TLM

En katolikk i Zagreb i Kroatia har i et par år prøvd å få tillatelse til at den gamle messen lan feires der, uten å lykkes. Han skriver på engelsk om hva som har skjedd her. (De hadde fått flere lange, men nokså underlige svar fra en av hjelpebiskopene; det var visst umulig nå og i all framtid å fåtillatelse til å feire den tradisjonelle messen i Kroatia.) Men han skriver også i dag at han nå har fått følgende brev fra Vatikanets kommisjon Ecclesia Dei, datert 25/11-10:

This Pontifical Commission would like to thank you for your kind letter of 8 November 2010.

This Pontifical Commission is able to inform you that after contacting His Eminence Josip Cardinal Bozanić, it has received the assurance of His Eminence that the Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form will be celebrated in one of the churches in Zagreb.

Fra Rorate Cæli.

Vatikanradioens tyske avdeling har lagt ut et intervju med Msgr. Guido Pozzo i Ecclesia Dei, med mange spørsmål om den gamle messen. Msgr. Pozzi sier at interessen for den gamle liturgien er størst i Europa, Amerika og Australia (aller mest i Frankrike, sier han også). Og på spørsmålet om hvorfor noen ikke er så glade for denne nye interessen for den gamle messen sier han:

„Es gibt Bischöfe und Priester, die in der Nachfrage nach dem alten Ritus vor allem das Risiko einer Sehnsucht nach dem Ästhetischen, rein Ornamentalen, Formalistischen sehen. Ich will nicht ausschließen, dass das in manchen Fällen stimmt, aber generell zeigt das doch eine Art Vorurteil. Denn der alte Messritus hat einen tiefen Reichtum, der nicht nur respektiert, sondern auch wiederentdeckt werden muss, zum Vorteil der Liturgie, wie man sie auch heute feiert. Diese Vorurteile und Widerstände müssen durch eine Änderung der forma mentis, der Gesinnung, überwunden werden. Es braucht eine angemessenere liturgische Bildung.“

Han får også spørsmål om den gamle messen i Peterskirken. Der feires det flere (private) daglige messer slik, sier han – men han kan ikke svare på om pave Benedikt kommer til å feire den gamle messen:

„Mit dem Inkrafttreten des Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum steht die außerordentliche Form der Messe nicht mehr unter Indult, so wie davor, sondern sie ist von den Normen des Motu proprio geregelt. Also werden im Petersdom, so wie in allen anderen Kirchen, die Normen des Motu proprio angewendet.“

Das heißt, auch in der Sakristei von Sankt Peter steht alles bereit, um nach dem alten Ritus feiern zu können?
„Ja, soweit mir bekannt ist. In der Tat feiern dort viele Priester morgens die Messe im alten Ritus, auch mit Messdiener.“

Wird Papst Benedikt eines Tages eine große Messe in der außerordentlichen Form feiern?
„Ich glaube, die Frage ist dem falschen Adressaten gestellt!“

Dette intervjuet blir allerede diskutert (på engelsk) på TLM-bloggen, hos Father Z. og hos Rorate cæli.

En engelsk prest skriver på sin blogg at liturgien i løpet av bare noen få år er blitt mye bedre – roligere og mer fokusert på Gud:

A strange thing is going on in the Church at the moment. Former liturgical enemies seem to be reconciling, lions lie down with lambs, all that sort of thing.

Going back a mere handful of years—well within the lifetime of this blog, at least in its earlier incarnation—the lines of battle were well drawn between those faithful Catholics who thought we should adhere faithfully to the liturgical books of Paul VI, and ‘those attached to the former books’, as Pope John Paul put it.

Now, of course, it is not a case of ‘former books’, for Pope Benedict has made both forms of the Roman Rite perfectly current, hoping, it is said, to recreate the Roman Rite anew without legislation or coercion. It will take time, but it is beginning to work.

