Mr. Smith Rorate Caeli goes to Washington

Well, not really.

However, much to our surprise, our blog was mentioned this weekend in the paper of record in America's capital, the Washington Post.

IMPORTANT: Congregation for Divine Worship membership overhauled. Cardinals Burke, Pell, Ranjith out, Piero Marini in. (Updated)

Today's Vatican Bollettino announced the appointment of 27 prelates as members of the Congregation for Divine Worship (CDW), a major overhaul that obviously has a direct impact on the policies and overall directions of the CDW. In the CDW, as with all other Roman dicasteries, all "matters of major importance" and all "questions involving general principles" are reserved to the "extraordinary plenary" meeting (usually held once a year) to which all members are summoned (see Pastor Bonus). Furthermore, all members who happen to reside in Rome also take part in the more frequent "ordinary plenary" meetings. Membership in a Curial dicastery is retained until a member is removed from such membership, or turns 80. As such, Archbishop Piero Marini, who is now 74, will remain a member of the CDW either until he is removed / replaced or until he reaches his 80th birthday on January 13, 2022.

The PrayTell blog has helpfully provided a list of the new members:

Cardinals:

Rainer Maria Woelki, Cologne, Germany;

John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, Abuja, Nigeria;

Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State;

Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, Québec, Canada;

Philippe Nakellentuba Ouédraogo, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso;

John Atcherley Dew, Wellington, New Zealand;

Ricardo Blázquez Pérez, Valladolid, Spain;

Arlindo Gomes Furtado, Santiago de Cabo Verde, Capo Verde;

Gianfranco Ravasi, Pontifical Council for Culture;

Beniamino Stella, Congregation for Clergy;

Archbishops:

Dominic Jala, Shillong, India;

Domenico Sorrentino, Assisi‑Nocera Umbra‑Gualdo Tadino, Italy;

Denis James Hart, Melbourne, Australia;

Piero Marini, President of pontifical committee for Eucharistic congresses;

Bernard‑Nicolas Aubertin, Tours, France;

Romulo G. Valles, Davao, Philippines;

Lorenzo Voltolini Esti, Portoviejo, Ecuador;

Bishops:

Arthur Joseph Serratelli, Paterson, NJ, USA;

Alan Stephen Hopes, East Anglia, Great Britain;

Claudio Maniago, Castellaneta, Italy;

Bernt Ivar Eidsvig, Oslo, Norway;

Miguel Ángel D’Annibale, Rio Gallegos, Argentina;

José Manuel Garcia Cordeiro, Bragança‑Miranda, Portugal;

Charles Morerod, Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, Switzerland;

Jean‑Pierre Kwambamba Masi, auxiliary of Kinshasa, Congo;

Benny Mario Travas, Multan, Pakistan;

John Bosco Chang Shin‑Ho, auxiliary of Daegu, Korea.

PrayTell reports that up to now, Cardinals Burke and Pell had remained members of CDW. With the new wave of appointments they have lost their membership. [UPDATE Oct. 29, 2016: According to Catholic Culture, other conservative Cardinals who had been members of the CDW up to now, but are now removed, are Bagnasco, Ouellet, Scola and Ranjith. Cardinal Piacenza was also removed according to PrayTell.]

For the recordRumors: Parolin next Secretary of State? Piero Marini next CDW Prefect?

From CNA: New Vatican Secretary of State may be appointed soon:

Rumors have emerged that Archbishop Pietro Parolin, apostolic nuncio to Venezuela, will shortly be appointed as the Vatican's Secretary of State. 

*** 

A skilled diplomat, Archbishop Parolin, 58, served as Vatican undersecretary for relations with States from 2002 to 2009. 

Suggestions of a possible “important appointment” for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul emerged from a couple of different Vatican sources who spoke to CNA at the beginning of this week on the condition of anonymity. 

“The Pope knows that he cannot have an outgoing secretary of state for so long,” one of them said June 26. 

After the first 100 days of his pontificate, the source maintained, “Pope Francis is now in a hurry to have his own staff carry out the reform of the Curia.” 

*** 

Following the appointment of the new Secretary of State, sources say that Pope Francis would also change several of the top-ranking officials of the Curia. 

Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras could be appointed prefect for the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (the so-called “Propaganda Fide”). 

Cardinal Maradiaga is also the coordinator of the Pope-appointed Commission of Cardinals now studying a reform of the Roman Curia. 

At the same time, the current prefect, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, would be appointed Archbishop of Palermo, in Southern Italy. 

A new prefect for the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Sacraments should soon be appointed, as well. 

The current prefect, Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, would be appointed as the successor to Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela as the Archbishop of Madrid, Spain. 

Abp. Piero Marini with Benedict XVI in Mariazell, Austria

To cover his post, Pope Francis would call Archbishop Piero Marini, who was Pontifical Master of Ceremonies during Bl. John Paul II’s Pontificate and now heads the Vatican’s commission for Eucharistic Congresses. 

