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PAGE 7—The Southern Cross, December 13,1973
Pope Pleads: Peace Depends On You, Too
VATICAN CITY (NC) - “Peace
depends on you too” was the cry of
Pope Paul VI in his message for the Jan.
1,1974, World Day of Peace.
“Listen to me again, you who have
arrived at the threshold of the new year
1974,” the Pope began. “Listen to me
again: I am before you making a humble
entreaty, a strong entreaty.”
He reaffirmed his message of last
year, that “peace is possible,” and said
it is more than just possible -- it is a
duty, a moral necessity, a “supreme
ethical objective.”
He scored the politics of fear and of
balance of power, saying it operates on
“the outspoken and sceptical conviction
that, in practice, peace is impossible.”
“Peace is the ideal of mankind. Peace
is necessary. Peace is a duty. Peace is
beneficial,” the Pope said. “It is not a
fixed and illogical idea of ours; nor is it
an obsession or an illusion. It is a
certainty. Yes, it is a hope it holds the
key to the future of civilization and to
the destiny of the world. Yes, peace.”
Pope Paul denied that peace is the
“pale and timid abstraction” of
contemporary political experience and
thought, and he dismissed the idea that
man is “a permanently insoluble
problem of living self-conflict” as a
“crude . .. realism” which thinks force
is all that matters.
The Pope argued against “the
confusion of peace with weakness (not
just physical but also moral), with the
renunciation of genuine right and
equitable justice, with the evasion of
risk and sacrifice, with cowardly and
supine submission to others’ arrogance,
and hence with acquiescence to
enslavement.”
“This is not real peace,” he said.
“Repression is not peace. Cowardice is
not peace. A settlement which is purely
external and imposed by fear is not
peace. The recent celebration of the
25th anniversary of the Declaration of
Human Rights reminds us that true
peace must be based on a sense of the
untouchable dignity of the human
person, from which arise inviolable
rights and corresponding duties.”
He called for a “fundamentally
spiritual concept of humanity” as a
basis for peace. “To regard struggle
among men as a structural need of
society is not only an error of
philosophy and vision but also a
potential and permanent crime against
humanity,” he said.
Pope Paul urged “men of command,
men of culture, men of business” to
“give your action a strong and wise
orientation towards peace.”
“Certainly, individual influence on
public opinion can only be infinitesimal,
but it is never vain,” he said. “Peace
lives by the support, though individual
and anonymous, that people give it. ..
The affirmation of peace must progress
from being individual to being collective
and communal; it must become the
affirmation of the people and of
the community of peoples. It must be
translated into conviction, ideology and
action.”
Finally, he urged Christians
everywhere to become peacemakers.
“Are we not able to preach peace, above
all else, to people’s consciences?” he
asked. “And who is more obliged than
we are to be teachers of peace by word
and example?”
Liturgical Reform:
10-Year Mark
Shows Progress
THE MASS OF A DECADE AGO - A priest wearing
a maniple gives one of many blessings which were
prescribed in the Mass as celebrated 10 years ago.
Altars were placed against church walls and a priest
prayed the Mass in Latin with his back to the
congregation. A prayer card often stood in front of the
priest (as shown here). It contained important prayers
including the words of consecration. The priest in this
reconstructed Mass of a decade ago is Father James P.
Meyers of St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Washington, D.C.
BY JERRY FILTEAU
(NC News Service)
Ten years after it was initiated on
Dec. 4, 1963, the reform of the liturgy
has been almost completed in its most
basic phase, the revision of the basic
liturgical books. But its other major
phase, cultural and regional adaptation,
has barely begun. And the education of
people for full understanding of the
liturgy and participation in it has been
largely inadequate.
This is the view of Father Frederick
R. McManus, director of the U.S.
bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy
(BCL) and a major figure in the
formation of the Vatican document that
started the whole reform.
In an interview with NC News, Father
McManus cited among the major
problems in the reform movement the
non-acceptance of many changes by
Catholics because of poor preparation,
the lack of aesthetic development to
accompany the development of texts,
and the difficulties still to be faced in
making the cultural adaptations that
were called for 10 years ago.
On the positive side, he noted,
practically every major liturgical rite has
been reformed, with the exception of
the rite for Penance, which is expected
some time within the next year. The
rites for all of the other sacraments, the
liturgy of the Eucharist, the liturgy of
the hours (divine office or breviary),
and other special rites such as funeral
rites and rites for the installation of lay
ministers have all been revised, and most
of them have been put into use in
English in this country.
Dec. 4, 1963 was the landmark date
for liturgical reform - it was on that day
that Pope Paul VI formally ratified the
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy
which had been drawn up and approved
by the world’s bishops during the
second session of the Second Vatican
Council.
But Father McManus pointed out
that liturgical reform had begun many
years before. Even when Pope Pius V
published the Tridentine Mass in 1570
(named after the council of Trent,
which had commissioned the reform), a
Vatican commission was named for
further study and revision.
In 1955 the liturgy for Holy Week,
the central week in the liturgical
calendar, was thoroughly revised. And
in 1958 the Vatican called for a major
change from the largely silent Mass to
extensive participation by the people, in
responding to the “dialogue prayers”
(Dominus vobiscum. Et cum spititu
tuo.), and in saying together with the
priest many of the common prayers
such as Gloria, creed and Lord’s prayer
-- albeit still in Latin.
