Amid concerns that the Vatican could promulgate or allow further changes to the Mass after the Synod on Synodality, Ripperger recently discussed his book The Limits of Papal Authority Over the Liturgy with Dr. Robert Moynihan and Matt Gaspers of Inside the Vatican.
The exorcist first made the important distinction between power and authority, with power being the “ability to effect change,” whereas authority gives a person the right to determine something or enact change. “The only one who has absolute authority is God,” he pointed out.
In his book, Ripperger shared a quote from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) that expresses the limits of the pope’s authority over the liturgy, read aloud by Gaspers during September’s interview:
“The pope is not an absolute monarch whose will is law; rather, he is the guardian of the authentic Tradition and, thereby, the premier guarantor of obedience. He cannot do as he likes … His rule is not that of arbitrary power, but that of obedience in faith. That is why with respect to the Liturgy, he has the task of a gardener, not that of a technician who builds new machines and throws the old ones on the junk pile.”
The pope’s role is bound more specifically by the Divine Positive Law — that which is expressly revealed by God — and the natural law, Ripperger explained.
A key example of how the pope cannot change the liturgy is by changing the “words of the consecration” in a way “that would invalidate it,” said Ripperger, because this would violate the Divine Positive Law commanded by God when Christ said during the Last Supper, “Do this in commemoration of me.”
This also means the consecration – by which the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ Jesus is made present in the Eucharist – cannot be omitted, which it is speculated may occur in the experimental, so-called “Amazon Rite” of the Mass, according to Return to Tradition’s Anthony Stine.
The pope also cannot “insert something into the liturgy … that is contrary to the natural law,” such as the” worship of pagan idols,” the exorcist added.
“It’s his obedience to those things that is precisely what his office is ordered towards,” Ripperger said regarding the pope.
Gaspers highlighted the priest theologian’s point that because the Catholic faith is unchanging, and because the liturgy is based on the faith, changes to the Mass regarding its fundamentals are unthinkable.
“Given the fact that the deposit of Faith does not change and constitutes the lex or the law around which the liturgical development hinged only an organic development can legitimately be envisioned,” Gaspers quoted from Ripperger’s book.
The exorcist said he stressed in his book that “It’s not up to us to determine how we worship God,” pointing to the Old Testament as evidence of this, since God was “very exact” in dictating how the liturgy is supposed to be done at the time.
“Even Christ said, ‘Do this in commemoration of me.’ So he’s being very specific about certain things that have to be done” in the liturgy, Ripperger said. “And it’s up to God to make those determinations.”
He noted that the pope does have “a little bit of latitude” regarding the “accidental” parts of the Mass – that is, its externals, which have in fact “developed over time” – but these cannot attempt changes to the fundamentals: the faith itself, Divine positive law and natural law.
“Ultimately,” we must recognize that God has determined how we are to worship Him, Ripperger said, which is why “tradition is so key,” and he delves into the importance of this in his book.
“Because it’s precisely through tradition that what God taught us about these matters comes to us,” said the exorcist, noting that Scripture is also considered part of tradition.
“So the point being is that it’s precisely through these things that are passed on to us from the very beginning, from the time of the Apostles until now, that we actually know this is what we’re supposed to do,” he continued.
In other words, “the longer something is in the liturgy, the more we know it’s the will of God that it be used there,” Ripperger said.
His analysis appears to suggest problems with the Novus Ordo Missae, as well as warn of potential coming changes to this Mass, or of a new Mass (“Mass”?) altogether. Indeed, Ripperger, Gaspers and Moynihan alluded to the damage the Novus Ordo inflicted on people’s faith due to the sudden onset of many radical changes to the liturgy.
“When you have that many number of changes” to the Mass, “ultimately … what happens is … it gives them the impression that the faith itself could change, or the content of the faith could change,” said Fr. Ripperger, adding that he is “not the only person that’s drawn attention to that particular issue.”
In fact, according to Ripperger, St. Thomas Aquinas himself said that if the law is changed too frequently, the force of the law is eventually eroded.