Your secretary, Monsignor Camille Perl, announced that shortly there will be a document clarifying the Motu proprio. When will it be released?
"It was Cardinal Bertone who announced it, and he has the right to do so. But I, who am a servant of the Pope, will only announce it when the Pope will say so. Our Commission has reported to the Pontiff that from all over the world so many questions come, very many justified, others due to lack of knowledge. The Holy Father, and he alone, will say whether it is convenient to issue such a document and when."
What are the questions that have arrived and would deserve an answer?
"The first regards Latin, because - they say - to celebrate in a language which you do not know is not convenient. Unfortunately, the seminarians, but also some priests, have not studied it and therefore it is difficult for them to celebrate in the extraordinary form. To do so one should at least know the canon of the Mass, the part of the consecration. We in "Ecclesia Dei" are equipping ourselves and we are preparing meetings, courses and means of electronic communication for a deep knowledge of the earlier liturgy. Some courses are already being held in France, Germany, Brazil, Central America and the United States. At Toledo, Spain, for example, it is being evaluated whether it is convenient to erect a seminary specifically for the preparation for the extraordinary rite or to give special courses in the seminary of the diocese. In general we see an interest for the return of Latin in the academia. It was sad in these years to see the abandonment not only of the language, but also of certain theological content connected to the semantic precision of the Latin language.
Another problem is the shortage of priests ...
"If in a diocese priests are lacking and only three or four faithful request the extraordinary rite, it is a thing of common sense to think that it is difficult to meet this demand. However, since it is the intention, the "mens", of the Pope to grant this treasure for the good of the Church, where there are no priests the best thing would be to offer a celebration according to the extraordinary rite in one of the parish Sunday Masses. It would be a Mass for everyone, and everyone, including the younger generations would benefit from the richness of the extraordinary rite, for example, from those moments of contemplation that in the novus ordo have disappeared.
So you maintain that, even if there is no consistent and stable group, in the future it is intended to offer one of the Sunday Masses in the extraordinary rite?
"I think so. On the other hand, this possibility had already been approved unanimously in 1986 by a commission of cardinals in which was also present Cardinal Ratzinger, but then it did not become operative. Now I would be sure that it could be done."
Another point to clarify is the definition of a "stable and consistent group". What does it mean exactly?
"It is a matter of common sense: why make an issue if the people who ask for the rite come from different parishes? If they come together and request a Mass, they become a stable group, although they did not know each other before. Also the number is a question of goodwill. In some parishes, especially in the country, on weekdays the persons who come to the ordinary Mass are three or four, and the same happens in not a few religious houses. Why, if those same three people request the old Mass would it be pastorally necessary to reject it?".
So the future document should be more welcoming of requests from few?
"Yes, but it has to be understood not as something that should be at the expense of others, of the majority, but for their enrichment and always avoiding any even minimal form of antagonism..."
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Interview with Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos
Excerpt from the New Liturgical Movement:
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