Theologian hits back at Pope Benedict on liturgy

The modern liturgy which "darkens" God, was criticized the emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. recently. This is contradicted by Albert Gerhards, a Bonn theologian (Cathcon: and priest!) who recognises a pattern in this criticism.

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The criticism of the emeritus Pope Benedict XVI about modern liturgy has encountered a contradiction from Albert Gerhards, the liturgical expert. But Benedict was right to criticise "wrongly prepared worship services", but he was "throwing into the same pot" the liturgical form itself, Gerhards said on Monday on Cologne Cathedral RDIO. He had already done this in the 1960s. Even then, the later pope had resisted certain innovations. "If dance was used in worship and new spiritual songs, then he always reverted to this formula," the theologian said.

An "either-or-thinking"

Benedict XVI has in this respect an "either-or-thinking," said Gerhards. "Either liturgy is either a matter of cult or a degeneration into communication." However, the Second Vatican Council (1962 - 1965) and the later liturgical form would have just presented a "third way, saying that worship is a divine-human exchange, which on its own has the divine presupposition, but also on the other side wants to involve people with all their creative possibilities and abilities ". In his liturgical theology, the (emeritus) Pope "is not really balanced".

In a foreword to the Russian edition of his works on the liturgy, the former pope had complained about a "darkening" of God in the liturgy. This is the real cause of the crisis in the Church. In a widespread misunderstanding of the liturgical form, the emphasis was placed on the teaching as well as on one's own activity and creativity. But if the primacy of God is no longer evident in the liturgy and in life, the Church is in danger, according to the 90-year-old. Benedict XVI was the head of the Catholic Church until 2013.