Rorate Caeli

A common calendar and lectionary for the Novus Ordo and TLM?

A committee already tried, and failed: 


Cardinal Sarah's La Nef article marking the 10th anniversary of Summorum Pontificum has awakened the debate over the possibility (and desirability) of a "common rite" derived from the Traditional Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo. (Dr. Joseph Shaw has responded to the cardinal's proposals on this blog.) One of Cardinal Sarah's main proposals is that of common calendar and lectionary for the TLM and the NOM. The proposal does not come out of the blue; versions of it have been floated by some proponents of the reform of the reform since the 1990's. Furthermore, from 1991 to 2007 the use of the Novus Ordo lectionary was theoretically permitted in celebrations of the 1962 Missal, and was actually imposed on such celebrations in a handful of dioceses.

Right after the article came out, the Claretian liturgist Fr. Matías Augé -- an old liberal but very well-informed -- noted on his blog that a common calendar and lectionary was already attempted in the previous pontificate:



In fact, the cardinal has the merit of expressing his concrete proposal to arrive "at a reformed common Rite in order to facilitate reconciliation within the Church." First of all, the cardinal hopes that we can arrive at a common liturgical calendar for the two forms of the Roman Rite, and also to a "convergence" of the lectionaries. His Eminence knows better than I, that an ad hoc committee had worked during the years of the pontificate of Pope Ratzinger without being able to produce a concrete proposal, given the difficulty of the task.