Folia Theologica et Canonica 10. 32/24 (2021)

Ius canonicum

EXEGESIS ON MOTU PROPRIO SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM BY BENEDICT XVI 131

In my opinion, he cleverly establishes that the “liturgical criterion” concerning the fact that the 1962 Missal has never been abrogated, should be maintained (.SP art. 1 §2), and in fact, he resolves the ecclesiastical fact that “at the time of the introduction of the new Missal, it did not seem necessary to issue specific norms for the possible use of the earlier Missal” (GF paragraph 4).

In this last quote from SP, the term “abrogation” is used in a strictly canonical sense, and that is why GF explains that it “was never juridical abrogated and, consequently, in principle, was always permitted” (paragraph 4). In our times there is no room for thought on the functionality of canon law disjointed from ecclesiological views, for the Second Vatican Council’s Decree Optatam totius said that “the teaching of canon law and of Church history should take into account the mystery of the Church” (n. 16). And that is why SP correctly springs from a theological standpoint that is ecclesiological in nature, and linked to the hermeneutical principle of ecclesial renewal in continuity.

VII. The Historic Perennial Nature of the Sacred Rites

The only sentence taken from GF and repeated in UE, which evokes other very similar ones by Joseph Ratzinger, insists on the obvious: “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful” (UE n. 7). In the light of the great converts of our times, for example B. J. H. Newman (1801-1890), one can ask oneself how the Catholic Church could maintain its credibility in the face of the separated brethren, if a Missal, with which the People of God have been sanctified for centuries, were suddenly to be banned from one day to the next. Even the very question demonstrates the absurdity of this consideration.

On the other hand, the fear of some well-intentioned people is unsubstantiated, especially that of the reformed Churches, who tend to see the retrieval of the 1962 Missal as an anti-ecumenical exaltation, as since SP has been current, perhaps more ecumenical bridges have in fact been put in place than were with the numerous other previous attempts. What is more, its innovative ideas on the unity of the Roman Rite have in fact pushed the forces towards a full communion with the Orthodox Churches, whose reactions to SP have been highly positive. This novel approach in SP signifies in fact a Copemican twist in the treatment of the common liturgical theme, especially if one compares it with the more usual attitudes present in the years directly after the promulgation of St. Paul Vi’s Missal.

At that time, due to the historical attachment of the English and Welsh Catholics to the Roman Missal in Latin, in opposition to the official Anglican Liturgy, a rescript from the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship granted