“Most people don’t realize that the
missal in use before Pope Paul’s ‘new
Roman Missal’ was not the (1570)
missal of Pope Pius V but that of Pope
John XXIII,” said Father McManus.
But when the bishops met in council
-- the first such world meeting in a
century and only the second since the
Council of Trent - the program they
laid out for liturgical reforms and
updating made it evident that the most
recent reforms had barely scratched the
surface.
The following excerpts from the
Second Vatican Council’s Constitution
on the Sacred Liturgy indicate the
extent of the reform called for by the
world’s bishops:
“Mother Church earnestly desires
that all the faithful be led to that full,
conscious, and active participation in
liturgical celebrations which is
demanded by the very nature of the
liturgy. Such participation by the
Christian people as “a chosen race, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
purchased people,” is their right and
duty by reason of their baptism.
“In the restoration and promotion of
the sacred liturgy, this full and active
participation 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 Chrisitan spirit. . .
may more securly derive an abundance
of graces from the sacred liturgy, Holy
Mother Church desires to undertake
with great care a general restoration of
the liturgy itself. For the liturgy is made
up of unchangeable elements divinely
instituted, and elements subject to
change. The latter not only may but
ought to be changed with the passing of
time if features have by chance crept in
which are less harmonious with the
intimate nature of the liturgy, or if
existing elements have grown less
functional.
“In this restoration, both texts and
rites should be drawn up so that they
express more clearly the holy things
which they signify. Christian people, as
far as possible, should be able to
understand them with ease and to take
part in them fully, actively, and as befits
a community . . .
“Even in the liturgy, the Church has
no wish to impose a rigid uniformity in
matters which do not involve the faith
or the good of the whole community.
Rather she respects and fosters the
spiritual adornments and gifts of the
various races and people. Anything in
their way of life that is not indissolubly
bound up with superstition and error
she studies with sympathy and, if
possible, preserves intact. Sometimes in
fact she admits such things into the
liturgy itself, as long as they harmonize
with its true and authentic spirit.
“Provided that the substantial unity
of the Roman rite is maintained, the
revision of liturgical books should allow
for legitimate variations and adaptations
to different groups, regions, and
peoples, especially in mission lands.
Where opportune, the same rule applies
to the structuring of rites and the
devising of rubrics.
“Within the limits set by the typical
editions of the liturgical books, it shall
be for the competent territorial
ecclesiastical authority mentioned in
Article 22, para. 2, to specify
adaptations, especially in the case of the
administration of the sacraments, the
sacramentals, processions, liturgical
language sacred music, and the arts, but
according to the fundamental norms
laid down in this constitution.”
During the same session of the
Second Vatican Council in which the
liturgy document was approved, the
U.S. bishops joined with bishops from
10 other countries where English is
spoken to form the International
Committee on English in the Liturgy
(ICEL), whose task it is to draw up
common English liturgical texts for use
throughout the English-speaking world.
“ICEL has completed perhaps
two-thirds to three-fourths of its
original mandate,” said Father
McManus, a member of the committee
from its beginning. “When it does finish
this work, there is still other work
today.
“This is an ongoing process. The texts
we have now are provisional texts. They
could still use revision and polishing.
“Actually,” he continued, “the Holy
See suggested a continual look at the
texts, perhaps updating them every 10
years or so.”
ICEL’s work must still be approved
by individual episcopal conferences
before its translations become part of
the English liturgy in particular
countries.
Many of the revisions have come in
“bits and pieces,” said Father McManus,
but by now the project is almost
completed in Latin: the entire missal
(the order of the Mass, the liturgical
calendar, the readings for Mass, the
prayers), the entire liturgy of the hours,
the important parts of the pontifical
(rites for ordination, confirmation and
lay ministries), and most of the ritual
for the other sacraments, with the
exception of Penance. Some other
minor revisions also remain unfinished,
such as the rituals for some blessings
and the dedication of churches.
Except for the ligurgy of the hours,
which is half finished, ICEL has
completed English versions for almost
everything, and mo6t of it is in use or in
its final stages of approval for the
United States.
“By and large the translations have
been overwhelmingly accepted by the
(U.S.) bishops,” said Father McManus.
“But this other matter of cultural or
regional adaptations is much more
difficult.”
He pointed out that in their April
1971 meeting in Atlanta the U.S.
bishops said that dioceses should work
on developing national texts and
additional alternative texts for use in
this country. As outlined by the bishops
this program “was rather broadly
conceived,” he said, but little has been
done yet in practice.
Among other major problems, said
the liturgist, “one that everybody knew
about is that change is extremely
difficult, especially when there is no
preparation . . . Where the changes have
not been accepted, it’s been a question
of preparation rather than the changes
themselves.
“Some of the things that were the
most excellent parts of the reform have
not been accepted,” he added. “For
example, the sign of peace, which
embodies everything the New
Testament says about the Church, was
rejected in many places.”
Anther problem has been that the last
10 years were “characterized by very
professional reform by men with
pastoral concern and so forth, but
nevertheless by professionals who were
very interested in the words, not in the
aesthetics. ”
At the same time, he said, in the
complaint that today’s liturgy does not
have the beauty of the liturgy years ago,
people often forget that very few
churches had choirs that could sing
Gregorian chant properly. By the same
token, he said, there are some incredibly
beautiful liturgies in some parishes
around the country today where people
“really throw themselves into it” and
work to develop the liturgy.
“There is a tremendous amount of
unexplored faith and energy among the
people,” he said.
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