Folia Theologica 20. (2009)
Caban Peter: Features and new impulses of the Pope Benedict XVI in the area of liturgy
FEATURES AND NEW IMPULSES... 45 2. Exhortation Sacramentum caritatis On the feast of the Chair of St. Peter (February 22nd, 2007)2 Pope Benedict XVI issued the postsynodal apostolic exhortation titled Sacramentum caritatis3 - On Eucharist - source and climax of the life and mission of the Church. This new exhortation brings many dogmatic as well practical liturgical and pastoral directions for the believers of the Church. It emphasizes that it is necessary to live Eucharist as the mystery of the faith. The liturgy should be celebrated authentically with clear understanding that intellectus fidei is related to liturgical actions of the Church since the beginning. We see here that the teaching of Benedict XVI on indivisible unity of the confessed faith, liturgical actions and new spiritual cult is the expansion of the Constitution of the Second Vatican Council Sacrosanctum concilium which says that "every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of His Body which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others; no other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree."4 The teaching of Benedict XVI is the example of acceptance of the Council documents in the spirit of hermeneutical continuity and the Pope referred to it as the necessary key for the understanding and acceptance of the Second Vatican council.5 Benedict XVI confirmed that difficulties a many violations of liturgical precepts cannot overshadow 2 It was published on March 13,h, 2007. 3 As the title for this exhortation the Pope chose the term which was used by St. Thomas Aquinas for Christ in bread and wine: Sacramentum caritatis - The Sacrament of Love. 4 Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum concilium n. 7. 5 In this place we can clearly confirm that the document is the continuation of the Council reform in the area of liturgy and it confirms its validity. It was confirmed by the Cardinal Angelo Scola, the patriarch of Venice who presented this document to journalists. To their question regarding the return of the missal of Pius V which was used in the liturgy for four centuries until the Second Vatican Council the cardinal replied that the key for the using of this missal stands on the fact that motives of the division in the Church should not be proposed. He explained that it would be a contradiction in terms if the liturgical acts would become the beginning of the division in the Church. DUBINA, ]., Zamyslenie nad posynodálnou apostolskou exhortáciou Svütého Otca Benedikta XVI. SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS, http://www.knazi.sk/liturgia /litvysvetold.php March 13lh, 2008.
