History of the Dominican Liturgy, 1946-1969 (Complete)

Fr. William Bonniwell's A History of the Dominican Liturgy chronicled worship in the Order of Preachers from the early thirteenth century up to its publication in 1945.[1] He probably little expected that, within two decades, the rite he so lovingly described would undergo substantial changes and finally be all but abandoned by the Order. The rite Fr. Bonniwell studied belonged the group of religious order rites that had originated in the high middle ages and were allowed to remain in use when the Roman liturgy, as corrected under Pope St. Pius V, become normative for the Latin Church in 1570. The orders that, along with many dioceses, kept their particular usages for Mass and Office also included the Carthusians, the Cistercians, the Premonstatensians, and the Carmelites. All these rites belonged broadly to the Latin liturgical tradition of Rome, but influenced to a greater or lesser degree by the Gallican Rites common in early-medieval France. The Dominican Rite of 1945, although it had undergone, especially in the Office, significant changes, was essentially the liturgy codified by the Master General of the Order Humbert of Romans in 1254. The Mass and Office of Humbert's liturgy belonged to a liturgical family centered in northern France and southern England. Those who would like an extended description of the Dominican Rite, as well as its origins and history to 1945, should consult Fr. Bonniwell's book.

The purpose of this essay is to describe the changes and reforms affecting the rite during its last two decades, and so effectively to complete Fr. Bonniwell's history. This period may be suitably divided into three parts. The first extends from 1946 to 1962. During that period, the rites of the Easter Vigil were modified to reflect reforms in the Roman Rite under Pope Pius XII, and a major overhaul of the calendar and its rubrics were instituted on the model of the revised Roman Missal promulgated by Pope John XXIII in 1962. It was in this same year that the last breviary for the rite was published, with its reforms paralleling the Roman version. The second period, which correlates with the Second Vatican Council, extends from 1962 to the publication of the last Dominican Rite Missal in 1965. This missal, long delayed, responded to the challenge of the conciliar constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium. This missal and the 1962 breviary underwent progressively more radical changes from the time of their publication until 1969, when the Order requested and received permission to adopt the post-conciliar Roman liturgy. The third part of this article will descibe the developments in that period.

Part One: Pre-Conciliar Reforms, 1950-1962

Although it directly legislated little on Dominican liturgical life, the General Chapter of the Order that met at Washington D.C. in 1949 may be taken as having initiated the trajectory of liturgical development for the whole period considered, that is the lessening of emphasis on monastic elements in Dominican worship and the assimilation of the Order's rites to those common in Catholic parishes using the Roman liturgy. This general chapter, coming soon after the Second World War and during a period economic difficulty in Europe, was essentially paid for by the American province of St. Joseph, where it was held. At the request of the host provincial, Fr. T. S. McDermott, O.P, the acta of the chapter, for the first time in history, contained an extensive section on parochial ministry. This reflected the dominance of that kind of work in the United States, as distinct from Europe and other lands, where Dominicans generally did not run parishes. This, symbolically at least, declared parochial work, where active ministry took clear precedence over the monastic and contemplative life, to be fully compatible with Dominican spirituality, and the inclusion was so seen at that time.[2]

The first of the many liturgical changes that took place the last twenty-five years of the rite, the reform of the Dominican Easter Vigil, may be taken to have begun in February 1951, when Pope Pius XII approved the experimental move of the Vigil from the morning of Holy Saturday to that evening, a permission allowed to the Order in time for Easter 1952.[3] This event occasioned the reprinting of the Dominican chants of the Passion.[4] The Dominican liturgy of the thirteenth-century had celebrated the vigil in the afternoon of Holy Saturday, but by the early modern period, celebration had shifted to the morning, as was also the case for Roman practice. The Dominican vigil of 1950 was a markedly monastic affair in that it had no blessing of water and virtually no remnants of the patristic baptismal rites.[5] As medieval Dominican priories did not have pastoral cures, they also lacked baptismal fonts. The Dominican vigil was short. Unlike the Roman Rite, with its twelve readings, the Dominican followed the practice more typical of northern Europe in having only four. These were preceded by the blessing of the new fire (done before the altar) and the chanting of the Exultet. During that chant, a deacon inserted the grains of incense in the candle and lighted it at the words quam in honorem Dei rutilans ignis accendit. The four readings (Gen. 1-2; Ex. 14-15. Is. 4, and Is. 54-55) were then sung with their collects and, for the last three, their responsories.

It is interesting that when the twelve readings of the Roman liturgy were reduced to four, three of those chosen were the ones already in use in the Dominican Rite (the exception is the out-of-chronological order replacement of Is. 54-55 with Deut. 13). The Litany of the saints came next, immediately followed by the Kyrie and Gloria, which introduced the Vigil Mass proper. The medieval Dominican rite included neither the Credo nor the remaking of baptismal vows. At communion time, a short Vespers service consisting of Psalm 116 [6117] "Laudate" and the Magnificat, with their antiphons and the Postcommunion Collect ended the rite.

The evening Vigil (to be celebrated after 8:00 p.m.), which was approved for optional use in the Order ad experimentum for a three year period, used the old Dominican texts wholesale, without even changing the Vespers service. The missing baptismal parts of the rite were to be taken from the Roman Ritual.[7] Still assuming the absence of a font, the permission provided that the Easter Water was to be blessed in a holy water bucket, which might be suitably decorated. The paschal candle was now to be decorated, not plain white. The people and friars present also held lighted candles during the Exultet. Perhaps more important than these changes, which effectively turned the old monastic vigil into a parish affair, was provision that the ancient Pentecost Vigil might now be omitted. With this change, the last remains of the patristic practice of baptisms on Pentecost disappeared. It seems that, in some places, the old morning vigil continued to be performed in addition to the night vigil--the rescript provided that those attending both might receive communion twice on the same day.

Pius XII definitively promulgated the new rites of Holy Week in fall of 1955, in time for Easter of the following year.[8] For the Dominicans, however, the experimental period continued another year, during which the Order's revised Holy Week Rites were prepared for publication. The Master General, Fr. Michael Browne, later a cardinal, directed that decrees concerning the changes from the Congregation of Rites be printed in the Analecta, the Order's official publication, leaving local authorities to decide on how to implement the reforms in parallel to those in the Roman Holy Week rites. These reforms included, most importantly, the prohibition of anticipating Matins and Lauds ("Tenebrae") on the evening before during the last three days of Holy Week, and the removal of the priests obligation to recite quietly the readings chanted by the deacon, subdeacon, and lectors during the Vigil.[9] Even with this small simplification, the new Vigil was much more complex, and there were still no new books for it; some seem to have complained, and they were reminded that in churches without large clerical staffs they could "do as much as they could" and just omit the rest.

Finally, in time for Lent 1957, the drafts for the new Dominican Holy Week rites were approved by the Congregation of Rites. These incorporated, where they could, the older forms of the Order, added missing parts from the Roman Rite, and provided music from the Order's tradition where this was needed.[10] This draft included another important change, the moving of the Mass of Holy Thursday to the evening. As the provision of music was probably the most pressing need, a 35-page pamphlet was ready for printing in 1956.[11] It would take, however until 1960 for the Order to produce a single altar book containing the reformed Holy Week Rites.[12] This book changed the communion-time Vespers service to one of Lauds by merely replacing the Magnificat with the Benedictus. Other than some fine-tuning, the reform of Holy Week was complete.[13] This rite would be later incorporated, virtually verbatim, into the Missal of 1965.[14] The only textual revision made for the 1960 publication was the removal of the word perfidis ("unbelieving") from the Good Friday prayer for the Jews and the introduction of kneeling for it (previously it was said standing). These changes complied with a 1959 directive of Pope John XXIII imposing them on the Roman Rite.

The reform, as a whole, certainly produced a liturgy that was more suitable to parochial worship, where vigil baptisms would eventually come to play an important role in the life of the faithful, but in it something of the Order's monastic heritage was lost. The moving of the offices of Holy Week to their liturgically correct times was, on the whole, a more unmixed blessing. In that case, not only did this make more sense for the sanctification of time, it restored the original rhythm of liturgy, long obscured by the late medieval practice of anticipation.

As the Order moved to adopt the new Holy Week rituals, it also attempted to improve the execution of its worship musically, and to make adaptions for missionary areas. In practice, outside of the novitiates, houses of study, and some very large communities, the Divine Office was recited in a straight tone ("recto tono") and said "Low Mass," without chant, predominated over Sung Mass ("Missa cantata"). The full Solemn High Mass, with its deacon, subdeacon, and intricate choreography was rarely celebrated. Pastoral pressures could produce rushed performance, especially at the Office. In 1953, an essay drawing on the medieval Master of the Order Humbert of Romans' De Vita Regulari, addresses the problem of sloppy and rushed recto-tone Office.[15] Friars in choir were instructed to stay together, not to elide italicized syllables, to keep the pitch up (but not "nimis"), and to use organ to sustain it, if necessary.[16] Finally, the essay belabored the failure to observe the "morula" (a slight pause at the asterisk in the psalm verse traditionally lasting the time it takes to say the two words "Pater Noster"). Apparently the pressure to finish Office and get on with study or work had lead to rushing through the psalms without hardly a chance to take a breath.

