I read some very interesting comments on CWNews (to which if you don’t subscribe, you ought to). Here are the comments of the Secretary of the CDWDS. Read the whole thing, however.
Archbishop Ranjith said that two extremes must be avoided: a liturgical free-for-all in which "every priest of bishop does what he wants, which creates confusion;" or a complete abandonment of liturgical reforms, leading to a vision that is "closed up in the past." Today, he said, those two extremes are becoming more prominent, and the Church needs to establish a middle ground.
Every day, the archbishop disclosed, the Congregation for Divine Worship receives new complaints about serious liturgical abuses, and complaints that local bishops have failed to correct them. If the Church fails to curb these abuses, he said, "people will attend the Tridentine Mass, and our churches will be empty." Liturgical guidelines are set forth clearly, he observed, in the Roman Missal and in Church documents. Now "some discipline is necessary regarding what we do at the altar."
By attending the Tridentine Mass, I assume the archbishop means those which are outside the communion of Rome, (SSPX, SSPV, Independents, etc.). I attend an Indult Mass every Sunday and I have no complaints about abuses :-)
Yah, good point. I think we know what he was saying.
I was most heartened by Mons Ranjith’s comment that the ‘Tridentine Mass doesn’t belong to the Lefebvrists’–which, being an optimist, I understood as an implication that the T. M. belongs rather to the whole Church i.e. and that perhaps Rome might do something to make that… more obvious.
This was reprinted on Freerepublic.com today. You must have a few fans there as things from your blog are often referenced or reprinted there in their religion section.
Intelligent and discerning readers! >S
My reaction is the same as Jeff’s. My family attends the TLM weekly at my local parish Church. When I travel, I often attend the FSSP and ICKSP Masses if available. All are in full and complete communion with the Church. Hopefully, soon the SSPX will be in full and complete and perfect communion as well.
True ecumenism!
Brian: Would that not be wonderful? Perhaps people who read this will pray for this outcome.
I often attend the FSSP and ICKSP Masses if available. All are in full and complete communion with the Church.
Would that as much could be said of every Mass and parish one sees while traveling. (I have just returned home from a diocese that has a more “diverse” history than my own.)
My condolences.
My condolences.
Well, all’s well now. Some of the so-called normative Masses we see raise questions one might rather not have to answer. But (back on familiar ground) tomorrow I’ll be assisting at an indult Mass, so I may be confident of being in “full and complete communion” with the one, holy, apostolic Roman Catholic Church.
Perhaps, if he thinks on it, Msgr Ranjith will hit upon the solution:
TLM in all our churches.
Frenchman: Gee… d’ya think that is gonna happen? Really?