The Sacra Liturgia 2015 Conference, New York City – Day Two, Morning Session (Tuesday, June 2)
By James Monti —
Raymond Cardinal Burke took a front row seat in the audience for the morning session of talks on Day Two of the Sacra Liturgia 2015 conference in New York City. The Tuesday proceedings began with a presentation by the accomplished author and liturgical scholar Father Thomas Kocik. Addressing the key concept of a “Reform of the Reform” in the sacred liturgy, Father Kocik outlined the diversity of opinions as to how such a reform should be carried out. He endorsed an approach that takes the 1962 Missale Romanum as its starting point. Noting that the liturgical reform should address not only the missal but the other liturgical books and rites as well, he pointed out the deficient rewording of certain prayers and formulas that occurred in the postconciliar reform of blessings and exorcisms, eliciting a round of laughter when he observed that it is a problem “when some blessings don’t actually bless and some exorcisms don’t actually exorcise.” As to what a “Reform of the Reform” might look like, he observed that certain positive features of the 1970 missal could be retained (for example, the congregational responses to the celebrant), but that among those postconciliar changes to be abrogated he would include essentially all the additional concessions that were granted over and above the changes found in the 1970 missal (Communion in the hand, additional Eucharistic prayers, etc.).
Drawing upon her landmark comparative study of the differences between the Mass Collect prayer texts in the postconciliar Missale Romanum and the missal of 1962, Doctor Lauren Pristas noted several disturbing patterns in these changes, using examples from a number of important solemnities and feasts. Alterations revealed a tendency to delete references to “sin and other sources of unpleasantness”, as well as the removal of some references to Christ as God, as King and as Lord. Petitions for God’s mercy and assistance were replaced by petitions for the faithful to act in some way or other. Doctor Pristas spoke of her own dismay in finding that the Collects of the 1970 Missale Romanum that had been presented as taken from the pristine early centuries of the Church were in fact in many cases arbitrarily reworded by the Concilium (the commission that compiled the 1970 missal) according to whatever the commission members “liked.”
Drawing upon her perspective as a philosophy professor, Doctor Margaret Hughes explored the true meaning of seeking “ease” with regard to the sacred liturgy, a term used five times in the Vatican II liturgical document Sacrosanctum Concilium. She explained that in this case what is meant is not the common notion of ease as merely freedom from effort, from exertion, but rather the “rest” of contemplating truth, the activity of contemplation, the perception of beauty, “gazing on reality for its own sake.” And thus, she explained, “The way to make the liturgy easy is to adorn it with beauty.” When the celebration of Mass is endowed with beauty, it bestows a shared experience of beauty that unites the faithful, for “We cannot resist beauty.” She concluded by observing, “Mary shows us what beauty is.”
The luncheon that followed, hosted by the Cardinal Newman Society, was graced with the presence of His Eminence Cardinal Burke for a panel discussion of the role of Catholic higher education in the liturgical renewal, moderated by Patrick Reilly. His Eminence provided what was perhaps the most poignant observation of the day, declaring that if we are doing something “for the glory of God and the salvation of souls” we should not let ourselves be discouraged or dissuaded from carrying it out. Speaking from his experience in teaching Protestant students at Baylor College, Doctor Michael Foley spoke of how “the otherness of Catholic liturgy” attracts Protestants to the Catholic Church. In response to a question as to how Catholic colleges can foster the liturgical renewal at the parish level, Doctor Peter Kwasniewski of Wyoming Catholic College told of receiving e-mails from several alumni each of whom after being trained in Catholic choral music at the college were asked by their parish priest to direct their church’s choir.
Earlier that morning, during a coffee break, Cardinal Burke made himself readily accessible to the conference participants, conversing with the many who approached him. He carries his sacred office of cardinal with a genuine humility that has set a stellar example for all in the new liturgical movement.