Fr. Hunwicke har på sin blogg en artikkelserie om liturgien, som tar utgangspunkt i en artikkel i januar 2011 nummeret av «Worship», skrevet av en amerikansk kirkerettsekspert, Chad Glendinning. Hovedpunktet i artikkelen ser ut til å være at pave Bendikt tar feil når han sier at den tradisjonelle latinske messen aldri var blitt fobudt, og at paven derfor også tar feil når han i dokumentet Summorum Pontificum i 2007 tillater en friere bruk av den tradisjonelle messen. Fr. Hunwicke angriper dette argumentet først og fremst ved å hevde at vi her ikke i særlig grad snakker om kirkerett, men heller om liturgiske lover. Her er et utdrag av det han skriver om dette:
My intention is to examine the earlier teaching of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger on the post-Conciliar events and to suggest that his judgement as Pope upon the non-abrogation of the Old Missal is a theological statement as important as, and indeed very closely related to, his teaching in his justly celebrated Address to the Roman Curia about a Hermeneutic of Continuity. Unlike Glendinning and the canonists he quotes, I see Papa Ratzinger’s pronouncement in this matter as another sign of his very considerable greatness. And as an ecumenical step of very profound significance. …
«The liturgy cannot be compared to a piece of technical equipment, something manufactured, but to a plant, something organic that grows and whose laws of growth determine the possibilities of further development». Notice that he uses the term ‘laws’ in a way which has nothing whatsoever to do with enacted legislation. He is discerning principles of ecclesial life which go deeper than Canon Law. …. After the Second Vatican Council, the impression arose that the pope really could do anything in liturgical matters, especially if he were acting on the mandate of an ecumenical council. Eventually, the idea of the givenness of the liturgy, the fact that one cannot do with it what one will, faded from the consciousness of the West. …. The pope’s authority is bound to the Tradition of faith, and that also applies to the liturgy. It is not ‘manufactured’ by the authorities. Even the pope can only be a humble servant of its lawful development and abiding integrity and identity.» …. It seems to me that Cardinal Ratzinger’s concerns are less with Canon Law than with an unwritten law inscribed in the very nature of the Church (the embodiment of authentic tradition), which trumps the law embodied in transient canonical codes and enactments. …
(Fr. Hunwickes artikkelserie kan leses her: del 1 – del 2 – del 3 – del 4– del 5.)