The Unsettled Origins of the Novus Ordo - A Bishop’s Warning Ahead of the Consistory
Bishop Eleganti reiterates the historical facts.
1965: A revised Ordo Missae was published — a transitional version of the old Mass following the first impulses of Vatican II.
1967: An experimental draft (Missa normativa) was presented but not approved.
The first Synod of Bishops after the Council was divided over this rite. About 71 bishops voted in favor (placet), 43 voted against (non placet), and 62 regarded it only as a basis for discussion. Despite this divided response, work on the new missal continued.
1969: The new missal (Missale Romanum) was promulgated, today known as the Novus Ordo Missae. It implemented changes that had been rejected by a majority of the bishops at the 1967 Synod.
The change in the direction of celebration and the introduction of the people’s altar were not envisaged by the Council.
Bishop Eleganti: “The loss of sacredness and verticality in the liturgy in many celebrations, the insufficient centrality of God and the dominance of the congregation, a certain banalization of the sacred, of the liturgical space and liturgical vestments, the marginalization of the tabernacle, the one-sided emphasis on the meal character and on the congregation as the subject of the liturgy — all of this needs to be reconsidered!”
He hopes that Pope Leo XIV will first bring the cardinals, ahead of the upcoming consistory, to the necessary level of historical knowledge on liturgical matters. They should not deliberate on issues whose history of development they do not know sufficiently well in detail. As such details, Bishop Eleganti also mentions the role of Archbishop Annibale Bugnini and the Protestant influence in the reconceptualization of the Novus Ordo.
Conclusion:
“Let us hope for the insight of the Pope and the cardinals. In Rome, for years now, one has been listening and also shaping the universal Church accordingly. But what exactly they are hearing remains unclear. In burning questions, one still does not know in which direction things are heading.”
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