In medio stat virtus. The Catholic Church at the time of John Paul II allowed Mass with altar girls, communion in the hand, the guitars and drums, table, etc.., Benedict XVI also allows the Mass with deacon and sub-deacon, communion kneeling, organ, Gregorian chant, the altar coram Deo, Latin ...
" The two forms of the use of the Roman rite can and should enrich each other " .
So he expressed the card. Kurt Koch in the pages of L'Osservatore Romano , in commenting on the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum.
It is necessary that the two forms, ordinary and extraordinaria, coexist peacefully, so that the liturgical reform does not become a liturgical revolution, so that the new branch is not taken off from the root from which it draws its lifeblood, so that the continuity of the rites, shine in the continuity of the faith, so that it is established and the hermeneutic of continuity not overridden by the logic of rupture and discontinuity (Benedict XVI, 22 December 2005)
If the Church there was no place for lovers of tradition , the faithful would be swept up by the lovers of novelty which the "itch", denounced by St Paul (2 Tim 4: 3), leads to "follow the fables" (ibid.) and lose the unchanging Truth of Faith-giving.
" In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but no rupture. What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred for us and great, and can not be sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. There is good for everyone to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church's faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place " (Benedict XVI, Letter of presentation of the Motu Proprio SP, July 7, 2007).
That said, come to us . The missionary Church of Pope Francis ( Gaudium Evangelii , chap. 1), in his tension towards the poor and towards a radical conversion that involves everyone and everything, including the papacy (cf. Gaudium Evangelii , § 32) is at the same time the Church manifest to the world the glory of God through the splendor of the liturgy (cf. EG § 24).
To those who hoped to enlist Pope Francis among the enemies of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum came a cold shower. The Bishops of Puglia, in their ad limina visit, the spring last complained about the divisions created by the liberalization of the use of the Latin rite antiquior. The Pope said, urging them "to supervise the extremism of some traditionalist groups, but also to build on the tradition and make it live in the Church with innovation '[2] , and he added: " You see? They say that my master of papal ceremonies [Guido Marini] is traditionalist, and many, after my election, I was invited to lift it from office and replace it. I said no, because I can do the same treasure of his preparation and traditional at the same time he can benefit in the same way, most of my training emancipated "(ibid.).
The Pope of the poor and the simplicity of the Gospel can not be the Pope of sloppiness and liturgical banality. As St. Francis of Assisi, poverty and austerity for themselves and for the brothers, but not for God, to whom should be offered the most beautiful and precious things (cf. St. Francis , Letter to all clerics ).
One of the aims of the little "reform of the reform" liturgical begun by Pope Benedict XVI was to "foster reconciliation within the Church " ( Universae Ecclesiae , 8 c). His heart was toward the traditionalist world, especially in the West, it grows more and more, and often leads to attitudes schismatics.
Now it says: the liberalization of Vetus Ordo was to foster reconciliation , but instead because of Vetus Ordo Franciscans of the Immaculate are going to divide. It is the demonstration of the disastrous failure of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum .
Our answer is no, is the providential failure of a simplistic and fundamentally wrong concept of unity. Another is the unity of the Church, and the manner in which it occurs Christian unity within the Church itself. Another reconciliation is respectful of diversity, and the other is the massification approval. You can not compare the schismatic drift (actual or potential) of Lefebvre with the irreversible process of differentiation of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, intended to generate two branches from the same original root.
The division is damage to the schismatic Church, because it is the loss of a branch that comes off from the vine, and is thus intended to dry. The division reform, however, is a gain for the Church, because it is the generation of a new sucker, destined to grow and bear fruit, as all the reforms of the religious orders. In this sense, the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum goes the credit, not blame, have catalyzed this process of reform in the Franciscans of the Immaculate in the sense of a deepening of their charisma, albeit in two different directions. And we believe that they are not the only ones.
Their case is still singular on the basis of a common charism, a group headed by the Founders welcomes the liberalization of Vetus Ordo as a yeast that leavens the mass toward the liturgical tradition, another group accepts it as a foreign body at most as a beautiful ornament to look at every now and then, but which, for them, there was no need. So that nothing in the Franciscans of the Immaculate is as before: a group sees in the original charism all the virtuality of the liturgical tradition, which the motu proprio has allowed us to explain. A second group denies that there are virtual and these states, however, a real opposition. They also give them, therefore, a new interpretation of the original charism.
Do not stop the fact: "f 'prior to 2007, the Franciscans of the Immaculate not celebrated according to the Vetus Ordo , "but add an assessment of principle" because the Vetus Ordo is incompatible with the charism of the Franciscans of the Immaculate " that is to say much more.Now, this incompatibility, although objectively unprovable, is emerging as a possible new interpretation of the foundational charism. Now, if you have the right to exist contrary to the new Vetus Ordo , even more will have the right to exist in favor of the new, for he has on his side and the Founders, and one of the most important and influential documents of the pontificate of Benedict XVI.
To be sure, if there was a schismatic effect, this has historically followed the liturgical reform of Paul VI, which is directly called into question - especially in the way it has been implemented - by the dramatic and fierce challenge by the "galaxy Lefebvrian" in constant expansion, which still has about 600 priests, 215 seminarians, numerous convents and monasteries, and 2 million members worldwide. The reform of the reform of Benedict XVI certainly will not result in another " jolt schismatic ", in fact, reduce the size of the one in place, but maybe it will cause the" meiosis "of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, and this is not a bad thing, especially if you look at their potential future fertility.
Pope Francis has recently pointed to the major superiors of religious orders, that "charisma is not a bottle of distilled water "(Meeting with the major superiors of November 29, 2013, SIR January 3, 2014), is a reality that is not stagnant but dynamic, is not dead but alive. And the dynamism and vibrancy of religious orders is also demonstrated in their ability to regenerate through the re-enactment of their charisma. Thing for the Franciscans of the Immaculate was thanks to the impulse of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum.
It is true that the reform of a religious family does not necessarily require the division of its members, it is true that everything could be carried inside. It is true, and that it would have been nice had happened. But things, unforeseeable circumstances, have gone any other way. " The reality is higher idea "(EG 233) says the Holy Father . And now it is enough to take note of a fact, perhaps worst of the ideal unity, but undeniable: there are two different ways of understanding the original charism, for which reason, the division of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate , in one way or another, it is inevitable. We must look for the best way, especially to save many vocations and faith of so many lay faithful who follow this complicated story with apprehension.
Who will help the Franciscans of the Immaculate in this labor regenerator?
Who will help them to share the precious heritage Kolbean, so that each group takes its way, like brothers, like Abraham and Lot, like Paul and Barnabas, and not be like Cain and Abel? Chi, for ideological reasons, is arming a to suppress the other hand, the finish, please! (Behind every "Arab spring" is a "warlord").
Common sense will prevail, the good of the Church will prevail "healthy Christian realism," which refers to Pope Francis. To our beloved Pope dare ask this appointment a cardinal of the holy Roman Church, which is non-partisan , that accompany the two groups, existing in fact, of the Franciscans of the Immaculate in this irreversible process of regenerating division.
Koch card. Kurt, "Hope for the whole Church," in L ' Osservatore Romano , May 15, 2011, p. 7.