This correction of bad singing seems part of a growing concern to improve music. The General Chapter of Rome had in 1955 ordered revision of the chant books, required preparation of musical materials for novice- and student-masters, and required houses of formation to hold choir practices at least every other week.[17] New editions of the Dominican music books were also to be prepared, the first of which, that for Compline, would come out in 1957.[18] This publication was contemporary with Pope Pius XII's sweeping decree on music, Musicae Sacrae Disciplina, as well as his encyclical on liturgy, Mediator Dei, both of which were included in the 1958 issue of the Order's Analecta.[19]

By the mid-1950s, for some friars, especially those working alone in parishes, the idiosyncracies of the Dominican Rite, the people's lack of familiarity with its forms of music and rubrics, and the difficulty of procuring books for it, had already brought requests for permission to use the Roman Rite and its resources in parochial and missionary work. In reply, Master General Michael Browne wrote to the provinces, reaffirming the right of Dominicans to use their own rite and calendar, even in churches where they served as temporary administrators or in chapels and oratories directly under the local ordinary. Browne closed his letter with a monitum: "Imprimis, usus ritus proprii non est mere privilegium sed revera obligatio iuris communis." One senses that for some friars using the ancient rite was a nuisance and a chore, not a "privilege." Perhaps bowing to the inevitable, the Master General, in the same communication, did allow a dispensation to use the Roman Calendar in such situations.[20] Clearly there was pressure to conform liturgically with the general practice of the Church. Bowing to that need, one year later, on 8 February 1959, Browne requested permission from the Congregation of Rites for up to four friars in groups of Dominicans administering seminaries in mission lands to celebrate Mass for the seminarians in the Roman Rite. He admitted that switching back and forth between that liturgy and the Dominican Rite could be confusing, so he consented to those friars using the Roman Rite exclusively. He did hope, however, that these men might be convinced to go back to celebrating the liturgy proper to the Order on return to their provinces. But he did not seem very optimistic that this would happen.[21]

As the decade progressed, increased desire for accommodations to what would soon be called "the needs of the times" and to conventional Roman practice continued to surface.[22] Petitions were received to use candles with less than 51% beeswax (denied); for the sisters to use cheaper artificial fabrics for their habits in place of wool (approved); for the use of the title "after Epiphany" rather than "After the Octave of Epiphany" for Sundays before Quinquagesima (approved), and to make the litany of the Blessed Virgin traditionally recited after Compline on Saturday optional (approved).[23] It seems that by 1958, in many places, the anticipation of liturgical change and reform had become so prevalent that communities and friars began to make them on their own, without authorization--an abuse reprobated by the General Chapter of Caleruega in that year. Bowing to the signs of the times, this chapter also established a liturgical commission to undertake reform of the calendar and the simplification of the rubrics for Mass and Office.[24]

Within a month of the chapter's final session, Pope Pius XII was dead, and John XXIII was elected in his place on 28 October 1958.[25] Liturgical reforms would soon multiply and affect every part of Dominican worship.

The medieval office of the Dominican Rite was very distinctive, with its own psalm arrangement and a simple elegant calendar that emphasized the ferial office and the weekly recitation of the whole psalter. The psalms of the "Little Hours" of Prime, Terce, Sext, None, and Compline were invariable, which facilitated recitation from memory when travelling.[26] The office was admittedly long, although actually shorter than many other medieval uses. The multiplication of saints' days had, by the early modern period, effectively erased the ferial. By 1900, outside of Lent, a Dominican could expect to celebrate the ferial office about three times a year. This did have the effect of shortening the office somewhat because, even with three nocturns, a saint's Matins was shorter than that of the ferial. Under the influence of Pius X's reform of the Roman Breviary, the Order had aleady scrapped its medieval office and introduced the new Roman psalter with different psalms for each little hour every day of the week. But very little was done at that time to reduce the number of saints' days. The Breviary of the Order in during this period was that published in 1947, which added new feasts and made minor stylistic changes.[27]

This Office and its Calendar was badly in need of reform to restore its original balance, nevertheless, saints and other observances continued to be added: St. Margaret of Hungary (1947), St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1950), Bl. Joseph, Melchior, and Companions (1953), Patronage of the Virgin (1955).[28] At the same time, petitions were received by the curia to lighten the choral obligation, in particular the community requirement to recite the daily Office of the Dead. This did not happen, and Fr. Abel Redigonda of the Lombard Province was asked to write an essay for the Analecta defending the practice as exemplifying the care of the dead typical of Dominican spirituality.[29] When a new Breviary was published in 1949, it left the issue of the calendar and the burden unaddressed, doing no more than adapting the Roman practices of reciting Sunday Matins' responsories during the week (in place of the medieval Dominican ferial set) and repeating the antiphon of the Benedictus and Magnificat before, as well as after, the canticle.[30]

Perhaps the liturgists of the Order were too consumed with the reforms of Holy Week; the problem of the Breviary would not begin to be addressed until 1957. This began with an important permission, granted to the Order by the Congregation of Rites, so that Mass might always be celebrated after Terce, "even in Lent." It had been the ancient practice to celebrate Mass after None in penitential times, after Terce in festive and Paschal times, and after Sext otherwise. This originally had the effect of extending the Eucharistic fast till afternoon in Lent and till late morning during the year, while cutting it short at mid-morning on festivals. In fact, by the modern period, Mass was always celebrated in the morning. The effect was to require completion of all diurnal hours before the morning Mass during Lent. This odd practice was now finally dropped.[31] Permission was also given always to celebrate Vespers after the noon meal, rather than before it, as was also the old Lenten discipline, reflecting the long daily fast.

Master General Browne soon moved to shorten the Office, in accord with changes also happening in the Roman Rite. On 2 February 1957, he announced the dropping of the Athanasian Creed from Prime on Sunday (except for Trinity), the omission of orationes imperatae (collects required for special intentions) when there were already three collects at Mass or Office, and the practice of moving an impeded Sunday Office and Mass to a free day later in the week.[32] Admittedly, this did not substantially lighten the burden, but it was a start.

A more agressive shortening of the Office would come into effect on 1 January 1960, with approbation of the Congregation of Rites of changes requested earlier.[33] These ended the silent recitation of the Our Father and Creed, which preceded and followed most of the hours, and dropped the devotional antiphons in honor of the Virgin (Salve Regina) and St. Dominic (Pie Pater) previously attached to every office. The recitation of the Salve Regina and the O Lumen (in honor of St. Dominic) were retained, however, at the end of Compline. The decree also removed the "Preces" from Prime and the memorial collects of the Cross and the Blessed Virgin from Lauds and Vespers. Certain other simplifications were also made, such as the abolition of the variable doxologies of the hymn for confessor saints, the Iste Confessor.

The effect of this pruning was almost entirely to remove devotional elements that, over the centuries, had gotten attached to the Office, rather than shortening the Office itself. That task would be taken up in the preparation of the new edition of the Breviary. It would happen in the context of a revision that would also remove dubious legends from the Matins of saints, a project already requested by the General Chapter of Rome in 1955.[34] Initial corrections were made in the sixth lesson for Matins of the Translation of St. Dominic.[35] And in 1959 permission was granted to replace the third lesson (the legend) in Feasts of Three Readings (the lowest rank of feast) with the readings in the Commons.[36] Such feasts usually commemorated ancient martyrs whose legends were often historically dubious or filled with extravagant miracles.

More important than any of these changes, however, was the calendar reform, which affected both the Mass and the Office. By decree of the Congregation of Rites, a new calendar went into effect for the Order on January 1, 1960.[37] This reform was comprehensive and far reaching, on a scale never before seen in the history of the rite. It affected the rubrics, the ranks of feasts, the temporal cycle, and the number of feasts. One goal of the reform was to restore the primacy of Sundays and the ferial office. To this end, all Sundays of Advent and those from Quinquagesima to Lent became, like the Sundays of Easter and Lent, "major," and so could not be overridden by a saint's day (nn. 7-11). Privileged Vigils, which included some of great antiquity, were abolished except for those of Christmas and Pentecost. The remaining vigils, (Ascension, Assumption, St. John the Baptist, Sts. Peter and Paul, and St. Lawrence) were all reduced to "common." All octaves, including the very ancient octave of Pentecost and the medieval octave of Ascension, were gone, leaving only those of Christmas and Easter (nn. 16-23), although the Pentecost Octave would soon return in a revised form. The suppression of Trinity Octave required a change in the name of the Sundays after Paschal time. Originally, as in the Sarum Rite, the Dominican called these Sundays "After Trinity" but they had been known as "After the Octave of Trinity" since the last major reform of the Dominican calendar in the 1600s. They were now to be known by the Roman title, "After Pentecost." Then, with one stroke, the "White Sundays" after Trinity, during the octaves of Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart, Sts. Peter and Paul, and St. John the Baptist ceased to exist and became ordinary "Green Sundays."

The weight of the sanctoral was greatly lessened. All simplex and semi-duplex feasts of saints became feasts of three readings. The votive Office of Our Lady on Saturday lost its first Vespers. This change itself reflected a radical change in the understanding of the liturgical day. From ancient times, the day was understood to begin and end at dusk. So feasts with only one Vespers (like the Virgin on Saturday) only had Vespers on the evening before, while major feasts had a second Vespers on the day of the feast. Now the liturgical day began with Matins (as it always had for Feasts of Three Readings--which had neither First or Second Vespers), and every day had Vespers and Compline of the day itself as its close. Major feasts, which now included all Sundays, kept their two Vespers. This change meant that some borrowing was necessary for the Magnificat antiphons of the new First Vespers of Sundays after Pentecost, and so provision was made for that.[38]

The system of collects for Mass and Office was simplified, and the anomaly of differing sets of collects for Mass and for Office was gone. And the total number of collects used would now be limited to three. This especially affected the period after Christmas, when the overlapping octaves of the feasts of the last week of December could result in as many as six collects. After such drastic changes, one further one was added. The old system of ranking feasts (made much more complicated during the reforms of Pius X), with its Totum Duplex (first and second class), Duplex, Semiduplex, and Simplex feasts, was swept away. From now on, there were to be only four catagories for days: called simply First Class, Second Class, and Third Class, while ferial days outside of special seasons comprised the Fourth Class.

Certain provisions that simplified rubrics went into force immediately.[39] These included the end of the practice of multiple collects at Requiem Masses, a vast reduction in the use of the Creed (previously said on most feasts of saints), and the end of varying Last Gospels. Now the Prologue of John was to be universal (except for the third Mass of Christmas). Finally, provision was made for celebration of Mass from the Commons on days of saints celebrated in the Office merely as a "memoria" with an extra collect. This introduced variety into the pruned-down Mass repertoire by reducing the number of days when the weekday Mass merely repeated the chants and readings of the previous Sunday. Finally, by a separate decree, the number of times when the Leonine Prayers could be dropped was increased.[40] These changes were provisional: a new calendar and set of rubrics were to be produced the next year. This would reduce the number of saint's days and reduce others in rank and make many other changes.

The reforms of 1961-1962 were the result of legislation from the General Chapter of the Order held at Bologna from 18-24 September 1961, which itself was responding to John XXIII's project to reform the Roman Rite rubrics and calendar.[41] This chapter requested the Master General to transmit to the Congregation of Rites reforms prepared by the liturgical commission and others requested by the provinces during preparation for the publication of new liturgical books. Changes in the calendar, described in part above as the result of earlier legislation, went into effect on 1 January 1961 in correlation to similar changes in the Roman Rite. This reform made official the new nomenclature for feasts and, in addition, reduced some old feasts of three readings to memoriae with just a collect. These feasts were mostly Marian feasts or occurred during the Octave of Christmas.[42] The logic here seems to have been to reduce the excess of Marian feasts and to rehabilitate the

Christmas Octave. Eight feasts were abolished outright or merged with other feasts.[43] In that case, the goal seems to have been to remove duplications and purge the calendar of legendary material.

