{"id":15058,"date":"2020-03-29T13:08:30","date_gmt":"2020-03-29T11:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cittadellaeditrice.com\/munera\/?p=15058"},"modified":"2020-04-05T16:56:01","modified_gmt":"2020-04-05T14:56:01","slug":"open-letter-on-the-state-of-liturgical-exception-english-version","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cittadellaeditrice.com\/munera\/open-letter-on-the-state-of-liturgical-exception-english-version\/","title":{"rendered":"Open letter on the “state of liturgical exception” (english version)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"letteraperta\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Open letter on the \u201cstate of liturgical exception\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

To all theologians,<\/p>\n

scholars, and<\/p>\n

students of theology<\/p>\n

The great liturgical tradition, which has always accompanied and supported the Church in her history of grace and sin, hears the groaning of individuals and nations in this pandemic crisis, which brings suffering and affliction to those who are sick, and fear, isolation and loneliness to everyone else.\u00a0 The ordinary rhythm of the Lenten and Paschal journey is altered and subverted, in solidarity with our common suffering. We would never have thought, however, that a small but not marginal suffering would also come at the same time throughthe exercise of ecclesial authority and through the decrees\u00a0Quo magis\u00a0e Cum sanctissima<\/i>,\u00a0<\/i>which the Congregation\u00a0for the Doctrine of the Faith published on 25 March 2020.<\/p>\n

It is no surprise that This Congregation should devote its attention to the liturgy. But special and singular is the fact that it modifies the ordines<\/i>, <\/i>introduces\u00a0prefaces and formularies for feasts, and modifies calendars and criteria of precedence. And it does this on a 1962 missal. How is this possible? The Congregation, as is known, in this case moves in the space of an exceptional authority, which dates back 13 years, in accordance with motu proprio\u00a0Summorum pontificum. <\/i>But since time is greater than space, what is possible on the regulatory level is not always appropriate. Therefore, it is crucial to engage in critical reflection on the logic of this development.<\/p>\n

Time, in fact, has unveiled to us the paradox of a competence on the liturgy being taken away from the Bishops and the Congregation of Worship: this was arranged, in Summorum pontificum<\/i>, <\/i>with\u00a0an intention of solemn pacification and generous reconciliation, but soon it changed into a serious division, a widespread conflict, and became the symbol of a \u201cliturgical rejection\u201d of the Second Vatican Council. The greatest distortion of the initial intentions of the motu proprio can be seen today in those diocesan seminaries where it is expected that the future ministers will be trained at the same time in two different rites: the conciliar rite and the one that denies it. All this reached its most surreal point the day before yesterday, when the two Decrees were released. They mark the culmination of a distortion which is no longer tolerable, and which can be summed up as follows:<\/p>\n

– the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith acts as a substitute in exercising\u00a0competences conferred by the Second Vatican Council on Bishops and the Congregation for Divine Worship;<\/i><\/p>\n

– it undertakes to elaborate\u00a0\u201c<\/i>liturgical variants\u201d <\/i>of the ordines<\/i>\u00a0without having the historical, textual, philological and pastoral competences;<\/p>\n

–\u00a0<\/i>it seems to ignore, precisely on the dogmatic level, <\/i> a grave conflict between the\u00a0lex orandi<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>and the lex<\/i>\u00a0credendi<\/i>, since it is inevitable that a dual, conflictual ritual form will lead to a significant division in the faith;<\/p>\n

– it seems to\u00a0underestimate the disruptive effect<\/i>\u00a0this \u201cexception\u201d will have on the ecclesial level, by immunizing a part of the community from the \u201cschool of prayer\u201d that the Second Vatican Council and the liturgical reform have providentially given to the common ecclesial journey.<\/p>\n

A \u201cstate of exception\u201d is also happening today on the civil level, in its harsh necessity, and this fact allows us greater ecclesial foresight. To return to an ecclesial normality, we must overcome the state of liturgical exception established 13 years ago in another world, with other conditions and with other hopes, by\u00a0Summorum\u00a0pontificum. <\/i>It no longer makes sense to deprive diocesan bishops of their liturgical powers; neither does it make sense\u00a0to have an Ecclesia Dei<\/i> Commission\u00a0<\/i>(which\u00a0has\u00a0<\/b>in fact\u00a0already been suppressed), or a Section of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which take away authority from diocesan Bishops and the Congregation of Divine Worship; it no longer makes sense to enact decrees to \u201creform\u201d a rite that is closed in the historical past, inert and crystallized, lifeless and without vigor. There can be no resuscitation for it. The double regime is over; the noble intention of SP has waned; the Lefebvrians have raised the barhigher and higher and then run away, insulting the Second Vatican Council and the present pope along with all three of his predecessors. Continuing\u00a0to nourish a \u201cstate of liturgical exception\u201d \u2013 one that was born to unite, but does nothing but divide \u2013 only leads to the shattering, privatization, and distortion of the worship of the Church. On the basis of these considerations, we resolve together to request that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith immediately withdraw the two decrees of 25\/03\/2020 and restore all powers concerning the liturgy to the diocesan Bishops and the Congregation for Divine Worship<\/b>. Obviously, we ask this without prejudice to the powers that this Congregation retains in doctrinal matters.<\/p>\n

So let us\u00a0leave the \u201cstate of liturgical exception\u201d. If not now, when?<\/p>\n

With best wishes to all colleagues and students, besieged but not conquered in life, during these bitter yet still generous times.<\/p>\n

Andrea Grillo<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Open letter on the \u201cstate of liturgical exception\u201d To all theologians, scholars, and students of theology The great liturgical tradition, which has always accompanied and supported the Church in her history of grace and sin,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cittadellaeditrice.com\/munera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15058"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cittadellaeditrice.com\/munera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cittadellaeditrice.com\/munera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cittadellaeditrice.com\/munera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cittadellaeditrice.com\/munera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15058"}],"version-history":[{"count":47,"href":"https:\/\/www.cittadellaeditrice.com\/munera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15174,"href":"https:\/\/www.cittadellaeditrice.com\/munera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15058\/revisions\/15174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cittadellaeditrice.com\/munera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cittadellaeditrice.com\/munera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cittadellaeditrice.com\/munera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}