In an undelivered consistory address, the prefect for the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments reiterated that the 1969 Missal of Paul VI should be \u2018the sole expression\u2019 of the Roman Rite liturgy.<\/p>\n
In an undelivered address to cardinals last week, Cardinal Arthur Roche planned to voice opposition to the traditional Roman Rite, which he sees as a concession that needs to be eventually phased out in favor of the post-Vatican II liturgy as the unique expression of the Latin Rite.<\/p>\n
In a two-page text on Traditionis Custodes (Guardians of the Tradition), Pope Francis\u2019 2021 decree restricting the pre-conciliar traditional liturgy, the prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments argued that without \u201clegitimate progress\u201d in the liturgy, \u201cthe Tradition would be reduced to a \u2018collection of dead things,\u2019 not always all healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
His comments were to be part of a discussion on the liturgy during last week\u2019s extraordinary consistory of cardinals, but the topic was omitted due to time constraints. The cardinal\u2019s text was obtained by journalist Diane Montagna, who reported on its contents on Jan. 13. <\/p>\n
According to his planned address, Cardinal Roche intended to tell the cardinals that the liturgy had always undergone reforms, and he gave various examples from Church history. <\/p>\n
The liturgy, he said, \u201cis in itself characterised by cultural elements that change in time and places,\u201d and its history is one of \u201ccontinuous reforming in a process of organic development.\u201d <\/p>\n
As part of his argument, he quoted Pope Benedict XVI\u2019s words from a 2006 general audience, where Benedict said Tradition is not the transmission of \u201ca collection of dead things\u201d but \u201cthe living river that links us to the origins, the living river in which the origins are ever present.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cardinal Roche said the \u201cliturgy wanted by the Second Vatican Council is not only in full syntony with the true meaning of Tradition, but constitutes a singular way of putting itself at the service of Tradition.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Church, he maintained, has always had \u201cthis dynamic vision\u201d of \u201cmaintaining solid tradition\u201d and \u201copening the way to legitimate progress,\u201d and he added that these cannot be understood as \u201ctwo separable actions.\u201d \u201cThe primary good of the Church cannot be achieved by freezing division but by finding ourselves in the sharing of what cannot but be shared,\u201d Cardinal Roche said. <\/p>\n
The English cardinal quoted from Pope Francis\u2019 document \u201con the liturgical formation of the People of God,\u201d Desiderio Desideravi, adding: \u201cWe cannot go back to that ritual form which the Council fathers, cum Petro et sub Petro, felt the need to reform, approving, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and following their conscience as pastors, the principles from which was born the reform.\u201d <\/p>\n
Unity, Cardinal Roche stressed, further quoting Francis, can only be achieved by having one form of the Roman Rite \u2014 that which proceeded from Vatican II. <\/p>\n
Furthermore, the cardinal maintained that allowing the pre-reformed liturgy during the pontificates of Paul VI and John Paul II was only a \u201cconcession\u201d and not meant as a promotion, and he reiterated Francis\u2019 wish that the reformed liturgy be \u201cthe sole expression\u201d of the Roman Rite liturgy. <\/p>\n
He ended by again quoting Desiderio Desideravi, in which Francis said the problems over the liturgy are \u201cprimarily ecclesiological,\u201d and the Pope expressed his incredulity that someone could recognize the validity of the Council and yet not accept the liturgical reforms \u201cborn out of\u201d the Council. <\/p>\n
Responses to Cardinal Roche<\/p>\n
Responding to the paper, liturgist Father John Zuhlsdorf said the cardinal was erroneously claiming the reformed liturgy represents an \u201corganic development.\u201d Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he recalled, had described the liturgical reform as a \u201cfabrication, a banal product of the moment\u201d \u2014 a rite, Father Zuhlsdorf wrote, produced by committees and \u201cjustified ex post facto by appeals to history and pastoral need.\u201d Such a process, he added, \u201ccannot easily be squared with the Church\u2019s prior understanding of liturgical tradition as something received, not made.\u201d <\/p>\n
He also criticized the paper for \u201credefining key terms such as reform, tradition, unity, and legitimacy, in ways that predetermine the outcome.\u201d For Father Zuhlsdorf, the \u201cscope, method, and assumptions of the reform\u201d must be first addressed, otherwise appeals to authority and unity will close down debate rather than act as instruments of communion. <\/p>\n
Catholic commentator Gavin Ashenden said Cardinal Roche\u2019s undelivered paper bore the marks \u201cnot of serious theological analysis but rather of propaganda\u201d \u2014 a \u201cpiece of partisanship\u201d that tried to \u201cpresent a version of the truth.\u201d Placing the paper in historical context, Ashenden concluded it was an attempt to steer the cardinals toward further restrictions on the traditional liturgy by offering a revisionist history of the post-conciliar reform. <\/p>\n
According to Catholic commentator Austen Ivereigh, who was a collaborator of the synod secretariat during the last synod, the Holy Father had asked Cardinal Roche to prepare the paper. \u201cHe was one of four cardinals asked to prepare briefings on the four topics Leo had chosen,\u201d Ivereigh wrote on X. <\/p>\n
The four topics were trimmed to two at the beginning of the consistory due to time constraints, but the liturgy is likely to be discussed at a forthcoming consistory; the next one is scheduled for the end of June. <\/p>\n
Although all the discussions in the consistory were meant to remain confidential, two other addresses, which were delivered to the assembly, were reported by Italian journalist Nico Spuntoni in Il Giornale and published in full by the website Messa in Latino. <\/p>\n
Cardinal Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s intervention<\/p>\n
In his address, Cardinal V\u00edctor Fern\u00e1ndez, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, spoke on one of the two topics discussed at the consistory: Pope Francis\u2019 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.<\/p>\n
The Argentinian cardinal argued that the document remains a programmatic text for the Church and did not \u201cexpire\u201d with the previous pontificate, because its focus was on proclaiming God\u2019s saving love as something beautiful and attractive rather than a mere list of doctrines or moral norms. <\/p>\n
\u201cOften, we end up speaking about the same doctrinal, moral, bioethical and political questions,\u201d he said, adding that these come with risks: that the Gospel message \u201cdoes not resound\u201d or \u201conly certain themes are put forward outside the wider context of the spiritual and social teaching of the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cardinal Fern\u00e1ndez therefore derived from Francis\u2019 document two concrete demands for the Church: ongoing reform and continual purification of preaching so that the truth of God\u2019s infinite love takes precedence; and that the \u201ccall to live the first commandment of brotherly love\u201d resounds above all, especially in the Church\u2019s moral teaching.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the second topic of the consistory, \u201cSynod and synodality,\u201d Cardinal Mario Grech, general secretary of the Synod Secretariat, argued that the recent synodal process showed how a more synodal style of Church life could serve as an effective instrument to assist the Petrine ministry in discernment, without in any way limiting or relativizing papal primacy. Synodality is not a counterweight to primacy, he contended, but a mode in which the prophetic function of the People of God and the discernment of the episcopal college converge to offer the Pope more reliable help in making decisions for the whole Church. <\/p>\n
A fourth address that made it into the media but was not delivered due to time constraints was that of Cardinal Fabio Baggio, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. His speech, on Praedicate Evangelium, Pope Francis\u2019 2021 document reforming the Roman Curia, stressed its importance in making evangelization the center of the Church\u2019s governance, how it decentralized some decision-making from Rome to local bishops, and that it made the curia more synodal with an emphasis on listening and discernment. <\/p>\n
Acest articol a fost publicat ini\u021bial de NCRegister.<\/p>\n