Much of this legislation was dedicated to restoring or simplifying the Temporal Cycle.[44] This work was necessitated by the drastic reduction in the number of octaves during Paschaltide and after, and by the need to produce ferial offices to replace them. Ascension Time was created for the days after Ascension and new Sunday offices (or rehabilitated old ones) were provided for the "Green Sundays" after Trinity. The loss of the Sunday in the Octave of Epiphany was remedied by moving the feast of the Holy Family to that date. Along with these changes came a series of rubrical reforms related to them. Holy Innocents, which Dominicans had always observed somberly out of respect for the sorrow of the child martyrs' mothers, now got a Gloria, and its violet vestments were replaced by white. The legend-filled readings of eight feasts' second nocturns were replaced by those of the new Roman Office. Assumption lost its medieval allegorical Gospel of Mary and Martha, and the collects against pagans and schismatics received new, more polite, titles ("For Propagation of the Faith," "For Unity of the Church"). Finally, a new collect for the civil authorities replaced the old one "For the Emperor."[45] Certain remaining medievalisms were also addressed: superiors received the right to determine which little hour Mass would follow, thus solving the problem of penitential Mass after None.

In the middle ages, the responsories of Sunday Matins came in series known as "histories." Medieval piety considered these musical presentations of Old Testament narratives very important, and, if they were impeded by a feast overriding the Sunday, they were transferred to a day in the following week, lest they be lost. This practice was abolished as the histories had ceased to play a role in most friars' liturgical piety, and they were usually just recto-toned rather than being sung with their ancient Gregorian melodies. On the other hand, the melodic antiphons of the psalter were now to be sung before, as well as after, the psalms. The Litanies of the Rogation Days could now be done in vernacular--a somewhat odd place to introduce the common tongue, as the Litany response of "Ora pro nobis" was probably among the easiest for laity to learn.[46]

These changes in the calendar and rubrics were so numerous and so complex, that the Order's liturgist, Fr. Ansgar Dirks, provided a summary of them (correlating them with changes in the Roman Rite) so that friars could more easily make the necessary changes in their books.[47] Six months later the New Calendar and its rubrics were printed in toto in the Analecta, in a format that was easy to copy or cut out and insert into the Missal. It was too large to fit in the Breviary, but this was less pressing since a new edition of that book would come out by the end of the year.[48] This new calendar included one addition, the feast of the newly canonized St. Martin de Porres.[49] Perhaps the single most useful item in this material was Fr. Dirk's tables of concurrence and occurrence, which show which offices and Masses to use when there is a conflict of feasts.[50] This put a set of still very complex rubrics onto a single page in a convenient form.

One year later, Pope John XXIII's reforms of the Roman Rite Mass, issued in his decree Rubricarum Instructum (15 December 1960), were adapted for the Dominican Missal and put in force on 1 January 1961 along with the calendar by a comprehensive decree.[51] Aside from institutionalizing the changes made earlier for Holy Week and the calendar, which they repeat, these reforms mostly are fairly minor and mostly concern simplification of the rituals of the Solemn High Mass. The priest was no longer required to read the Epistle and Gospel quietly while they are sung by the subdeacon and deacon, something he had done at the sedilla (not at the altar), although he did continue to read quietly the Ordinary and Proper chants (nn. 477-78, p. 89). This restored the medieval practice. The replacement of the "Ite Missa Est" with "Benedicamus Domino" on minor feasts (when one of the minor hours followed immediately) was abolished, to be retained only if a procession was attached to Mass, as on Holy Thursday (n. 471, p. 87). Conversely, the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar were to be omitted when other rites preceded, as at the Easter Vigil or on Candlemas (n. 388, p. 75).

Most famously, this legislation suppressed the recitation of the Confiteor before the people's communion (n. 467, p. 87). The ancient Dominican Rite had no ceremony for people's communion (as it had no baptismal rite) since it was monastic in origin. The Confiteor before communion had been part of the friar's communion, and so it appeared in the 1933 Missal (without the Roman "Ecce Agnus Dei" and display of the host).[52] On an ad hoc basis, however, many provinces had simply adopted a version of the friars' communion, often adding elements from the Roman Rite such as the "Domine non sum dignus" on an ad hoc basis.[53] This Roman communion rite had been devised for use outside of Mass and later inserted after the priest's communion during earlier reforms that restored the people's communion during Mass. If the logic of this omission was that the Confiteor was an "accretion," then it would have been more logical not to introduce the "Ecce Agnus Dei" and its response, since these were a distinctively Roman practice, elaborated from the Roman priest's communion, and never a part of the Dominican Rite. This legislation made the Roman triple "Domine non sum dignus" official for the Order, and so it would remain till the abandonment of the Dominican Rite in 1969.

The rubrical changes promulgated were relatively minor, but two were quite radical. At Missae Cantatae, the Epistle could now be sung by a cleric instead of the priest. And more importantly, if he lacked musical ability, he could simply read the text. In the absence of a cleric, the priest could himself simply read the Epistle without chant (n. 479, p. 89--as in Rubricarum Instructum, n. 514). Although this concession did not yet affect the Solemn Mass (that would come later), it went totally against Dominican liturgical piety, in which sung Mass was a part of the choral obligation and, like the Office, to be sung in all its public parts. Allowing recitation of a public element during sung Mass was the first step toward the modern practice of the priest merely reading Low Mass with (often extraneous) songs interspersed as embellishment. Another provision specifically affected Low Mass: the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar could now be recited in pleno (loud enough for the people to hear). Although it was never mentioned in any Order legislation, this change is probably connected with the newly popular "Dialogue Mass," in which, the congregation recited not only the people's responses but also what had previously been, like the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, private dialogues between the priest and his ministers. Dialogue Mass was approved in 1958 by Pope Pius XII, but the practice was older and Dominicans had probably begun to use it by at least that date.[54] This legislation effectively regularized the practice. By this change, the distinct roles of the priest, his other ministers, and the congregation were becoming conflated and confused--in the name of participatio actuosa.[55]

It is of interest that the Dominican Rite, as in use in 1962, did not include the name of Joseph in the canon. As the liturgist Fr. Ansgar Dirks noted in his "Adnotations" to the Order's adoption of the new communion formula on 19 February 1964, it was only with the approval of that reform that the friars received verbal permission to include Joseph in the canon, a full two years after that change had been made in the Roman Rite.[56] Some, perhaps most, Dominican priests had already added the name of Joseph after the papal decree, wishing to conform to the practice of the Roman Church.[57]

The last item in the volume of the Analecta containing this legislation was a series of abstracts from "Veterum Sapientia," Pope John's directive that Latin instruction be improved and that seminary classes all be taught in Latin. It seems that, in spite of the rapid changes of the last few years, few anticipated abandonment of the Western Church's liturgical use of the Latin language.[58] But even before that year was out, the General Chapter of Bologna (18-24 September 1962) was drawing up requests for the next extensive rubrical revision on the missal.[59]

Part Two: Conciliar Adaptions, 1962-1965

With the publication of the new Breviary and the Calendar of 1962, projects to reform the liturgy began to change. With the exception of the reformed Easter Vigil, the reforms of the 1950s had been relatively minor affairs, even the calendar reforms were noticeable principally to priests, not the casual layperson at Mass. As changes increased in quality and importance during the early 1960s, expectation that major reforms were in the offing began to spread and, in liturgically conscious circles, proposals for greater simplifications became common. Friars assembled at the General Chapter of Bologna in September 1961 hAD produced a set of petitions for communication to the Congregation of Rites. Mostly these dealt with the distinctive aspects of the Dominican Solemn Mass. Proposed changes included having the Gospel read from the pulpit facing the people, instead of toward "liturgical north" (the left wall of the nave). They asked that the unfolding of the corporal during the Epistle be abolished and that the rite for incensing the friars be simplified. For Low Mass, they petitioned that the "Prayers at the Foot of the Altar" be said in a voice loud enough for the congregation to hear. Permission was sought also to write new prefaces (the rite at this time had only 16) and for dropping the "preces" at all hours except Lauds and Vespers.[60] An extraordinary General Chapter was held the next year at Toulouse in preparation for the Second Vatican Council.[61] It passed little legislation on liturgy, but heard reports on reform of the Missal.[62]

Changes in the posture of the friars in choir during Office did not require petitions to the Congregation of Rites as changes in the rite itself did, and, as requested by the General Chapter, such new norms were promulgated at the beginning of 1963.[63] These were extensive. The complex rules for raising and lowering the capuce at Mass and Office were reduced to raising it only when sitting. Abolished as well were the repeated uncoverings of the head at the Holy Names and at various verses in the Gloria--a practice that had paralleled the tipping of the biretta by secular priests. The profound bows at the names of Mary and Dominic became head-bows, and the (admittedly late medieval) head-bow at the mention of the Precious Blood disappeared entirely; bows by the choir at the blessing of the reader were gone. The rubrics did, however, preserve the bow at the Gloria Patri during the psalms and during collects up to "qui vivit" in the doxology. Bowing for the Confiteor at Prime and Compline was replaced by kneeling, which was considered more "penitential." At Mass, the ancient system of bows and prostrations on the forms by the friars in choir was replaced by standing facing the altar, sitting, and kneeling, using the same rubrics already used by lay people at High Mass. This had the effect of introducing kneeling during the Canon and erased the need to prostrate at the consecration. The elaborate medieval use of the body in prayer, so typical of medieval Dominican devotional works like "The Nine Ways of Prayer of St. Dominic," was now gone.[64] Finally, rubrics for conventual Low Mass were codified on the Roman model and "dialogue format" became the norm.

