John Allen hadde nylig et langt intervju med pavens seremonimester, Msgr. Guido Marini (som kan leses her), om Kirkens liturgi, og etter intervjuet konkluderer Allen i en kortere artikkel (som kan leses her) at pave Benedikt rett og slett er tålmodig, og at han ikke på nytt vil forstyrre og skremme de troende med mange liturgiforandringer – disse skal få vokse fram naturlig og organisk:
For the better part of five years, plenty of experts on Catholic liturgy have been waiting for the “real” agenda of Pope Benedict XVI, known as a traditionalist on matters of worship, to emerge from beneath a façade of patience seemingly built on dropping hints rather than imposing sweeping new rules. Now, however, the pope’s own liturgist insists that the patient façade is actually the agenda.
One month ago, that papal liturgist, Msgr. Guido Marini, sparked wide debate with his public call for a “reform of the reform,” suggesting to some a desire to roll back the clock on liturgical reforms associated with the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). However, Marini insists that no such rollback is underway, and no dramatic new rules are in the works.
When Benedict employs more traditional touches in his own liturgies, such as giving Communion on the tongue, those amount to “proposals,” Marini said, intended to gradually influence the church’s liturgical culture, and are not harbingers of forthcoming papal edicts.
“I don’t believe that the liturgy of the church needs any radical changes or distortions,” Marini said, saying he “fully” agrees with a comment from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, that Catholic liturgy needs a “period of stability” after the wave of dramatic, and at times contentious, reforms that flowed from Vatican II.