I en kommentar til en engelsk, katolsk blog har en gammel prest skrevet en bekjennelse, som har blitt kommentert flere steder på nettet. Han beklager at han gjennomførte de store liturgiske forandringene i 1970 uten å bry seg noe særlig om følelsene til de katolikkene som syntes det var vanskelig å forlate den gamle messen. Liturgiske frandringer bør aldri skje for fort og dramatiske og uten sensitibitet for folks reaksjoner. Dette er pave Benedikts prinsipp, også nå når han ønsker å snu klokka (i alle fall et stykke) tilbake. Slik skriver den 83 år gamle presten:
As a priest in my 83rd year I have to make a confession. I implemented the Pauline reforms without understanding or sensitivity. I did it relying on the advice and coercion of my bishop and diocesan authorities. As I did it I witnessed the hurt and pain of many of the devout, so many of the ardent became lukewarm, many lapsed. I thought I acted rightly but in my 59 years of priesthood I recognise that that which we hoped for has not come to pass.
I do welcome a careful reappraisal and assessment of what has been done since my ordination, especially by the younger clergy. In order to do that they must learn something of the spirituality that brought men of my generation in vast numbers to the seminary. In short I welcome this Merton initiative.
Incidently, in the solitude of my retirement, since last September, I have relearnt the Mass of my youth, it brings me great consolation. It is the Mass I have not celebrated out of obedience since 1970.
Fr P O’Rourke
Father Z skriver også om denne presten, og i et par av (de 80) kommentarene til hans post leser vi:
Truly humbling to hear from the other side of the rail. I had so often heard Catholics, even people who were mere children of 7 or 8 talk of the horrifying experience when it first happened.
My sister tells me that she was only 8 and after all they were taught – to never touch Our Lord with their own fingers – had to suppress that awful feeling to obey the nun who now ordered them to receive in the hand, standing. This was before sanction was given to the practice. Traumatic is the only way to describe it from so many people I’ve heard from.
I had never thought about what the priests must have been feeling at the same time.
It also illustrates something else. Priests went along with it because they thought it was the right thing to do at the time. It shows tremedous courage to reflect back openly and honestly, and to work towards restoring what truly is right.
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I entered the seminary in Melbourne, Australia, in 1970. I remember hearing people say in those years that they had stopped going to Mass because it wasn’t the same. I didn’t know what they meant. Surely the Mass is the Mass. I still believe that the Mass is the Mass. But now I know what they meant. On August 19 I am 30 years ordained. On that morning – praise God! – I will celebrate my first Mass in the extraordinary form. And the “old” form has altered the way that I celebrate the novus ordo.
Slike enkeltstående vitnesbyrd er, selvsagt, interessante. Men de er neppe representative. Det lar seg sikkert hoste opp et og annet vitnesbyrd fra en som først var motstander av NO, som senere ble tilhenger…
Da synes jeg at du kan ta på deg oppgaven med å legge frem disse vitnesbyrdene.