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Delivered at the
Omni San Antonio Hotel to those assembled for the
National Meeting of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions,
October 7-11, 2003.
1.
Forty Years of Grace through the Liturgy
The
celebration of the mysteries of our redemption,
especially of the paschal mystery of the suffering,
death and resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ in the sacred liturgy, is central in and to
the life of the Church. Participation in liturgical
celebrations is seen by the Second Vatican Council
as "the primary and indispensable source from
which the faithful are to derive the true Christian
spirit" (Sacrosanctum Concilium [SC], no.
14).
It
was, therefore, very fitting that the first of the
sixteen documents to be issued by the Second Vatican
Council was on the Sacred Liturgy. As Sacrosanctum
Concilium was promulgated on December 4 1963,
"the first fruit of the Council " (John
Paul II: Vicesimus Quintus Annus [VQA], no.
1) was offered to the entire Church. Through the
rich doctrine and wise directives offered by this
Constitution, the road to liturgical renewal was
marked out for the Church "in accordance with
the conciliar principles of fidelity to tradition
and openness to legitimate development" (VQA,
no. 4; cf also SC, no. 23).
The
crucial role of Sacrosanctum Concilium becomes
clearer when we consider that a very close and
organic bond does exist between sound liturgical
renewal and the renewal of the whole life of the
Church. After all, "the liturgy is the summit
toward which the activity of the Church is directed;
at the same time it is the fountain from which all
her power flows " (SC, no. 10). "The
Church not only acts but also expresses herself in
the liturgy and draws from the liturgy the strength
for her life " (John Paul II: Dominicae
Cenae [DC], no. 13). In particular, "the
Church draws her life from the Eucharist" (John
Paul II: Ecclesia de Eucharistia [EE], no.
1), "the fount and apex of the whole Christian
life " (Lumen Gentium [LG], no.
11).
It
is, therefore, right and proper that we take
occasion of the fortieth anniversary celebration of Sacrosanctum
Concilium to look back, to reflect, to look
forward and to ask ourselves a few questions. I am
very grateful to the Liturgical Committee of the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and to
the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions
for your inviting me to this convention and asking
me to share some reflections with you on Sacrosanctum
Concilium yesterday, today and tomorrow. Let us
begin by recounting some of the positive results
realized by the Church since Sacrosanctum
Concilium. Then we shall dwell on the challenges
posed by each of those results, namely: Bible and
Liturgy, Translation, Adaptation and Inculturation,
Active Participation, Roles for the Lay Faithful,
Revitalization of Church life through the Liturgy,
and Looking towards the Future.
2. Positive Results
since Sacrosanctum Concilium
In the liturgical life
of the Church, some very good developments have
taken place since Sacrosanctum Concilium was
promulgated. Let us begin by listing some of them.
In this way we thank God who guides his Church all
through the ages. We also express gratitude to all
those who have had a hand in this liturgical
promotion, from those who worked on the liturgical
texts, to the bishops, priests and members of
liturgical committees or commissions like
yourselves.
Pope John Paul II, in his Apostolic
Letter, Vicesimus Quintus Annus, of December
4, 1988, in commemoration of twenty-five years of
SC, lists five of these positive results (cf no.
12). The first is the place given to the Bible in
the liturgy. Sacrosanctum Concilium insisted
that the table of God's word is to be made more
abundantly available to the people of God in the
liturgy. If we reflect back to the past forty years,
we see how the renewed liturgical rites have been
made much richer with biblical texts. In the Mass,
the lectionary is so arranged as to cover most of
the Bible in a three-year Sunday reading and a
two-year weekday lessons program. The responsorial
psalms help to elucidate the readings. The
sacramental rites and the celebrations of the
sacramentals are suitably fitted with rich biblical
texts. So is the Liturgy of the Hours. In this way
not only are the faithful exposed, as it were, to a
greater part of Holy Scripture so as to become more
familiar with it, but each community has the
opportunity, in the specific setting of the
liturgical celebration, to enter ever more deeply at
all the levels of the human person into the great
mystery of God's transforming love which the
Scripture proclaims. In country after country,
immense effort is undertaken to provide the
Christian people with translations of the Bible.
