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from issue no. 01 - 2004

LITURGY. An interview with the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship

Confession: a very useful thermometer


«One of the thermometers for measuring the vitality of Christian communities is attendance at the sacrament of confession, and it is very useful. It doesn't say everything, but it certainly says a lot». A meeting with Cardinal Francis Arinze on the 40th anniversary of the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium of the Vatican Council II


by Gianni Cardinale


On 3 December was made known the chirograph of John Paul II written for the centenary of the motu proprio Among concerns, on the renewal of sacred music, given out by Saint Pius X on 22 November 1903. A day later the apostolic letter of the Pope on the 40th anniversary of the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium on the sacred liturgy, was published, the first document promulgated by Vatican II on 4 December 1963. Then precisely on 4 December last a day of study was held in the Vatican, promoted by the Congregation for Divine Worship, to bring out the underlying themes of the liturgical renewal decided by the Council.
Cardinal Francis Arinze

Cardinal Francis Arinze

To discuss these events 30Days interviewed 71 year old Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, since October 2002 Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, after eighteen years (1967-1985) as archbishop of Onitsha and eighteen as President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue. Arinze, as auxiliary of Onitsha, also took part in the final session of Vatican II.
The starting point of the interview was the chirograph in which it was recalled that the importance of sacred music, as Pope Sarto wrote, derives from the fact that it, «as integral part of the solemn liturgy, shares the general goal, which is the glory of God and the sanctification and edification of the faithful». And it also refers to the opening words of Sacrosanctum Concilium, which states: «The sacred Council aims to increase Christian life among the faithful every day.

Your Eminence, the motu proprio Among concerns reminds us that the general goal of the liturgy is the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful, and the beginning of Sacrosanctum Concilium links liturgical renewal with the intention of making Christian life among believers increase ever more. Can that be the criterion for every reform of the Church: the growth of Christian life in the people of God?
FRANCIS ARINZE: Yes, in effect one can say that the diverse initiatives for renewal in the Church aim precisely at that: to praise God more and sanctify us ever more. And this second aspect is closely connected with the first: it is glory of God in fact when we are nearer to the Spirit of Jesus.
Obviously the “renewable”, “reformable” elements in the Church concern secondary aspects of its life…
ARINZE: I wouldn’t use the term secondary… It’s obvious in effect that the contents of the faith cannot change. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and always. That is certain. The depositum fidei cannot be touched. But it can be proposed in different ways, more fitting to the times in which we live. Just as the way of celebrating the divine mysteries of Christ can be modified. When Our Lord gave us the Holy Eucharist he did not establish that there be an introit, and then the collect, and then the first lesson and then the second lesson... Jesus did not descend into such details. It is the Holy Church that has developed all this in the course of history. And it’s normal that it be so. The Church is a living Body. The Holy Spirit, that Jesus promised to His Church, will be with His Church till the end of time. Therefore nobody should be surprised if the Church alters the form of worship, without however touching the contents of the faith. And that helps us all. Because some people are a little rigid, they decide on a date after which nothing can be changed. And that attitude reflects a faith less than full in the Church that Jesus founded, and to which he guaranteed the Holy Spirit till the end of time.
In the conference promoted by your Congregation it was stressed that the Sacrosanctum Concilium was approved almost unanimously by the Council Fathers …
ARINZE: Thanks be to God.
But immediately afterwards there was no lack of debate, even bitter, on its application…
ARINZE: I don’t believe that’s unusual. There are many things on which one can have different opinions. Two good people, two bishops, two cardinals, two professors can legitimately think in different manner on non-dogmatic questions. On principles, then, it’s less problematic being in agreement: the problems rise especially when one goes into details. In such cases humility, mental openness, desire to seek for what is best for the Church and for the people of God is required.
Cistercian monks in the choir of the abbey of Chiaravalle, Milan

