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Episcopal Liturgical Pastoral Governance: A Restricted Reception
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
Abstract
The Constitution on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum concilium (1963), envisaged an extensive episcopal liturgical governance role. With the local episcopal conference, the bishop was to regulate the use of language in the liturgy and prepare and translate liturgical prayers into ‘living languages’ and oversee the implementation of liturgical change. These were key conciliar expressions of episcopal governance, which represented a deeper theology of the episcopacy. In subsequent years, the Council's reform agenda was challenged and resisted by the Roman Curia and others. The Curia aimed at protecting its pre-Vatican II position of governance and was not inclined to receive the Council's collegial and synodal ecclesiology. The most recent development, Magnum principium (2017), may be viewed as an opportunity yet to be grasped.
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References
3 See: Marini, Archbishop Piero, A Challenging Reform: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal, 1963-1975 (Collegeville, Mn.: Liturgical Press, 2007), xGoogle Scholar.
4 The work of a pre-Consilium, formed to guide conciliar liturgical reforms, made little progress due to lack of leadership. See. Ibid., p. 19.
5 Issued motu proprio, 25 January 1964; published in L'Osservatore Romano 29 January 1964. See: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/motu_proprio/documents/hf_p-vi_motu-proprio_19640125_sacram-liturgiam_en.html. See also: Austin Flannery, “Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents,” (Northport, New York: Costello Publishing Company, 1981), pp. 41-44.
6 Gy is clear: ‘the Pope paid close attention to the submissions of Bugnini [which] did not prevent him from making his own decisions.’ Gy, Pierre-Marie, The Reception of Vatican II Liturgical Reforms in the Life of the Church, The Père Marquette Lecture in Theology (Milwaukee, Wi.: Marquette University Press, 2003), p. 16Google Scholar.
7 See: Flannery, “Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents,” pp. 45-56. It concludes: ‘This Instruction was prepared by the Consilium by mandate of Pope Paul VI, and presented to the Pope by Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro, President of the Consilium. After having carefully considered the Instruction, in consultation with the Consilium and the Congregation of Rites, Pope Paul in an audience granted to Cardinal Arcadio Maria Larraona, Prefect of the Congregation of Rites, gave it specific approval as a whole and in its parts, confirmed it by his authority, […].’ The statement demonstrated the relationship of the Consilium and the Congregation for Rites.
8 Gy, The Reception of Vatican II Liturgical Reforms in the Life of the Church, pp. 8-9. Such remarks deflate critical comments from those who viewed conciliar reform as the work of misguided experts and not of the bishops themselves. Gy also notes the presence of ‘non-Catholic observers’ at the meetings of the cardinals and bishops. Ibid., p. 11.
9 Marini, A Challenging Reform: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal, 1963-1975, pp. 5-7.
10 Susan Roll suggests the Congregation was against liturgical reform. For example: it ‘attempted a few pre-emptive strikes when [it] discovered the Council was going to be dealing with liturgy and not merely issuing a few anathemas: a new breviary was quickly promulgated in 1961, as was a lightly revised Roman Missal in 1962 to try to thwart reform.’ Roll, Susan K., “The Cornerstones of Liturgical Renewal,” in Vatican II Facing the 21st Century: Historical and Theological Perspectives, ed. Lane, Dermot A. and Leahy, Brendan (Dublin: Veritas Publications, 2006), p. 95Google Scholar.
11 Tanner, Norman P., “Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils,” (London/Washington, DC: Sheed & Ward/Georgetown University Press, 1990), p. 828Google Scholar.
12 Sacram Liturgicam, 3. Emphasis added.
13 Taylor, Maurice, It's the Eucharist, Thank God (Brandon, Suffolk: Decani Books, 2009), p. 60Google Scholar.
14 Cited in: Marini, A Challenging Reform: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal, 1963-1975, p. 23.
15 Ibid., pp. 23-24.
16 The French bishops reacted strongly to the motu proprio, referring to an article published in L'Osservatore Romano (30 January 1964), which proposed a restrictive interpretation of Sacrosanctum concilium, n.36. ‘The council […] agreed that the translations would be approved by the bishops’ conferences, that is all. Any other disposition would contradict the council's decisions, as it would also contradict the trust in the episcopal conferences already shown earlier by the Apostolic See when it gave them the task of arranging translations of the Ordo Baptismi adultorum, a task which for its part the French Episcopate did not fail to carry out. This is true also for article 10 on the divine office, which refers in particular to the translations carried out according to article 36, and not through the intervention of a Vatican Congregation which cannot consider itself more competent that the Episcopates in matters concerning exact translations into a national language.’ ibid., pp. 169-170. Emphasis added. Their Memorandum clearly stated the problem and its corollary.