A source from Spain who works in the archdiocesan curia in Madrid confirmed to CNA on June 28 that Cardinal Rouco Varela has left for Rome [Rorate note: Cardinal Rouco Varela was received in audience by the Pope this week.]. He also said that “the usual reception” held in the nunciature in Madrid for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul has been canceled.

Parolin and Rodríguez Maradiaga (moderator of the Pope's Privy Council) are reasonable names that are often repeated - and it would make sense for the Pope to have his close Honduran friend available at all times.

Now, on the CDW.

For the record: rumors that Cardinal Cañizares Llovera will be sent back to Spain as the next Archbishop of Madrid have been flying about for a year or two already, fanned by the Cardinals's frequent trips back to Spain and stories about his dissatisfaction in Rome. 

Cañizares was already the Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain before his transfer to the Roman Curia, but given the See of Madrid's de facto greater power and influence a transfer for him to Madrid will not be a "demotion", any more than Cardinal Scola's transfer from the Patriarchate of Venice to the Archdiocese of Milan was. 

Before becoming Master of Pontifical Ceremonies under Pope Wojtyla, Piero Marini was the personal secretary of Abp. Annibale Bugnini in the 1970s - and a close friend of his mentor. He was one of the very first prelates received in audience by Pope Francis in the first days of his pontificate.

It is a rumor - but often-repeated rumors have turned out to be right too many times in recent years...

Infusing the spirit of the Novus Ordo into Eastern Catholicism: Notes on Piero Marini's new appointment, the legacy of the 2010 Synod of Bishops, and the modernizing Chaldean Catholic liturgical reform of 2014

Patriarch Louis Raphael celebrating Mass at the Chaldean church of the Queen of the Holy Rosary in Baghdad, 2014. (Source)

***

On Piero Marini and the "Special Commission on the Liturgy" for the Eastern Catholics

September 1 saw, in addition to the Pope's letter on the Jubilee of Mercy with its historic gestures to the SSPX and on abortion, the announcement that he had also renewed the membership of the Special Commission on the Liturgy of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. (Some news sites reported this as a "reconstitution" of the Commission.) As President of this Special Commission he appointed Archbishop Piero Marini who will also remain as President of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses (a post he has held since 2007). Marini is of course better known as the former Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations and disciple of Abp. Annibale Bugnini, having been at one point the latter's personal secretary. 

Behold the handmaid of Annibale

No man had greater power in the liturgy during the 20th century than Annibale Bugnini -- actually, make that "in the 20 centuries of the Church". He fell in disgrace in 1975 and was soon sent as a pro-nuncio to the moribund regime of the Shah, though the reasons Paul VI, the man who gave him more power than any pope had ever given to any "liturgical expert", had to send him to the wilderness were never made clear.

Thankfully, he never returned to any position of liturgical responsibility, though it is hard to fathom what else he could have done to destroy the Roman Rite.

He left, however, many important disciples in the Roman Curia, the most important of whom was his own personal secretary, Piero Marini, the master of Pontifical Ceremonies since 1987: 19 long years in which the worst aspects of the new Mass were prominently displayed in the Papal Masses, in Rome and abroad.

So what exactly does Marini think of the liturgy? He has written and spoken extensively, and some of his best comments are these:

In the old liturgy, in use before the Second Vatican Council, the role of the master of ceremonies consisted in applying a series of rigid norms which could not be changed. Today one cannot organize a celebration without first having thought: who is celebrating, what is being celebrated, where is it being celebrated. The celebration is the point toward which converge diverse and reciprocally coordinated elements under the guide of that spirit of adaptation that is the soul of post-conciliar reform. Thus it´s a matter of foreseeing and planning the celebration with a view toward the result one wishes to obtain. For example, one cannot think of a liturgical action without taking account of the spaces in which it will take place, the chants which will be performed. All that is thought out and planned in view of a celebration may be considered real and proper direction. One finds oneself acting, in a certain way, upon a theatrical stage [palcoscenico]. Liturgy is also a show [spetacollo]. (Virgilio Fantuzzi SJ, in: La Civiltà Cattolica 1999 III, pag. 168-180, "Celebrazioni liturgiche pontificie, radio e tv"; sources here and here).

Marini has been facetiously called a "traditionalist" by progressive bloggers because he is in the habit (as his master, mentor, and inspiration Annibale "Hannibal" Bugnini) of picking things from the past which he likes and fashioning them in a modern "liturgical collage" -- the very antithesis of Tradition, as Saint Vincent of Lérins reminded: "Let there be no innovation--nothing but what has been handed down."