A
second happy development is the sustained effort to
translate the various liturgical texts into the
current language of the people and also to face the
challenges of adapting liturgical celebration to the
culture of each people.
A third reason for gratitude
is "the increased participation of the faithful
by prayer and song, gesture and silence, in the
Eucharist and the other sacraments" (VQA, no.
12). One has only to compare the way an average
parish community takes part at Sunday Mass today to
the way it did fifty years ago.
We are also
encouraged because of "the ministries exercised
by lay people and the responsibilities that they
have assumed in virtue of the common priesthood into
which they have been initiated through Baptism and
Confirmation" (VQA, no.12). Very many happy
developments have really taken place on this point.
Lastly, and as a summary of the above four areas, we
must thank God "for the radiant vitality of so
many Christian communities, a vitality drawn from
the wellspring of the liturgy" (VQA, no. 12).
Each of these five positive results offers us
reasons for joy and encouragement. But each also
assigns us a task, poses us a challenge and enjoins
on us to see that the developments remain truly
positive, according to the desire and directives of
the Council, and of the Pope and the Bishops who
guide us today and tomorrow in the Church that
Christ founded. How this applies to each of these
five developments will be the focus for the rest of
this paper.
3. Bible and
Liturgy
"Ignorance of
the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ "
(Commentary on Isaiah, Prol. -PL 24, 17), St Jerome
tells us. Ignorance of the Bible is a great handicap
to an understanding of the liturgy and the hoped-for
fruit in participation in its celebration. A great
part of the liturgy is based on Holy
Scripture, not only in the readings but also in the
inspiration of the prayers, in the symbols and in
the images dear to the public worship of the Church.
Without a biblical understanding of exodus,
covenant, chosen people, Isaac, paschal lamb,
Passover, manna and promised land, how can the
liturgy be understood? The Psalms, in particular,
are an indispensable source of liturgical language,
signs and prayers.
"The Church is nourished on
the word of God as written down in the books of the
Old and New Testaments. When the Church proclaims
the word in the liturgy, she welcomes it as a way in
which Christ is present" (Congregation for
Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments:
Varietates legitimae [VL], no. 23). It is
Christ "himself who speaks when the Holy
Scriptures are read in church " (SC, no. 7).
Everyone in the Church needs to make progress in
contact with the Bible: clerics, consecrated people
and the lay faithful. The growing desire of many lay
people to receive better and deeper biblical
formation should be met with adequate programs. The
translation of the Bible into the people's language
is the first and indispensable step. People also
need guidance individually and in groups in how to
read, understand and pray the Bible. This is
essential to a Catholic approach to the Bible, in
which it is clearly understood that it is the Church
which presents the Bible to the faithful, explaining
its significance in the light of the Tradition that
goes back to the Lord's Apostles. Liturgical experts
and pastors should help people to see how selected
biblical texts fit into specific liturgical
celebrations. Homilies should also be rich in
biblical foundations.
4. Translation. Adaptation.
Inculturation
The Second Vatican Council introduced
the vernacular into the liturgy and also allowed for
properly considered adaptations and inculturation in
the rites. This poses a considerable challenge and
requires careful consideration.
While retaining
Latin as the language in the Latin rite, the Council
appreciated the usefulness of the use of the mother
tongue among the various peoples of the world (cf.
SC, no. 36). Since the Council, the use of the
mother tongue has become so widened and general that
many priests now find it not easy to celebrate Mass
in Latin. Vatican II did not abolish Latin. It would
be good that occasionally a parish sings the more
popular parts of the Mass in Latin: think of what
this means in terms of preserving and respecting our
patrimony, showing the Church as a community that
has a memory, and facilitating international
Eucharistic celebrations.
