Pope Benedict XVI
Posted on 08/31/2009 10:18:25 AM PDT by NYer
.- The Italian Vatican analyst Andrea Tornielli wrote this past Saturday on his blog that the recent clarifications by high-ranking Vatican officials do not refute what he stated in a column for the Italian daily Il Giornale on August 22. Tornielli had reported that Pope Benedict XVI is considering various measures to move forward with a liturgical “reform of the reform.”
Both in his column and on his usually well-sourced blog, Tornielli announced on August 22 that the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, led by Cardinal Antonio Canizares, had put forth a series of liturgical reforms—including greater use of Latin in the Mass, the possibility of celebrating the Mass ad orientum at least during the consecration, and a greater emphasis on Communion on the tongue—that were being studied by the Holy Father.
In an apparent response to the report by Tornielli, the vice director of the Holy See’s Press Office, Father Ciro Benedettini, said on August 24, “No institutional proposals currently exist that refer to a modification of the liturgical books.” Additionally, last Friday, in an interview with L’Osservatore Romano, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone called the reports “imaginary.”
According to Tornielli, the denial by Father Benedettini and the comments by Cardinal Bertone were provoked not by his article but “rather, by the manner in which the story was picked up by various blogs, which claimed the ‘reform of the reform’ and the changes to the Mass in a more traditional sense were imminent.”
He said on Saturday that his column referred to “the beginning of work” and not to “imminent reforms or documents already prepared,” adding that both the results of the meeting of the Congregation led by Cardinal Canizares as well as their presentation to the Pope for his consideration are real facts.
“All of this is an attempt to tell people not to believe what I wrote, saying there is nothing happening, that the Pope and the Congregation for Divine Worship are not considering anything, that the ‘reform of the reform’ and the recovery of a greater sense of the sacred in the Liturgy is a false story reported by me,” Tornielli said.
He concluded his blog saying, “Ever since I become a Vatican analyst I have made many mistakes and I will continue to make them, but the article in question, believe me, is not among them.”
Ping!
Will this bring back the chant music or is that something different from the Latin Mass? Just curious.
Hope this report is definitive.
If we sing a motet, we sing the chant first as a prelude. We also chant the Ordinary of the Mass in Latin on first Sundays.
We sing Leonard Cohen.
Hope it's not "The Sisters of Mercy".
They changed the words, but our Alleluia is set to Cohen’s “Hallelujah”.
Hey, at least it isn’t “I’m Your Man”!
Which is a somber, soulful tune- for the Alleluia?
I gotta stick with the opinion of HH BXVI - popular music is fine in its proper place, which is not the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
No, Cohen is a brilliant songwriter, but his music has NO place in a religious setting, let alone as liturgical music.
Unfortunately, a majority of clergy and choir directors are either ignorant of or disdainful for the actual purpose of liturgical music.
[Every mass a children's mass!]
I weep when I think how the American Catholic church (or at least large parts of it) jettisoned its musical tradition for a mess of tasteless pop pottage. I mean, the Episcopalians may be a bunch of screaming heretics, but at least they have good taste. Usually. There are some awful 'folk Masses' in ECUSA . . . but usually kept under wraps. In our former ECUSA parish, the 'HI Spirits' were the folk group, consisting of people who couldn't audition in to the regular parish choir . . . they were relegated to the children's 9 AM service . . . once a month.
I hope that the main offenders in the Catholic Church are the hippie idiots of the 60s and 70s who will soon be retiring and leave the rest of us alone.
Reform of the reform can’t come soon enough for me. I’ve been going to my territorial parish all summer (during the school year I sing in the choir at another parish that has a decent and fairly traditional music program). The microphone is turned up full blast, and even though I sit in the last pew, I just cannot stand to have the cantor belt out his/her treacly modern songs on a thunderous scale or to have the readings proclaimed such that they can be heard two or three blocks away. The mike could be turned down 50% and everyone in the church would still hear just fine. It is not required for full and active participation in the mass that everybody’s eardrums get broken. I can only think what a horrible impression would be given to any inquirer coming to see what a Catholic mass was like. And Vatican II says Gregorian chant should have pride of place — when has my parish last had that, 40 years ago? Can’t we have even a little of Church’s liturgical artistic and musical patrimony, even if we still have to suffer through one or two modern ditties as well?
The music is, naturally, simply horrible. Last week we had "We Shall Overcome" for the entrance hymn.
The head man took the cake today, though, for some reason he decided to preach today's Gospel about the Pharisees in reference to illegal immigration. Said that everybody was 'frantic' about it, and that Catholics shouldn't leave illegal immigrants 'to the mercy of the U.S. Congress', and since we (all eight of us) were coming to daily Mass, we had "upped the ante" and we had to be careful not to just pick and choose what we wanted out of Catholic teaching.
I swear I didn't snort, or mutter, or throw tomatoes, or anything . . . I did smile and tilt my head thoughtfully to one side . . . and he stammered and lost his train of thought. Don't know if my smile had any effect, like that of a basilisk, or if he just suddenly realized the implications of what he was saying.
I could have said, "Now WHO is it that runs the gay-friendly, rainbow parish here? And WHO is it that ignores the rubrics? And WHO is it that ignores the implications of giving communion to raving pro-aborts and canonizing Ted Kennedy?" But I didn't even say what I usually say when a preacher gets political - "C.S. Lewis was right - all a political homily ever tells you is which newspapers are taken at the rectory."
I couldn't say any of those things, because he legged it for the sacristy as soon as he had said, "The Mass is ended, go in peace." And he usually comes down and mingles.
I know as much as you do. How do you interpret this?
He said on Saturday that his column referred to “the beginning of work” and not to “imminent reforms or documents already prepared,” adding that both the results of the meeting of the Congregation led by Cardinal Canizares as well as their presentation to the Pope for his consideration are real facts.
Yeah, we’ve got some crazy Franciscans in downtown Boston as well, although they do have convenient confession hours during the day. We also have some Oblates that have reintroduced Perpetual Adoration and even have put up advertisements in the subway and on highway hoardings about it, so things are not all bad.
But they're honest by their lights, and I've never met a really mean one -- they tend to be somewhat emphatic, but they're never nasty or slippery.
Can't say the same for some other orders . . . .
Of course their founder was kind of a nutter (and I say that with all due affection) — what with rolling about in the snow and taking the Evangelical counsels literally and all that, so eccentricity is perhaps part of their charism...
LOL! I had one yell at me in the confessional, “THAT’S NOT A SIN!” Loud enough to be heard down the block. Just said, “Yes, Father. No, Father.”
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