13.3Bonagura1.pdf

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The Ftre o the Roman Rite:

Reading Benedict in theLight o Ratinger

David G. Bonagra, Jr.

In the preace to the rst pblished volme o Joseph Ratinger/Bene-dict XVIs opera omnia, the Pope says that the Chrchs litrgyhas been the central activity o my lie, and it also became thecenter o my theological work. In this work, I was not interestedin the specic problems o litrgical stdy, bt in the anchoring othe litrgy in the ndamental act o or aith, and thereore also itsplace in or entire hman existence. His deep knowledge and loveo the sacred litrgy is evident rom a glancing srvey o his litrgical

writings, all o which are capped by his comprehensive vision o the

whole,The Spirit of the Liturgy (Ignatis, 000).Nevertheless, Cardinal Ratinger did discss specic litrgical

qestions on many occasions. Bt with his election to the papacy in005, his opinions on the Chrchs litrgical lie since the SecondVatican Concil have acqired considerably more weight since asSpreme Ponti he has athority to reglate the litrgy. So ar PopeBenedict has exercised his spreme athority only twice with respectto the litrgy. With his mot proprio Summorum ponticum o 007, he

has placed the 96 Missal in ll parity with that o 970, designat-ing them as, respectively, the extraordinary and ordinary orms othe one Roman Rite.5 The other exercise o papal athority involves

Benedict XVi, Preace to Theologie der Liturgie [Theology o the Lit-rgy], ed. Gerhard L. Mller, Gesammelte Schriften [Collected Writings](Freibrg: Herder, 008). English translation available at (posted 9 October 008).Althogh the volme on the litrgy is the eleventh in the series, it was act-

ally the rst volme to be pblished. Ibid. Ibid. Second Vatican council, Constittion on the Sacred LitrgySacro-

sanctum concilium ( December 96) .5 Benedict XVi, Apostolic Letter mot proprio Summorum ponticum (7

Jly 007), art. : Missale Romanm a Palo VI promlgatm ordinaria ex-pressio Legis orandi Ecclesiae catholicae rits Latini est. Missale atem Roma-

Antiphon . (009): 8-6


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9THE FuTuRE OF THE ROMAN RITE:READING BENEDICT IN THE LIGHT OF RATzINGER

an alteration to the Ordo Missae in the ordinary orm: Benedict hasapproved three alternatives to the dismissalIte, missa est.6

In his apostolic exhortation on the Echarist, Sacramentum cari-

tatis o 007 (henceorth S.Car.), Benedict expresses his magisterialvision or a properars celebrandi o the reormed litrgical rites.7 Inthat same docment he notes his willingness to consider moving thesign o peace to another place in the Mass.8

The writings o Joseph Ratinger and the litrgical decisions oPope Benedict leave no dobt abot the Popes commitment to thendamental litrgical principles o Vatican II. What are the emergingdirections o the ongoing renewal o the Roman litrgy? By reading

Benedict in the light o the strong opinions o Ratinger, it seems thata large-scale jridical reorm o the reorm is not likely to take placesoon. For Benedict, the rst priority is renewing the spirit ratherthan the strctre o the litrgy. This reqires a vigoros deepeningo litrgical spiritality, o an ability to be drawn by the holy ritesinto spirital conversion to Christ.

I. Joseph RatzIngeRandSacroSanctumconcilium

Joseph Ratinger had a proond love or the twentieth-centry litr-

gical movement and its clmination in the Second Vatican ConcilsConstittion on the Litrgy Sacrosanctum concilium o 96. Theinfences o Jose Pascher9 and Romano Gardini0 led the yong

nm a S. Pio V promlgatm et a beato Ioanne XXIII deno editm habeatrti extraordinaria expressio eisdem Legis orandi Ecclesiae et ob venerabilemet antiqm eis sm debito gadeat honore. Hae dae expressiones legisorandi Ecclesiae, minime vero indcent in divisionem legis credendi Ecclesiae;snt enim do ss nici rits Romani.Acta Apostolicae Sedis 99 (007) 779.

6 congregationfor diVine WorShipandthe diSciplineofthe Sac-ramentS, Reimpressio EmendataMissalis Romani,Notitiae 50-50 (Jly-

Agst 008) 67-87, here 7. The new dismissal ormlae appear inMis-sale Romanum, editio typica tertia emendata (Vatican City: Libreria EditriceVaticana, 008) , p. 605: Ite, ad Evangelim Domini annntiandm,Ite in pace, gloricando vita vestra Dominm, and Ite in pace.

7 Benedict XVi, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentumcaritatis ( Febrary 007) 8-. This theme has been treated in thesepages; e.g., malcolm ranjith, Towards an Ars Celebrandi in the Litrgy,

Antiphon . (009) 7-7.8 Sacramentum caritatis 9, n. 50.9 joSeph ratzinger,Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977, trans. Erasmo Lei-

va-Merikakis (San Francisco: Ignatis, 997) 56-57.0 aidan nicholS, The Thought of Pope Benedict XVI, nd ed. (London:

Brns & Oates/Continm, 007) 5, and tracey roWland, RatzingersFaith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI(New York: Oxord university Press,008) .


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0 DAVID G. BONAGuRA, JR.

Ratinger, as a seminarian, to embrace the litrgical movement, withits call to rediscover the litrgy in all its beaty, hidden wealth, andtime-transcending grander, to see it as the animating center o the

Chrch, the very center o Christian lie.

