Posted on 05/11/2013 4:38:16 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
No genius is needed to figure out that Pope Francis is not a liturgist the way Pope Benedict was. But the fear that Francis’ papacy may mark the “end of the reform of the reform” of the liturgical changes that were introduced after the Second Vatican Council is, frankly, unfounded.
[snip]
... Buenos Aires is probably the Latin-American city with the largest number of Masses celebrated in the extraordinary form....[Yet Bergoglio] was concentrating on a far more daunting task: making sure that all of the faithful in his archdiocese had access to a decent Mass. In Latin America, beside the beautifully and carefully celebrated Masses associated with the major popular devotions, liturgical abuses are still alive and constitute a massive problem in the region.
[BIG snip]
One of the most important and successful transformations in the archdiocese, with a significant impact on liturgy, was the cardinal’s approach to the “villero” priests.
“Villa miseria” (miserable town) is the name Argentineans give to shanty towns in major cities. The villero priests were those who dedicated their pastoral ministry to work in these impoverished, usually very violent urban environments.
[snip]
The difference was that Cardinal Bergoglio embraced the priests and their ministry. He would visit them in the shanty towns, send them to rest if they were tired and replace them himself at their parish for a few days. He would personally take care of them if they were in bed sick — essentially, he looked after their particular needs.
[snip]
And with the same fatherly solicitude that he used to care for his priests, the archbishop requested that they return to [liturgical basics].
Most often, he used persuasion...but also, in the words of a fellow Jesuit, “he never flinched when tough measures were required.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
"Qualms"? Sure. Pope Benedict XVI was deeply attuned to beauty and profundity of the traditional liturgy, as such, and greenlighted the Traditional Latin Mass around the world.
Pope Francis, though: some differences in style, but --- I'm convinced so far --- none in substance. Author Bermudsez' point is well-made: he defended the dignity of the Liturgy in a way that shows ultimate honor to Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Read this and hope.
(
Good article. Situations are always more complex than one would imagine, if one listens only to people on their personal hobby-horse.
I find the above statement highly questionable. For the truth, check the following links, both to Rorate Caeli:
The Horror! A Buenos Aires journalist describes Bergoglio
And please follow your own advice and read the links in their entirety.
So a third source, my friend Fernanda W., says this may be the case: there were (when she was in Argentina), a lot of TLM's in chapels run by the SSPX. Card. Bergoglio inbstituted a TLM almost immediately when Summorum Pontificum was issued. She says Bergoglio's intention was, that there would eventually be enough Masses to accomodate all the people who wanted them.
There were 100-200 people at this initial Archdiocese-sponsored Mass, but the numbers dropped rapidly week by week until the effort was more or less abandoned for lack of interest.
And why was there "lack of interest"? According to Fernanda, the TLM sponsored by Card. Bergoglio suffered from a lack of well-trained, experienced celebrants, and a Schola Cantorum pretty much had to be organized from sratch. They also lacked Roman-style vestments, the accessories and vessels of the altar needed for a TLM High Mass.
Furthermore, she thinks the SSPX leadership started railing against Bergoglio's TLM, afraid that such Masses sponsored by the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires would draw people back to the Catholic Church. The content and extent of this "railing" I have no idea, but the result was, they effectively persuaded everybody who was interested in the TLM to drop the Archd8ocesan Mass and go back to the SSPX chapels.
True? I don't know.
Perhaps Cdl. Bergoglio concluded that this was just causing more barbed responses from the SSPX, and didn't y have enough faithful Catholics to justify the sustained effort and expense of recruiting chanters/choirs or buying new vestments and vessels of the altar, if the SSPX was boycotting them and nobody else was going to come.
And that's all I know --- and more than I know --- because it's a 3rd person account.
But I don't think it's productive for us to wrangle with each other about it with each other. Let's entreat more fervently for a reconciliation between the SSPX and the Catholic Church, and commend each other to Christ in our prayers.
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