JANUARY 2, 2017
Quo Vadis, Papa Francisco?
40-THE POPE’S PURGE OF THE CONGREGATION FOR DIVINE WORSHIP
Pope Francis’ purge of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship was reported in The Examiner, the liberal Archdiocesan weekly of Bombay in the November 5-11 issue under the caption “Pope overhauls Congregation for Liturgy”. While the entire conservative Catholic world lamented this latest retrograde act of the Holy Father, The Examiner named some of the “conservative prelates who have been removed” and said that “the new appointments give a distinctly more liberal character … to the Congregation”.
In response to that story in The Examiner, leading Indian yoga guru Fr. Joe Pereira saw great promise for the Indian Church in that purge, and this is what he wrote in a very revealing letter to the editor published in The Examiner of November 19-25, 2016:
The news in The Examiner of November 5-11, regarding Pope Francis replacing the members of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship, the body in charge of liturgical questions, was indeed stunning.
The removal of the full team by Pope Francis is very significant for the entire Church.
While Pope Francis’ vision of the Church is an “outward looking Church”, these liturgists had become too preoccupied with the legalistic do’s and don’ts of the Liturgy. In fact, much of their directives got reduced to “rubrics”.
From the time of the ‘Church in India seminar’ in the year 1971(Error! It was held in Bangalore in 1969
-Michael), there has been a consistent move from various priests, especially at the NBCLC and other Ashrams, to make our liturgy more relevant to India. Instead, all such initiatives have been either discouraged or even forbidden.
Gone are the days of Fr. Bede Griffiths when beautiful Indian symbolism was tried out at the liturgy of the Mass.
Fr. Noel Sheth too has done much work on Liturgical reforms at the Athenaeum in Pune.
But in recent times, there has been a conservative trend in the Indian Church not to permit such experimentation.
The inclusion of Cardinal Ravasi, the President of the Pontifical Council for Culture by Pope Francis should help our Bishops to bring in the richness of our culture in our worship.
Unfortunately, the beautiful practice of making our Eucharist inclusive, especially at places where large number of people of other faiths attend the church, has been totally discouraged.
Our Hindu devotees may take offence when there is no ‘prasad’ to take with them after a visit to a sacred place. The rationale offered is that they may wrongly think that they are receiving the Body of Christ. This rationale reveals a lack of respect for the culture and ethos of India.
As a result, our shrines get thousands of people of other faiths taking communion on (sic) their hand and going unrecognised in the crowds. [Ed: Perhaps an alternative blessing indicating the difference between ‘prasad’ and the Eucharist would be an appropriate gesture.]
Will this action of the Pope be a wake-up call to our Bishops in India and help to revive the spirit of the visionaries like Bede Griffiths?
If it has to happen, it will need to be within the papacy of our beloved Pope Francis.
-Fr. Joseph H. Pereira, Kripa Foundation
For my response to Fr. Joe Pereira and The Examiner, please see:
FR JOE PEREIRA CALLS FOR INCLUSIVE EUCHARIST AND BEDE GRIFFITHS INDIAN RITE MASS
THE PURGE:
Pope makes complete overhaul of Vatican liturgical congregation
October 28, 2016
In a stunning move, Pope Francis has replaced all of the members of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship, the body in charge of liturgical questions.
It is routine for the Roman Pontiff to appoint a few new members to each Vatican congregation, rotating out members who have served for several years. But on October 28 the Vatican announced that Pope Francis has appointed 27 new members to the Congregation for Divine Worship, completely transforming the membership of that body.
The new appointments give a distinctly more liberal character—as well as a more international complexion—to the congregation. The changes seem likely to curtail the work of Cardinal Robert Sarah, the prefect of the Congregation, who has been a leading proponent of more reverent liturgy and of “the reform of the reform.”
Among the prominent new members of the congregation will be Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State, Cardinal Beniamino Stella, the prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, and Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture. Probably the most controversial new appointment is that ofArchbishop Piero Marini, who clashed frequently with liturgical conservatives during the years when he served as master of ceremonies for papal liturgies under St. John Paul II. The only American prelate named to the congregation is Bishop Arthur Serratelli of Paterson, New Jersey, who chairs the US bishops’ committee on liturgy.
The more conservative prelates who have been removed from the congregation include Cardinals Raymond Burke, Angelo Scola, George Pell, Marc Ouellet, Angelo Bagnasco, and Malcolm Ranjith.
Pope replaces all members of Congregation for Divine Worship
By Robert Mickens, October 28, 2016
In what is viewed as a major slapdown for Congregation for Divine Worship Prefect Cardinal Robert Sarah, Pope Francis has appointed 27 new members to the body.
