Warning! Cardinal Roche goes to Paris to talk about liturgical utopia

Cardinal Roche is coming to Paris next week for "the liturgical and sacramental pastoral days of the commissions for liturgical music and sacred art [...] associated with a national initiative on integral ecology".

Disliked by his fellow bishops.  His successor found chaos in Leeds.

This English prelate is the Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in other words the Roman expert on the liturgy. He is therefore responsible for the "regulation and promotion of the sacred liturgy, and first of all of the sacraments". (Pastor Bonus §62). This should be of interest to traditionalist Catholics, who are attached, among other things, to the liturgical heritage of our forefathers.

His visit is an opportunity to remind us of his leading role in the latest restrictions imposed by Rome on the Tridentine Mass.

The motu proprio Traditionis custodes, aimed at restricting the celebration of the Mass of St Pius V as much as possible, was followed by dubia due to the many alarms raised by traditional communities.

The response to these dubia was largely given by the Cardinal, and confirmed in every respect the severity of the Motu Proprio. In short, the use of parish churches, and the creation of personal parishes, using the 1962 missal, can only be done with special permission from the Holy See.

The hostility of this cardinal towards tradition is certainly regrettable, but it is not at all surprising, when one knows that he declared in an interview on the BBC "the theology of the Church has changed. Whereas before, the Priest represented, from a distance, all the people - they were somehow channelled through this person who alone celebrated Mass. It is not only the Priest who celebrates the liturgy, but also the baptised. And that's a huge statement to make."

So the theology of the Church would have changed. And this would apply in particular to the use of the missal (which no longer exists in the Paul VI Mass). Perhaps the Cardinal is unaware of the declaration of his most eminent predecessor in Rome, Pope St. Pius V: "That no one will ever be able to compel or force them to leave this Missal or to abrogate the present instruction or to modify it, but that it will always remain in force and valid, in all its force." 

It is therefore astonishing that the Cardinal should use so much energy to go against the teaching of our holy Popes. Let us pray for him and for peace in the Church.

Source

The Programme

At the invitation of Mgr Guy de Kérimel, Archbishop of Toulouse and President of the Council for Liturgy and Sacramental Ministry,

The national days of the SNPLS 2023 will bring together all the diocesan actors of the liturgical and sacramental pastoral, the commissions of liturgical music and sacred art, and the actors of formation of the dioceses of France.

As Pope Francis reminds us in his letter Desiderio desideravi, the liturgical celebration finds its source in Christ's desire to eat the Passover with us, to make us participate in his Paschal Mystery (n. 20). For this to happen, the liturgy requires a real spiritual "discipline" (R. Guardini) that regulates and orders the practices for the spiritual growth of believers and the building up of the Church.

Making Christ's invitation heard remains the primary responsibility of liturgical and sacramental ministry, through the various facets of the mission entrusted by the bishops. These national days are intended to offer those involved in liturgy and liturgical formation the opportunity to deepen the profound intuitions of Desiderio Desideravi in order to give them the means to renew their proposals for formation and spiritual accompaniment in the dioceses.

** Indicative programme (subject to change)

Wednesday 10 May 2023

8.30 am Welcome of participants

9.30 am Office of Lauds

10:00 Welcome and opening of the national days - Mgr Guy de Kerimel & Bernadette Mélois

Stage 1: Identifying the spiritual resources of liturgical life

10.30 am "The liturgy and its resources for a spiritual life

Introductory listening to witnesses

11.30 a.m. "Sacred Scripture, the living source of the liturgy" - Fr Jean-Claude Reichert

Sacred Scripture is proclaimed in the liturgical celebration and irrigates it with the dynamism it derives from Revelation. God speaks to his people, who respond in praise and thanksgiving. The aim will be to explore how it is a spiritual resource of the liturgy, because it gives it its form of traditio of faith.

12.30 Lunch on site

13.30 Workshops n°1 "Recognising the spiritual resources of the liturgy in our dioceses

Group exchange

2nd stage: Deepening formation "in and through the liturgy" DD 34

14.30 "A permanent initiation into the faith: being formed by liturgical action" - Br Isaïa Gazzola & Ms Nathalie Lockhart

Because the liturgy makes us return unceasingly to the source of faith, it is a concrete and permanent apprenticeship to "accustom ourselves to the divine ways" (St Irenaeus). Thus, it initiates us as a community to become the People of God, the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Spirit.

15.15 "Training for an inclusive liturgy: welcoming people with disabilities" - Fr Christophe Spérissen

The path of spiritual formation opened up by the liturgy unfolds according to all the facets of the believing person. Developing a liturgical proposal for an assembly that is attentive to people with disabilities designates new resources for formation through the liturgy.

16.00 Crossroads - Discovering current proposals for formation to and through the liturgy

17.30 Round table: "Forming in liturgy: new paths for today" - Moderated by Ms Sophie Gall

18.30 Eucharistic celebration presided over by the representative of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments

20:00 End of the 1st day

Thursday 11 May 2023

8:00 am Parish mass in the Church of Saint-Honoré-d'Eylau

8.30 am Opening of the doors

9.15 am Office of Lauds

Stage 3: Pastoral care for an "apprenticeship in the ars celebrandi" DD 50

10:00 am "Liturgical pastoral care at the time of Desiderio desideravi" - The Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments

Pope Francis' letter invites us to renew liturgical formation by involving all the actors concerned: ordained and lay ministers, liturgical actors, musicians and artists, seminary and religious institution formators, university and theological centres. This process will offer the opportunity to develop an "integral" liturgical and sacramental pastoral ministry: that is, one that associates celebrated faith, proclaimed faith and lived faith.

11.00 Group reaction and formulation of questions

11.30 "Promoting liturgy as the art of celebrating faith" - Mrs Bernadette Mélois & Fr Olivier Praud

Desiderio desideravi presents the ars celebrandi as the service of the spiritual growth of the believing community. Focusing on the conditions of the celebration invites us to go beyond the classical opposition between rubricalism and creativity in order to rediscover the dignity of the liturgical action as an act of faith.

Cathcon:  This is not going to work! Without rubrics determining the form of the Mass, liturgy has been destroyed by options.

12.30 Lunch on site

14.00 Questions and exchange with the participants by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments

14.30 p.m. "A pastoral approach to the liturgy for the new evangelisation" - Mgr Guy de Kerimel

Liturgy and mission are linked: one calls the other as source and summit. Each, in its own order, develops authentic ways of serving the proclamation of the faith in today's society.

15.00 Final synthesis - Fr Sébastien Guiziou

15.30 Concluding prayer and sending off

16.00hrs End