Important: Remarks of Pope Francis on the Liturgy

“Settimo Cielo:Tra confidenze ed esorcismi un papa tutto da decifrare” by Sandro Magister

(Translated by Fr. Richard Cipolla)

Among the Italian bishops who went to Frances for the “ad limina” visit, those from Puglia were the most talkative with reference to what was said by the Pope. There was not only the “revelation”—later in part contradicted by Fr. Federico Lombardi — by the bishop of Molfetta, Luigi Martella, on the two encyclicals that are “in transit”: the first, on Faith, signed by the actual Pope but written by his predecessor, who is probably finishing it up in his place of solitude at this very time. And the second, on Poverty, entirely the work of the reigning Pope.

There were also indiscretions regarding the Liturgy. The Archbishop of Bari, Francesco Cacucci, led off when he declared on Vatican Radio that Pope Francis had exhorted the bishops to “live in rapport with the Liturgy with simplicity and without useless additions”.

Then it was the turn of the bishop of Conversano and Monopoli, Domenico Padovano, who recounted to the clergy that the Apulian bishops had complained to the Pope about the state of division created within the Church by the champions of the Mass in the old rite. And what, may we ask, did the Pope reply to them? According to what was related by Msgr. Padovano, Francis urged them to be on guard against the extremists of certain traditionalist groups, but also to make Tradition a treasure for themselves and to make it live in the Church along with innovation. To explain this last point, the Pope had brought forth this very example.

“Do you see? They say that my master of papal ceremonies (Guido Marini) is of a traditionalist stamp. And many, after my election, asked me to relieve him of this post and to replace him. I replied, No, for the very reason that I myself can benefit from his traditional learning and at the same time he can take advantage, in the same way, of my more freed-up approach.”

If these words are authentic, they are instructive about the liturgical spirit and style of celebration of the present Pope. But it is not certain in what sense the Apulian bishops interpreted his words.

Another one of them, from Cerignola and Ascoli Satriano, Felice Di Molfetta, formerly president of the Commission of the Italian Bishops Conference for the Liturgy, in a message to his diocese wrote among other things: “ I suffered no lack of joy with the Pope by reason of the style of celebration that he took on; a style inspired by the ‘noble simplicity’ blessed by the Council, manifesting particular attention to the subject of our conversation and about which there was no lack on his part of remarks of a deep pastoral and theological nature, shared by all of the brothers present. I enjoyed so much the interwoven conversation, being myself engaged in a life of teaching liturgical and sacramental theology; in grasping the interest of the Holy Father in this vital aspect of the Petrine ministry, exercised by him in the daily celebrations at Santa Marta as well as in the solemn celebrations in the Vatican Basilica such as at the canonization of 800 martyrs of Otranto: a celebration restrained in time and in the totality of its ritual unfolding.
Pope Francis, in the light of certain phenomena of the recent past in which there have been seen on the liturgical field not a little drifting from the course, urged us bishops, giving some concrete examples, to live in rapport with the action of the liturgy, inasmuch as it is the work of God in the presence of true believers, beyond every pompous ceremonial, fully aware that the ‘noble simplicity’ of which the Council speaks, is not a botched up affair, but Beauty, beauty with a capital ‘B’”

But to assign a role to Pope Francis among the ranks of the progressives even in the area of the Liturgy is at a minimum hazardous. In particular, it is not clear at all that the Pope is hostile to the liberalization of the Mass of the old rite, decided by Benedict XVI in the Motu Proprio “Summorum Pontificum” in 2007. While it is certain that Msgr. Di Molfetta was in that same year one of the most combative critics of that Motu Propio, before and after its publication. He deemed the Mass in the old rite “incompatible” with that of the post-Conciliar rite and he did everything he could, without success, to have the CEI issue an ‘interpretative note – in a restrictive sense – on Summorum Pontificum.

A postscript: The presumed “exorcism” that Francis is said to have performed on Pentecost, in St. Peter’s square is in reality how he ordinarily does things, in a context that has nothing to do with the devil. For example, Francis, some days after at a morning Mass at S. Marta, met for the first time the director of Civiltà Cattolica, Padre Antonio Spadaro, who was present at the Mass. The Jesuit said ”When I asked Pope Francis for his blessing, he laid his hands on my head and made the sign of the Cross. This gesture was not unlike that which he had made on the young man whom some presumed to be possessed by a demon. For me, it was a simple, natural gesture of prayer and blessing”.

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