Friday, October 21, 2005

Roman Rite Mass in Latin? What's that?

Our episcopal fathers-in-God either don't know or don't care. John Allen's latest column reports that the Synod's "Message" includes no mention of the traditional Roman Rite one way or the other.

The Synod is concerned with the shortage of priests:

“The lack of priests to celebrate the Sunday Eucharist worries us a great deal and invites us to pray and more actively promote priestly vocations,” the message says.


And they seem to recognize obliquely that the Pauline liturgy is largely a chaos:

The bishops also call for fidelity to liturgical rules.

“We are convinced that respect for the sacred character of the Liturgy is transmitted by means of fidelity to liturgical norms and to legitimate authority,” the message says. “No one should consider himself lord of the Church’s Liturgy.”


But apparently none of this has anything to do with the ancient liturgy of the Church last codified by Blessed Pope John XXIII in 1962. Never mind that neither of these problems exists in the context of the traditional Roman Rite and its communities.

What is the point of these synods anyway? Are they just a sort of Shriner's convention for bishops, minus the miniature cars? A chance to get away from the local diocese and the subpoenas for a few weeks and relax in Rome? Has anything ever improved thanks to one of these gatherings? Or even changed?

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home