Cistercian monks in the choir of the abbey of Chiaravalle, Milan

In the apostolic letter for the fortieth anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium the Pope states: «By not respecting the liturgical norms, sometimes even serious abuses arise, that dim the truth of the mystery and create perplexity and tensions in the people of God. Such abuses have nothing to do with the authentic spirit of the Council and are to be corrected by pastors with an attitude of prudent firmness». What are these “even serious abuses”?
ARINZE: I believe the great problems arise when somebody thinks that the most important thing is to invent something new in the liturgy. More so today when the liturgy is no longer rigid as it once was and the Missal itself offers legitimate variants. But where the Church has established fixed words it’s well that everyone have the humility to repeat them as they are, without abrogating the right to invent new ones as they like. However, the «more specific document, with scope of a legal nature» that the Pope asked for in paragraph 52 of his latest encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia is soon to be published on the issue.
In the same apostolic letter the Pope states: «Meantime a liturgical pastoralism matching up to full fidelity to the new ordines is required». Does that mean that there can be no room for those who want to follow the pre-conciliar rites, such as what is known as the mass of Saint Pius V?
ARINZE: The Holy Father wrote what you have quoted, but did not draw the consequences you draw in the second part of your question. The Pope simply wanted to say that it’s necessary to be faithful to the liturgical books as they were readjusted after Vatican Council II. That is, we need to know, study, try to understand and love, and finally apply these new liturgical books. But John Paul II himself founded the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” that has the task of examining the applications of priests and believers who want to celebrate the mass according to the so-called rite of Saint Pius V. Thus celebrating the mass according to the old Ordo is not forbidden. Indeed, the Holy Father himself asked the bishops to be generous in granting the indulgence that allows the celebration of the Tridentine mass in their dioceses. And there is no contradiction. The people of God is not an army of soldiers and the Pope is not its commander general. The Pope is the father of a family in which two fundamental rules are valid: the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
That said, the people who vaunt themselves on celebrating according to the old Missal alone and boast of not touching liturgical books later than 1962 are at least presumptuous. For them it’s as if the Church was fossilized as it was forty years ago. That won’t do. The Church that celebrated the Council of Trent is the same Church that celebrated Vatican II. In the profession of faith we recite in every mass we say: «I believe in the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church». And the Church in which we believe, as I’ve already said, is a living Body, it’s not a Vatican museum, it is not an ecclesiastical refrigerator…
John Paul II confessing a penitent

