Liturgical reform is ‘irreversible,’ Pope proclaims

August 24, 2017

Pope Francis told an Italian audience on August 24 that “we can assert with certainty and magisterial authority that the liturgical reform is irreversible.”

Speaking at Italy’s National Liturgical Week, the Pope delivered a major address on the liturgy, insisting that the reforms prompted by Vatican II cannot be undone. He said that the challenge for the Church lies not in “rethinking the reforms by reviewing choices, but in knowing better the underlying reasons” for the liturgical changes.

The reforms mandated by the Council in Sacrosanctum Concilium were not a sudden development, the Pope said; they were the product of years of preparation. He said that the movement toward liturgical reform began with Pope Pius X and continued with Pope Pius XII. The reforms suggested by the Council, he said, “respond to real needs and to the concrete hopes of a renewal.”

Citing the words of Pope Paul VI, Pope Francis said that proper implementation of the Vatican II changes requires not merely changing rubrics but changing minds, helping the faithful better to understand active participation. He said that implementation “requires time, faithful reception, practical obedience, wise implementation.”

Although he did not speak in detail about liturgical guidelines, the Pope said that the reformed liturgy must have three characteristics:

• It is a living liturgy, with Christ at its center;
• It is an action of the people, popular rather than clerical; and
• It is “a bearer of life,” transforming the faithful, rather than a set of ideas.

Before closing his address, Pope Francis acknowledged that although the Roman liturgy is most common in the Church, it is not the only Catholic ritual. “The harmony of the ritual traditions, of the East and of the West,” enriches the Church’s celebration, he said.

 

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Further information:

• Pope Francis: Liturgical reform is irreversible (Vatican Radio)
• Pope invokes ‘magisterial authority’ to declare liturgy changes ‘irreversible’ (Crux)