Yesterday the French journal, L'homme nouveau, published an interview Monsignor Guido Pozzo, Secretary of the Ecclesia Dei Commission.
Much of what is said in this interview has been commented on before; the situation as it relates to the implementation of the motu proprio, the need for all to adopt a hermeneutic of continuity both in relation to the sacred liturgy and the Second Vatican Council, and so on. Accordingly, we shall leave those aside with these quick mentions. However, there were two questions which seemed to be of some interest to translate; the first being a comment on the long-expected interpretive document from the Ecclesia Dei Commission, and the second looking at the broader liturgical picture as it relates to the reform of the reform and how that relates to the motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum in Msgr. Pozzo's view.
Here are those excerpts in an NLM translation.
An interpretative document on the motu proprio was announced several months ago. Will it appear soon?
In Article 11 of the motu proprio it said, amongst other things, that "the Commission will have the form, duties and norms that the Roman Pontiff wishes to assign it." An instruction should follow at the appropriate opportunity to specify certain aspects concerning the competencies of the Pontifical Commission and the application of several normative provisions. That project is being studied.
[...]
On a more general note, how does your work fit in as part of a "reform the reform"?
The idea of a "reform of the liturgical reform" has been suggested on several occasions by the then Cardinal Ratzinger. If I recall correctly, he added that this reform would not be the result of the administrative work of a commission of experts, but it would require maturation in the life and very whole reality connected with the Church.
I think that at the point where one arrived from there, it is essential to act in the line which the Holy Father indicated in the explanatory letter of motu prorio on the use of the Roman liturgy prior to the reform of 1970, namely that "the two forms of usage of the Roman Rite can be mutually enriching" and that "what was sacred to previous generations remains sacred and great for us, and not a thing suddenly entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It is good for all of us to preserve the riches which have grown in faith and prayer of the Church, and give them their proper place. " Thus spoke the Holy Father.
To promote this line then means to contribute indeed to this maturation in the life and the liturgical conscience, which could be, in a not too distant future, a “reform of the reform”. What is essential today is to recover the deeper sense of the Catholic liturgy, in the two uses of the Roman missal, in the sacred character of the liturgical action, in the centrality of the priest as mediator between God and the Christian people, in the sacrificial character of the Holy Mass as an essential dimension from which derives the dimension of communion.
(This interview was found via the Italian blog, Messa in Latino.)
