Via Rorate Caeli:
One peculiarity of the Middle East is the large number of sui iuris Eastern Churches that have taken root here: the Melkites, Syrians, Maronites, Copts, Armenians and Chaldeans. These churches need to live their liturgical and linguistic particularity on the one hand, and a greater communion among themselves on the other. Currently, this communion leaves something to be desired. They also need pastoral and liturgical renewal. The Latin Church went through this change at the Second Vatican Council, which revolutionized its liturgy and ecclesiology and gave it a new openness to the world. The Eastern Churches are in need of a similar revolution so that they might be able to adapt and modernize and thus better meet the needs of their congregations today...Read the rest here. The comments are interesting. Not surprisingly a lot of the Trad Catholics are obsessing about the use of dead languages for the liturgy and are missing the point. It's not the language... it's the Language that matters.
...60. The Liturgy promises to be an area of regular collaboration between Catholics and Orthodox. Many desire a liturgical renewal which is grounded in Tradition and cognisant of modern sensitivities and current spiritual and pastoral needs. As far as possible, such work needs to be collaborative undertaking.
As for liturgical collaboration with the Orthodox; I have no idea what planet these people are from, but I hope the weather is nice. The last time I checked the Jerusalem Patriarchate (the real one) does not even accept Latin baptisms. If they think they are going to score points with us by suggesting "liturgical collaboration" and that we do a Novus Ordo on the ancient liturgy of the Church then the Vatican needs to start drug testing its bishops.
“The Church is conservative by nature, as it maintains the apostolic belief. If we want to pass the belief from one generation to another for centuries, the belief must be intact. Any reform damaging the belief, traditions and values is called heresy.”-Patriarch Kyril of Moscow and all the Russia's
What you said. We need a nervous order like we need to have our legs broken.
ReplyDeleteIf they want "collaboration" they can join the Orthodox Church like everyone else.
I have to wonder how accurately Bishop Shomali's remarks are being reported here. The reason for my skepticism is that the Maronites and Chaldeans have already undergone a liturgical "reform" along the lines of the novus ordo "reforms" instituted by Paul VI in the Roman rite. Anyone who has ever attended either a Maronite or a Chaldean liturgy would know this, as it is quite obvious.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, to include the Maronites and the Chaldeans in a list of communities that "need" a "liturgical renewal" evidences a complete lack of even the most cursory familiarity with these rites. It is strange to think that a Catholic bishop (even if only a Roman rite bishop) in the Holy Land could really be so totally unacquainted with these facts. It is possible that Bishop Shomali is really so clueless, but it is also possible that Zenit got a hold of a bad translation of the bishop's actual remarks.
The Chaldeans, of course, made a good beginning of dereforming their rites in their November 2005 synod, which declared that celebration of the Eucharist with the priest "facing the people" over the altar was against their church's tradition, and was to be abolished.
ReplyDeleteReally, that is very interesting, Dr. Tighe. I am glad to learn this, as I had not known it before. I have not had an opportunity to attend a Chaldean liturgy since I moved from Michigan back to Missouri in early 2005. Next time I am back in Michigan I will have to make it a point to attend a Chaldean liturgy to see how this pronouncement is filtering down to the local Chaldean churches.
ReplyDelete