Vatican II brought liturgical renewal

DE PERE -- Liturgical renewal in the church has made great strides since Vatican II, despite some reversals in recent years, an internationally recognized liturgist said in a lecture at St. Norbert College.

Fr. Andrew Ciferni, O.Praem., said the problems were caused by the Vatican's withdrawal of its previously granted permissions for using certain liturgical translations, in changing its norms for translations and in rejecting translations.

These actions are an abuse of power, Fr. Ciferni said in a Heidgen chair lecture. The rejected translations, he said, had been approved by two-thirds of the U.S. bishops' conference and 11 conferences of bishops in English-speaking countries.

Why, he asked, was it right for "11 men to gather in a room, only one being a scripture scholar -- and for him, English was not his first language -- and sit down and muck with the entire translation of the lectionary for one country?"

Our rituals reflect our power systems, he said, through architecture, music, the shape of ministry, and language, including preaching.

"Images of God, Christ, the church through its members and ministers, shape and express a vision of church and are our expression of church," said Fr. Ciferni, a St. Norbert graduate, who holds a doctorate from the University of Notre Dame.

"The liturgy creates an environment or culture. The question is: Does it create an environment or culture of power or of service?" asked Fr. Ciferni, liturgist and rector of Daylesford Abbey Church at Paoli, Pa.

Fr. Ciferni said neither he nor the documents of Vatican II were calling for turning the church into a democracy. But it is important to listen to people, because people who are ignored find ways to put their views into practice. That, he said, has led to abuses on all sides.

"The church can be both hierarchical and collegial, magisterial and participatory," Fr. Ciferni said. "It can be both universal and culturally incarnated. It can be both Roman and national and ecumenical. It can be both a place of identity and a place of challenge. If it is not, it is not church or the church of the creed."

No matter what happens in the debate, Fr. Ciferni said, our challenge is still to build community through prayer and then in service to the world. The three basic elements of good worship are hospitality, preaching and music, and nothing Rome is doing prevents that, he said.

But, he continued, the church does stand to lose several things if present Vatican trends continue. These include the loss of the power of language, rite, space and music to transform people and their imagination to bring about peace, justice and reconciliation, and to increase spirituality.

There also have been ecumenical gains, he said. These include several churches using: the same biblical readings on Sundays, the Second Eucharistic Prayer, and the psalter which the Vatican first accepted, but then later rejected.

Fr. Ciferni suggested four possible ways Catholics might react to Vatican liturgical rulings. Of the four, he said, the following three are not the proper responses: actively promote disobedience to Vatican norms; "lay back and take it as it comes"; or pull back into small communities, each with its own rites.

The proper way to react, he said, is to work for a general reconciliation that would take into account the various views. He conceded that he does not know how to bring that about, but said it would require emphatic listening and consensus-building.