What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

In America Magazine His Excellency Donald W. Trautman, Bishop of Erie, has reacted to the book that came out over the name of H.E. Piero Marini, the former papal MC, probably ghost written by others.  To this day there is no Italian edition.

Let’s have a look with my emphases and comments.

 

A Challenging Reform By Archbishop Piero Marini in book

Consilium Versus Curia
By Donald W. Trautman | APRIL 14, 2008
A Challenging Reform
By Archbishop Piero Marini
Liturgical Press. 205p $15.95

Archbishop Piero Marini served as the leading liturgist of the Holy See for 25 years. As master of papal liturgical ceremonies and as secretary/confidant to Archbishop Annibale Bugnini, the chief architect of the liturgical reform that followed the Second Vatican Council, Marini now presents the inside story of the fierce struggle fought within the Vatican to implement the liturgical restoration overwhelmingly approved by the council fathers. Written with firsthand knowledge, A Challenging Reform details the Curia’s opposition and its tactics to reverse the direction set by the “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.”

Carefully documented, critically analyzed and candidly presented, Marini’s book reflects a historical memory [and also highly subjective] of the clashes and conflicts between the anti-reformists and reformists over the interpretation and implementation of the liturgy constitution. Edited by three well-known liturgical and linguistic scholars—Mark Francis, C.S.V., John Page and Keith Pecklers, S.J.—A Challenging Reform is the best single-volume overview of the beginning of the liturgical reform. [I would agree… but not, perhaps, for the same reasons as His Excellency.] The first six chapters are devoted to the formative period of the liturgical restoration. The seventh chapter examines the developments after this initial reform (1965-80). The appendix contains the text of seven pivotal documents that are valuable resources for understanding the context of the reform.

To assist in implementing the “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy,” Pope Paul VI established a group known as the Consilium. It was international, competent, collegial and productive: it generated reformed liturgical texts. But the Consilium met immediate opposition from the Congregation for Rites. As Marini notes:

    The Consilium and the Congregation for Rites championed two different perspectives. The Consilium remained true to its mission in support of a liturgy open to renewal. [And here is the point championed in the book… – play sinister music here…: ] The Congregation for Rites was still firmly anchored to a limited tradition since the Council of Trent and not in favor of the broad innovations desired by the Council.


The suspicion and stress encountered by the Consilium [poor things] in interacting with the congregation point out [and with the following you can tell where H.E. comes down.] a basic failure in ecclesiology that persists to this day: a collegial mindset versus a Curial mindset. [Notice the assumption that these two must automatically be in conflict… might we say… there was a rupture?] This was clearly evident at the very beginning of the liturgical reform, when there was strong, strident curial opposition to the conciliar endorsement of the vernacular. [Note what he said "opposition to the endorsement"] The Congregation for Rites sought to limit its use and to deny bishops’ conferences the right to approve vernacular texts. [In the next sentence H.E. admits that the SCR was not opposed to all use of the vernacular.  The real reason for the SCR’s opposition stemmed from the a desire to check the real motive of those involved with the Consilium, especially its Secretary Annibale Bugnini, that is, to strip the curia of power – especially the SCR which had some time before removed Bugnini from his teaching post at the Pontifical Lateran University – diminish the role of the Pope and curia in favor of local conferences of bishops (which would also have diminished the authority of bishops as individuals!).  Many of the things the Consilium forwarded were motivated, and strongly so, by a desire to decentralize.  This is where Bp. Trautman’s self-interest comes into play: he doesn’t want Rome to be able to shape and approve the new translation of the Missale Romanum. He has advocated resistance to the norms for translation in Liturgicam authenticam.  He is pretty much still fighting the fight of Annibale Bugnini.] The congregation opposed the use of the vernacular for prefaces and eucharistic prayers. Only with the endorsement of Pope Paul VI did the views of the Consilium finally prevail.

The Consilium also experienced a frontal attack from the Curia, with the unprecedented public opposition of Cardinals Alfredo Ottaviani and Antonio Bacci. Their statements reveal the re-trenchments so embedded in the Curia of that time. Marini’s book fosters in the reader a new esteem for the liturgical re-formers [To an extent, I agree.  As I read this book I too marveled at the sheer brilliance of men like Bugnini to manipulate the circumstances, map out a strategy to use the Council, still in session, as a hammer against the SCR, bring the Pope over to his views and then work with tenacious energy and great speed to move from meeting to meeting, memo to draft to document… even sending things to the printers before they had gotten final approval.  Truly amazing.] and their efforts to make the liturgy more responsive to pastoral concerns and biblical sources. They paid a personal price for their efforts, but they gave new liturgical life to the universal church.  [And the Church has paid a terrible price along with them.]

