Silence is vital to liturgy, pope says

Silence is vital to liturgy, pope says in document marking Vatican II

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Marking the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council's document on the liturgy, Pope John Paul II said the one ingredient too often missing from the modern Mass is silence. "An aspect which must be cultivated with greater commitment in our communities is the experience of silence," he said in a Dec. 4 apostolic letter marking the anniversary of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.

"The liturgy, among its various moments and signs, cannot ignore that of silence," he said in the letter released during a Vatican conference marking the anniversary. "In a society that lives in an increasingly frenetic manner, often dazed by noise and scattered by the transient, rediscovering the value of silence is vital," the pope wrote in the document, which was distributed in Italian to participants at the conference, sponsored by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.