Posted on 09/14/2014 9:31:31 AM PDT by marshmallow
In the post-Summorum world, the ancient Roman Rite can no longer be considered forbidden, dubious, marginal, or obsolete. It enjoys equal rights of citizenship with the Novus Ordo: two forms of the Roman Rite—one called Ordinary because most recently promulgated and more widely used, the other called Extraordinary, the usus antiquior, deserving respect for its venerable use—with each able to be freely celebrated by any priest of the Roman Rite, no special permission needed. One would think that, as a gesture of reconciliation at the heart of the Church, the two forms would be flourishing side by side, with Catholics everywhere privileged to experience both of them offered reverently and beautifully.
But this is still far from the reality, and, sadly, there are still far too many bishops and priests who oppose the traditional Mass, tether it with burdensome conditions, or resort to power politics to ensure that its supporters are duly warned and penalized for their rash embrace of our Catholic heritage.
As we commemorate today the seventh anniversary of the implementation of Summorum Pontificum, whose provisions went into effect on September 14, 2007, it will be both edifying and sobering to consider the meaning Joseph Ratzinger himself attached to opposition to the traditional Mass. What does it mean when someone opposes this Mass, or those who celebrate it, or those who cherish it as a form of prayer dear to them?
In the book-length interview Salt of the Earth, published in 1997, Ratzinger said:
I am of the opinion, to be sure, that the old rite should be granted much more generously to all those who desire it. It’s impossible to see what could be dangerous or unacceptable about that. A community is calling its very being into question when it suddenly declares that what until now........
(Excerpt) Read more at newliturgicalmovement.org ...
I attend the Novus Ordo five or six days a week. I attend the TLM two or three times a month. I have a foot in both camps. I was just trying to make light. My apologies if I my post was offensive.
We are friends, I won't belabor the point. To the degree that any apology is owed, I accept.
sitetest
I don't think this is the case. He envisioned a hybrid rite where far more of the TLM would be grafted into the Novus Ordo, especially ad orientem for the priest. He accomplished very little of what he hoped and what is desperately needful in this regard. Read his books on the liturgy.
Well, he had his opportunities. I don't know why he did or didn't do whatever he did or didn't do. There were other things that surprised me during the papacy of Benedict XVI. I remember the forceful letter he wrote to the American bishops, transmitted through McCarrick, that he wrote as head of the CDF. But as pope, we saw no follow-through on the substance of that letter.
Perhaps he was constrained by factors out of our sight. Perhaps his mind or heart shifted in some way.
So, what Cardinal Ratzinger wrote that Pope Benedict XVI did not implement at least raises the question of whether his views had shifted to one degree or other.
Nonetheless, if it were up to me, the Mass would be said ad orientam. This is an obvious change.
Preferring the new rite to the old AS IT IS ACTUALLY PRACTICED neither means that one thinks the new rite is just right, nor that the old rite is bad or that those who adhere to it deserve any sort of opprobrium merely for that adherence.
But vice versa, too.
In my own thinking, I would prefer a Mass closer to the old rite (having read the text of the old rite), in the vernacular, spoken aloud, with the congregation providing the responses.
In multi-ethnic parishes where no vernacular language predominated, I'd pretty much require the Mass in Latin.
But, I don't want to go to Mass and not be able to hear what the priest is saying. I love the prayers of the Mass, and I love to hear them out loud. I especially love to hear the beautiful words of the Eucharistic Prayer, especially if I am fortunate enough that the priest uses the first Eucharistic Prayer. Perhaps I emphasize too much the psychological experience of it, but I find listening to it to be profoundly affecting.
As the old rite is apparently typically said sotto voce, I would dearly miss that.
sitetest
I take that for granted.
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