I think what Pope Benedict is doing is a stroke of genius, with respect ot the Liturgy, as this will be seen by the Eastern Orthodox that Benedict is serious about restoring the dignity of the Roman/Western Liturgy and respecting and supporting the variety of Liturgical Rites in the Church.
He has already corrected the incorrrect interpretation of Vatican II in that the (Tridentine Liturgy) or Tridentine form of the ROman Rite was never abolished. Furthermore, if you go back to the Council of Trent, it did reduce the variations of the Roman Rite that were in place in various Local Churches. Howeve, any Western Rite that was in place, I think at least 200 years before Trent), was retained. These variations of the Latin-Roman Rite would include the Ambrosian-Rite (a form of the ROman Rite) celebrated in Milan, Italy, the Mozarabic/Visogothic Rite, which is a form of the Roman Rite celebrated in the region around Toledo, Spain. In addition, the forms of the ROman RIte celebrated by various Religous orders such as the Domenicans, Carthusians, Benedectines, etc, could still be celebrated. Thus, the Gregorian Rite, which finds its origins going back to the 4th century, would still be a valid expression of the Roman Liturgy that was never abolished, assuming that the Pope is in fact wanting it to be celebrated where there are Priests who can celebrate it.
If one reads Pope Benedict’s “Spirit of the Liturgy” his tieing the Incarnation to a fixed point of human history, that is in the Roman-Greek culture of the first century, binds us to a particular place and time since it was in God’s Providential plan and thus his Holy Will that Christ would enter into human history in that culture context.
Accordingly, Liturgy developed in that context and thus because of the Incarnation taking place in that culture we are bound by History in terms of Liturgy and thus History takes place over modern culture. Liturgy is something that comes from God to us, we don’t create it on our own.
Good thread and regards
That’s what I thought, too. I go to Spain a lot, and the Mozarabic Rite is celebrated in a few of places that were dissatisfied with the NO and got permission a few years ago. However, it’s very different, much closer to one of the earlier Eastern Rites (St. Basil, perhaps), and was obviously never going to grow. In addition, while they have the texts, nobody knows how the notation was read or how it sounded.
Personally, I think it was a little more on the Greek or Middle Eastern side. Spain was Rome’s most important colony, and after the fall of Rome, Spain actually continued to be an intellectual center up until the time of the Muslim invasions. However, there were various places in Spain with a strong Greek influence, and in any case, in Southern Spain, the population was not so much Celtic-Roman as it was Phoenician-Roman. Well, that and the Iberos, who were a group that have not yet been identified; they may actually have been uber-Celts from Turkey, or they may even have come from further to the East.
In any case, the installation of the Frankish-Roman rite in Spain began very early and continued for a couple hundred years, not so much because of resistance as because of the fact that much of Spain at that time was under Muslim domination. Places such as Toledo, where the Visigothic or Mozarabic Rite had been in practice and only briefly interrupted by the Muslims were able to keep it. They really didn’t keep it as much more than a museum piece until fairly recently, however. But in any case, interestingly enough, the first examples of the modern Spanish language are found on liturgical texts in a monastery in Northern Spain (La Rioja) where a monk was obviously taking notes on information provided at that time, probably in Latin by a Frenchman, relating to the Office.
I think dropping back to an earlier period might defuse a lot of the hostility and preconceptions. But, after seeing what I have seen in the US among the bishops in the last few months, including my own bishop here in St Augustine, who has somehow emerged as the leader of the anti-Tridentine forces in the US, I think it won’t work unless it’s mandatory.