The New Theological Movement has published a partial translation of the interview given by Antonio Cardinal Canizares-Llovera to Il Foglio, and published on January 9, 2010.The emphases are from RC.
January 9, 2010, Il Foglio
The ex-archbishop of Toledo and primate of Spain, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares has led the Vatican "ministry" which occupies itself with the liturgy for a little than a year. A delicate task in a pontificate, such as that of Benedict XVI, in which the liturgy and its "restructuring" has a central role after the post conciliar diversions. The liturgy is the center, after all, of the life of the faithful. The Pope said it again at the Christmas Vigil: as for the monks, so it is for every man, "the liturgy is the first priority. Everything else comes after." It is necessary, "to put in second place all other occupations, as important as they may be, to set out toward God, to allow Him to enter into our life and our time."
Cardinal Cañizares says as much to Il Foglio and more in an assessment after having passed one year in the Roman Curia:
"I have received - he explains - the mission to complete, with the indispensable and most valid help of my collaborators, those tasks which have been assigned to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus of John Paul II with respect to the order and promotion of the sacred liturgy, in the first place of the sacraments. For the religious and cultural situation in which we live and for the same priority which corresponds to the liturgy in the life of the Church, I believe that the principal mission which I have received is to promote with complete dedication and engagement, to reinvigorate and develop the spirit and the true sense of the liturgy in the conscience and life of the faithful; so that the liturgy becomes the center and the heart of the community; so that all, priests and faithful, consider it as the substantial and essential thing of our life; so that we live the liturgy in full truth; so that in all its fullness, as the Second Vatican Council says, it is "the source and summit" of the Christian life. After a year at the helm of this Congregation, I experience and sense with greater force every day, the necessity of promoting in the Church, in every continent, a strong and rigorous liturgical impulse. An impulse which revivifies that most rich heritage of the Council and of which the great liturgical movement of the 19th and first half of the 20th century - with men like Guardini, Jungmann and so many others - rendered fruitful the Church at the Second Vatican Council. There, without any doubt, stands our future and the future of the world. I say this because the future of the Church and of the entirety of humanity is answered in God, in the life of God and of that which comes from Him; and this happens in the liturgy and by means of it. Only a Church which lives the truth of the liturgy will be in a position to give the one thing which can renew, transform and recreate the world: God and only God and His grace. The liturgy, in its most pure character, is the presence of God, the salvific and regenerating work of God, communication and participation in His merciful love, adoration, acknowledgement of God. It is the only thing that can save us."
Guardini and Jungmann were two pillars of the liturgical renewal of the past decades. Figures which also inspired Joseph Ratzinger in his The Spirit of the Liturgy. Figures which, probably, have also inspired the promulgation of the Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum. It is said that the Motu Proprio has represented also (there are some who say it at least) an extended hand of the Pope to the Society of Saint Pius X. Is this so?
"In fact, it is. However, I believe that the Motu Proprio has a most important value for its own sake, for the Church and for the liturgy. Although this displeases some - judging by the reactions which have arrived and which continue to arrive - it is only just and necessary to say that the Motu Proprio is not a step back or a return to the past. It is to acknowledge and receive, with simplicity, in all its fullness, the treasures and inheritance of the great Tradition, which has in the liturgy its most genuine and profound expression. The Church cannot permit herself to prescind, to forget or to renounce the treasures and the rich inheritance of this tradition, contained in the Roman Rite. It would be a betrayal and a negation of her very self. She cannot abandon the historical inheritance of the ecclesiastical liturgy, or desire to establish everything from anew - as some have pretended - without cutting off fundamental parts of the Church herself. Some understood the Conciliar liturgical reform as a rupture, and not as an organic development of the tradition. In these years after the Council, "change" was almost a magic word; it became necessary to modify that which had been, to the point of forgetting it; everything new; it was necessary to introduce novelty, in the end, a human work and creation. We cannot forget that the liturgical reform and the years after the Council coincided with a cultural climate intensely marked and dominated by a conception of man as 'creator' that only with difficulty co-exists with a liturgy, which, above all, is the action of God and His priority, "the right" of God, adoration of God and also the tradition of that which we receive and has been given to us one time and for all times. We are not able to create the liturgy ourselves, it is not our work, but the work of God. This conception of man as 'creator' which leads to a secularized vision of everything, where God, often, has no place, this passion for change and the loss of tradition has not yet been overcome. And for this reason, in my opinion, among the other things, stands the cause by which many see with such distrust the Motu Proprio or that it displeases some so much to receive and accept it, to re-encounter the great riches of the Roman liturgical tradition which we cannot squander, or to search for and accept the reciprocal enrichment of the one Roman rite between the "ordinary" and the "extraordinary" forms. The Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum, has a most important value, which everyone ought to appreciate, whose value has not only to do with the liturgy, but the entire Church, of that which it is and the tradition it signifies, without which the Church turns into a human institution always in change. Obviously, the Motu Proprio has to be seen with the reading and interpretation one makes or would make of the Second Vatican Council. When one reads the Council and interprets it with the key of rupture and discontinuity, he understands nothing of the Council and he completely distorts it. For this reason, as the Pope indicates, only a hermeneutic of continuity brings us to a just and correct reading of the Council, and to understand the truth of that which it says and teaches in its entirety and in particular in the Constitution, Sacrosanctum Concilium, on the divine liturgy, which is inseparable, for the most part, with this same entirety. Consequently, the Motu Proprio also has a most high value for the communion of the Church."
