The Vatican has denied an Italian newspaper analyst's claim that one
of its departments will be dedicating itself to a stricter
interpretation of the Second Vatican Council's liturgical changes.
Vatican analyst Andrea Tornielli of Italy's Il Giornale paper
announced early on Feb. 9 that Pope Benedict XVI will soon modify the
responsibilities of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and
the Discipline of the Sacraments.
Tornielli is known for having advance knowledge of important Vatican
information.
But the Vatican has denied the Vatican analyst's latest
report.
Tornielli reported that the Pope's coming changes would make it
possible for the worship congregation to promote a liturgy “more
faithful to the original intentions of Vatican II.”
This would leave
“less room for arbitrary changes” and put greater emphasis on the
sacredness of the Mass, he said.
The papal order, he wrote, will have the principal function of
shifting the jurisdiction of cases of marriage in the Church that remain
unconsummated from the worship office to the Vatican's “Roman Rota”
court.
He explained that around 500 such cases exist per year.
The majority
of cases come from Asia, where arranged marriages are common.
In the
West, cases result from couples psychologically incapable of carrying
out the conjugal act.
Without that caseload, the worship office would be
responsible only for liturgical matters, said Tornielli.
The Vatican analyst said the Pope’s order “could cite that 'new
liturgical movement'” which the congregation's prefect, Cardinal Antonio
Cañizares, has referred to in the past.
In an interview with Il
Giornale last December, the cardinal said that liturgical reforms were
hastily carried out after Vatican II and that it is "necessary and
urgent" to revisit them.
In this case, the development could mean a return to Second Vatican
Council teachings to undertake a “reform of the reform,” said Tornielli.
The divine worship department would assume this “new liturgical
movement” as part of its function, he explained.
He also predicted that a
new section of the department would be created for art and sacred
music.
Tornielli's report evoked a response from the Vatican just hours after it was published.
Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, confirmed that the
department has been studying the possibility of a “motu proprio” – the
title of the Pope's order – to transfer the caseload of unconsummated
marriages to the Rota.
“But,” added Fr. Lombardi, “there is no foundation or reason to see
in this an intention to promote a 'restrictive' type control by the
congregation over the promotion of the liturgical renewal desired by the
Second Vatican Council.”