3rd International Convocation of the Confraternities of Catholic Clergy
Beauty and the Mission of the Priest
Address of
Robert Cardinal Sarah
Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
Casa Tra Noi, Rome
15 January 2025
Introduction
Dear brothers in the priesthood of Jesus Christ:
As I said in my homily during Holy Mass earlier, it is a great privilege and a joy to be with you. You have made the effort to come to Rome on pilgrimage in this jubilee year from your different apostolates across the world. Thank you. Thank you for coming to share in the priestly fraternity that this conference affords—may it truly build you up and strengthen you. Thank you for coming to the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul that are the very heart of this City—may your prayers before them strengthen you in your vocation as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God (1Co 4:1). May this particular time of grace confirm you in the faith that comes to us from the Apostles from which it is our joy to live and which it is our solemn duty to teach undiminished and intact.
I am very grateful for the invitation to speak on ‘Beauty and the Mission of the Priest’. There is very much that is ugly and evil in our world, and at times even in the Church, and it is easy even for priests to become discouraged and depressed. And yet, dear brothers, do you remember the beauty of your first offering of the Holy Mass? Do you remember the emotion, perhaps also the tears, that it occasioned? Our first Mass may have been many years ago now, but the beauty of offering the Holy Sacrifice is the same today and every day! The beauty of our vocation to our particular configuration with Jesus Christ, the beauty of our ministry and of our witness in bringing Him to others and in bringing others to Him remains undiminished—even if we are older, tired or discouraged. My brothers, I hope that the time we have together this evening can encourage you and serve in some way to renew you in your vocation—because priests are indispensable for the Church founded by Jesus Christ. Our Lord has great need of each one of us, dear Fathers!
What is beauty?
We live in an age marked by subjectivism and relativism and at such a time any response to the question: “What is beauty?” is likely to draw from many of our contemporaries the response: “That depends upon your tastes or preferences.” Such subjectivism empties beauty of any objective content: it renders every taste and wish—even those society once regarded as quite abhorrent—equally acceptable.
The English philosopher, Roger Scruton (1944-2020) energetically refutes this. “To imagine that we can…see beauty as nothing more than a subjective preference or a source of transient pleasure, is to misunderstand the depth to which reason and value penetrate our lives.” Scruton continues:
It is to fail to see that, for a free being, there is right feeling, right experience and right enjoyment just as much as right action. The judgement of beauty orders the emotions and desires of those who make it. It may express their pleasure and their taste: but it is pleasure in what they value and taste for their true ideals. (Beauty: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, 2011 pp. 163-64)
Let us take this sound philosophical reasoning and apply it to the theological sphere.
As Catholics, we hold that Jesus Christ is the definitive revelation of God in human history, and that His teaching, faithfully handed on by the Church down to us today, is objectively true. It is what Almighty God, our Creator, has revealed to us about what it is to be truly human; what we must do to attain eternal life with Him in heaven.
Hence, for the Catholic, there is most certainly right action, right doctrine and right worship—just as the definitive revelation of God in Jesus Christ clearly excludes certain experiences, enjoyments and desires. We have the privilege of living in the Truth and are not limited merely to philosophical speculation. Thus, we must say that in the light of Divine Revelation, subjectivism in faith or morals or worship is false. It is not of God. It leads souls to hell, not to heaven.
Another Eminent speaker addressed the questions of “Truth” yesterday, and another still shall study “Goodness” with you tomorrow, and so I shall confine myself to saying that true beauty is that which participates in the objectivity of the revelation of God in human history. That is to say that, theologically (and morally, pastorally, etc.) beauty is not primarily a question of aesthetics but a question of whether this or that perceptible aspect of our worship of God and our lives lived in and from that worship truly participates in that which is of Jesus Christ, who is Beauty and Truth and Goodness incarnate.
For God alone is beauty, and His Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, is the most beautiful man who has existed even— especially! —as he hung on the ugly contradiction of the Cross. His beauty is not because of his physique, but because of His integrity, His holiness, His sacrificial dedication to His Mission. He is beautiful because He is completely given over to the accomplishment of His Father’s will.
As priests of Jesus Christ, we would all do well to consider this very carefully. We are called to become the close friends of Christ. Indeed, we are not simply called to become an alter Christus—another Christ— but indeed to become ipse Christus, that is, to become Christ himself; to enter into his self-donation to the Father. It is possible to be an alter Christus and be a functionary, and there are too many examples of truly ugly functionaries in the Church today.