Archbishop Marini has rendered a great service to the contemporary church and succeeding generations by documenting so clearly the birth pains of the liturgical reform of Vatican II.  [While I don’t believe Marini wrote the book (he was clearly deeply involved), I agree that this volume is truly invaluable.] He takes us behind the scenes, showing the role played by Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro and the Rev. (later Archbishop) Bugnini in fighting against efforts of the Congregation for Rites to derail the reform. [Or perhaps, check the imprudent rush based on and unhealthy ideology?] For example, even though the council had restored concelebration in the Western church for wider use, the congregation was still restricting the number of concelebrants and insisting on the use of a metal straw, excluding drinking directly from the chalice. [Remember: the issue that was fought out was over who gets to determine how concelebration was going to be handled: concelebration became a weapon in Bugnini’s war on the Curia.]

[And now you get a sense of what the old Second Nocturn of the Breviary was like… ] Thanks to Marini’s book, we now appreciate all the more something we often take for granted: the restoration of the vernacular, “noble simplicity” in the rites, concelebration and reformed liturgical books (Roman Missal, Roman Pontifical, Ceremonial of Bishops, Liturgy of the Hours). He gives us a deeper appreciation of the enormous work that led to “full, conscious and active participation”—the prayer of the faithful, the rediscovery of the priesthood of all the faithful, the Novus Ordo and the recognition of various liturgical ministries entrusted to the laity.  [Not that we have seen many positive fruits but… who knows…. now that we have also the old Mass as another option, perhaps some of these other things hoped for by the Council will blossom as well.]

All this did not happen without painstaking research and scholarly study, much dialogue and debate, and always countless meetings. [Truly… people who know how to run meetings and control procedure wield great power.] This rich liturgical legacy of Vatican II has nourished the church’s worship [and emptied our churches and seminaries?] for almost 40 years.

[play sinister music again…] But are we seeing signs today of retrenchment, a return to a liturgical practice and piety from before Vatican II? [I love the way these are couched as rhetorical questions.] Do we see signs of a preconciliar mentality, a Curial ecclesiology, [Ooooo…] influencing the liturgy? Are there parallels between the first days of the renewal and the present time? Marini’s book is a wake-up call to contemporary Catholics to sustain the liturgical achievements [In other words to fight against Pope Benedict and the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Pont. Comm. Ecclesia Dei] of the Second Vatican Council so that the past does not repeat itself.  [His Excellency seems to want a rupture with the past, rather than continuity.] Will we learn that lesson of history and imitate those who fought so tirelessly to preserve and hand on the principles of the “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy”?

When the Curia attempted to limit the liturgical reform, there was decisive and strong reaction from episcopal conferences [because they wanted power!] and national liturgical commissions, especially from the French. Analyzing this, Marini writes: “Even during this initial phase of reform, the liturgy was no longer an exclusive preserve of the Roman Curia but belonged to the Church.” That remains the goal for the liturgy today. We are indebted to Archbishop Marini for his chronicle of the events that brought about what is perhaps the most fundamental liturgical reform in the history of the Western church.  [I agree.  We owe the authors of this book a debt.  After reading this clear, well written book, you will have very few doubts about what the post-Conciliar liturgical reform as forwarded by the Consilium, and those who cling to its vision, was all about.]

The Most Rev. Donald W. Trautman, bishop of Erie, Pa., is chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy.

A most useful review!  Thank you, Your Excellency! 

While I wrote of this a few days ago, this is very much worth looking in the Catholic Herald (which you should subscribe to, especially if you are in the UK) with my emphases and comments:

Priests don’t need bishop’s permission for traditional Mass, says cardinal
By Ed West
4 April 2008

Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos has reaffirmed that priests do not need their bishop’s permission [Repetita iuvant!] to use the extraordinary form of the Mass.

The cardinal, president of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which coordinates care for estranged traditionalist groups, also said that because of the Pope’s actions on the Latin Mass, "not a few have asked to return to full communion, and some already have returned".

