“Rightly, then, the liturgy is considered as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ. In the liturgy the sanctification of man is signified by signs perceptible to the senses, and is effected in a way which corresponds with each of these signs; in the liturgy the whole public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and His members.”
“From this it follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of His Body which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others; no other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree.”
#7 Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, December 4, 1963
These lines enunciate one of the fundamental principles Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, namely that the liturgy is the work of Christ, head and members. That is, that the liturgy is the action of all members of the Church.
To appreciate the impact of this statement, one need only look at the Roman Missal in use prior to the Council. In the twenty-eight pages of rubrics that directed the proper celebration of Mass, there are only eleven lines that make reference to the congregation, lines that indicate how the priest is to administer Communion.
Similarly, in The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, by Adrian Fortescue and J. O’Connell, one of the standard English texts used by priests to guide the proper celebration of the Mass and other liturgical rites, the index contains no listing for congregation or laity although there are twenty-eight listing for the color of the vestments.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
The Problem of Liturgy
For the Church, divine worship is a matter of life and death. If it is no longer possible to bring the faithful to worship God, and in such a way that they themselves perform this worship, then the Church has failed in its task and can no longer justify its existence. but it was precisely on this point that a profound crisis occurred in the life of the Church. Its roots reach far back. In the late Middle Ages, awareness of the real essence of Christian worship increasingly vanished. Great importance was attached to externals, and these choked out essentials…
The main measure (of the Council of Trent) was to centralize all liturgical authority in the Sacred Congregation of Rites, the post-concilliar organ for the implementation of the liturgical ideas of Trent. This measure, however, proved to be two-edged. New overgrowths were in fact prevented, but the fate of liturgy in the West was now in the hands of a strictly centralized and purely bureaucratic authority. This authority completely lacked historical perspective; it viewed the liturgy solely in terms of ceremonial rubrics, treating it as a kind of proper court etiquette for sacred matters. This resulted in the complete archaizing of the liturgy, which now passed from the stage of living history, became embalmed in the status quo and was ultimately doomed to internal decay.
taken from: Theological Highlights of Vatican II by Joseph Ratzinger, Paulist Press, English Edition, 1966
One must ask whether fifty years after the opening of the Council, the present centralizing process does not risk producing similar results.
The main measure (of the Council of Trent) was to centralize all liturgical authority in the Sacred Congregation of Rites, the post-concilliar organ for the implementation of the liturgical ideas of Trent. This measure, however, proved to be two-edged. New overgrowths were in fact prevented, but the fate of liturgy in the West was now in the hands of a strictly centralized and purely bureaucratic authority. This authority completely lacked historical perspective; it viewed the liturgy solely in terms of ceremonial rubrics, treating it as a kind of proper court etiquette for sacred matters. This resulted in the complete archaizing of the liturgy, which now passed from the stage of living history, became embalmed in the status quo and was ultimately doomed to internal decay.
taken from: Theological Highlights of Vatican II by Joseph Ratzinger, Paulist Press, English Edition, 1966
One must ask whether fifty years after the opening of the Council, the present centralizing process does not risk producing similar results.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Problems facing the Church at Vatican Council II
It is perhaps fair to say that the first real task of the Council was to overcome the indolent, euphoric feeling that all was well with the Church, and to bring into the open the problems smoldering within.
In the fall of 1964, then, what concrete problems did the Council face? These problems may be crystallized into the following groups:
1. The problem of divine worship.
2. The problem of centralism in the Church.
3. The problem of relations with non-Catholic Christendom and the ecumenical movement.
4. The problem of new directions in the relations between Church and State, or what might somewhat imprecisely be labeled the end of the Middle Ages, or even the end of the Constantinian era.
5. The problem of faith and science, or, more specifically, the problem of faith and history, which had become a basic problem for faith through the triumph of the method of historical criticism.
6. The problem of the relation of Christianity to the modern ethic of work, to technology, and in general to the new moral problems posed by a technological society.
taken from: Theological Highlights of Vatican II by Joseph Ratzinger, Paulist Press, English Edition, 1966
One can fairly ask whether fifty years after the opening of the Council, these problems have been adequately addressed.
In the fall of 1964, then, what concrete problems did the Council face? These problems may be crystallized into the following groups:
1. The problem of divine worship.
2. The problem of centralism in the Church.
3. The problem of relations with non-Catholic Christendom and the ecumenical movement.
4. The problem of new directions in the relations between Church and State, or what might somewhat imprecisely be labeled the end of the Middle Ages, or even the end of the Constantinian era.
5. The problem of faith and science, or, more specifically, the problem of faith and history, which had become a basic problem for faith through the triumph of the method of historical criticism.
6. The problem of the relation of Christianity to the modern ethic of work, to technology, and in general to the new moral problems posed by a technological society.
taken from: Theological Highlights of Vatican II by Joseph Ratzinger, Paulist Press, English Edition, 1966
One can fairly ask whether fifty years after the opening of the Council, these problems have been adequately addressed.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Pope John XXIII
This coming Sunday, September 28, is the 54th anniversary of the election of Angelo Roncalli as Pope John XXIII. Elected in 1958, at the age of 77, many expected him to be simply a “placeholder.”
However, just two months after his election, he became the first pope since 1870 to make pastoral visits in his Diocese of Rome. On Christmas day, he visited children infected with polio at the Bambino Gesù Hospital and then visited Santo Spirito Hospital. And the following day he visited Rome's Regina Coeli prison, where he told the inmates: "You could not come to me, so I came to you."
He wrote in his diary of: ...great astonishment in the Roman, Italian and international press. I was hemmed in on all sides: authorities, photographers, prisoners, wardens...”
