Cardinal Burke celebrated a Solemn Pontifical Mass for the feast of St Philip Neri at the Oxford Oratory, in the 5th centenary of the Saint's birth. The pictures below appear courtesy of the Oxford Oratory and there are more over at the the Oxford Oratory website. During the sermon (full text here) Cardinal Burke spoke of St Philip's example in countering the secular culture and recalled the words of Cardinal Ratzinger immediately preceding the 2005 conclave:
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Celebrating the fifth centennial of the birth of Saint Philip Neri, let us all take particular example from the manner in which he encountered a secularized and, therefore, corrupt culture. Let us implore his intercession as we ourselves confront a culture in which even the most fundamental truths, the truth about human life and the truth about its cradle in the family constituted by marriage, are consistently ignored, defied and grievously violated. I recall how Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger addressed the contemporary secular culture in his homily during the Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff, celebrated before the conclave during which he was elected to the See of Peter. He spoke of how the “the thought of many Christians” has been tossed about, in our time, by various “ideological currents,” observing that we are witnesses to the “human deception and the trickery that strives to entice people into error,” about which Saint Paul wrote in his Letter to the Ephesians. He noted that, in our time, those who live according to “a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church” are viewed as fundamentalists, as extremists, while relativism, that is, “letting oneself be ‘tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine’,” is extolled. Regarding the source of the grave moral evils of our time, he concluded: “We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.”
Called to transform the world in Christ, let us, with Saint Philip Neri, turn to Christ, to His truth and love handed on to us in His Mystical Body, the Church. Let us practice the humility which recognizes that only the grace of God saves us from our sins and animates us for the pure and selfless love which conquers sin and everlasting death. Let us follow the counsel which Saint Philip gave to his niece. Let us give our hearts into the Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the opening of His glorious pierced Side, and let us strive, through prayer and penance, never to leave that home in which alone we find forgiveness, peace and strength. This is not fundamentalism. This is not extremism. This is living in Christ, in the Wisdom of God. As Christ sanctified the times of Saint Philip with an abundant outpouring of the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit into Saint Philip’s heart, so may He sanctify our times through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into our hearts.
