Posted on 03/27/2004 2:21:21 PM PST by Land of the Irish
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A long-awaited Vatican document on liturgical abuse has been signed by Pope John Paul II and is expected to be published after Easter.
The Latin text is being translated into various languages, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said in late March. Other Vatican sources said the document probably would be ready for release toward the end of April.
The document has been unusually controversial. Last summer, details were leaked from a draft of the text, which denounced a long string of liturgical errors and called on bishops to correct them.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnews.com ...
Schism seems to the common buzz word now from the Modernists, e.g. "I thought that priest's sermon was inappropriate."
Response, "Than you're a schismatic!"
Precisely.
That's why to define as "abuse" things like reception in the hand, communion under both kinds, females in the sanctuary, and occasional applause is ridiculous. All of these things were approved by the Congregation for the Liturgy!
The document, I predict, will stress formation and provide guidelines, rather than juridicism.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A long-awaited Vatican document on liturgical abuse has been signed by Pope John Paul II and is expected to be published after Easter.
The Latin text is being translated into various languages, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said in late March. Other Vatican sources said the document probably would be ready for release toward the end of April.
The document has been unusually controversial. Last summer, details were leaked from a draft of the text, which denounced a long string of liturgical errors and called on bishops to correct them.
Among other things, the draft insisted on limiting the role of lay ministers, forbade liturgical dance, warned against use of nonapproved texts, cautioned against pseudo-liturgical rites by and for women, and said distribution of Communion under the forms of bread and wine is not always a good idea.
The draft also encouraged lay people to report abuses to their bishops and, if necessary, directly to the Vatican.
According to Vatican sources, the draft document was altered after a review by members of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, which is issuing the text. It was prepared in collaboration with the doctrinal congregation.
Almost as much as the content, the tone of the draft document alarmed some liturgists in Rome, including several who work with the Vatican on papal liturgies.
That apprehension emerged in December at a symposium to commemorate the 40th anniversary of "Sacrosanctum Concilium," the Second Vatican Council's document on liturgical renewal. Among those in attendance was the head of the worship congregation, Cardinal Francis Arinze.
At the end of the session, Servite Father Silvano Maggiani, president of the Association of Professors of Liturgy, read a message expressing the liturgists' fear that the liturgical reform movement opened by Vatican II was being closed down.
Father Maggiani told Catholic News Service that the association later sent personal letters to Pope John Paul II and other high officials at the Vatican, expressing "bewilderment, unease, fear and concern" at the apparent direction of the liturgical abuse document.
Father Maggiani, a consultor to the office that prepares papal liturgies, wrote that it was not right to "define as abuse things that are not." Any real abuses should be corrected not with a "repressive" spirit but through formation, he said.
He also wrote that it would go against Vatican II to try and return to a "schism ... between lay faithful and ordained ministers."
Vatican sources said the document has been ready for some time, but was held for several weeks of review at the Secretariat of State. That has led some to believe that significant changes have been made.
"I think some sections have disappeared altogether, and that the document as a whole has been greatly simplified," said one source.
Whatever the final form, the document takes aim at liturgical abuse, and it was written at the specific request of the pope. When he asked for its preparation almost a year ago, the pope said he wanted it to include "prescriptions of a juridical nature" regarding church rules for the celebration of Mass and adoration of the Eucharist.
Part of the concern behind the document focuses on the lay role during liturgies. The Vatican does not want lay people giving sermons, pronouncing the eucharistic prayers, breaking the eucharistic bread, or distributing Communion unless there is an "urgent" need. The thinking is that all this diminishes the proper role of the ordained minister.
Other areas of liturgical and sacramental concern include:
-- The practice of inviting non-Catholics to share in Communion.
-- Allowing laicized priests to administer sacraments.
-- Substituting non-biblical texts for biblical readings during Mass.
-- Introduction of non-Christian elements in Catholic liturgies, and celebration of Mass in non-Christian places of worship.
-- Allowing non-Catholic ministers to wear Catholic vestments.
-- Adoration of the Eucharist in unworthy settings.
-- Giving first Communion outside of Mass and before first confession.
-- Using corruptible metals, glass or ceramic for the sacred vessels, including the chalice.
-- Breaking of the host at the consecration, instead of immediately prior to Communion.
Critics of the worship congregation's approach say it is too centered on rules and not focused enough on formation.
"Yes, it is wrong to break the host at the consecration -- but not because the congregation rules say so. The real reason is because at that moment the church is not re-enacting the Last Supper. But this is something that needs to be taught and not imposed," said one liturgist close to the Vatican.
Other than the clapping (I don't know how that got started) the Vatican acknowledged the other practices after various Bishops implemented them in their own dioceses and then went to Rome for approval based on the now fact that these practices were common practice. It was a pre-planned execution, regardless of our approval or not - that's how they happened. It was not "organic" in the growth of the Liturgy.
Return? Is he saying the laity and the clergy were in schism during the Church's entire pre-Vatican II existence?
The Church has won, syd.
Things that are not abuse should not be labelled abuse.
Rubrics and practices are never infallible.
They approved abuses.
Well, that's your opinion. The world's bishops think otherwise.
The same with communion under both kinds.
Female altar servers may have been another matter, though we didn't have any in our diocese until Rome approved.
The other issues listed above can be classified as abuses.
Not what Paul said.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.
Hah ... look where it got Luther.
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