The future of Catholic liturgical reform

(RNS) — Other than sex, nothing is more heatedly debated by Catholics than the liturgy. Everyone has strong opinions based on years of personal experience.

In the 1960s and ’70s, Pope Paul VI implemented revolutionary liturgical reforms laid out by the Second Vatican Council, but after his death in 1978, the Vatican put a stop to the changes. It is now time for a second phase.

In a previous column, I recommended that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome update the process by which it considers liturgical questions. I argued for more transparency and consultation in keeping with the principle of collegiality promoted by Vatican II and the principle of synodality promoted by Pope Francis.

The purpose of a transparent and collegial process is to develop good liturgy that is supported by a consensus within the community.

In this column, I offer my own ideas on improving liturgy as an attempt to get the conversation going, inviting liturgical scholars and others to consider my proposals (transparently and collegially).

Inculturation

The Roman rite was developed in Italy and Western Europe centuries ago. St. John Paul II wrote beautifully about the importance of inculturating Christianity — grounding it in cultures beyond its European base. The unanswered question is how to carry out inculturation in concrete terms in the liturgy today.

Each bishops’ conference needs to be encouraged to gather scholars, poets, musicians, artists and pastors to develop liturgies for their specific cultures. When liturgy is out of touch with local culture, it becomes boring and dies. These new liturgies need to be beta tested before adoption.

Ministry

Bishops’ conferences should discuss whether new liturgical ministries are needed and who may be called to perform liturgy. Can the work of liturgy be separated from the work of administration? Do all liturgical leaders have to be celibate, male, full-time employees? Can a deacon or layperson anoint the sick or hear confessions? In an age of declining numbers of priests, such questions must be faced.

Ecumenism

Besides liturgical renewal, Vatican II emphasized improving relations with other Christian churches. One way to do that is to move our liturgical ceremonies closer together. Is the Eucharist a sign of the existing unity among churches, or can it also be a means of fostering unity? The former excludes intercommunion; the latter does not.

The church might also allow Catholics’ spouses to share Communion if they share our faith in the Eucharist. In 2015, a Lutheran asked Francis what she should do at Communion when she joins her Catholic husband at Mass. The pope answered sympathetically, but indicated his reluctance to changing church policy. He ended by saying, “Talk to the Lord and then go forward.” Many took this to mean the woman should follow her conscience.

Theologically, if a couple is united in the sacrament of matrimony, how can we not allow them to be united at the Eucharist? Pastorally, the practice of barring the non-Catholic parent from Communion gives the children the impression that the church thinks their parent is a bad person.

Translations

When he headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, insisted that liturgical texts be translated word for word from the Latin. Experienced translators and liturgical scholars disagreed, and consider the resulting English translation woefully inadequate. There was another, better translation done in 1998, which was approved by the English-speaking bishops’ conferences but rejected by Rome.

It is more important that the meaning of the text be communicated clearly than that the translation be literal. There is no reason the hierarchy could not allow priests to use the 1998 translation as an alternative, allowing the priest decide which translation works best in his parish. This option would be limited to the priest’s prayers at Mass, since it would be too confusing to change the people’s responses without extensive preparation.

Pre-Vatican II Mass

After the Pauline reforms of the liturgy, it was presumed that the “Tridentine” or Latin Mass would fade away. Bishops were given the authority to suppress it in their dioceses, but some people clung to the old liturgy to the point of schism.

Benedict took away the bishops’ authority and mandated that any priest could celebrate the Tridentine Mass whenever he pleased.

It is time to return to bishops the authority over the Tridentine liturgy in their dioceses. The church needs to be clear that it wants the unreformed liturgy to disappear and will only allow it out of pastoral kindness to older people who do not understand the need for change. Children and young people should not be allowed to attend such Masses.

Eucharistic prayers

The Eucharistic prayer is sadly given little attention by the faithful or many priests reciting it. Too many focus exclusively on the consecration of the bread and wine while ignoring the meaning of the prayer. There are currently 13 approved Eucharistic prayers, though most priests use the shortest, Eucharistic Prayer II.

