A Non-Denial Denial

Last Saturday I put up a post on some potential liturgical reform that may be in the wind. (Is That The Gnashing of Teeth by Liturgical Abusers I Hear?) Since then the Vatican Press Office has responded to that report. It is interesting to see what is & isn't said in the article. The key words in the statement are: "so far there are no institutional proposals". So far. In his look at it (New liturgical provisions? Maybe not. ), Fr. Z makes the point about the fact that the key word is "institutional". In other words, no official changes were proposed. That leaves everything wide open to some future official proposals.

Meanwhile, a careful reading of the 1st article makes it clear that nothing official was proposed. What it seems to me is that the whole thing was a call by the Congregation to work to put an end to liturgical abuses. That is clear by what is quoted from the original article at the end of this 1.

In fact if you go back & read the original article, you will see that it made things very clear that Pope Benedict wasn't poised to do anything. It says: "nota bene: for the accomplishment of the "reform of the reform", many years will be necessary. The Pope is convinced that hasty steps, as well as to simply drop directives from above, serve no good, with the risk that they may later remain a dead letter. The style of Ratzinger is that of comparison and, above all, of example." That doesn't exactly sound like he is poised for a sudden attack as the article makes it sound.

What it sounds like to me is that the Congreagation sent him a list of what they see as the biggest concerns & that the encouraged the Pope to continue to work toward the reform in a way that will be in keeping with his style.

So why the non-denial denial????

Vatican denies liturgical reforms being formalized

Vatican City, Aug 24, 2009 / 05:24 pm (CNA).- The Press Office of the Holy See today denied reports in the Italian press that Pope Benedict is poised to make changes to enhance the sacredness of the liturgy. The statement added that there are currently no institutional proposals to alter the rites being used to celebrate the Mass.
The Assistant Director of the Press Office, Father Ciro Benedettini, said that "so far there are no institutional proposals for amendment of the books currently in use."
Fr. Benedettini made the statement after the Vatican watcher Andrea Tornielli wrote that the bishops who comprise the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments had voted on March 12 to recommend a series of liturgical reforms to the Pope.
Tornielli wrote that the bishops of the Congregation voted almost unanimously to “restore greater sacredness to the rite, to recover the meaning of Eucharistic adoration, to restore Latin in the celebration and to revamp the introductory parts of the Missal to put an end to abuses, experimentation and inappropriate creativity.” The bishops also reportedly voted to reaffirm that the norm for receiving Holy Communion is on the tongue and not the hand. However, noted Tornielli, some bishops’ conferences have received an indult from Rome to allow the reception of the Eucharist on the hand.