The Pope stands behind the slow but necessary process of the Church's rapprochement to an authentic liturgical spirit. Also, divisions and contra-positions are not lacking. Cardinal Cañizares speaks about it:
"The great contribution of the Pope, in my opinion, is that he is bringing us closer to the truth of the liturgy, with a wise pedagogy, introducing us to the genuine 'spirit' of the liturgy (the title of one of his works before becoming Pope). He, before all else, is following a simple educative process which seeks to move toward this 'spirit' or genuine sense of the liturgy, to overcome a reductive vision which is still very entrenched. As Pope, he is the first to put into practice his teachings, so rich and abundant in this area. As his evocative gestures which accompany the celebrations at which he presides, move in this direction. To accept these gestures and these teachings is a duty which we have if we are disposed to live the liturgy in a way corresponding to its very naturalness and if we do not want to lose the treasures and liturgical inheritance of the tradition. Further, they constitute a great gift for the formation, as urgent as it is necessary, of the Christian people. In this prospective, one needs to see the same Motu Proprio which has confirmed the possibility to celebrate with the Roman Missal approved by John XXIII and which goes back, with the successive modifications, to the time of Saint Gregory the Great and even earlier. It is certain that there are many difficulties which those are having who, in utilizing that which is their right, are celebrating or participating in the Holy Mass according to "the ancient rite" or "extraordinary" form. Of itself, there need not be this opposition, or even less to be seen as suspect or labeled as "pre-conciliar" or, even worse, as "anti-conciliar." The reasons for this are many and diverse. However, at bottom, they are the same which they carry to the reform of the liturgy understood as rupture and not in the horizon of the tradition and the 'hermeneutic of continuity' which reclaims the renewal and true liturgical reform in the key of Vatican II. We cannot forget, further, that in the liturgy one touches that which is most essential to the faith and the Church and, for this reason, every time in history when one has touched something of liturgical tensions, divisions have not been rare."
(The picture is from the ICRSS website)
The New Liturgical Movement has also published a fuller (but, apparently, not yet complete) translation of the same interview.
Cardinal Cañizares says as much to Il Foglio and more in an assessment after having passed one year in the Roman Curia:
"I have received - he explains - the mission to complete, with the indispensable and most valid help of my collaborators, those tasks which have been assigned to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus of John Paul II with respect to the order and promotion of the sacred liturgy, in the first place of the sacraments. For the religious and cultural situation in which we live and for the same priority which corresponds to the liturgy in the life of the Church, I believe that the principal mission which I have received is to promote with complete dedication and engagement, to reinvigorate and develop the spirit and the true sense of the liturgy in the conscience and life of the faithful; so that the liturgy becomes the center and the heart of the community; so that all, priests and faithful, consider it as the substantial and essential thing of our life; so that we live the liturgy in full truth; so that in all its fullness, as the Second Vatican Council says, it is "the source and summit" of the Christian life. After a year at the helm of this Congregation, I experience and sense with greater force every day, the necessity of promoting in the Church, in every continent, a strong and rigorous liturgical impulse. An impulse which revivifies that most rich heritage of the Council and of which the great liturgical movement of the 19th and first half of the 20th century - with men like Guardini, Jungmann and so many others - rendered fruitful the Church at the Second Vatican Council. There, without any doubt, stands our future and the future of the world. I say this because the future of the Church and of the entirety of humanity is answered in God, in the life of God and of that which comes from Him; and this happens in the liturgy and by means of it. Only a Church which lives the truth of the liturgy will be in a position to give the one thing which can renew, transform and recreate the world: God and only God and His grace. The liturgy, in its most pure character, is the presence of God, the salvific and regenerating work of God, communication and participation in His merciful love, adoration, acknowledgement of God. It is the only thing that can save us."
Guardini and Jungmann were two pillars of the liturgical renewal of the past decades. Figures which also inspired Joseph Ratzinger in his The Spirit of the Liturgy. Figures which, probably, have also inspired the promulgation of the Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum. It is said that the Motu Proprio has represented also (there are some who say it at least) an extended hand of the Pope to the Society of Saint Pius X. Is this so?
