Wednesday, August 01, 2007

More on the Motu Proprio

http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/article.php3?id_article=1977

Given the series of concessions that have already been made to Catholic traditionalists, and the radical views and program of those to whom this pope has given his approval and endorsement in the past, it is difficult to believe that with Summorum pontificum a definitive compromise has been reached and the matter will end there. A more plausible understanding of the present moment is that it marks another step toward a goal that the vast majority of Catholics would not countenance if it were openly acknowledged-namely, the gradual dismantling of the liturgical reform in its entirety.

I mostly agree. Though I am not fond of slippery slope arguments, the trend lines here are undeniable. And the SSPX's explicit rejection of the paschal mystery's centrality to the Mass - and the implicit embracing of that view by reinstating the old mass - is especially troubling.

2 comments:

Aristotle said...

This is really just a bunch of ignorant nonsense, and that's the soft-spoken truth. Vatican II did not call for the Novus Ordo. It called for a retention of the Traditional Mass with some modifications to make it more accessible to the modern man. What happened instead was a complete revision of the actual content of the Mass, eliminating for example the offertory (that had always been considered a crucial part of the Mass) and making the ancient Roman Canon optional. These were never even dreamed of by those in the late 19th and early 20th century who advocated true liturgical reform, which would make the traditions of the Faith come alive and reinvigorate lay participation in the ancient rite.

No, what the Pope has done is something normal. The Motu Proprio is a long-needed correction, a return to normality in the Church. Never has the Church forbidden a Rite of Mass so ancient and venerable, the form of which and customs of which were so ancient and common to East and West. The Novus Ordo was meant as a concession to ecumenism, to water down the Mass and make it theologically coincident with the prayer of protestant communities.

As the Holy Father wrote many times when Cardinal, the liturgy in the Catholic Church has always developed organically. It has never been the product of a commission of so-called "experts." One of the fruits of these so-called 1960s liturgical experts was the turning of the orientation of the priest toward the people based upon what we now know was faulty research. In ancient times, in East and West, the priest always faced East toward the Risen Christ leading his people toward the New Jerusalem. This is common to every rite in the Church's history, East and West. This is now admitted even by those who advocated the change in orientation.

No, I suggest that you and the writer of this secular article on the Mass do a little more study before they criticize the Holy Father. All he has done is return the Church to its normal path which in no way denies a single word of Vatican II but instead prevents the perversion of that council by the liberals who would rather consult the "spirit" of the council than the council itself.

Jay said...

Since you clearly come from a state of mind where "liberal" is an insult, I think we'd better just agree to disagree.

There is no way I ever would have swum the Tiber for the old mass. But I did, and now Catholicdom is stuck with me, LOL.