But if by our every breath we strive to become ipse Christus—even if those breaths are ones drawn amidst the pain and suffering of the crosses we must carry—our ongoing cooperation with His grace which was given to us in a specific way in the Sacrament of Holy Orders will configure us more closely to the Beautiful Christ. It will make of us, frail and weak men, a work of God’s redemptive beauty for the glory of Almighty God, the salvation of our souls and the souls we are called to serve.
This is fundamental. Christ is beauty itself, and the priest’s vocation is beautiful when it truly participates in the sacrificial self-offering of Christ in the particular circumstances he is called to serve. As a man I know my limits. I know my sins. I know my incapacities. As a priest of Jesus Christ, I am called to become something I can never achieve by myself. But by His grace it is possible: the beautiful face of Jesus Christ, the definitive revelation of God in human history can shine in me and through me; but only if I cooperate with that grace today and renew my resolve to do so for as many more tomorrows as I am given on this earth.
As I said, we should all consider this reality very carefully. It has implications across every element of our priestly ministry, and I am sure that the other speakers this week will be exploring many of them. The conference organisers have asked me to speak specifically in respect of beauty in the Sacred Liturgy in the life and mission of the priest, which I shall do now very happily, for as Cardinal Ratzinger once said:
The Church stands and falls with the Liturgy. When the adoration of the divine Trinity declines, when the faith no longer appears in its fullness in the Liturgy of the Church, when man’s words, his thoughts, his intentions are suffocating him, then faith will have lost the place where it is expressed and where it dwells. For that reason, the true celebration of the Sacred Liturgy is the centre of any renewal of the Church whatever. (See: A. Reid ed., Looking Again at the Sacred Liturgy with Cardinal Ratzinger, St Michael’s Abbey Press, 2003, p. 139).
Beauty and the Sacred Liturgy
Some Principles
Those of us who have been born outside of Europe can probably remember very well our first visit to this continent, particularly our first visit to Rome. When we have grown up hearing about St Peter’s Basilica in Rome and the great cathedrals of Chartres, Munich and so on, and have only ever seen pictures of them, actually to stand in them for the very first time takes our breath away. And this is right. We are in the presence of a beauty that participates in and conveys the beauty of God Himself!
If we travel a little, we will encounter many different styles of ecclesiastical architecture. The austere, solid simplicity of the Romanesque will confront us with the Christ-God (usually portrayed in the apse). The height and detail of the gothic cathedrals will cause our souls to soar towards God. The Baroque and the Rococo will show us how mere men have exuberantly celebrated the magnificence of the Incarnation with every creative fibre of their beings. The great churches of the Christian East will immerse us in the heavenly court. The contrast with the churches and chapels in which we serve may be quite dramatic. We may even feel a little discouraged at the lack of what we have back at home. Some of the churches we may visit may even seem a little too much for our tastes.
I would like to suggest that even if we feel more comfortable in one style of architecture than another, that is not necessarily the point. The point is that the beauty that we experience in the great cathedrals of Europe or in the humble churches and chapels of our home countries is because of the building’s integrity. That is to say, the building is what it is supposed to be, and nothing else: a holy place, the house of God and the gate of heaven (cf. Gn 28:16-17), a sacred place set aside for the liturgical worship of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—constructed out of love of God and with all the generosity and skill that is available. In this respect a small chapel in an African village can have just as much integrity as any Roman Basilica. So too can a rural chapel in America or Australia, regardless of its particular style or even perhaps its lack of participation in one of the great architectural styles.
We have probably also had the experience of celebrating the Sacred Liturgy in places that lack such integrity. Sometimes there may be a just reason: to offer Mass for a dying person for example, or even on some great occasion when the church or the Cathedral would be too small. But in such cases, we naturally do as much as we can to make the place as sacred as possible.
But sometimes churches and chapels lack this integrity. We know this instinctively: something with us recoils at the spatial arrangement or at this or that particular liturgical furnishing or item. Howsoever artistically worthy it is in itself, or expensive it was, or however renowned the artist who designed it, it is simply out of harmony or does not work in the use to which it has been put. It lacks that integrity that allows it to participate in the beauty of Christ that is made manifest in the Sacred Liturgy, and lead us to Him, and instead, draws attention to itself. It lacks that true nobility and harmony which is the fertile soil in which transcendence takes root and grows.