[…]
Francis Purges Conservatives from Divine Worship Congregation
By Fr. Brian Harrison, October 29, 2016
Pope Francis, in one fell swoop has today carried out a stunning mass removal of all conservative cardinals and bishops from the Vatican's Congregation for Sacraments and Divine Worship. On the hit list are Cardinals Burke, Scola, Pell, Ouellet, Ranjith and many others. The Pope has ousted all of the prelates who, together with the Prefect, make up the current membership of the Congregation, replacing them with 27 new and more 'progressive' members.
The noble Cardinal Robert Sarah, who recently aroused the Holy Father's ire by daring to promote a return to the priest's versus orientem position at Mass, remains at the head of the congregation; but his days there are clearly numbered, and he will now be considerably hemmed in by all the new and more liberal prelates who are to advise him and vote on all important decisions.
[AD ORIENTEM-CARDINAL SARAH’S ATTEMPT TO RECOVER LITURGICAL ORTHODOXY TORPEDOED BY LIBERALS
]
These include Archbishop Piero Marini, papal Master of Ceremonies for some years under Pope John Paul II. As a young priest he was a disciple and admirer of the chief architect of the post-Vatican II liturgical reform, the late Archbishop Annibale Bugnini. Coming from that background, it is unsurprising that Marini has been a long-time outspoken foe of traditional trends in liturgy. In John Paul II's time he orchestrated such liturgical novelties as a bare-breasted lectoress at a papal Mass in Papua New Guinea, and various other dubious forms of "inculturation".
In the 1995 papal Mass at Sydney for Australia's first-ever beatification (for Blessed, now Saint, Mary McKillop), in collusion with the liberal, habit-free nuns who dominate the now-dwindling congregation founded by Mother Mary, Marini replaced the Creed by a made-up eco-friendly litany, replaced the penitential rite by a pagan dance by a near-naked, paint-daubed Aboriginal man in which he drove away evil spirits with the help of a smoking tin can, and had the multitudes of lay Eucharistic Ministers hold up ciboriums full of Hosts during the consecration, almost as if they were "concelebrating".
This almost total clean-out of an entire Congregation's voting members in a single hit - unprecedented in Vatican history, so it seems - is also in effect a sharp rebuff to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the centerpiece of whose pontifical legacy was a restoration of tradition, dignity, and Latin in the Sacred Liturgy. One is filled with a deep sense of foreboding as to what changes to the way we are expected to worship, and what possible undermining of Benedict's liberation of the Traditional Latin Rite, are portended by today's breathtaking papal purge.
Shakeup at Congregation for Divine Worship Described as a “Purge”
By Maike Hickson, October 31, 2016
As severaloutlets have now reported, on 28 October 2016 – just before his going to Lund, Sweden – Pope Francis replaced all the members of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. That is the dicastery currently (but perhaps only temporarily) headed by Cardinal Robert Sarah. Several Catholic authors from around the world – clergy and laymen alike – have responded with a measure of indignation about this unprecedented papal decision. Many see the shakeup asa sign that the pope disapproves of Cardinal Sarah’s recent attempts to encourage priests to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass ad orientem – more reverently facing God.
Father Brian Harrison, theologian and author, commented as follows:
Pope Francis, in one fell swoop has today carried out a stunning mass removal …of all conservative cardinals and bishops from the Vatican’s Congregation for Sacraments and Divine Worship. On the hit list are Cardinals Burke, Scola, Pell, Ouellet, Ranjith and many others. The Pope has ousted all of the prelates who, together with the Prefect, make up the current membership of the Congregation, replacing them with 27 new and more ‘progressive’ members.
Father Harrison points out that one of the new voting members of the Congregation for Divine Worship is Archbishop Piero Marini, former papal Master of Ceremonies under Pope John Paul II, who is a “disciple and admirer of the chief architect of the post-Vatican II liturgical reform, the late Archbishop Annibale Bugnini,” according to Father Harrison. Marini has been responsible for “liturgical novelties” which include a “bare-breasted lectoress” and “pagan dances” at papal Masses.
The Australian priest who now works in St. Louis, Missouri thus fears for the liturgy, especially for the future of the Tridentine Latin Mass. Harrison says, as follows:
This almost total clean-out of an entire Congregation’s voting members in a single hit – unprecedented in Vatican history, so it seems – is also in effect a sharp rebuff to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the centerpiece of whose pontifical legacy was a restoration of tradition, dignity, and Latin in the Sacred Liturgy. One is filled with a deep sense of foreboding as to what changes to the way we are expected to worship, and what possible undermining of Benedict’s liberation of the Traditional Latin Rite, are portended by today’s breathtaking papal purge.
Father John Hunwicke, a British Catholic priest and a convert from Anglicanism and a vivid commentator on Church matters, posted a comment on 29 October on his own website. His comments read:
The personel [sic] changes at the Congregation for Divine Worship look like very bad news for the heroic figure of its Prefect, Cardinal Sarah. It looks as though some crude revenge is taking place …
Bishop Alan Hopes, a former Anglican, is the only piece of good news I can see on the new list. But, as a bishop with a large diocese, he will not be able to be often in Rome.
