Abp. Piero Marini calls liturgical renewal 'irreversible path'

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Liturgical renewal launched by the Second Vatican Council is an "irreversible path" and has not been affected by Pope Benedict XVI's concession on wider use of the Tridentine rite, a Vatican official said.

"The pope's decision has so far not produced any change in the celebrative practice of our ecclesial communities. His gesture was only one of service to unity," Archbishop Piero Marini, who arranged papal liturgies for more than 20 years, said in an interview April 25 in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

And some of us were shocked at some of the papal Masses...And apparently Pope Benedict was as well considering Marinin was demoted.

Archbishop Marini said his own experience in organizing papal liturgies in more than 100 countries has convinced him that the liturgical reform movement has brought overwhelmingly positive results.

Of course, his experience would tell him that...Our experience is different, however.

"Everywhere, the liturgy desired by the council was celebrated with lively participation and enthusiasm. Everyone understood the liturgy as proper to the local church and at the same time as an expression of the universal church," he said.

"Everywhere, the liturgy desired by the council was celebrated with lively participation and enthusiasm."

Which liturgy is this? What I read in the council documents in no way indicate that dancing and performances are to be made of part of the Holy Mass. I read that Latin is to be retained and that the organ and chant are to have pride of place. Instead many are still living in liturgical wastelands.

He said the decree [Summorum Pontificum], which reached out to disaffected Catholics, should be seen as an effort to maintain unity in the church.

Disaffected? A restoration of what was wrongly denied to the faithful of the Church by so many bishops? Hardly! Some still have difficulty finding a place where where Holy Mass is celebrated with the reverence and dignity proper to it.

I suspect he's a tad bitter these days...