I have used the analogy of church architecture to delineate the principle of integrity as a fundamental component of liturgical beauty. So too, this principle of integrity can and must be applied to the liturgical rites themselves. The liturgical rites we celebrate must be exactly what they are supposed to be, and nothing else.
Let me give you a common example. Where in the rubrics of concelebration is there provision for concelebrating priests or bishops to take out their telephone and take photos? I continue to be astonished and deeply scandalised by this utter lack of integrity by men vested for the unique work of Christ, that only they themselves can perform, behaving like passing teenage tourists in the midst of the Sacred Liturgy! There is no place for this in the Sacred Liturgy. A priest or a bishop who behaves like this must examine his conscience and seek a profound renewal in the nature and meaning of the liturgy. He must ponder and examine if he really believes in Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist celebration.
There are, no doubt, many other examples, but the principle is what is important: the liturgical rites we celebrate must be exactly what they are supposed to be, and nothing else. Herein its beauty lies. So-called creativity or even inculturation that changes the Sacred Liturgy into a religious meeting, or a cultural show has nothing to do with the worship of Almighty God that we promised faithfully to celebrate at our ordinations! We are servants, not masters, of the Sacred Liturgy! Even bishops are merely its custodians and protectors, not its proprietors.
This principle does, of course, imply that we are faithful to the liturgical books as they are given to us by legitimate authority. We can talk a little bit more about that in discussing the ars celebrandi later. The reformed liturgical books do contain options, and it is possible, sometimes by means of such options, to entirely transform the liturgical ambience or feel of any given liturgical celebration.
Here I want to make an appeal for that hermeneutic of reform in continuity spoken of by Pope Benedict XVI (Address, 22 December 2005). This is a personal opinion, but it seems to me that the reformed liturgical books desperately need that continuity with the liturgical tradition that the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council sought to reform if they are to be true, beautiful and good and thereby do the best they can for the sanctification and edification of God’s Holy People. Others may disagree. But in my reading of the Council, this is what it intended: reform in continuity and not rupture with the past.
This raises two related questions and if I say too much about them, I will probably get into trouble, so I will be brief. But something must be said.
Firstly, the seemingly outdated question of the ‘reform of the postconciliar liturgical reform’ whereby the modern liturgical books are revised with a view to enriching them with elements that were lost in the reform itself. This is very much out of fashion with the authorities at present, but the motivation and reasoning behind taking such steps have lost none of their validity. It is not for me to say when the Lord, in His Providence, may allow this question seriously to be considered once again, but perhaps some our younger brother priests here today will live to see the reformed liturgical books made even more beautiful. I often think of the missal for the Ordinariates of former Anglicans and the riches it contains as an example of what could be possible.
The second question is that of the celebration of the preconciliar liturgical rites, the usus antiquior of the Roman rite. I have said before, particularly in the light of the evident fruits that these rites have brought forth in recent decades, that:
Despite intransigent clerical attitudes in opposition to the venerable Latin-Gregorian liturgy, attitudes typical of the clericalism that Pope Francis has repeatedly denounced, a new generation of young people has emerged in the heart of the Church. This generation is one of young families, who demonstrate that this liturgy has a future because it has a past, a history of holiness and beauty that cannot be erased or abolished overnight. (Twitter, 8 July 2021)
I maintain that. And whilst I understand that at present many priests find themselves in a very difficult position in respect of the usus antiquior, I encourage you never to forget or to deny the profound truth taught by Pope Benedict:
What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behoves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place. (Letter to Bishops, 7 July 2007)
I have said enough, perhaps too much or even too clumsily for some: at least I did not speak about the beauty and pastoral value of the legitimate practice of celebrating the modern liturgy ad orientem!!!
Keeping in mind the principle of liturgical integrity as an essential component for liturgical beauty (and liturgical truth and goodness) let us move on to examine some practical applications of this principle.
Some Applications
The 2007 Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis of Pope Benedict XVI “On the Eucharist as the Source and Summit of the Church’s Life and Mission,” which is the fruit of the reflections of the 2005 Synod of Bishops, is a very good place to start. In fact, I would like to suggest that this is a very important document for liturgical formation which is very much neglected. If you have not studied it, please do so. If it has been some time since you last looked at it, please revisit it. It will guide you in seeking to ensure that your liturgical celebrations have integrity, that they are what they are supposed to be, and nothing else.