In the document itself, the authors spelled out the logic guiding these changes. Four principles were observed: 1. Simplification and conformity to the general practice of the Church; 2. preservation, where possible, of primitive Dominican practice; 3. greater uniformity among ceremonies; 4. greater conformity with the Roman Rite.[65] In practice, norms 1 and 4 predominated, and norm 2 seems to have had no influence on the legislation at all. In this, the new choir rubrics were a sign of what was to come: from this point forward the effects of reform were to be to erase what ever was distinctive in the Rite and conform to Roman practice. The pastoral problems of a distinct Rite in the midst of near universal Roman liturgy as well as hostility from the secular (and some Dominican) priests at Dominican "difference" would slowly be removed.[66]

Within months, approval from the Congregation of Rites arrived for revision of the rubrics of the Mass itself.[67] This document presented the old and new rubrics in parallel columns to facilitate the change over. The reforms removed much of what seemed "different" about the Dominican Mass, at least from the point of view of the Congregation. Among the most important changes, the priest no longer had capuce up going to altar; he prepared the chalice at the Offertory, not on arriving at the altar; the practice of bowing to the Crucifix was replaced by simple head bows; the very ancient practice of saying the historically late parts of the Roman Canon with hands folded is gone, replaced by the "orans" position throughout. In addition, the rite is simplified somewhat: Gone are the prayer "Actiones Nostras" on arrival at the altar, making the cross on the altar before kissing it, holding the chasuble up against the altar when kneeling, the distinction between the deacon's and priest's hand position when reading the Gospel; and finally the double sip of the Precious Blood at the priest's communion. Also gone is the practice of coming to the center of the altar for the genuflection during the Creed. The corporal is placed in the burse at the remaking of the chalice rather than having this postponed till after the Last Gospel. Positively, coherent rubrics are finally provided for the people's communion, and the Confiteor at that point is formally suppressed.[68] Other than the approval of new saints' days, the first part of the conciliar reform of the Dominican Rite was complete.[69]

Within six months of this legislation, Pope John XXIII died, on 3 June 1963. The Council was suspended for the papal election. It chose Cardinal Giovanni Montini of Milan as pope, who took the name Paul VI. These events interrupted the reform of the Rite underway in early 1963. The new pope was known to be sympathetic to the Liturgical Renewal and far less old-fashioned in his piety than John XXIII. The momentum of liturgical change, already strong, increased. This was capped by the promulgation of the Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium on 4 December 1963. Although in many ways a conservative document that called for the retention of Latin in worship (while allowing the readings in vernacular) and gave Gregorian Chant "pride of place" over all other forms of music, the document did propose simplification of rubrics and rites and revision of the Lectionary to provide for a greater selection of readings. It also called for extensive changes in the Office, in particular the replacement of the weekly psalter with a four-week one. In many ways more important in practice than the conciliar document was the motu proprio of the new Pope Paul VI, Sacram Liturgiam, issued on 25 January 1964.

Both documents were published in the Analecta in the spring of 1964.[70] On 15 March 1964, the new Master General, Fr. Aniceto Fernandez wrote to the provincials to clarify the meaning of the two documents for the Dominican liturgy.[71] In his letter he took pains to emphasize that Sacrosanctum Concilium had included the Dominican Rite when it said that "other rites legitimately recognized are to have equal right and honor" and that "it expects and wills that they be preserved in the future and in every way nourished." But, this did not exclude reforms.

The Order would have to find a way to assimilate these documents. To this end, a liturgical commission was created by the Master General on 24 June 1964.[72] Friars who lived through the period say that changes mostly were introduced as news of them appeared in the local Catholic press, much as they were made by secular clergy for the Roman Rite. Some priests acted more slowly, some anticipated future changes. Dominican liturgical experts such as Fr. William Bonniwell and Fr. Ansgar Dirks had, by this time, concluded that further attempts to preserve the Dominican liturgy and modify it to conform to the reforms affecting the Roman Rite had ceased to be worth the trouble. They urged the immediate adoption of the Roman liturgy.[73] This was a reversal of many Dominican liturgists' position in the 1940s, that "reform" of the Rite should be directed at restoring the thirteenth-century forms of Humbert, free of later accretions and Romanizations.[74] But opinion remained divided. Pressure for vernacularization, removal of monastic elements, and conformity to Roman use had by this time become pervasive. By this date reforms that would be institutionalized in the reforms of Paul VI seemed inevitable that a Dominican attempt to restore Humbert's Mass place the Order in a liturgical ghetto, practicing a museum piece Latin liturgy in a vernacular and Novus Ordo world. Very few friars would have found that outcome appealing. Even before the Commission was established, the Master General had permitted the vernacular as it was used in the Roman Rite. Furthermore, Prime was suppressed and the celebration of Lauds and Vespers were to be emphasized above the other hours.

These acts marked a significant shift. Within the monastic tradition, the hours, whether major or minor, served to sanctify the day (and night) by regular breaks for prayer. The emphasis on morning and evening prayers above the other hours represented the liturgists' hypothetical "cathedral office" where these hours were supposed to have alone been celebrated for the laity and were considered sufficient to sanctify the day. Like the loss of Prime, part of the monastic office from before St. Benedict, this represents a move toward a spirituality intended for lay people and the secular clergy. A similar intent marked the Master General's decision to delegate the power to dispense from attendance at choir office to the provincials, thus making it easier to grant.[75]

These acts of the Master General prepared the friars for the publication of reforms in the Solemn Mass that were already in preparation before Pope John's death. These were published in the April-June 1964 fascicle of the Analecta.[76] Some of these changes involved the texts used at Mass and, to some extent, represent the desire to restore primitive Dominican practice. For example, the Mass propers of St. Peter Chrysologus, St. Stephen, and St. Brigit in the 1933 Missal simply reproduced the Masses found in the respective commons of the Roman Missal. New Masses were now provided using Dominican propers and readings. Awkward Latin, perhaps the result of medieval copying errors, was corrected in a number of collects, and the Mass "Pro Infirmis," was restored to its original form in the Humbert Codex.

More extensive and less of a return to ancient sources were the changes in the rubrics of Solemn Mass.[77] Among the most important of these changes: the major ministers no longer recite the propers with the priest; kissing the priest's hand is suppressed; the deacon stops raising the priest's chasuble when he turns for the "Dominus Vobiscum"; servers leave their candles lighted for the whole service rather than snuffing and relighting them repeatedly (a medieval wax saving practice); and the humeral veil is now placed on the credence table, not the altar, after its last use. Most of this involved suppression of what had become, for most, fossilized remnants of medieval etiquette. Nor did these reforms change the rite in its substance, but one further change, the introduction of the new communion formula ("Corpus Christi. Amen.") and suppression of the Sign of the Cross over the communicant with the host affected every congregant going to communion. They now had to respond "Amen" before receiving. In his comments on this, Fr. Dirks reminded the friars that the petition to adopt this form, already in use in the Roman Rite, was in accord with the "participatio actuosa" called for by the Council.[78]

Pressure to conform to the Roman use continued, especially now that Dialogue Mass was becoming more and more common, and Dominican priests faced the issue of celebrating Mass in secular parishes where congregations (at least to some extent) had begun to answer the priest in the (Roman) Prayers at the Foot of the Altar. To address this problem, permission was granted in late 1964 for Dominicans to use the Roman Rite Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, even in the context of the Dominican Mass, if they celebrated in secular churches–-a permission extended, within a year, even to Masses in Dominican churches "when people are present."[79]

The flurry of new reforms that marked the fall of 1964, inspired by changes in the Roman Rite, and resulting in a new decree dated 30 December 1964, would delay the publication of the new Dominican Missal for six months.[80] That December decree repeats and codifies the reforms requested and instituted earlier in the year and adds to them. Most changes concern the Solemn Mass. The priest no longer recites the Ordinary and Proper quietly: "he may sing with the choir." The Secret is to be sung aloud, as is the entire Per Ipsum, during which the priest merely holds up the host and chalice, omitting the complicated series of crosses found in the medieval rite. The subdeacon no longer holds the paten covered with the humeral veil during the Canon--a rite going back to antiquity when it carried the people's food offerings and had to be removed from the altar to make room. The people, or at least those who sing, now join in the Lord's Prayer. This chant had been restricted to the priest since it was placed just after the Canon by Pope Gregory the Great. It was St. Gregory's desire that by saying the Lord's Prayer, one composed by Christ, the priest might with "divine words" ratify the Roman Canon he had just prayed, which was composed by men and so made up of mere "human words." The Embolism that followed the Pater Noster was now sung aloud. These reforms have a whole different logic than those that have preceded: they are intended to reduce the number of prayers said silently (and so facilitate "participatio actuosa" by making them heard) and increase the items sung in common by all (likewise increasing "participatio"). As to Low Mass, lectors and deacons may do the readings while the priest listens and these are to be read facing the people, the Gospel from the pulpit. Again, the principle seems to be "participatio," although here those who get to do more are all clerics.

It seems to have been anticipated that this legislation would complete the reform of the Dominican Mass in preparation for the publication of the new Missal in time for Lent of 1965. But yet another round of changes, again modeled on those in the mother rite, arrived on 13 February 1965.[81] It seems that this document includes further petitions from the Liturgical Commission that had not arrived in time for the December 30 decree or had somehow been omitted from it by the Congregation of Rites. Master General Fernandez had written to request them the very day after the earlier decree arrived.[82] Unlike the last set of changes, that emphasized increased participation, these are mostly ritual simplifications, removing gestures considered repetitive and meaningless to modern sensibilities. Gone are the head bows during the Gloria and Creed, save at the name of Jesus, as are those at the Gratias Agamus of the Preface and at the doxology of the Canon. All genuflections during readings and chants, save that in the Creed, are abolished. The communion verse and post-communion collect are read at the center of the altar, not at the side. The Signs of the Cross are gone from the end of the Creed and during the Sanctus, as is the one made with the paten during the Embolism. The procession in with the cross from the sacristy during the Creed, surely one of the more impressive "Gallican" aspects of the rite, is obsolete: the processional cross will now be kept at the credence table. Also gone by this time were the Last Gospel and the so-called Leonine Prayers after Low Mass, both optional in the Roman Rite since 1962. There was ever any Dominican legislation making them optional or dropping them, but the are absent from the 1965 Missal.[83]

The original promulgation date of the new Missal was to have been in February 1965, but the February rubrical changes delayed publication. Instead, on the 13 of that month, the Master General addressed a letter to the friars explaining the work of the Liturgical Commission, the new rubrics and reforms, and giving permission to introduce the vernacular into Masses with the laity.[84] He emphasized the importance of education in making the reforms effective and successful. The delays and slow process in reform had caused some to balk at the process and introduce changes on their own. Fernandez wrote:

Let the friars, especially those who are young, attend with a humble and patient spirit to the mind and will of the Church legislating changes in Sacred Liturgy as these pertain to the Church's authority. Henceforth, let no one proceed in these matters at his own will, often with detriment; rather the liturgy and its institution are to be performed under competent authority.[85]

The new rubrics of Mass were thus to go into effect on the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, 7 March 1965, even though the new Missal was still unavailable. Concelebration in the Roman Rite went into effect on Holy Thursday, 15 April 1965. Nothing was provided for this in the drafts of the new Missal. Rather than send them back for more revisions, the Master went ahead with publication of the text in hand and instructed the Order simply to start using the Roman forms of concelebration after they went into force, leaving implementation up to local superiors.[86] In May, the Master again wrote to the provinces apologizing for further delay and promising that the Missal would appear before summer.

