The Pope also called for a renewed commitment by the Church to the Second Vatican Council's vision of the liturgy.

He said this in a message to a symposium devoted to the 50th anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium - the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy

The Pope called for a renewal in the "commitment to receive and implement" the teaching of Sacrosanctum Concilium more fully.

One of the main aims of the document was to achieve greater lay participation in the Church's liturgy.

Citing St Paul's Letter to the Romans, the Pontiff also spoke of the importance of "true spiritual worship" in which the faithful offer themselves as a living sacrifice.

A liturgy "detached from spiritual worship," he said, might seem "almost magical" and have "an empty aestheticism".

Citing Pope Benedict XVI, he added that the liturgy transforms Christians from within.

At the conclusion of his message, which was addressed to the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Pope Francis called for "a renewed willingness to move forward on the path indicated by the conciliar fathers, because much still remains to be done for a correct and complete assimilation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy".

The Pope said that the Constitution and postconciliar Church teaching "have made us better understand the liturgy in light of divine revelation" and said that Christ is the protagonist of every liturgical celebration.

Quoting the Constitution, Pope Francis said that "in the liturgy the whole public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and his members".

Sources

• Catholic Culture
• National Catholic Register
• Image: CNN

He made this request in an article published in Brazilian daily, Jornal do Brasil, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of John XXIII's death: "The categories set out in the Second Vatican Council no longer adequately represent today's reality."

According to Boff, there needs to be a new Council that represents all Christianity and it should "identify the ways in which we can work together to create new awareness regarding respect, worship and care for all ecosystems."

Interestingly, people have been pondering on a Vatican III for 36 whole years.

The idea sprang up for the first time in the summer of 1977, at a meeting of theologians from Concilium magazine held at the University of Notre Dame in the U.S. Swiss theologian Hans Kueng, the Dutchman Edward Schillebeeckx and Italian theologians Giuseppe Alberigo and Rosino Gibellini were among those present.

The meeting between theologians and Liberation theologians set the goals for the future Council:

• that a Pope would resign at the age of 75;
• that the Synod of Bishops would no longer act as an advisory but a deliberative body;
• that priestly celibacy would be abolished and
• that women would enjoy equality in Church life, including the right to be ordained priests.

But it would be wrong to assume that the proposal is only made now and again by liberals who are intent on speeding up reforms.

Surprisingly, in the early 90s, some conservative circles faithful to Wojtyla threw the idea on the table.

The English historian Paul Johnson suggested a new Council should be held, in an article published by American monthly, Catholic World Report. Italian philosopher, Rocco Buttiglione, a friend and collaborator of John Paul II echoed this idea in an interview in which he mentioned the preparation of "material for another great Council."

Another figure who was keen on the idea was ultra-conservative Austrian bishop, Kurt Krenn.

In terms of the aims of a potential Third Vatican Council, the dream nurtured by Wojtyla's most orthodox supporters was the complete opposite to that described by Kueng in 1977. Continue reading

Image: Blogspot

What makes for spiritual growth? In my childhood and adolescence, it was all about going to Sunday Mass, confessing your sins once a month at least, going to Mass through the week or even attending Sunday benediction, an active interest in cultivating a devotional life fostered by the many movements that still thrived till the 1960s. These were the emblems of a thriving Catholic faith.

Mass attendance was four times what it is today, members of pious societies filling the pews at their designated Masses. Clerics in collars and soutanes and, when called on, bishops and 'experts' in particular devotions, fed the faithful with the treasures of these traditions of piety. There was always an 'authority' who could explain the mysteries and put anxious minds and hearts at rest. Authority was a big factor in Church and society. Read more

Sources

• Michael Kelly in Eureka Street

Fr Michael Kelly SJ was founding publisher of Eureka Street and is now executive director of the Bangkok-based UCAN Catholic news agency.

On January 25, 1959, the newly elected Pope John XXIII invited 18 cardinals from the Vatican bureaucracy to attend a service at the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. He told them he planned to summon a global church council. The horrified cardinals were speechless, which the Pope mischievously chose to interpret as devout assent.

But, in reality, the Vatican bureaucrats, known as the Curia, were aghast. The Pope, 77, had been elected purely as a caretaker, but here he was indulging a novel, unpredictable, dangerous and, above all, they believed, unnecessary notion.

In their view it would create ungovernable expectations and might even lead to changes. And if there were to be changes - always undesirable - then the Curia would manage them without any outside intervention, as they had for centuries.

They regrouped and fought back. If they could not avoid the council, then they would control it. They proposed 10 commissions controlled by Curia members to run the council, which would discuss 70 documents prepared by the Curia. Everything was designed to reinforce the status quo.

The Curia were right to worry. What Pope John unleashed, now known as Vatican II, was the most momentous religious event since Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation 450 years earlier.

"It was a revolution," says American theologian John Markey. "It was the most fundamental shift in self-understanding by the church in 1500 years. It is not over yet."

The winds of change proved more like a tornado, leaving almost nothing untouched. It is difficult for people under 60 to grasp how radical, how wide-ranging and how deep the effects were because they do not remember the church as it was before the council - "frozen in a time warp", as Jesuit priest Gerald O'Collins told The Age. Read more

Sources

• The Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: Church of the Good Shepherd

"Co-responsibility," he said, "requires a change in mentality, particularly with regard to the role of the laity in the Church."

"It is important, therefore," he added, "that a mature and committed laity be united, who are able to make their own specific contribution to the Church's mission, in accordance with the ministries and tasks each one has in the life of the Church, and always in cordial communion with the bishops."

The Pope's wish to see laity co-responsible for the Church was expressed in his message to the 6th Assembly of the International Catholic Action Forum, being held in Romania.

Recalling that the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church spoke of the laity-clergy relationship as "familiar", Pope Benedict said it is "important to deepen and to live out this spirit of profound communion in the Church, which characterised the early Christian community, as the book of the Acts of the Apostles attests".

"Feel the commitment to work for the Church's mission to be your own," he told the lay group, "through prayer, through study, through active participation in ecclesial life, through an attentive and positive gaze at the world, in the continual search for the signs of the times."

Encouraging "serious and daily" ongoing formation, the Pope said the laity are "called to be courageous and credible witnesses in every sphere of society, so that the Gospel might be the light that brings hope in difficult situations, in troubles and in the darkness that men today so often find along the path of life".

Sources:

Zenit

Catholic News Agency

Image: The Telegraph

50 years on, we gather to celebrate as Catholics, confident that the gifts of the Spirit will assist us in proclaiming the Good News to each other, to our fellow believers, and to our fellow citizens no matter what their religious beliefs or none. Let's recall that it was the week of Christian Unity in 1959 when John XXIII gathered with a small selection of his cardinals in the Benedictine chapterhouse beside the Basilica of Saint Paul-Outside-the-Walls when he said, 'I am prompted to open my mind and heart to you, because of this feast of the Conversion of St Paul. I want to tell you frankly about several points of planned pastoral activity which have emerged in my thoughts because of my brief three months here within these church circles in Rome. In doing so, I am thinking of the care of the souls of the faithful in these modern times.' Continue reading

Sources

• Frank Brennan SJ in Eureka Street
• Image: Caput Mundi