Cardinal Ratzinger: pastoral concerns with the liturgy.

Nothing is more important in the Church than her form of worship. In the previous article (March 2004). Father Mole discussed Cardinal Ratzinger's concerns with the modern liturgy expressed in three of his books published over a twenty-year period (1981-1999). What concerns the Cardinal most is the abrupt break between the pre-Vatican Council and the post-Vatican liturgy, illustrated by the new Roman Missal issued in 1970. This rupture he blames on the post-Council "reformers" who lacked understanding about the fact that liturgy develops organically and cannot be created by adding a hodgepodge of new ideas. Continuity is essential. The main error the Cardinal sees is the shift of emphasis in the Mass from the person of Christ to that of the participating congregation. This is commonly expressed by an exaggerated emphasis on the meal aspect of the Mass at the expense of the Mass as the unbloody sacrifice of Christ on the cross.--Editor

Part II

In this second part, our focus is on liturgical practices and the changes that began to be made with rapidity and radicality even before the Second Vatican Council had reached its end. Whereas sacraments are "outward signs of inward grace," the rituals which accompany them are "outward signs of what the liturgy is inwardly." Sacramentality is of theological import. Liturgical changes should therefore not be motivated merely by sociological reasons. This is Ratzinger's main approach to the question of the advisability of liturgical change. He considers that theological criteria have been neglected to an extent that "a reform of the reform" is needed. Cardinals Ottaviani and Seper, his predecessors in the office of Prefect of Faith, both objected vehemently to the modus procedendi of the postconciliar reformers.

Annibale Bugnini 

To implement the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium of Vatican II, Paul VI appointed in 1964 what he called a Consilium of forty bishops and two hundred experts under the control of his chief artisan of reform, the Vincentian priest, Annibale Bugnini. Five years later, he gave Bugnini still more power by erecting the Consilium into a new Congregation of Divine Worship. In 1975, sadly disillusioned, he abruptly dissolved the new CDW and handed back jurisdiction over the liturgy to the Congregation of Rites set up for the purpose in 1588. It was now renamed the Congregation of Divine Worship. Bugnini was sent into exile as papal representative to Iran.

The best indication so far of what went wrong is that of Cardinal Antonelli. In his younger days, he was appointed, together with Bugnini, by Plus XII to a Liturgical Commission. This was in 1948. Later he became one of the episcopal members of the Consilium. A compilation post mortem of the entries in his journal, etc., was published in 1998 under the title Il Card. Ferdinando Antonelli e gli sviluppi della riforma liturgica dal 1948 al 1970, Studia Anselmiana, Roma, by Nicola Giampietro, O.F.M. Cap. Reviewed in Osservatore Romano as authoritative, it remarked on the theological incompetence of the Consilium members in general and Bugnini in particular. Presumably Ratzinger would not fault them for deficiency, given that the theology of the liturgy was then in its infancy and had yet to develop the necessary theological criteria. The fault should rather be imputed to the precipitation with which the Consilium proceeded, goaded on by Bugnini, whose bureaucratic genius coupled with a crash-programme mentality.

A general norm stipulated in article 23 of Sacrosanctun Concilium is that liturgical change must be governed by theological, historical and pastoral criteria. An order of importance must surely be implied: first, theological; secondly, historical; and lastly, pastoral. Bugnini's own 900-page book La Riforma liturgica 1948-1975 (Edizione liturgiche, Roma, 1983), written to prove the honesty of his stewardship, leaves a clear impression that he put all his eggs into the pastoral basket.

Ratzinger gave evidence of his theological brilliance as a peritus of the Second Vatican Council. Since he is now famed as a protagonist of the wisdom of its decisions, the importance of SC 23 must loom large in his view. His three books are intended as a contribution to the development of a theology of the liturgy. This should presage a new era for the liturgical movement, hitherto somewhat restricted to historical studies.

For the rest, we will limit ourselves to instances of change which are to be regarded not as renewal by the roots hut as wrenching from the soil. Eradication, not radicality, is the word for it.

Orientation

The abolition of the practice of priest and people together facing east (i.e. the oriens) during the Eucharistic prayer is of grave consequence. Ratzinger attributes the rapidity and unanimity with which this happened to the oblivion into which theological and historical reasons for it had fallen during the century prior to Vatican II (cf. Feast of Faith, p. 142). Real reform here would consist in the restoration of the knowledge which the faithful have unfortunately lost. Instead, the choice has been to assume a "pastoral" need to obliterate this knowledge still more completely by having priest and people eyeball each other.

