In his homily, Cardinal Burke brings up several a points of interest, including considerations on St. Cecilia, the sign of the cassock, and the ministry of cardinals.
In particular, however, NLM readers will surely be interested in what the Cardinal had to say on the matter of the sacred liturgy and the reform of the reform:
The Cardinal today is called, in a special way, to assist the Roman Pontiff in announcing all of the truths of the faith, but, in a particular way, the truth regarding the natural moral law to be observed for the good of all in society.
There are so many other aspects of the Petrine ministry of Pope Benedict XVI, to which a Cardinal must attend and be ready to offer his assistance to the Vicar of Christ on earth.
I think also of the tireless work of our Holy Father to carry out a reform of the post-Conciliar liturgical reform, conforming the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy to the perennial teaching of the Church as it was presented anew at the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, so that in every liturgical action we may see more clearly the action of Christ Himself who unites heaven and earth, even now, in preparation for His Final Coming, when He will inaugurate "new heaven and a new earth," when we will all celebrate the fullness of life and love in the liturgy in the heavenly Jerusalem. The Cardinal today is called, in a special way, to assist the Successor of Saint Peter, in handing on, in an unbroken organic line, what Christ Himself has given us in the Church, His Eucharistic Sacrifice, "the font and highest expression of the whole Christian life." The right order of Sacred Worship in the Church is the condition of the possibility of the right order of her teaching and the right order of her conduct.
