Rome, Italy, Jun 1, 2017 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Ten years after Benedict XVI broadened access to the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass, the document by which he did so is being hailed as a means of closing the rift of division following liturgical changes made after the Second Vatican Council.
“Sometimes there are these polemics, but I think Benedict tried to overcome these polemics, saying that even in the liturgy there is a certain progress … but clearly in full continuity with the tradition of the Church,” Fr. Vincenzo Nuara, OP, told CNA May 31.
Tensions were heightened after the Second Vatican Council’s reforms, and “unfortunately these situations of contrast, of opposition are created” even today, Fr. Nuara said.
In light of this situation, Benedict XVI’s 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, which widened access to the pre-Vatican II liturgy, “was not an instrument to divide” or throw further fuel on the flames, he said.
Rather, “it was an instrument to unite. To unite, and to bring again that ecclesial peace that’s needed in this time.”
“I see it as a positive instrument, not negative,” Fr. Nuara said. “It’s not an instrument for going backwards. It’s an instrument to reconnect ourselves in continuity” with different ecclesial styles.
Fr. Nuara is president of the association “Priestly Friends of Summorum Pontificum” and founder and spiritual assistant of the “Youth and Tradition” association.
He is also one of the organizers of an upcoming Sept. 14-17 pilgrimage marking the 10th anniversary of Summorum Pontificum, and spoke to journalists at a working breakfast on the event.
The motu proprio was issued July 7, 2007, and went into effect Sept. 14 of that year, the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.
The document established that the post-Vatican II Roman Missal, first issued by Blessed Paul VI, is the ordinary form of the Roman rite, and that the prior version, last issued by St. John XXIII in 1962 and known as the Traditional Latin Mass or the Tridentine Mass, is the Roman rite’s extraordinary form.
In the motu proprio, Benedict noted that the Traditional Latin Mass was never abrogated. He awknowledged clearly the right of all priests of the Roman rite to say Mass using the Roman Missal of 1962, and established that parish priests should be willing say the extraordinary form for groups of the faithful who request it.
Benedict also established that the faithful could have recourse to their bishop or even the Vatican if their requests for celebration of the extraordinary form were not satisfied.
The provisions of Summorum Pontificum for the use of the extraordinary form replaced those of St. John Paul II laid down in Quattuor abhinc annos and Ecclesia Dei.
According to that indult, priests and faithful who wished to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass had to get permission from their bishop to do so. It could only be for those who requested it, could not normally be said at parish churches, and the bishop could set days and conditions for its celebration.
After the Second Vatican Council, the Missal issued by Bl. Paul VI, also known as the Novus Ordo, was widely adopted. It was widely translated into vernacular languages, and is often celebrated with the priest facing toward the congregation.
However, not a few faithful continued to be attached to the earlier form of the liturgy, and Benedict’s motu proprio was considered a generous response to these faithful.
Benedict wrote in the motu proprio that the two forms “will in no way lead to a division” in the Church’s belief “for they are two usages of the one Roman rite.”
In his letter to bishops accompanying Summorum Pontificum, Benedict also noted that “the two Forms of the usage of the Roman Rite can be mutually enriching.”
Fr. Nuara reflected that since Summorum Pontificum, “those who have permission to use the ancient form of the liturgy have also at the same time rediscovered the sanctity of the new.”
This mutual enrichment is a discovery Fr. Nuara said he himself has made in his 25 years as a priest, during which he has celebrated both the new and ancient liturgical formulas.
But it is also a discovery “that many (other) priests have made.”
“Benedict is a positive man. Benedict, who reflects as a theologian and a pastor, realized that the ancient form that has grown in the history of the Church for years, can give new impetus to the new form,” he said.
The Mass “is the bridge where they meet, because the Eucharist is the point of encounter … the sacrament of unity,” Fr. Nuara said, adding that what “must be avoided” is that people “take advantage of their particular trend or attention to one or the other liturgy, to create fences of division and separation.”
Benedict himself celebrated the new form of the liturgy “with great dignity,” but before his election as Bishop of Rome was also known to celebrate the ancient liturgy with the same esteem.
What Summorum Pontificum seeks to do, then, is to work for this unity, he said, adding that at 10 years since its publication, his hope is that people from both sides will work toward this goal.
“We want to send, to communicate this message,” he said. “Because the Church is a family, the family of God.”
When the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage takes place in September, it will be a privileged time to show this unity, he said.
The event’s first day, held at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, will feature keynote addresses from Archbishop Guido Pozzo, secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei; Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and president of the PCED; and Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship.
