Ratzinger on liturgy

The November 2004 issue of The Adoremus Bulletin features a review by Cardinal Ratzinger of Alcuin Reid's new book, The Organic Development of the Liturgy: The Principles of Liturgical Reform and Their Relation to the 20th Century Liturgical Movement Prior to the Second Vatican Council [Amazon link] (Farnborough, England: St. Michael's Abbey Press, May, 2004). Coming hard on the heels of Reid's volume Looking Again at the Question of the Liturgy With Cardinal Ratzinger: Proceedings of the July 2001 Fontgombault Liturgical Conference [Amazon link], published in January, 2004 (St. Augustine's Press) and reviewed in the last issue of Latin Mass magazine by Michael Davies just before his untimely death, Reid's latest work should help foster the discussion that needs to take place before the Roman curia, bishops' conferences, and priests will be prodded into realizing that there might be a problem with the liturgical status quo. Another recent book from Ignatius Press that will help this discussion along is Thomas Kocik's Reform of the Reform?: A Liturgical Debate: Reform or Return [Amazon link], a fictitious debate between two fictitious representatives of mutually antagonist positions, both of which find the direction taken by the post Vatican II reforms problematic--(1) a "traditionalist" advocating a return to the pre-Vatican II liturgy, and (2) a "reformist" (no liberal himself) advocating a new liturgical reform more in keeping with what the Council Fathers had in mind.

But to return to the book reviewed by Ratzinger, Alcuin Reid concludes his volume with an enumeration of proper principles for reform. In discussing these, he agrees with the Catechism of the Catholic Church in emphasizing that "even the supreme authority in the Church may not change the Liturgy arbitrarily, but only in the obedience of faith and with religious respect for the mystery of the Liturgy." (CCC No. 1125, p. 256). Commenting on this, Ratzinger writes:

It seems to me most important that the Catechism, in mentioning the limitation of the powers of the supreme authority in the Church with regard to reform, recalls to mind what is the essence of the primacy as outliend by the First and Second Vatican Councils: The pope is not an absolute monarch whose will is law, but is the guardian of the authentic Tradition, and thereby the premier guarantor of obedience.... That is why, with respect to the Liturgy, he has the task of a gardener, not that of a technician who builds new machines and throws the old ones on the junk-pile....

The eminent Cardinal makes no overt references to the genesis of the Novus Ordo Missae under the perview of Pope Paul VI (pictured left) and the self-serving machinations of Cardinal Annibale Bugnini (pictured right), the radical head of the Concilium, but leaves it to his reader to draw the inferences. Commenting on the effects of the rupture with traditional liturgy, Ratzinger remarks:

Many priests today, unfortunately, ... want to overcome the limits of the rite, as being something fixed and immovable, and construct the products of their fantasy, which are supposedly "pastoral" .... Anyone like myself, who was moved by this perception in the time of the Liturgical Movement on the even of the Second Vatican Council, can only stand, deeply sorrowing, before the ruins of the very things they were concerned for....

But what is "pastoral"? The judgments made about these questions by intellectual professors were often influenced by rationalist presuppositions, and not infrequently missed the point of what really supports the life of the faithful. Thus it is that nowadays, after the Litrugy was extensively rationalized during the early phase of reform, people are eagerly seeking after forms of solemnity, looking for "mystical" atmosphere, and for something of the sacred.

Yet because--necessarily, and more and more clearly--people's judgments as to what is pastorally effective are widely divergent, the "pastoral" aspect has become the point at which "creativity" breaks in, destroying the unity of the Liturgy and very often confronting us with something deplorably banal....

If the Liturgy appears foirst of all as the workshop of our activity, then what is essential is being forgotten: God

Ratzinger is duly politic in what he leaves unsaid, and at times he even underscores the significance of such silence, as when he offers the following praise for Reid's deciion to leave certain things unsaid:

The author has made a wise decision, in stopping on the threshold of the Second Vatican Council. He thus avoids entering into the controversy associated with the interpretation and teh reception of the Council, and can nonetheless show its place in history, and show us the interplay of various tendencies, on which questions as to the standards for reform must be based.

On the one hand, I would like to stand up and shout: "Cop out! This is precisely what needs addressing! This is precisely where Reid should not have remained silent!" For, meanwhile, the institutionalized abuses of the Novus Ordo Missae proceed apace in the ever accelarating disintegration of contemporary Catholic liturgy, and the faithful who still retain some awareness that there is a problem feel like sheep without a shepherd, like nobody is in charge, adrift on a sea of liturgical experimentation and confusion with little hope of things changing in their lifetimes. On the other hand, however, I realize--as the very publication of these books and this review suggest--that things are happening, the Holy Spirit is guiding, and God will not leave His children forsaken. The wheels of change--especially of remedial change--turn slowly in the Church. We should be thankful for the legacy of those like the late Michael Davies, Louis Bouyer, Klaus Gamber, Dietrich von Hildebrand, as well as the work of Alcuin Reid and the substantial (if discreet) contributions of our good Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger over the last several decades.

For the whole review of Alcuin Reid's book by Cardinal Ratzinger, go to the Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club website where it is posted here, courtesy of Christopher Blosser.