Fr. Z's Blog

From NLM we get the translation of an interview in German with the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, His Eminence Antonio Card. Canizares LLovera for the 3rd anniversary of the emancipation proclamation Summorum Pontificum.

You can read the whole thing over there, but here are a few points I found particularly interesting.

Card. Canizares says that since the publication of Summorum Pontificum the climate has "remained essentially the same" but that a "movement is underway".

He says that in seminaries where the Extraordinary Form is also taught, the "liturgical education for all will always have to be aligned with Sacrosanctum Concilium."

When asked "What elements of the extraordinary form might also be integrated into the ordinary form of the rite?", he responded, "The sense for the mystery and of the sacred, and above all the sense for what God’s reign means."  He added, "Today liturgy often appears as something that man has a right to and in which he acts. This reflects the secularisation of our society, while other aspects fade behind it. This has led to the reform of the Second Vatican Council not unfolding its wealth and greatness as hoped."

Then….

Q: What do you recommend to the priests? Where should they start?

Card. Canizares: The priests should again prepare for Mass as provided in the extraordinary form. The same goes for the penitential rite and the awareness that we are essentially not worthy of celebration, but put our trust in the mercy and the forgiveness of God and thus approach God’s presence in the celebration. A treasure that we must not forget is the offertory as it is described in the prayer texts [sc. of the extraordinary form]. That expresses a deep attitude. We should internalise it.

If this is going to happen, if priests are going to do this, it stands to reason that they have to know what to do.  They, therefore, must learn the older form of Mass, so as to inform their preparation for the newer form of Mass. 

Does this implicitly lead to the conclusion that the older form is more of a "norm" than perhaps carefully weighed statements of Vatican officials usually state?

He answers a question about the illicit ordinations of the SSPX (which was a hot topic in Germany for a bit) and goes to World Youth Day in Madrid (Card. Canizares is Spanish) and young people participating in the older form of Mass.

Card. Canizares: The young people must be educated in the spirit of the liturgy. It would be a mistake to commit them to one or the other form in a polemical way. They need to be introduced to adoration and the spirit of the mystery. Praise and thanksgiving should be taught to them – and the whole which has made up the liturgical celebration of the Church throughout the ages. Today the young people are lacking above all in liturgical education – regardless of the form which they defend particularly. This is the great challenge for the near future, also for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Today we need a new liturgical movement, as there was in the 19th and 20th Century. [Which is what Papa Ratzinger called for in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy.] And this is not about one or the other form, but the liturgy as such.

This seems to me to say that young people need to be exposed to both uses of the Roman Rite.  If a sense of the sacred and mystery need to be reintroduced to the Novus Ordo through the influence of the older, traditional form – for priests – then it stands to reason that the same applies to lay people of all ages.

Going on….

Q: And how can this new liturgical movement become a reality?

Card. Canizares: We need a new introduction to Christianity. [Does this sound like the new line about a "new evangelization"?  It is also reminiscent of the title of one of Joseph Ratzinger’s famous books.] Also for children and young people. An introduction to the liturgy does not only mean to know something about the celebration, although of course that is indispensable both theologically and doctrinally. Young people and children should participate in liturgies celebrated with great dignity, which are entirely permeated by the mystery of God in which the individual knows himself to be included. Active participation does not mean to do something, but to enter into the worship and the silence, into listening and also the prayer of petition and all that which really constitutes the liturgy. As long as that does not happen, there will be no liturgical renewal. We have to turn around one hundred eighty degrees. Youth ministry should be a place where the encounter with the living Christ in the Church takes place . Where Jesus Christ appears as someone of yesterday, neither liturgical education nor active participation is possible. As long as the awareness of the living Christ does not awake again, nothing will come of the much-needed renewal.