To begin with, there is the more solemn style of celebration that he has introduced. We saw some excellent examples during the Papal visit to the UK. Some grumbled at the less traditional aspects of the Masses at Bellahouston and Birmingham, but really they should be comparing the whole thing to the Masses during the visit of Pope John Paul. The atmosphere was entirely different, … …

Ting skjer også ganske hurtig mht den tradisjonelle latinske messen, skriver han (men jeg kan ikke si at jeg ser dette i Norge så langt):

A few days ago, I met a brother priest at the seminary whom I had not seen for some time. He is, shall we say, not unknown in Catholic media circles. No, it isn’t Mgr Loftus. In passing he happened to mention to me that he was starting to celebrate the traditional Mass from time to time. I was taken aback, because although I am aware that this priest is on the more orthodox side of things, I had never associated him in any way with traddydom. He saw my surprise, and said quietly ‘yes, well, it’s the future, isn’t it?’

He’s not the only one. In one southern English diocese, about twenty per cent of the priests now celebrate the traditional Mass at least from time to time. Most of these are in their forties or younger. They haven’t stopped celebrating the Ordinary form as the norm, but, one might say that the Missa Normativa is no longer the Missa Formativa in their life or the life of their parish. I mean that behind their celebration of the Mass of Paul VI lies a positive experience of the Mass of Pius V ….

Kommende søndag er det siste søndag i kirkeåret, og i den tradisjonelle latinske messen kalles den siste søndag etter pinse – for der er Kristi kongefest siste søndag i oktober. Det blir sunget messe i St Joseph kirke i Oslo (Akersveien) denne søndagen, og jeg skal selv feire den – som vikar for p. Reidar Voith.

Alle messens tekster kan leses her.

I ett av sine nyhetsbrev skriver Windsor Latin Mass Society om et eksempel på hvordan en brudemesse blir feiret etter Novus ordo, på en måte som fikk mange til å tro at det var den tradisjonelle latinske messen som ble feiret:

… Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI has on several occasions spoken of the need for a “Hermeneutic of Continuity” between the Extraordinary and Ordinary Forms of Holy Mass. By this he means that the Ordinary Form should demonstrate a lineage to its roots in the classic Roman liturgy. This wedding did exactly that. Rubrics of the Ordinary Form were followed precisely as in the Missal. If something was unclear or unspecified, the Tridentine custom was maintained. While there were characteristics unmistakably from the new rite, such as the presence of a concelebrant and the inclusion of Prayers of the Faithful, it might surprise some of our readers to see just what is possible and permissible in the modern liturgy:

• Celebration of the Mass ad oriéntem at the High Altar
• Celebrant and concelebrant wore Roman “fiddleback” vestments, maniples, and birettas
• Introit, Offertory, and Communion Antiphons, Gradual (instead of Responsorial Psalm) and Alleluia chanted by the choir from the 1974 Graduále Románum
• Chanted Opening Prayer, Prayer Over the Gifts, Preface, and Prayer After Communion
• Chanted Kyrie, Glória, and Credo (the latter because Sunday Propers were chosen for the 5:00 PM Mass time)
• Readings set to Gregorian Chant, one in English, one in French, and the Holy Gospel in Latin.
• Eucharistic Prayer I, the Roman Canon
• Holy Communion distributed at the Communion Rail

… In 1998, then-Cardinal Ratzinger mentioned in a speech that the average Catholic would find far less difference between the Extraordinary Form and the Ordinary Form celebrated as this wedding was, than between such a Mass and the Ordinary Form as typically celebrated in Western countries. Indeed, the experience, while in many ways different from the Extraordinary Form, was not all that different rubrically. If we exclude content differences in the texts of the Mass and focus on the externals only – which are what most people will remember from the Mass – there were many similarities. So many so, that a priest in attendance asked, “Is this what they call a ‘Tridentine’ Mass?”

Les hele dette nyhetsbrevet HER (pdf). (Samtidig må vi kanskje spørre oss om det er ønskelig eller nyttig å gjøre de to formene av messen så like.)

Jeg nevnte sist uke at vi hadde funnet noen messekort fra ca 1960 i et gammelsk skap i vår menighet – og spurte om noen vet hvordan disse kortene i praksis ble brukt, uten å få noe skikkelig svar. Men vi fant også andre og eldre kort av samme type, og nedenfor kan man ca 1/3 av disse.

Det ble i går funnet en del gamle «messekort» i vår menighet, og jeg presenterer knapt halvparten av dem nedenfor (rekkefølgen ovebfra og nedover skal være rett, men høyre kommer dessverre før venstre). Er det noen av leserne som vet hva man brukte slike kort til? De må være brukt i katekesen på en eller annen måte (ikke for prsten), men jeg vet ikke hvordan. (Vi har 8-10 kopier av hvert av kortene.)

Fra Martin Mosebachs foredrag om messen i starten av september (se hele foredraget her – og mitt forrige utdrag her) tar jeg også med følgende utdrag:

Viktige gester og tydelig fokus i den gamle messen – mye er blitt borte

… Prior to the changes a whole garland of reverent gestures had accumulated around the sacrament of the altar, and these gestures gave a most eloquent sermon, constantly reminding priest and people of the Lord’s mysterious presence in the [consecrated] Bread and Wine. We can be sure of this: no theological indoctrination on the part of so-called «enlightened» theologians did as much damage to the belief of western Catholics as did communion in the hand. It immediately abolished all the former precautions [care] with regard to particles from the Host. Is it impossible, then, to receive communion in the hand reverently? Of course it is possible. But once the etiquette of reverence exists and has had its beneficial, elevating influence on the consciousness of the faithful, it stands to reason that withdrawing the etiquette gave a clear signal (and by no means only to simple believers). What was this signal? That the earlier degree of reverence was not required. This in turn, logically, produced the conviction — a conviction not initially made explicit — that there was nothing present that might command respect.

Om pave Benedikts innsikt i liturgien – og hans motu proprio

Even before his election, our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI was one of the very few bishops who knew that the radical break with tradition represented a great danger for the Church. Now, in his famous Motu proprio he has asserted that the Church’s Traditional Rite was never forbidden because, by its very nature, it could not be forbidden. The Pope is-not the master of the liturgy but its protector. The Church never forsakes its inherited rites, which it regards as a spiritual heritage. On the contrary, it urges the faithful to study them and make their hidden treasures available here and now.

The Pope had no intention of ignoring the past – a futile enterprise in any case – and pretending that the last forty years did not happen. He took a decision that was aimed, above all, at reconciling the reform party with the defenders of Catholic tradition. According to the papal statement there is now one single Roman Rite in two forms, the «ordinary» and the «extraordinary». The two forms stand side by side in a relationship of equality. Either of these two forms can be celebrated by any priest at any time without episcopal permission. They are related to each other in such a way that the celebrant of the New Rite (the «ordinary» form) is meant to learn from the Traditional Form (the «extraordinary» form) how the Church’s tradition understands Holy Mass. The Pope has urged the Church to re-examine the old books of rites and learn, from the fathers and saints of past centuries, how to perform the solemn work of making God present. We are all summoned, then, to give thanks for the rescuing of the traditional Missal, which was almost lost, to open it – perhaps even at the eleventh hour – and read how the Church, and all those faithful people to whom we all owe our faith, used to pray. …

Hva er blitt borte fra liturgien?

… we need again the profession of faith that Jesus is «God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.» In Germany, at least, this Creed has disappeared almost entirely from worship, as has the genuflexion at the central article of our faith, «et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria virgine et homo factus est.» With wonder and astonishment let us read the Orations, especially those of the Sundays after Pentecost, many of which were composed by St. Jerome himself. They are masterpieces of rhetoric [oratory], formulating theological truths that nourish meditation even outside the Mass, and uniquely giving voice to the Christian relationship between God and man. One of the greatest losses in the reform of the Mass is the loss of the Offertory prayers, during which the veiled sacrificial gifts are brought to the altar and the sacred event of the Lord’s sacrificial death begins. These prayers come from earliest times; they speak, for the first time in human history, of the dignity of man, a dignity God gave to his creatures from the very beginning, a dignity that was wondrously renewed by Jesus’ sacrificial death. The Epiclesis, too, is of the greatest importance: in it the Holy Ghost is called down upon the gifts. The Eastern Church regards this prayer as having an essential effect on the act of transforming the gifts; but the Western Church, too, knows that it is the Holy Ghost who will bring about the miracle of transubstantiation. Then comes the Roman canon, which is still contained in the new missal, though it is prayed in only a few places nowadays. …

Messens språk er viktig

… And what of the language of the Missal? The English-speaking faithful, at least, will soon be able to use correct translations that will replace the many very damaging simplifications and falsifications to be found [in the current English language missals.] Other nations, where modernist arrogance is more established, will have to wait longer for this. It is therefore all the more important for priests, as well as the faithful, to get to know the Church’s mother tongue, in which the Church’s teachings have been preserved in such clarity and conciseness. A sacred language has the advantage of being the language of no individual nation. We enter this language like entering a sacred building; it breathes a prayer that is more powerful than the prayer of the individual. It speaks a prayer that is pre-existent, that is there before us; we only have to associate ourselves with it, join ourselves to it. The Church we belong to is above time and above nations; and she is present in this sacred language.

Dagens krise er også en mulighet

It may be that the present crisis is presenting us with an opportunity: we should not allow ourselves to drown in pious routine but seek to rediscover the Church’s visible form, learn to love and defend it like a precious treasure that we thought had been lost: to our great surprise and joy we find it again, and realize – perhaps for the first time – that nothing can replace it.

Martin Mosebach

I starten av september ble det holdt en liturgisk konferanse i Colombo, Sri Lanka, med mange interessant foredrag. Alle foredragene ligger ute på nettsidene til erkebispedømmet Colombo (men sidene ser ut til å ha visse sikkerhetsproblemer), derfor er det blitt lettere å lese i alle fall ett av foredragene – av Martin Mosebach – siden det nå i sin helhet er lagt ut på NLM-bloggen.

Jeg har sett en del på Mosebachs foredrag – om den gamle messen som (nesten) var blitt borte, men nå er gjenfunnet – og tar med deler av det her, men noen egne pekere:

Om messens vesen – messen er ikke et menneskelig verk

Early Christians knew as a matter of course that the cult bequeathed to them by the Lord was far more than a repetition of the Last Supper. They knew that the Last Supper was itself only a sign of the real work of redemption that was to take effect in his anguished death on the Cross. That is why they clothed this cult in the most sublime and beautiful forms of prayer and sacrifice that mankind had developed in the thousands of years before the coming of the Redeemer. These forms had no author; they were not devised by wise men: they arose from the sensibilities of all people who desired to worship the Divinity.

Only one thing distinguished this new Christian sacrifice from its antecedents in all religions: in making present the sacrifice of Jesus, it was not so much the work of pious and religious men as the work of God himself. It was a work performed by God for the benefit of mankind. It was a work which men – even the most religious men – could not have done for themselves. They could come to it only by the grace of the Redeemer. This is a central axiom of Christian worship, without which it remains unintelligible: it is not a human work, and therefore must not be allowed to appear to be a human work. It must be seen to owe its origin not to the will of man, but to the will of God. For Catholics this should be beyond dispute. But we have to acknowledge that in many parts of the Catholic world, and particularly in the Catholic Church’s historical bedrock territory, this axiom is no longer taken for granted.

Messen er virkelig; den er ikke et symbol på noe viktigere some er usynlig

… For a Catholic this visibility is not some subordinate quality: it is not subordinated to some higher, invisible world. God himself took a human body and even bore his wounds with him into glory. Ever since the God-man saw with our eyes and heard with our ears, our senses (which are by nature so easily deceived) are fundamentally empowered to recognize truth. As a result of Christ’s Incarnation the material world is no longer the realm of illusion: now, matter can again be seen for what it is: God’s thoughts, expressed in terms of the material world.

