As I was enjoying the Latin Liturgy Association's tour of Detroit churches today, on the first day of the LLA convention, I'm afraid my naughty imagination got the best of me. I imagined what things might be like with the liturgical forms of the Roman Rite in, say, 2050, if the tables were turned a bit.
Imagine that the Novus Order as presently known was utterly suppressed by a future pope, by means of a thoroughgoing "Reform of the Reform." Imagine the partisans of that "old Mass" of 1969 feeling completely marginalized by the New Liturgical Movement sweeping the Church. Yet imagine the partisans of the "old" Novus Ordo forming a break-away seminary in southern California, where a renegade bishop illicitly ordains four pasley-vested priests as new bishops to preserve the ecclesiastical gains of the "Revolution" represented by the "Spirit of Vatican II."
A future pope issues an indult in 2044 authorizing the celebration of the 1969 liturgy with the approval of the local bishop, "for those attached to the earlier forms of worship" from the 20th century. Yet the local bishops continue to drag their heels, because of resistance to the generally unpopular free-wheeling guitar Masses with "gathering hymns" composed by the likes of Haugen and Haas; and the bishops fear widespread reactionary popular backlash in the parishes and presbyterate.
Four years later, as a result of persistent petitioning and agitation on the part of guitar and bongo Mass enthusiasts, the pope expands his earlier permission in his Apostolic Letter Ecclesia dei adflicta II (2048): "By virtue of my Apostolic Authority I decree ... (that) a wide and generous application" be given to previous directives. Things remain virtually unchanged, however, and bishops generally ignore the Vatican directive, complaining about the old "gray-hairs" still clinging to the liturgical forms of the 1970s.
Finally in 2050, to the joy of Marty Haugen fans and the consternation of chancery offices around the world, the pope issues a Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum II, allowing every priest in the Roman Rite to offer the 1969 liturgy in the vernacular, vested in polyester, with guitar accompaniment and as many Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion as they wish, provided their number does not exceed that of the congregation present.
8 comments:
God, are there Catholics considering Unitarianism?
Where's that drink CB?!!!!
It is scary just how similar our imaginations are. :P
I regard the present situation as comparable in many respects to the darkest days of the Arian heresy, so for me the events of the sixties were comparable in many respects to one of the periodic resurgences of heresy within the Church, as would be the imagined events of 2050.
Heresy used to be dealt with in a much more matter of fact manner than it is today, when the matter is settled by ignoring the issues constituting the heresy, and focusing solely on the wondrous common attributes which unite us, such as a belief in a supreme being of one sort or another, opposable thumbs, and a tendency to pass gas after eating beans.
Lutheran, don't be surprised: there ARE "Catholic unitarians"!
Philip,
This year the Ordo Missae of 1970 claims habit of 40 years. Like the nonsensical arguments over prop 8 in California (pro "gay marriage" side uses "natural rights"; pro "traditional marriage" uses "the people decided") it won't be long before the proponents of all things liturgically silly can claim legitimately that they represent a "traditional" use!
Still, I appreciate the humor.
If you look at the Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club, you'll see something similar immediately after his election.
God bless His Holiness, Gloriously reigning.
Chris
... it won't be long before the proponents of all things liturgically silly can claim legitimately that they represent a "traditional" use!
Which is very funny, isn't it; since there is little if anything 'established' about the Novus Ordo since the 1970s except for a 'tradition' of constant change (sometimes of reform, sometimes of abuse); which is to say that it isn't (yet?) an established form of the Roman Rite.
Yesterday I witnessed an implementation of the Novus Ordo which would have been utterly alien to 99% of contemporary Catholics: it was celebrated ad orientem in full, solemn vestments, and in Latin. No matter how broad the gap that separates the Novus Ordo as promulgated by Paul VI from the Missal of John XXIII, to 99% of contemporary Catholics, the gap separating this Latin celebration of the Novus Ordo from their common experience of it in their regular Sunday parishes would be perceived as far wider. Irony of ironies.
This would be for the history books, if any are kept at that time--or books in any form for that matter.--It'll probably just be iPods, iPads, iPhones, and Steve Jobs in his next incarnation as iGod, not to be confused with his latest i-digital i-annotated i-translation of the Bible as "HiGod".
It would be the first Post-Post-Post Modern, Post-Post Christian, and Post Western church schism.
Imagine, a schism where traditional Catholics are angry about the whole deal and yet too tired/bummed out to fight back. "Ah well, F#*! it" becomes a new credo and hymn which will be the last Christian tune sold on iTunes and eventually banned by the iMinistry of iThoughts. Imagine too, the cool, minty-fresh schismatics publically prancing about in less than customary threads as will be their tendency, chanting "iLove me, God loves me--Weeeeee-chi-chi".
The horror...The horror...The horror...
Should we all pray for solar flares? They would prove excellent delay actions.
Could part of the liturgical problem be our (modern) inability to focus on what is sometimes called "slow reading"? See the article from the Guardian.
Chris
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