Liturgical translations
into the mother tongue pose the demanding challenge
of producing translations which are faithful to the
Latin original, which are excellent literary
productions, which can be set to music, which will
stand the test of time and which will nourish the
piety and spiritual sensitivity of the people.
Dangers and abuses arise from ex-tempore
translations, hurried works and illegitimate
translations not approved by the Conference of
Bishops and ratified by the Apostolic See.
When we
go into the area of adaptation and inculturation of
rites, we are faced with still more demanding
challenges. Sacrosanctum Concilium is very
clear in its principles and directives. "Even
in the liturgy ", it says, "the Church has
no wish to impose a rigid uniformity in matters
which do not involve the faith or the good of the
whole community. Rather she respects and fosters the spiritual
adornments and gifts of the various races and
peoples. Anything in their way of life that is not
indissolubly bound up with superstition and error
she studies with sympathy and, if possible,
preserves intact. Sometimes in fact she admits such
things into the liturgy itself, as long as they
harmonize with its true and authentic spirit"
(SC, no. 37).
The carrying out of these directives
will engage the Church for generations, especially
in the countries of recent evangelization. To assist
in this task the Holy See has issued extensive
guidelines which explain the Council's intention and
lay down detailed steps to be followed (cf VL).
Provided that the substantial unity of the Roman
rite is respected, the liturgical books allow for
legitimate adaptations to different regions and
people. It is always the National Bishops'
Conference or its equivalent which gets the matter
studied, voted on and passed on to Rome for the
required recognitio (cf SC, 38; General
Instruction of the Roman Missal [GIRM], nos.
386-394).
When deeper inculturation is considered
necessary, then many more demands are made:
interdisciplinary study by theologians, and by
experts in liturgy, in literature, in anthropology
and in music, discussion and voting by Bishops, and
ratification by the Roman See (cf. Ad Gentes, no.
22; SC, no. 40; VL 6368; GIRM, nos. 395-399).
It is
clear that whether in adaptation or inculturation,
great care is needed to respect the mysteries of
Christ which are celebrated in the liturgy. Writing
on the Holy Eucharist, Pope John Paul II says that
"the treasure is too important and precious to
risk impoverishment or compromise through forms of
experimentation or practices introduced without a
careful review on the part of the competent
ecclesiastical authorities [and] because the sacred
liturgy expresses and celebrates the faith professed
by all, and being the heritage of the whole Church,
cannot be determined by local Churches in isolation
from the universal Church" (EE, no. 51).
It is
therefore reasonable and indeed obvious that there
must be liturgical regulations and norms. With
reference to the Holy Eucharist, for example, Pope
John Paul II says that "these norms are a
concrete expression of the authentically ecclesial
nature of the Eucharist; this is their deepest
meaning. Liturgy is never anyone's private properly,
be it of the celebrant or of the community "
(EE, no. 52). That is why Sacrosanctum Concilium already
declared that the regulation of the sacred liturgy
depends solely on the authority of the Church, that
is, on the Apostolic See and, as laws may determine,
on the Bishops and the Bishops' Conference.
"Therefore, absolutely no other person, not
even a priest, may add, remove, or change anything
in the liturgy on his own authority" (SC, no.
22).
The danger is that some people seem to think
that inculturation in the liturgy encourages free
and uncontrolled creativity. They imagine that
according to Vatican II the progressive, modern and
enlightened thing to do in liturgical celebrations
is to be creative, to be original, to introduce
something new, to do it yourself. Pope John Paul
writes that "it must be lamented that,
especially in the years following the post-conciliar
liturgical reform, as a result of a misguided sense
of creativity and adaptation, there have been a
number of abuses which have been a source of
suffering for many " (EE, no. 52).
