Reflecting on the contributions of the Angelic Doctor

Plus: An "illicit" TLM Mass held in the US Capitol

Jan 27, 2024

Good morning and happy Saturday. Tomorrow would normally have been the memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, however, it is superseded this year by the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

It is a shame that Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, does not have an elevated feast day as he is perhaps the greatest theologian in the history of the Church. It has been said that at the Council of Trent in the mid 1500s that every participating member had on his desk a Bible and Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae.

Though that work is a study in it of itself, Aquinas intended that work to be an introduction to theology and used in the formation of the clergy. Aquinas covered everything from creation, to angels, to baptism, to Christ’s death on the cross.

While celebrating Mass in 1273, Thomas endured an extended period of ecstasy and told his Reginald of Piperno that he would no longer be dictating his teachings, including the then-unfinished Summa. Reginald begged Thomas to continue but Thomas responded, “Reginald, I cannot, because all that I have written mihi videtur ut palea” or seemed to me like straw.

Thomas died in 1274 on his way to the Second Council of Lyons, which was called to try and unite the Eastern and Western Churches after the Eastern Church had removed itself from communion with Rome in 1054. Thomas, while riding his donkey on the Appian Way, hit his head on a low-hanging branch and fell ill. He was nursed and given last rites by the monks at the Cistercian Fossanova Abbey where he later died.

The Summa Theologiae remained unfinished. Thomas’ students later finished the final part of the work that focused on the Sacraments. They used notes that Thomas had to finish the section on Penance or Confession, and wrote the sections on Last Rites, Holy Orders, Marriage, and the Resurrection.

While Thomas’ impact on the Church will never subside, the Summa has been referenced less following the ressourcement movement of the Second Vatican Council. While every member at Trent had a copy of the Summa, the work is only quoted once in the constitutions of Vatican II - a brief quote in Lumen Gentium. The Summa is also given a few conferatur in Dei Verbum and Gaudium et Spes.

Thomas Aquinas and Women's Ordination — Women's Ordination Worldwide — Image of St. Thomas Aquinas on an altar piece on displat at the National Gallery in London.

Here is a calendar for the upcoming week:

Tomorrow is the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The readings at Mass are Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psal 95:1-2, 6-9; 1 Corinthians 7:32-35; and Mark 1:21-28. For those praying the Liturgy of the Hours, we are beginning Psalter Week IV and we will be reading St. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, except for Friday which is a reading from Exodus.

Wednesday, January 31st - Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest
Friday, February 2nd - Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
Saturday, February 3rd - Memorial of St. Blase, Bishop and Martyr (optional) or Memorial of St. Ansgar, Bishop (optional)

The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light;
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death,
light has arisen.

Matthew 4:16

In the news:

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Rather than type out a whole column today, I wanted to share Ed. Condon’s reporting of a “canonically illicit” Traditional Latin Mass held at the Capitol this week. It was held to “honor” the anniversary of the publication of an FBI memo from the Richmond field office that said radical-traditionalist Catholics are a domestic terror threat.

Condon says he attended as a journalist, not as one attending the liturgy, and agreed that none of these particular individuals posed any sort of threat to anything.

In his report earlier in the week, he asked the organizers whether or not they sought permission from Cardinal Wilton Gregory (Archbishop of Washington, DC) per the norms set out in Traditiones Custodes and the in loco regulations of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC. One of the organizers said he “would make a broader argument that the Mass doesn’t belong to [Cardinal Gregory] or to anybody else. It belongs to the people of God. It belongs to the Church. It’s not meant to be regulated out of existence.”

This is the kind of refusal to submit to higher authorities that frustrates me about more conservative Catholics. I’ve quoted Fr. Richard Simon before and I’ll quote him again here: “Obedience is pleasing to the Lord.” Is it frustrating that many cannot attend the Mass of John XXIII anymore? Sure. Do some legitimately think the Mass of Paul IV, or the Norvus Ordo, doesn’t feed them spiritually as well as the older forms? Absolutely.

But we are called to submit ourselves to Christ and his Church. To me, holding illicit Masses at the Capitol don’t seem like a good idea.

Reflecting on the contributions of the Angelic Doctor

Plus: An "illicit" TLM Mass held in the US Capitol

In the news:

The United States

The Vatican

The World

Requiescat in pace

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