More revelations are emerging about Pope Benedict XVI’s opposition to Traditiones Custodes, with extracts from Georg Ganswein’s memoir being published across the web.
The Messa In Latino blog today published new passages which show the depths of Benedict’s unease with the suppression.
One of the passages states that Benedict felt that the suppression of Masses in Parish Churches was particularly counter productive:
on a personal level, he found a decisive change of course and considered it a mistake, since it jeopardized the attempt at pacification that had been made fourteen years earlier. Benedict in particular considered it wrong to prohibit the celebration of Mass in the ancient rite in parish churches, since it is always dangerous to put a group of faithful in a corner, so as to make them feel persecuted and to inspire in them the feeling of having to safeguard their own identity at all costs in the face of the 'enemy'
Ganswein also states that Benedict XVI was baffled by Pope Francis’s claim that the document reflected the former’s true desires:
As an expert on Vatican II, Benedict remembered well how the Council had instead insisted that "the use of the Latin language, except for particular rights, should be preserved in the Latin rites" (Sacrosanctum Concilium 36) and that all seminarians should acquire "that knowledge of the Latin language which is necessary for understanding and using the sources of so many sciences and the documents of the Church"
He continued:
"As is evident in his writings, particularly The Feast of Faith (1984) and Introduction to the Spirit of the Liturgy (2000), the theologian Ratzinger in the early days was in favor regarding liturgical reform: this theme was always among his favorites, since he considered it fundamental to the Catholic faith, and it was not by chance that he wanted the first publication of his Opera omnia to be the one dedicated to the liturgy, even though in the project plan it was the eleventh volume. However, seeing the subsequent developments of that reform, he became aware of the differences between what Vatican II wanted and what was instead done by the Commission for the realization of Sacrosanctum Concilium, [...] Founding himself on this awareness, with Summorum Pontificum he wanted to make it easier for a priest to celebrate with the ancient rite, overcoming the need for reference to the diocesan bishop and granting competence to the "Ecclesia Dei" Commission. It always remained clear to him, however, that there was only one rite, albeit with the co-presence of the ordinary and the extraordinary. His only motivation was the desire to repair the great wound that had gradually been created, whether voluntarily or involuntarily."
He goes on to say that Benedict XVI, like all of us, was baffled at the divination like interpretation of the surveys sent to bishops:
"It remained mysterious even for Benedict why the results of the consultation of the bishops done by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which would have allowed for a more precise understanding of every implication of Pope Francis' decision, were not disclosed. Similarly, it proved surprising, for all the work of analysis and in-depth study done beforehand, the transfer and splitting of competence on the issue from the Doctrine of the Faith to the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and to that for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life."
The article also states that he only found out about Francis’s document when he read the newspaper.
Read the full post: