Diskusjon om Ratzingers bok om liturgien
I år 2001/02 var det en diskusjon mellom dominikaneren Pierre-Marie Gy og kardinal Ratzinger om sistnevntes bok om liturgien – og denne diskusjonen offentliggjøres nå på internett i Antiphon, tidsskriftet til the Society for Catholic Liturgy. Gy kristiserer kardinalen for flere ting, bl.a. for å støtte personer som ikke ønsker å følge opp bestemmelsene i Vatikankonsilet. Ratzinger opplever kritikken som svært misfortått, og presiserer hva han mener i disse tre punktene:
a) I said that it was just and necessary to create a space proper for the liturgy of the Word (around the ambo) and to accomplish it in the form of a proclamation and a response, as a dialogue between those who announce this Word (the lector, the cantor, the deacon, the priest) and those who hear it.
b) I observed moreover that in churches (especially cathedrals and monasteries) in which the main altar is too far from the people, it was good to build altars that could be placed closer to the people.
c) I added, lastly, that the great tradition of “orientation,” the act of turning toward the “Orient” as the image of the return of Christ, in no way requires that all altars must once again be reversed and that the priest’s place be changed as a consequence. On the contrary, one can satisfy the internal requirements of this apostolic tradition without undertaking great external transformations, …