This morning the Holy Father appointed the former Prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship to a cardinalate see in his home country of Spain.
Personally I would be happy to see the Congregation’s Secretary, Archbishop Arthur Roche, take the Congregation’s headship. This is for a number of reasons. I’ve been in small congregations where the Archbishop has said Mass, and found it easy to pray there. The Archbishop studied in Spain and is fluent in Spanish, which is very important for a curial head these days. He is anglophone, and English is the key world language of our times. Most important for me is his energetic role in fostering both priestly vocations and especially children’s singing in his former Diocese of Leeds.
Although I would imagine that the Prefect has already been chosen and is currently in pectore, God, who is beyond the confines of time, hears prayers in His eternity. So let us pray that the new Prefect will be a champion of freedom: freedom for a diversity of forms of the rites, freedom for beauty and truth, and freedom from the shackles of rigid, ill-considered progressive liturgical ideologies that for decades now have pervasively kept the people of God from praying at the very source and summit of Catholic faith and life, the Sunday Mass.
So let us pray that the new Prefect will be a champion of freedom: freedom for a diversity of forms of the rites, freedom for beauty and truth, and freedom from the shackles of rigid liturgical ideologies that have pervasively kept the people of God from praying at the very source and summit of Catholic faith and life, the Sunday Mass.
Can't wait for Archbishop Piero Marini to become the Prefect! He is the perfect successor!
Interesting.
What do you think are the qualities desirable in a perfect prefect?
Your prayer is spot-on, Liam. May it be so.
FYI. Interestingly a liberal priest who comments on Fr. Z's blog says that the rumor for Cardinal George's replacement in Chicago is Fr. Robert Barron. I am dubious, it probably won't be, but he swears that this is what he hears. And he wouldn't be happy about this at all, so he isn't making this up.
Can we take odds for Cardinal Burke? Or for Abp. Athanasius Schneider?
So I presume you are speaking about those of us who love the Ancient Liturgy that inspired the martyrs for centuries. It is an entirely puerile attitude to see the Ancient Liturgy as "shackled" and with "rigid liturgical ideologies". Only childish, immature people see things this way. So your statement gives you away as a very sad, immature individual.
As a matter of fact, why don't you attend the Old Mass, and then talk to these people afterward. I PROMISE YOU, I GUARANTEE YOU these people who pray in Latin every week (day) with a priest who faces the same way they do, know the Mass, and the meaning behind the rubrics, and theology of the Mass in general better than 90% of the people who attend the Cramner Table Service of Paul VI. (yes, I'm being cheeky).
I was being cheeky only about calling the Novus Ordo the "Cramner Table Service of Paul VI, the rest, I absolutely guarantee you is correct.
As much as i love Fr. Barron, I highly doubt that rumor is true. I don't doubt the priest heard it, but priests' rumor mills are notorious and usually notoriously wrong. It's a crap shoot, who knows. I know we'll get someone good, and I'm rather certain Cardinal George will have tremendous input, but given the enormity of the Chicago Archdiocese, I can't help but think they'll give it to someone already consecrated a bishop and who is an ordinary in another diocese.
JBD, your presumption was incorrect, if I may, and off by 180 degrees. Liam's "prayer," was simply an enactment based upon Kathleen's expressed hopes. Both of them are ardent and learned supporters of sacred deposit of authentic liturgy. Should you re-read what they wrote, they were not addressing the vetus ordo.
Terribly sorry. Feel free to delete my posts. I couldn't sleep and was tired. Thanks for your kind patience!!!!
The CDWDS doesn't have the clout that the old Sacred Congregation of Rites had, since the liturgical diversity of the post-V2 Church is locally generated. Redemptionis Sacramentum came out ten years ago (under Cardinal Arinze) but is largely ignored, even by those who have read it.
Archbishop Roche's promotion in 2012 was a reward for his work with the new ICEL, and should he get the Prefect's job there will be dismay among progressive 'liturgists' in America who see the new translation as a British plot to make them use subordinate clauses.
No worries, JBD, and welcome if you're new here. It's good to occasionally have misunderstandings as they keep us on our toes.
The world is tired and sullen, my friend, and in need of healing, peace and rest. The TLM is that source of haven and harbor, humility and health.
That is what most RC people are deprived of by the incessant innovation of the NO. There's room for the NO in all parishes, but its stranglehold upon the restitution, by rights, of the VO isn't just and must be remedied.
As much as both of those would be excellent, chances are very slim. Burke has just been removed from the congregation on the bishops. I doubt either one is quite along the lines Pope Francis wants.