I received this anonymous comment from the updated post on Pope Francis' complete "magisterial" speech on the Liturgy, His Holiness' first on the Mass.
This comment has some good insights to consider:
Anonymous said...
Even though he isn't quoted, I don't see anything in this speech that Benedict XVI would disagree with. If anything, Francis describes the liturgical reform in decidedly organic terms, talking about "growth", "blooming", and "fruit". This fits exactly into Benedict's claim that in the church there is growth and development but never rupture and negation. This speech is something that fans of Benedict should be very happy about.
Also, notice how little crowing there is about it at praytell. The most that Father Anthony Ruff can get to is by pointing to what's not there.
Also, notice how little crowing there is about it at praytell. The most that Father Anthony Ruff can get to is by pointing to what's not there.
6 comments:
Perhaps Pope Francis will take the time to address the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage to Rome taking place next month (14-17 September) Keynote speakers include Cardinals Sarah and Müller, and Cardinal Caffarra will celebrate a traditional Pontifical Mass in St Peter's.
After all, this is the tenth anniversary of the most important liturgical development since 1970.
With Father McDonald's approval... Part 1 of 2.
Father John Hunwicke offered the following assessment of Pope Francis' address in question.
http://liturgicalnotes.blogspot.com/2017/08/irreversible.html24 August 2017
Excerpts from Father Hunwicke's assessment of the Pope's address on liturgy.
"IRREVERSIBLE"? UPDATED
"After this Magisterium, after this long journey, we can affirm with certainty and with Magisterial authority that the Liturgical Reform is irreversible".
"This sort of thing has the capacity to upset people; even to make them panic. But I think panic is quite unnecessary, and is even an unfair overreaction to what he has actually said.
"Pope Bergoglio is absolutely right. Liturgy is not reversible. Nobody can magic the Catholic Church back to how it was in 1962. Or in 1939. Or any other time. Liturgy will go on.
"Two of the ways in which it seems to be going on are the continuing reappropriation of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. And an increasing tendency to do the Ordinary Form with more reverence for Tradition.
"Exemplum: When Vincent Nichols became Archbishop of Westminster, there was an instantaneous change. The unworthy little table on wheels, which had stood in the middle of the Sanctuary of his Cathedral Church, was wheeled right away, and the original, central, noble High Altar, symbol of Christ, was restored to use. Apparently Archbishop Nichols did not regard the 1970s 'coffee table' fad as "irreversible". [In fact, Pope Francis has celebrated versus Orientem in the Sixtine Chapel.]
"All over the world, cathedral and church sanctuaries are being freed from the worst of the mistakes of the 1970s. And Pope Francis, in his latest address, includes a fine section explaining the importance of this instinctive respect for the Altar. (Might it perhaps have been written for him by Cardinal Sarah?)
"And, while I am on this subject, I will remind you of the Holy Father's Address at the general audience of August 2, when he spoke about the liturgical significance of facing East. He lamented that "in modern times, the fascination of this rite [facing East in Baptism] has been partially lost: we have lost sensitivity to the language of the cosmos". "(Might he perhaps have listened to Cardinal Sarah?)
"Traddies should not always too readily assume that everything Jorge says is the blackest villainy."
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Part 2 of 2
"And the Extraordinary Form is in cultural (rather than rubrical) ways rather different now from how it was before the Council (in the 1950s, I was in my teens).
"It is no longer performed in a hurried, perfunctory, slipshod way. The congregation no longer packs the back of the church because it is in such a hurry to escape at the very earliest possible moment.
"Are the 1962 liturgical books immutable? They are certainly not so regarded by many who most enthusiastically attend them. Over the last couple of decades, increasing numbers of groups have restored the pre-Pius XII Holy Week ceremonies.
"Just as the Novus Ordo recovered euchological texts drawn from early sacramentaries and brought them back into use, so the Vetus Ordo will naturally do something similar. It will not, because it cannot, remain static.
"There is, indeed, nothing sacrosanct about '1962'; Benedict XVI appears to have selected that particular edition and recension of the Roman Rite mainly because it was what Archbishop Lefebvre had done earlier.
"I would like to see, not a wholesale and block and doctrinaire restoration of the texts or practices of any particular year in the past, but the further sensitive and unhurried and judicious evolution of the Old Rite.
"I have already mentioned Holy Week. I will add: the restoration of more vigils and octaves; and (at least for doubles of the Second Class) the restoration of First Vespers.
"I also think we should follow the SSPX French Ordo in providing for the use of the so-called 'Gallican' Prefaces. And we could borrow from the Novus Ordo the permission, on lots of ordinary weekdays, either to commemorate a Saint or to observe the Feria.
"If I am making a general point, it is this: rather than digging our heels in and nervously crying "Not an inch", we should let the classical Roman Rite shine ever more gloriously, attracting yet more people (not least, the young) to it by its eternal youth and its irrepressible virility and vigour."
"And we should take up the powerful hint which our Holy Father is surely giving us: that Summorum Pontificum is "irreversible"."
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Mark Thomas
It's all right to quote from Fr Hunwicke's blog (although why do so at such length, since anyone can access it?) but do remember that he has a very English penchant for irony.
Also his posts on 27 and 29 August are very scathing about Pope Francis. I think he hits the nail firmly on the head, but from what you say, I would not expect you to concur.
May I suggest that one go to Dr. Edward Peters' blog, "In Light of the Law" for a well reasoned response/observation to the Pope's speech. God Bless.
Thanks Kim.
The below link leads to Dr peters blog and is must reading for all here.
Dr Edward Peters Canon Law Blog
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