I feel strongly about the issue. If trying to make my point by quoting two of the most outspoken men in the hierarchy is ‘pounding the table,’ that’s fine with me.
Ratzinger’s credentials, especially since he’s a pope and was also instrumental in the reform of the liturgy, and the ‘reform of the reform’ movement, are authoritative. Sarah, since he is Prefect for the Congregation of Divine Worship and Sacraments, also should be considered authoritative on this. He’s also written extensively on the subject.
Yes, there are many other bishops and cardinals. But that fact alone does not automatically discount what Ratzinger and Sarah wrote (again, what they wrote is in keeping and supportive of Sacrosanctum Concilium). Many of them don’t write or say anything on the subject of liturgy, or specifically what is reverent behavior in the liturgy.
What you could do is counter my arguments with quotes from other cardinals or popes who have written differently on the matter. But the fact that the two men I quoted are two of 215 doesn’t mean much by itself.
And please show me where I said that anyone who is not completely silent during Mass is not living the teachings of SC. If that’s what you got from my comments, sorry, it’s not what I intended. However, to say for the third time, silence should be the baseline (except when we’re called on to pray the responses out loud or sing, or when you really have to talk to your neighbor/correct your child/other necessary things). And that statement itself is in line with what Sacrosanctum Concilium calls for.
Edit: There’s more: From Good Pope John,
The fourth Sunday of Lent, John XXIII was once again among the crowd, at Ostia. (about 15 miles to the south-west of Rome.) Thousands of people were waiting for him along the street, in the piazza, in the church. They wanted to see him, to applaud him. They did not know that afterwards, he would rebuke them, in a good-natured way, in his simple , spontaneous, familiar way of speaking.
“I am very glad to have come here. But if I must express a wish, it is that in church you not shout out, that you not clap your hands, and that you not greet even the Pope, because ‘templum Dei, templum Dei.’ (‘The temple of God is the temple of God.’)
http://m.ncregister.com/blog/pat-archbold/wrap-the-clap-time-to-end-clapping-at-mass
And from Pope Pius X:
It is not fitting that the servant should be applauded in his Master’s house.”
Are these also ‘tired old quotes’ or will we respect the continuity of words from Popes (and saints!) on this?
