It would be weird, on a site devoted to liturgy, not to mention the decision of Pope Francis to reverse the decisions of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, on the use of the 1962 Latin Mass. Yes, there are more urgent issues to address in the world today – liturgy regularly gets that criticism. Yes,
Francis Reverses Benedict on Traditional Latin Mass Read More »
At a time when two popes are presented as disagreeing, the movie, The Two Popes, comes as a parable about living together as friends in a polarised church and world.
Last week, Pope Francis met with members of the Congregation for Divine Worship (CDW). On May 8 this year, the Congregation for Divine Worship is 50 years old. After the centralising of liturgical power by Popes John-Paul II and Benedict XVI, Pope Francis has returned to the vision of Vatican II where, for example, authority
Affirming Contemporary Liturgy Read More »
Sunday, last week, we prayed with Mark 7:24-37 including: They brought to Jesus a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched
Pope Francis certainly stirred things up last week by changing the teaching in the Roman Catholic Catechism on the death penalty. It is now inadmissible in all situations. Some saw it as a great distraction from Cardinal Theodore McCarrick bringing the RC Church into the headlines for all the wrong reasons. [Others had tried different
Changing Christian Teaching Read More »
The language we use, the words we choose, form lenses for the reality we are talking about. At the Sacra Liturgia conference in London on Tuesday last week, Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, asked that priests begin presiding at the Eucharist ad orientem, that
Around God’s Table Read More »
We are drawing near to that time of year again (Good Friday) which traditionally has Christians praying for the (conversion of the) Jews. If you think that Pope Francis is radical in some of what he does in the liturgy, picture this: Pope John XXIII, at the first Good Friday service (one of the most
Praying for Jews and Muslims Read More »
The rules for the Sign of Peace in the post-Vatican II Roman Catholic Eucharistic rite were left to the individual “conference of bishops to decide in accord with the customs and mentality of the people.” In that rite, it occurs after the Eucharistic Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer and before the Fraction (the breaking of