Pilgrims who come will participate in various other activities throughout the rest of the three days, including adoration and a Eucharistic procession presided over by Archbishop Pozzo on Sept. 16, followed by a Pontifical High Mass said by Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, Archbishop Emeritus of Bologna.
Titled “Summorum Pontificum: A renewed youth for the Church,” the pilgrimage is being organized by the “Priestly Friends of Summorum Pontificum” and “Youth and Tradition” associations in partnership with the Coetus Internationalis Summorum Pontificum.
Speaking of the title in comments to journalists, Fr. Nuara noted that a “truly surprising” phenomenon is that the “true protagonists” of this new “season of the Church … are the youth.”
In his letter accompanying the motu proprio, Benedict had noted that while “it has clearly been demonstrated that young persons too have discovered this liturgical form, felt its attraction and found in it a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist, particularly suited to them.”
“Benedict XVI already in 2007 was aware that the new recipients of this liturgy, loved, desired and also sought, were the youth,” Fr. Nuara said.
Pope Francis has also commented on the fact that many of the enthusiasts for the Traditional Latin Mass are young people who never knew it growing up, but encountered it later.
“Youth can’t be nostalgic for something they didn’t know,” Fr. Nuara said, adding that “this is very nice, because by experience I can say that the youth who draw near to the ancient liturgy of the Church love it” for the reverence and silence of the celebration.
In celebrating the ancient form, “you really understand who is at the center, who the protagonist is,” the priest said, noting that “youth understand very well that this liturgy speaks of … the essential truth of the faith.”
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Of course a headliner announcement, made in the likeness of a papal pronouncement. Card Hollerich’s premise that a happy medium will be found to appease those with their knives out is, rather than amelioration, the mistake that permanent truth, intrinsic evil, the revealed nature of the good acts necessary for salvation can be essentially adjusted.
We may, out of good will, empathize with Card Grech’s rejoicing over the joy in the eyes perceived in Synod participants. Sentiment, though a necessary feature of our humanness, does not determine good or evil, nor in itself the rationale. That belongs to the apprehensive capacity of intellect. While there is an attractiveness to an ordained women’s diaconate – for one I would not be blown away should it occur, whereas approval of adult homosexual relations, Hollerich’s pet proposal is intrinsic evil in any form of behavior – it does not find evidence in Christ’s institution of the laying of hands by Him, and transfer to the Apostles. After Vat II Catholic professors argued the ludicrousness of the ‘pipeline’ doctrine, the unbroken lineage of laying of hands. Although they offered zero argument for the validity of simply wishing to be an ordained minister of the Gospels. The truth is, revealed truth cannot be mitigated to make us all feel jolly. The truth of Christ requires effort, sacrifice, obedience, and the sine qua non of humility.
We read: “Grech said one bishop told him he saw ‘ice melt’ in people during the gathering.”
Not to throw cold water on the festivities and even the possibilities, but simply to notice that as a band continued to play, ice fragments also melted for a short while on the deck of the “unsinkable” Titanic.
RE: the vote on women deacons. I think so many voted FOR reviewing the issue in the future because an overwhelming number of lefties, lay and cleric, were invited to the synod by Pope Francis. He was packing the vote. We don’t need women deacons- we need more men to be encouraged to serve as deacons. Women do ENOUGH already. Move over and make room for the men (fathers).
Three men in our diocese applied to be permanent deacons. All three were rejected. Why? Well I don’t know about two of the men, because I have never met them (different parish, far away), but I am aquatinted with one of them. He leans toward “traditional”.
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Something tells me that has something to do with it.
Obviously, all are no aware that apostate Bishops and Cardinals are completely public in their open rejection of the commands of Jesus and The Holy Spirit’s revelation / commands against fornication and sodomy.
That apostasy is a given.
On the prospect of ordaining women as deacons, this is the more subtle form of manipulation. One convert Jennifer Ferrara, noted in her conversion story (in the book “There We Stood, Here We Stand”), that when she, as an orthodox-believing Lutheran pastor, read in 1996 that the ELCA had decided to cover the cost of all abortions in its health care plan for Church employees, she was stunned, in reading this response by a fellow-orthodox Lutheran pastor: “Resl Churches Don’t Kill Babies.”
Ferrara noted that though she was orthodox, that is, believed in the commands against fornication, sodomy and abortion, she was an oddity among ordained women in the ELCA, who were in the vast majority what she called “liberals,” particularly regarding sexual morality.
Within 2 years of accepting abortion, the ELCA entered into an “altar and pulpit fellowship” with the United Church of Christ, “which ordained practicing homosexuals.”
