PAPA FRANCESCO AND SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM

Francis and Latin

The old Mass is untouchable, the Pope Jesuit still displaces all

The bishops of Apulia asking for the withdrawal of the motu proprio Ratzinger. Bergoglio says no, they serve things new and ancient

Whoever thought that with the arrival of the Chair of Peter the South American Jesuit Jorge Mario Bergoglio Mass in Latin in its extra-ordinary form was to be archived forever, he had miscalculated. The motu proprio of Ratzinger of 2007, Summorum Pontificum, is untouchable, and the 1962 Missal of John XXIII (which is the latest version of the Tridentine of St Pope Pius V) is safe. That rite with the celebrant facing God and not toward the people, with balustrades to separating the pews for the faithful from the presbytery, it is not an antique, a rite to be shipped to a museum gathering dust. It 'was just the reigning Pontiff telling upon, receiving a few days ago in the Apostolic Palace, the delegation of bishops from Puglia come to Rome for the ad limina Apostolorum visit, as is customary with the world episcopate every five years.

As he wrote on his blog Sandro Magister, the Vatican, the bishops of Puglia were most talkative, with clergy and journalists. Last week, the head of the diocese of Molfetta, Luigi Martella, told how Francis is ready to sign within the ' year an encyclical on faith that Benedict XVI would be writing out in the tranquility of the monastery Mater Ecclesiae, adding that even Bergoglio has already thought of his second pastoral letter, dedicated to poverty and entitled "Blessed are paupers." Statements which the Holy See has been forced to refute, correct and clarify with Father Federico Lombardi, who invited us to think "in an encyclical time." Then came the Bishop of Conversano and Monopoli, Domenico Padovano, said that the clergy of his diocese told how the priorities of the bishops of the region of the Tableland has been to explain to the Pope that the Mass in the ancient rite is creating big divisions within of the church. the underlying message: Summorum Pontificum should be abrogated, or at least severely limited. But Francis said no.

As always Monsignor Padovano had to say, explaining that Francis told them to watch over extremism of some traditionalist groups, but also suggesting to build on the tradition and to create the conditions so that it may live with innovation. In this regard, writes Magister, Bergoglio also told the pressure experienced after the election to alternate the master of liturgical ceremonies, that Guido Marini painted as a traditionalist who was sent back to Genoa, the city that in 2007 he left reluctantly in obedience to Benedict XVI, who wanted him to Rome. In this case, however, Francis has on the contrary refused to any change in the office of the master of ceremonies. And he did it "to capitalize on his traditional preparation", allowing little mild and Marini protagonist to "take advantage of my more emancipated training."

The Cultural difference there is the whole, the Jesuit Ignatian tradition for "nec nec rubricat cantat" suddenly finds himself catapulted into a world where in the past eight years there has been a patient and slow recovery of liturgical elements abandoned in the last thirty to forty years, thus justifying those who saw a break in the Council in the liturgical field. The underlying theme of the ceremonies of Benedict XVI was summarized in the synthesis between solemnity and composure: the return of the seven high altar candlesticks and central cross and warnings not to applaud are an example. And then the Latin, the language of the church, which was used for the celebrations not only in Rome but in every corner of the world, including Africa. Not a few, looking at the face of serious Marini that evening of March while Bergoglio appeared for the first time at the Loggia to impart his Blessings with the simple white cassock, without skullcap or stole, it was predicted that a change would be imminent. Instead Francesco knows that Rome is not Buenos Aires, the Pope also requires you to maintain a symbolic apparatus anchored in history and the ancient tradition of the Catholic Church. 

Not everyone likes Continuity a recovery, what happened during the years of Benedict XVI, that many did not like, even within the Leonine walls. Monsignor Sergio Pagano, prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives, said on May 7 at the presentation of the constitution announcing the Council "Humanae salutis" that "when I see today in some altars of the basilicas those seven bronze candelabra that dominate the cross you'd think that little has been understood  regarding the Constitution on the Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium. " That's why someone like the bishop of Cerignola-Ascoli Satriano, Monsignor Felice Di Molfetta - who always considers the extra-ordinary rite incompatible with the Missal of Paul VI, ordinary expression of the lex orandi of the Catholic Church of the Latin rite - some days ago he made ​​it known to the faithful of his diocese that he warmly welcomed Francis "for the style of celebration that has taken over, inspired by the noble simplicity sanctioned by the Council."

A FREE TRANSLATION FROM THE ITALIAN SOURCE

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Matthew Matzuzzi   -   @ matteomatzuzzi