Pope Benedict XVI's easing of
restrictions on use of the 1962 Roman Missal, known as the Tridentine
rite, is just the first step in a "reform of the reform" in liturgy, the
Vatican's top ecumenist said.
The pope's long-term aim is not simply to allow the old and new rites to
coexist, but to move toward a "common rite" that is shaped by the
mutual enrichment of the two Mass forms, Cardinal Kurt Koch, president
of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said May 14.
In effect, the pope is launching a new liturgical reform movement, the
cardinal said. Those who resist it, including "rigid" progressives,
mistakenly view the Second Vatican Council as a rupture with the
church's liturgical tradition, he said.
Cardinal Koch made the remarks at a Rome conference on "Summorum
Pontificum," Pope Benedict's 2007 apostolic letter that offered wider
latitude for use of the Tridentine rite. The cardinal's text was
published the same day by L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.
Cardinal Koch said Pope Benedict thinks the post-Vatican II liturgical
changes have brought "many positive fruits" but also problems, including
a focus on purely practical matters and a neglect of the paschal
mystery in the Eucharistic celebration. The cardinal said it was
legitimate to ask whether liturgical innovators had intentionally gone
beyond the council's stated intentions.
He said this explains why Pope Benedict has introduced a new reform
movement, beginning with "Summorum Pontificum." The aim, he said, is to
revisit Vatican II's teachings in liturgy and strengthen certain
elements, including the Christological and sacrificial dimensions of the
Mass.
Cardinal Koch said "Summorum Pontificum" is "only the beginning of this new liturgical movement."
"In fact, Pope Benedict knows well that, in the long term, we cannot
stop at a coexistence between the ordinary form and the extraordinary
form of the Roman rite, but that in the future the church naturally will
once again need a common rite," he said.
"However, because a new liturgical reform cannot be decided
theoretically, but requires a process of growth and purification, the
pope for the moment is underlining above all that the two forms of the
Roman rite can and should enrich each other," he said.
Cardinal Koch said those who oppose this new reform movement and see it
as a step back from Vatican II lack a proper understanding of the
post-Vatican II liturgical changes. As the pope has emphasized, Vatican
II was not a break or rupture with tradition but part of an organic
process of growth, he said.
On the final day of the conference, participants attended a Mass
celebrated according to the Tridentine rite at the Altar of the Chair in
St. Peter's Basilica. Cardinal Walter Brandmuller presided over the
liturgy. It was the first time in several decades that the old rite was
celebrated at the altar.