Thursday 31 October 2013

Memo to myself

A few thoughts arising as I continue to plough through Bugnini:

Pope Paul Vl seems to have been split. In the same document, he can express a profound respect for tradition, and a desire not to risk changing what has been handed down, and a desire for change - and radical change at that.

I need to read more (in Bugnini and elsewhere) to understand him better.

The role of the observers from other ecclesial groups is somewhat ambiguous.  Bugnini wants to play it down (not least because of the criticism their presence attracted) but he does so with a studied ambiguity at times.

Again, that is a theme to which I will return as I read more.

The extraordinary way in which the forbidden was done, and the exceptional was quickly made the normal in this whole process: the current example is the Roman Canon and the new Eucharistic Prayers; thus the Holy Father on June 20, 1966, decided that:

'the present anaphora be left untouched; two or three other anaphoras  should be composed, or sought in existing texts, that could be used in certain defined seasons.' [My emphasis]

How did we get from that to what actually happened?  Again, to be pursued...

1 comment:

Ttony said...

One really good insight from Anagnostis: don't think about Hamlet when you look at Pope Paul; think about Lear.