By Dr. Herbert R.
Catholics attached to the Missal of 1962 had all the reasons to rejoice when in July 7, 2007 the Holy Father issued the Summorum Pontificum, providing a liberal indult for the Traditional Latin Mass. The document was released with an accompanying letter addressed to the Bishops. The Holy Father granted liberal use not only of the Missal but of the pre-Vatican II Sacramental Rites. Responsibility for granting request for the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass was relegated to the Parish Priests. Indeed, what a gift to every hearts attached to the Traditional Roman Rites. The SF is an occasion not of division but of healing the schism and the pains caused by abuses in the liturgy. The moved of the Holy Father was seen not only as courageous but controversial as well. But nonetheless the SF is a manifestation of the Holy Father’s desire to correct the abuses in the liturgy brought about by uncalled for innovations, and to place a correct perspective to the reforms inaugurated by the Second Vatican Council. At the time of his election to the pontificate, I remember watching and listening over television to his first allocution to the Cardinals. In that speech he spoke about the "reform of the reformed" in the Liturgy as one of his priority. And even at the time when he was Cardinal he spoke of this thing many times on several occasions. In July 13, 1988 before the Bishops of Chile in Santiago, he said: "One of the basic discoveries of the theology of ecumenism is that schisms can take place only when certain truths and certain values of the Christian Faith are no longer lived and loved within the Church. The truth which is marginalized becomes autonomous, remains detached from the whole of the ecclesiastical structure and a new movement then forms itself around it.".... Further he spoke of instances where Vatican II had been misinterpreted by some, "The Second Vatican Council has not been treated as a part of the entire living Tradition of the Church, but as an end of Tradition, a new start from zero. The truth is that this particular Council defined no dogma at all, and deliberately chose to remain on a modest level as a merely pastoral council; and yet many treat it as though it had made itself into a sort of sort of super dogma which takes away the importance of all the rest." The Cardinal further explained that... "the only way in which Vatican II can be made plausible is to present it as it is: one part of the unbroken, the unique Tradition of the Church and of her faith." [quotes from "Lessons from the Lefebvre Schism", by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger published in the Documentation Service vol. IV, Number 8, 1991, emphasis supplied]
Indeed the many changes that we see in Papal liturgies, today has prove that the Holy Father is giving flesh to the "reform of the reformed". This truth about the liturgy was eloquently expressed by Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz in his foreword to the Baronius Missal in this way "...the older rites need not be disdained in order to appreciate the new, nor must the new rites be disparaged in order to love the old." [Emphasis supplied]
Prayer for the Pope:
Almighty Father we bless you and thank you for giving us a Shepherd like Pope Benedict XVI. We thank you that after the turbulence and misinterpretation after Vatican II we have a leader and shepherd who will guide us to the beauty and treasury of the Church. We thank you for making us realize that in the church there is a treasury of faith that we can rediscover time and again. That turbulence and crisis cannot obscure. Indeed we have a Rock. In it we believe that you have founded the church. We ask for your blessing on our Pope and may he be blessed with long years in the pontificate to guide us and build your church. Thank you Lord. We ask this in the name of your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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