The essential principleso that movement are enshrined in Sacrosanctum concilium. As aperi-tus at the Concil, Father Ratinger greeted the litrgy constittionwith enthsiasm, seeing it as a marvelos point o departre orthis assembly o the whole Chrch. Now, as pope, he ranklyacknowledges the diclties and even occasional abses in thelitrgical renewal begn by Vatican II bt holds that these cannotovershadow the benets and the validity o the litrgical renewal,

whose riches are yet to be lly explored (S.Car. ).As a son o the litrgical movement, Ratinger saw reorm as

necessary or reawakening the aithl to the splendor o the litrgy.In his preace to The Spirit of the Liturgy, he compared the traditionallitrgy to a resco that had been preserved rom damage bt

had been almost completely overlaid with whitewash by latergenerations. In the Missal rom which the priest celebrated, theorm o the litrgy that had grown rom its earliest beginnings was

still present, bt, as ar as the aithl were concerned, it was largelyconcealed beneath instrctions or and orms o private prayer.

For this reason, Ratinger embraced the reorms called or bySacrosanc-tum concilium becase they enabled a retrn to the heart o Christian

worship.5 Writing ater the Concils rst session, he expressed hisapproval o many proposed reorms: the primacy o Sndays oversaints days, the simplication o orms to express more clearly the

essence o the aith, the revised Lectionary and the greater emphasison the proclamation o the Word, more active participation by the

joSeph ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, trans. John Saward (SanFrancisco: Ignatis, 000) 7.

nicholS, Thought of Pope Benedict XVI, 55. ratzinger,Milestones, 57.

ratzinger, Spirit of the Liturgy, 7-8. He reiterated this point at alitrgical conerence held at Fontgombalt Abbey in Jly 00: We cangrasp the statre o the Litrgical Movement only in the historical contexto an nderstanding o the Litrgy which was severely lacking. joSeph ratz-inger, Assessment and Ftre Prospects, inLooking Again at the Questionof the Liturgy with Cardinal Ratzinger[henceorth: LAQL], ed. Alcin Reid(Farnborogh uK: St Michaels Abbey, 00) 6.

5 nicholS, Thought of Pope Benedict XVI, 55.


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THE FuTuRE OF THE ROMAN RITE:READING BENEDICT IN THE LIGHT OF RATzINGER

aithl and the se o the vernaclar, to name only a ew.6 He hasnot ceased to spport these reorms.7

II. thenovuS ordomiSSae: pRaIsesand CRItICIsms

The Missal o Pal VI soght to pt into practice the Concilsrecommendations, bt in the years ollowing its promlgation, Rat-inger repeatedly qestioned the manner in which the new missal

was composed and the litrgical practice that stemmed rom it. It isto be noted that he has never qestioned the validity or legitimacyo that missal, nor has he second-gessed the litrgical theology othe litrgical movement or Sacrosanctum concilium.8 In act, as AidanNichols sggests, the criticisms that Ratinger and others have raised

concerning the new missal show their contined commitment to thespirit o the litrgy that broght abot the Concil and their desire,orty years later, to see these goals nally realied in litrgical wor-ship.9 For this reason, Ratinger hoped his book The Spirit of the

Liturgy wold inspire a new litrgical movement.0 Yet the qestiono how these goals might still be realied depends on an adeqatenderstanding o the manner in which the changes in the litrgy weremade and what they signiy.

Thomas Woods otlines three main criticisms that Ratinger hadconcerning the Missal o Pal VI. First, he contended that the newmissal gave rise to excessive creativity in litrgical celebration, whichin trn ndermined the very essence o litrgy and ct Catholics onot only rom their past bt even rom the parish down the street,

where Mass was celebrated dierently. As an example, Woods citesthe ollowing observation rom The Feast of Faith: Today we mightask: Is there a Latin Rite at all anymore? Certainly there is no aware-

ness o it. To most people the litrgy seems to be rather something

6 nicholS, Thought of Pope Benedict XVI, 55.7 On the showcasing o the essence o the aith see joSeph ratzinger,

The Feast of Faith: Approaches to a Theology of the Liturgy, trans. Graham Harri-son (San Francisco: Ignatis, 986) 8. On the primacy o Snday see idem,A New Song for the Lord: Faith in Christ and Liturgy Today, trans. Martha M.Matesich (New York: Crossroad, 996) 59-77. On the lectionary see idem,Feast of Faith, 87. On the vernaclar see idem, God and the World: A Conversa-

tion with Peter Seewald, trans. Henry Taylor (San Francisco: Ignatis, 00)7-8. Ratinger has written extensively on the theme o active participa-tion, inclding Sacramentum caritatis 5-6.

8 thomaS e. WoodS, jr., Sacred Then and Sacred Now: The Return of theOld Latin Mass (Fort Collins CO: Roman Catholic Books, 008) -5.

9 nicholS, Thought of Pope Benedict XVI, 7.0 ratzinger, Spirit of the Liturgy, 8-9. WoodS, Sacred Then and Sacred Now, 7.


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DAVID G. BONAGuRA, JR.

or the individal congregation to arrange. In several places, Rat-inger criticied this creativity; bt he acknowledged that its speciccatalyst lies in the new missal itsel, or therein

we qite oten nd ormlae sch as:sacerdos dicit sic vel simili modoor,Hic sacerdos potest dicere... These ormlae o the Missal in actgive ocial sanction to creativity; the priest eels almost obliged tochange the wording.

Signicantly, as pope he raised this same concern in the letter thataccompanied Summorum ponticum, noting that in many places cel-ebrations were not aithl to the prescriptions o the new missal, bt

the latter actally was nderstood as athoriing or even reqiringcreativity, which reqently led to deormations o the litrgy which

were hard to bear.5

In Woods smmary, A second major theme in Ratingers corpso litrgical writing is what he calleddesacralization.6 Desacraliationemerged rom a disproportionate emphasis on the litrgy as a simple,hman, everyday meal. In the same way the demand emerged todo away with litrgical orms and vestments and the call to get back

to the way we look in ordinary daily lie.7

Mch o Ratingerswriting on sacred msic, chrch architectre, litrgical postre, andeven active participation soght to remedy this sitation. In the samemanner, as pope the rst isse discssed in Sacramentum caritatis nderthe section Ars Celebrandi is beaty (S.Car. 5), a sbject that willbe examined later.