Pope Benedict provides much wise counsel distilled in the light of the turbulent years of post-conciliar liturgical life considered by the Synod Fathers. Perhaps the best of all is his simple statement: “Everything related to the Eucharist should be marked by beauty.” (n. 41)
We could do well to use this as the foundation of an examination of conscience for our own liturgical practice: is everything about the liturgy we celebrate with our people marked by beauty according to the means available to us? Or have we become content with less than beautiful—or even clearly inappropriate—practices, objects, rites, music, etc?
If the Eucharist is truly the source and summit of the Church’s life and mission, we cannot settle for second-best, or worse. If we do this, we are building on faulty foundations and one way or another what we build up on these insecure foundations will come crashing down. Remember the words of Cardinal Ratzinger I quoted earlier: “The Church stands and falls with the Liturgy…. For that reason, the true celebration of the Sacred Liturgy is the centre of any renewal of the Church whatever.”
Our concern for beauty in the liturgy, then, is by no means esoteric or merely aesthetical. It is fundamentally pastoral. As priests our first duty is at the altar of God. From there everything else flows. If we cannot ensure that what we do at God’s altar is as it should be, as beautiful and integral as possible, we are failing in our first duty before Almighty God. We may be blessed with many other gifts that can serve the Lord and the Church well and in important ways, but our very first duty is to become a homo liturgicus whose life and mission emanates from the altar. The example of our devotion to our sacred duties will then enable us to become a pater liturgicus, forming others in the Sacred Liturgy by our very example. This is perhaps something we ourselves experienced when we were younger, with the priests who fostered our own vocations simply by being priests absorbed in the sacred mysteries it was their privilege to celebrate.
In Sacramentum Caritatis Pope Benedict most famously speaks of the ars celebrandi: “the art of proper celebration” of the liturgical rites, “the fruit of faithful adherence to the liturgical norms in all their richness.” He notes that concern for this is in no way contrary to the Second Vatican Council’s desire to promote real, actual and fruitful participation in the liturgy, but that in fact “the primary way to foster the participation of the People of God in the sacred rite is the proper celebration of the rite itself.” (n. 38).
Put in the language we have been using, a proper ars celebrandi displays integrity. The rites are celebrated as they should be celebrated, as well as it is possible given the circumstances—and of course according to the demands of the different feasts and seasons of the Church’s year. We saw this integrity in the example of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI: they were serious, serene and prayerful at the altar. They manifested a reverence and an awe for the things of God that were truly edifying.
We too must build up our people by our profound recollection in the Sacred Liturgy. If we pray the liturgical texts rather than reading them perfunctorily, people will participate in the riches they contain. If we give ourselves to the liturgical rites and truly enter into them, just as Christ offered Himself on the Cross, people will know that we are not mere functionaries getting a job done, but men of God standing before Him in awe, profoundly aware of the privilege that is ours. This is our vocation! This is whom God calls us to be! This is how we shall build up the Church on earth and lead souls to salvation!
Of course, His Eminence is in Rome and not in a busy parish back at home, you may be thinking. Yes, this is easy to say but not so easy to achieve. I grant you that is true. But, dear Fathers, it is fundamentally a question of priorities. We all have to learn that we cannot do everything that is asked of us. We must prioritise. And in so doing, the ars celebrandi, the integrity of our celebration of the Sacred Liturgy—which is the very foundation and source of life for our very priesthood—can never be relegated to second place. The Worship of Almighty God must come first, as God made clear to Moses in the commandments on Mount Sinai (cf. Exodus 20) and as our Lord taught in respect of the greatest commandment. (cf. Mk 12:29) Other pastoral activity rightly flows from our worship of God, but it must not impede it.
But the objection has some validity. Here in Rome ceremonies are well organised and it is easy enough to maintain an appropriate recollection (usually, that is—even cardinals can talk too much in sacristies and during concelebrations!).
I would like to suggest, Fathers, that you seriously invest in this recollection in your parishes and apostolates. Form your people in the need for silence in the sacristy and insist on it. Let the hushed atmosphere bespeak the importance of the mysteries about to be celebrated. And, somehow, take time to prepare and recollect yourself in silence — perhaps pray the vesting prayers — and take time to form your intention. This may require a little discipline at first, but I used the word “invest” intentionally.
Reasserting the sacredness of the liturgy by observing silence before celebrating it will not only form others well, it will give space for our busy priestly souls to breathe. It will enable us to enter into the mysteries we are about to celebrate more intimately. It will change what may sometimes seem utterly routine into an experience akin to our first Mass once again. It is well worth the investment.