The Eucharist developed out of the experience of the Last Supper, which was a Passover meal. As a result, Eucharistic prayers were modeled on the Jewish Passover or Sabbath prayers (Berakah) said by the father of a family at the meal. They begin by remembering and giving thanks and praise to God for his actions on behalf of his people. For Jews, that begins with creation and includes God’s works recounted in the Old Testament.

Like the Passover meal, the Eucharist is a sacrificial meal through which the family is united with God and one another. It is also an opportunity to remember and renew their covenant with God. We give thanks to God for his actions through history, especially for Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and promise to return. Through the Eucharist we renew our covenant with the Father through Christ.

More important than the transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ is the transformation of the community into the body of Christ so we can live out the covenant we have through Christ. We do not worship Jesus, in this sense; with Jesus we worship the Father and ask to be transformed by the power of the spirit into the body of Christ.

The church needs more and better Eucharistic prayers based on our renewed understanding of the Eucharist.

It would also be nice to have Eucharistic prayers that use more biblical language. When the Gospel reading is from Luke, the priest could use a Eucharistic prayer evoking the language and theology of Luke. A unique “preface” for each Sunday that picked up themes from the Scripture readings could also tie the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist more closely together.

Other Eucharistic prayers might develop other themes — the church’s concern for the poor, or for justice, peace, healing and the environment. All of these new prayers would require beta testing before adoption.

Kiss of peace

Originally, the kiss of peace occurred at the conclusion of the Liturgy of the Word, where it symbolized the agreement of the community to commit itself to what it had heard in the Scriptures. With proper explanation, it would be a good idea to provide this ancient practice as an optional alternative to its current place before Communion.

Fermentum

After the Lord’s Prayer, the priest breaks off a piece of the host and drops it into the cup. In ancient times bishops instead sent this piece, called the “fermentum,” to parishes in their dioceses, whose pastors would put it in their chalices as a symbol of communion.

The practice could be revived during Holy Week, when the bishop could send the fermentum from Chrism Mass, in Holy Week, for pastors to drop in their chalices on Holy Thursday or Easter Sunday. On special occasions (perhaps Eucharistic Congresses), the pope could share fermentum with bishops around the world, who would place it in their chalices.

And as ecumenical relations improve, the pope might share the fermentum with the Ecumenical Patriarch or other Christian bishops. Popes have already shared episcopal rings and croziers with non-Catholic bishops; sharing the frementum would be a logical next step.

I doubt I will see many of these reforms in my lifetime, but we need to begin talking about the future of liturgical reform. The conversation will reveal what we think about Christ, the church and our place in the world.

Pre-Vatican II Mass

Benedict took away the bishops’ authority and mandated that any priest could celebrate the Tridentine Mass whenever he pleased.

“The church needs to be clear that it wants the unreformed liturgy to disappear and will only allow it out of pastoral kindness to older people who do not understand the need for change. Children and young people should not be allowed to attend such Masses.”

Scratch a “liberal,” and you find a totalitarian. They tried a ban once, and they failed. As much and as many times that they try, they will fail. The inherent problem for them is that the folks in the TLM subculture actually show up, have vocations and breed at higher rates than the Novus Ordo attendees. The fervent will never be defeated by the lukewarm.

THIRD SECRET OF FATIMA

“How I warned and warned that Satan would enter into the highest realms of the hierarchy in Rome. The Third Secret, My child, is that Satan would enter into My Son’s Church.”

- Our Lady, May 13, 1978

I had focused on the Pre-Vatican II Mass excerpt also.

The idea that anybody should want the "unreformed liturgy to disappear" is heresy!

The Church was NOT in error for the centuries the Tridentine Mass was standard!

“Bright Future”: Archbishop Writes Treatise About Old Rite

It was the “great consolation” he experiences by celebrating the original Roman Rite in his Sioux Falls retirement chapel which inspired him to predict the imminent restoration of this liturgy, Archbishop Thomas Gullickson writes on utadmereamur.blogspot.com (April 13).

