UPDATE (regarding this matter, 1300 GMT): In a response to jounalists, the director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, stated the following:
"It is true that a motu proprio has long been under study to lay down the transferral of a technical legal competence - as, for instance, that of the dispensation for the 'ratum sed non consummatum' matrimony from the Congregation for Divine Worship to the tribunal of the Sacred [Roman] Rota. But there are no grounds nor reason to see in this an intent to promote a control, of a 'restrictive' kind, by the Congregation, of the fostering of the liturgical renewal willed by the Second Vatican Council."
_________________________________
The vaticanist for Italian daily Il Giornale, Andrea Tornielli, reports the following today in his blog and in an article for his paper:
A document of Benedict XVI that reorganizes the competences of the Congregation for Divine Worship - granting it the goal of promoting a liturgy that is more faithful to the original intentions of the Second Vatican Council, with less space for arbitrary changes, and for the recovery of a dimension of greater sacrality - is to be published in the next few weeks.
The document, which will be published as a motu proprio, is the result of a long development - it has been reviewed by the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts and by the offices of the Secretariat of State - and is mainly motivated by the transferral of competences on matrimonial matters to the Roman Rota. ... Foregoing this [competence], which will be passed on to the Rota, the Congregation for Divine Worship will not occupy itself, in fact, with the sacraments, and will keep solely its competence in liturgical matters.
According to some authoritative rumors, a passage of the motu proprio of Benedict XVI could expressly mention that "new liturgical movement" of which Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera has spoken in recent times, when intervening in last November's consistory. ...
The Congregation for Divine Worship - which some would wish to rechristen as "of the Sacred Liturgy" or "of the Divine Liturgy" - will henceforth busy itself with this new liturgical movement, including the creation of a new section of the dicastery dedicated to sacred art and music.