In an interview in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, 78-year-old Cardinal Castrillon said that the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum grants any priest the right to celebrate the extraordinary form of the Mass, and that the faithful have the right to this form "when the conditions specified in the Motu Proprio exist". Pope Benedict’s Motu Proprio of July last year liberalised the use of the Tridentine Mass, stating that priests who wished to celebrate the extraordinary form did not need their bishop’s permission. In his letter the Pope said that the Mass from the Roman Missal in use since 1970 remains the ordinary form of the Mass, while celebration of the Tridentine Mass is the extraordinary form.

Some British bishops have asserted their right to be consulted about traditional Masses in their diocese. In November Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor issued a letter to the clergy of the diocese of Westminster, stating that priests still needed permission from their bishops.

The Colombian cardinal also said that the Motu Proprio was having positive results already. He said that the Oasis of Jesus the Priest monastery of 30 cloistered nuns in Spain "has already been recognised and regularised" by his office and "there are cases of American, German and French groups" which have begun the process.

The cardinal insisted that the only traditionalists excommunicated were the four bishops of the Society St Pius X ordained by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988 without Vatican permission, including the controversial Richard Williamson.

The priests who have followed those bishops, he said, "are only suspended", and so the Masses they celebrate "are without a doubt valid, but not licit". The religious who have followed the schismatic bishops need to have their congregations or monasteries recognised by the Vatican, he said.

In addition, "there are individual priests and many lay people who contact us, write to us and call us for a reconciliation and, on the other side, there are many other faithful who demonstrate their gratitude to the Pope" for his July letter authorising widespread use of the liturgy according to the 1962 Roman Missal.

Cardinal Castrillon said that wider use of the pre-Second Vatican Council Mass "is not a matter of returning to the past, but is a matter of progress" because it gives Catholics the richness of two liturgical forms instead of one. He also said that he celebrated the ordinary form every day.

Asked whether he was worried that bringing back into the Church "men and women who do not recognise the Second Vatican Council" would alienate some of the faithful who see the Council’s teaching as a compass for the Church, Cardinal Castrillon said he did not think the problem "is as serious as it could seem". The Eucharistic celebration is a sign and source of the unity of the Church, he said, and Pope Benedict’s decision to keep alive the older form of the Mass is an effort to preserve a rich tradition while promoting unity.

John Medlin of the Latin Mass Society welcomed the comments. "When apparent change comes along the first reaction of many people is to be wary. It’s ironic that those on the more liberal wing of the Church are now digging in their heels, when the Holy Father has asked them to widen their boundaries."

 

It would be great to participate at the Holy Mass His Eminence will sing on 14 June at Westminster Cathedral!  (Keep those donations coming…)

Here is something of slight interest.  It touches on something I wrote about before.  Give this some consideration in light of Pope Benedict’s "Marshall Plan". I’ll give it some emphases and comments. 

Generation gap shapes American Catholics
Pope Benedict XVI will see divisions during U.S. visit

updated 1:00 p.m. CT, Sat., April. 5, 2008

NEW YORK - In his visit this month to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI will find an American flock wrestling with what it means be Roman Catholic.

The younger generation considers religion important, but doesn’t equate faith with going to church. Many lay people want a greater say in how their parishes operate, yet today’s seminarians hope to restore the traditional role and authority of priests.

Catholic colleges and universities are trying to balance their religious identity with free expression, catching grief from liberals and conservatives in the process.

Immigrants are filling the pews, while whites are leaving them. Nearly one-third of U.S. adult Catholics are now Hispanic, and they worry about being considered a separate, ethnic church.

Despite these divisions, Catholics across the spectrum of belief have been energized by the pope’s trip. The man who was once responsible for enforcing adherence to Catholic doctrine isn’t likely to do much scolding. Instead, he’s expected to recognize the relative vibrance of the American church, while emphasizing core Catholic values: the reality of absolute truth, the relationship between faith and reason, love for the faith.

"I think he’s going to come in and try to inspire. As pope, he’s really taken the positive track on a lot of issues. I don’t think there’s any reason he wouldn’t continue to do so now," said Dennis Doyle, a theologian at the University of Dayton, a Marianist school in Ohio.

Benedict has traveled to seven other countries since he was elected in 2005, but a papal journey to the U.S. is like no other because of the church’s size and influence.

In a nation founded by Protestants, Catholics comprise nearly one-quarter of the population. Catholic America is the biggest donor to the Vatican. The U.S. also is home to more than 250 Catholic colleges and universities.

Added urgency
There’s an added urgency to this visit. While it will be Benedict’s first trip to the country as pope — he made five visits when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — it may also be his last. He turns 81 during his April 15-20 visit to Washington and New York, and he has less interest in travel than his globe-trotting predecessor, Pope John Paul II.

