Monday, April 16, 2007

The St. Joseph Mary Tomasi Society


The St. Joseph Mary Tomasi Society for Education in Liturgy, Inc

This is a local apostolate that uses forms of media(brochures, newsletter, etc) to inform and educate on liturgical norms and rubrics of the Church. There is some great archived information on everything from hand holding, feet washing, modesty and more. Just a nice resource with good reference materials. They have a Yahoo group too although I am not sure how active it is on a daily/weekly basis(it may just be monthly).
I found this passage interesting on Liturgical Laws - Why They Matter (some of you may have a "keen" awareness of these norms, but they are important so I will post, given our present situation)
When the liturgical law is observed no one has any legitimate reason to complain. Justice, order and peace, as St. Augustine noted, are interrelated. When the justice of obedience to ecclesiastical law is Not rendered and thus the proper Order of the Mass is violated, there can be no real unity in the parish and thus no peace. As a result, the Catholic unity of communion with the bishop and with and through the bishop with Peter is disturbed. Hierarchical Communion is one of the three marks of unity to be found in the Church, the others being unity of faith and unity in the discipline of the Sacraments. Liturgical disobedience uniquely disturbs all three!

And the following Code of Canon Law 214:
The Christian faithful have the right to worship God according to the prescriptions of their own rite approved by the legitimate pastors of the Church, and to follow their own form of spiritual life consonant with the teaching of the Church. When these evils occur they have the right, and even the responsibility, to make their voices heard.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this group Catholic? I can't find anything on their website that links them to the diocese. Are they one of those splinter groups that do their own thing? There are so many strange groups that call themselves Catholic but are actually not that it's hard to sort them all out. I don't want anything to do with some group that is just out there on their own. Information would be helpful.
Thank you.

a thorn in the pew said...

They are not "part" of the diocese(which is probably best) but there are 100% Roman Catholic and follow the magestarium. They promote the truth in the GIRM, the catechism and Canon Law. That's enough for me and I highly recommend the information on the site, very informative. Groups that do there own thing are not going to be loyal to Rome and have authentic Catholic links on their link page. Hope this information helps!

Anonymous said...

I've learned that if it's not connected in some way officially with the Church then any organization whether it's far right or far left is shady. Both these kinds of groups think they have the truth when neither one does because neither one is subject to the Church. Both of them choose what they want and disregard everything else. Comments like yours above just prove this.

a thorn in the pew said...

It proves nothing. If you can cite one example of where there is dissent from authentic Catholic teaching or from the Magestarium on that site, then you have made a point. If you are stereotyping and haven't actually read any of the materials on the site, your comment is out of left field. There would be no Catholic "left" or "right" if both religious and lay people followed Rome. Jesus set up Peter and his successors for a very good and profound reason. Discord comes about when people want to stray from what the Pope has set forth. Most of what was just given in the latest exhortation will go largely ignored by our local parishes(and the US bishops).