So, the result on display is that the women’s ordination thing is just a stalking horse for the sanctification of fornication, sodomy and abortion.
Chris, I should add to your last sentence: “abortion.”…all of which will tend to future sanctioning of ‘lawful’ transhuman promulgating and propagating, pedophilia, polyamory, trafficking and slavery and euthanasia of ‘recalcitrant’ persons or their offspring, etc. Venial sins tend to mortal when left unchecked.
-Sponsored and approved by the powerful lacking without soul, heart, or head.
The vote by this group proves nothing except how many of them lack a spine. That would be the majority. Too afraid to buck the very clear sentiments of the current Pope. Too afraid to be castigated by the press as being anti- woman and anti-woke. So, if these women are ordained deacons, where do they go from there? That’s assuming there is a “there” left, after disaffected Catholics take their wallets and leave over such a travesty. Or is this just a slippery slope down the hill to ordained women priests?? My opinion of this synod remains unchanged. Disgusting and unneeded.
There will be no change in doctrine or organization. Just cosmetic change whereby we are friendlier to gays and women. So what?
Francis is a pastor, not a cop. No real change, but less confrontation.
“Just cosmetic change whereby we are friendlier to gays and women.”
Ah, that explains the endless documents, constant meetings, month-long meeting in Rome (with another in a year). Makes perfect sense.
“Francis is a pastor, not a cop.”
Especially if you prefer traditional liturgy, think doctrine is important, uphold moral teachings, and think the constant chatter and bloviating about sexual devianc—er, diversity, women priests, women deacons, etc., is both confusing and counter-productive to authentic witness.
Less sarcastically: anyone paying attention to the Rupnik situation (as well as a host of others over the past decade) knows that Francis’s handling of it has been an abomination and is about as anti-pastoral as can be.
Yes, Rupnik was mishandled. Remember Marcial Maciel and so many others that were also mishandled by other Popes.
You seem to worry so much about Synods doing damage, but the clerical sexual abuse of minors scandals have done much more damage. A lot of people have just walked away in disgust. As that great American philosopher Yogi Berra said: “If people don’t come to the ballpark, how are you going to stop them.” Substitute Church for ballpark and I think it covers the situation.
“the clerical sexual abuse of minors” – translated = homosexual lifestyle of clergy.
I was told in a follow up comment to my recent lament that I was being “nonsensical” to hold the view I will now repeat whether it was well received or not the way I awkwardly expressed it when I was half asleep. (CWR might consider an edit option) When our Church orchestrates a performance for the whole world to take notice and advertise to the whole world that this is what the Holy Spirit is endorsing because our Pope says it is, and we blasphemously presume to dictate our ruminations to the Holy Spirit, yet we claim to have a Deposit of Faith that has been formed historically by a blood, sweat, and tears struggle of saints responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and today we put on a buffoonish display before the world of committees “rethinking” that maybe God got it tragically wrong in the truth He endowed in the past to His Church and His people to give witness to the world, then it does not matter that no doctrines have been changed.
The integrity of God’s people giving witness, including our mission to witness such things like the sacredness of unborn life, now mystically divorced from sexuality at the behest of the morally bankrupt, has been made a laughingstock to the entire world. And consequences of mass murderous proportions are no laughing matter.
A renewed commentary well worth posting Edward.
IMO, Cdl. Hollerich has had his fifteen minutes of fame.
His Eminence Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich is blessed with a prophetic voice. Evangelization and conversion are ongoing and never ending opportunities. The Synod on Synodality has been an exercise in examination of conscience and discernment. Good things are bound to come from those who participated in the month long retreat and their supporters who have been praying ceaselessly for the success of the Synod. Tidings of comfort and joy are awaiting pilgrims here, there, and everywhere.
Dr. Coelho, that’s really effective satire. I couldn’t stop laughing. Keep it coming.
His Eminence Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich a “prophetic voice”? If pigs could fly…
The “success of the Synod” can come either through the synod, OR around it. One embedded agenda item about the “fly” (and endorsed by Hollerich) has been to “walk together” past the sexual abuse scandal to now abuse the Holy Spirit.
Well, bypassing or moving around this and other embedded agendas, things might be looking up, after all. Here’s a link to a critique by Cardinal Muller of the DRAFT synodal report, together with a later link covering changes in the FINAL report which, of course, is not final…
https://www.ncregister.com/interview/cardinal-mueller-says-synod-on-synodality-is-being-used-by-some-to-prepare-the-church-to-accept-false-teaching
https://www.ncregister.com/news/synod-on-synodality-what-changed