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Cardinal John Dew, the Archbishop of Wellington, has been appointed to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

The congregation deals with liturgical questions and the celebration of the sacraments.

Dew is one of 27 new appointees named by the Pope last Friday; ten cardinals, seven archbishops, eight bishop and two auxiliary bishops.
See full list of appointees

The new members are mostly known as supporters of the Novus Ordo Mass in the vernacular and facing the people.

All of the existing members of the Congregation have been replaced.

Many of them had been critical of the post-Vatican II liturgical reforms.

Commenting on the changes Robert Mickens his Letter from Rome notes that among the notable new members are:

• Cardinal John Atcherley Dew (Wellington, New Zealand), considered a thoroughly pro-Vatican II bishop
• Cardinal John Onaiyekan (Abuja, Nigeria), who has publicly denounced any repealing of the conciliar liturgical reforms
• Several cardinals known to be enthusiastic supporters of Pope Francis' overall plan to renew the Church, such as Rainer Maria Woelki (Germany), Pietro Parolin (Vatican Secretary of State), Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, (Canada), Ricardo Blázquez Pérez, (Spain) and Beniamino Stella (Congregation for the Clergy).

Another notable appointee is Archbishop Piero Marini (Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses).

Marini's innovative approach to papal ceremonies sometimes made him the focus of criticism.

He has promoted Vatican II reforms including the "simplification of rites that he believes facilitates active participation."

He is a firm believer in the integration church rites with local customs. In 1998, he allowed Pacific Islander dancers into St. Peter's Basilica to dance during the opening liturgy of the Synod for Oceania.

In 2002, during Pope John Paul II's visit to Mexico City, he allowed an indigenous Mexican shaman perform a purification ritual on the pope during a Mass.

Cardinal Lacroix, Archbishops Hart and Aubertin, and Bishops Morerod, Serratelli and Hopes have participated in or celebrated the Traditional Latin Mass as bishops.

They are known to be friendly to Traditional Catholics. However, none have been vocal about the need for a "Reform of the Reform".

Those who have lost their membership at the Congregation for Divine Worship include:

• Cardinals Angelo Scola (Milan)
• George Pell (Secretariat for the Economy),
• Raymond Burke (Knights of Malta)
• Peter Erdo (Esztergom-Budapest),
• Marc Ouellet (Congregation for Bishops),
• Malcolm Ranjith (Sri Lanka)
• Angelo Bagnasco (Milan).

Almost all these men have been supportive of direction Cardinal Sarah has been trying to steer the Church's liturgy.

Cardinal Sarah, from Guinea, has consistently called for priests to turn their backs on the congregation while celebrating Mass and has struck a very different tone to the Pope's merciful approach to families in difficult circumstances.

Source

• international.la-croix.com
• rorate-caeli.blogspot.com
• en.wikipedia.org
• thetablet.co.uk
• catholicregister.org
• Image: nzcatholic.org.nz

Francis met with Cardinal Robert Sarah, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, on July 10.

This followed comments by the cardinal at a liturgy conference in London last week.

Cardinal Sarah invited priests to start celebrating the Mass "ad orientem", towards the liturgical east, from the first Sunday of Advent.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, said that when the Pope visited Cardinal Sarah's dicastery, Francis expressly told the Guinea cardinal that the "ordinary" form of celebrating the Mass is the one promulgated in the missal by Pope Paul VI.

Francis also said that the "extraordinary" form, while accepted under the means expressed by Benedict XVI in the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, shouldn't become the norm.

At the meeting, it was also decided that a statement should be issued clarifying the cardinal's remarks.

Fr Lombardi said some of Cardinal Sarah's expressions had been misinterpreted by the press as a signal that changes in liturgical norms were imminent.

The spokesman also quoted paragraph 299 of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal about the placement of altars.

This states that Mass celebrated facing the people is "desirable wherever possible".

Fr Lombardi said the GIRM remains "fully in force".

"Cardinal Sarah has always been rightly concerned about the dignity of the celebration of the Mass, in order to adequately express an attitude of respect and adoration of the Eucharistic mystery," Fr Lombardi added.

But the spokesman rejected the vocabulary of a "reform of the reform" in liturgical practice.

He said that phrase is "at times the source of misunderstandings".

Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster wrote to his priests saying that the Mass was not the time for priests to "exercise personal preference or taste".

Sources

• Crux
• The Tablet
• Catholic Herald
• Catholic Herald
• Full text of Cardinal Sarah's remarks in London
• Image: Southern Orders

Cardinal Robert Sarah said this at the Sacra Liturgia conference in London recently.

The cardinal said the Pope has asked him to "to study the question of a reform of a reform and how to enrich the two forms of the Roman rite".

Cardinal Sarah said that if the Church is to "achieve what the [Second Vatican] Council desired, this is a serious question which must be carefully studied and acted on".

He suggested liturgical study has indicated that some post-conciliar reforms may have "gone beyond" the intentions of the Fathers of Vatican II.

He said that some "very serious misinterpretations of the liturgy" had crept in, thanks to an attitude to the liturgy which placed man rather than God at the centre.

"The liturgy is not about you and I," Cardinal Sarah told the conference.

"It is not where we celebrate our own identity or achievements or exalt or promote our own culture and local religious customs.

"The liturgy is first and foremost about God and what he has done for us."

Cardinal Sarah has previously been outspoken in calling for priests and congregations to face the liturgical east together at Masses, towards the Lord who comes.

At the London conference, he suggested the first Sunday of Advent as a good time for priests to start this practice.

The cardinal said: "I ask you to implement this practice wherever possible".

He added that "prudence" and catechesis would be necessary,

"Your own pastoral judgement will determine how and when this is possible, but perhaps beginning this on the first Sunday of Advent this year, when we attend ‘the Lord who will come' and ‘who will not delay'."

Responding to the cardinal's comments, Fr Anthony Ruff OSB, who contributes to the Pray Tell Catholic blog said: "I wonder how much confusion this will cause, before it's clarified that this is only the private opinion of the cardinal prefect?"

Sources

• The Tablet
• Catholic Herald
• Image: Herald Malaysia

The prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal Robert Sarah, made this call in an interview with a French Catholic magazine.

Cardinal Sarah said Vatican II did not require priests to celebrate Mass facing the people.

This way of celebrating Mass, he said, was "a possibility, but not an obligation".

Readers and listeners should face each other during the Liturgy of the Word, he said.

"But as soon as we reach the moment when one addresses God - from the Offertory onwards - it is essential that the priest and faithful look together towards the east.

"This corresponds exactly to what the council fathers wanted."

The cardinal rejected the argument that priests celebrating Mass facing east are turning their backs on the faithful "or against them".

Rather, he said, all are "turned in the same direction: towards the Lord who comes".

"It is legitimate and complies with the letter and spirit of the council," he said.

Cardinal Sarah said the celebration of the Mass "versus orientem" is authorised by the rubrics.

These specify when the celebrant must turn to the people.

"It is therefore not necessary to have special permission to celebrate facing the Lord," the cardinal said.

Last year, he wrote in an article in L'Osservatore Romano that it was "altogether appropriate, during the penitential rite, the singing of the Gloria, the orations and the Eucharistic prayer, that everyone, priest and faithful, turn together toward the east".

This is so as to "express their intention to participate in the work of worship and redemption accomplished by Christ".

The cardinal added in the article that Mass facing east could be "implemented in cathedrals, where the liturgical life must be exemplary".

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Image: One Peter Five