REMARKS FROM BISHOP MELCZEK REGARDING
THE APOSTOLIC LETTER OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
The Church calls each of us to full, conscious, and active participation in the Mass. The vast majority of the faithful have experienced the celebration of the Mass in English with the priest facing the congregation and with the expanded use of the Sacred Scriptures much easier for them to unite their hearts, minds and voices to the sacred action of the Mass. Few of our priests possess the rubrical and linguistic skills required for the reverent celebration of the Mass using the 1962 Missal.
Pope Benedict XVI appreciates the above realities very well and for that reason indicated that "the new Missal will certainly remain the ordinary Form of the Roman Rite." I fully expect that to be the case here in Northwest Indiana.
Pope Benedict XVI has allowed the use of the older Missal in use prior to the Second Vatican Council as the extraordinary form of the Liturgy of the Church. He has made this generous gesture in a spirit of reconciliation and unity as he said "to make every effort to make it possible for all those who truly desire unity to remain in that unity or to attain it anew."
For the same reason, I have for many years permitted the celebration of the Mass according to the pre-conciliar form at the Carmelite Monastery in Munster. There are certainly very limited numbers of the faithful who prefer to worship using the Latin language and the older Missal. With Pope Benedict XVI, I fully believe that, with few exceptions, our priests and people will continue to prefer to worship in English and with the Missal currently being use.
July 9, 2007
Universalis, your very own breviary in pixels...
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3 comments:
That was efficient, wasn't it?
Well, never let it be said that our chancery isn't efficient.
But am I the only one who finds this -- "Few of our priests possess the rubrical and linguistic skills required for the reverent celebration of the Mass using the 1962 Missal," a sad admission of how inadequate most seminary training has been?
After all, Latin remains the language of the NORMATIVE rite, and the requirment that priests have some training in Latin has never been abrogated.
And "rubrical skill" essentially menas nothing more than literacy and the ability to follow simple directions (a skill which is tested and found wanting in the normative rite every day, sad to say.)
"There are certainly very limited numbers of the faithful who prefer to worship using the Latin language and the older Missal. With Pope Benedict XVI, I fully believe that, with few exceptions, our priests and people will continue to prefer to worship in English and with the Missal currently being use."
This, I admit I find disingenuous.
It's not as if a survey was ever done.
It's more as if Mom has made meatloaf every meal every day for as long as you can remember, told the older members of the family when they asked for it that, no, that they couldn't have spaghetti.
After several years she mentions that, oh, by the way, you can go down the street for spaghetti if you really want it. (But it is only served from 4 to 5 on Saturdays.)
She takes your continued presence at the dinner table as some kind of proof of your preference for meatloaf. The younger siblings don't even know what fried chicken is, and are wary of food with bones in it.
QED, people naturally prefer meatloaf!
(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)
Miss Hildreth, I can't find a direct way to email you from your Web site. I just came across your blog here and at Chant Cafe. It sounds like you are from the Gary Diocese. I would like to get in touch about the NWI Latin Mass Community. Please email me at "info [at] nwilatin [dot] org".
Thank you!
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