A heretic afirms to me which in 2002 former Cardinal Ratzinger said “the mass is valid even without the words of consecration”. A friend told to me it isn’t exactly, but he was talking about a community that wasn’t following the roman rite yet.
**He was referring to the Liturgy of Addai and Mari as used in the Assyrian Church of the East, which in its classic form has never had the Words of Institution.
However, if you can read the text of this liturgy, it’s obvious that it intends to accomplish (or “confect,” as Latin theology says) the Mystery of the Eucharist. (Alas, the excellent version given by
cired.org is no longer availble, as the site is not working.)
As head of CDF, the then Cardinal Ratsinger said that while not included in a coherent, narrative way, the WoI are “dispersed throughout the prayer” in a euchological way.
This is actually a dead issue for several reasons:
- The Assyrian Church of the East has the WoI in its two other Liturgies.
- The Synod of the CotE has said that the WoI can be included in celebrations of Addai and Mari.
- This decision of CDF was intended to deal with an interconfessional pastoral situtation where Chaldean Catholics and Assyrians must be served by the same priest (Either Chaldean or Assyrian), in which case the Assyrian priest is requested to include the WoI.
- This does NOT mean that the Chaldean Catholic priests may omit them, as their recension of the Liturgy of Addai and Mari do contain them, and they are bound to recite them.
Keep in mind that one reason it’s called the Church of the East is that it was separated from the main body of Christians in the Roman Empire by warring kindgoms, so the Eucharistic theology that considered the WoI consecratory never made it there.
BTW, while the Church of the East has been called “Nestorian,” the Patriarch, His Holiness Mar Dinkha signed a statement of common Christology with Pope John Paul II.
And one of their theologians in the 700’s or so wrote this (which sound exactly like the faith of Chalcedon to me):
One is Christ the Son of God,
Worshiped by all in two natures;
In His Godhead begotten of the Father,
Without beginning before all time;
In His humanity born of Mary,
In the fullness of time, in a body united;
Neither His Godhead is of the nature of the mother,
Nor His humanity of the nature of the Father;
The natures are preserved in their Qnumas*,
In one person of one Sonship.
And as the Godhead is three substances in one nature,
Likewise the Sonship of the Son is in two natures, one person.
So the Holy Church has taught.**