Although its official publication date was 28 February 1965, the new Dominican Missal did not appear until fall of that year.[87] It conforms to all the directives of the past two years, so there is no need, with one exception, to describe its contents. That exception is the appearance, following the Dominincan Mass, of the Roman Ordo from Mass from the "Te igitur" of the Canon until the dismissal.[88] It has tabs for use, is printed in full format just as the Dominican Ordo, and has all the rubrics as they stood in 1965. There is no mention of this addition in any document published in the Analecta and nothing in the prefatory materials of the Missal itself, but it is obviously meant to allow the user to celebrate the Roman Mass, doubtless at Masses with the people. All that is lacking are the opening rites and the readings. The Prayers at the Foot of the Altar were usually done from memory and readings at public Low Masses were now generally in the vernacular using readings prepared under the direction of local ordinaries, these texts were unnecessary. Almost immediately in English speaking lands at least, as vernacular readings were introduced, lay readers, initially all men, were enlisted to proclaim them, so replacing the subdeacons and clerics to whom this work had previously been restricted.[89] This Missal provided for the desire of many friars involved in pastoral work and missions to celebrate the Roman Rite--and there was nothing to pervent a Dominican community or a friar celebrating privately from doing so. In this aspect the book is a compromise and also a sign of things to come.

This last Missal of the Order was indeed a beautiful and sumptuous book. Available in deluxe burgundy Morocco leather with gilt edges, as well as handsome red cloth, it has every appearance of being a book meant for the ages. Although the neo-gothic steel-cuts that decorated the 1933 Missal are gone, the use of large classical Roman type, the wide clean margins, and a full-page color reproduction of Fra Angelico's San Marco, Florence, fresco, St. Dominic at the Foot of the Cross, flanking the Canon more than compensate. Victorian sensibilities are gone; in their place is a modern, yet timeless, elegance. Considering it, one could easily forget that the consensus of the liturgists at its publication was that the Order should adopt the Roman Rite and move on. It is a monument to the momentum involved in major publishing projects, and to the efforts of that remaining group of friars who were determined to preserve the Dominican Rite.

Part III: Post-Conciliar Accommodations, 1965-1969

While the Missal of 1965 was still in press, the Order of Preachers was holding a General Chapter in Bogota, Columbia.[90] This chapter was the first that had to find ways of responding to the challenge of the Council and to institute the "aggiornamento" of the religious life that it called for. While earlier general chapters generally focused on issues of formation and religious life, this one turned attention to engagement with the world and the Order's apostolic mission. Some of its legislation on liturgy repeated earlier prescriptions: there was to be musical instruction in novitiates and houses of study (already required at the Chapter of 1955), while decisions on the celebration of minor Dominican blesseds was to be at the discretion of the provinces. While it never said so, in so many words, the thrust of its legislation was to de-emphasize monastic observance and accommodate Dominican training and life to pastoral concerns. The burdens of the Office and monastic practices were to be reduced. The chapter gave the master general authority to abolish Prime, which he did soon after.[91] Petitions were sent to the Congregation of Rites requesting that friars "in missions" might say only one of the three remaining little hours. In public liturgy, Lauds and Vespers were to be emphasized, as these were the prayers at which the laity were most likely to be present. Concelebration at the community Mass would be the norm, thereby relieving priests of the need to say a private Mass as well as attend that of the whole community. Another petition to the Congregation asked that individual houses be given the right to adopt the Roman Office in the vernacular, should they wish to do so. Finally, the Liturgical Commission, now under the presidency of Fr. Vincent de Couesnongle, was to draw up plans to reform liturgy so that it "match the actual experience of worship and spirituality."[92] This is an interesting comment and implies a theological reversal. Historically Dominicans considered the liturgical rites themselves to inform and shape the Dominican style of worship and spirituality, rather than considering liturgy as something distinct, that had to be conformed to spirituality. This change, hardly noticed at the time, was revolutionary.

During the next two years, the Order and the provinces struggled to enact reforms in discipline, life, and worship. The traditional lay brothers' habit was abolished so that all friars, priest or lay, would dress the same.[93] New prefaces were provided for the Mass following Roman models.[94] A supplement to the Breviary was published, including rubrical changes and new saints.[95] But perhaps the most revolutionary changes in this period involved the general introduction of the vernacular and the Romanization of the Dominican chant. In the wake of the council, the Congregation of Rites was barraged with questions and petitions from religious orders with choral obligation asking if they could institute a wholly vernacular Office and drop the use of Gregorian chant. Citing the conciliar decree preserving the use of Latin and chant in just such cases, the Congregation generally said no, but hedged this prohibition with so many exceptions that it ceased to apply in most cases. Clerics with choral obligation, like the Dominicans, could adopt vernacular in missionary lands, in churches engaged in pastoral ministry, and when lay people were present. The presence of people at conventual Masses (also supposed to be in Latin) justified readings in vernacular and for all parts of the Mass where this was already the case in Masses of the Roman Rite.[96]

These exceptions effectively answered the request of the Chapter of Bogota requesting use of the Roman Office in vernacular, and Master General Fernandez himself broadened permission for dropping Latin Office in a letter to the provinces of 25 September 1966. He spoke of the many complaints he had received about the continued use of Latin at prayer, especially from young friars ("praesertim apud juvenes") and the chaotic introduction of unauthorized vernacular texts. Arguing that community prayer "should be intelligible" (and so confessing the failure of Pope John XXIII's encyclical Veterum Sapientia), he regularized the situation by allowing conversion to vernacular Office at each house's discretion, in accord with the Congregation's current discipline. Perhaps recognizing that the Congregation's exceptions covered just about every case except private recitation of Office in non-pastoral houses, he went on to remind the friars that, for a clerical order, recitation of the Latin Office remained normative. He cited the papal letter to the general superiors of clerical religious orders of 15 August 1966 to that effect as his evidence. He hoped that friars would show respect for this papal command.[97]

But the dam had broken. Houses rapidly began to adopt the vernacular for Office. Some simply dropped the Dominican Office and began to use new vernacular Roman books.[98] Or, as was the case in the English speaking world, they began to use the vernacular versions of the Dominican Office that had appeared as congregations of sisters received permission for vernacular liturgy.[99] The liturgical situation remained confused and chaotic on the local level, and the Congregation of Rites issued a "monitum" on 14 December 1965 ordering religious to use only approved liturgical texts and make no changes without permission.[100] A period of experimentation began for the Office as translations were tried and dropped, music was composed or adapted, and different formats for prayer arranged.[101] For example, in the provinces of France a lectionary of Patristic reading for use at Office was compiled and published, but only in time for the adoption of the Roman Liturgy in 1969.[102]

As the wars over vernacularization of the Office raged, the Order's Liturgical Commission moved to "reform" the chant. The result was the new Regulae Cantus, promulgated in February of 1965.[103] With it came, finally, the publication of a Holy Week music book for use in choir to replace the long outdated materials from before the Council.[104] This new system of chant was to go into effect at the start of the 1965-1966 academic year, itself a sign that houses of study (except in mission lands) were among the few places where the vernacular was not already used (at least in theory). The new rules adopted the Solesmes method of singing (a nineteenth-century invention, never used by the Dominicans, whose chant followed a living oral tradition going back to the days of Humbert of Romans). These changes involved a whole new way of executing the psalm tones, the most important chants of the Office, which were now to be sung using the Benedictine method. In practice, adapting a tone to the words of each psalm had to become an unconscious habit for a religious to sing them properly. Abolition of the historic execution of the psalms, at a stroke, effectively reduced all friars to the level of novices who would have to learn how to sing the Office all over again. The master general recognized that this change would meet resistance. He wrote: "It might happen that not all friars will like this new method and system of singing, which is now a matter of public law and not a local option."[105] He expected immediate obedience. Those frustrated or unhappy should console themselves with the dictum of Humbert of Romans that friars should celebrate the Office and Mass the same way everywhere. That Humbert's dictum would also forbid vernacularization (which had the effect of excluding friars who did not know the local language) seems to have been lost on Master General Fernandez. This change in the chant certainly made the move to vernacular then underway far more attractive. Those attached to the ancient chant of the Order were now forbidden to sing it anyway.

As the Divine Office entered the vernacular virtually everywhere, and the Roman often took the place of the Dominican Breviary, the Dominican Mass underwent its last adaptions. These were meant to conform it as much as possible to the way the Roman Liturgy was performed in the parish churches. The first step in this direction came with a reply to a dubium presented to the Congregation of Rites asking if those using the Dominican Rite Mass might adopt and use the vernacular Roman lectionaries then becoming available in most places and whether the ad hoc new sets of weekday readings being produced under the direction of the bishops might be used.[106] The answer was yes: and that the Dominicans should follow the directives of the local bishops in doing this. As Dominicans could already use the Roman Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, this allowed the use of the whole Roman Foremass within the Dominican Rite. It also put the local bishop in a position of supervision over Dominican worship, something never before the case.

