Volume Six, Number 3, Fall 2007 - Mundelein Seminary
Volume Six, Number 3, Fall 2007 - Mundelein Seminary Volume Six, Number 3, Fall 2007 - Mundelein Seminary
Rev. Dennis Gill Gives Hillenbrand Lecture on Summorum Pontificum Fr. Dennis Gill of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia offers his thoughts on Pope Benedict’s Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum. as part of the hillenbrand distinguished Lecture Series, Fr. Dennis Gill addressed the meaning of Pope Benedict’s recent Apostolic Letter Summorum pontificum. Ever mindful of the teaching of the Church in matters of liturgy, the Liturgical Institute offered the lecture to its own students, faculty, seminarians, and the larger community. Currently a doctoral student in sacramental theology at the Pontifical Athenaeum Sant’Anselmo in Rome, Fr. Gill has served previously as Director of Liturgy for the Pontifical North American College in Rome and as Associate Director of the Office of Worship for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Gill began by discussing Benedict’s address of December 22, 2005 in which he spoke of the two hermeneutics after the Second Vatican Council, one of continuity and one of discontinuity. Gill spoke of Benedict’s assertion that there is one liturgy, one subject which is always the same. Therefore, one must avoid the tendency to see a split between pre-conciliar and post-conciliar liturgical books. In Summorum pontificum, Gill argued, one finds an attempt to build bridges to reconnect with the received tradition because liturgy lives and develops organically from one age to another. Fellowship with previous generations is therefore something we can actually experience through liturgical continuity. Gill was careful to assert that Summorum Pontificum allows a two-fold use of the same rite, and cautioned his audience against thinking of the Missals of John XXIII and Paul VI as separate rites. He also emphasized that the usage of the extraordinary form of the rite was optional, not obligatory. Gill concluded by telling his listeners that Summorum Pontificum is not an attempt to “go backward,” but a decidedly post-conciliar event in the context of the Church’s self-understanding with and since the Council. He also argued that the motu proprio was not a permanent solution to the problems which have arisen in liturgy since the Council, but that it would work in union with other liturgical instructions given to the Church in recent years. Last, he urged charity among all involved in the liturgical renewal envisioned by the Second Vatican Council so that Summorum pontificum might have a “serene reception.” The Mundelein Psalter in Second Printing in its effort to help renew the liturgical life of the church, the Liturgical Institute’s Hillenbrand Books released in May of 2007 The Mundelein Psalter, the first complete one-volume edition containing the approved English-language texts of the Liturgy of the Hours that are pointed for chanting the Divine Office. Response to the Psalter has been even greater than predicted, with the psalter’s web site, mundeleinpsalter.com, receiving thousands of visits to utilize on-line resources there such as music downloads and instructions for singing the Divine Office. With orders exhausting the first printing in only six months, the second printing was released in November of 2007. The Psalter has already been ordered by seminaries, religious communities, individuals, and by multiple parishes to begin the public praying of the Divine Office. Edited by Liturgical Institute Director Fr. Douglas Martis, the Psalter offers simple yet beautiful Gregorian-based modes composed for English singing by Fr. Samuel Weber, osb, a monk of St. Meinrad Archabbey and founding faculty member of the Wake Forest Divinity School. The Psalter offers proper hymns with their ancient modal settings for each ferial day as well as a selection of hymns for feasts and solemnities from the editio typica. To order the Mundelein Psalter, contact Liturgy Training Publications at 1.800.933.1800 or www.ltp.org. More information on the Psalter can be found at www.mundeleinpsalter.com. Be sure to mention the Tidings discount code 8MST11 to receive 20% off list price!