Finally, Ratingers third major criticism o the litrgical reormwas that whatever its virtes, the new missal, both in particlar sec-

tions and in its entirety, leaves the impression o a rptre with thepast, and in some ways seems contrived.8 This qestion whetherthe novus ordo developed organically rom the usus antiquiorlies at theheart o the assessment o the reorms. Ratinger raised this isse

WoodS, Sacred Then and Sacred Now, 7. C. ratzinger,Feast of Faith,8.

See ratzinger, Spirit of the Liturgy, 6, 68; idem, Ten Years othe Mot Proprio Ecclesia Dei in The Latin Mass 8 (Spring 999) 5-8.

Woods cites the latter. WoodS, Sacred Then and Sacred Now, 9. C. LAQL 5.5 Benedict XVi,Letter to the Bishops that accompanies the Motu Proprio

Summorum Ponticum (7 Jly 007).6 WoodS, Sacred Then and Sacred Now, 9; emphasis in original.7 joSeph ratzinger, God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life, eds

Stephan Otto Horn and Vinen Pnr (San Francisco: Ignatis, 00) 57.8 WoodS, Sacred Then and Sacred Now, .


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whenever he discssed litrgical rites, and several o his commentsare now well known. Nevertheless, it is important to look at the isseo organic development in more detail, or it will shed more light on

Benedicts crrent and tre litrgical vision.Woods cites The Feast of Faith as illstrative: Even the ocialnew books, which are excellent in many ways, occasionally show artoo many signs o being drawn p by academics and reinorce thenotion that a litrgical book can be made like any other book.9The new books prodced by the Consilium charged with implementingSacrosanctum concilium happened ar too qickly and abrptly, with thereslt that many o the aithl cold not see the inner continity with

what had gone beore.0 Implicitly, Ratinger here armed contin-ity between the two missals, despite their visal disparity owing tothe hasty prodction o the new books and the de acto sppressiono the old. Nevertheless, two statements in particlar seriosly qes-tion the legitimacy o the development o the new books. First, in hispreace to the French edition o Msgr Klas Gambers The Reform ofthe Roman Liturgy, Ratinger wrote:

What happened ater the Concil was something else entirely: in the

place o litrgy as the rit o organic development came abricatedlitrgy. We abandoned the organic, living process o growth anddevelopment over centries, and replaced it as in a manactredprocess with a abrication, a banal on-the-spot prodct.

Second, in The Feast of Faith, he stated that

the way in which the renewed Missal was presented is open tomch criticism. Yet, with all its advantages, the new Missal waspblished as i it were a work pt together by proessors, not aphase in a continal growth process. Sch a thing never happenedbeore. It is absoltely contrary to the laws o litrgical growth,and it has reslted in the nonsensical notion that Trent and PisV had prodced a Missal or hndred years ago. The Catholiclitrgy was ths redced to the level o a mere prodct o moderntimes. [L]itrgy cannot be the reslt o Chrch reglation, let

9 WoodS, Sacred Then and Sacred Now, . C. ratzinger, Feast ofFaith, 85; idem,Milestones, 8.0 ratzinger,Feast of Faith, 8. KlauS gamBer, The Reform of the Roman Liturgy: Its Problems and

Background, trans. Klas D. Grimm (Fort Collins CO: Roman CatholicBooks, 99).

Ratingers preace is printed in English translation on the backcover ogamBer, The Reform of the Roman Liturgy.


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alone proessional erdition, bt, to be tre to itsel, mst be therit o the Chrchs lie and vitality.

One might easily think Ratinger had entirely rejected the new Massbt or this clarication:

Lest there be any misnderstanding, let me add that as ar as itscontent is concerned (apart rom a ew criticisms), I am very gratelor the new Missal, or the way it has enriched the treasry o prayersand preaces, or the new echaristic prayers and the increasednmber o texts or se on weekdays, etc., qite apart rom theavailability o the vernaclar. Bt I do regard it as nortnate that

we have been presented with the idea o a new book rather thanwith that o continity within a single litrgical history.

Ratingers ltimate criticism, then, is not the novus ordo itsel bt thenprecedented manner and speed o its appearance. For him,

litrgy goes beyond the realm o what can be made and maniplated;it introdces s to the realm o given, living reality, whichcommnicates itsel to s. That is why, at all times and in all religions,

the ndamental law o litrgy has been the law o organic growthwithin the niversality o the common tradition.5

Even with these reservations, in Sacramentum caritatis Benedict a-rmed the legitimacy o the Missal o Pal VI and the innovationsond therein, sch as the allowance or introdctory comments (5),the presentation o the gits (7), the new echaristic prayers (8),and the congregational sharing o the sign o peace (9). Moreover,

he stated in his explanatory letter accompanying Summorum ponticumthat he ond no contradiction between the two editions o the Ro-man Missal. In the history o the litrgy there is growth and progressbt no rptre.6

III. SummorumPontificum: the Keyto ContInuIty

The stats o the 96 Missal ater the promlgation o the novus ordowas another acet o Ratingers criticisms o the litrgical reorms.He recalled inMilestones, I was dismayed by the prohibition o theold missal, since nothing o the sort had ever happened in the entire

ratzinger,Feast of Faith, 86-87. ratzinger,Feast of Faith, 87.5 ratzinger,Feast of Faith, 66.6 Benedict XVi,Letter.