The next step was to conform the execution of the rest of the Dominican Mass ordo to the current practice in the Roman, which had just undergone further simplification under the terms of the Sacred Congregation of Rites' decree Tres abhinc Annos (29 December 1966). This was probably the single most extensive revision of the Roman Rite until the new Missal of Paul VI in 1970.[107] One senses that the changes were as much an attempt to get control over wild local experimentation as to reform the liturgy itself. With the document came a "dichiarazione" in Italian correcting a multitude of innovations and abuses introduced at the local level. These included celebrating Mass during meals in lay people's homes while seated at the table, celebrations where the priest wore lay clothes instead of vestments, replacing the texts of the Mass with privately composed or spontaneous prayers, and the introduction of secular songs in place of the traditional chants and hymns. The letter lamented that such practices "tend to desacralize the liturgy fatally."[108] The master general referred these documents to the Liturgical Commission of the Order, which replied that whatever provisions of it could be applied to the Dominican Mass should be. Acting on this advice, the master general petitioned the Congregation for permission to adopt the changes of Tres abhinc Annos. He soon received permission to do so and communicated that decision to the provinces.[109]

The effect of these changes was to introduce the rubrics that would become those of the Pauline Missal of 1970. The host would remain on the paten and priests would no longer keep their fingers together after touching it, all Signs of the Cross in the Canon, which is now aloud, are dropped save one, genuflecting is restricted to once at each elevation, and the altar is no longer kissed except at the beginning and end of Mass. The Roman Practice of holding the hands extended over the gifts at the words "Quam oblationem," something not done in the Dominican Rite, is now imposed. The fraction now follows the embolism and no Signs of the Cross are made over the chalice with the particle at the Pax. The prayer "Placeat," formally said quietly before the blessing, is dropped, although a priest may say it from memory on the way back to the sacristy from the altar. At this time also, portable altars were installed, allowing Mass facing the people, something again on which there was never any direct Dominican legislation. At the House of Studies of the Western Province U.S.A., for example, friars read in the San Francisco diocesan paper that altars were being turned around. That evening, in preparation for morning Mass, the house liturgist and some assistants moved the side altar of St. Rose of Lima from a side chapel into the space between the choir stalls. From then on it became the altar of sacrifice, and remains so, albeit slightly modified and moved, to this day.[110]

Although some houses attempted to find ways to do so, in the case of the Solemn Mass, this turning of the altar and the Canon recited aloud ultimately meant the ad hoc dropping of the complex movements of the major ministers, which no longer seemed to make sense in a Mass celebrated ad populum.[111] Master General Fernandez finally got permission to use the vernacular for all parts of the Mass and Office in 1967. He communicated the news to the provinces in a letter of 5 June 1967.[112] In it, he reminded the friars that this permission did not abrogate previous law as to the use of Latin in choir by clerics nor did it change Vatican II's directive to preserve and to privilege Gregorian Chant. This self-contradictory qualification to the permissions in the letter were doubtless intended as a sop to placate those attached to the Latin Office and chants. This letter would be the last piece of legislation affecting the Dominican Rite and its celebration.

The changes in the liturgical life of the friars in the period after the close of the Vatican Council were codified in the book of constitutions prepared during the General Chapter of the Order that met at River Forest near Chicago from August to September 1968. This was the first systematic revision of the Order's constitutions since that of 1954. The legislation emphasized the communitarian aspect of worship and the centrality of the Mass (which was to be concelebrated). It tended to place the Divine Office, expect perhaps Lauds and Vespers in a very secondary position. Emphasizing the communal quality of the Office, the new constitutions required all friars to attend Mass and all the Offices, thus abrogating the old "lector's privilege" which dispensed academics from much of the office on account of study. The assumption that the Office would be in vernacular underlay another new rule, also communitarian in flavor, that provided that the cooperator brothers (the new term for lay brothers) would sing along with the clerics. The spirit of these documents probably reflected quite accurately the liturgical life of friars in parochial and pastoral work outside of the houses of study. In a sense the most tradition-bound part of these new laws was the long section on suffrages for the dead (over a third of the total), which reflected the importance of such prayers in classical Dominican piety.[113] There was nothing in these Constitutions to suggest that the Order had ever possessed a liturgical rite of its own.

Acting on the recommendation of the Liturgical Commission of the Order under the presidency of Fr. Alfonso d'Amato of the Lombard Province, the chapter commissioned the Master General, Fr. Aniceto Fernandez, to request permission from what was now called the "Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship" to allow the Order to adopt the Roman Rite. He was also asked to create a new commission to examine the old liturgical and musical books of the Order to see what elements might be suitable for use with the new liturgy.[114] Fr. Fernandez convened an extraordinary session of his Council on 3 April 1969. At it, Fr. Ansgar Dirks, as representative of the Liturgical Commission, gave a report explaining what changes the adoption of the new Roman Rite then in preparation would entail, and the council voted to accept the commission's recommendation to adopt that Rite as that of the Order.[115]

The Master forwarded a petition to that effect to the Congregation. On 2 June 1969, permission was formally granted, to come into effect on 18 November 1969. Fr. Fernandez communicated this news by letter to the provincials of the Order. For the Roman Masses celebrated in Gregorian chant, the chants of the old Dominican Gradual might still be used, "until some other accommodation can be found." The new Roman Missal then in preparation might replace the old one when it came into effect on 30 November 1969, and its celebration in vernacular might begin as soon as bishops' conferences approved vernacular translations. Until those developments the older Roman Mass, as currently reformed, was to be celebrated, whether in Latin or the vernacular. Fr. Fernandez did especially emphasize that, according to the terms of the rescript, permission to use the old Dominican liturgy might be given by provincials to priests of their provinces and by the Master to priests of the whole Order.[116] But, for the Order as a whole, the Liturgy of Humbert was now a thing of the past.

NOTES

[1] Second rev. ed. (New York: Wagner, 1945). A good starting bibliography for publications and legislation on the Dominican liturgy from 1955 to 1976 may be found in Dominique Dye, "Relevé des modifications du rit O.P. et des indications pour la vie liturgique dans l'Ordre de 1955 à 1977," Analecta Sacri Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum [hereafer ASOFP], 43 (1977): 277-306. For the period 1946 to 1955 one may start by consulting the tables of contents of the numbers of the Analecta for that period.

[2] The section on parish work may be found in Acta Capituli Generalis Diffinitorum Sacri Ordinis FF. Praedicatorum Washingtonii: In Conventu Immaculatae Conceptionis a Die 18 ad Diem 25 Septembris 1949 (Rome: Curia Generalitia, 1949), nn. 121-31, pp. 73-75. For this reference and how it was understood, I thank Fr. Antoninus Wall, O.P.

[3] Sacra Congregatio Rituum [hereafter SCR], "Decretum de Solemni Vigilia Paschali Instauranda" (9 Feb. 1951), ASOFP, 30 (1951-1952): 135-36. This experimental permission was renewed by the SCR on 11 Jan. 1952, also giving the order permission to adopt it: ibid., pp. 225-26

[4] ASOFP, 30 (1951-1952): 438 (due out in 1953).

[5] See the service in the Dominican Missal then in use: Missale S. Ordinis Praedicatorum (Rome: Hospitio Magistri Ordinis, 1933), pp. 179-90.

[6] SCR, "De Factutativa Celebratione Instaurata Vigiliae Paschalis ad Triennuium" (5 Mar. 1952), ASOFP, 30 (1951-1952): 227-29.

[7] SCR, "Decretum Generale Quo Liturgicus Hebdomadae Sanctae Ordo Instauratur" (16 Nov. 1955), ASOFP, 32 (1955-1956): 227. The Dominican experimental period was extended by an SCR decree of 15 Jan. 1955: ASOFP, 32 (1955-1956): 35.

[8] SCR, "Decretum Generale Quo Liturgicus Hebdomadae Sanctae Ordo Instauratur" ("Maxima Redemptionis Nostrae"--16 Nov. 1955) to take effect on 25 Mar. 1956 (Palm Sunday), ASOFP, 32 (1955-1956): 227-36.

[9] Letter of Master General [hereafter MG] Michael Brown (1 Feb. 1957), ASOFP, 33 (1957-58): 32. SCR Decretum (9 Apr. 1957) finally approving Dominican drafts: ASOFP, 33 (1957-58): 143-50.

[10] Cantus Gregoriani ad Ordinem Hebdomadae Sanctae iuxta Ritum Ordinis Praedicatorum Instauratum (Rome: S. Sabina, 1959).

[11] Ordo Hebdomadae Sanctae iuxta Ritum Ordinis Praedicatorum Instauratum (Rome: S. Sabina, 1960). Promulgated by SCR on 4 Jun. 1959 (Prot. N. O. 152/959).

[12] E.g., Use of tabernacles not bolted down for Holy Thursday reposition reprobated: ASOFP, 33 (1957-58); SCR permission spreading out the rites of baptism over Lent: ASOFP, 35 (1961-1962): 654-55.

[13] Missale iuxta Ritum Ordinis Praedicatorum (Rome: S. Sabina, 1965), pp. 140-65.

[14] "De Ratione Psallendi Recto Tono," ASOFP, 31 (1953-1954): 49-58; cf. Humbert of Romans, Opera de Vita Regulari, ed. Joachim Joseph Berthier (Rome: A. Befani, 1888), 2: 100ff.

[15] A SCR decree (13 Jul. 1949), ASOFP, 29 (1949-1950): 139, had already allowed use of electronic organs.

[16] Acta Capituli Generalis Electivi S. Ordinis FF. Praedicatorum, Romae (11-17 Apr. 1955) (Rome: Curia Generalitia, 1955), n. 84-87. The chapter was also concerned about adding saints to the Litany without permission; they forbad this: ibid., nn. 78-79.

[17] Completorii Libellus iuxta Ritum S. Ordinis Praedicatorum (Rome: S. Sabina, 1957)

[18] ASOFP, 33 (1957-58): 480-92; and, continued, ibid., 34 (1959): 14-25

[19] SCR decree (N. 6113-57), ASOFP, 33 (1957-58): 83-84.

[20] SCR. decree (prot. num. 6307-59--4 Feb. 1959), ASOFP, 34 (1959-1960): 29-30.

[21] For "needs of the times" and liturgy, see Vatican II, Sacrosanctum Convilium, c. 79.

[22] ASOFP, 33 (1957-58): 292 (candles); ASOFP, 34 (1959-1960): 175 (habits): Acta Capituli Generalis Diffinitorum S. Ordinis FF. Praedicatorum, Calarogae (24-30 Sept. 1958) (Rome: Curia Generalitia, 1958) n. 116 (name of Sundays) and n. 143 (litany).

[23] Acta Capituli Generalis Diffinitorum S. Ordinis FF. Praedicatorum, Calarogae (24-30 Sept. 1958) (Rome: Curia Generalitia, 1958), n. 141 (no unauthorized changes) and n. 145 (liturgical commission).