Now, compare Marini's words to these:

The liturgical reform, in its concrete realisation, has certainly distanced itself from its origin. The result has not been a reanimation, but a devastation. On one hand, there is a degenerate show-style liturgy, in which religion is rendered interesting with the aide of fashionable stupidities and seductive moral rules, with temporary success in the gang of liturgical fabricators and with an attitude of very pronounced rejection by those who search in the liturgy not the spiritual "showmaster", but an encounter with the living God for whom all 'making' becomes insignificant, an encounter itself capable of allowing us to climb the true riches of the being. (J. Card. Ratzinger, Preface to the French Edition of Klaus Gamber's "The Reform of the Roman Rite").

Benedict and Marini: the Marini "stage" seems to be too small for both actors. Who will leave the stage?

The Roadmap of Archbishop Roche: Liquidate the Traditional Liturgy!

Rorate is pleased to present a translation of the Paix Liturgique Letter 837, with permission of Christian Marquant.
 

The Roadmap of Archbishop Roche: Liquidate the Traditional Liturgy!

(Paix Liturgique Letter 837 in French)

The future Cardinal Arthur Roche is a key figure in the project to destroy the traditional liturgy. This man, who likes his ease and his tranquility, does not have the stature of a historical figure, nor does he seek to be one: Auream quisquis mediocritatem diligit, said Horace, Whoever loves golden mediocrity...

Will the Pope celebrate a Traditional Mass on December 2?

Maybe, it is rumored. Luigi Accattoli, Vaticanist of Italy's largest newspaper, Corriere della Sera, reports today:

Luigi Accattoli

CITTÀ DEL VATICANO— ... [T]he nomination of the new "Master of Ceremonies" is expected for the next few days, in substitution of Archbishop Piero Marini. After the arrival of the new cerimoniere, it is "probable" that the Pope will celebrate a Mass in the old rite, in Saint Peter's, obviously entirely in Latin: it could take place on December 2, First Sunday in Advent.

If that celebration truly happens, the passage of power between the current and the future "Master of Ceremonies" will have a generational and symbolical significance, for a Pope has not celebrated with the old Missal for over forty years: for a traditional "Papal Mass", it is necessary to move back to before 1965, the closing year of the Second Vatican Council, when Paul VI introduced the first changes.

It is said that the new "Master" is another Marini, in his last name, his first name being Guido, a Genoese priest up to now unknown in Rome. It is said that he was presented to the Pope by Cardinal Bertone, who esteems him [after] having had him as cerimoniere in Genoa. Nothing is known about his position regarding the old Missal, but it is supposed that he would be more favorable to it than the Marini currently in charge, who is a passionate supporter of the liturgical reform.

Nothing precise is known of the intention of the Pope to give to the bishops an "example" of spontaneous use of the old rite - other than through granting of the demands of the faithful (as the motu proprio [Summorum Pontificum] which he published in July foresees). The rumor comes from the lips of those who hope that gesture and who say that it would definitively "disencumber" the old Missal, which still faces resistances, despite the recent "liberalization", as well as from those who fear that the Pope may accomplish this gesture, because it would be "another step away from the Council".

"It is only a rumor for the moment - says a monsignore who is neither favorable nor opposed to it -, but everyone talks about it here [in the Vatican], and I believe that he will do it even if he risks raising controversy, because Catholics who are under fifty have never seen a Pope celebrate with his back turned to the people and pronouncing the 'Eucharistic prayer' sottovoce. In the meantime, the 'court' that accompanied the Pontiff in the celebrations has been abolished and I would really like to see how the old Papal Mass would be carried out today!"

...

The new Marini and Vian [new director of L'Osservatore Romano] will assume their offices after October 21: on that day, the Pope will be visiting Naples, and that will be the last public occasion for Mario Agnes ... and Marini senior.

_______________________________________________

Source: Corriere della Sera; Transcript: Papa Ratzinger Blog.
In the picture: Pope Saint Pius X celebrates Mass at the Altar of the Cathedra, in the apse of Saint Peter's.

Don Guido - IV

Paolo Luigi Rodari presents in Il Reformista a profile of the new Master of Pontifical Liturgical Ceremonies (excerpts, due to copyright limitations):

[Cardinal Siri,] A prelate careful to all that the Tradition of the Church has handed over, even and especially in liturgical matters. So careful that there are those who say today that, if he were still alive, he would be, more than anyone else, glad with the liberalization of the ancient rite promoted by Ratzinger thanks to the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. A liberalization which monsignor Guido certainly sees with benevolence, if it be true - as it is true - that also thanks to his work as cerimoniere of Archbishops Tettamanzi and Bertone, and Bagnasco up to yesterday, the ancient Genoese liturgical school has shone again and has shown its beauty in the cathedral of San Lorenzo.

