Liturgical reform?

Catholic World News recently reported that the long-awaited Vatican document on the Eucharist will be published on Holy Thursday, April 8. Commenting on this announcement in his blog, Ad Limina Apostolorum, Benjamin observes:

Whether or not these norms will make any difference in the actual liturgical life of the Church at large, of course, is another question. But liturgical reform, like all reform, is an incremental process. Even a small step in the right direction is key in the long run. But this may be a large step, even if it takes a long time to take effect.

I hope this is true. At times, however, I am not inclined to be so sanquine (which is not always a good thing, if it inclines me toward despair). This has been one of the most prolific pontificates in history, and in terms of what has been written, often of exceptional quality. Yet it has also been one of the most ignored pontificates. Papal encyclicals, apostolic letters, decrees of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, have been routinely ignored in many quarters.

Recently we hosted an ecumenical conference at Lenoir-Rhyne College called "Listening to the East," devoted to Eastern Orthodoxy, with speakers from that tradition, as well as from the Eastern-right Catholic tradition, and from the Lutheran tradition-- particularly those enamored of Eastern Orthodoxy. The single Catholic speaker, a Ukranian Rite Catholic, satisfied his Sunday obligation by attending at a local Catholic parish. He observed nothing heretical or illicit about the Mass, yet noted that they did about as well as he has seen done anywhere the kind of Novus Ordo Liturgy done in the style that he personally finds appallingly pedestrian and banal. The number of times the priest paused during his Eucharistic prayer to make eye contact with individuals in the congregation and nod, he said, furnished ample argument against saying Mass facing the people. The "hymns" (I use the term lightly) were equally appalling, etc., etc.

This Catholic had personally turned East in order to find reverence and dignity in worship by joining an Ukrainian Rite Catholic church. He noted how lucky he was to live in an area with several Easter rite Catholic churches. How lucky others are to be living in an area with the indult Tridentine Mass. How lucky even those are who live in an area where the Novus Ordo Mass is celebrated with great reverence and dignity befitting a house of God, such as those in South Kensington, London, who have the Brompton Oratory in their neighborhood.

In the course of the conference, this Ukranian Rite Catholic suggested that the next pontificate, which could possibly bring another "conservative" pontiff to Rome, could very well lead to dissenting Catholic parishes in Australia, Canada, and parts of the United States into open schism. As tragic as this may be, my inclination is to say, at this point: none too early; it's time to clean out the dead wood.