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history o the litrgy.7 This prohibition introdced a breach intothe history o the litrgy whose conseqences cold only be tragic.8For this reason Ratinger was a strong proponent o liting the prohi-

bition o the old Missal, or in this prohibition we are despising andproscribing the Chrchs whole past.9 He spported the 96 Missalor the same reason he qestioned the manactring process o the970 Missal: continity with the Christian identity0 expressed inthe rites received rom the Jews, rom Jess himsel, rom the Apostlesand Chrch Fathers, rom the Middle Ages to the present day mstbe maintained in litrgical worship.

As was noted, Ratinger loved the litrgical movement and Sac-rosanctum concilium becase they exalted the litrgy as the heart andexpression o genine Christian lie. As cardinal, he oten spoke indeense o the traditional missal becase its prohibition nderminedthe Chrchs highest orm o sel-expression that had animated Chris-tian lie or centries. Frthermore, he believed that prohibiting theold missal, ironically enogh, ndermined the new:

It seems to me essential, the basic step, to recognise that both Missalsare Missals o the Chrch, and belong to the Chrch which remains

the same as ever. The preace o Pal VIs Missal says explicitly thatit is a Missal o the same Chrch, and acknowledges its continity.And in order to emphasise that there is no essential break, that thereis continity in the Chrch, which retains its identity, it seems tome indispensible to contine to oer the opportnity to celebrateaccording to the old Missal, as a sign o the endring identity o theChrch. This is or me the basic reason: what was p ntil 969 theLitrgy o the Chrch, or all o s the most holy thing there was,can not become ater 969 with incredibly positivistic decision

the most nacceptable thing. I we want to be credible, even withbeing modern as a slogan, we absoltely have to recognise that whatwas ndamental beore 969 remains ndamental aterwards: therealm o the sacral is the same, the Litrgy is the same.

Clearly Ratingers esteem or the old missal is not simply a reac-tion against abses in the celebration o the new, bt rather springs

7 ratzinger,Milestones, 6.8 ratzinger,Milestones, 8.9 ratzinger, God and the World, 6.0 ratzinger,Feast of Faith, 8. ratzinger, Spirit of the Liturgy, 7. In LAQL 9. Woods cites a portion o this passage in Sacred Then

and Sacred Now, 5.


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rom his delity to the Chrch and to the litrgical expression o herathentic Tradition.

Ths or the sake o continity between past and present, a

continity that ensres the identity o the Chrchs essence, Bene-dict issed Summorum ponticum, his only jridical docment on thelitrgy to date. In this light, article is critical becase it jridicallyestablishes the permissibility o celebrating Mass ollowing the typi-cal edition o the Roman Missal promlgated by Blessed John XXIII

and never abrogated [et numquam abrogatam], as an extraordinary ormo the Litrgy o the Chrch (emphasis added).

In his letter to the bishops accompanying the motu proprio, Bene-dict explains his reasons or nrestricting the 96 Missal. Amongthem he incldes accommodating the spirital needs o the aithlattached to the ancient litrgy, an attachment he admits stems in partrom Masses that were not aithl to the prescriptions o the newMissal; reconciliation with the Society o St Pis X; the need ormore precise norms to govern se o the old missal; and the potentialo the two orms o the one Roman Rite to enrich each other. Btater enmerating these he writes: I now come to the positive reason

which motivated my decision to isse this motu proprio pdating that

o 988. It is a matter o coming to an interior reconciliation in the heartof the Church (emphasis added). This reconciliation involves morethan making peace with wayward grops attached to the Tridentineorms; it is the reconciliation o the Chrch with her own litrgicaltradition. No longer can the old missal and with it the identity oChrch that was norished by it be considered strictly orbidden,nor can the desire or this litrgy seem downright indecent.5 Rein-stating the old missal shows that there is continity in the Chrch

becase it is a sign o the endring identity o the Chrch.6

IV. usIngthe pastto guIdethe pResent

I the central theme oSummorum ponticum and its accompanyingletter is reconciliation with the past, what can be said o the treo the Roman Rite? In 00 Ratinger proposed that the old mis-sal is a point o reerence, a criterion or the se o the new.7 The

C. ratzinger,Milestones, 6.

He does not express a desire to retrn to the older missal en masse.In act, he expressed reservations abot doing so; or example, joSeph ratz-inger With peter SeeWald, Salt of the Earth: Christianity and the CatholicChurch at the End of the Millennium, trans. Adrian Walker (San Francisco:Ignatis, 997) 77 (here particlarly becase o the langage isse).

5 ratzinger, Salt of the Earth, 76.6 LAQL 9.7 LAQL 9. Signicantly, he also said that the old missal shold


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goal we are all aiming or in the end, he went on to say, is litrgicalreconciliation. Hence,

I am not in avor ouniformity; bt we shold o corse be opposed tochaos, to the ragmentation o the Litrgy, and in that sense we sholdalso be in avor o observing nity in the se o Pal VIs Missal.That seems to me a problem to be aced as a priority: how can weretrn to acommon rite, reormed (i yo like) bt not ragmented,nor let to the arbitrary devices o local congregations, nor that oa ew commissions, or grops o experts? Ths, the reorm o thereorm is something which concerns the Missal o Pal VI, alwayswith this aim o achieving reconciliation within the Chrch, since

or the moment there exists rather a painl opposition, and we arestill a long way rom reconciliation....8

I the Missal o Pal VI is to express the Chrchs identity and con-tinity with the past, it mst be aithlly celebrated in accordance

with the litrgical norms. This will help overcome the painl op-position o which Ratinger speaks.