A splendor which originates from the work of monsignor Moglia, a man for whom the vision of the Bugninist school (to which belongs the now former papal cerimoniere Piero Marini), according to which Vatican II broke with the past also in liturgical matters, was something to be rejected because of its falsehood.
...
In the Vatican, there is a small office expecting [don Guido]: three monsignors (Enrico Viganò, Giulio Viviani e Konrad Krajewski) and two addetti to the Papal Sacristy (Mario Mattei e Giuseppe Viscardi) who propably expected anything, except the nomination of a head of ceremonies from outside of their office.

Yet, Ratzinger has decided so. His will is to have a cerimoniere who is not a protagonist (never before as in the age of Piero Marini was a Papal cerimoniere so much spoken of) and who knows how to give to his ceremonies that sumptuosity mixed with sobriety which has not always been seen recently inside the Vatican walls.

...

"Marini new Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship? For some, there are no more doubts about it..."

[Rumor has it... or a trial balloon?]

Marini new Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship? For some, there are no more doubts about it...

Il Timone [September 22, 2014]

Don Guido speaks: Motu proprio "an act of justice"

From the wonderful interview granted by Monsignor Guido Marini, the new Master of Pontifical Liturgical Ceremonies - and a man who is not afraid to follow rules - to Bruno Volpe (Petrus):

Monsignor, first of all, welcome and good work...

"Thank you for the wishes, I truly need them. You know, I have been in Rome for a very short time, and I look around, I study, I reflect: there is so much to do and to toil, believe me."

So it goes from one Marini...to another: what do you say to Piero, your predecessor?

"I thank him from my heart. He gave so much to the Church, he served two Popes, and I find myself only at the beginning of my path."

You have been called to a difficult job...

"Certainly. The life of every head of liturgical ceremonies of the Holy Father is filled with problems. We are under the limelights, we cannot allow ourselves the luxury of making great mistakes."

Many have claimed that you were called because [you are] liturgically more traditionalist and sober than Archbishop Piero Marini. But what is your conception of the liturgy?

"[It is] as the Church wishes and teaches, not more and not less. I am not the kind of person who looks for inventions and oddities. I may even seem banal, but the liturgy is respect to the rules laid down by the Church, and I see no reason for which I should disobey it."

It is said precisely that in Genoa, where you worked up to now, the liturgy was well cared for, sober and elegant, without bizarre adornments...

"But liturgy is naturally thus. I repeat: no one can act against the liturgical laws of the Church. The Mass is a gift, a grace, not a show. Therefore, no invention, but absolute respect for liturgical rules."

Pope Benedict XVI, other than a great theologian, is also a fine liturgist. He attributes to the liturgy, [when] correctly executed, a notable relevance...

"Working together with the Holy Father will be a grace for me. The popularity of the Pontiff, his preaching of truth and courage, are before the eyes of all. Regarding the liturgy, I completely share the thesis of the Pope: the Mass is Sacrifice."

In your opinion, have there been liturgical abuses recently?

"You know, the Church is large. But, as the Pontiff himself recognized in the accompanying letter to the Motu Proprio 'Summorum Pontificum', there have been abuses and extravagant interpretations. What I can say is that certainly I will not be the author of any fabrication, I will limit myself to scrupulously apply the existing rules."

By the way, what do you think of the Motu Proprio which has liberalized the Mass in the Tridentine Rite?

I agree with the Motu Proprio 100%; [it is] an act of good sense, of justice, of freedom, and of foresight.

The Liturgy under Benedict: "No, I have not read Ratzinger's latest book"

Sandro Magister registers in his wonderful weblog the possible implications of the papal speech to the Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina (the foremost pontifical choir) and links to an old article of his, written right after the publication of then-Cardinal Ratzinger's book on sacred music and his memoirs.

This great article describes the appalling dismissal, in 1997, of the old director of the Cappella, Domenico Bartolucci, named by Pius XII in 1956 (for life, as had always happened to the directors of the Cappella, including the most famous of them all, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, pictured above with Pope Julius III). Bartolucci was replaced by Abp. Piero Marini's nominee and Pope John Paul's own favorite, the current director, Giuseppe Liberto.

Liberto had been a director of ecclesiastical music in Sicily and was famous for his "sacred music for the masses"; nothing more appropriate, it seems, than someone like him for Pope John Paul II, even it it meant the destruction of the superior standards of quality of the Cappella Sistina. If one wishes to understand the mind of a Marini, one needs to know that it is not as important to create new things (for instance, by creating a new, parallel, "pop-style" choir) as it is to destroy the Traditional institutions by change (for instance, by transforming the spirit of the Cappella Sistina itself).

Bartolucci had been quite frank; as Magister quotes him:

The origin of the ailments of today's Church is in the rupture which was effected, after the Council, with the previous liturgical tradition.*

RUPTURE... Where have we seen this word used recently? Oh, yes, here. Magister also mentions that Ratzinger directly interfered, to no avail, to prevent Bartolucci's dismissal (a very dishonorable dismissal, since it happened by phone while the Cappella was on tour in Japan) -- one of the extremely rare circumstances in which Ratzinger pleaded for someone outside of his congregation.

