In an interview with the traditionalist blog "Messa in Latino", Andrea Grillo, a professor of sacramental theology at the Benedictine University of Sant'Anselmo in Rome, highlighted the importance of unity of faith through the liturgy.

Grillo asserts that while traditionalists claim to be "faithful to Rome" by adhering to the pre-conciliar liturgy, they actually conflict with Rome's communal liturgical standards.

He stressed "In order to be faithful to Rome, one must adopt a 'ritual language' that corresponds to what Rome has communally established".

Grillo is recognised for his influence on the motu proprio "Traditionis Custodes" issued by Pope Francis.

Traditionis Custodes restricts the use of the 1962 missal addressing the division caused by the pre-conciliar liturgy, re-authorised under certain conditions by Benedict XVI in 2007.

Grillo's 2020 open letter advocating stricter regulations on the Traditional Latin Mass partially informed this motu proprio.

Rejecting nostalgia in liturgy

Grillo refutes the notion that what was sacred to previous generations should remain sacred today, labelling it as nostalgia.

He argues that this perspective traps the Church in a specific historical period rather than focusing on the essence of faith. He cites the diverse liturgical practices within the Eastern Catholic Churches and regional variants of the Roman rite in Milan and Spain as examples of true tradition that adapts and evolves.

"Nobody would ever come up with the idea that, on a universal level, someone is free to remain in one version of the Roman rite or in the version replaced by a general reform" Grillo states.

Grillo believes that the Church's crisis cannot be solved by reverting to a "society of honour" - a concept described by Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor as characterised by social hierarchies.

Grillo emphasises that faith is not strengthened by adhering to old customs or languages but by looking towards the future.

"Following Christ does not mean joining a high-society club or association in order to speak a foreign language or to identify with the past and cultivate reactionary ideals" he said.

Sources

English Katholisch

Everyone has strong opinions based on years of personal experience.

In the 1960s and '70s, Pope Paul VI implemented revolutionary liturgical reforms laid out by the Second Vatican Council, but after his death in 1978, the Vatican put a stop to the changes.

It is now time for a second phase.

In a previous column, I recommended that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome update the process by which it considers liturgical questions.

I argued for more transparency and consultation in keeping with the principle of collegiality promoted by Vatican II and the principle of synodality promoted by Pope Francis.

The purpose of a transparent and collegial process is to develop good liturgy that is supported by a consensus within the community.

In this column, I offer my own ideas on improving liturgy as an attempt to get the conversation going, inviting liturgical scholars and others to consider my proposals (transparently and collegially).

Inculturation

The Roman rite was developed in Italy and Western Europe centuries ago. St. John Paul II wrote beautifully about the importance of inculturating Christianity — grounding it in cultures beyond its European base.

The unanswered question is how to carry out inculturation in concrete terms in the liturgy today.

Each bishops' conference needs to be encouraged to gather scholars, poets, musicians, artists and pastors to develop liturgies for their specific cultures.

When liturgy is out of touch with local culture, it becomes boring and dies.

These new liturgies need to be beta-tested before adoption.

Ministry

Bishops' conferences should discuss whether new liturgical ministries are needed and who may be called to perform liturgy.

• Can the work of liturgy be separated from the work of administration?
• Do all liturgical leaders have to be celibate, male, full-time employees?
• Can a deacon or layperson anoint the sick or hear confessions? In an age of declining numbers of priests, such questions must be faced.

Ecumenism

Besides liturgical renewal, Vatican II emphasized improving relations with other Christian churches.

One way to do that is to move our liturgical ceremonies closer together.

Is the Eucharist a sign of the existing unity among churches, or can it also be a means of fostering unity? The former excludes intercommunion; the latter does not.

The church might also allow Catholics' spouses to share Communion if they share our faith in the Eucharist.

In 2015, a Lutheran asked Francis what she should do at Communion when she joins her Catholic husband at Mass.

The pope answered sympathetically, but indicated his reluctance to changing church policy.

He ended by saying, "Talk to the Lord and then go forward."

Many took this to mean the woman should follow her conscience.

Theologically, if a couple is united in the sacrament of matrimony, how can we not allow them to be united at the Eucharist?

Pastorally, the practice of barring the non-Catholic parent from Communion gives the children the impression that the church thinks their parent is a bad person.

Translations

When he headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, insisted that liturgical texts be translated word for word from the Latin.

Experienced translators and liturgical scholars disagreed, and consider the resulting English translation woefully inadequate.

There was another, better translation done in 1998, which was approved by the English-speaking bishops' conferences but rejected by Rome.

It is more important that the meaning of the text be communicated clearly than that the translation be literal.

There is no reason the hierarchy could not allow priests to use the 1998 translation as an alternative, allowing the priest decide which translation works best in his parish.

This option would be limited to the priest's prayers at Mass, since it would be too confusing to change the people's responses without extensive preparation.

Pre-Vatican II Mass

After the Pauline reforms of the liturgy, it was presumed that the "Tridentine" or Latin Mass would fade away. Bishops were given the authority to suppress it in their dioceses, but some people clung to the old liturgy to the point of schism.