Pope Benedict has expressed his hope that the two orms o thesage o the Roman rite can be mtally enriching.9 Ater sggesting

the insertion into the 96 Missal o new preaces and celebrationsor some new saints, he goes on to say that throgh the coexistenceo the two orms the celebration o the Mass according to the Mis-sal o Pal VI will be able to demonstrate, more powerlly than hasbeen the case hitherto, the sacrality that attracts many people to theormer sage. The rst step in reorming the reorm, then, concernsthespirit in which the revised litrgical orms are celebrated, not thetexts and rites which constitte them.

V. RefoRmIngthe spIRIt

One can iner rom Ratingers repeated statements in avor o litrgi-cal plralism that the ordinary and extraordinary orms will contineto coexist. He has written approvingly o rites other than the Roman

within the Latin Chrch50 and elsewhere expressed his willingness tospport a retrn to the ancient sitation, i.e., to a certain litrgicalplralism.5 I there is to be a reorm o the revised missal nder

become a rege or those aithl who, in their own parish, no longer nda Litrgy geninely celebrated in accordance with the texts athorised bythe Chrch (ibid.).

8 LAQL 50.9 Benedict XVi, Letter.50 For example, LAQL 8-9.5 joSeph ratzingerWith Vittorio meSSori, The Ratzinger Report: An


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Benedicts ponticate, it will srely be done with a view to reconcil-ing the older and newer orms o the Mass. Ratingers most explicitstatement in this regard is ond in The Feast of Faith: In my view, a

new edition will need to make it qite clear that the so-called Missalo Pal VI is nothing other than a renewed orm o the same Missalto which Pis X, urban VIII, Pis V and their predecessors havecontribted, right rom the Chrchs earliest history.5

Sch an ndertaking mst proceed with cation, so as not torepeat past mistakes:

We do at least need a new litrgical consciosness, to be rid o thisspirit o arbitrary abrication.

The most important thing today is that we shold regain respect orthe litrgy and or the act that it is not to be maniplated. Thatwe learn to know it again as the living entity that has grown p andhas been given s, in which we take part in the heavenly litrgy.

That, I believe is the rst thing we need, so that this pecliar ornathoried abrication may vanish again, and the inner sense orholiness be reawakened. In the second stage we will be able to seein what area, so to speak, too mch was prned away, so that theconnection with the whole o history may become clearer and morealive again. I mysel have talked in this sense o a reorm o thereorm.But in my opinion this ought in the rst place to be above all aneducative process, which wold pt a stop to this trampling all overthe litrgy with ones own inventions.5

A rbrical reorm o the new missal mst ollow, not precede, the

revitaliation o a Catholic litrgical ethos, in which worshippersare joined to the ellowship o contless generations beore themand (mysteriosly) yet to come. Althogh Summorum ponticum is alegislative docment, its application o the principle o the herme-netic o continity exemplies Benedicts prioritiation o the spirito the litrgy. Two other examples inclde the apostolic exhortationSacramentum caritatis on the Echarist5 and the manner in whichBenedict celebrates Mass.

Exclusive Interview on the State of the Church, trans. Salvator Attanasio andGraham Harrison (San Francisco: Ignatis, 985) .

5 ratzinger,Feast of Faith, 87.5 ratzinger, God and the World, 5-6; emphasis added.5 Althogh written to smmarie the proceedings o the synod and

explain its propositions, Sacramentum caritatis is certainly the creation oPope Benedict, as seen in the prominence o certain themes present in the


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In the second part oSacramentum caritatis (The Echarist, AMystery to be Celebrated), Benedict elaborates on thears celebrandi,the proper manner o celebrating the litrgy, and claries some qes-

tioned litrgical practices. He does not legislate or command, however.Rather the docment is an expression o papal wisdom encapslatingmch o his previos work on the Mass. Like Ratinger the theologian,Benedict the Pope articlates the proper spirit o the litrgy in thehope that this nderstanding will lead to more athentic litrgicalcelebration. He maniests this intention in the beginning o the ArsCelebrandi section by developing the connection between beatyand the litrgy, a connection that cannot be legislated into existence.

Beaty, an essential element o the litrgical action, is no mereaestheticism, bt the concrete way in which the trth o Gods love inChrist enconters s, attracts s and delights s (S.Car. 5). Beaty,however, depends on the properars celebrandi, which as the rit oaithl adherence to the litrgical norms in all their richness (S.Car.8) expresses the litrgys proper spirit. Ths the properars celebrandicltivates a sense o the sacred rom which the beaty o the litrgyshines (see S.Car. 0).

Second, Benedicts own litrgical preerences showcase a properars celebrandi and maniest continity with tradition.55 These litrgicalcelebrations embody a Catholic litrgical ethos that is anything btfat, banal, and weightless. Beatil vestments embroidered in olderstyles, celebrationad orientem, prominent se o Latin, Gregorian chantgiven pride o place, the altar adorned with a crcix and seventhpontical candle, a repositioned papal throne in St Peters Basilica,commnicants receiving the Host on the tonge while kneeling allthese have become staples o the Masses celebrated by Pope Benedict.

Shawn Tribe has written that Benedicts litrgical presidency providesa model or bishops and priests arond the world to imitate;56 the

work o Ratinger, inclding the emphasis on the Logos/Son and the discs-sion o logik

_

e latrea (nos. 70, 9). On these themes see roBert a. peSar-chicK, Worship in accord with the Logos Incarnation, Litrgy, and In-cltration,Antiphon . (009) 8-50 and richard malone, Echarist:Sacrice According to the Logos,Antiphon . (009) 65-8.

55 The Internet has exploded with commentary on papal litrgiesand how they maniest Benedicts vision o litrgical continity with thepast and the intimate bond between the lex orandi and lex credendi. See, orexample, the websites and .

