True Development of the Liturgy

Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 -0400

How much of the postconciliar liturgical reform truly reflects Sacrosanctum Concilium , the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on Sacred Liturgy? This is a question that has been debated in ecclesial circles ever since the Consilium ad Exsequendam Constitutionem de Sacra Liturgia, the group charged with implementing Vatican II’s changes, finished its work in 1970. The question has been debated with even greater intensity in the last few decades. And while some have argued that what was done by the Consilium was indeed in line with that great document Sacrosanctum Concilium , others have disagreed.

In the search for an answer, we must take into account the turbulent mood of the years that immediately followed the council. In his decision to convoke the Second Vatican Council, John XXIII wished the Church to be prepared for the new world that was emerging in the aftermath of the disastrous events of the Second World War. He prophetically foresaw the emergence of a strong current of materialism and secularism from the core orientations of the preceding era, which had been marked by the spirit of the Enlightenment and in which the traditional values of the old worldview had already begun to be shaken.

The Industrial Revolution—along with its strongly anthropocentric and subjectivist philosophical trends, especially those resulting from the influences of Kant, Hume, and Hegel—led to the emergence of Marxism and positivism. It also led to the ascendance of biblical criticism (relativizing, to a certain extent, the Holy Scriptures), which in turn had negative influences on theology, generating a questioning attitude about the objectivity of established truth and the usefulness of defending ecclesial traditions and institutions. Some schools of theology were bold enough even to question basic doctrines of the Church. It is against this background that John XXIII felt that more convincing answers needed to be found.

The call for aggiornamento by the pope thus assumed the character of a search for a fortification of the faith in order to render the mission of the Church more effective and more able to respond to modern challenges convincingly. It was certainly not a call to go along with the spirit of the times, a sort of drifting passively along, nor was it a call to effect a new start to the Church. It was a call to render the message of the gospel even more responsive to the difficult questions mankind would face in the new era. The pope explained what lay behind his decision when he stated:

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True Development of the Liturgy