The
truth is that genuine inculturation has nothing to
do with the product of the over-fertile imagination
of an enthusiastic priest who concocts something on
Saturday night and inflicts it on the innocent
Sunday morning congregation now being used as a
guinea pig. True and lasting inculturation demands
long study, discussions among experts in
interdisciplinary platforms, examination and
decision by Bishops, recognitio from the
Apostolic See and prudent presentation to the people
of God. Moreover, it should be noted that in
religious matters, people's sensitivity and piety
can easily be hurt by ill-considered and hasty
novelties. In religious practices, most people are
understandably conservative in the good sense and
unwilling to endure frequent changes.
Even when we
give the hasty innovator the benefit of the doubt,
that the motivation is a sincere attempt to bring
the liturgy home to the people, it remains true that
the results are generally disastrous. Unapproved
innovations distract and annoy the people. They
often draw attention to the priest rather than to
God. They generally do not last long. They are often
superficial. And they scandalize because they run
against Church norms and regulations. If many lay
people had only one request to make, they would ask
that the priest celebrate Mass, or other rites,
simply according to the approved books. Many lay
faithful complain that rarely do they find two
priests celebrating the Eucharistic sacrifice in the
same way. The Roman liturgy is not a free-for-all
experimentation field where each celebrant has the
option to tag on his cherished accretions. Repeated
and laid-down action is part of ritual. The people
are not tired of it, as long as the celebrant is full
of faith and devotion and has the proper ars
celebrandi (art of how to celebrate).
Pope John
Paul II laments that "some have promoted
outlandish innovations, departing from the norms
issued by the authority of the Apostolic See or the
Bishops, thus disrupting the unity of the Church and
the piety of the faithful and even on occasion
contradicting matters of faith ". (VQA, no.
11). "It cannot be tolerated ", he
continues, "that certain priests should take
upon themselves the right to compose Eucharistic
Prayers or to substitute profane readings for texts
from Sacred Scripture. Initiatives of this sort, far
from being linked with the liturgical reform as
such, or with the books which have issued from it,
are in direct contradiction to it, disfigure it and
deprive the Christian people of the genuine
treasures of the liturgy of the Church " (VQA,
no. 13).
It is therefore clear that inculturation
does not encourage banalization or trivialization of
the sacred liturgy. Spontaneity run wild can
manifest itself in many ways. At the beginning of
Mass the priest can trivialize by amusing the people
on the weather, by saying "Good morning
everybody" instead of "The Lord be with
you" or "The grace of Our Lord... ",
which are the proper liturgical opening greetings.
He can banalize by an exaggerated autobiographical
introduction and trite jokes in his misguided effort
to warm the people up for worship! He may not
realize that he is now drawing attention to himself
instead of to God and the liturgical celebration of
the day. Other distractions and even
desacralizations can come through dances that offend
against good sense and do not help to raise people's
mind to God, loquacious and unnecessary
commentaries, over-dosage singing monopolized by the
choir which allows no time for personal prayer, and
the introduction of bizarre vestments and
unacceptable vessels for the Holy Eucharist.
We
have dwelt somewhat long on inculturation because
the experience of many is that it is often
misunderstood and offended against. But genuine
inculturation is what Holy Mother Church wants. And
the challenge before us is to promote it and not to
allow the cockle to grow among the wheat.
5. Active
Participation
The Fathers of the Second Vatican
Council stress the importance of the active
participation of all the faithful in liturgical
celebrations. "Mother Church earnestly desires
that all the faithful be led to that full, conscious
and active participation in liturgical celebrations
which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy.
Such participation by the Christian people as 'a
chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
purchased people' (I Pet 2:9; cf 2:4-4), is their
right and duty by reason of their Baptism "
(SC, no. 14).
For this to be possible, the clerics
must themselves be properly formed in the liturgy.
So should religious personnel, catechists and other
pastoral agents. No one can give what the person
does not have.
It is important to realize that the
internal aspect of participation is indispensable as
a basis, a requirement and the aim of all external
participation. That is why personal prayer,
Scriptural meditation and moments of silence are
necessary. "The sacred liturgy does not exhaust
the entire activity of the Church. Before people
come to the liturgy they must be called to faith and
to conversion" (SC, no. 9). It is highly
advisable to promote moments of silence for
individual reflection and prayer during the
Eucharistic celebration, at such times as after each
reading, and after the homily and Holy Communion.
