I say this as someone who has interviewed priests formed in the Novus Ordo since the council. In the instruction on the offering of Mass (I would hope this would only be taught by a priest - no offense Bro),
Actually, no. Liturgy and Sacraments is taught by men and women with doctorates in either Sacred Liturgy or Spiritual Theology. That’s why I asked the question, because I’ve taught liturgy for many years. The teaching and study of liturgy goes way beyond knowing the rubrics. There is a theology behind it: spiritual, systematic, and sacramental. There is biblical study involved, Church history, and law. You’re not going to find a professor, priest or other who is an expert in all of these. Several professors teach the different parts. It makes no difference whether the professor is a priest or not, if he does not have the education behind him. Most priests do not have such level of education. Even the priests of the SSPX usually have a Master’s degree, which is not enough to qualify you to teach graduate and post graduate studies.
Yes . . . your assumption that only a priest can teach liturgy and theology is very offensive to the many of us who are not priests and who train our priests and have done so for centuries.
there are certain areas in the Mass where innovation is allowed or recommended.
There are no such areas in either the OF or the EF. There are parts of the mass where you are given options, but you may not create an option that is not given.
There are those who will not innovate at all, those who will innovate in those areas, and those who will take the opportunity to innovate in any part of the Mass that they fell moved to do.
This may not a reflection on their formation and it’s not a reflection on the form of the mass. These individuals would do damage in any form of the liturgy, regardless of which form is normative. You are speaking as if the form is the cause of the problem.
The fact is that the EF attracts very orthodox clergymen. That’s only because there is a choice between celebrating the EF or the OF, but when the Tridentine Form was the only form allowed to secular priests, there were many sloppy celebrants. If the Tridentine Form becomes the norm again, these individuals are not going to evaporate into thin air. They will continue to be sloppy in their celebration of the mass, because the problem is with them.
We have to look at the big picture and get past the myths that only the SSPX teaches liturgy correctly, that the EF is foolproof, and that the OF invites nonsense. Nonsense has always existed in the Church, not only in liturgy and it will always exist as long as there are human beings. It is the ongoing struggle with the human condition in every institution, not just the Church.
The liturgical reforms of the past were responses to nonsense. By the time that the Council of Trent and later Pope Pius V formatted the Tridentine Form, there were so many variations in the Latin Rite that no one knew which side was up. Had everything been ideal, there would have been no need for a liturgical reform.
Throughout the history of the Church, nonsense has always crept into liturgy and the Church has always had to reign people in. That’s how the religious orders came to have either their own rites or their own form of the Latin Rite. Abbots, priors and guardians were trying to reign in the liturgical abuses around them. By the way, most abbots and guardians were not priests, but they were excellent liturgists and theologians.
In the Benedictine tradition, the law is still that the abbot decides how the liturgy is to be celebrated. He takes one of the given forms and he tweaks it to reflect the spirit and needs of his abbey, as well as the history of the Benedictine family. You will not find many elements in the abbey with which you are familiar and you will find some that you have never seen before or that you may think are innovations, but in fact are part of their history, such as standing during the consecration. Or in a Franciscan house you will find that the ordained have no special place in the liturgy, except for the one friar who is celebrating. Watch EWTN and you will always see only one friar celebrate the mass. When he concelebrates it’s with a non-friar. To have the ordained concelebrating sets them apart from the non-ordained friars. Where in the outside world there is an attempt to define the lines between the ordained and the non-ordained, in the mendicant and monastic traditions the tendency has always been to blur the lines as much as is legally possible.
I’m not saying that this must or should be done in parishes run by those who are not mendicants or monks. I’m pointing out the differences that have existed in the Church in response to abuses that have taken place through the Church’s history. We live in a bubble, if we believe that abuses are a product of Vatican II or the 20th century.
The 20th century opened the door for many more abuses at a macro level, not just in the Church. We saw the disintegration of: family, sexual mores, economy, science, art, and many other human institutions that once served to make man more human and give him structure. Hopefully, we will recover a mid-point between chaos and rigidity. Both are unhealthy extremes.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF :snowing:
No idea. Never heard of that.