Americans don’t know much about Benedict. But surveys conducted ahead of his visit found three-quarters of U.S. Catholics view him favorably. They are clamoring to see him.

"I get 30 to 40 requests a day to get into the speech he’s going to give at Catholic University," said the Rev. David O’Connell, president of Catholic University of America, where Benedict will address leaders of the nation’s Catholic colleges and universities. "There’s a fascination with Pope Benedict, perhaps it is because there is more mystery about him."

They have less enthusiasm for religious observance.

About one-third of the more than 64 million U.S. Catholics never attend Mass, and about one-quarter attend only a few times a year, according to a 2007 study by the Center for Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. A majority never go to confession or go less than once a year.

The generational split is stark: About half of Catholics born before the 1960s say they attend Mass at least once a week, compared to only 10 percent of those born since the 1980s.

One of Benedicts’ core goals is strengthening Catholic culture to combat these trends, stressing the importance of religious life, and observing Holy Communion and other sacraments.

Beyond religious practice, young and old American parishioners hold vastly different worldviews.

Older Catholics who remember the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s are still debating its modernizing reforms. The council changed everything from the role of lay people to the direction priests face while celebrating Mass.

Renewed debate

Benedict has revived some traditions and prayers that had been largely abandoned since Vatican II, refueling the debate.

But young adult Catholics are fed up with the fight, according to James Davidson, a Purdue University sociologist of religion who studies American Catholics.

"They’ve become very impatient, and probably rightly so, with older generations, who see everything in terms of conservative-liberal, liberal-conservative, who they see as sometimes enjoying the ideological battle, even if it doesn’t get them anywhere," Davidson said. "Problems aren’t being solved, but people are yelling at one another."  [This sounds very much like what Pope Benedict is trying to get rid of.  Take a look at what I wrote here.]

The next generation of priests generally hold that same outlook.

Monsignor Thomas Nydegger, vice rector of the Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology at Seton Hall University, said seminarians today are reaching back in Catholic tradition — like Benedict does — for rituals and clerical garb they find inspiring.

But they blend that interest with modern church goals: to serve parishioners and the larger community and to reach out to people of other faiths, he said.  [Okay… but I think what they are also responding to is the presentation of a new vision, one that does not stem from rupture.]

"There is a great sense of the pastoral needs of the people of our parishes — the sick, the dying, the people dealing with tragedies in their lives," Nydegger said. "They want to reach out and let them see that the church embraces them."

Unfortunately, their numbers don’t match their zeal.

The priesthood has been shrinking for decades. More than 3,200 of the 18,600 U.S. parishes don’t have resident priests. Some dioceses are now hiring recruiters to travel overseas to find clergy candidates. The number of priests from other countries is growing so steadily that Seton Hall and other seminaries have been adding English classes, hiring accent reduction tutors and developing courses explaining U.S. culture — inside and outside the church.

After ordination, the men are finding fewer resources to support their work.

Financial pressure

While U.S. Catholics donate the most to the Vatican of any country, they donate to the local church at about half the rate of Protestants, according to Chuck Zech, a Villanova University professor who studies church finances. Church buildings are aging and are badly in need of maintenance. As the Catholic population grows in the South and West, new parishes are needed.

Many dioceses still haven’t adjusted to the loss of free labor from nuns and priests, and are paying such low wages that turnover in schools and for other church work is high, Zech said. The Lay Faculty Association, a teachers’ union, recently authorized a strike at 10 New York-area Catholic schools during Benedict’s visit.

Beyond the daily expenses, dioceses have been paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in claims since the clerical sex abuse crisis erupted in 2002. Abuse-related costs for the church since 1950 have surpassed $2 billion.

One visit from Benedict won’t solve the problems of the American church. But by coming to the U.S., he can show Catholics — even briefly — what it might be like to be truly united by faith.

 

As I was rooting through a few old blog entries I rediscovered some comments I made about a little book by His Eminence Dionigi Card. Tettamanzi, written when he was still in Genoa (presumably still being well served by Mons. Guido Marini).  His Eminence’s book is called The Great Tempter, entitled in the original Italian Il Grande Tentatore (Edizioni Piemme, 2001). 