Choirs should resist the temptation to fill every
available quiet time with singing.
A sense of
reverence and devotion is conducive to interiorized
active participation. Prominent among those who
influence the congregation in this matter is the
priest celebrant. But the altar servers, the
readers, the choir and the extraordinary ministers
of Holy Communion where they are really needed, do
also influence the people by every move of theirs.
Reverence is the exterior manifestation of faith. It
should show our sense of adoration of God most holy
and most high. And our belief in the Real Presence
of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist should come
across in how the ministers handle the Blessed
Sacrament, how they genuflect and how they recite
the prescribed prayers.
Liturgical music promotes
worship. The Gregorian chant has an honored place in
the history of the Latin rite. It is to be noted
that even the young people today do appreciate it.
Most liturgical singing will understandably be in
the mother tongue. The Diocesan or National Music
Commission should see that such texts are suitable
from the theological and musical points of view
before they are approved for Church use.
The Roman
Missal wisely notes the importance of common
gestures by the worshipping congregation (cf GIRM,
nos. 42-44). Examples are times for the congregation
to stand, kneel or sit. Bishop's Conferences can and
do, make some specifications. Care should be taken
not to appear like regimenting the congregation, as
if it were an army, Some flexibility should be allowed,
more so as it is easy to hurt people's eucharistic
sensitivity with reference, for example, to kneeling
or standing.
Church architecture also influences
active participation. If a church is built and the
seats are arranged as in an amphitheatre or as in a
banquet, the undeclared emphasis may be horizontal
attention to one another, rather than vertical
attention to God. In this sense the celebration of
Mass facing the people demands from the priest and
altar servers a high level of discipline, so that as
from the offertory of the Mass it be seen clearly
that both priest and people are turned towards God,
not towards one another. We come to Mass primarily
to adore God, not to affirm one another, although
this is not excluded.
Some people think that
liturgical renewal means the removal of kneelers
from Church pews., the knocking down of altar rails
or the positioning of the altar in the middle of the
sitting area of the people. The Church has never
said any such thing. Nor does liturgical restoration
mean iconoclasm or the removal of all statues and
sacred images. These should be displayed, albeit
with good judgment. And the altar of the Blessed
Sacrament should be outstanding for its beauty and
honored prominence, otherwise in some so-called
restored churches one could rightly lament:
"They have taken my Lord away, and I don't know
where they have put him " (Jn 20:13).
When the
liturgy is so celebrated that everyone can properly
take part, the people are offered a number one
opportunity to draw from the primary Christian
fountain for their spiritual growth.
6. Lay
Liturgical Roles
For proper celebration of the
sacred liturgy and fruitful participation in it by
all Christ's faithful, it is important to understand
the roles proper to the ministerial or ordained
priest and those proper to the lay faithful. Christ
is the priest, the high priest. He gives all
baptized people, a share in this role of offering
God gifts. The common priesthood of all the baptized
gives people the capacity to offer Christian
worship, to offer Christ to the Eternal Father
through the hands of the ordained priest at the
Eucharistic celebration, to receive the sacraments
and to live holy lives and by self-denial and active
charity make of their entire lives a sacrifice.
The
ministerial priest, on the other hand, is a man
chosen from among the baptized and ordained by the
Bishop to the Sacrament of Holy Orders. He alone can
consecrate bread into the Body of Christ and wine
into the Blood of Christ and offer to the Eternal
Father in the name of Christ and the whole Christian
people. (cf Council of Trent: On Eccl. Hierarchy
and Ordination 4, in DS, 1767-1770). It is clear
that, though they differ from one another in essence
and not only in degree, the common priesthood of all
the baptized and the ministerial or hierarchical
priesthood are closely related (cf Lumen Gentium,
no. 10).
