The cardinal who heads the highest judicial tribunal in the Catholic Church has linked liturgical abuse to “moral corruption” and “a levity in catechesis” he described as “shocking”.
Cardinal Raymond Burke said the deficiencies in catechesis had “left generations of Catholics ill-prepared to deal with the challenges of our time by addressing the Catholic faith to those challenges”.
Cardinal Burke, who is prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, was interviewed by the Zenit news agency.
When the interviewer remarked that Pope Benedict XVI said once “that the crises we see in society today can be linked to problems of the liturgy”, Cardinal Burke replied: “Yes he was convinced of that and I would say, so am I. It was, of course, more important that he was convinced of it, but I believe that he was absolutely correct.”
Comparing Pope Francis to Pope Benedict, the cardinal said Pope Francis has not yet had the opportunity to teach in an authoritative way about the liturgy, “but in the things he has said about the sacred liturgy I see a perfect continuity with Pope Benedict XVI”.
Questioned on the importance of a sound understanding of the liturgy, Cardinal Burke said it is “the most important area of catechesis: to understand the worship accorded to God”.
“The first three commandments of the Ten Commandments are to do with this right relationship to God, especially with regards to worship,” he added. “It’s only when we understand our relationship with God in offering worship that we also understand the right order of all the other relationships we have.”
He denounced as “a Communist misconception” the argument that the liturgy is mostly about aesthetics and not as important as good works done in faith.
“First of all, the liturgy is about Christ,” he said. “It’s Christ alive in his Church, the glorious Christ coming into our midst and acting on our behalf through sacramental signs to give us the gift of eternal life to save us. It is the source of any truly charitable works we do, any good works we do.”
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Image: CBCP for Life
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