Monday, January 22, 2007

A couple of items from the Germans

Some Germans are the latest to add their voices to the hoped for Motu Proprio granting a freer use of the classical liturgy.

Speigel Online, an German news source, has a story on this. (If anyone is fluent in German and has the time to quickly translate this, please do. Online translation tools don't work well with German I find.)

As well, Philip Savage, who has been translating Martin Mosebach's writings into English, has been kind of enough to give to the NLM, exclusively, this English translation of Mosebach's Six Ulm Theses. It will no doubt stir up discussion and some debate.

Given the interest in Mr. Mosebach with the English language release of The Heresy of Formlessness, these sorts of writings, heretofore unknown in the English speaking world (so far as I know) provide additional context to understanding Mosebach's personal thoughts on the liturgical question, including the reforms which followed the Council.

These in particular are related to the post-conciliar reform as it happened, versus the mandate of the Council, and also issues pertaining to the liturgical principle of organic development.

You may click the link above to read the piece in its entirety. Here below is an excerpt from the very beginning of the piece:

Paul VI’s reform of the Mass following the Second Vatican Council represents a unique event in the history of the Church. Never before had the Church forbidden an old rite, never before had she, as Cardinal Ratzinger has stated, put a “fabricated rite” in the place of a traditional one. The defining rite of the Western Church prior to 1968 is in no measure “Tridentine”, i.e. the creation of the Council Of Trent, as many would erroneously have it, but can, in its essentials, be traced back to Gregory the Great. It was the rite of the Pope and the City of Rome....

(I would remind people that this is not an invitation to "trash" the Pauline liturgy. Discussing, constructively critiquing, and analyzing ought to be one's approach and response.)

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