This realization gave rise to the absolute seriousness with which the Church used to perform all the physical actions of the liturgy. Every gesture of the hand, every inclination of head or body, every genuflexion, every kiss given to sacred objects was performed seriously and deliberately. The candles, the vessels and the sacrificial gifts of bread and wine were handled with respect. The language in which the divine thoughts were expressed was regarded literally as an instance of revelation. Thus St. Basil the Great, one of the Eastern Fathers, expressly said that Holy Mass was just as much revelation as Holy Scripture.

Vatikankonsilet ville bare forsiktig justere messen

The Second Vatican Council expressly and emphatically repeated the traditional theology of the Mass; it solemnly recognized the sacred language and the sacred music (Gregorian chant, which hovers between West and East, not belonging exclusively to any one culture). The Council called only for a cautious revision of the liturgical books – the kind of revision that was usual every couple of hundred years or so, in order to prevent any misunderstandings creeping in. Let us remember what the Catholic liturgy had achieved up to this time. Beginning with Asia Minor it had conquered the Roman and Greek world. Ultimately it had triumphed in the pagan Empire, had witnessed the latter’s demise and had won over the pagan peoples of the North and East. It became the instrument of a missionary success that is unique in world history. …

Hvorfor kom de dramatiske forandringene etter konsilet?

I am somewhat inhibited when I come to give an account of the unique event that has taken place in the Church. Of course I can give plenty of sociological, political and historical reasons for this event, which in its effects can only be compared, perhaps, with the hundred years of the Iconoclastic controversy in Constantinople, though Iconoclasm affected only a small region within the vast compass of the universal Catholic Church. But I find none of these reasons convincing. I believe in the Church’s supernatural essence: this means that I cannot be satisfied with any natural explanations for the Church’s triumphs and disasters. Consequently I refuse to guess or surmise the reasons that moved many reformers of his time to surrender the Church’s inherited treasure, her very heart, and draw up a new liturgy. This new liturgy was constructed out of elements of the old liturgy but, as Pope Benedict has said, it tends in a direction that is in many ways opposed to that of the old.

Hva ble resultatet av den nye messen?

A severely simplified rite, with vernacular prayers that were theologically general and unchallenging in tone, would surely help to keep modern people within the Church. Even this notion should have made people ask questions; in the mission lands of Asia, for instance, with their advanced civilization, people had been accustomed to extraordinarily rich rites in difficult sacred languages for millennia. To withhold Catholic tradition from them was equivalent to an act of colonialist paternalism. In the Christian heartlands, however, the reform’s simplifications had devastating consequences. When, in spite of much resistance, the reform was pushed through in a last exercise of power on the part of the Roman central authorities, the faithful began to pull out of the churches. As someone wrily observed, «The reform of the Mass was intended to open the Church’s doors to those outside; what happened was that the people inside escaped and ran away!» The solemn, hieratic cult was abolished, and the attempt was made, so to speak, to run after the faithful with the sacraments. But they declined this offer. In whole areas of Europe all understanding of the sacraments disappeared. The entire development was baffling: now that every word – allegedly – could be understood, the whole eucharistic event had become somehow alien to people. The Church’s great work of making God present no longer made sense. Simultaneously, knowledge of the Catholic faith withered away. Today, in Europe, there are many Catholics who can hardly say an Our Father, let alone a Creed. Many have only the vaguest notion of the Church’s teaching.

Men mange av forandringene som kom etter 1970 var ikke med i rubrikkene for den nye messen

