The Tablet asked me to write a short blog post for them analyzing what the new circular letter on the Ritual Expression of the Gift of Peace at Mass might be telling us about Pope Francis’ impact on the Congregation for Divine Worship. My post at The Tablet is a follow up to my post here at Pray Tell on the circular letter.
Mark Francis also wrote a post titled “Sealed with a Handshake” for The Tablet on the circular letter. Unfortunately, you have to log-in to read his article.
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Mark Francis’s article in today’s issue is excellent!
It poses a little problem to think that when social justice issues are raised in a document then it has Pope Francis’ backing as though these concerns have not being in earlier documents and papacies or he is purely interested in social concerns while disinterested in liturgical or doctrinal statements on discipline. At the end we are not even being fair to the person we think we are speaking well of. The more fundamental problem is our view of the Vatican with utmost suspicion and distrust, amenable to secular politics and our reading and/or analysis of public policy. Too much expectation from the Pope as though changes are purely prone to his personal taste is a disservice to him.
The fact of the document not mentioning its official publication is not unexpected, rarely does or should it mentioned that except few published ‘in forma specifica’ – so no question of fanfare or not. The place to know this is to check the official Acta ‘AAS’ as publishing something on the Vatican website can serve same purpose as L’Osservatore Romano.
This was also a topic of discussion on Corpus Christi Watershed, with a headline that was, I’m sure, dismaying to every “progressive liturgist” – including Fr. Anthony Ruff, who is singled out in the footnote:
http://www.ccwatershed.org/blog/2014/aug/18/pope-francis-changes-catholic-liturgy/
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