|
|
 |
|
CNS Story:
|
MARINI-BENEDICT Mar-21-2006 (540 words) With photo posted March 20. xxxi
Pope Benedict's liturgies to change, says papal master of ceremonies
By Catholic News Service
MILAN, Italy (CNS) -- Liturgies celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI are undergoing changes, said the papal master of liturgical ceremonies.
Archbishop Piero Marini, who also served as master of ceremonies for Pope John Paul II, said that with Pope Benedict "I have to be a little more attentive because he is an expert in liturgy."
"But it gives me satisfaction because he always recognizes the work that has been done, and we talk about it together," said the 64-year-old Italian, who has worked at the Vatican since 1965.
In a March 20 interview with the Milan-based online news site, Affari Italiani, the archbishop said he and Pope Benedict "are re-elaborating the papal ceremonies."
"I send him my notes and he returns them with his signature as a sign of approval, or else he suggests, completes or corrects," he said.
The archbishop did not provide details about what changes people may see in the papal liturgies or when they would be unveiled.
Archbishop Marini said each pope is different in his approach to the liturgy, particularly the large international celebrations he is called to lead.
"With John Paul II, I was a bit freer; we had an implicit agreement because he was a man of prayer and not of liturgy," the archbishop said.
In the interview, Archbishop Marini also was asked about liturgical abuses and about followers of the late French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who refuse to recognize the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
"After every council," he said, "there always was a period of tension. There always was someone who was not in agreement or did not approve what was done. But the fact is, we do not have police to send around to force the faithful to accept what the Second Vatican Council decided."
The archbishop said it is true some people exaggerated their experiments with the revised liturgy.
"In Belgium and Holland, on the wave of experimentalism, more than 300 eucharistic prayers were born" when in most countries fewer than a dozen have been approved for use, he said.
"Slowly things turned back to normal," he said.
Now, the archbishop said, he fears there is a move toward "neoritualism, that is, to a priest who celebrates Mass thinking: 'Good, I said my Mass following the rite to the letter. I'm fine.' This is not good; the celebration is not slavish respect for liturgical norms. There always is a little bit of space for the celebrant."
Archbishop Marini said he understood why Pope John Paul gave permission for bishops to authorize the celebration of the pre-Vatican II Mass in some churches for "older faithful" who were attached to the old rite.
"But to go beyond this is to go beyond the church," he said. "If the liturgy is the sign of the unity of the church, you cannot create groups of faithful who pray in a certain way on this day at this hour, then an hour later another group prays in another way.
"First of all we must understand that the liturgy is a sign of unity," he said. "It is not a matter of liberalizing the missal or anything else. It is only a question of accepting the church today, just that."
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250
|
|
|
|