… many of the most offensive infringements committed against the law of Catholic tradition were in no way rooted in Pope Paul’s reform. They arose from the disobedience that proliferated everywhere in the West as a result of the structural collapse during the pontificate of this unfortunate pope. …. The Missal of. Paul VI, for instance, did not order the altars to be turned round – one of the most grievous acts against the tradition of prayer in the entire world. Pope Paul did not necessarily want to put an end to the tradition whereby the priest, together with the faithful, faces the Crucified Christ, the Christ who is to come again from the East; nor did he want to suppress the tradition according to which the priest addresses his prayers, together with the congregation, to Christ, present on the altar in the form of the transformed [transubstantiated] gifts. This reversal of the orientation of prayer did more harm in Europe and the United States than all the relativizing, demythologizing and humanizing theologians. It struck the simple believer immediately that the prayers were no longer addressed to God but to the congregation. Now, the purpose of prayer was to put the congregation in the right mood, the right frame of mind so that it could celebrate itself as the «People of God». Something similar happened when Holy Communion was given in the hand instead of on the tongue, as formerly. This change, also, was not foreseen in the Missal of Paul VI: it was enforced by some German bishops.

Jeg kommer snart med noen kommentarer til andre del av foredraget.

I St Joseph church, i Macon, Georgia ble det søndag deiret en tradisjonell latinsk messe med (minst) én uvanlig vri: Tekstene ble lest direkte på morsmålet, og den som leste stod vendt mot folket. (Det har vært vanlig mange steder at bibeltekstene leses på morsmålet samtidig med at presten leser dem på latin.)

Vi kan lese om messen (og se mange bilder) på denne bloggen, og der skriver man: «I believe if this form of the Mass allowed for the vernacular for the parts of the Mass people hear …, that most people would prefer this to the current OF Mass. What do you think?» Det er vel nokså upresist, for det er bare epistelen og evangeliet man kan lese på morsmålet (ifølge pavens motu proprio), ikke bønner og andre ting som også leses/synges høyt. Men jeg er enig i at om den tradisjonelle messen skal kunne brukes i mye strørre grad enn nå, må morsmålet brukes til tekstene.

Presten som feiret messen sier også om kommunionsutdeling på den tradisjonelle måten – og det er jeg også enig i:

I have distributed the Most Precious Body and Blood of our Risen Lord for well over 30 years to people standing. In the past three years of celebrating the EF Mass and distributing Holy Communion to kneeling communicants, I must say that from an external point of view it is much more reverent looking and from an internal point of view leads to more piety, reverence and faith in the Real Presence of our Lord. We need to return to this practice!

Jeg leste i dag en interessant artikkel om hvordan vår messe kan revitaliseres på best mulig måte; ved impulser fra den gamle messen og ved å bruke de meste tradisjonelle alternativene i den nye messen:

Fr Barthe has just launched a little bombshell called “the Mass the right way round”. … He believes he is supported by a mainstream, described in the Church as the reform of the reform. Explanations. …

In 1997, 10 years before the Motu Proprio, I published a book of interviews, Reconstructing the liturgy. These were interviews about the situation of the liturgy in parishes. The theme is exactly that of this book. It is clear that the Motu Proprio of 2007 gave these ideas new life. This consists of remarking that the two parallel criticisms of the changes under Paul VI, namely the head-on criticism that wants to promote wide dissemination of the earlier liturgy, that of St Pius V, and the reforming criticism, which calls for the reform of the reform, wanting to make a change within the liturgy of Paul VI, are increasingly linked. The proposed reform of the reform cannot be achieved without the backbone of celebrating according to the traditional Missal as widely as possible. The traditional liturgy cannot hope to be massively rehabilitated in ordinary parishes without re-creating a living environment which would the work of the reform of the reform. …

I think … it is totally unrealistic to believe that we can wave a magic wand so that all Masses are celebrated according to the former usage in every parish in the world. However, I note – with many others, some of whom are very high placed – that the missal of Paul VI contains an almost infinite possibility of options, adaptations and interpretations, and that a progressive, systematic or systematically progressive choice of the traditional possibilities it offers, makes its “re-traditionalising” possible in parishes, and quite legally (according to the letter of the law, and its spirit). This is a simple fact: of many parish priests (I have already compiled a quick list for France, which I am careful not to publish, but which is impressive) practicing this reform of the reform, often in stages, and in the vast majority of cases also celebrating the traditional Mass. To answer your question, I would say that I think the Roman liturgy can be saved, which goes, as can be seen in practice, through a two-speed action: getting the St Pius V rite better known and the reform of the reform. This will make it possible, quoting a famous speech of Paul VI, to phase out everything of the reform that is old and obsolete, because it is not traditional. We’ll see what will be saved after this operation. …

