Fr Manlio Sodi, SDB, is one of the most influential "liturgists" in Italy - his name is widely mentioned from diocesan seminaries to documents of liturgical committees. His scholarly expertise is to be commended - yet, it does not mean that he is a man who loves truth. That is why he has chosen to dedicate himself to the Traditional liturgical books of the Roman Rite, and why he was chosen to write the introductions to all four reprints (the Missale, the Breviarium, the Rituale, and the Pontificale) to be published by the Vatican Publishing House (Libreria Editrice Vaticana) itself: he can then become the most authoritative source for the interpretation of documents he truly hates.
In the very first page of his book "The Missal of Pius V: Why the Latin Mass in the Third Millennium?", Sodi affirms (notice: the book was given imprimatur on July 12, five days after Summorum Pontificum - and Summorum Pontificum is the object of a whole chapter of the book) that the Missal of John XXIII was abrogated:
In the very first page of his book "The Missal of Pius V: Why the Latin Mass in the Third Millennium?", Sodi affirms (notice: the book was given imprimatur on July 12, five days after Summorum Pontificum - and Summorum Pontificum is the object of a whole chapter of the book) that the Missal of John XXIII was abrogated:
"The last edition of the Tridentine Missal was prepared under the pontificate of Blessed John XXIII, in 1962: it was to consolidate the last reforms effected by Pius XII in 1951 and 1955, in view of the Code of rubrics. It was this Missal which was abrogated with the publication of the Missal of 1970.
...
It would seem a strange thing: today, when Latin is not understood or studied anymore as it used to be, some ask, and even with forcefulness, for the return to a liturgy entirely in Latin, and even more, according to a rite which was abolished with the publication of the Missal of Paul VI"
"Abrogated"? For some reason, though he dedicated a whole chapter to Summorum Pontificum, Sodi decided to keep this false information on the first page of his book. As is well known, "the typical edition of the Roman Missal promulgated by Bl. John XXIII in 1962" was "never abrogated" (nunquam abrogatam - cf. Summorum Pontificum, art. 1).
It is also clear that Sodi wishes to put all the "blame" of the Missal of Blessed John XXIII on that "terrible" Pope, Pius XII: it is true, the 1962 Missal consolidates the alterations made since the Pontificate of Benedict XV, but the main changes were the ones determined by the Code of Rubrics itself - which, not mentioned by Sodi in this text destined to the general public, had been published in 1960 by Blessed Pope John as a work of his Pontificate. The Codex Rubricarum put in place by the motu proprio Rubricarum Instructum could not be published only as a supplement (as it had been the case with the reformed Holy Week), because every single Sunday and Feast had to be reclassified under the new "Class" system.
The information on what Pope was responsible for the new Code of Rubrics is very important for historical reasons: it seems unreasonable that Pope John would set a new Code of Rubrics which required a whole new edition of the Roman Missal only to have it completely disregarded in less than a decade.
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More on the absurdities written by Fr Sodi on the chapter dedicated to Summorum Pontificum in the third part of this series.
It is also clear that Sodi wishes to put all the "blame" of the Missal of Blessed John XXIII on that "terrible" Pope, Pius XII: it is true, the 1962 Missal consolidates the alterations made since the Pontificate of Benedict XV, but the main changes were the ones determined by the Code of Rubrics itself - which, not mentioned by Sodi in this text destined to the general public, had been published in 1960 by Blessed Pope John as a work of his Pontificate. The Codex Rubricarum put in place by the motu proprio Rubricarum Instructum could not be published only as a supplement (as it had been the case with the reformed Holy Week), because every single Sunday and Feast had to be reclassified under the new "Class" system.
The information on what Pope was responsible for the new Code of Rubrics is very important for historical reasons: it seems unreasonable that Pope John would set a new Code of Rubrics which required a whole new edition of the Roman Missal only to have it completely disregarded in less than a decade.
_____________
More on the absurdities written by Fr Sodi on the chapter dedicated to Summorum Pontificum in the third part of this series.