[24] Events announced in ASOFP, 33 (1957-58): 441-51.

[25] For a description of this office, see W. Bonniwell, History, pp. [add cite].

[26] Breviarium iuxta Ritum Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum (Rome: S. Sabina, 1947). The litrugist of the Order, Fr. Ansgar Dirks, explained these changes in a series of note published in ASOFP, 27 (1945-1946): 71-73, 226-229; 28 (1947-1948): 25-27.

[27] ASOFP, 29 (1949-1950): 140; Acta Capituli Generalis Electivi S. Ordinis FF. Praedicatorum, Romae (11-17 Apr. 1955) (Rome: Curia Generalitia, 1955), n. 91; ASOFP, 31 (1953-1954): 144. Future chapters would continue to petition for more canonizations: Acta Capituli Generalis Diffinitorum S. Ordinis FF. Praedicatorum, Calarogae (24-30 Sept. 1958) (Rome: Curia Generalitia, 1958), n. 152: for Martin de Porres, and status as doctor of church for Vincent Ferrer and Antoninus of Florence.

[28] ASOFP, 32 (1955-1956): 50-61.

[29] See on this new Breviary, Ansgar Dirks, "De Nostris Libris Liturgicis," ASOFP, 29 (1949-1950): 30. A new Compline book with music is also announced for 1950 to replace the old one

[30] SCR Rescript (Prot. N. 6096/57.), ASOFP, 33 (1957-58): 29-30.

[31] SCR Rescript (N. 6112-57), ASOFP, 33 (1957-58): 30-31.

[32] ASOFP, 34 (1959-1960): 105-06.

[33] Acta Capituli Generalis Electivi S. Ordinis FF. Praedictorum, Romae (11-17 Apr. 1955) (Rome: Curia Generalitia, 1955), n. 94.

[34] SCR decree (Prot. N. o.14-957), ASOFP, 33 (1957-58): 33.

[35] SCR decree (Prot. N. o.152-959--2 Dec. 1959), ASOFP, 34 (1959-1960): 246.

[36] "De Rubricis ad Simpliciorem Formam Redigendis Secundum Ritum Ordinis Praedicatorum" (approved 4 Mar. 1959), ASOFP, 34 (1959-1960): 100-07.

[37] ASOFP, 35 (1961-1962): 39 (n. 177).

[38] ASOFP, 34 (1959-1960): 106-107.

[39] SCR Decretum "A Nonnullis Locorum" (9 March 1960), ASOFP, 34 (1959-1960): 435. By making the prayers optional when there was a sermon or dialogue Mass this effectively made them optional (and so omitted in practice) on all Sundays and holy days.

[40] Acta Capituli Generalis Provincialium S. Ordinis FF. Praedicatorum, Bononiae (18-24 Sept. 1961) (Rome: Curia Generalitia, 1961), esp. nn. 147-175, pp. 95-101 "De Re Liturgica."

[41] "Variationes in Calendario," ASOFP, 35 (1961-1962): nn. 6-7, pp. 94-95. Feasts affected were: St. George, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, The Stigmata of St. Francis, Our Lady of Mercy, St. Thomas Becket, St. Silvester, and the Compassion of the Virgin Mary.

[42] Ibid., n. 8, p. 95: Chair of Peter at Rome and Chair of Peter at Antioch (merged), Invention of the True Cross (May 3), St. John before Latin Gate, The Apparition of St. Michael,

[42] "Variationes in Officium de Tempore," nn. 18-32, ASOFP, 35 (1961-1962): 96-101.

[44] "Variationes in Proprio Sanctorum" and "Variationes in Communi Sanctorum," ASOFP, 35 (1961-1962): 102-105 (Matins readings suppressed for Conversion of St. Paul, Purification of Virgin, The Crown of Thorns, Vigil of Sts. Peter and Paul, St, Irenaeus, St. Michael the Archangel, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Raphael; ibid., n. 43, p. 102 (Holy Innocents); ibid., n. 52, p. 104 (Assumption); ibid., pp. 105-06 (collects).

[45] ASOFP, 35 (1961-1962), nn. 174-175, p. 39 (antiphons); ibid., n. 212, p. 44 (responsories); ibid., n. 85, p. 19 (litanies).

[46] "Variationes in Breviario et Missali O.P. ad Normam Novi Codicis Rubricarum," ASOFP, 35 (1961-1962): 94-109.

[47] SCR, "Instructio de Calendariis Particularibus" (14 Feb. 1961), ASOFP, 35 (1961-1962): 213-225, is the promulgation;

[48] A third-class feast for Bl. Diana, Cecilia, and Amata (9 June) would be added by the end of the year: SCR decree (Prot. N. o.92-962), ASOFP, 35 (1961-1962): 649

[49] ASOFP, 35 (1961-1962): 91-92. This decree also provides that the requirement of reciting the antiphons before and after the psalms in the Office as required by the new Roman rubrics was dispensed until the new Dominican Breviary was published.

[50] ASOFP, 35 (1961-1962): 1-4, reprints "Rubricarum Instructum" (SCR Prot. N. O. 126/960--21 Jul. 1960). The Dominican adaption is "Rubricae Breviarii et Missalis Iuxta Ritum Ordinis Praedicatorum," pp. 5-106, which Browne sent for approval to the Congregation on 25 Jul. 1960.

[51] Missale iuxta Ritum S.O.P. (1933), p. 45.

[52] E.g., the Eastern Province in the U.S.A. See William Bonniwell, Dominican Ceremonial for Mass and Benediction (New York: Comet Press, 1946), pp. 138-39. At this date the Roman practice of reciting the "Domine non sum dignus" was still not used in the Dominican Rite. But, by the late 1950s, it was in use, at least in the Eastern Province, as can be seen in a hand missal produced there for lay use: The Saint Dominic Missal (New York: St. Dominic Missal, 1957).

[53] Experiments with Dialogue Mass go back to at least the 1930s. Pius XII approved it in "Musica Sacra et Sancta Liturgia" (3 Sept. 1958).

[54] Fr. Dirks borrowed the phrase from the instruction "Musica Sacra et Sacra Liturgia (3 Sept. 1958), in ASOFP, 35 (1961-1962): 50: "fidelium actuosa participatione fusius actum est."

[55] ASOFP, 36 (1963-1964): 485: "Inde adhinc fere duos annos factum est nomen S. Ioseph Canoni Missalis nostri inserendum, sed tunc gratia 'viva voce' concessum est." St. Joseph's name was inserted into the Roman Canon by papal motu proprio on 13 November 1962. Joseph's name entered the Roman Missal issued on Nov. 13, 1962 in accord with the SCR decree "Novo Rubricarum Corpore" of 23 Jun. 1962--a text never printed in ASOFP as no formal petition was made by the Order to adapt its contents.

[56] Oral communication of Fr. Albert Gerald Buckley, O.P., of the Western Province, U.S.A. (11 Aug. 2007).

[57] ASOFP, 35 (1961-1962): 657-82: reprints those parts of Veterum Sapientia (22 Feb. 1962) that would effect Dominican education.

[58] Acta Capituli Generalis Provincialium S. Ordinis FF. Praedicatorum, Bononiae (18-24 Sept. 1961) (Rome: Curia Generalitia, 1961), n. 153-58.

[59] Acta Capituli Generalis Provincialium S. Ordinis FF. Praedicatorum, Bononiae (18-24 Sept. 1961) (Rome: Curia Generalitia, 1961), n. 153-58, 165-173.

[60] Acta Capituli Generali Electivi Sacri Ordinis FF.

[61] This originated with the commission to prepare a replacement for the 1933 Missal: Acta Capituli Generalis Electivi S. Ordinis FF. Praedicatorum, Romae (11-17 Apr. 1955) (Rome: Curia Generalitia, 1955), n. 90; whose tasks were later expanded: Acta Capituli Generalis Diffinitorum S. Ordinis FF. Praedicatorum, Calarogae (24-30 Sept. 1958) (Rome: Curia Generalitia, 1958), n. 162, to include reforming the role of the deacon at Solemn Mass.

[62] "Schema Simplificationis Caeremoniarum in Choro Servandum," ASOFP, 36 (1963-1964): 54-62 (this is the Jan-Mar. fasc. of 1963), issued in accord with n. 137 of the General Chapter of Toulouse (1962). The commentary of Fr. Ansgar Dirks is found on pp. 58-62.

[63] On this work and for a translation, see The Nine Ways of Prayer of Saint Dominic, ed. and trans. Simon Tugwell (Dublin: Dominican Publications, 1978).

[64] Ibid., p. 54 "Institutum Liturgicum proposuit schema simplificationis caeremoniarum in choro servandum, ita ut: 1. simplificationes legibus ecclesiasticis vel usui generali Ecclesiae non sint contrariae. 2. In quantum fieri possit, serventur usus nostri primitivi. 3. Augeatur cohaerentia inter caeremonias. 4. Augeatur conformitas cum usu generali Ecclesiae, id est cum Ritu romano."

[65] All priests consulted during the research for this essay commented on the secular clergy's dislike for Dominican "singularity."

[66] SCR, "Diversae Variationes in Missae Rubricis" (Prot. N. o.42-963--3 Apr. 1963), ASOFP, 36 (1963-1964): 171-180.

[67] Ibid., 178-79.

[68] The SCR approved these calendar changes: new feasts of blesseds: Bl. Peter Sanz et companions (3 June); Bl. Ignatius Delgado and companions (11 July); Bl. Joseph Melchior (27 Jul.) and B. Francis de Posadas (20 Sept). St. Catherine of Siena raised to a Class I feast, Raymond of Penyafort to second class. See ASOFP, 36 (1963-1964): 296-97. Provision was also made for a Votive Mass of the Virgin and for the readings of St. Martin de Porres: ASOFP, 36 (1963-1964): 394-95 (readings on pp. 408-13).

[69] ASOFP, 36 (1963-1964): 333-67.

[70] "Litterae de Sacra Liturgia," ASOFP, 36 (1963-1964): 404-05" "Sacrosanctum Concilium declarat se omnes ritus legitime agnitos aequo iure et honore habere eosque in posterum servari et omnimode foveri velle atque exoptat."

