Vatican preparing guide for priests on how to celebrate Mass
Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, Prefect, Congregation for Divine Worship, confirmed this Tuesday at an address at the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See on “Catholic Liturgy since Vatican II: Continuity and Evolution.”The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments is preparing a booklet to help priests celebrate the Mass properly and the faithful to participate better, according to the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.
This is Spanish Cardinal Antonio Cañizares. When it comes to the liturgy, he says some of the changes that were called on by the Second Vatican Council, are still pending. But if those changes are applied correctly, he says, even traditionalists groups, like that of Lefebvrians, would not feel mistrust.
BOMBSHELL:Cardinal Antonio Cañizares added that the Council did not speak of the priest celebrating Mass facing the people, that it stressed the importance of Christ on the altar, reflected in Benedict XVI's celebration of the Mass in the Sistine Chapel facing the altar. This does not exclude the priest facing the people, in particular during the reading of the word of God. He stressed the need of the notion of mystery, and particulars such as the altar facing East and the fact that the sacrificial sense of the Eucharist must not be lost.
15 comments:
I can't see them ever going ad orientem at Holy Spirit in Macon. Ever.
qwikness, in ignorance three hundred ways away, perhaps I ought not even ask why not? We have all kinds of churches and Catholics in my diocese, but I think all of them would obey any specific instruction from Rome mandating ad orientem, kneeling, etc. Surely, any parish that would not is CINO.
@ Henry,
I would have a hard time finding my parents parish in Iowa (the one I grew up in) going that way as well. It would take a change of pastor to make that happen.
The current pastor is mired in 1970s style liturgical "renewal." He still beleives in gold lamme, macrame, stubby candles at the very edge of the altar and odd arrangements of the sanctuary based upon the season (winter, spring, summer, fall, Easter and Christmas).
I suspect that if he were to retire the 70 something and 80 something sacris....er enviornment chairs, and asked for a younger volunteer, things might get better, but that won't happen with this priest. He actually likes asymmetry and wonkiness...
Rome doesn't matter to him. He matters to him.
Go over to PTB and you will find commentators using phrases like "mumbling at the wall in a dead language". This indicates beyond any doubt that whatever they want in their parishes, it sure ain't the Mass.
qwikness is right in one regard: If this is merely a "guide" on how the Vatican thinks priests _ought_ to do it, and not a mandate complete with sanctions, there are indeed some priests who will never adopt whatever "guidelines" are suggested or recommended or whatever.
Just as a "law" that isn't enforced isn't in fact a law, a requirement that has no enforcement provisions or sanctions is a dead letter.
Anon 5, I interpreted qwikness as saying something about the parish itself, and my reply reflected an expectation that my Catholic parish with a loyal and effective pastor would normally follow pastoral and episcopal leadership and direction.
Regarding your comment and Andy's, there certainly still is--as a legacy of the "chaos" of the 60s and 70s--a large number of priests who will not follow norms guidelines, and probably not even mandates. Indeed, there likely are too many of this generation still in positions of responsibility (e.g., in rectories and chanceries) for ironclad sanctions to be applied and enforced effectively at the present time.
For this reason, I doubt that we'll see any liturgical mandates issued during the present papacy, while the present "problem generation" is still in place.
A mandate, yes. Left to their own device, never. Maybe not never, 98% never.
@ Henry;
"For this reason, I doubt that we'll see any liturgical mandates issued during the present papacy, while the present "problem generation" is still in place."
I agree 1000%.
I dont mean to sidetrack the thread, but I had a thought today while Ive been reading on here.
With all the problems that we have had since VII, that were aparently brewing before the council, I had a though. Ive read where the Orthodox Churches are planning to have a council, to update (or something like that), I was wondering if they have the same problem now that we did before VII with modernism creeping in. I know its impossible to predict what will happen, but this will be their first council in how many centuries? So I wander if it will have a negative effect on them like the "spirit of vatican 2 had on us"
Anon - No, they don't. Also, just because a Council is called and meets would not automatically make it "ecumenical" unless it is subsequently accepted by the Church as a whole. So, I don't think there'll be a modernism problem as the largest patriarchate (Moscow) is incredibly conservative.
Orthodoxy has other built-in fail safes that prevent modernism from taking hold as well.
And you are right they are organizing a worldwide council. It'll be the first such council since the late 19th century when philetism was condemned as a heresy.
Also, the purpose of the Council will not be to update. The purpose is to sort out the non-canonical situation of jurisdictional overlap in the diaspora.
I'm sure it will be a nice reflection on the Mass, but I doubt it will have much influence at this time. Did parishes reintroduce communion plates (plates with sticks held beneath chins and hands of communicants) in response to Redemptionis Sacramentum, for example? Did Paul VI's earlier little booklet with Latin chants preserve these? Or, apart from written instructions, has the Holy Father's exemplary use of the altar cross and his distribution of Holy Communion to kneeling communicants caught on? The Reform of the Reform will need to occur from the bottom up, I think.
Anonymous,
I think the Orthodox would have a greater threat from secularism and nationalism. We Catholics had to cope with the effects of Protestantism and de-colonialism in the West, and Communism in the East at Vatican II.
Fr. Shelton,
Regarding your point about nationalism and Orthodoxy: that's what they condemned as heresy at the last council (philetism).
Everyone is battling against secularism regarding the particulars of their religious beliefs, unfortunately. This is something all people of good will need to fight.
I fail to see how publishing a booklet will change anything. Unless the content of that booklet is sealed in a revised GIRM, accompanied by a papal decree, the more things ought to change the more they will remain the same.
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