For years, Caeremoniale Romanum has had a job that is at the same time glorious and sorrowful.
Glorious because all the great past ceremonies of the Church of Rome are filled with the signs of Heaven (the Glory of God) both in those signs that were inherited from her apostolic founder, and in those attempts by relentless effort to honor this same origin that Rome did not choose, but that God Almighty bestowed upon her.
Sorrowful because so much was thrown away in the last third of the twentieth century when the slow ceremonial growth of 20 centuries with all the little quirks naturally added and eliminated in such a development were cut off and burned. What generations of popes, bishops, priests, monks carefully pruned and watered was cut by misinformed "liturgists" filled with utmost ahistorical arrogance and anachronistic condescension who cut off the roots instead. Now, in many senses, all that is left is a work of documentation of some details, while the full liturgical past of the Catholic ceremonies of the City of Rome is gone, apparently forever.
Anyway, much can be learned from this great past, and that is what the owner of Caeremoniale Romanum, the Rev. Bartłomiej Krzych, a Polish Seminarian, will present to us - mostly and primarily in languages other than English. But the beauty of the images and videos will speak to all. Our heartfelt welcome to him!