Gullickson expresses optimism “in our bright future,” because many good people are abandoning the “Novus Ordo mainstream” - which hates the Old Rite as much as Hans Küng - in direction of the Roman Rite.

There are also more middle-aged priests who are personally not yet won over by the Vetus Ordo but celebrate it for the faithful.

Gullickson encourages bishops to follow the example of the young, to celebrate the Old Rite, and to start using the old Breviary.

He plans to write a treatise about his optimism in a bright future of the Roman Rite.

#newsSevqhmiptk

Water down the liturgy, take out the mystery, the beauty, the esoteric, the mystical, and the focus on God (rather than community)...

This attitude drives people to SSPX, or strangely, to protestant sects. Why be Catholic?

“Renewed understanding of the Eucharist”:

“More important than the transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ is the transformation of the community into the body of Christ so we can live out the covenant we have through Christ. We do not worship Jesus, in this sense; with Jesus we worship the Father and ask to be transformed by the power of the spirit into the body of Christ.”

This would be considered heresy until recently. Maybe it is?

Are they failing? Traditional orders and liturgies are being cunningly stamped out. TLM bans and criticism by bishops, a ban on masses in St. Peter’s, papal condemnation of tradition, how can the Traditional liturgy survive outright persecution?

This attitude drives people to SSPX, or strangely, to protestant sects. Why be Catholic?

FYI, the SSPX is Catholic.

And guess what else? The SSPX doesn't celebrate Gay Pride Masses, it doesn't offer Holy Communion to unrepentant adulterers nor to public pro-abort politician, nor to protestants.

The SSPX doesn't hold inter-religious worship services. It doesn't sign interfaith garbage with the murderous muslims stating God wills the plurality of religion. All it does is offer the same Mass that all Catholics in the Western World had worshiped at for 500 years until VC II.

All I know is what I see on the ground in California. At TLMs I’ve been to up and down the state, I see growing congregations. Eight years ago, I happened to mention to a Catholic acquaintance that I attended TLM. She looked at me like I was speaking Chinese (and I’m not Chinese). Now, nearly a decade later, I see her at my regular TLM.

Lord knows, the Catholic Left would love to stamp it and us out, but they can’t. As St Edmund Campion once said in a similar context, “It is of God; it cannot be withstood.”

SSPX messed up their opportunity under Benedict to regularize. They have some fancy convoluted explanations to claim they are not in schism. They are not in communion with the bishops, they reject rightful authority, and therefore are in schism. Yes, the do a beautiful mass, but they also have some weird and cult-like aspects that naturally occur with a defiant, exclusive attitude. Their intolerance of the Jewish people for example, bizarre and unacceptable.

Their intolerance of the Jewish people for example, bizarre and unacceptable.

You seem to be very bitter and confused.

Praying for the conversion of Jews, heretics, pagan etc. as all Catholics did on Good Friday prior to VC II, is an act of charity not intolerance.

You read too much ADL, SPL, and Voris garbarge.

They are not in communion with the bishops, they reject rightful authority, and therefore are in schism.

That's an outright lie. Shame on you.

Like a true modernist, you bear false witness against anything traditional, e.g., Archbishop Vigano and the SSPX.

You have accused both of being disobedient, and thus by your twisted logic. "schismatic". Yet you hold your tongue on the heretic German bishops who state they will continue to bless homosexual unions. By your same logic, those bishops are in communion with the Catholic Church.

A prime example of hypocrisy if I ever saw one.

It’s the 21st century: everyone is a modernist (sad as that may be). Do you use electricity? Do you vote? Do you uphold democracy? Do you believe in the Bill of Rights? Have you ever sued a fellow citizen or corporation? Have you ever voted for a woman? Do you pay into medicare? Do you like public parks and museums? Do you believe in social mobility or are we born into a predestined class? Do you read books?

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