The major challenge is to help the lay
faithful appreciate their dignity as baptized
persons. On this follows their role at the
Eucharistic sacrifice and other liturgical acts.
They are the people of God. They are insiders. Their
share as readers of lessons, as leaders of song and
as the people offering with and through the priest
is based on Baptism. The high point is when they
communicate at the Eucharistic table. This crowns
their participation at the Eucharistic sacrifice.
There
should be no attempt to clericalize the laity. This
could happen when, for example, lay people chosen as
extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion no longer
see this role as being called on to help when the
ordinary ministers (bishop, priest and deacon) are
not available in sufficient numbers to cope with the
high number of communicants. When the extraordinary
ministers see their role as a power display to show
that what the priest can do, the lay faithful can do
too, then we have a problem. How else can we explain
the sad error of the lay faithful struggling around
the altar to open the tabernacle or to grab the
sacred vessels —
all against sane liturgical norms
and pure good sense?
We have also the opposite
mistake of trying to laicize the clergy. When the
priest no longer wishes to bless the people with the
formula "May Almighty God bless you ", but
prefers the seemingly democratic wording, "May
Almighty God bless us ", then we have a
confusion of roles. The same thing happens when some
priests think that they should not concelebrate a
Mass but should just participate as lay people in
order to show more solidarity with the lay faithful.
"In liturgical celebrations ", says SC,
"whether as a minister or as one of the
faithful, each person should perform his role by
doing solely and totally what the nature of things
and liturgical norms require of him" (SC, no.
28).
A task always to be attended to is the
theological, liturgical and spiritual formation of
extraordinary ministers of the Holy Eucharist, of
catechists, of other pastoral agents and of the lay
faithful in general. Often mistakes are not due to
bad will but due to lack of knowledge. It is then
that political models of power sharing and power
struggle begin to smuggle themselves into the
sanctuary. Members of Diocesan and National
Liturgical Commissions are to be thanked and
encouraged for all that they do to bring in more
light and therefore more harmony.
7. Revitalization
of Church Life through the Liturgy
In Vicesimus
Quintus Annus, Pope John Paul II thanks God
"for the radiant vitality of so many Christian
communities, a vitality drawn from the wellspring of
the liturgy" (VQA, no. 12). There is no doubt
that Sacrosanctum Concilium has continued to
sustain the Church along the paths of holiness for
fostering genuine liturgical life. This
re-emphasizes why it is ever important to see that
the Council's genuine directives are followed.
It is
a fact that as the Pope says, "some have
received the new books with a certain indifference,
or without trying to understand the reasons for the
changes; others, unfortunately, have turned back in
a one-sided and exclusive way to the previous
liturgical forms which some of them consider to be
the sole guarantee of certainty in the faith "
(VQA, no. 11). It must not be presumed that most
priests, consecrated people or lay faithful are well
informed on the reformed books of the liturgy these
thirty years. Ongoing formation continues to be
necessary.
Moreover we have to note that the liturgy
of the Church goes beyond the liturgical reform.
Many young priests, consecrated brothers and sisters
and lay faithful are not conversant with the
liturgical books of fifty years ago, either because
they were born after Vatican II, or because they
were infants when it was celebrated. What is above
all needed is "an ever deeper grasp of the
liturgy of the Church, celebrated according to the
current books and lived above all as a reality in
the spiritual order " (VQA, no. 14). Under the
direction of their Bishops, Diocesan and National Liturgical
Commissions are to be encouraged to continue their
work along these lines. Moreover, Catholic
universities and Higher Institutes, Seminaries,
religious formation houses, and pastoral and
catechetical centres also have their role to play.
There should be a specific aim of promoting
widespread formation of the lay faithful in the
theology and spirituality of the liturgy.