På Rorate cæli leste jeg i går om en brevveksling mellom Fr. Matias Auge, CMF, en veteral blant liturgieskpertene i Roma, og kardinal Ratzinger i 1998. Fr. Auge skriver kritisk om et foredrag Ratzinger nylig hadde hatt:

I cannot understand how the principles of the Second Vatican Council concerning the reform of the Mass, presented in Sacrosanctum Concilium, nos. 47-58 (thus not only in nos. 34-36 as cited by Your Eminence), may be in harmony with the re-instatement of the so-called Tridentine Mass.

… The second objection was that the return to the old liturgy is likely to break the unity of the Church. …

Raztinger svarer slik (klart og nokså kontant, som han ofte gjør i akademiske debatter):

the Pope John Paul II, with the indult of 1984, under certain conditions, granted the use of the liturgy preceding the Pauline reform; thereafter the same Pope in 1988 published the motu proprio “Ecclesia Dei”, manifesting his wish to please the faithful who are attached to certain forms of the earlier Latin liturgy; and furthermore he asks the bishops ”by a wide and generous application” to allow the use of the liturgical books of 1962.

The second one is that a considerable number of the Catholic faithful, especially those of French, English, and German nationality and language remain strongly attached to the old liturgy, and the Pope does not intend to repeat what happened in 1970 when the new liturgy was imposed in an extremely abrupt way, with a transition time of only six months, whereas the prestigious Liturgical Institute in Trier had rightly proposed a transition time of ten years (if I am not mistaken) for such an undertaking, one that touches in a vital way the heart of the Faith.

Thus, these two points, namely the authority of the Supreme Pontiff and his pastoral and respectful concern for the traditionalist faithful, that must be taken into consideration. I, therefore, take the liberty to add some answers to your criticism of my speech.

1. … When I said that even the faithful who use the indult of 1984 must follow the decrees of the Council, I wanted to show that the fundamental decisions of Vatican II are the meeting point of all liturgical trends and are therefore also the bridge for reconciliation in the area of liturgy. The audience present actually understood my words as an invitation to an opening to the Council, to the liturgical reform. I believe that those who defend the necessity and the value of the reform should be completely in agreement with this way of bringing Traditionalists closer to the Council.

2. The citation from Cardinal Newman means that the authority of the Church has never in its history abolished with a legal mandate an orthodox liturgy. However, it is true that a liturgy that vanishes belongs to historical times, not the present.

3. I do not wish to enter into all the details of your letter, even if I would have no difficulties meeting your various criticisms against my arguments. However, I wish to comment on that what concerns the unity of the Roman rite. This unity is not threatened by small communities using the indult, who are often treated as lepers, as people doing something indecent, even immoral. No, the unity of the Roman rite is threatened by the wild creativity, often encouraged by liturgists (in Germany, for instance, there is propaganda for the project Missale 2000, which presumes that the Missal of Paul VI has already been superseded). I repeat that which was said in my speech: the difference between the Missal of 1962 and the Mass faithfully celebrated according to the Missal of Paul VI is much smaller than the difference between the various, so-called ”creative” applications of the Missal of Paul VI. In this situation, the presence of the earlier Missal may become a bulwark against the numerous alterations of the liturgy and thus act as a support of the authentic reform. To oppose the Indult of 1984 (1988) in the name of the unity of the Roman rite, is – in my experience – an attitude far removed from reality. Besides, I am sorry that you did not perceive in my speech the invitation to the ”traditionalists” to be open to the Council and to reconcile themselves to it in the hope of overcoming one day the split between the two Missals. …

På NLM-bloggen leste jeg i dag om en tradisjonell latinsk høymesse ved et presteseminar i New Orleans den 14. september. Det var den tredje gamle messen siden 2007, og den første høymessen (med prest, diakon og subdiakon) på 45 år.