|
|
Statement of the NFPC: Apostolic Letter “Motu Proprio data,” – Summorum Pontificum
From its birth in 1968 the National Federation of Priests’ Councils (NFPC) has been dedicated to faithful implementation of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council in accord with Church norms laid down in post-conciliar documents.
In September 1987, on his second pastoral visit to the United States, the late Pope John Paul II spoke directly to the nation’s priests, stating in part, “The authentic renewal of the Church initiated by the Second Vatican Council has been a great gift of God to his people.” He went on to note, “Renewal in the Church greatly depends on the development of the Church’s life of worship. Because we priests preside at liturgy, we must come to know and appreciate the rites of the Church through study and prayer. We are called to lead celebrations which are both faithful to the Church’s discipline and legitimately adapted, according to the norms for the good of our people.”(Pope John Paul II, “The Ministerial Priesthood,” Touchstone, Vol. 3, No. 1, National Federation of Priests’ Councils, Chicago, Ill., pg. 5).
With the publication of Summorum Pontificum and Pope Benedict’s accompanying letter to bishops, the NFPC echoes the Pope’s hope that with the wider application of the pre-conciliar Roman Missal promulgated by Pope John XXIII a true “interior reconciliation in the heart of the Church” will be brought about. As the Pope indicates, “In some regions, no small numbers of faithful adhered and continue to adhere with great love and affection to the earlier liturgical forms [… which] had so deeply marked their culture and their spirit.” In the spirit of liturgical awareness and to support communio in the Church, the NFPC recognizes the importance of the Church’s obligation, as the Pope describes in his letter to bishops, “to make every effort to enable all those who truly desire unity to remain in that unity or to attain it anew.”
The NFPC particularly welcomes the Pope’s invitation in his letter to bishops that the Church “generously open our hearts and make room for everything that the faith itself allows.” Specifying that the missal published in 1970 by Pope Paul VI and twice revised by Pope John Paul II is the “ordinary form” of the Eucharistic liturgy while the 1962 missal published by Blessed Pope John XXIII and used during the Council is now to be considered as an “extraordinary form” of the Roman Rite, Pope Benedict encourages “all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer” and “priests of communities adhering to the former usage” not to “exclude celebrating according to the new book.” The Pope goes on to note, “The total exclusion of the new rite would not in fact be consistent with the recognition of its value and holiness.”
In his Apostolic Exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis, (Origins, March 22, 2007) Pope Benedict reports that, “The synod fathers (Synod of Bishops, October 2-23, 2005) acknowledged and reaffirmed the beneficial influence on the church’s life of the liturgical renewal which began with the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.” The Pope further tells us, “The difficulties and even the occasional abuses which were noted, it was affirmed, cannot overshadow the benefits and the validity of the liturgical renewal, whose riches are yet to be fully explored.”
In conclusion, the NFPC hopes the publication of Summorum Pontificum will not be mistaken as a license to turn back the clock on the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, nor to impose a personal piety on a community that may practice a spirituality different than expressed in the Articles of the new norms, but will serve to promote the unity we all so earnestly seek.
July 13, 2007
|
|
|
