✣ Traditionalists enrich the Church, says cardinal
What happened? Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Vatican’s liturgy chief, has praised the “sincerity and devotion” of the “young men and women” who prefer the traditional Latin Mass. In a speech in Rome to mark the 10th anniversary of Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum, the cardinal urged Catholics to “open your hearts” to these young people. He also called on Catholics who prefer the Old Rite to leave the “traditionalist ghetto”, saying the rest of the Church needs their witness. What Catholic media said The Catholic News Agency observed that Cardinal Sarah’s address “focused on silence and the primacy of God in the liturgy”. He said that ‘‘silence of heart, mind and soul’’ were the key to achieving ‘‘full, conscious and actual participation’’ in the liturgy. At Crux, John Allen said that Cardinal Sarah had “come out firing on all cylinders”. His role may have been diminished by some of Pope Francis’s recent decisions, but the cardinal gave a forthright statement of his liturgical vision. “If anyone expects Sarah now to go gentle into that good night, muting his strenuous defence of liturgical tradition, they can forget it.” At the same time, he said, Cardinal Sarah repeatedly praised Francis, and did not criticise the Pope’s recent motu proprio giving bishops’ conferences more control over translation. What the blogosphere said At Offerimus Tibi Domine, Fr Simon Henry applauded Cardinal Sarah’s insistence that the liturgy’s sacred character must not be diluted. Fr Henry was reminded of Ronald Knox’s warning about 20th-century attitudes to doctrine: “We are not concerned, now, to find how we can represent truth most adequately, but how we can represent it most palatably.” In the same way, Cardinal Sarah was reminding us that the liturgy should not be accommodated to the age, but should raise our minds to God. Writing at praytellblog.com, Fr Dennis Smolarski SJ was struck by Cardinal Sarah’s suggestion that the silent prayer of the offertory and the Roman canon “could enrich the modern rite today”. This would conflict with the Vatican’s instructions of the 1960s-70s, Fr Smolarski said.