56 ShaWn triBe, Benedict XVI: The Litrgical Pope? posted 0 De-cember 007 on (accessed 8 December008).


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Popes leadership by example is critical to a renewal o the spirit othe litrgy.

VI. RefoRmIngthe LetteR

While the spirit o the litrgy has been Benedicts priority ths ar,his comments as cardinal still prompt speclation over whether he

will make strctral changes to the Missal o Pal VI. Critics o thatmissal have not been shy in voicing their desire or a reorm o thereorm, thogh they do not all agree on how to go abot this. AlcinReid smmaries the most common sggestions:

Proposals inclde the wide se o Latin, that the Roman Canon once

again becomes the (sole) Canon o the Mass o the Roman rite, thereplacement o the crrent oertory prayers with ones having a clearsacricial theology, the restoration o the proper prayers o each Massto their nedited orm, the promotion o silence in the Litrgy, theretrn o many o the rital gestres abolished in the Mass, and theretrn to the ancient Christian practice o priest and people acingeast or what we now call the Litrgy o the Echarist.57

Ratinger, as theologian, commented on a nmber o these sggestionsbt did not endorse all o them. He armed both the desirability othe vernaclar (while avoring Latin or parts o the Ordinary) and therevised oertory prayers, now called the preparation o the gits.58 Helikewise armed the echaristic prayers introdced in 968 (S.Car.8). He has not specically addressed the drastically altered texts othe Mass Propers.59 In a nmber o places he has written in avor osilence in the litrgy60 as well as celebrating the litrgyad orientem,bt the crrent missal permits both.

57 alcuin reid, Looking Again at the Litrgical Reorm: Some Gen-eral and Monastic Considerations, The Downside Review .7 (006)5.

58 ratzinger, God Is Near Us, 66-7.59 On this, see lauren priStaS, Missale Romanum 96 and 970:

A Comparative Stdy o Two Collects,Antiphon 7. (00) 9-; idem,Theological Principles that Gided the Redaction o the Roman Missal(970), The Thomist 67 (00) 57-95; idem, The Orations o the Vatican

II Missal: Policies or Revision, Communio 0 (00) 6-5; idem, TheCollects at Snday Mass: An Examination o the Revisions o Vatican II,Nova et Vetera [English Edition] . (005) 5-8. See also lSzl doBSzay,TheProprium Missae o the Roman Rite, in The Genius of the Roman Rite:Historical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspectives on Catholic Liturgy, ed. uweMichael Lang (Chicago: Hillenbrand, 00) 8-8.

60 This wold not rle ot, at least occasionally, a silent canon. Seeratzinger,Feast of Faith, 7-7, and idem, Spirit of the Liturgy, -6.


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These points aside, Ratinger has still asserted that the new missalreqires some changes, althogh generally he has avoided mentioningspecics. He has, however, sggested three steps toward reconciling

the missals o 96 and 970: () reeing the new missal rom itscreative options sch as sacerdos dicit sic vel simili modo; () singmore precise translations, particlarly in English; and () greater seoad orientem worship.6 Criosly, he actally sanctions the rst othese in Sacramentum caritatis, 5: When circmstances so sggest,a ew brie words o introdction cold be oered in order to ocsthe attention o the aithl. As to the second step, a revised Englishtranslation o the Roman Missal is on the horion. The third step,ad

orientem celebration (a major theme in Ratingers litrgical cosmol-ogy), is allowable nder the crrent rbrics and thereore reqiresno modication o the rbrics.6 Moreover, as a sort o compromisebetween the two orientations, Ratinger sggested placing a cross onthe altar to nction as a point o reerence where acing east is notpossible or where a chrch has recently been renovated6 a practicehe himsel has carried ot consistently in his papal litrgies in Romeand abroad. This gradal and sensitive approach to reintegratingad

orientem worship also seems to preclde a legal reqirement o the

practice in the coming years. Ths with the exception o sppress-ing the new missals creative options, Ratingers stated ideas orreconciling the two missals do not reqire signicant changes to thepresent-day books.

From this it seems that a rbrical reorm o the reorm will nothappen in the oreseeable tre, with perhaps one exception. Follow-ing the sggestion o the 005 Synod o Bishops on the Echarist,6Benedict has considered moving the sign o peace rom its crrent

position to beore the Presentation o the Gits.65 In the earliest litr-

6 LAQL 50-5.6 Ordo Missae, nos. 9, 7, -, and , inMissale Romanum,

editio typica tertia (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 00), pp. 55,600, 60, and 60.

6 See ratzinger, Spirit of the Liturgy, 7-8; Benedict XVi, Preace toTheology of the Liturgy.

6 The greeting o peace in the Holy Mass is an expressive sign o

great vale and depth (c. John :7). However, in certain cases, it assmes adimension that cold be problematic, when it is too prolonged or even whenit cases consion, jst beore receiving Commnion. Perhaps it wold besel to assess i the sign o peace shold take place at another moment othe celebration, taking into accont ancient and venerable cstoms. Elev-enth Ordinary General Assembly o the Synod o Bishops (- October005), Proposition ; at .