But Bad Marini lives in Rome and has a minuscule job … Eucharistic Congresses … quid dicamus …
Marco Tosatti, the untiring and always well-informed Vatican specialist published on the same day his own report on his new website Stilum Curiae, calling this papal decision an “unprecedented purge” as well as a “torpedo against the Prefect of the Liturgy Congregation.” Among the new more progressive members of the Congregation, Tosatti mentions Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, “president of the Papal Council for Culture who has made himself immortal by participating in a dance for the ‘Pacha Mama’ in San Marco Sierras in Argentina.” The Italian journalist also points out that the newly appointed Archbishop Marini had been earlier removed from his office as chief papal liturgist by Pope Benedict XVI himself, similar to the new member of the Congregation, Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino,who had also been removed from his position as secretary of the Divine Worship Congregation under Benedict. Thus a conscious reversal seems to be taking place. Tosatti also points out that the new Congregation member Archbishop John Dew of Wellington, New Zealand had been prominent at the recent Family Synod “for proposing that the Church should change her attitude that homosexual acts are intrinsically evil.”
Marco Tosatti concludes that this is an “extraordinary purge,” saying that dismissals and replacements in such a scale are absolute exceptions in the practice of the Roman government. “Cardinal Sarah seems now to be very alone, and there are no voices anymore which would contradict the politically correct dominant liturgy.”
Armin Schwibach, the conservative Rome Correspondent for the Austrian news website Kath.net, has made similarly strong comments on his own twitter account. In one of his two entries about this topic, he said: “What happened at the Divine Worship Congregation, one can indeed only sum up with the word (unique) ‘purge’.” Schwibach continues in his second comment, as follows: “Fascinating: again it becomes clear where the real game takes place. The rest is eyewash and spectacle for the large audience.”
These different comments from Europe as well as from the United States, as they are presented here make it clear that the concurrent indignation against the recent papal move goes beyond certain traditional groups and reaches deep into the center of the Catholic Church.
It may be now more realistically hoped that this dispersed and concurrent indignation over Pope Francis’ revolutionary methods will help more Catholics to open their eyes and understanding to realize what kind of destructive work he has been conducting and is still conducting to the Catholic Church. It is also to be hoped that Cardinal Sarah finds some consolation in seeing so much sympathy flowing to him from people who know that he now suffers for all of us, especially those who are determined to remain faithful to the teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Update: As Edward Pentin [see pages 4 ff.] reports on 4 November, 2016, the membership of nine cardinals was renewed by Pope Francis. Thus, not the whole Congregation was dismissed, as first was assumed by many observers. According to Pentin, however, “the majority of the Pope’s new choices have a distinctly preferential approach to Blessed Paul VI’s Novus Ordo Missae, the “ordinary form” of the liturgy most widely used in the Latin Church today.”
6 of 49 readers’ responses
1. Bishop Fellay and the SSPX just got the definitive answer as to whether or not they should take any deal offered by Francis. If the TLM ends up suppressed, Francis is to blame. He will bear the responsibility for having driven out droves of truly faithful Catholics who will have no choice but to go to the SSPX. I am one of them. Please God, take this man home to yourself!
2. We have word from Lund, Sweden, now that Pope Francis and the Lutherans plan on a 'Shared Eucharist.'
Who wants to bet that this purge is so that Francis and co. can now construct a new Catholic/Lutheran rite with a new 'Eucharist'?
One that probably doesn't 'Transubstantiate' but rather vaguely just occurs as a symbol of unity and ecumenism and sharing and caring. Specifically made not only for joint Catholic/Lutheran worship but just about anyone. Heck maybe even the public adulterers will be allowed to partake of this bread.
And make no mistake, the only thing there will be bread. But oh boy, can't wait to see the praise and worship adoration sessions in front of this Abomination of Desolation.
And you think the Novus Ordo was bad? Where we're going, you won't need Tabernacles.
3. This pope's actions are becoming more and more brazen against any traditional teaching or the need for right worship. When will Benedict speak out?
4. My priest thinks this pope can do no wrong. I'm sure he's not the only one.
5. But there are many who are truly priests who put Christ first and His teachings.
They are out there...... may God give you the grace to find one.
6. You're right, and I've enjoyed the blessing of knowing quite a few. Unfortunately, I'm not able to change parishes, for reasons I can't go into, but do have faithful priests available for weekday Masses, spiritual direction and confession. And in the meantime, I pray for my parish priest, that his eyes will be opened.
Pope Francis again elevates Church progressives in a complete overhaul of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship
By Jan Bentz, Rome, November 2, 2016
In a stunning move last week, Pope Francis gave the Pontifical Congregation for the Liturgy a complete overhaul with 27 new appointments.