Dr. Lynne Boughton is an adjunct faculty member of the Liturgical Institute. Two Expressions of the Roman Rite: Summorum pontificum pope gregory the great (590-604) explained in a letter to the Bishop of Syracuse that preserving continuity of Roman liturgy with apostolic tradition is ultimately the responsibility of the papacy. Gregory noted that he curtailed a custom, among priests celebrating Mass in Rome, of reciting the “Our Father” after breaking the consecrated host because their doing so placed this prayer outside the rite’s canon/anaphora and deviated from ancient practice. Recitation of the entire Kyrie by congregations, as was done in Constantinople, was also judged by Gregory to have departed from tradition and he promised that in Rome priests and laity would continue to alternate in voicing each of the prayer’s nine pleas for God’s mercy. The solicitude of Gregory and other pontiffs for the Roman Rite is the underlying principle that governs Summorum pontificum (hereafter: SP), an Apostolic Letter issued by Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007). In this motu proprio Benedict continues the work of his predecessors by explaining that the rite that they nurtured has now developed into two tangible forms. Each transmits the supernatural gifts and central act of worship that Jesus entrusted to the Apostles and each demands from the Church the same degree of reverence and reflection. SP affirms that every priest in good standing who has been ordained in the Roman Rite has the canonical right – and has never been deprived of the right – to offer Mass, either alone or with a congregation, in the liturgical form that: 1.) appeared in its basic structure and content more than two centuries before Gregory’s pontificate; 2.) was transcribed in successive sacramentaria and missali between the 6th and 19th centuries; and 3.) was most recently issued by Pope John XXIII as the 1962 Missale Romanum (MR). Benedict emphasizes that this eucharistic form remains as much the Church’s expression of her theology as the 1969/1970 MR that was instituted after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and is now in its third edition. Although Benedict expects the form of Mass, manner of conferring other sacraments, and way of praying the Divine Office that originated after Vatican II to remain “ordinary” manifestations of the Roman Rite, he urges that the “venerable and ancient usage” preserved by the form of Mass and other liturgical actions that developed prior to that council be available as “extraordinary” expressions of the same Catholic faith. Because the papacy safeguards the “uninterrupted apostolic tradition” that the Church has received, Benedict declares that the liturgical form which predated Vatican II has never been juridically prohibited. Although, several authoritative entities in the Church have ruled that the 1962 MR may be used only in seclusion by elderly and infirm priests, no papal decree has imposed this restriction. Pope Paul VI responded positively to a request from the diocese of Westminster for regular celebration of the 1962 MR and rulings from Pope John Paul II not only exhorted bishops to be generous in allowing priests to offer this Mass but established new institutes and communities of priests dedicated to celebrating all components of the pre-Vatican II liturgical form. The key restriction has been that there be no intermingling, in any particular celebration, of the structures, rubrics, or ministries characteristic that developed within one form of the rite with those that developed within the other. Although the objectives of SP are clear, discussions of its content are often misleading. Some have evaluated the document as though it were merely a disciplinary ruling regarding use of the “Tridentine Rite” vis-à-vis the “Vatican II Rite” – with ensuing commentary expressing joy, indifference, or consternation at this turn of events. Such discussions overlook SP’s explanation that there are not two competing “rites” but two harmonious expressions of a single Rite, and also ignore SP’s illuminating language. For example, Benedict does not identify the 1962 MR as “Tridentine.” Although this MR is, except for the revised Paschal Triduum (1955), almost identical to the 1570 MR issued by Pope Pius V after the Council of Trent (1545-63), the 1570 MR was not a Tridentine innovation but a reissue of the 1474 MR with a few changes in calendar, rubrics, and propers assigned to particular feasts. The 1474 MR, in turn, parallels the 12th/13th century missale of the Roman curia. Moreover, the Mass common to all these missali is presented from beginning to end in the Stowe Missal, an 8th century transcription of the ordo missae and Roman Canon present in every Roman Rite Mass by the late 6th century along with propers of a single feast. SP similarly eschews classifying the 1970 MR as the rite of “Vatican II.” Certainly, the 1970 MR departs from all preceding missali in allowing options within the ordo missae and in eliminating or making optional certain propers while expanding others. Nevertheless, the 1970 MR retains most prayers from the prior form of ordo missae and its Eucharistic Prayer #1, varies only slightly from the Roman Canon that serves as the only anaphora in the 1962, 1570, and 1474 MR, the curial missal, the Old Gelasian Sacramentary (7th century), the Stowe, and was cited c. 380 by St. Ambrose. And, of course, in both the ordinary and extraordinary forms, the Words of Institution are those of Jesus, preserved for all time in the three Synoptic Gospels and in a letter of Paul. Although some maintain that SP’s recognition of each priest’s right to offer the extraordinary form applies only to “private” celebrations, this misreads the document. Benedict never refers to “private” Mass because, as Pope Paul VI (citing St. John Damascene) noted, “Every Mass even though a priest may offer it in private is not a private matter; it is an act of Christ and the Church.” Benedict’s reference in SP art. 2 to missis sine populo celebratis (“Masses celebrated without a congregation”) does not restrict priests to celebrating the 1962 MR only in seclusion. Instead, the passage merely prohibits offering either the 1962 MR or the 1970 MR without a congregation during the Paschal Triduum. In SP art. 4, Benedict affirms that any priest may offer Mass in the extraordinary form among christifideles qui sua sponte id petunt (“Christian faithful who, of their own will, ask to attend”). Congregations present at the extraordinary form of Mass are permitted traditional methods of external as well as interior participation. In the 13th century St. Thomas Aquinas noted that congregations chanted the Credo, Sanctus and other fixed prayers. In 1501 the papal chaplain advised that in recited Masses, the interessentes (congregation) were to reply audibly to the priest in alternating the verses of the introductory psalms, the Kyrie, and the “Lift up your hearts” dialogue. The laity were also to voice with the priest-celebrant the entire Confiteor, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. In 1903 Pope Pius X urged congregations to participate in the Gregorian chant that made these prayers and affirmations audible in sung Masses. Like others who have occupied the Chair of St. Peter, Benedict affirms that what the Church has preserved through the course of centuries is not her own creation but is a treasure entrusted to her by God to be cherished and made available to people inhabiting all times and places. SP manifests Benedict’s conviction that in both forms of the Mass of the Roman Rite ordained priests effect a divine actio that makes present Jesus’ propitiatory sacrifice and substantial presence as God and man. Both forms of this living reality, as well as of the sacraments and daily office that developed in conjunction with them, are to be welcomed by the Church with reverence and joy.
