Pope Pal Vi

Fr Hunwicke's Liturgical Notes: Symmetry of Dissent

And its successor bodies, it was plausible to hold that these represented the Magisterium of the Church. Here was the Holy See making liturgical enactments by mandate of an Ecumenical Council: what more could anyone want in terms of authoritative teaching about the meaning of the Church's rites? If one dissented, was one not dissenting from the direction in which the Holy Spirit was leading the whole (Roman Rite) Church? Surely, one was dissenting from the mind of the Holy Father, from the Bishop of Rome who, surely ). Thereby we were authoritatively given, in areas where the two rites and their accompanying liturgical cultures happen to be at odds, what I would like to call Symmetry of Dissent. It is now no more 'disloyal' or 'contrary to the mind of the Church' to evaluate critically the OF and its culture than it is to criticise the EF and its culture. Such critical evaluation, it goes without saying, ought to be done - in each case - with a humble recognition of one's own fallibility, and with a charitable instinct not to hurt fellow Christians whose faith in the living Lord is fed from different sources than those which nourish one's own. It is right that those who enthusiastically favour the EF, and who feel a certain triumphalist joy about Pope Benedict's liturgical legislation, should if necessary be reminded of this. However, I do not always sense - least of all in the periodical called the that communion be given from Hosts consecrated at the same Mass. I called it 'dated', because it seemed to me to have all the marks of the (to me, as to Pope Benedict, questionable) liturgical culture of the enclosed circle - the celebrant facing the people; the location of the entire liturgical event as situated in the middle of a closed group. This culture

English is not my mother tongue, so i should be more careful in trying to use idiomata when writing comments, if only not to be derided ... And so, I should like to add to Matthew's hope-giving insight ''I see Pope Benedict carefully moving teh Mass of Pope Paul VI closer to the mass of Pope John XXIII. If only he has time, the OF will become the vernacular of the EF'' - may it go straight unto God's ear! I grew up with the Mass in Latin, and, as much as I love liturgical Latin, I am reluctantly convinced, that there is a necessary place for use of a sacral vernacular in the Roman-Rite.Indeed, except that the old Mass had been translated - in whole or in part - for use in public worship, rather than building a new rite, the choses''n'aurait not escape of control.'' As Pope Paul VI''de''triste memory, but at times more desperate than I could imagine otherwise, I also give him and more importantly, God - the benefit of the doubt. But then, the Catholic thing to believe that most human beings have to undergo purification after death - those who bear greater responsibility in this life, having to undergo further purification in the other. And - along with John Paul II, whose long pontificate i regret ever happening - i too believe in the very real possibility that most - if not all - of mankind will be eventually reunited in paradise. Including Paul VI and his collaborators in malo.

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