The briefing paper of the Prefect of the Dicastery of Divine Worship, prepared for the Consistory of Cardinals and published last week, has drawn much criticism, and rightly. It is at best risible. Yet this is truly no laughing matter. Indeed, given its status, it necessitates serious critical analysis.
However, His Eminence did get one fact absolutely right when he wrote that “the application of the Reform suffered and continues to suffer from a lack of formation” (n. 8). For, when rightly insisting that “in the restoration and promotion of the Sacred Liturgy the full and actual participation [actuosa participatio] by all the people is the aim to be considered before all else; for it is the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit,” the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy went on to insist that “it would be futile to entertain any hopes of realising [actuosa participatio] unless the pastors themselves, in the first place, become thoroughly imbued with the spirit and power of the liturgy, and undertake to give instruction about it. A prime need, therefore, is that attention be directed, first of all, to the liturgical formation of the clergy” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 14; emphasis added).