The notion that the Eucharistic celebration calls for a face-to-face situation results from reductively conceiving the liturgy as arising merely from the grouping of individuals into a community. Escaping from the isolation experienced in modern city life by banding into a happy "togetherness" is what they think the liturgy is about. In truth, the liturgy must be conceived as a cosmic action. Liturgy is the exercise of the priesthood of Christ (SC 7) who embraces, in his act of praising his Father not only mankind but its entire habitat, the cosmos. This liturgy is not only cosmic but directional, that is, oriented towards the rising sun as the symbol of the resurrection. Moreover, it is oriented towards "the sign of the Son of Man" which is to appear in the East to herald his second glorious coming.

Music--artistic or utilitarian?

Ratzinger dwells at length in all three books on the subject of sacred music. This is congenial to the accomplished pianist that he is. Moreover, his family name is associated with Regensburg, Europe's celebrated centre of sacred music. For there his priest brother George was kappelmeister for thirty years. A discourse entitled "The Tradition of Regensburg" is included in his second book. Given on the retirement of his brother George in 1994, it maintains that the Ratzinger period had been in faithful continuity with the Gregorian movement launched by Pope St. Pius X in 1903.

Ratzinger's treatise "On the Theological Basis of Church Music," in his first book opens with the following via negativa: "It is astonishing to find that in the German edition of the documents of Vatican II edited by Karl Rahner and Herbert Vorgrimler ... the chapter on the Constitution on the Liturgy begins with the observation that genuine art, as found in Church music, is 'of its very nature ... hardly to be reconciled with the nature of the liturgy and the basic principle of liturgical reform' " (p. 97).

Ratzinger says further that there was a discrepancy between "what the Council said and how it has been taken up by the postconciliar Church" (p. 99). This treatise must be read in order to grasp the intricacies of the question involved in "the tension between the demands of art and the simplicity of the liturgy" (p. 99). Ratzinger's position, stated at the outset, is that seeking simplicity by resorting to utilitarianism inevitably results in the impoverishment of the liturgy. Banality becomes the order of the day.

Rite

Not a few reformers of our postconciliar period share with their forerunners of the 16th and 18th centuries an antipathy to the Roman Rite. The chapter entitled "Rite" in The Spirit of the Liturgy begins with the remark that for many people today "the word rite does not have a good ring to it" (p. 159). They regard it as synonymous with rigidity and detrimental to the creativity which for them is the hallmark of liturgical reform. Ratzinger retorts that "creativity cannot be an authentic category for matters liturgical. In any case, this is a word that developed within the Marxist world view. Creativity means that, in a universe that in itself is meaningless and came into existence through blind evolution, man can creatively fashion a new and better world" (p. 168).

The right way to worship God spread originally from the apostolic sees of Antioch, Alexandria and Rome, to which was soon added Byzantium. These four centres then radiated true worship to the four quarters of the cosmos. There was a subsequent differentiation into other rites. The plurality of rites has come about through the adaptation of Christian worship to differences in the cultures of various regions.

Sacrosanctum Concilium must be understood as maintaining Latinity as an essential component of the Roman Rite and belonging to its "substantial unity" (art. 38). Although it is obvious that Latin must be used to an extent that renders possible the full exercise of its influence, it has been allowed to lapse almost into complete disuse. Ratzinger occasionally alludes to but does not confront this subject squarely. He probably considers it too delicate, considering that dissension in this matter arises within the Holy See itself. Eventually, the development of a theology of the liturgy will provide the criteria to deal with problems of purity of doctrine which the trend towards hundreds and hundreds of vernacular tongues will inevitably pose.

One problem with which he deals is whether the language of the Canon of the Mass should be loud or sotto voce. Prior to the postconciliar reform, the silence after the singing of the Sanctus and Benedictus was a profoundly pregnant experience during which the people became deeply recollected as the time for Communion approached. Ratzinger considers that the abolition of this practice brought about great loss. He first raised this question in 1978 and met with a barrage of criticism. His position remains adamant.