John Paul II confessing a penitent

In the same apostolic letter the Pope points out that the Sacrosanctum Concilium stirred «the Christian community to intensify the life of prayer not only through the liturgy, but also through “pious exercises”, provided they are performed in harmony with the liturgy, as if deriving from and leading to it». And makes explicit reference to the Rosary, «a traditional prayer, that has been widely accepted among the people of God». In fact in the post-conciliar period there have been attempts to devalue the forms of popular religiosity…
ARINZE: In effect after the last Council there were those who behaved as if popular piety was no longer to be encouraged. But Vatican II did not say that, it said the opposite. As demonstrated by the sentence from Sacrosanctum Concilium recalled in timely fashion by the Pope in his apostolic letter and quoted by you. Check paragraph 13 of Sacrosanctum Concilium. As for the holy Rosary one should not forget that many pontiffs have devoted at least one specific document to this traditional prayer. And John Paul II could be no less and indeed published the apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae to inaugurate the Year of the Rosary that he then closed with his pilgrimage to Pompeii last October.
It could seem that in the post-conciliar period, in this as in other cases, more weight was given to a presumed Council spirit as opposed to what was effectively established by the documents of the Council…
ARINZE: It’s known that some people, not all, when they evoke the “spirit of the Council”, do so to pass off as affirmations of the Council proposals that the Council itself would really not have affirmed but which are supposed to flow out of the whole atmosphere of the Council… And under that umbrella they strive to promote their favorite theories by trying to get the Council to have said things that the Council itself never said. Instead it’s well that we keep scrupulously to the letter of the Council, to the words deliberated by that gathering, that all can understand without even having participated. In the cases of difficult interpretation, the subsidiary documents of the Council can help.
At the Conference of 4 December the impression was that, aside from the formal homage it gets, Gregorian chant is no longer thought fitting to postconciliar liturgical celebration where the actuosa participatio of the faithful is stressed…
ARINZE: I must confess that was my perception. The pre-eminence of Gregorian chant in the Latin liturgy was established by Saint Pius X, adopted by Vatican Council II and was reiterated by John Paul II in the chirograph published on 3 December. Thus Gregorian remains the chant par excellence of the Latin Church. Without thereby excluding other sorts of music, such as polyphony (Pierluigi da Palestrina is explicitly mentioned in the motu proprio of Saint Pius X), and popular songs, on condition that they are worthy of divine worship and truly lift the heart. On the question of modern musical compositions I remember that John Paul II made his own «the “general law”, that Saint Pius X formulated in these terms: “The more a composition for church is sacred and liturgical, the more in inspiration and tone it approaches Gregorian melody, and the less it is worthy of the temple, the more one sees it matching ill to that supreme model” ».
Nevertheless nowadays in the normal parish church it’s difficult to come upon a mass in which Gregorian is sung…
ARINZE: Certainly Gregorian can’t nowadays have in ordinary parish masses the importance it can have, for example, in the monastic liturgy. But in parishes ceremonies it’s possible that at least some of the common of the mass, the Gloria, the Creed, the Sanctus, the Pater noster or the Agnus Dei for example, can also be sung by the congregation. As happens, for instance, during pontifical celebrations in which the Sistine Chapel and the congregation alternate in singing the verses of the chants. But as also happens elsewhere in the world. I come from Nigeria and can say that there the faithful, without being Latinists, can sing Gregorian chant. When I was archbishop of Onitsha I insisted with the priests that there be at least one Sunday celebration in Latin in each city. The faithful should be guaranteed this possibility of choice. One shouldn’t think that Latin is to be praised but not used or that the Gregorian should by now be reserved to monastic communities only, to those that still use it… There must also be a reason if compact discs of Gregorian chant produced by some monasteries have been a big hit with the young public. These young people don’t know Latin, but Gregorian chant, often composed by saints, has a power to elevate the human soul.
During a lecture given last 8 October in San Antonio, in Texas, attended by the Secretaries of the diocesans liturgical commissions of the United States, you were critical of the use of dance in the liturgy…
ARINZE: It wasn’t the core of my lecture, but I touched on that point also. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has not yet pronounced on dance in the liturgy, even if a guideline article in the bulletin of the Congregation (Notitiae 106-107, 1975) excluded dance from the mass. It’s clear that not everything that can be characterized as dance is right for the Church. There can be dance that goes well in some cultures and there can be dance that is inadmissible anyplace. And bishops play an important role in making such distinctions.
Could the dance find a place throughout the Latin Church or only in some particular situations?
ARINZE: I repeat that the Congregation for Divine Worship has not yet spoken on the matter. However, one may say that traditionally the Latin ceremony does not have dance in the liturgy. Asia and Africa were evangelized in recent centuries, in places more, in places less. And in the cultures of the peoples of those continents dance is not perceived exactly as it is in Europe and North America, where, when dancing is mentioned, one generally thinks of dance halls, ballerinas, discos, certainly not of churches. So if one asks an average European or North American Catholic about the acceptability of dance in the liturgy, they are naturally puzzled, embarrassed… For the average African or an Asian instead, when, for example, it’s a matter to bring the gifts to the altar during the offertory, it is totally natural to do it sketching dance steps with joy and dignity. That is why it’s well for the bishops of a country to study the question carefully. Whereas it’s not a good thing for a western priest to set out imitating dancing liturgies that he has seen maybe on television, thus causing perplexity among the faithful. In the West the faithful who want to dance can do it in the parish hall, and whoever wants to see beautiful dancing can do so in the theatres, certainly not in church, and always presupposing that the dancing in question is morally acceptable!
From what I’ve said you can understand that I think it will be difficult for dancing to become part of the Latin liturgies in Europe and North America. In Africa and in Asia I think it is instead possible, under certain conditions.
In the same lecture in San Antonio Texas you made critical remarks about the architecture of churches built in recent decades…
ARINZE: On that occasion I pointed out that the church-building must also be a symbol of the Church-society, of the hierarchical Church. Inside the church-building there is traditionally the space for the altar where the celebrant ministers, for the tabernacle where the Holy Sacrament lies and for the stand from where the Lessons are read, and this space is usually called sanctuary; and then the space for the people of God. This distinction should be normal and is to be respected. To those who don’t like the separation between the altar and the people of God and those who say that the whole church-building is sanctuary and that there is no part more sanctuary than another, I answer: be careful, you’re not paying sufficient attention to the sensibility of the Church, to the history and theology that underlie it all. One doesn’t go to church primarily for the priest to praise the virtues of the faithful or for them to be gratified by his cleverness, one doesn’t go to church so the priest and faithful may admire each other mutually, but to adore God. The church is not a theater in which the public applauds and the cast on stage bows in acknowledgement…
Your Eminence, in a recent interview given to the French fortnightly L’homme nouveau you stated that attendance at the sacrament of confession is a thermometer for measuring the vitality of Christian communities …
ARINZE: In effect it is one of the thermometers, and it’s very useful. It doesn’t say everything, but it certainly says a lot. Because if a person or a people get to the point of believing themselves without sin, not to need the forgiveness of God that we receive, thanks to this sacrament, the number of those who, though not going to confession, go punctually every Sunday to receive communion will increase. Of course, we can hope that all of them are effectively without sin, but only Our Lady was conceived without sin…
You too have noticed that the queues going to receive communion are very much longer than those in front of the confessional…
ARINZE: Even if Cardinal Arinze didn’t say so, it’s known to be so…


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