Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Oratorian Consultor for Papal Liturgy


Fr Uwe Michael Lang, of The London Oratory has just been appointed as a consultor to the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Pontiff. Fr Lang is the author of "Turning Towards the Lord", in which he argues for celebrating Mass facing east. It will be interesting to see what influence the Oratory style has on Papal liturgy.
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Also appointed is Fr Paul C.F. Gunter, O.S.B., of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute at the Pontifical Athenaeum of S. Anselmo and a member of the editorial board of the new academic journal Usus Antiquior.
Turning Towards the Lord: Orientation in Liturgical Prayer

6 comments:

Joe of St. Thérèse said...

This will be interesting to see where Papal Liturgies head. Hopefully more Ad Orientem Celebrations in places outside of St. Peters.

PeterHWright said...

Will Fr. Uwe Michael Lang succeed in "turning things round" in Rome ?

Somehow, I doubt it . Pity !

Anonymous said...

I expect that whatever the Holy Father thinks in private, he will be very careful not to provoke sensationalist headlines in the press along the lines of "Pope turns his back on the Faithful"........Misrepresentation, through ignorance or malice is, unfortunately a characteristic of the Age. I expect it will happen, once the ground has been thoroughly prepared.

Anonymous said...

Is that the same Fr Paul Gunter who used to be Fr Joachim Gunter when he was a young assistant priest in Cheltenham?

Young Catholic Adults said...

Yes it is, I used to be one of Fr. Gunther's servers, he's one of the monks of Douai Abbey in Berkshire, he's been in Rome a few years now. I'm absolutely delighted for him, Damian - Young Catholic Adults.

PeterHWright said...

I see what Anon means, but whatever the the Catholic Church says or does, whatever the Pope says or does, they have always been, and always will be, misrepresented.

Misrepresentation, I would say, is a characteristic of every age.

Did not the Roman Empire do its best to misrepresent Christianity as a subversive sect with mysterious and perverse practices ?

Did not the protestant reformers, Hus, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, et al. misrepresent the Mass, the gift of divine grace, the veneration of the saints as superstitiion ?

Of course, the more the modern world turns against God, it turns against Christ and his Church. And so the misrepresentations spread ever wider, fuelled by a secularist and anti Catholic media.

I'm not sure how far the Church should go in taking this into account, but it should never be at the price of deserting its own liturgical traditions to accomodate modern fashion.

That policy has been tried. It was called "aggiornamento" and was a disaster.

We know what the world, and the secularists and the liberals say, and will continue to say. And we know the Devil is in the world, too, spreading lies, rumours and slanders for the ruination of souls.

But at the Last Judgement, Christ will have the final say.

I would concentrate on this rather than on what they say about the Pope in the newspapers.

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