Nov 26, 2007 / 10:24 am
The secretary for the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith, said this week the liturgical abuses and lack of respect for the norms of the ordinary rite of the Mass help to explain why Pope Benedict XVI decided to “liberalize” the liturgical celebrations according to the rite of St. Pius V.
Last July, the Holy Father published the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum permitting universal use of the Missal of St. Pius V, which was used by the Church for centuries and was revised by Blessed John XXIII in 1962.
Archbishop Ranjith noted that “throughout the years, the liturgy suffered too many abuses that were ignored by the bishops,” and therefore “Benedict XVI could not remain silent.”
According to the Vatican official, the opposition between “traditionalists and innovators” makes no sense in the Church, where “a continuous line exists.”
Referring to the so-called Tridentine Mass, Archbishop Ranjith said requests for the ancient rite “were increasing over time” in direct proportion to the “lack of fidelity and the loss of the sense of beauty” in the liturgy.