{"id":16832,"date":"2012-11-12T19:04:22","date_gmt":"2012-11-13T01:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=16832"},"modified":"2012-11-12T19:07:38","modified_gmt":"2012-11-13T01:07:38","slug":"the-crazy-thoughts-of-one-catholic-bishop-50-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2012\/11\/12\/the-crazy-thoughts-of-one-catholic-bishop-50-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"The innovative thoughts of one Catholic bishop, 50 years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you know about the interesting website Vatican II: 50 Years Ago Today<\/em><\/a>?<\/p>\n

This past week the website reported on the idea of a German missionary bishop<\/a> 50 years ago to create a new \u201cecumenical Mass\u201d based as much as possible on the words of Christ from Scripture, with as little as possible of words written by men. The idea was that Protestants could be invited to this new Mass.<\/p>\n

After all, rites are man-made, the bishop argued.<\/p>\n

Unity in belief hardly seemed possible to the bishop. But liturgy? \u201cThere can be unity in the sphere of worship,\u201d he thought.<\/p>\n

Mind-blowing, no?<\/p>\n

Catholic bishops, fathers of Vatican II, actually thought thoughts like this, and said things like this, in the very first days of the Council.<\/p>\n

Hermeneutic of continuity? Not so much. Organic development of the liturgy? Hardly. Intercommunion\u2026why not? Invent a new liturgy from scratch? Sure. The sky\u2019s the limit.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m not by any means advocating for the bishop\u2019s wild plan, and of course it isn\u2019t what later came to pass under Paul VI. Even the good bishop allowed that he was speaking only as a pastor, not as a liturgical expert.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the point: such thoughts were on the table, back then.<\/p>\n

A new spirit was afoot. Innovation was the idea. All manner of new things were thought possible.<\/p>\n

Good to keep that in mind whenever we hear about the \u201chermeneutic of continuity\u201d these days, the supposed key to understanding the real Council, before it was supposedly hijacked by liberals infected with the supposed \u201cspirit of the 60s\u201d after the Council.<\/p>\n

Even Pope Benedict XVI allows for rupture within a greater continuity, and speaks of especially of a \u201chermeneutic of reform,\u201d before he goes on to emphasize mostly the continuity part. Some of his most zealous followers lack even this minimal nuance.<\/p>\n

Reports like this one about the German missionary bishop show that the real history of Vatican II is rather complicated. There are a variety of ways to interpret the council – including giving emphasis to the spirit of innovation that was afoot among the Council fathers.<\/p>\n

awr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hermeneutic of continuity? Not so much. Organic development of the liturgy? Hardly. Intercommunion\u2026why not? Invent a new liturgy from scratch? Sure. The sky\u2019s the limit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vatican-ii"],"yoast_head":"\nThe innovative thoughts of one Catholic bishop, 50 years ago - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2012\/11\/12\/the-crazy-thoughts-of-one-catholic-bishop-50-years-ago\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The innovative thoughts of one Catholic bishop, 50 years ago - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hermeneutic of continuity? 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