Ratzinger started off as left wing through the Vatican Council, maybe influenced by his father's anti-right wing politics. He turned conservative in the late 60s and then flipped back again.
Even more telling is that Pope Benedict XVI issued the historic document Summorum Pontificum in 2007, making clear that the traditional Roman Rite is not able to be abrogated by any authority on earth, and stressing that, contrary to the widespread error and injustice on this pint in the decades following Vatican II, all Latin Rite priests have the legal right to celebrate the traditional Roman Rite without having to ask special permission from their bishops.
This generous spirit of his toward the priests and lay faithful of the Latin Church is far more important than the fact that he never celebrated Mass in the historic Roman Rite when he was pope.
And, even more important than Summorum Pontificum, is the fact that the man who personally feels the liturgy has collapsed has chosen: (1) never to celebrate the TLM and (2) not to do much in reference to the NO except make the admittedly shoddy *English* liturgical translation more precise (no changes to the original NO were made).
So, Cardinal Ratzinger, the man who lays the source of problem in the liturgy, doesn't see the liturgy of the post-Vatican II Mass as something that needed fixing.
Which says something rather different than traditionalists would like.
No, that's really of no importance whatsoever. Whatever the personal liturgical preferences and affections of Benedict XVI, the liturgy that was manufactured after Vatican II needs fixing (as Benedict XVI himself has indicated, and he implemented preliminary measures toward that end as pope, measures which were aborted when he abdicated), and, ultimately at some point, it needs abandoning. Appraising his pontificate, obviously the most important thing he ever did was issue Summorum Pontificum, an act that whose positive consequences will continue for a long time to come, long after people have forgotten his Teilhardism and his condom garble.
No, he might not agree with me even if I were right. He's not graced with infallibility in these matters, and Catholics are free to disagree about this.
Ratzinger started off as left wing through the Vatican Council, maybe influenced by his father's anti-right wing politics. He turned conservative in the late 60s and then flipped back again.
ReplyDeleteEven more telling is that Pope Benedict XVI issued the historic document Summorum Pontificum in 2007, making clear that the traditional Roman Rite is not able to be abrogated by any authority on earth, and stressing that, contrary to the widespread error and injustice on this pint in the decades following Vatican II, all Latin Rite priests have the legal right to celebrate the traditional Roman Rite without having to ask special permission from their bishops.
ReplyDeleteThis generous spirit of his toward the priests and lay faithful of the Latin Church is far more important than the fact that he never celebrated Mass in the historic Roman Rite when he was pope.
And, even more important than Summorum Pontificum, is the fact that the man who personally feels the liturgy has collapsed has chosen:
ReplyDelete(1) never to celebrate the TLM and
(2) not to do much in reference to the NO except make the admittedly shoddy *English* liturgical translation more precise (no changes to the original NO were made).
So, Cardinal Ratzinger, the man who lays the source of problem in the liturgy, doesn't see the liturgy of the post-Vatican II Mass as something that needed fixing.
Which says something rather different than traditionalists would like.
No, that's really of no importance whatsoever. Whatever the personal liturgical preferences and affections of Benedict XVI, the liturgy that was manufactured after Vatican II needs fixing (as Benedict XVI himself has indicated, and he implemented preliminary measures toward that end as pope, measures which were aborted when he abdicated), and, ultimately at some point, it needs abandoning. Appraising his pontificate, obviously the most important thing he ever did was issue Summorum Pontificum, an act that whose positive consequences will continue for a long time to come, long after people have forgotten his Teilhardism and his condom garble.
ReplyDeleteWell, Ratzinger would agree with you if you were right.
ReplyDeleteAs it is, he doesn't.
No, he might not agree with me even if I were right. He's not graced with infallibility in these matters, and Catholics are free to disagree about this.
ReplyDelete