Kneeling

"There are groups, of no small influence, who are trying to talk us out of kneeling" (Spirit of the Liturgy, p. 184). Ratzinger demonstrates thoroughly from Scripture and the example of Christ himself in the Garden of Gethsemane that the absence of kneeling in worship is utterly alien to the Christian mind. The argument that this posture of humility is contrary to modern culture has no bearing. "Kneeling does not come from any culture--it comes from the Bible and its knowledge of God" (p. 185).

How the phobia against kneeling seeped into the Church is intimated in the first part of the chapter which contains a section on kneeling. Entitled "The Body and the Liturgy," its approach is Christocentric: "God himself has become man, become body and here, again and again, he comes through his body to us who live in the body. The whole event of the Incarnation, Cross, Resurrection and Second Coming is present as the way by which God draws man into cooperation with himself" (p. 173). This actio divina takes place as Our Lord utters the oratio or Eucharistic Prayer through the lips of his priest. The Constitution on the Liturgy of Vatican II urges participatio actuosa of all present. That is, they are to take part actually in what God is accomplishing on their behalf. "Unfortunately," says Ratzinger, this participation "was very quickly misunderstood to mean something external, entailing a need for general activity, as if as many people as possible, as often as possible, should be visibly engaged in action." Kneeling is perceived as immobilizing.

Our conclusion is aptly furnished by liturgists to whom Ratzinger's intervention in their field is unwelcome. Resistance in France is especially virulent. No publishing house in that country dared to print the French version of his third book. Produced instead by a Swiss firm in the autumn of 2001, it met with great success. In July of that year, Ratzinger presided over a three-day symposium on the theology of the liturgy at the traditional French monastery of Fontgombault. Shortly afterwards, a lengthy interview in the Parisian newspaper La Croix enabled Ratzinger to maintain his position vigorously in the French capital. This aroused the ire of the National Pastoral Centre of the Liturgy at Paris. From within the pages of its review Maison-Dieu, Jean-Marie Gy, O.P., liturgical consultant to the French episcopate, lobbed a derogatory piece at Ratzinger. A previous director of Maison-Dieu, the late Mgr. Martimort reacted in similar fashion when the traditional French monastery of Le Barroux translated and published a book of writings of Mgr. Klaus Gamber, director of the Liturgical Institute at Regensburg. (Ratzinger's eulogy of Gamber on the occasion of his death was also included in this French edition of Gamber's book.) This decrying of the liturgical tradition of Regensburg, upheld by Gamber and Ratzinger, accentuates the extent of the traditional/progressive dichotomy.

Fr. John Mole, O.M.I. 1911-2004

Father John Mole, the author of the accompanying article, died in February, 2004, at age 93.

John Witherspoon Mole was born in England, raised in Calgary, but educated by the Jesuits in Leeds, England. In 1940 he entered the Oblates of Mary Immaculate; he was ordained in Ottawa in 1947, and said his first Mass at the monastery of the Sisters of the Precious Blood--to which he would have a great devotion all his life. In 1959, he induced the University of Ottawa to found the first academic course in communications in Canada. In response to the Second Vatican Council's document on this topic, he launched the quarterly Christian Communications in 1962, and edited it until 1974.

In the wake of the Council, religious life and morality were turned on their heads by noted Catholic educators. In his writing, Father Mole tried to stem moral and theological corruption in the Church. He came into conflict with Pierre Trudeau when the latter introduced his bill to legalize abortion. Father Mole was one of very few Catholic clergy who uncompromisingly rejected this heinous bill. In 1999, he was given an award by Human Life International's Father Paul Marx, O.S.B., a great crusader for the unborn.

In response to the abortion holocaust, Father Mole founded and edited a quarterly, the Precious Blood Banner, in 1989. He went on to criticize the liturgical confusion in the Church in a book entitled Whither the Roman Rite? (2000). Considering the Novus Ordo a valid Mass but a flawed rite, he recommended that the Tridentine Mass be allowed to exist with it.

In an obituary notice, Michael Sheridan of Ottawa praised his humour, wit and wisdom, and his prolific work throughout his 93 years. Sheridan hopes that the organization Father Mole founded, Word of God Hour, Inc., will reproduce many of the outstanding talks he gave over the years. He was a great warrior in the cause of justice. Requiescat in pacem.