Any cold analysis of the post-Conciliar tragedy shows that the "hermeneutics of rupture" was active mainly in the "liturgy of rapture": the complete vernacularization and the destruction of Sacred Music in the 1964-1969 period of wild "experimentations", crowned by the absolute rupture which was the Novus Ordo Missae of 1969. A new liturgical order whose "soul", in the words of Marini himself, is the "spirit of adaptation". New Mass, thy name is change...

This whole introduction (I intend to speak more in the near future about Bartolucci, Liberto, Marini, and the Pope) is necessary for the most amusing part of the article, when Magister presents the following dialogue with Liberto:

Liberto: "I have not read Ratzinger's latest book**"
Journalist: "Not even those pages which have caused great impact?"
Liberto: "No, not even those."Journalist: "Not even his thoughts on Sacred Music and the liturgy collected in 'Cantate al Signore un canto nuovo'*** , edited by Jaca Book?"Liberto: "No, I have not had the time."

Oh, the disdain... Well, this does not sound like someone who had any idea that Ratzinger would one day become his boss... Will the Cappella Sistina be freed ("liberata") from Liberto?

--

*It is an analysis with which I completely agree: the crisis of the Church is, above all, a crisis of the Roman Rite.
**"Milestones: 1927-1977", released in Italian in 1997, in which Ratzinger had mentioned, among other serious criticisms, the "tragical consequences" of the liturgical revolution
***"Sing a new Song".

For the Record

Andrea Tornielli informs today in Il Giornale that the next consistory for the creation of new cardinals will be held on the vigil of the Feast of Christ the King. At least two officers of the Pontifical House would leave their posts before then: Archbishop Piero Marini, Master of Pontifical Liturgical Ceremonies, would be named president of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses, "substituting Cardinal Tomko in that position"; and the Pope's undersecretary, Ukrainian Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki (called Mietek), also named by Pope John Paul II, would be named Archbishop of Lviv of the Latins.

Excerpts:

"Who will be the new cerimoniere? Marini's substitute - who will not be consecrated a Bishop - should be his number two at the Office of Liturgical Celebrations, ... Enrico Viganò."


"The new 'Princes of the Church', in the Roman Curia, should be Leonardo Sandri, new Prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches, Giovanni Lajolo, president of the Governatorate, Angelo Comastri, Archpriest of Saint Peter's, Raffaele Farina, Librarian of Holy Roman Church, John Patrick Foley, pro-Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. The residential Italians who will receive the red biretta will be two: the Archbishop of Genoa, Angelo Bagnasco, President of Cei [Italian Episcopal Conference], and the Archbishop of Palermo, Paolo Romeo. Among the great residential sees expecting the porpora in the world, there are: Paris, São Paulo in Brazil, Washington, Warsaw."

Reports of Marini's dismissal from his current position have been numerous in the past two years - all unconfirmed.

For the Record - Schmitz: Motu proprio "is ready"

Some excerpts of Brian Mershon's report on a recent conference by Mgr. Michael Schmitz, United States Provincial of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICRSS), published by Envoy Magazine:

On the "Motu proprio":

“I can tell you that the document is ready,” he said. “The person who is responsible for it does not want to discuss it any longer,” Schmitz added.

Msgr. Schmitz’s revelation corresponds with the February 7 Mexican daily Milenio article, although citing no sources, which reported the PCED had delivered the document to the Pope in January for his review, consideration and eventual promulgation.

Marini to be replaced soon:

Another notable newsworthy item that Msgr. Schmitz delivered at his February 19, hour-long presentation during the question-and-answer period was that Archbishop Piero Marini, whom many had speculated would have been removed long ago, has finally accepted another assignment.

“The Pope is before all else, a gentlemen,” ... Msgr. Schmitz did not give any details as to the nature of Archbishop Marini’s new assignment.

On the "Reform of the Reform":

...the popularly called “reform of the reform” of the Novus Ordo missal is distinct from, and “does not concern the old missal,”

On changes to the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal:

“The missal we use will be left unchanged”...

Aspects of the post-synodal exhortation:

...two specific encouragements — offering Mass ad orientem and using a Latin canon and Gregorian chant during the ordinaries of the Novus Ordo liturgy — may indeed be part of the post-Synod on the Eucharist document...

Recordar es vivir

"To remember is to live," as the Spanish say, and what better day than today to remember the words of Archbishop Piero Marini, President of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses and former Master of Pontifical Liturgical Ceremonies, in his famous 2006 interview to Italian website Affari Italiani. At the time, Marini was promoting his new book, "Liturgy and Beauty", in the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan (the famous "Cattolica"). We published this translation, with pictures*, on March 21, 2006.

