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| Bishop Speaks | ||
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| July 19, 2007 Edition | ||
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My dear brother priests and faithful of the Diocese of Madison,
On Saturday, July 7, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, issued his Motu Proprio (long awaited by some) with regard to the usage of the Roman Missal of 1962, published before the Second Vatican Council by Blessed Pope John XXIII. Please give your best attention to the questions and answers regarding this Motu Proprio, which were issued by the Secretariat for the Liturgy of our Conference of bishops. The questions asked are excellent and to the point, and the answers given are by-and-large given from the Motu Proprio itself.
I had, in fact, intended to quote the Motu Proprio at some length in this letter, but the quotations which are most fundamental and germane to the Motu Proprio are contained in the USCCB document in the form of questions and answers. (Go to www.usccb.org/liturgy)
I do wish to make three very important points, not surprisingly, with regard to the Motu Proprio and then offer some closing observations.
In the first place, the more widespread use of the Missal of Blessed Pope John XXIII should in no way cause further disunity within our diocesan Church or the Church in the United States. As I have said repeatedly, everything that we do at the liturgy and everything that we don't do at the liturgy teaches something. The liturgy is meant to embody and teach the authentic faith of the Catholic Church.
The Roman Missal of Blessed Pope John XXIII, of 1962, and the Roman Missal of Pope Paul VI, of 1970, as well as that of Pope John Paul II, of 1999, embody the same faith. The celebration of the Eucharist according to the usage of all three missals is exactly the same.
Because these various usages of the Roman Rite embody the same faith, there should be no disunity caused by this particular diversity. The only way in which division or disunity might be deepened through the more widespread use of the Missal of Blessed Pope John XXIII would be if the faith of the Church, embodied by more recent usages, was somehow misunderstood, and in certain cases this has been the reality and I have spoken to this situation before, which brings me to the second point.
Pope Benedict takes great pains to indicate that the liturgy which was sacred and up-building of our faith before and during the council - that is, the liturgy according to the Missals of Pius V and Blessed Pope John XXIII - could not be forbidden or even considered harmful. It is a complete misunderstanding of the liturgical renewal according to the Second Vatican Council and the Missal of Pope Paul VI to see this post-Vatican II usage as, in any way, shape, or form, a rejection of the pre-Vatican II usage.
What was sacred and brought many people to holiness for so many years cannot all of a sudden be justifiably forbidden or even seen as harmful. Pope Benedict invites us to open our hearts wide to allow all of the expressions which authentic faith permits and these various usages for the celebration of the Eucharist. Each embodies the true faith and we should welcome each and all of them with open hearts.
We still need to be healed in our Church of the unfortunate effects of the discontinuity hermeneutic which sees the life of the Church prior to Vatican II as somehow mistaken and regrettable, and the post-Vatican II approaches, whatever they may have been, as the reliable corrective. Pope Benedict makes very clear that the liturgical rites after the council were sometimes mistakenly construed as inviting or even requiring creativity, and he indicates that this has caused certain "deformations" in the way liturgy is actually celebrated in certain venues.
He indicates the deep personal pain which this has caused to him and to many others who are formed in the sound faith. It is precisely for such people, who have suffered from the "arbitrary deformations" of the liturgy after the council, that this wider availability of the use of the Missal of Blessed Pope John XXIII is intended. There cannot be a rupture in liturgical usage in terms of pre- and post- Vatican II, because the faith of the Church embodied in the liturgy pre-Vatican II and the liturgy post-Vatican II must be exactly the same faith.
Thirdly, you are probably aware that the Diocese of Madison is the only diocese in the State of Wisconsin where I, as bishop, still have never permitted the celebration of Mass according to the Missal of Blessed Pope John XXIII.
I have done so not because of any distaste whatsoever for that particular usage. In fact, I served the Mass according to the Missal of Pius V and John XXIII as a young boy and virtually every morning when I was a high school student with the Jesuits at the Scranton Preparatory School. My vocation came to me in the word that Jesus Christ spoke to me through that liturgical usage. I was already in the seminary well before 1970, when we received the Missal of Pope Paul VI, the so-called Novus Ordo.