Roncalli, who came from a poor peasant background, described himself as a "prisoner of opulence" in the Vatican. "I have nothing against these good noble guards," the pope confided, "but so much bowing, such formality, so much pomp, so much parading make me suffer, believe me. When I go down [to the basilica] and see myself preceded by so many guards, I feel like a prisoner, a criminal; and instead I would like to be the 'bonus pastor' for all, close to the people. [...] The pope is not a sovereign of this world. “
He recounted how much he disliked at the beginning being carried on the sede gestatoria through the rooms, preceded by cardinals often more elderly and decrepit than himself, confessing that this was not very reassuring for him, “because ultimately one is always teetering a bit."
In January of 1959, he announced his intend of convening an ecumenical council. The cardinals gathered in St. Paul's Outside the Walls greeting his words with stunned silence. And L’Osservatore Romano did not think the announcement worthy of its front page.
In 1959, Fr. Roberto Tucci was appointed director of the Roman magazine of the Jesuits, "La Civiltà Cattolica". He met with Pope John at Castel Gandolfo and noted in his diary: "Striking simplicity and affability of manners that dispel any embarrassment and are very touching. Welcome at the door and accompaniment almost back to the threshold again."
When the Council opened on October 11, 1962 (fifty years ago) and the 2540 bishops had taken their places in St. Peter’s, Pope John dismounted the sedia gestitoria at the entrance to St. Peter’s and walked down the central aisle. Like his brother bishops, he wore a miter. He addressed the assembled Council, beginning “Gaudet Mater Ecclesia,” Mother Church rejoices today. He told them that “in the current conditions of human society, (some) can see nothing but betrayal and destruction. They say that in comparison with the past our age has done nothing but decline and deteriorate. And they behave as if they had learned nothing from history, which is the teacher of life, and as if in the times of the earlier Councils the Christian idea and Christian life, morals, and the just freedom of the Church had done nothing but blossom and triumph.”
He went on, “but we have to decisively contradict these prophets of doom who keep on predicting nothing but disaster, as if the world was about to end.”
Less than two months before he died, Pope John issued an encyclical letter, Pacem in Terris, addressed “to all men of good will.” Darius Milhaud composed a choral symphony with that title for the dedication of the new Parisian radio building, making John’s encyclical the only one ever set to music.
John XXIII died on June 3, 1963 and, later that year, on December 3rd, President Lyndon B. Johnson posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award, in recognition of the good relationship between Pope John and the United States.
And in 2000, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Pope John XXIII blessed. His feast day is June 11, the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.
However, just two months after his election, he became the first pope since 1870 to make pastoral visits in his Diocese of Rome. On Christmas day, he visited children infected with polio at the Bambino Gesù Hospital and then visited Santo Spirito Hospital. And the following day he visited Rome's Regina Coeli prison, where he told the inmates: "You could not come to me, so I came to you."
He wrote in his diary of: ...great astonishment in the Roman, Italian and international press. I was hemmed in on all sides: authorities, photographers, prisoners, wardens...”
Roncalli, who came from a poor peasant background, described himself as a "prisoner of opulence" in the Vatican. "I have nothing against these good noble guards," the pope confided, "but so much bowing, such formality, so much pomp, so much parading make me suffer, believe me. When I go down [to the basilica] and see myself preceded by so many guards, I feel like a prisoner, a criminal; and instead I would like to be the 'bonus pastor' for all, close to the people. [...] The pope is not a sovereign of this world. “
He recounted how much he disliked at the beginning being carried on the sede gestatoria through the rooms, preceded by cardinals often more elderly and decrepit than himself, confessing that this was not very reassuring for him, “because ultimately one is always teetering a bit."
In January of 1959, he announced his intend of convening an ecumenical council. The cardinals gathered in St. Paul's Outside the Walls greeting his words with stunned silence. And L’Osservatore Romano did not think the announcement worthy of its front page.
In 1959, Fr. Roberto Tucci was appointed director of the Roman magazine of the Jesuits, "La Civiltà Cattolica". He met with Pope John at Castel Gandolfo and noted in his diary: "Striking simplicity and affability of manners that dispel any embarrassment and are very touching. Welcome at the door and accompaniment almost back to the threshold again."
When the Council opened on October 11, 1962 (fifty years ago) and the 2540 bishops had taken their places in St. Peter’s, Pope John dismounted the sedia gestitoria at the entrance to St. Peter’s and walked down the central aisle. Like his brother bishops, he wore a miter. He addressed the assembled Council, beginning “Gaudet Mater Ecclesia,” Mother Church rejoices today. He told them that “in the current conditions of human society, (some) can see nothing but betrayal and destruction. They say that in comparison with the past our age has done nothing but decline and deteriorate. And they behave as if they had learned nothing from history, which is the teacher of life, and as if in the times of the earlier Councils the Christian idea and Christian life, morals, and the just freedom of the Church had done nothing but blossom and triumph.”
He went on, “but we have to decisively contradict these prophets of doom who keep on predicting nothing but disaster, as if the world was about to end.”
Less than two months before he died, Pope John issued an encyclical letter, Pacem in Terris, addressed “to all men of good will.” Darius Milhaud composed a choral symphony with that title for the dedication of the new Parisian radio building, making John’s encyclical the only one ever set to music.
John XXIII died on June 3, 1963 and, later that year, on December 3rd, President Lyndon B. Johnson posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award, in recognition of the good relationship between Pope John and the United States.
And in 2000, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Pope John XXIII blessed. His feast day is June 11, the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)