...
Archbishop Marini, after the Council, the liturgical reform cost a schism, that of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. What do you make of it?

"After every Council, there has always been a period of tension. There is always someone who does not agree or who does not approve that which has been done. Well, the fact is that we do not have policemen to order the faithful to accept that which the Second Vatican Council has decided [laughter]."

And then?

"And then we must, first of all, understand that the liturgy is a sign of unity and that, as Pope Paul VI said: 'The Church is not that of the past or of the future, but of the present, for which we must accept the Church living today. That is not a question of liberalizing the Missal or something else, it is just a question of accepting the Church of today, period. To be clear, I refer to the history of the Tridentine rite".

Yes...

"The Tridentine rite or that of Saint Pius V, which in reality is the Missale Romanum aggiornato according to the last dispositions of 1962 by the work of John XXIII, was left in place under certain conditions to avoid a traumatic passage from the old rite to the new for the older faithful. Afterwards, pope Wojtyla allowed that, in certain churches, the rite of Saint Pius V could be celebrated. But to walk beyond this is to walk beyond the Church, and that cannot be done. If the liturgy is a sign of unity for the Church, I cannot establish groups of faithful who at a certain day and at a certain time pray in one way, then another group who in another time pray otherwise. And then we come to the Lefebvrists"

Yes, we come to them. What do you think of them?

"It must be clear once and for all: they must accept what the Second Vatican Council has decided, otherwise no reconciliation will be possible. And then, what do these people want? The majority of the faithful has adapted itself; without the new rite, which was not a child of the Curia but a work of international inspiration, the celebrations and foreign trips of pope Wojtyla would have been impossible to make. Now, because they cannot adapt, what is the difference? I wish to tell you a story"

Please...

"Some years ago, they came to greet me and I received them. One of them spoke and said: 'Your Excelency, the new rite is a heresy.' 'Why?,' I asked: 'because -- that Lefebvrist told me -- 'in the old rite the celebrant kneeled, worship the Host, lifted himself, showed it to the faithful and then kneeled again to worship it.' 'Ah -- said I -- and now?' 'And now this is a heresy because the celebrant only kneels after the ostension, in reality asking first for the consentment of the community before proceeding to the consecration.'"

And then what did you do?

"What did I do? Well, we simply wished to abolish a duplicate and he talks to me about heresy? 'Here, this is my phone number,' I told him, 'when you have a need, call me'."

In your words, while you presented the book, I felt a certain nostalgia for the past. [Nostalgia] for what?

"Yes, at times I feel so nostalgic. Because at the time in which the liturgical reform was effected I was only 23, for which I saw the last three months of the Council, but this is part of my feelings. However, in a historical point of view, we had at the time a distant objective, the complete reform of the liturgy, which we wished to accomplish. We have worked through the perspective of the renewal and of the return to the Church of the Holy Fathers, eliminating every crust of time from the Roman liturgy. However, the enthusiasm has had some degenerations..."

Of what kind?

"I think that in Belgium and in the Netherlands, on the wave of experimentalism, more than 300 eucharistic prayers were created, then it slowly returned to normality. But I fear this, the return of neoritualism, that is, of the priest who celebrates Mass thinking: 'Well, I have said my Mass following the rite by the book, I am done.' And that is not good, the celebration is not only a passive respect for the liturgical rules, there is always some space for the celebrant."

Antonino D'Anna

___________________________________
*We thank Catholic Church Conservation for several of the pictures.

Don Guido

The current Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Genoa, Monsignor Guido Marini - who also is the Prefect of the ancient Cathedral of San Lorenzo and Archdiocesan Master of Ceremonies (Cerimoniere), as well as spiritual director of the Archdiocesan seminary and professor of Canon Law in several institutions -, has been named by several Italian journalists as the man who will replace Archbishop Piero Marini (no relation) as Master of Pontifical Liturgical Ceremonies.

First, Andrea Tornielli, on the September 2 edition of Il Giornale; now, Sandro Magister. The most interesting report, though, is that of a local Genoese news site, Primocanale, which details several changes in the local Curia, related to the probable departure of Don Guido Marini for Rome - and which would seem to indicate that the Papal move is imminent.

UPDATE (2245 GMT): It seems to be all but certain, as even Zenit (German edition) reports this imminent move (tip: Berolinensis).

Here to stay?

Piero Marini was named Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations by Pope John Paul II on February 24, 1987, beginning his first term immediately thereafter. He has been reconfirmed for three other consecutive five-year terms, which means that he is about to be reconfirmed for a fifth term, or be named by the Holy Father for another position.

