From Gerald's most useful Cafeteria:
Already on November 16, 1982, on request of Pope Wojtyla, a meeting presided by Ratzinger, then-Prefect of the former Holy Office, at which also took part Cardinals Baggio, Baum, Casaroli (then Secretary of State), Oddi, and Archbishop [future Cardinal] Casoria, had confirmed that "the Roman Missal in the form in which it remained in use up to 1969, independently of the 'Lefebvre question', should 'be admitted by the Holy See for all Masses celebrated in the Latin language". With two conditions [in the 1982 decision]: the use of the old liturgical books should presuppose the full reception of the norms issued after Vatican II and should not express the suspicion that the latter "were heretical or invalid"; [2] on the public Masses celebrated in Parish churches on Sundays and Feastdays, "the new liturgical calendar" should be observed.
All Cardinals unanimously answered in the "affirmative", that is, "yes", to the question of whether the Mass in the ancient rite were licit. Moreover, at that meeting, a document against liturgical abuses, identified among the reasons "for the current crisis of the Church", was also suggested, as well as, in a remote future, a synthesis "of both missals". That future is today less remote. The decision of Benedict XVI is thus not a step back, but a stage of the liturgical reform willed by the Council and not yet fully accomplished.
(Quoting Il Giornale, an Italian newspaper.)
In other words, when the Indult was granted, the long-term strategy was put into play, with the next step being the upcoming Motu Proprio.
THAT will be followed by the 'synthesis' mentioned above.
Interesting times ahead.
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4 comments:
Sorry. Not in this diocese. Not if the current crop of liturgists have anything to say about it. And they will. Their pastors usually defer to them. They're the professionals. Witness the vibrant, Spirit-filled things they've done with the liturgy in the past 40 years. No, my friend, there's no turning back now. The liturgists have set the table, the laity have been taught, and everyone's very happy with the way things are, thank you very much.
Oh, ye of little Faith!
Frankly, I'm more optimistic. No, I don't expect that the Old Rite will become as common as mosquitoes during summer...on the other hand, I expect that the younger priests will have a good deal of interest (by "younger" I mean those less than 35 years of age.)
And I expect that Abp. Dolan, who is a good soldier, will encourage use of the Old Rite. A good test will be whether the Cathedral uses it--and how often, and under what circumstances.
The "liturgists" (really, Liturgeists) will, like all other flesh, wither. They will be replaced, too. And those who will not hear or see will be isolated and shoved out--just as were the ACTUAL Church musicians during the initial Rembertine Revolution.
In other words, when the Indult was granted, the long-term strategy was put into play, with the next step being the upcoming Motu Proprio.
THAT will be followed by the 'synthesis' mentioned above.
Even if, in 1982, Ratzinger imagined such a synthesis, I honestly doubt he is planning such now. All he has time for is the restoration of the TLM; any 'synthesis' would have to come at the hands of a future Pope.
Our current Pope knows this. He desires to see the liturgy restored to the true measure of what VII envisioned, nothing more.
And VII, in its actual documents, was quite limited in its visions of liturgical reform. The dialogue mass of the late 1950's would wholly fulfill the actual directives of VII.
Hopefully, if Ratzinger had any wrongheaded plans of liturgical 'synthesis' such plans have been abandoned over the past 25 years.
No question R./B-16 will not live to see the next phase. Too bad.
It's likely that IF he imagined that strategy, he also imagined that something like his Motu Proprio would have been issued in the early 1990's.
He's been writing about the "reform of the reform" for over 10 years.
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