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Rev. Dennis Gill Gives Hillenbrand Lecture on Summorum Pontificum<br />
Fr. Dennis Gill of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia<br />
offers his thoughts on Pope Benedict’s Apostolic Letter<br />
Summorum Pontificum.<br />
as part of the hillenbrand distinguished<br />
Lecture Series, Fr. Dennis Gill addressed<br />
the meaning of Pope<br />
Benedict’s recent Apostolic<br />
Letter Summorum<br />
pontificum. Ever mindful<br />
of the teaching of the<br />
Church in matters of<br />
liturgy, the Liturgical<br />
Institute offered the lecture<br />
to its own students,<br />
faculty, seminarians, and<br />
the larger community.<br />
Currently a doctoral<br />
student in sacramental<br />
theology at the<br />
Pontifical Athenaeum<br />
Sant’Anselmo in Rome,<br />
Fr. Gill has served<br />
previously as Director of<br />
Liturgy for the Pontifical<br />
North American College<br />
in Rome and as Associate<br />
Director of the Office<br />
of Worship for the Archdiocese<br />
of Philadelphia.<br />
Gill began by<br />
discussing Benedict’s<br />
address of December 22, 2005 in which he<br />
spoke of the two hermeneutics after the Second<br />
Vatican Council, one of continuity and one of<br />
discontinuity. Gill spoke of Benedict’s assertion<br />
that there is one liturgy, one subject which is<br />
always the same. Therefore, one must avoid the<br />
tendency to see a split between pre-conciliar and<br />
post-conciliar liturgical books.<br />
In Summorum pontificum, Gill argued, one<br />
finds an attempt to build bridges to reconnect<br />
with the received tradition because liturgy<br />
lives and develops organically from one age to<br />
another. Fellowship with previous generations is<br />
therefore something we can actually experience<br />
through liturgical continuity.<br />
Gill was careful to assert that Summorum<br />
Pontificum allows a two-fold use of the same rite,<br />
and cautioned his audience against thinking of<br />
the Missals of John XXIII and Paul VI as separate<br />
rites. He also emphasized that the usage of<br />
the extraordinary form of the rite was optional,<br />
not obligatory.<br />
Gill concluded by telling his listeners that<br />
Summorum Pontificum is not an attempt to “go<br />
backward,” but a decidedly post-conciliar event<br />
in the context of the Church’s self-understanding<br />
with and since the Council. He also argued that<br />
the motu proprio was not a permanent solution<br />
to the problems which have arisen in liturgy<br />
since the Council, but that it would work in<br />
union with other liturgical instructions given to<br />
the Church in recent years. Last, he urged charity<br />
among all involved in the liturgical renewal<br />
envisioned by the Second Vatican Council so<br />
that Summorum pontificum might have a “serene<br />
reception.” <br />
The <strong>Mundelein</strong> Psalter in Second Printing<br />
in its effort to help renew the liturgical life of the church, the Liturgical Institute’s Hillenbrand Books released in<br />
May of <strong>2007</strong> The <strong>Mundelein</strong> Psalter, the first complete one-volume edition containing the approved English-language texts of the<br />
Liturgy of the Hours that are pointed for chanting the Divine Office. Response to the Psalter<br />
has been even greater than predicted, with the psalter’s web site, mundeleinpsalter.com, receiving<br />
thousands of visits to utilize on-line resources there such as music downloads and instructions<br />
for singing the Divine Office. With orders exhausting the first printing in only six months, the<br />
second printing was released in November of <strong>2007</strong>. The Psalter has already been ordered by<br />
seminaries, religious communities, individuals, and by multiple parishes to begin the public praying<br />
of the Divine Office.<br />
Edited by Liturgical Institute Director Fr. Douglas Martis, the Psalter offers simple yet beautiful<br />
Gregorian-based modes composed for English singing by Fr. Samuel Weber, osb, a monk<br />
of St. Meinrad Archabbey and founding faculty member of the Wake Forest Divinity School.<br />
The Psalter offers proper hymns with their ancient modal settings for each ferial day as well as a<br />
selection of hymns for feasts and solemnities from the editio typica.<br />
To order the <strong>Mundelein</strong> Psalter, contact Liturgy Training Publications at 1.800.933.1800 or<br />
www.ltp.org. More information on the Psalter can be found at www.mundeleinpsalter.com.<br />
Be sure to mention the Tidings discount code 8MST11 to receive 20% off list price!
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