Devotion
to and veneration of the Holy Eucharist outside Mass
also have their place. Liturgy promoters must not
give the impression that attention to the Holy
Eucharist ends with Mass. For centuries, Catholic
practice in the Latin rite has held dear visits to
the Most Blessed Sacrament, Eucharistic Benediction,
Procession and Congress, and Eucharistic Adoration
protracted for one hour, or for the whole day, or
for forty hours (cf DC, no. 3; EE, no. 25; Catechism
of the Catholic Church [CCC], nos. 1378-1379).
"Popular devotions of the Christian people are
warmly commended, provided that they accord with the
laws and norms of the Church" (SC, 13). The
Directory published by the Congregation for Divine
Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2002
will be found to be of great help in understanding
and guiding these devotions so that they agree
perfectly with the Catholic faith, lead to and
emanate from liturgical worship and continue to
contribute to the life of holiness of the people of
God (cf. CCC, nos. 1674-1676; VQA, no. 18).
8.
Looking towards the Future
As we come to the close
of these reflections, it would be good to take a
look at the future. A few points of reference are
proposed.
The role of the Diocesan Bishop is
irreplaceable. "The Bishop is to be considered
the high priest of his flock. In a certain sense it
is from him that the faithful who are under his care
derive and maintain their life in Christ. Therefore
all should hold in very high esteem the liturgical
life of the diocese which centers around the Bishop,
especially in his cathedral church" (SC, no.
41). This truth imposes a heavy responsibility on
the Bishop and also calls on the people to recognize
his role and to respect and follow his liturgical
leadership.
It is normal for Bishops to form
Diocesan or National Liturgical Commissions for the
carrying out of the liturgical apostolate. Members
of such bodies should strive to absorb the genuine
Catholic faith and spirit and to avoid pushing
private or personal agendas through the Commissions.
It is obvious that appropriate relations with the
diocesan office, the Bishop's Conference or the
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline
of the Sacraments should be fostered. Liturgical
Commissions should guard against making too many
regulations for the people or ignoring directives
from higher authorities. When adaptations and
inculturated changes by the Church in a country get
so many that the Roman rite is somewhat obscured,
the fault may lie not just on the Bishops, but also
on their Liturgical Commissions and other liturgical
experts who advise the Bishops.
The role of the
parish priest remains very important. He is the
official representative of the Church nearest to
most of the faithful. His liturgical formation, his
ideas and the way he celebrates the Mass, the other
sacraments and the rest of the liturgy, affect most
of his people. Whatever
can be done to help the parish priest to rise to the
height of his calling is to be encouraged.
Church
architecture, earlier mentioned in this paper, is so
important that I would like to return to it here.
The shape of the church building has its importance.
As someone has said, a gym that looks like a church
is still a gym. Some questions can be of help. Does
this church building help to raise people's minds to
God, to the transcendent? Where are the tower, the
bell, the Cross? Within the church, is the sanctuary
clearly distinguished from the rest of the church?
Why were the beautiful altar rails that have been
there for one or two centuries removed against the
wishes of many of the parishioners?
Why is it so
difficult to make out where the tabernacle is
located? Where is Our Blessed Mother's statue or
image? Is iconoclasm back? I am aware that the
renovation of church buildings can be a contentious
issue. Bishops and members of Liturgical Commissions
have the delicate task of weighing all sides of the
question. But before the hammer or compressor
machine is applied to objects that have touched the
devotional sensitivity of the people for decades or
even centuries, those who have to take the decision
cannot avoid asking themselves whether there are
reasons weighty enough to upset so many people and
ask the parish or diocese to pay for the exercise.
My dear brothers and sisters engaged in the
promotion of the sacred liturgy throughout the
dioceses of this great and vast country, I thank you
on behalf of the Holy Father and of the Congregation
for the Divine Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacraments for your important apostolate. I rejoice
with you for all the graces which have come to the
Catholic community through your work. May the Most
Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Our Savior, obtain
for you the grace to continue your ecclesial service
in joy, peace and grace, and in the comforting
assurance that you are thereby fulfilling a vital
role in the mission of the Church.
Francis Cardinal
Arinze
October 8, 2003
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