Vatican official: Abuse of norms contributed to Tridentine decision

[jay29]

Vatican official: Abuse of norms contributed to Tridentine decision

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A lack of respect for the norms for celebrating the Mass after the Second Vatican Council contributed to Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to grant wider permission for the celebration of the Tridentine Mass, a Vatican official said.

“There is a certain tendency to interpret the post-conciliar liturgical reform using ‘creativity’ as the rule,” said Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

An interview with the archbishop was published in the Nov. 19-20 edition of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, after he had given a speech and an interview in which he criticized bishops and priests who were putting restrictions on celebrations of the Tridentine Mass even after Pope Benedict authorized wider use of the rite in July.

(To read the whole article go to):
catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0706641.htm

[Edited by Moderator]

 

[benedictgal]

These are precisely the same points that then-Cardinal Ratzinger made in many of his pre-conclave writings. It’s not that the NO in and of itself is bad; it’s the “innovations” that have crept into the Mass over the course of 40 years.

May times Pope Benedict has said that we are not called to be “creative” with the Mass; we are called to receive. The good Archbishop quoted in the article makes some very good points:

“On the other side, fidelity to the norms for the celebration of the sacraments continued to fall,” he said. “The more this fidelity (and) a sense of the beauty and awe in the liturgy diminished, the more requests for the Tridentine Mass increased.”

“So, in fact, who really requested the Tridentine Mass? It was not just these groups, but also those who had little respect for the norms of a worthy celebration according to the ‘Novus Ordo,’” or new order, he said, referring to the post-Vatican II liturgy.

“For years the liturgy suffered too many abuses and many bishops ignored them” despite the efforts of Pope John Paul II, Archbishop Ranjith said.

“So the problem was not requests for the Tridentine Mass as much as an unlimited abuse of the nobility and dignity of the eucharistic celebration,” he said.

While the intent was to ignite a sort of Springtime for the Church, we often forget that in the spring (especially for those of us who live in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansasa) the worst weather hits (tornados). In the 40 years since the NO took hold, we have gone through our shares of twisters. Thank God, we have someone steering the rudder of Peter’s barque to keep us on an even keel.