Reform of the Roman Liturgy

• Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, powerful overseer of church doctrine as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, says he would like to see altars in Catholic churches turned around again.
• After years in which priests celebrated Mass with their backs turned to worshipers, altars were repositioned after the Second Vatican Council (1963-65) so that the priest could face the people....
• ‘I would say that, in a certain way, the priest has become too important,’ [Ratzinger] said. ‘Those attending Mass must always be looking at him. In reality, he is not nearly that important.’
• Ratzinger said this exaggerated importance given the role of the priest has played a part in the feminist conviction of the need for women to become priests....
• The 66-year-old cardinal was interviewed by the Italian weekly Il Sabato, which published his comments on April 24, and by Religious News Service, after publication of a 27-line preface he wrote in a book by the late German priest and liturgist Klaus Gamber.
• The book argues that changing the altar’s position so the priest could face the people was far from being a return to early church practice as many contend. In reality, Gamber says, it was a reversal of ancient tradition of the priest and congregation facing east while worshiping.
• Ratzinger said Gamber’s arguments make historical sense and are persuasive.

• The modification, ordered by Paul VI, of the words of Consecration and of the phrase that follows, utilized in the Roman Liturgy for more than 1500 years, had not been foreseen by the Council and was not at all useful for pastoral needs. The translation of ‘pro multis’ [‘for many’] to ‘for all,’ which refers to modern theological conceptions and is not to be found in any ancient liturgical text, is dubious and has scandalized some.
• This is why the artisans of the New Rite of the Mass cannot speak for the Council, even though they continue to do so. The instructions of the Council are written in a general manner and remain open to diverse solutions. In any case one thing is certain, which is that the Novus Ordo Missae would not have received the approval of the majority of the Council Fathers.
• If one leaves unchanged the ancient rite as it is and continues to use it side by side with the new—but as something living and not a museum piece!—one will have preserved, for the entire Church, such as She displays herself to all nations, an important element for the future: the unity of worship. Roman Catholic Books
• Plenty of problems could be resolved in the Church by the strict separation between the [traditional] Roman Rite and the New Liturgy... and through the possibility of offering to the faithful the use of the two forms of Mass. Above all, this would diminish the risk of a major schism: the legitimate demands of innumerable Catholics in favor of the traditional celebration of the liturgy would be satisfied, without having neglected the desire of the others to have a ‘contemporary’ Mass.
• You could object that the solution proposed here of using two parallel rites could disturb the ecclesial unity of the parishes. We would respond that, in the organization of the Church, and above all in the East, there have been at all times many rites recognized by Rome. No one should be surprised therefore if, equally in the Roman Church, two forms of Mass coexisted side-by-side—at least for a certain time. But only if we actually had two! At the moment there are, as we know, innumerable rites, numbers of priests ‘arranging’ the Mass entirely according to their own way.
• The new arrangement of the liturgy, and above all the profound modifications in the rite of Mass which have occurred during the pontificate of Paul VI and have now become obligatory, have been more radical than the reform of Luther — at least in that which concerns the exterior rite.

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