Friday, January 15, 2010

Pope's true liturgical reform?

New Catholic, "The True Reform of Pope Ratzinger" (Rorate Caeli, January 14, 2010) says that The New Theological Movement has published a partial translation of the interview given by Antonio Cardinal Canizares-Llovera to Il Foglio, and published on January 9, 2010. In what follows, I offer only the noted highlights:
... After a year at the helm of this Congregation, I experience and sense with greater force every day, the necessity of promoting in the Church, in every continent, a strong and rigorous liturgical impulse. An impulse which revivifies that most rich heritage of the Council and of which the great liturgical movement of the 19th and first half of the 20th century - with men like Guardini, Jungmann and so many others - rendered fruitful the Church at the Second Vatican Council. There, without any doubt, stands our future and the future of the world.... Only a Church which lives the truth of the liturgy will be in a position to give the one thing which can renew, transform and recreate the world: God and only God and His grace.

... I believe that the Motu Proprio has a most important value for its own sake, for the Church and for the liturgy. ... the Motu Proprio is not a step back or a return to the past. It is to acknowledge and receive, with simplicity, in all its fullness, the treasures and inheritance of the great Tradition, which has in the liturgy its most genuine and profound expression. The Church cannot permit herself to prescind, to forget or to renounce the treasures and the rich inheritance of this tradition, contained in the Roman Rite. It would be a betrayal and a negation of her very self.... Obviously, the Motu Proprio has to be seen with the reading and interpretation one makes or would make of the Second Vatican Council. When one reads the Council and interprets it with the key of rupture and discontinuity, he understands nothing of the Council and he completely distorts it.

The great contribution of the Pope, in my opinion, is that he is bringing us closer to the truth of the liturgy, with a wise pedagogy, introducing us to the genuine 'spirit' of the liturgy (the title of one of his works before becoming Pope). He, before all else, is following a simple educative process which seeks to move toward this 'spirit' or genuine sense of the liturgy, to overcome a reductive vision which is still very entrenched. As Pope, he is the first to put into practice his teachings, so rich and abundant in this area. As his evocative gestures which accompany the celebrations at which he presides, move in this direction. To accept these gestures and these teachings is a duty which we have if we are disposed to live the liturgy in a way corresponding to its very naturalness and if we do not want to lose the treasures and liturgical inheritance of the tradition.... ... in the liturgy one touches that which is most essential to the faith and the Church ....

2 comments:

Unknown said...

God bless His Holiness, Pope Ratzinger, for his love for the traditional liturgy & his unending courage in following Christ. G. Boos

Ralph Roister-Doister said...

“Compared with the Indult, the Motu Proprio radically changes the status of the old Mass. When you say indult, you imply an exception or a privilege, a law for a few. Along with this, certain conditions and necessary permissions are imposed. But when something is a universal law, there is none of this. It’s like a green light: even if there is a policeman, you do not ask him for permission to drive on. When the Pope says that the old Mass is not abrogated, he gives a green light to the Tridentine Mass. It is a question of law.

Matters are not as clear when it comes to the application of the law. How is this law applied? You see that the bishops, for the most part, wish to apply the Motu Proprio as if it were an indult. They want to be asked permission. This is strictly against the law of the Motu Proprio. Such is the general attitude of bishops, notwithstanding some exceptions. The bishops put pressure on priests to prevent the free diffusion of the Tridentine Mass. . . .

. . . the problem is that too many people want [the New Mass] to remain alive, and oppose the Motu Proprio. So, they will keep trying to impose the hegemony of the New Mass over the old.

In a number of years from now, the Church can really go back to the old Mass. It will require much energy and fighting, but it is truly possible. The Motu Proprio is a great help toward this, and this is why we sincerely thank the Pope. . . . [but] a great majority of priests and bishops still oppose the old Mass. We must be aware of this twofold reality. I wish I could make matters less complex. To put it in a nutshell: good and bad things happen at the same time."

Bp. Bernard Fellay, SSPX