I never said that.
You just dodged my question: who initated the indult?
This is where I was trying to help before with the example of the saints. The practice began ilegally. But the indult itself was given by the Vatican. In our quest for holiness, if we look to our saints, we find that they accept what the legitimate authority accepts, regardless of how it begins. Once it is accepted by the legitimate authority in the Church, it becomes permissible.
The same can be said for many other practices. There are many that began without the permission of the Church, but were eventually approved by the Church. I’ll give you one simple example. In 1209, Francis of Assisi forbade the use of Gregorian chant at mass and at the Divine Office. He established that the ordained friars would not single themselves out, but should be known as Brother, serve and work alongside the non-clerical friars as equals. He established that at the conventual mass the friars were to avoid all semblances of distinctions between the ordained and the non-clerical except in matters that pertained to the sacrament itself, which was to be revered by all.
All of this was contrary to the existing laws of the time. Houses were monastic and usually run by priests. Non-clerical monks were called lay brothers and were servants to the ordained. The mass and the Divine Office was chanted in Gregorian Chant. Most religious lived in an enclosure that they rarely left. While Francis designed the enclosure to be flexible. The laity did not enter, but the friars and the nuns went out, such as Mother Angelica and her sisters do to this day.
One can question whether it was legal to do all of this. It certainly was way out of the ordinary. But once Pope Honorius put a papal bull on Francis’ rule in 1223, there was no doubt as to the licaity of these rules. They were accepted, because the pope accepted them. Prior to 1223, there were many arguments about their liceity, especially the rules that governed the clerics and that forced them to be anonymous and on equal footing with the non-clerics. The concept took on a new meaning in the Church. Eventually people forgot how it all began and the important thing became that it was accepted by the Church and therefore accepted by those in communion with the Church.
In the 1950s many of our men decided that they wanted Gregorian Chant and introduced it in some of our houses. They decided that they wanted altar rails and introduced them in our churches and chapels. By the mid-1960s the practice was becoming common, but it was illegal. In 1970 a General Chapter was called and Pope Paul VI wrote an indult to allow Gregorian Chant, altar rails and a number of other practices that were contrary to the law.
These things are done, because the Church in her mercy does not want people in spiritually dangerous situations that can be remedied by an indult, sometimes by a complete change in discipline. We’re seeing this again today with the ordination of married men to the Roman Rite. It is a pastoral provision, not the norm. But we accept the Pastoral Provision, because it is approved by the pope. Those who do not like attending mass with a married priest have other choices.
On the journey toward holiness, we must remain focussed on the center of our faith: Christ, the avoidance of sin, the conversion away from sin when we do fall, and the perfection of charity. Every other concern should be measured against this backdrop.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