Last week, Marini acted as if he knew he would remain in charge, as he visited Brazil to define the different spaces which will be used for the Papal Masses which will take place in São Paulo during the Papal visit of next May. Marini established the place for the Altar and sacristies in the "Campo de Marte" airfield, and defined other liturgical details (see also the official website for the Papal visit).

Other pictures here.

Marini speaks - Outside the Liturgical Reform, there is no Church

Earlier today, we remembered the Holy Father's plea to his flock: "Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves."

Now, we publish the translation of a most enlightening interview of Archbishop Piero Marini, Papal master of ceremonies, to the Italian website Affari Italiani. The occasion for the interview was the presentation of Marini's new book "Liturgy and Beauty" in the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan (the famous "Cattolica"). This interview should be read for what it is: a warning, by certain areas of the Curia.

...
Archbishop Marini, after the Council, the liturgical reform cost a schism, that of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. What do you make of it?

"After every Council, there has always been a period of tension. There is always someone who does not agree or who does not approve that which has been done. Well, the fact is that we do not have policemen to order the faithful to accept that which the Second Vatican Council has decided (laughter).*"

And then?

"And then we must, first of all, understand that the liturgy is a sign of unity** and that, as Pope Paul VI said: 'The Church is not that of the past or of the future, but of the present, for which we must accept the Church living today. That is not a question of liberalizing the Missal or something else, it is just a question of accepting the Church of today, period. To be clear, I refer to the history of the Tridentine rite".

Yes...

"The Tridentine rite or that of Saint Pius V, which in reality is the Missale Romanum aggiornato according to the last dispositions of 1962 by the work of John XXIII, was left in place under certain conditions to avoid a traumatic passage from the old rite to the new for the older faithful. Afterwards, pope Wojtyla allowed that, in certain churches, the rite of Saint Pius V could be celebrated. But to walk beyond this is to walk beyond the Church, and that cannot be done. If the liturgy is a sign of unity for the Church, I cannot establish groups of faithful who at a certain day and at a certain time pray in one way, then another group who in another time pray otherwise. And then we come to the Lefebvrists"

Yes, we come to them. What do you think of them?

"It must be clear once and for all: they must accept what the Second Vatican Council has decided, otherwise no reconciliation will be possible. And then, what do these people want? The majority of the faithful has adapted itself; without the new rite, which was not a child of the Curia but a work of international inspiration, the celebrations and foreign trips of pope Wojtyla would have been impossible to make. Now, because they cannot adapt, what is the difference? I wish to tell you a story"

Please...

"Some years ago, they came to greet me and I received them. One of them spoke and said: 'Your Excelency, the new rite is a heresy.' 'Why?,' I asked: 'because -- that Lefebvrist told me -- 'in the old rite the celebrant kneeled, worship the Host, lifted himself, showed it to the faithful and then kneeled again to worship it.' 'Ah -- said I -- and now?' 'And now this is a heresy because the celebrant only kneels after the ostension, in reality asking first for the consentment of the community before proceeding to the consecration.'"

And then what did you do?

"What did I do? Well, we simply wished to abolish a duplicate and he talks to me about heresy? 'Here, this is my phone number,' I told him, 'when you have a need, call me'."

In your words, while you presented the book, I felt a certain nostalgia for the past. What for?

"Yes, at times I feel so nostalgic. Because at the time in which the liturgical reform was effected I was only 23, for which I saw the last three months of the Council, but this is part of my feelings. However, in a historical point of view, we had at the time a distant objective, the complete reform of the liturgy, which we wished to accomplish. We have worked through the perspective of the renewal and of the return to the Church of the Holy Fathers, eliminating every crust of time from the Roman liturgy. However, the enthusiasm has had some degenerations..."

Of what kind?

"I think that in Belgium and in the Netherlands, on the wave of experimentalism, more than 300 eucharistic prayers were created, then it slowly returned to normality. But I fear this, the return of neoritualism, that is, of the priest who celebrates Mass thinking: 'Well, I have said my Mass following the rite by the book, I am done.' And that is not good, the celebration is not only a passive respect for the liturgical rules, there is always some space for the celebrant."

Antonino D'Anna

*[Translator's note: the Council never decided a new Roman Rite. That was a post-Conciliar decision.]

**[Translator's note: which must come as a huge surprise to Eastern Catholics. The Second Vatican Council -- the actual text, not its "Spirit"-- has this to say: "The Holy Catholic Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ, is made up of the faithful who are organically united in the Holy Spirit by the same faith, the same sacraments and the same government and who, combining together into various groups which are held together by a hierarchy, form separate Churches or Rites. ... the variety within the Church in no way harms its unity; rather it manifests it, for it is the mind of the Catholic Church that each individual Church or Rite should retain its traditions whole and entire", Orientalium Ecclesiarum. What is most curious is this, though: while the unity of liturgy has never been considered a sign of Catholicity, it is pathetic to argue that there is any unity whatsoever in the new Rite. This stale discussion, which shows that the last aggiornamento some went through was in the 1960s, tries to ignore the fact that there are not two similar new Masses, and there is no possible standard, which the Archbishop himself confesses by parading the "space for the celebrant" -- from one parish to another, the liturgical difference is greater than that between the Traditional form of the Roman Rite and any Eastern Rite.]

