Last week Pope Benedict XVI issued an instruction to clarify and reinforce Summorum Pontificum, his 2007 apostolic letter that encouraged wider use of the old Tridentine Rite of the Holy Mass. Because the letter called the Mass of All Time "the extraordinary rite", some bishops and priests seemed to feel that the new novus ordo mass was to remain the norm.
The old mass, the modernists argue, is only to be trotted out occasionally to appease old-fashioned traditional Catholics who feel the new mass is really a "new mess" foisted on the Church at Vatican II by a fifth column of Protestants and Masons.
Last week's instruction makes it clear that, rather than just throwing a sop to the Society of St. Pius X and other traditionalists, the Holy Father is slowly but surely attempting to turn around St. Peter's barque around. According to Kurt Cardinal Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Summorum Pontificum is just the first step in a "reform of the reform" in liturgy.
The cardinal said on Saturday that Pope Benedict thinks the post-Vatican II liturgical changes have brought "many positive fruits" but also problems, including a focus on purely practical matters and a neglect of the paschal mystery in the Eucharistic celebration. He said it was legitimate to ask whether liturgical innovators had intentionally gone beyond the council's stated intentions.
This, he went on, explains why the Holy Father has introduced a new reform movement, beginning with Summorum Pontificum. The aim, he said, is to revisit Vatican II's teachings in liturgy and strengthen certain elements, including the Christological and sacrificial dimensions of the Mass.
The pope's long-term aim is not simply to allow the old and new rites to coexist, Cardinal Koch concluded, but to move toward a "common rite" that is shaped by the mutual enrichment of the two Mass forms.
Walt's advice to Catholics born since 1956? Sign up for Latin lessons!
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