From
Rorate Caeli:
07.07.07 - Tell us: 5 years of Summorum Pontificum
Tell us if and how the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, of Pope Benedict XVI, has been applied in your diocese and changed your Catholic life.
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A couple of things are evident in Summorum Pontificum:
1)The Church has renewed the form of the Mass over the centuries:
““Outstanding among them is Saint Pius V who, sustained by great pastoral zeal and following the exhortations of the Council of Trent, **renewed the entire liturgy **of the Church””
““One of the liturgical books of the Roman rite is the Roman Missal, **which developed **in the city of Rome and, with the passing of the centuries,
little by little took forms very similar to that it has had in recent times.""
“”'It was towards this same goal that succeeding Roman Pontiffs directed their energies during the subsequent centuries in order to ensure that the rites and liturgical books were brought up to date and when necessary clarified. From the beginning of this century they undertook a more general reform.””
““In more recent times, the Second Vatican Council expressed a desire that the respectful reverence due to divine worship should be
renewed and adapted to the needs of our time””
- Pope Benedict expresses and requests great care for the needs of Catholics who are inculturated in the Mass form they are attached to:
““no small numbers of faithful adhered and continue to adhere with great love and affection to the
earlier liturgical forms””
““These had so deeply marked their **culture and their spirit **that in 1984 the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II, moved by a concern for the
pastoral care of these faithful, with the special indult “Quattuor abhinc annos””
3)The Curch invokes it’s authority over the forms of the Mass through trust in the power of the Holy Spirit (possibly a similar relationship to the Church and Scripture??) :
““having reflected deeply upon all aspects of the question, **invoked the Holy Spirit and trusting **in the help of God, with this Apostolic Letter We DECREE the following:
…**The Roman Missal promulgated by Paul VI is the ordinary expression **of the Lex orandi…
the Roman Missal promulgated by St. Pius V and reissued by Bl. John XXIII is to be considered as an extraordinary expression of that same Lex orandi, and must be given due honour for its venerable and ancient usage. These two expressions of the Church’s Lex orandi will
in no any way lead to a division in the Church’s Lex credendi [Law of belief]. They are, in fact two uses of the one Roman rite.””
- The Church emphasizes no one particular form in a rigid fashion, rather it trusts the Holy Spirit to guide the Church. The Church recognizes that the form of the Mass needs to be renewed and developed in ways that maybe only God knows best. I try to give my trust and assent to it.
Application of Summorum Pontificum in our diocese? I have never heard it discussed once. The diocese implements the Mass changes as they come down and the parish follows. There is a Latin Mass (don’t think it’s extraordinary form tho) about 60 miles from us. I’m happy it’s offered for those who want it, and I would like to attend sometime, but It is not important enough for me to attend a specifically latin Mass to drive 3 extra hours. Plus I have commitments to my parish. I would never leave my parish unless required by job change etc…If the Mass at my parish were said in Latin tomorrow I’m learning the Mass parts.**