"In fact, it is. However, I believe that the Motu Proprio has a most important value for its own sake, for the Church and for the liturgy. Although this displeases some - judging by the reactions which have arrived and which continue to arrive - it is only just and necessary to say that the Motu Proprio is not a step back or a return to the past. It is to acknowledge and receive, with simplicity, in all its fullness, the treasures and inheritance of the great Tradition, which has in the liturgy its most genuine and profound expression. The Church cannot permit herself to prescind, to forget or to renounce the treasures and the rich inheritance of this tradition, contained in the Roman Rite. It would be a betrayal and a negation of her very self. She cannot abandon the historical inheritance of the ecclesiastical liturgy, or desire to establish everything from anew - as some have pretended - without cutting off fundamental parts of the Church herself. Some understood the Conciliar liturgical reform as a rupture, and not as an organic development of the tradition. In these years after the Council, "change" was almost a magic word; it became necessary to modify that which had been, to the point of forgetting it; everything new; it was necessary to introduce novelty, in the end, a human work and creation. We cannot forget that the liturgical reform and the years after the Council coincided with a cultural climate intensely marked and dominated by a conception of man as 'creator' that only with difficulty co-exists with a liturgy, which, above all, is the action of God and His priority, "the right" of God, adoration of God and also the tradition of that which we receive and has been given to us one time and for all times. We are not able to create the liturgy ourselves, it is not our work, but the work of God. This conception of man as 'creator' which leads to a secularized vision of everything, where God, often, has no place, this passion for change and the loss of tradition has not yet been overcome. And for this reason, in my opinion, among the other things, stands the cause by which many see with such distrust the Motu Proprio or that it displeases some so much to receive and accept it, to re-encounter the great riches of the Roman liturgical tradition which we cannot squander, or to search for and accept the reciprocal enrichment of the one Roman rite between the "ordinary" and the "extraordinary" forms. The Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum, has a most important value, which everyone ought to appreciate, whose value has not only to do with the liturgy, but the entire Church, of that which it is and the tradition it signifies, without which the Church turns into a human institution always in change. Obviously, the Motu Proprio has to be seen with the reading and interpretation one makes or would make of the Second Vatican Council. When one reads the Council and interprets it with the key of rupture and discontinuity, he understands nothing of the Council and he completely distorts it. For this reason, as the Pope indicates, only a hermeneutic of continuity brings us to a just and correct reading of the Council, and to understand the truth of that which it says and teaches in its entirety and in particular in the Constitution, Sacrosanctum Concilium, on the divine liturgy, which is inseparable, for the most part, with this same entirety. Consequently, the Motu Proprio also has a most high value for the communion of the Church."
The Pope stands behind the slow but necessary process of the Church's rapprochement to an authentic liturgical spirit. Also, divisions and contra-positions are not lacking. Cardinal Cañizares speaks about it:
"The great contribution of the Pope, in my opinion, is that he is bringing us closer to the truth of the liturgy, with a wise pedagogy, introducing us to the genuine 'spirit' of the liturgy (the title of one of his works before becoming Pope). He, before all else, is following a simple educative process which seeks to move toward this 'spirit' or genuine sense of the liturgy, to overcome a reductive vision which is still very entrenched. As Pope, he is the first to put into practice his teachings, so rich and abundant in this area. As his evocative gestures which accompany the celebrations at which he presides, move in this direction. To accept these gestures and these teachings is a duty which we have if we are disposed to live the liturgy in a way corresponding to its very naturalness and if we do not want to lose the treasures and liturgical inheritance of the tradition. Further, they constitute a great gift for the formation, as urgent as it is necessary, of the Christian people. In this prospective, one needs to see the same Motu Proprio which has confirmed the possibility to celebrate with the Roman Missal approved by John XXIII and which goes back, with the successive modifications, to the time of Saint Gregory the Great and even earlier. It is certain that there are many difficulties which those are having who, in utilizing that which is their right, are celebrating or participating in the Holy Mass according to "the ancient rite" or "extraordinary" form. Of itself, there need not be this opposition, or even less to be seen as suspect or labeled as "pre-conciliar" or, even worse, as "anti-conciliar." The reasons for this are many and diverse. However, at bottom, they are the same which they carry to the reform of the liturgy understood as rupture and not in the horizon of the tradition and the 'hermeneutic of continuity' which reclaims the renewal and true liturgical reform in the key of Vatican II. We cannot forget, further, that in the liturgy one touches that which is most essential to the faith and the Church and, for this reason, every time in history when one has touched something of liturgical tensions, divisions have not been rare."
(The picture is from the ICRSS website)
The New Liturgical Movement has also published a fuller (but, apparently, not yet complete) translation of the same interview.
