By JAMES MONTI
Day Four of Sacra Liturgia USA 2015 (Thursday, June 4) in New York City brought to the podium five more distinguished speakers of the liturgical renewal movement and climaxed in a magnificent Solemn Mass and eucharistic procession through the streets of Manhattan that drew the four-day conference to a highly uplifting conclusion.
The exquisite liturgical order and precision of these rites were wrought by hours of preparation and planning on the part of Sacra Liturgia founder Dom Alcuin Reid, a consummate master of ceremonies as well as one of the world’s pre-eminent liturgical scholars.
But before turning to the events of Day Four, two more addresses from Day Three (June 3) deserve particular attention.
In a presentation on the liturgical formation of priests, Fr. Kurt Belsole, OSB, director of Liturgical Formation at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, related a moving anecdote regarding a ceremony that he had supervised at St. Peter’s Basilica for the Ordination of transitional deacons (deacons who are to be ordained priests).
He told of an elderly layman at the rite who afterward said of what he had witnessed, “The veil was lifted…and my faith was renewed, and the atmosphere was heavy with the supernatural.”
Citing a September 2007 address of Pope Benedict XVI (Heiligenkreuz Abbey, Austria) admonishing priests as well as religious to prefer nothing to the work of God, that is, the liturgy, Fr. Belsole urged that seminarians be taught to understand the celebration of the sacred liturgy not as the “work of the people” but rather as the “public work” of Christ Himself in His Paschal Mystery. He also observed that the liturgy is the “privileged locus” for the preservation of tradition in the Church.
Fr. Belsole likewise reminded his audience that in discussing the two current forms of the Roman Rite the terms that Pope Benedict XVI expressly established in his 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, namely “Ordinary Form” for the 1970 Missal and “Extraordinary Form” for the 1962 Missal, should be used.
In a talk entitled, “Liturgy as the Source of Priestly Identity,” conference co-organizer Fr. Richard Cipolla, pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Norwalk, Conn., explained the importance of vocabulary used to identify a priest.
Refuting the argument made by some that the term “presbyter” in the early Church meant nothing more than that these leading men of the Christian community were simply elders, he noted that this term was superseded at a very early date (before the end of the second century) by the word “sacerdos,” an expression with a totally unambiguous meaning: “one who offers sacrifice.”
It is thus clear from the interchangeability of these two terms in early Christianity that the translation of the word “presbyter” as “priest” is indeed justified.
Fr. Cipolla criticized the tendency of some to use in a liturgical context such vacuous expressions as “presider” or “president” in place of “priest” (“the president’s chair,” etc.), warning that these terms only serve to undermine the priest’s unique sacramental identity, for his identity is grounded in what he does at the altar.
Day Four of the conference began with a presentation by Dom Alcuin Reid, who spoke on the reform of the Holy Week liturgy initiated by Venerable Pope Pius XII in the 1950s. Dom Alcuin’s research revealed that some objections to the changes had been raised by American bishops, most notably Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York. The latter particularly objected to the confinement of the Palm Sunday blessing of palms to only one Mass and the movement of the Holy Thursday Mass from a morning hour to Thursday evening, which he believed would hamper the faithful’s spiritual practices on this day.
Dom Alcuin stressed that some of the changes were clearly advantageous, citing in this regard the transfer of the Easter Vigil from Holy Saturday morning to Holy Saturday night. But he also believed that there needs to be a comprehensive study, an entire book, devoted to assessing each of the changes made to determine whether these had proved to be positive or negative.
However, he also stressed that the Extraordinary Form of the liturgy is not well served by an attitude of liturgical intransigence that condemns a priori any changes beyond a certain date and refuses to recognize that there can indeed be sound changes for the better that conform to the model of organic development, for the Traditional Latin Mass is itself the fruit of centuries of prior organic development.
He added that it would be reprehensible for any priest to introduce liturgical practices from any earlier redaction of the “usus antiquior” (the Traditional Latin liturgy) that constitute a direct violation of the rubrics of the liturgical books authorized for the celebration of the Extraordinary Form (the 1962 Missale Romanum, etc.).
Dom Phillip Anderson, OSB, abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Our Lady of Clear Creek (Hulbert, Okla.), addressed the role of monastic communities in fostering the new liturgical movement.
Describing the monastery as a “workshop,” he cited the long Benedictine tradition of monks devoting their lives primarily to the celebration of the sacred liturgy, the “Opus Dei,” “the Work of God,” for “The monk is vowed to the liturgy.”
He told of how a Benedictine monk, like the watchman of whom Ezekiel speaks (Ezek. 33:7), rises long before dawn to take his place on the simple chapel bench that is his pew. It is both his “workplace” and his cross, for upon it he will fulfill his vocation by praying the Divine Office. He offers liturgical praise to God not only on behalf of all mankind but even on behalf of the rest of creation.
At daybreak the monk will take part in the supreme liturgical action, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Quoting our Lord’s words that Christian worship is to be “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23), he emphasized that the celebration of the liturgy, if it is to be authentic, must be both sincere (“in spirit”) and faithful to the rubrics (“in truth”).