65 catholic neWS agency, Cardinal Arine: Pope considering mov-


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gies the kiss o peace occrred beore the Mass o the Faithl, or whatis now termed Litrgy o the Echarist, ater the catechmens weredismissed, as the sign o mtal recognition between the aithl

when they begin their part o the service;66

however, in the RomanMass it was moved to where it now is, jst beore the Commnion,probably in the orth centry.67 Becase o this centries-old location,moving the sign o peace wold be a matter o no small conseqence,and the proposal to do so raises qestions abot the Popes athor-ity to reglate litrgical practice. In The Spirit of the Liturgy Ratingerarged that, contrary to poplar opinion, papal athority was bondby the litrgy:

Ater the Second Vatican Concil, the impression arose that thepope really cold do anything in litrgical matters, especially i hewere acting on the mandate o an ecmenical concil. Eventally,the idea o the givenness o the litrgy, the act that one cannot dowith it what one will, aded rom the pblic consciosness o theWest. The popes athority is bond to the Tradition o aith,and that also applies to the litrgy. It is not manactred by theathorities. Even the pope can only be a hmble servant o its lawldevelopment and abiding integrity and identity.68

Moreover, Thomas Woods believes Ratingers preace to GambersReform of the Roman Liturgy is an endorsement o the latters conclsionthat the assertion that the Holy See has the athority to change thelitrgical rite wold appear to be debatable, to say the least.69

In addition to writing on the limits o papal athority vis--vis thelitrgy, Ratinger also expressed sensitivity to the act that litrgical

ing sign o peace, November 008; at (accessed 5 November 008).

66 adrian forteScue, The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy (9;reprint, Albany NY: Preserving Christian Pblications, 999) 70.

67 forteScue, The Mass, 68-69, 70-7; also joSeph a. jungmann, TheMass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development (Missarm Sollemnia)(revised and abridged edition in one volme), ed. Charles K. Riepe, trans.Francis A. Brnner (London: Brns & Oates, 959) 80. [In the extraor-dinary orm o the Mass, last codied in the 96 Missal, the kiss o peace

takes the orm o a light embrace given within the ranks o the clergy atSolemn Mass only; it ispreceded by the Agns Dei and a special prayer orpeace, Domine Iesu Christe qui dixisti, whereas in the ordinary orm o theMass the sign o peace comes ater this prayer or peace and beore theAgns Dei; Ed.]

68 ratzinger, Spirit of the Liturgy, 65-66.69 WoodS, Sacred Then and Sacred Now, -, qoting Gamber,Re-

form of the Roman Liturgy, 9.


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change can case harm to the aithl. Regarding the reorm o thelitrgical calendar, or example, he chastised the reormers becasethey simply did not realie how mch the varios annal easts had

infenced Christian peoples relation to time.70

Additionally, hisadvocacy oad orientem worship was tempered by pastoral and archi-tectral concerns, as mentioned above, or Nothing is more harmlto the litrgy than a constant activism, even i it seems to be or thesake o genine renewal.7 In a similar manner, Pope Benedict wrotein his letter accompanying Summorum ponticum, And I have seen howarbitrary deormations o the litrgy cased deep pain to individalstotally rooted in the aith o the chrch.

How, then, does Benedict as Sovereign Ponti nderstand his re-lationship to the litrgy? As Cardinal Ratinger, he wrote oten o theorganic development o the litrgy and the importance o nderstand-ing litrgy historically, since, like the Chrch hersel, litrgy grows

with time, even thogh its essential elements remain nchanged.7While litrgical growth over the centries occrred in varios places,Rome kept watch on this and prned back any overgrowth.7 ThsRatinger compared the role o the Holy See to that o a gardener:Jst as a gardener cares or a living plant as it develops, with de

attention to the power o growth and lie within the plant and therles it obeys, so the Chrch oght to give reverent care to the Litrgythrogh the ages, distingishing actions that are helpl and healingrom those that are violent and destrctive.7

One might iner that Benedict and the Synod Fathers deemedthe crrent manner in which the aithl share the sign o peace asa threat even violent and destrctive to the proper preparationor receiving holy Commnion.75 However, Sacramentum Caritatis

mentions another reason or moving the sign o peace to beore theoertory: To do so wold also serve as a signicant reminder o theLords insistence that we be reconciled with others beore oeringor gits to God.76 Ratinger strongly endorsed this practice whendiscssing variations within rital amilies in The Spirit of the Liturgy:he praised zairean se o the Roman litrgy or its incorporation oCongolese and Eastern elements: For example, in line with what is

70 ratzinger,Feast of Faith, 8.7 ratzinger, Spirit of the Liturgy, 8.7 See, or instance, ratzinger, God and the World, -.7 ratzinger, God and the World, .7 ratzinger, Preace to Alcin Reid, The Organic Development of the

Liturgy, nd ed. (San Francisco: Ignatis, 005) 9.75 See Sacramentum caritatis 9.76 Sacramentum caritatis 9, n. 50.


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said in Matthew 5:-5, the sign o peace is exchanged, not beoreCommnion, bt beore the Presentation o the Gits, which woldbe desirable or the whole o the Roman rite, insoar as the sign o

peace is something we want to retain.77

As pope, then, Benedict seems very interested in restoring the originalmeaning o the sign o peace by placing it beore the oertory, despite ateen-centries-long tradition o the peace occrring jst beore Com-mnion. Signicantly, Ratinger expressed an analogos propensity orthe original meaning o the oertory and its expression in the rst mil-lennim o worship. In God Is Near Us he recalled the original meaning othe word oertory as preparation. What began as a silent and practi-cal preparation or celebrating the Echarist was changed in the tenthcentry with the incorporation o the oertory prayers o the traditionalMissal that have a proond sacricial dimension. While he acknowl-edged these prayers are beatil and proond, nevertheless

we have to admit that they carried within them the seeds o acertain misnderstanding. The way they were ormlated alwayslooked orward to the actal matter o the Canon. Both elements,the preparation and the actal sacrice o Christ, were intertwined

in these words.78

Ratingers preerence or the earlier practice and its original meaningindependent o the orthcoming sacrice coincides with his nder-standing o the restored sign o peace: with the aithl exchangingthe peace in the new litrgy, Benedict preers the original meaningo this rital expression in its original location.79

VII. oRganIC deVeLopmentand LItuRgICaL ReguLatIon

The qestion can be raised in light o this isse whether there is atension between Ratingers deerence toward litrgical tradition andits relation to Petrine athority on the one hand, and his nderstand-ing o the Holy See as gardener o the litrgy on the other hand.What exactly constittes the litrgical Tradition o aith withinthe litrgy or which the pope can only be a hmble servant o itslawl development and abiding integrity and identity?80 The pres-ent location o the peace predates the Gregorian reorms, and since

77 ratzinger, Spirit of the Liturgy, 70.78 ratzinger, God Is Near Us, 68.79 O corse the exchange o peace in the new litrgy cold also be

sppressed; however, the Pope in Sacramentum caritatis, 9, strongly endors-es the crrent orm o the sign o peace as a gestre o great vale. Schapprobation makes a tre sppression o the practice nlikely.