I might add that when I was a priest of the Diocese of Kalamazoo I was asked by Bishop Donovan, in response to many requests, to celebrate Mass according to the Missal of Pope John XXIII on a monthly basis, for the good of the faithful, and I did so with joy.
My reason for not permitting the celebration of Mass according to this Missal of Blessed Pope John XXIII in the Diocese of Madison has simply been that a certain catechetical support is necessary because those who are attached to this form of celebration for many years have often forgotten or gotten "rusty" with regard to what a full and active and fruitful participation would involve.
In addition, as Pope Benedict indicates, there are many young people who, for various reasons, are attracted to this form of celebration but have received no catechesis whatsoever. The lack of staff resources to provide a full catechesis for those who would need such a catechesis with regard to the use of the Missal of Blessed Pope John XXIII has been my reason for deferring any granting of permission for such celebration in the Diocese of Madison.
I have never been against such celebrations in principle, but our concrete circumstance and lack of catechetical resources to support such celebrations have led me to the prudent judgment, I believe, that such celebrations should not generally be permitted.
The Motu Proprio of our Holy Father decrees a determination that he has made in his office as Supreme Teacher of the Church, and I have solemnly and publicly promised to be faithful in my obedience to the Successor of the Apostle Peter. Pope Benedict indicates that his judgment in this matter is designed to free bishops from constantly making such prudential judgments in frequently changing circumstances.
Pope Benedict clearly is wise; obedience according to the mind of Christ always opens the door to true freedom. I am joyful to act in obedience to the Motu Proprio of Pope Benedict, and I am grateful to have been freed from the limitation of my own judgement.
I am always most peaceful and serene when I am being obedient. Remember I was trained as a Jesuit and according to the Rule of St. Ignatius, obedience is to the Jesuits what poverty is to the Franciscans - it is at the very foundational core. Thus obedience brings me joy, serenity, and freedom and I hope this will be the case for all of my brother priests and for all of the faithful in the Diocese of Madison.
The Motu Proprio takes effect on September the 14, 2007. Providentially, I have an assembly of priests coming up on Thursday, July the 12. At that meeting I will discuss this entire matter with our priests and ask them to advise me as to how we might invite any requests that may come to us for the celebration of the Mass according to the Missal of Blessed Pope John XXIII.
There have been several requests which have come to my attention in the almost four years that I have been bishop, and there is a live expression of hope for this celebration on my desk at the present moment.
As a sign of my obedience to the Holy Father I do intend to celebrate Mass according to the Missal of Blessed John XXIII on occasion as soon as this is feasible. I say "as soon as this is feasible" because I do not have certain of the vestments that are necessary for the bishop to celebrate according to this particular usage, nor have I ever done so as a bishop.
Thus, it will be necessary for me to educate myself in these matters and obtain the proper vestments. It will also be necessary to see which of our priests might be in a position to celebrate Mass according to this usage. The document of Pope Benedict makes clear that if the priest is not trained to do so, that he should not attempt to do so without such training.
And then there will be the matter of training a limited number of servers who are alert liturgically and who know some Latin. No doubt in the Madison area St. Ambrose Academy might be an appropriate resource.
Thank you very much for your attention and consideration in this matter. I do urge those who are attracted to worship according to the Missal of Blessed Pope John XXIII to express yourselves to me and to your pastors in the days ahead so that we can do our very best to serve you in a reasonable amount of time as we make the necessary preparations.
Please remember that the Missal of Paul VI, the Novus Ordo, which flowed from Vatican II is the ordinary form of the liturgical celebration, whereas the celebration according to the Missal of Blessed John XXIII is the extraordinary form. It would be unfortunate if individuals were to resort to the extraordinary form simply because they have been disappointed in their hope for reverent celebration of the ordinary form.
As we open up possibilities for the liturgical expression of the truths of our faith, let us rededicate ourselves that every celebration, either in the ordinary form or the extraordinary form, will express the reverence proper to the truth that this celebration unites earth to heaven and joins us here in the Diocese of Madison with the great assembly of Angels and Saints. Thank you for reading this. God Bless each one of you.
Praised be Jesus Christ!