New Cardinals

Ignazio Ingrao, Vaticanist of Italian weekly Panorama, reported Friday in his Panorama blog that the list of new cardinals for the (almost certain) November consistory is ready and will be announced in the next few days.

The first name of the list would be that of Leonardo Sandri, new Prefect of Oriental Churches, followed by Angelo Comastri, Archpriest of Saint Peter's, Giovanni Lajolo, President of the Governatorate of Vatican City State, and Raffaele Farina, Librarian and Archivist of the Holy Roman Church; perhaps, Archbishop Foley, Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. The Italians would be Angelo Bagnasco, of Genoa and President of the Italian Episcopal Conference ("probably", according to Ingrao; "certainly", according to common sense), and "maybe" Paolo Romeo, of Palermo (the anti-Traditionalist former scheming nuncio in Italy), and the Traditionalist-friendly Luigi de Magistris (who is over 80).

The archbishops of Paris, Warsaw, Minsk are probable names. Ingrao includes the name of the Archbishop of Barcelona, though that does not seem probable. Cardinals from the Americas would include the Archbishop of Washington, and the Archbishop of São Paulo, Odilo Scherer. Bishops of other nations would also be included - probably that of Bombay, Oswald Gracias.

Ingrao states as a certainty that Don Guido Marini will organize the November consistory, and that Archbishop Piero Marini will be named president of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses.

Back to a regular Roman-style Papal Pallium

Finally, the fake archaeologist feature favored by Archbishop Piero Marini in the beginning of Pope Benedict's pontificate - the pseudo-ancient pallium - is to be retired. A new papal pallium (pictured above and very similar to the one used for most of the past centuries, up to Pope John Paul II) is to be used for the first time in the celebrations for Saints Peter and Paul.

This is the main point of the interview granted by the Master of Papal Liturgical Ceremonies, Monsignor Guido Marini, to L'Osservatore Romano (permanent link) which also includes some very interesting answers, especially on the mode of distribution of Holy Communion:

...
In the recent visit to Santa Maria di Leuca and Brindisi, the Pope has distributed communion to the kneeling faithful in the mouth. Is it a practice destined to become usual in papal celebrations?

I think so. Regarding it, it should not be forgotten that the distribution of communion in the hand still remains, from a juridical viewpoint, an indult from the universal law, granted by the Holy See to those Episcopal Conferences which have made a request for it. The mode adopted by Benedict XVI tends to underline the force of the norm valid for the entire Church. In addition, a preference could perhaps be seen for the use of this mode of distribution, which, without eliminating anything from the other, puts into light better the truth of the real presence in the Eucharist, aids the devotion of the faithful, introduces with greater ease the sense of mystery. Aspects which, in our age, pastorally speaking, it is urgent to underline and recover.

...

Still today the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, on the use of the Roman Liturgy from before the reform effected in 1970, seems to give rise to contrasting interpretations. Celebrations presided by the Pope according to the extraordinary form, that is, the ancient one, are predictable?

It is a question which I do not know how to answer. Regarding the mentioned motu proprio, considering it with serene attention and without ideological views, together with the letter addressed by the Pope to the Bishops of the whole world to present it, a double precise understanding is brought forth. First of all, that of favoring the accomplishment of "a reconciliation in the interior of the Church"; and, in this sense, as it has been said, the motu proprio is a most beautiful act of love for the unity of the Church. In second place - and that is a datum not to be forgotten - its purpose is to favor a reciprocal enrichment between both forms of the Roman Rite: in such a way, for example, that in the celebrations according to the Missal of Paul VI (which is the ordinary form of the Roman Rite) "will be able to demonstrate more powerfully than has been the case hitherto, the sacrality which attracts many people to the former usage".

Don Guido - II

The new Prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith was named soon after the election of Pope Benedict XVI. Two and a half years have passed since April 2005, and several heads of dicasteries have been replaced: delicate positions such as that of Secretary of State, Prefect of Propaganda Fide, Prefect of Clergy... The head Bugninist in the Congregations (Domenico Sorrentino, former Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship) was replaced in November 2005... Even the motu proprio on the liberalization of the Traditional Mass, which many deemed impossible, has been published. Yet, Archbishop Piero Marini, Master of Pontifical Liturgical Ceremonies, has remained in his place.

Andrea Tornielli writes today in his blog that Monsignor Guido Marini (more about him here) will be named the new Master of Pontifical Liturgical Ceremonies next week, maybe on Monday.

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Recess for a few days.