17 Bugnini, Annibale, The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975 (Collegeville, Mn.: Liturgical Press, 1990), p. 70Google Scholar.
18 The first of three: the second Instruction was entitled: ‘Tres abhinc annos - on the proper implementation of the Constitution on the Liturgy’ (4 May 1967), O'Brien, Thomas C., ed. Documents on the Liturgy, 1963-1979: Conciliar, Papal, and Curial Texts (Collegeville, Mn.: Liturgical Press, 1982), pp. 135-140Google Scholar. The third, ‘Liturgicae instaurationes - on the orderly carrying out of the constitution on the liturgy’ (5 September 1970), ibid., pp. 159-167.The first and second were stylistically similar; the third was disciplinary in nature and had not been commented on by its membership. Therefore, few had been consulted and few knew its contents in advance and was ‘a different kind of document, one that involved the responsibility of the central authority.’ Bugnini, The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975, p. 843. Fn.827.
19 For references to Inter oecumenici see: Flannery, “Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents,” pp. 45-56. Published by the Sacred Congregation of Rites (SCR). Paragraph 10 reads: ‘Whatever measures this Instruction submits to the jurisdiction of the competent territorial ecclesiastical authority, it is this same authority, alone, which can and must put them into effect, by legitimate decrees.’
20 Frances, Page, and Pecklers, Marini, A Challenging Reform: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal, 1963-1975, p. 159.
21 A change suggested by the pastoral experience of the bishops. Gy, The Reception of Vatican II Liturgical Reforms in the Life of the Church, p. 25. The first translations into living languages were sought by episcopal conferences of countries beyond Western Europe. See : Whelan, Thomas R., “Liturgy Reform Since Vatican II: The Role Played by Bishops in the English-Speaking World,” Questions Liturgiques/Studies in Liturgy 95, no. 1-2 (2014), p. 84. Fn. 12Google Scholar.
22 Frances, Mark R., Page, John R. and Pecklers, Keith F., “Foreword” in Marini, A Challenging Reform: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal, 1963-1975, p. 159Google Scholar.
23 Heinrich Rennings, “Europe,” Concilium 2, no. 2 (1966), p. 80. See also: Whelan, “Liturgy Reform Since Vatican II: The Role Played by Bishops in the English-Speaking World,” p. 85.
24 See Bugnini's corrective note: ‘For the Implementation of the Conciliar Liturgical Constitution – The Motu Proprio Sacram Liturgicam’, March 2/3, 1964 in L'Osservatore Romano.
25 See: Bugnini, The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975, p. 51. See: Marini, A Challenging Reform: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal, 1963-1975, pp. 34-35.
26 The letter is clear about the competencies of the Consilium but lacked juridical weight. The Consilium was allied to the Pope but used weak, novel juridical formulae. Again, the lack of publication of this document in Acta Apostolica Sedis or L'Osservatore Romano was vital. Bugnini notes that ‘despite repeated requests, the letter of February 29 was never published in [AAS], and the list of members, which had appeared in L'Osservatore Romano, was not published in the Acta until June, and then only after the obituaries (see AAS 56 [1964], 479). Mere coincidence? A second letter from the Secretariat of State, dated January 7, 1965, further clarified the respective competencies of the Congregation of Rites and the Consilium by giving to the latter the duty of overseeing and regulating the experimental phase of new rites, and to the former the duty of giving juridical force to the definitive publication of these rites; […]. Other responsibilities were given to the Consilium as the work proceeded.’ Bugnini, The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975, p. 52. Reporting the competencies of the Congregation of Rites happened quickly and officially, which acted like a brake on the Consilium's governance.
27 See: Flannery, “Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents,” pp. 41-282. Also: O'Brien, Documents on the Liturgy, 1963-1979: Conciliar, Papal, and Curial Texts.
28 Second Instruction on the Proper Implementation of the Sacred Liturgy, Tres Abhinc Annos, Sacred Congregation for Rites, 4 May, 1967. Flannery, “Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents,” p. 98.
29 Notitiae ‘became the expression of a more collegial reforming spirit, which the Concilium was anxious to carry forward in the relationship between the Holy See and the particular [local] Churches and within the Roman Curia.’ Marini, A Challenging Reform: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal, 1963-1975, p. 94.
30 Another new journal, Concilium, offered a picture of liturgical development across the Church. See: “Documentation Concilium. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy applied in Five Continents: a Survey of Progress,” Concilium 2, no. 2 (1966), pp. 66-82. For the section relating to Europe see: Heinrich Rennings, “Europe,” ibid., pp. 79-82.
32 Flannery, “Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents,” p. 44. While part of curial reform, it was also the fruition of one of Bugnini's models for liturgical reform.