80 ratzinger, Spirit of the Liturgy 66.


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then a distinctive theology has arisen rom it.8 Bt Ratingers com-ments on the oertory prayers and the sign o peace convey a strongpreerence or the earliest meaning o these ritals. How, then, does

he nderstand lawl development and organic growth in light otwo millennia o Christian worship?In the rst place, Ratinger was very critical o archaeological

enthsiasm that soght the oldest known orm o the litrgy, deem-ing this the pre orm o the rite and all sbseqent growths theprodct o misnderstandings and ignorance o the past.8 Whilehe acknowledged that [a] great deal o this was right, he cationedthat litrgical reorm is something dierent rom archaeologicalexcavation, and not all the developments o a living thing have tobe logical in accordance with a rationalistic or historical standard.8This thinking harmonies with what has been examined ths ar:Ratinger clearly was attracted to the original meanings o speciclitrgical ritals, bt he desired them within the context o carel,organic growth in light o a genine nderstanding o the litrgy as theChrchs sel-expression, and not as the orced prodct o a historicismand litrgical rigorism that seeks the ancient or its own sake.

Ratinger acknowledged this contemporary archaiing trend and

its conseqent dismissal o the litrgical inheritance o the MiddleAges as a danger latent within the litrgical movement beore theConcil.8 At Fontgombalt he rejected this approach in deense ogeninely legitimate developments o the medieval period, and pro-posed a retrn to an exegesis rooted in the living reality o the Chrch,o the Chrch o all ages so that within the limitations which arecertainly to be ond in the texts o Trent, Trent remains the norm, asre-read with or greater knowledge and deeper nderstanding o the

Fathers and o the New Testament, as read with the Fathers and withthe Chrch o all ages.85 This retrn is to be done, he asserted, inharmony with the Chrch and her pastors and not led by specialists,as was the case with the reorms ollowing the Concil.86

There seems to exist a tension, then, between Ratingers preer-ence and now Benedicts preerence concerning the sign o peace

or original litrgical ritals and organic development in relationto Petrine athority. Even i a potential change in litrgical rite or

8 See michael p. foley, A Crisis o Meaning in the Sign o Peace,The Latin Mass (Advent/Christmas 007) 6-9.

8 ratzinger, Preace to Reid, Organic Development, .8 Ibid.8 LAQL 6. C. ratzinger,Milestones, 57.85 LAQL 7-8.86 LAQL 8.


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potential growth harmonies with the Chrch and her pastors, schas in Benedicts collegial consltation with the bishops on moving thesign o peace, does the Pope have the athority to change a part o

the litrgy that existed legitimately and grew in its own right over thecorse o teen hndred years? I so, then it seems the litrgical normis not Trent, or even the reorm o St Gregory the Great, bt ratherthe rst ew centries o litrgical worship; yet Ratinger cationedagainst establishing sch a rational and historical standard. On theother hand, it is noted that Ratinger did not advocate reintrodcingrther ancient practices into the reormed litrgy; his comments onthe oertory and the peace ollow rom initiations made by others.Bt within these two specic ritals, the qestion remains as to whatshold be the standard or proper organic growth ollowing their ini-tiations, even when they stand to benet the whole Chrch.87

Nevertheless, despite this diclty, there is no tension betweenlitrgical epochs or the theologian Joseph Ratinger, and now PopeBenedict XVI, becase his standard is the genine spirit o the lit-rgy that has permeated the Chrch or two millennia and ond itsmost recent expression in the litrgical movement and Sacrosanctum

concilium. As a theologian, Ratinger reminded his readers that the

Litrgy is not abot s, bt abot God.88 Now as Roman Ponti,Benedict has already implemented his reorm o the spirit o the lit-rgy throgh Sacramentum caritatis, Summorum ponticum, and his ownmanner o celebrating the litrgy. Even moving the sign o peace isaimed primarily at ostering this same spirit. Ths a large-scale rbri-cal reorm o the reorm does not seem to be in the works; any schinitiative mst wait ntil the new litrgical movement desired byRatinger in The Spirit of the Liturgy and pt in motion since Benedicts

election takes hold. As he told Peter Seewald, only then can a properassessment o rbrics occr, an assessment that may still be decadesaway. For the interim, Benedicts conclding comment in his preaceto his opera omnia sccinctly captres his early achievements andtre vision or litrgical reorm as pope: I wold be happy i thisnew edition o my litrgical writings cold contribte to displayingthe great perspectives o or litrgy, and ptting certain rivoloscontroversies abot external orms in the right place.89

David G. Bonagura, Jr.,is a graduate student at the Institute of Religious Studiesat St Joseph Seminary in Dunwoodie, New York, and an associate editor ofTheuniversity Bookman.

87 See Sacrosanctum concilium .88 ratzinger, Preace to Reid, Organic Development, .89 Benedict XVi, Preace to Theology of the Liturgy.

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