Tuesday 19 May 2015

Replying to two comments received ...

...As someone who goes to both forms of the Mass I can't help but see the pews in the OF emptying quite quickly around me while the pews around me at the EF of the Mass, when I can get there, are slowly filling, almost like a reverse osmosis but the Church is going to be decimated before it rebuilds...
I would suggest that the comparative experience of the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms related in this part of a comment received can only be a partial picture. There is not a single narrative of "growth where you have the Extraordinary Form" and "decline where you have the Ordinary Form". One has only to look at the life of the new movements in the Church to see faithfulness to the Church and to an original charism that result in ecclesial growth, with little or no reference to the Extraordinary Form. Pope Francis draws attention to this growth with his knowledge and experience of Communion and Liberation and the Charismatic Renewal. (One or two of the remarks of Pope Francis that have caused most disaffection in Traditionalist circles have been a familiar part of the ecclesial conversation in these movements for some time.)

I would suggest that the particular situations of Extraordinary Form and Ordinary Form celebrations vary from place to place, and with the circumstances of the different places. The experience of one particular place should not be extrapolated to become the experience of each and every place. And I see a number of places where the pews around me at the Ordinary Form are full.

I found this account informative, in a number of ways, with regard to experience of attending the Extraordinary Form: the reform of the reform.
..you seem not to have not read that Pope Benedict wanted the EF of the Mass in every parish...
But it is the last three words of the headline of the news report to which I was referred that says it all:
Pope would like Tridentine Mass in each parish, Vatican official says . "Vatican official says" ..... Cardinal Hoyos speculation in this regard during a visit to London in June 2008 would appear to still be the cause of wishful thinking on the part of at least some advocates of the Extraordinary Form. It is very difficult indeed to read Summorum Pontificum and Pope Benedict's accompanying letter and take away from them an intention that the Extraordinary Form should be established in every parish.

Pope Benedict's letter  clearly indicates that it is the Missal of Paul VI, celebrated with reverence, a sense of the sacred, and with obedience to its directives, that will unite parishes; it is that form that remains the ordinary form of celebration.  The preserving of the "riches that have developed in the Church's faith and prayer" to which Pope Benedict refers in his letter is as much about this enrichment of celebrations of the Ordinary Form from the greater availability of the Extraordinary Form. It is incorrect to read it as an intention that the Extraordinary Form should be celebrated in every parish, and I am not aware of any direct statement to such an effect from Pope Benedict himself.

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