33 Marini, A Challenging Reform: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal, 1963-1975, p. 143.
34 First expressed in a critique of the new Ordo Missae in a letter sent by Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci to Paul VI together with a curial, theological analysis. See: Cekada, Anthony, ed. The Ottaviani Intervention: Short Critical Study of the New Order of Mass (West Chester, Ohio: Philothea Press, 2010)Google Scholar. Cekada understands the Intervention as a ‘sort of charter for the traditionalist movement - those Catholics who (among other things) rejected the reformed rites.’ ibid., p. 3.
35 Pope Paul VI, apostolic constitution Constans nobis stadium in: L'Osservatore Romano 17 July 1975. The CDW became the junior partner in the Congregation.
36 Marini, A Challenging Reform: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal, 1963-1975, p. 157. He suggests that in 1975 a covert commission was set up within the Congregation to encourage the Roman Curia to restrict episcopal governance of liturgical matters. Ibid., p. 149.
37 See: Bugnini, The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975, xxviii. Marini, A Challenging Reform: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal, 1963-1975, pp. 148-157.
38 A Challenging Reform: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal, 1963-1975, p. 159.
39 Founded in 1963, it served 11 English-speaking bishops’ conferences and was associated with fifteen others. See: http://www.icelweb.org/whatis.htm.
40 Marini, A Challenging Reform: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal, 1963-1975, p. 157.
41 Faggioli, Massimo, True Reform: Liturgy and Ecclesiology in Sacrosanctum Concilium (Collegeville, Mn.: Liturgical Press, 2012), p. 7Google Scholar.
42 See: Baldovin, John F., Reforming the Liturgy: A Response to the Critics (Collegeville, Mn.: Liturgical Press, 2008)Google Scholar.
43 Formerly Archbishop of Valparaiso, Chile. For comment see: Taylor, Maurice, Being a Bishop in Scotland (Dublin: Columba Press, 2006), pp. 133-138Google Scholar.
44 For context, see: Wilkins, John, “Lost in Translation: The Bishops, Vatican II and the English Liturgy,” Commonweal, 2 December, 2005, pp. 12-20Google Scholar.
45 They wrote to Paul VI in 1972 expressing concerns about the quality of translations into major European languages See: Allen, John L., “The Counter-Revolution,” The Tablet, 1.12.2002, pp. 8-9Google Scholar.
46 Problems were noted by bishops with the hastily prepared 1973 translation. A new translation was begun by ICEL in the early 1980s. See: Page, John R., “The Process of Revision of the Sacramentary, 1981-98,” in Liturgy for the New Millennium: A Commentary on the Revised Sacramentary, ed. Francis, Mark R. and Pecklers, Keith F. (Collegeville, Mn.: Liturgical Press, 2000), pp. 1-16Google Scholar.
47 Liturgical reform in Australia, Canada, England and Wales, Ireland and the USA is reported in: “Sacrosanctum concilium at Fifty: Reports from Five English-Speaking Countries,” Worship 87, no. 6 (2013), pp. 482-516.
48 With the agreement of its constituent episcopal conferences, ICEL arranged a simple method for the translation, consideration and approval of texts. See: Taylor, Being a Bishop in Scotland, pp. 131-132. For a discussion of earlier problems encountered by ICEL with the Congregation see: Liturgy 90, August/September (1994). The chair of the episcopal board of ICEL, Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, discussed questions raised by the Congregation, with a view to opening an informed conversation about translation for Latin into English, a process misinformed by a vocal minority who reported their concerns directly to Rome.
49 Pope John Paul II Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus, 28 June 1988. See: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_19880628_pastor-bonus_en.html. Later that year John Paul II's Apostolic Letter Vicesimus quintus annus (1988) marked the 25th anniversary of Sacrosanctum concilium with an evaluation of liturgical renewal.
50 Bishop of Galloway, Scotland (1981-2004) and chair of ICEL (1997-2002). See: http://www.bishopmauricetaylor.org.uk/ for bibliographical information.
51 Taylor, It's the Eucharist, Thank God, p. 51.
52 ICEL was also to cease contact with non-Catholic Church communities with whom it had built close connections, and who used Catholic texts to revitalise their liturgies. The CDW's prohibition also ran contrary to the instructions of ICEL's founding conferences and greatly disappointed non-Catholics and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity alike. Ibid., p. 53.
53 Ibid.
54 For a sense of ICEL's work at this time see: Seasoltz, R. Kevin, “Its the Eucharist, Thank God,” Worship 85 (2011), pp. 244-256Google Scholar.
55 Letter dated 26 October, 1999 from Cardinal Medina, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship to Bishop Maurice Taylor, Chair, ICEL in: Taylor, It's the Eucharist, Thank God, p. 50.
56 ‘Juridical Persons’ are dealt with in canons 113 to 123: “The Code of Canon Law: In English Translation,” (London: Collins, 1983), pp. 17-19. See canons 113-118.