In this useful little book, indeed on the book’s back cover, Card. Tettamanzi gives us ten salutary points by way of a “decalogue against temptation”:

1. Do not forget that the devil exists.
2. Do not forget that the devil is a tempter.
3. Do not forget that the devil is very intelligent and astute.
4. Be vigilant concerning your eyes and heart.  Be strong in spirit and virtue.
5. Believe firmly in the victory of Christ over the tempter.
6. Remember that Christ makes you a participant in His victory.
7. Listen carefully to the word of God.
8. Be humble and love mortification.
9. Pray without flagging.
10. Love the Lord your God and offer worship to Him only.

In this time when the Enemy is savagely gnawing at the Body of the Church we must remember to pray in a special way both for our spiritual and physical daily bread, for there are more than one kind of hunger today, and also for the grace to resist wicked temptations and physical and spiritual attacks on the Church and her members from both within and without.

Over at The Hermeneutic of Continuity, blog of the great Fr. Fingan (whom-I-had-hoped-was-the-soon-to-be-named-Archbishop), I have discovered some whimsy. 

All bets are off for me as Archbishop of Westminster. Just before April 1st draws to a close, I have found out that Pope Benedict has other ideas for myself and Fr Zuhlsdorf of the megablog What Does The Prayer Really Say. Apparently, we are to be appointed to the new Sacred Congregation for Internet Evangelisation. See the story from the Cross Reference: News: New dicastery for Catholic bloggers formed.

I can feel a song coming on…

Ode on the appointment of two priest bloggers to the newly-formed Congregatio pro Evangelizatione Interretiali
To the tune of "Me and Julio down by the school yard"

The cardinal prefect rolled out a bed
Heading up a new congregation
When the Papa found out he began to shout
And he issued a communication

It’s within the law
It was within the law
What the Papa saw
It was within the law.

The prefect look round and muses aloud
We gotta team to hit dissension
The Papa said, "Sheesh, if I get that priest,
I’m gonna get him give my blog a mention."

Well I’m on my way.
I don’t know where I’m going
I’m on my way I’m taking my time
But I don’t know where
Goodbye to Brenda queen of the English
See you, me and Z in a
Roman dicastery
See you, me and Z in a Roman dicastery

In a couple of days they come and
Take me away
But the web can’t keep a secret
And when the radical priests
Found the news released
We were dissed in the back of the Tablet

And I’m on my way
I don’t know where I’m going
I’m on my way, I’m taking my time
But I don’t know where
Goodbye to Brenda queen of the English
See you, me and Z in a
Roman dicastery
See you, me and Z in a Roman dicastery
Singin’ me and Z in a Roman dicastery.

Now… wouldn’t that be something?

This came via e-mail:

I wanted to give you another heads up about TLM here on campus at Steubenville…  It’s being celebrated "regularly" now, once a month, and more than one priest has expressed an interested in learning to say it.  It seems that Fr. Scanlan’s particular objections aren’t being heeded…  As well, I’m not sure how much you know about households here on campus, but a number of households are popping up, in particular the Equites Lux Sacra, who are explicitly fond of the Extraordinary Form, and say so in no uncertain terms in their "Covenant" or constitution.  The ELS actually claim attachment to TLM as one of their household charisms.  This has actually been met with excitement and pleasure by the director of households, Fr. Morrier.  He said that this new household was filling a niche that needed to be filled with the TLM being allowed and celebrated on campus.  So things seem to be looking up in this regard!

As I write, EWTN is broadcasting Sunday Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

It is a Missa cantata rather than a Missa solemnis.

Chant accompanied by organ isn’t my preference, but the sisters are singing the Gregorian chant very well.  Perhaps a bit less vibrato is needed from the cantrix.

Notice that the altar is detached from the wall, as GIRM 299 requires.

The celebrant’s Latin reveals very obviously that German is his mother tongue. 

 

 

I am very pleased that there is no voice-over chatter!  But they did put up a  graphic to say which Gospel was being read.

 

 

His sermon is about priests (for Good Shepherd Sunday) and the need to support them.

Apparently tired, Father sits down after the sermon…*

 

 

WHAT?!?  No POTTERY?!  They must not care about the poor!

Father, otherwise a happy fellow, I am sure, is incensed during the offertory.

 

I could use a little less plastic watch.  That is something they can correct in the future.



Notice how the priest keeps his index finger and thumb together even when grasping the chalice.

And, of course, the Second Confiteor…



.. and the absolution…







What this is all about.

Immediately after the Mass there was a brief lesson about where the taberncle should be placed in a church.  Excellent!  High marks from WDTPRS on that!

*I wonder how many people will jump in to inform me what the priest is really doing during the Creed?