December 2006, Adoremus Bulletin

The December 2006 edition of the Adoremus Bulletin is now online.

This edition includes a couple of the addresses from this year's Fellowship of Catholic Scholars conference on the liturgy:

Liturgy and Ritual, by James Hitchcock

Excerpt: Liturgical change after the Second Vatican Council was guided by “experts” who implemented it through bureaucratic processes, but, despite the fact that most of those experts were highly educated in matters liturgical, for some reason they ignored the way in which the ritual of the Church is deeply and organically rooted in the mystical community and this ignorance severely damaged liturgical life in ways that are only now being seriously addressed.1

The Liturgical Movement underwent a radical change immediately after the Council, no longer aiming to lead worshippers ever more deeply into the divine mysteries but seeking instead to make liturgy “relevant” by minimizing its mystical elements and assimilating it to a community celebration. While there was some resistance on the part of confused laity, this bureaucratic program largely succeeded, both because it was imposed and because it actually did capture the spirit of the age, offering a liturgy that fit well with a relaxed suburban life style.

Langugage in the Roman Rite Liturgy: Latin and Vernacular by Cardinal Arinze