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CDF issues questionnaire thirteen years after Benedict XVI liberalized the use of pre-Vatican II Mass
By Nicolas Senèze | Vatican City
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has sent a questionnaire to all the world's episcopal conferences, asking them to evaluate "the current application" of Summorum pontificum.
Benedict XVI issued the "motu proprio" in July 2007, allowing priests of the Latin Rite to celebrate the liturgy according to the missal that was in force prior to the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).
The two-page questionnaire, which was sent out in early March, includes eight questions or topics.
Among other things it asks the bishops to comment on "the positive or negative aspects of the use of the extraordinary form" of the Roman Rite, if it has had "an influence on the life of the seminaries" and whether it responds to "a true pastoral need" or has been "promoted by a single priest".
The CDF, which recently added new prefaces to the extraordinary form and allowed for the celebration of saints canonized after the Council, also asks whether "the ordinary form has adopted elements of the extraordinary form".
"A slow and continuous progression"
"The idea is to see where we really are, to make the most complete inventory possible," explained the CDF, which absorbed the former Ecclesia Dei Commission in early 2019.
"But there is absolutely no question of removing the "motu proprio" or of going back on the liturgical reform," they say.
The congregation said it is this "peaceful but constant" evolution that it would like to evaluate today, thirteen years after the publication of Summorum pontificum and nine years after the first survey that Benedict XVI himself had requested in his letter to the bishops accompanying the motu proprio.
"The motu proprio bears fruit"
In France, where the bishops have not yet received the CDF questionnaire, "things are going quite well," said Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen.
"The motu proprio has allowed the faithful to pray in a different way, while noting that it is not so different in the end," he said.
"There are those who are faithful to the extraordinary form who experience the ordinary form and vice versa, and this is very good for communion," the 62-year-old archbishop said.
Lebrun, who has a doctorate in liturgy from the Institut Catholique in Paris, said "the extraordinary form has some overtones that the other does not".
But he made it clear that he is "convinced that the ordinary form corresponds to the mission of the Church in the contemporary world".
He believes Summorum pontificum corresponds to a pastoral need.
"The motu proprio bears fruit," he said, while acknowledging certain "drawbacks".
The risk of "ideologizing" a liturgical form
"In particular, the fact that some of the faithful voluntarily deprive themselves of the enormous riches of the ordinary form, such as the number of readings or anything to do with the Christian initiation of adults. This voluntary deprivation concerns me," the archbishop stated.
He said he's also concerned about cases where Summorum pontificum is "badly applied".
And he warned against the risk of "ideologizing" one particular liturgical form.
"For example, when someone has decided to no longer celebrate in the ordinary form, which is something Benedict XVI asked to be avoided," Archbishop Lebrun said.
The bishops have until the end of July to respond to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, although the congregation knows that "due to health circumstances" and the resulting slowdown in diocesan life, responses may come later.
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