[71] Its members were Chrysostom Vijverberg (praeses), Joseph Bernal, William Bonniwell, Ansgar Dirks, Louis Gignac, Pierre-Marie Gy, Damien Govert, Leopold Jager, Paulinus Miller, Aimon Rouget, Antonino Silli, Antonin Vismans: "Commissionis de Re Liturgica Instituto," ASOFP, 36 (1963-1964): 661.

[72] Oral communications of Fr. Antoninus Wall, O.P. (ordained 1950), Fr. Samuel Parsons, O.P. (ordained 1957), and Fr. Albert Gerald Buckley, O.P. (ordained 1957), 8-12 August 2007. All of the Western Dominican Province, U.S.A. Fr. Bonniwell describes decision that the Order should abandon the rite, and the consternation it caused Cardinal Browne at a meeting of Dominican liturgists to discuss that question during the Council: see Interview with Dominican friar Fr. William Bonniwell, O.P. (1886-1984) [Videotape],interview by Fr. Antoninus Wall, O.P., filmed by Gavin Colvert (1982), Archives of the Western Dominican Province and in personal possession of Fr. Wall.

[73] E.g., W. Bonniwell, History of the Dominican Liturgy, p. 374: "It is therefore to be hoped that not only will the rite of the Order of Preachers be safeguarded against further losses, but that future revisions will efface the blemishes it has received in modern times."

[74] ASOFP, 36 (1963-1964): 309. To some extent the cutting down of the Office was also behind the abrogation of the reform which provided that antiphons be recited before and after every psalm: SCR letter (Prot. n. 117-960--6 Aug. 1964), ASOFP, 36 (1963-1964): 653, although this also restored an older practice.

[75] SCR Decree (Prot. N. o.65-963--30 May 1963), SCR decree (Prot. N. o.11-964--19 Feb. 1964) p. 470-74, 477-84; with commentary by Ansgar Dirks, ibid., 474-77.

[76] Ibid., pp. 477-84.

[77] SCR rescript (Prot. N. o.11-964--19 Feb. 1964), ASOFP, 36 (1963-1964): "Quia decretum de nova formula in sacra communionis adhibenda valet pro solo Ritu Romano, superioribus

[78] SCR decree (Prot. n. o.104-964--24 Nov. 1964), ASOFP, 37 (1965-1966): 61; extended to Dominican Churches in SCR decree (Prot. n. o.29-965--8 May 1965): 165.

[79] "Normae Ritus Ordinis Dominicani Menti Constitutionis De Sacra Liturgia et Instructionis S. R. C. Aptatae." (Port. n. o.124-964--30 Dec. 1964), ASOFP, 37 (1965-1966): 55-57.

[80] SCR "De Aliis Mutationibus in Rubricis Missalis Ordinis Praedicatorum" (Prot. N. o.17-965--13 Feb. 1965), ASOFP,

[81] "Addenda Litteris Nostris Instaurationem Liturgiae Die 31 Decembris 1964 Datis," ibid., pp. 82-85.

[82] This certainly reflects their suppression for the Roman rite in March 1965, while the new missal was still in press: SCR (Consilium) "Instruction on Inter Oecumenici for the

[83] ASOFP, 37 (1965-1966): 75-85.

[84] ASOFP, 37 (1965-1966): 166: Humili tamen et patienti animo, fratres, praesertim iuvenes, attendant ad mentem et voluntatem Ecclesiae, statuentis Sacrae Liturgiae moderatio ad Ecclesiae auctoritatem pertinent; nemo proinde alius in hac re suo marte procedat, cum detrimento, saepius, ipsius Liturgiae eiusque instaurationis a competenti auctoritate peragendae..

[85] "De Concelebratione Missae," ASOFP, 37 (1965-1966): 166.

[86] Missale iuxta Ritum Ordinis Praedicatorum (Rome: S. Sabina, 1965), p. iii.

[87] Ibid., pp. 1*-15*, which follow p. 347; numbering resumes with p. 347 after p. 15*. This Roman material is an insert.

[88] The Order issued no explicit legislation on the use of lay readers. Fr. Fabian Stanley Parmisano, O.P. (oral communication of Aug. 16, 2007), a priest ordained in 1953, described the introduction of this practice in the Western Dominican Province in 1966. It was inspired by the introduction of lay readers in the Roman rite during the previous year. Women readers seem to have appeared somewhat after, but female altar servers did not appear until the 1970s, considerably after the abandonment of the Rite.

[89] Acta Capituli Generalis Diffinitorum Sacri Ordinis FF. Praedicatorum, Bogotae (15-23 Iulii 1965) (Rome: Curia Generalitia, 1965).

[90] Master General's letter (Prot. N. 7/65): ASOFP, 37 (1965-1966): 301.

[91] Ibidem.

[92] Letter of the Master: ASOFP, 37 (1965-1966): 306. This change had been enacted by the General Chapter of Bogota, n. 198.

[93] Allowed by permission of SCR Prefect Cardinal Arcadio Larrana: ASOFP, 37 (1965-1966): 425.

[94] Supplementum Breviarii Ordinis Praedicatorum (Rome, 1966).

[95] SCR "Instructio de Lingua in Celebrandis Officio Divino et Missa Conventuali aut Communitatis apud Religiosos Adhibenda." ASOFP, 37 (1965-1966): 421-24.

[96] "Litterae de Re Liturgica" (25 Sept. 1966), ASOFP, 37 (1965-1966): 662-64.

[97] As happened eventually in France, where permission to use the Roman Breviary in French was granted. See "Concession de l'usage de l'edition française du nouveau Bréviaire romain dans les provinces dominicaines de langue française," Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship decree (Prot. N. 979/69), Notitiae, 5 (1969): 364.

[98] The English Office according to the Dominican Rite was prepared and published by Dominican Sisters in Ireland: Breviary According to the Rite of the Order of Preachers (Dublin: St. Saviours, 1967).

[99] (Prot. N. 5821/64) ASOFP, 37 (1965-1966): 425.

[100] Petitions to the Master General to get retroactive permission for the experimentation already underway, but the Congregation, deferred from giving permission (or forbidding it) on the grounds that they were about to request input from all major superiors about the effectiveness of the experiments that they had already introduced: SCR "Communicatio Rev.mo P. Magistro Ordinis" (Prot. n. 549/69--24 Feb. 1969), ASOFP, 39 (1969-1970): 130.

[101] Lectionaire patristique dominicain, 3 vols. (Prouille-Fanjeaux: n.p., 1969-1970).

[102] Tonorum Communium iuxta Ritum Ordinis Praedicatorum Regulae (Rome: S. Sabina, 1965).

[103] Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae iuxta Ritum Ordinis Praedicatorum (Rome: S. Sabina, 1965); it went into force on 2 Feb. 1965.

[104] "De Opusculo 'Toni Communes,'" ASOFP, 37 (1965-1966): 227-28. "Fieri potest ut nonnulli Fratribus modus ac ratio

[105] "Consilium ad Exsequendam Constitutionem de Sacra Liturgia," ASOFP, 37 (1965-1966): 427.

[106] This document was included in ASOFP, 38 (1967-1968): 216-22.

[107] "Tendono fatalmente a dissacrare la liturgia."

[108] SCR "Novae Variationes ad Executionem Constitutionis de Sacra Liturgia (prot. N. O.57-967--7 Jun. 1967); A. Fernandez, "Litterae ad Priores Provinciales de Re Liturgica" (7 June 1967), ASOFP, 38 (1967-1968): 247-51.

[109] Oral communication of that liturgist, Fr. Samuel

[110] Those interested in local experimentation on liturgy within the order after 1969 might begin by consulting Cidominfor-IDI, the Dominican Order's newsletter which began publishing reports on local experimentation in that year. At the Western Province USA House of Studies, the liturgical commission drew up a set of rubrics for solemn Mass facing the people, but they were dropped almost immediately. The rubrics may be found in "Rubrics for a Solemn Mass of the Dominican Rite," Oakland CA: Western Dominican Province Archives, box VII.100A. They are undated but probably date to the 1966-67 academic year.

[111] "Litterae ad Provinciales de Lingua Vernacula Adhibenda in Celebratione Divini Officii et in Missa Conventuali" (prot. n. 16259-67--11 June 1967), ASOFP, 38 (1967-1968): 315.

[112] Liber Constitutionum et Ordinationum Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum (Rome: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1969), issued on 1 November 1968, esp. nn. 56-75 "De Sacra Liturgia et Oratione," pp. 41-46. Fr. Alfonso d'Amato explained the spirit of this legislation in the section "De S. Liturgia et Oratione" of the "Presentatio Textuum Novarum Constitutionum ab Unoquoque Diversarum Commissionum Praeside," ASOFP 39 (1969): 36-38. I have followed this exposition in my comments on the new constutions.

[113] Acta Capituli Generalis Provincialium Ordinis FF. Praedicatorum, River Forest (30 Aug.-24 Oct. 1968) (Rome: Curia Generalitia, 1968), "De Liturgia," nn. 56-62. In 1973 a liturgical commission of the Order considered those elements of the Dominican rite should be preserved within the context of the New Roman Rite. It concluded that "it could in no way be asserted that the Order had lost its own rights regarding the Missal and Breviary" and other liturgical books. On this project, see Dominique Dye, "Le Rit Dominicain à la suite de la réforme liturgique de Vatican II," ASOFP, 43 (1977): 193-275, and Vincenzo Romano "The Rite of Profession of the Order of Preachers," http://www.australia.op.org/texts/romano_prof.doc (accessed 8/9/2007). This project would finally result in the Proprium Missarum Ordinis Praedicatorum, 2 vols. (Rome: S. Sabina, 1982-85), which provided propers for the Office in the first, and for the Missal and Lectionary in the second volume. No volume of the Dominican elements for Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, or funerals ever appeared.

[114] Ansgar Dirks, "Relatio Consilio Generali Extraordinario Oblata de Novo Ordine Missae," ASOFP, 39 (1969-1970): 572. In it he assured the assembled friars that "experti omnes, reprehensionibus minoris momenti neglectis, novam dispositionem laudant" and cites as evidence articles from La Maison-Dieu and La rivista liturgica, and he reminds the friars that not to follow the changes (e.g. omitting the prayer for peace after Embolism) is to neglect the pastoral welfare of the people.

[115] Ibid., pp. 289-90: "Etiam tamen notandum quod iuxta Rescriptum S. Congregationis "Pro Cultu Divino" diei 2 junii