57 Article 65 states: ‘The Congregation fosters commissions or institutes for promoting the liturgical apostolate or sacred music, song or art, and it maintains relations with them. In accordance with the law, it erects associations which have an international character or approves or grants the recognitio to their statutes. Finally, it contributes to the progress of liturgical life by encouraging meetings from various regions.’ A narrow reading might allow the Congregation to understand itself as responsible for ICEL.
58 Taylor, It's the Eucharist, Thank God, p. 59.
59 Canon 459: §1 ‘Relations are to be fostered between Episcopal Conferences, especially neighbouring ones, in order to promote and defend whatever is for the greater good. §2 The Apostolic See must be consulted whenever actions or affairs undertaken by Conferences have an international character.’ “The Code of Canon Law: In English Translation,” p. 82.
60 It's the Eucharist, Thank God, p. 59.
61 See: Origins 23 (1994): pp. 745-756.
62 This process was underpinned by the motu proprio of John Paul II, Ad Apostolos Suos (1998), which required of bishops’ conferences a unanimous vote on doctrinal matters. If unanimity was not achieved, the matter was referred to Rome for approval or disapproval.
63 Published by the CDWDS on 28 March 2001; subtitled: Fifth Instruction ‘For the Right Implementation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council’ (Sacrosanctum Concilium, art. 36). While dealing with the use of vernacular languages, it was presented as the latest document concerned with the implementation of the Constitution. See: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20010507_liturgiam-authenticam_en.html.
64 There is no Latin version. The original French version was not published in Acta Apostolica Sedis. See: Notitiae 5 (1969), pp. 3-12. The Instruction is not found on the Vatican website. See: O'Brien, Documents on the Liturgy, 1963-1979: Conciliar, Papal, and Curial Texts, pp. 284-291. Comme le prévoit was supported by Paul VI, who thought it fit for purpose. When Gy questioned the Instruction, an Italian liturgist showed him the text on which Paul VI had made handwritten comments. The final comment read: ‘It is slightly too long, but it is really fitting.’ Gy, The Reception of Vatican II Liturgical Reforms in the Life of the Church, p. 18. See also: Bugnini, The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975, pp. 236-237.
65 Taylor, Being a Bishop in Scotland, p. 135.
66 With 133 paragraphs and 86 footnotes. Comme le prévoit has 43 paragraphs and no footnotes.
67 Whelan, “Liturgy Reform Since Vatican II: The Role Played by Bishops in the English-Speaking World,” p. 105. See also Whelan, 's article: “Translating the Roman Missal. 1. Translation and Participation,” The Pastoral Review 8, no. 5 (2012), pp. 30-35Google Scholar.
68 Pilarczyk, Archbishop Daniel, “Liturgy, Law and Life,” Origins 31, no. 39 (2002), pp. 651-653Google Scholar.
69 Liturgical language was not to be slavishly literal, as demanded by Liturgicam authenticam, but should enable a local community ‘to make their own living prayer of the prayer texts so translated.’ Kunzler, Michael, The Church's Liturgy, AMATECA Handbooks of Catholic Theology (London/New York: Continuum, 2001), p. 110CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
70 Liturgicam authenticam stated that the CDWDS will prepare a ratio translationis after consulting with bishops. It will explain in detail ‘the principles of translation found in this Instruction’ (LA 9). For a copy of the ratio translationis see: http://www.bible-researcher.com/ratio-translationis.html. Vox Clara comprises bishops from English speaking episcopal conferences and was established on July 19, 2001, to advise the CDWDS.
71 Taylor, It's the Eucharist, Thank God, p. 67.
74 Magnum principium. Emphasis original.
77 Taylor, Being a Bishop in Scotland, pp. 137-138.
78 Ibid., p. 137.
79 It's the Eucharist, Thank God, p. 70.
80 ‘John Paul II, […] set about changing the Church by appointing men as bishops who had replaced pastoral compassion with unthinking obsession with orthodoxy that was a thin cover for soaring ambition and lust for power.’ Doyle, Thomas, “Thirty Years: What We've Learned and What I've Learned,” in Annual SNAP Conference: Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Washington D.C. 2013), p. 2Google Scholar.
81 For example, his address to the Italian Episcopal Conference on 16 May 2016: https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2016/may/documents/papa-francesco_20160516_cei.html
82 See: O'Loughlin, Thomas, The Rites and Wrongs of Liturgy: Why Good Liturgy Matters (Collegeville, Mn: Liturgical Press, 2018), pp. 61-62Google Scholar. See also: Gadie, Paul, ‘Pope John XXIII, Conciliar and Contemporary Episcopal Pastoral Governance’, New Blackfriars (forthcoming)Google Scholar.