Sacramentum Caritatis reminds us of the important fact that liturgical music is an integral element of the ars celebrandi. In considering this Pope Benedict reflects somewhat wryly that “as far as the liturgy is concerned, we cannot say that one song is as good as another.” (n. 42) How right he is! There is very much work to be done in singing the liturgy rather than simply singing something at the liturgy.
I am aware how difficult this responsibility of the priest can be, particularly when he is newly appointed and encounters people of good will and enthusiasm but with erroneous formation in liturgical music. When beauty and integrity are equated to personal preference and individual taste, this can lead to much stress and even deep conflict.
Fathers, I encourage you not to flee from this necessary confrontation between what is ugly and what is beautiful, but to engage in it with much charity, in fidelity to the truth and with a very great deal of patience. We do not wish to drive souls away, but we must find ways of leading them to the discovery of the beauty of the Church’s heritage of liturgical music, particularly Gregorian chant, and of the importance and value of modern liturgical compositions that “correspond to the meaning of the mystery being celebrated, the structure of the rite and the liturgical seasons.” (Sacramentum Caritatis, 42) In the English-speaking world much good work has been done in providing resources for the singing of the liturgy, and this must be encouraged.
In order to make a contribution of my own in this area I have been working on a book The Song of the Lamb: Sacred Music and the Heavenly Liturgy together with Peter Carter, the young and zealous American Executive Director and Founder of the Catholic Sacred Music Project, of which I am privileged to be a Patron. We hope that it will be published by Ignatius Press later this year, and in it I try to address many practical questions which I hope will be of help to priests and to musicians in restoring truly beautiful liturgical music to our churches.
I can only encourage you to do your best in this difficult area, to invest in well-formed lay personnel to assist you, particularly if your own musical gifts are not great, and to give them the resources they need so to do. Sacred Music is not an optional extra, but an integral element to the beauty of the Sacred Liturgy. If we do not accept the responsibility that is ours in this area, difficult as it is, who shall?
There are two other specific topics that I would like to mention. The first is our use of the option of concelebration. I say “option” deliberately because in some places concelebrating any and every Mass at which a priest is present has become almost obligatory, and one can be regarded as somehow disloyal for not doing so. Yet, if one has already offered Mass on a given day, or shall be doing so later on, one should not binate by concelebrating without the just cause or required pastoral necessity that Canon Law stipulates. (cf. Canon 905 §1).
Obviously, the Bishop is the competent authority to permit this, and concelebrating with the Bishop himself has great symbolic value, particularly on occasions such as the Chrism Mass in Holy Week, at other gatherings with the Bishop, during retreats, etc. He can permit one to binate by concelebrating on a given occasion for just cause, but in truth he cannot require it. No priest can be required to concelebrate Mass.
It seems to me that this practice has become too exaggerated, and we need to become a little more ‘chaste,’ as it were, in respect of concelebration. There are too many instances of priests behaving inappropriately whilst concelebrating Mass, as if they just happen to be there wearing some of the priestly vestments but are not focussed on offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Idle talk, taking photos, casual posture, etc. all betray an ugly lack of integrity in what is happening. Concelebration can be a very beautiful thing: but it must not be abused.
It is also worth reflecting on the fact that whilst some form of the concelebration of priests with the bishop is found in liturgical history (usually ceremonially, not sacramentally) the concelebration of priests with priests in the absence of the bishop is a complete innovation. This is not the place to discuss the theological and liturgical issues involved, but for further study I recommend the English translation of the French Carmelite Friar Father Joseph de Sainte-Marie’s book, The Holy Eucharist—The World’s Salvation published by Gracewing Press in 2015. His considerations will certainly help us to rethink many practices related to concelebration.
The second area I would like to consider is our praying of the Divine Office. Our principle that the liturgical rites we celebrate must be exactly what they are supposed to be, and nothing else applies here also. Our celebrations of the Divine Office must be beautiful moments of worship of God, of intimate adoration of Him—even if for the most part we must pray the Hours by ourselves.
Of course, this is much easier for monastics and conventual religious whose vocation is to sing the Office in choir. That is not possible very often in parishes—though I encourage you to do all you can to celebrate the Divine Office with the correct ars celebrandi with your people as often as you are able. Open this treasure to your people and form them in its riches, perhaps by way of a Lenten initiative, or on greater feasts. In some situations it may even be pastorally advisable to celebrate solemn vespers for an occasion and not the Holy Mass. We do not have to celebrate Mass absolutely every time we meet together!
