time after the invitation: Flectamus genua...How long should this silent prayer continue?
At least for the space of a Pater Noster. More important than the precise length of the pause
is the understanding that it is meant to be a short silent prayer before the celebrant pronounces
the solemn petition in the name of the Church." (Australasian Catholic Record, 1958 pp. 58.)
April 1983 "The obedience due to the Bishop is subordinate to that due
to the Pope." (Archbishop Lefebvre, "Catholic", Apr. 83, p3., quoting from Approaches
and Si Si, No No .) "The Bishop, then, cannot legitimately prohibit a rite promulgated
by the Roman Pontiff and never repealed by his successors." ("Catholic", Apr. 1983, p3.)
01/04/94 Good Friday
During choir practice, Fr Angele said that in the Prayer for the Jews,
the Oremus, Flectamus genua and Levate would be omitted as the Jews
had mockingly knelt before Our Lord.
From The Last Three Popes and the Jews, by Pinchas E. Lapide:
"It took six more years and many more interventions [ie. from the time of Jules Isaac's
private audience on 16 October 1949] with Pope Pius XII for a further amendment in the Good
Friday prayer...(the) omission of Oremus, of flectamus genua and of levate.
The reason generally given, since medieval days, was that the invitation to prayer and to the
genuflection were omitted, so as not to repeat the gesture with which, at the scourging,
'the Jews dishonoured Jesus on this day.'
Thus, Sicardus of Cremona begins a well-known sermon with the explanation that 'we do not
bend the knee for the Jews, so that we may avoid their deceit who derisively genuflected
before God.'
"Yet, a simple reading of the gospels shows that those who clothed Jesus in a bright robe,
placed a crown upon his head, and knelt before him in a derisive act of homage, were Roman
soldiers, not Jews. These legionaries were ridiculing not only Jesus, but the Messianic expectation
of Israel. Their contempt was not only for the man who claimed to be king, but for the people
who hoped for the coming of the King Messiah.
"On November 27, 1955, the Osservatore Romano at long last published a new ordinal of
HOLY WEEK, which, by a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, made the procedure of
'kneeling, praying silently and then rising' also imperative for the eighth petition for the
Jews in the Good Friday service. The official text of the decree was published in Acta
Apostolicae Sedis on December 23, 1955, together with an authoritative article by an
eminent Roman liturgist, explaining 'the pastoral importance of the restored rite which passed
into desuetude a thousand years ago.' "
Question:
As the 1962 liturgy is the Society's norm (and it appears that the balance of the service may
have conformed with Pope Pius XII's reformation of the Easter Liturgy for Good Friday) why
was Fr. Angele's rendition not fully in conformity with either the Society of St. Pius X's alleged
conformity - or with the conformity of Popes subsequent to Pius XII in relation to the Jews? Is
this just another application of Fr. Angeli's statement from the pulpit: "...the door to the church
swings both ways...if you don't like it...tough!
refer: "All choirs" booklet for the RESTORED RITE OF HOLY WEEK Edited by the Rev. R.W.
Harden Sponsored by the Guild of St. Pius X Sydney. (The "norm" for the Hampton Choir for
many years.) The guild was NOT a SSPX group.
From page 1:
"This Choir Booklet should be used in combination with the translation of the Ceremonies
published at St Patrick's College, Manly, called 'The Restored Order of Holy Week'"
refer: Booklet "HOLY WEEK, The Restored Order" St Patrick's College, Manly, N.S.W. "
(1956) - obviously the same booklet.
refer: "The New Marian Missal for Daily Mass" by Sylvester P. Juergens, S.M. (Imprimatur
02/02/57)
The above three references make no reference to the exclusion of the Oremus, flectamus
genua and levate from the intercessions for the Jews in the Second Part of the Liturgical Action
for Good Friday. Question: Why then did Fr. Angele positively exclude them?
For the Adoration of The Cross, the "restoration" prescribes:
"The celebrant..ministers...clergy...and servers...all these first remove their shoes, if it can
be done conveniently, and approaching the Cross one after another, make three simple
genuflections, and kiss the feet of the Crucifix.
"...the faithful, passing by the Cross in an orderly manner, first the men and then the women,
may devoutly kiss the feet of the Crucifix. They make one simple genuflection." Question: Why did Fr. Angele instruct
The mixed congregation as opposed to men - then women
minus shoes
to genuflect three times?
The above 3 references specifically state that the Last Gospel is not read at the
conclusion of the Holy Saturday Mass. Question: Why did Fr. Angele read the Last Gospel at that Mass?
19/03/96 Fr Violette reply:
The Reformed Order for Easter ''is a legitimate order from a legitimate superior (which) must
be obeyed...All the Pope did was precisely to restore Holy Week and especially Holy Saturday
to the way it was before. I enclose a small excerpt which explains the reason why Pope Pius
XII restored it the way it had been for nearly 1000 years, until the 11th century."
Max Longford (Hampton parishoner) states: "The new rite no longer 'locks people out of the
Church'...it requires the Lord's Prayer by the people in Latin prior to Communion on Good Friday."
And "Finally the people" at the procession with the Paschal candle on Holy Saturday night.
03/06/96c. "I wouldn't genuflect for the Jews." Fr. Angele to Max
Longford.
HOWEVER, there seems to be some cultural problem here! Perhaps, in America, genuflecting
is a precise synonym for kneeling? As it is not the custom for it to be so thought of here in
Australia, Fr Angele should be respectful of Australian (and I suspect the rest of the world's)
custom of believing that genuflecting is NOT synonymous with kneeling, and it would NOT
become a valid custom despite the persistent use of the word "genuflect" in his letter of
May 31, 1996.
