Sandro Magister oppfatter pave Benedikts hilsen til de italienske biskopene nylig (som jeg nevnte her), som en kritikk av deres holdning til liturgien. Han skriver:
The Pope Rattles the Bishops: «Learn from Saint Francis»
He really knew what true liturgical reform is, writes Benedict XVI in a message that is a severe rebuke to the Italian Catholic hierarchy. Where, in the liturgical field, Ratzinger’s opponents continue to prevail.
The last two popes, on numerous occasions, have pointed to the Italian Church and its episcopate as a «model» for other nations. There is one field, however, in which the Italian Church does not shine. It is that of the liturgy.
This was made clear by the severe lesson that Benedict XVI gave to the Italian bishops gathered in Assisi for their general assembly from November 8-11, an assembly centered on an examination of the new translation of the Roman missal.
In the message that he addressed to the bishops on the eve of the assembly, pope Joseph Ratzinger did not limit himself to greetings and good wishes. He was the one to dictate the criteria of a «true» liturgical reform.
«Every true reformer,» he wrote, «is obedient to the faith: he does not act in an arbitrary manner, he does not appropriate any discretion over the rite; he is not the owner, but the custodian of the treasury instituted by the Lord and entrusted to us. The whole Church is present in every liturgy: adhering to its form is a condition of authenticity for what is celebrated.» …
… (a bishop) who distinguished himself by proclaiming a sort of protest «bereavement» when in 2007 Benedict XVI issued the motu proprio «Summorum Pontificum,» which liberalized the use of the ancient rite of the Mass.
In electing the members of the commission for the liturgy, the Italian bishops have always given preference to their colleagues of this tendency, whose inspiration comes from the architects of the liturgical reform following Vatican Council II, in particular Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro and the main conceptualizer and executor of that reform, Archbishop Annibale Bugnini.
The negative results of that reform are what Benedict XVI is working against. But Paul VI had already seen its abuses, and was so pained by them that in 1975 he removed Bugnini and sent him into exile in Iran as the apostolic nuncio there.
But the sentiment of the majority of the Italian bishops and clergy continues to be influenced by the «Bugnini line.» The excesses seen in other European Churches are rare in Italy, but the predominant style of celebration is more «assembly-focused» than «turned toward the Lord,» as pope Ratzinger wants it to be. …