So too, our celebrations of the Office at retreats and gatherings of priests ought to be rich and beautiful with ceremony and song. We can become too accustomed to its recitation alone, forgetting that it is a liturgical rite to be celebrated like any other. So too, even though the breviary permits us to pray one hour in the middle of the day, when we can we should not forget that there are three day hours: Terce, Sext and None. The Church has permitted us to pray one of them when we are busy, but the priest is a man of God, not a business manager, and when we can, during retreats, if illness or age takes us away from the many demands of the active apostolate, etc., I strongly recommend returning to the beautiful tradition of praying these three-day hours. Even when we are no longer in the front line of pastoral ministry, as it were, it is essential that our work of prayer for the Church and the world continues. And this is a most beautiful part of our vocation, to stand of God, in his presence, even when we are old or sick. Otherwise, we are belying ourselves and telling God lies when we pray the Psalm 118: 163-164: “Lord, I hate and abhor falsehood, but I have your Law. Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous ordinances”.
We could continue all evening and discuss more related issues – the necessary interiority and worthy comportment and vesture of the priest, his responsibility in giving good example to altar servers and to possible future vocations, the irreplaceable value of the beautiful gesture of kneeling in the liturgy, the necessity to avoid the temptation to celebrate weddings and funerals perfunctorily, the need for good preaching, the dangers that the use of various forms of media can pose to the integrity of the Sacred Liturgy, etc. But I hope from what I have said above, the relevant principles are clear. If you wish, we can speak a little about some of these things afterwards.
So too, I have not addressed the question of the liturgical formation of priests here—you are not seminarians! But it is a very important issue that requires careful consideration. If any of you are privileged to be called to be seminary formators, I would be happy to speak further about this.
Conclusion
In 2015, early on in his retirement, Benedict XVI wrote a forward to the Russian edition of his collected works on the liturgy. It provides us with a more than apposite conclusion to our considerations this evening:
Let nothing be preferred to the Sacred Liturgy. With these words in his Rule (43:3) St. Benedict established the absolute priority of the Sacred Liturgy over any other task of monastic life. But even in monastic life this was not immediately taken into account, because agricultural and intellectual work was also an essential task for monks. In agriculture as well as in the crafts and the work of formation, there could be some temporal matters that might appear more important than the liturgy. Against this backdrop, Benedict, with the priority given to the liturgy, unequivocally emphasizes the priority of God himself in our lives: “On hearing the signal for an hour of the divine office, the monk will immediately set aside what he has in hand, yet with gravity.”
In the consciousness of the people of today, the things of God and thus of the liturgy do not appear at all urgent. There is an urgency about every possible thing. But the matter of God does not seem to be urgent. Now one might point out that monastic life is in any case something different from the life of people in the world, and that is certainly correct. And yet the priority of God whom we have forgotten holds true for everyone. If God is no longer important, the criteria for establishing what is important are displaced. Humans, in putting aside God, submit themselves to the constraints that make them the slave of material forces and thus at odds with their dignity.
In the years following the Second Vatican Council I became aware again of the priority of God and of the Sacred Liturgy. The misunderstanding of the liturgical reform which has spread widely in the Catholic Church has led to more and more emphasis on the aspects of education and one’s own activity and creativity. The doings of people almost obliterated the presence of God. In such a situation it became increasingly clear that the Church’s existence lives from proper celebration of the liturgy and that the Church is in danger when the primacy of God no longer appears in the liturgy nor consequently in life.
The deepest cause of the crisis that has upset the Church lies in the obscuring of the priority of God in the liturgy. All this led me to devote myself to the theme of the liturgy more than previously because I knew that the true renewal of the liturgy is a fundamental condition for the renewal of the Church…
After many efforts, even in retirement, to promote this renewal Pope Benedict went to his eternal reward just over two years ago. The task of that renewal now rests squarely upon our shoulders dear Fathers, each of us according to the mission we have been given.
I hope that, if you have not already, you will be able to pray for him at his tomb in St Peter’s Basilica whilst you are in Rome. Perhaps also we can ask his help in the beautiful work that is ours, of which he himself was a beacon.
Thank you, dear Fathers. God bless you; God bless your families and all the people you serve.
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