Replies

In the next session Bishop Henri Jenny intervened. A member of the liturgical preparatory and conciliar commissions, Bishop Jenny set forth the content of the declaratio on the reform of the Order of Mass asked for by Bishop Elchinger. Before outlining the specific reforms, the assurance was given that: “Hodiernus Ordo Missæ, qui decursu saeculorum succrevit, certe retinendus est.” (“The current Ordo Missæ, which has grown up in the course of the centuries, certainly is to be retained.”)[8] The word “certainly” was emphasised. The French Dominican peritus Yves Congar noted in his Council diary that Jenny “was listened to very attentively.”[9]

I have published a detailed study of the ensuing discussion,[10] and it is perfectly clear that the Fathers did not envisage or authorise a revolution in the Order of Mass, but an evolution, along the lines of the guiding principle of article 23 of the Constitution: “…there must be no innovations unless the good of the Church genuinely and certainly requires them; and care must be taken that any new forms adopted should in some way grow organically from forms already existing.”