In discussing his monastery’s practice of celebrating the entire liturgy in the Extraordinary Form, Dom Phillip cited an overlooked 1966 apostolic letter of Blessed Pope Paul VI, Sacrificium Laudis, in which the Pontiff implored monastic communities to continue praying the Divine Office in Latin rather than in the vernacular.
Dom Phillip noted that the Benedictine custom of “liturgical hospitality,” permitting visitors to see their life of prayer, can serve as a means for his and other Benedictine communities to propagate the liturgical renewal, particularly when those involved in liturgical formation come to spend time with these communities.
A Lighter Note
Addressing the criticism that prior to the liturgical reforms of the 1960s the Roman liturgy was beset with needless repetitions, Dr. Michael Foley, a patristics professor at Baylor University (Waco, Texas), asserted in his presentation that with regard to the seeming “repetition” of feasts commemorating the same saint or mystery, what was really being celebrated was a “recapitulation” of the particular saint or mystery, a revisiting of the subject from a distinctly different perspective that highlighted dimensions of the subject not so evident in other commemorations of it (for example, Holy Thursday and Corpus Christi).
On a lighter note, Dr. Foley elicited hearty laughter from the assembly when he debuted his most recent book, Drinking With the Saints: The Sinner’s Guide to a Holy Happy Hour (Regnery History, 2015), proudly placing a copy of it front and center on the speakers’ dais.
Dom Phillip Anderson, whose presentation immediately followed that of Dr. Foley, prompted more laughter when following the conclusion of his own talk he paused before the dais to move Foley’s book to an even more prominent place on the table.
It is a testament to the ambitious scope of this conference that limitations of space preclude us from summarizing all the papers presented, but the other scholars who addressed the conference include Fr. Christopher Smith (liturgical formation), Fr. Allan White, OP (liturgical preaching), Dr. Peter Kwasniewski (the Lectionary), and Gregory Glenn (liturgical music). The complete proceedings of the conference are to be published in 2016.
The King Of Glory
The final day of the conference concluded with an awe-inspiring Extraordinary Form Corpus Christi Mass and outdoor procession that traversed the Upper East Side of Manhattan. During the Solemn Mass of over two hours celebrated by Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry, Bishop John O’Hara, an auxiliary of New York, delivered a stirring homily in which he cited the eucharistic devotion of Saints John Neumann and Elizabeth Ann Seton.
Recounting how the latter had been converted to the Catholic faith when as a young widow she heard the sound of an approaching Corpus Christi procession and upon reaching the window saw the monstrance, His Excellency observed that there could very well be another prospective Elizabeth Ann Seton outside who might be similarly transformed by the procession that was soon to take place.
The eucharistic procession began shortly before 8:00 p.m., exiting the Church of St. Catherine of Siena. New York Police Department officers temporarily halted traffic on two east-west streets for the first leg of the procession to St. John Nepomucene Church, which served as a “station” along the route.
As the procession resumed, NYPD officers closed a three-block stretch of East 66th Street and halted north-south traffic on three major avenues to make way for “the King of Glory,” no small task during the eight o’clock hour on a busy weekday evening in Manhattan.
Preceded by a long line of dozens of priests and seminarians in their cassocks and surplices walking double-file, and heralded by clouds of incense, the Blessed Sacrament, enshrined in a splendid golden sunburst monstrance, was carried by His Excellency Bishop Perry underneath a canopy borne by four Knights of Malta, followed by two choirs and well over a hundred of the faithful carrying lit candles as daylight faded over the city.
People on street corners and standing at the doorways of shops and apartments watched speechless, some taking pictures, as the procession passed. In answer to one spectator who inquired as to what was going on, an NYPD officer explained, “This is a Catholic ceremony. They were having a conference.”
Along the way, participants sang Pange Lingua Gloriosi, Adoro Te, and Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence. The destination church was that of St. Vincent Ferrer, a spectacular gothic edifice where the concluding benediction was imparted before an altar adorned with over thirty candles.
Stuart Chessman of the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny (one of the organizations sponsoring Sacra Liturgia USA 2015) told afterward of a police officer along the procession route who commented to one of the participants, “Do you realize the peace you’ve brought here?”
Bending His Knee
This great Catholic conference also brought with it small moments that testify eloquently to what Sacra Liturgia is truly all about.
On one evening at St. Catherine of Siena Church, as the mostly young clergy processed out of the pews reserved for them, genuflecting two by two, I watched an older priest among them, clearly feeling the weight of his years, manfully exerting himself and clutching a nearby pew that he too might bend his knee to God.
During the Corpus Christi procession with which the conference concluded, an elderly man with a walker similarly battled his own physical hardship in order to keep up with the procession, following along on an adjacent sidewalk.
Back on the first day of the conference, on a walk from St. Catherine’s Church to the conference venue at Hunter College, a young Latin American priest told me that his introduction to the Extraordinary Form came about through his desire to express his fidelity to Pope Benedict XVI when the latter issued his motu proprio in 2007 generously expanding permission for the celebration of this rite.
Distressed by those who attacked the Roman Pontiff for his decision, the young priest resolved to manifest his own devotion to the Holy Father and atone for those who criticized him by making an effort to study the Traditional Rite, hitherto unfamiliar to him. He came to love the Extraordinary Form profoundly, admiring it in particular for the uncompromising doctrinal clarity of its texts.
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