Benedict took away the bishops' authority and mandated that any priest could celebrate the Tridentine Mass whenever he pleased.

It is time to return to bishops the authority over the Tridentine liturgy in their dioceses.

The church needs to be clear that it wants the unreformed liturgy to disappear and will only allow it out of pastoral kindness to older people who do not understand the need for change.

Children and young people should not be allowed to attend such Masses.

Eucharistic prayers

The Eucharistic prayer is sadly given little attention by the faithful or many priests reciting it.

Too many focus exclusively on the consecration of the bread and wine while ignoring the meaning of the prayer.

There are currently 13 approved Eucharistic prayers, though most priests use the shortest, Eucharistic Prayer II.

The Eucharist developed out of the experience of the Last Supper, which was a Passover meal.

As a result, Eucharistic prayers were modelled on the Jewish Passover or Sabbath prayers (Berakah) said by the father of a family at the meal.

They begin by remembering and giving thanks and praise to God for his actions on behalf of his people. For Jews, that begins with creation and includes God's works recounted in the Old Testament.

Like the Passover meal, the Eucharist is a sacrificial meal through which the family is united with God and one another. It is also an opportunity to remember and renew their covenant with God.

We give thanks to God for his actions through history, especially for Jesus' life, death, resurrection and promise to return. Through the Eucharist we renew our covenant with the Father through Christ.

More important than the transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ is the transformation of the community into the body of Christ so we can live out the covenant we have through Christ.

We do not worship Jesus, in this sense; with Jesus we worship the Father and ask to be transformed by the power of the spirit into the body of Christ.

The church needs more and better Eucharistic prayers based on our renewed understanding of the Eucharist.

It would also be nice to have Eucharistic prayers that use more biblical language.

When the Gospel reading is from Luke, the priest could use a Eucharistic prayer evoking the language and theology of Luke. A unique "preface" for each Sunday that picked up themes from the Scripture readings could also tie the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist more closely together.

Other Eucharistic prayers might develop other themes — the church's concern for the poor, or for justice, peace, healing and the environment. All of these new prayers would require beta testing before adoption.

Kiss of peace

Originally, the kiss of peace occurred at the conclusion of the Liturgy of the Word, where it symbolized the agreement of the community to commit itself to what it had heard in the Scriptures.

With proper explanation, it would be a good idea to provide this ancient practice as an optional alternative to its current place before Communion.

Fermentum

After the Lord's Prayer, the priest breaks off a piece of the host and drops it into the cup. In ancient times bishops instead sent this piece, called the "fermentum," to parishes in their dioceses, whose pastors would put it in their chalices as a symbol of communion.

The practice could be revived during Holy Week, when the bishop could send the fermentum from Chrism Mass, in Holy Week, for pastors to drop in their chalices on Holy Thursday or Easter Sunday. On special occasions (perhaps Eucharistic Congresses), the pope could share fermentum with bishops around the world, who would place it in their chalices.

And as ecumenical relations improve, the pope might share the fermentum with the Ecumenical Patriarch or other Christian bishops. Popes have already shared episcopal rings and croziers with non-Catholic bishops; sharing the frementum would be a logical next step.

I doubt I will see many of these reforms in my lifetime, but we need to begin talking about the future of liturgical reform. The conversation will reveal what we think about Christ, the church and our place in the world.

• Thomas Reese SJ is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, and a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter, and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America. First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

For this reason it deserves an analysis that is not only one of historical-theological context—and not just from the point of view of its possible consequences for the liturgical texts in English—but also an analysis of the institutional context in which it was decided and published.

The establishment of national bishops' conferences, to which the apostolic letter gives back authority in matters of translations of liturgical texts, was the most important and effective institutional reform of the Second Vatican Council.

Even before the council's "Decree on the Bishops' Pastoral Office in the Church" (1965), which mandated the creation of national bishops' conferences in all nations, the "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy," approved in December 1963, relied on this new (though certainly present in different forms in the early centuries of Christianity) governing structure in the Catholic Church.

This was part of the council fathers' larger vision for a new relationship between Rome and the local churches.

In this sense, Francis addresses the issue of the translations of liturgical texts in the context of his vision for the church and the role of the Roman Curia.

"Magnum Principium" also continues a pattern that has proven one of the most interesting elements of this pontificate.

Francis' efforts to reform the Roman Curia and decentralize the government of the Roman Catholic Church have tended to bypass and evade the role of the congregations of the Roman Curia.

For example, "Magnum Principium" was issued by the pope motu proprio ("on his own initiative"),not as an instruction of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments or a joint document of more than one congregation.

It is also notable that "Magnum Principium" was published during a papal trip abroad.

It was published the day Francis was in Medellín, Colombia, where the foundational event for the post-Vatican II church in Latin America took place: the continental conference of CELAM (the council of the Roman Catholic bishops of Latin America) in 1968.

If it was a coincidence, it was a very interesting one. Continue reading

Sources

• America magazine article by Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University.
• Image: Catholic Herald