Folia Theologica et Canonica 10. 32/24 (2021)
Ius canonicum
134 ALBERTO SORIA JIMENEZ, OSB of the Church”.27 This is why the UE instruction was given to ensure its application. In summary, there are absolutely no grounds to assert that SP is the confirmation of the fact that St. Paul VI proposed his Roman Missal as an alternative to the 1962 Roman Missal, or of criticising his conciliar roots or indeed the liturgical reform in general, to the extreme of contemplating the prohibition of St. Paul Vi’s nearly fifty-year-old Roman Missal in order to re-establish the 1962 Roman Missal. The convergence of liturgies is the theologically correct solution, and not its alternative, as stated in SP. Conclusion: A Just and Theologically Correct Solution A clear conclusion emerges from all that has been said; the promulgation of SP by Benedict XVI was a just decision, though bold, considered as “going against the flow” in a fair number of ecclesiastical areas, but nevertheless theologically correct. The Pope is not obliging any priest to celebrate with the typical edition of the 1962 Roman Missal, nor in Latin, nor with his back to the congregation. For this reason, the over-reaction of some learned people who have commented on SP with little accuracy and even less theological fundament, confirm that Benedict XVI’s concerns about the issues raised were not unfounded or unreal in any way. It is possible that a large proportion of the People of God, including bishops and priests, may not reach to understand the more profound reasons for this pontifical decision; unfortunately, too many people base their opinions on superficial and biased “news titles”, which circulate throughout communication networks. But the distance between those media attractive clichés, and the wisdom of those who love the Sacra Liturgia without prejudice towards any of its multiple pious expressions is vast. Who knows what the future will bring us? There is no reason why we may not think that SP could eventually become the initial piece in a reform of the reform, or even be the first step towards a new liturgical movement of spiritual renewal of Christian life. Cardinal Koch, at least, has appraised the promulgation of SP in this way: “The motu proprio constitutes only the beginning of this new liturgical movement. As a matter of fact, Benedict XVI well knows that in the long term, we cannot remain in a co-existence of the ordinary form and the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, for in the future the Church will once more need there 27 Pozzo, G., L'Istruzione Universes Ecclesice nella prospettiva aperta dal Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, in Communicationes 43 (2011) 204.
