Review of "It's Time for a Renaissance of Excellence in Catholic Liturgy"

 For the most part, I write these articles ahead of time. Like yesterday's article was actually written and completed on Monday. So I actually started writing this one on Monday, and it will be released on Wednesday. I saw this article before on Twitter on Archbishop Salvatore Cordelione's account (which he always has good posts, and he is a wonderful bishop) and then later, I saw it posted on the National Catholic Register's Facebook Page, and decided I would look at it. The article is called: "It’s Time for a Renaissance of Excellence in Catholic Liturgy", and it's short description is: "COMMENTARY: Regaining our sense of the sacred is a most urgent problem the Catholic Church faces today.", and this is an article written by Archbishop Cordelione, and published by NCR. It was originally published Sunday, but I did not see it until Monday, and this post will not be up until Wednesday.

The Archbishop points out that there are serious problems within the church, and he is not wrong in any of these points. But he points out that in his mind, the biggest problem is the loss of sacredness in Catholic worship. And I would not disagree with the Archbishop's idea of this being the biggest problem. This loss of the sacred, leads to a loss of finding and experiencing Christ, above all it lead's to an unfulfilling liturgy. We can say this is the idea of "I don't get anything out of the liturgy". 

The archbishop writes: "Clearly, too many of our next generation of Catholic are not meeting Jesus the the Eucharist. If they were, they would not abandon him to join other religions, or simply to be absorbed by the secular culture.". I would like to say, that the Archbishop is most likely speaking of Generation Z, who are the upcoming generation, who are becoming adults and having children. I would like to presume this is the generation he is speaking of. And within this generation, is an incline and decline in numbers.

"I sometimes wonder if we truly appreciate the overriding importance of this principle: it means that there is simply no more important issue in the church, or in the world, than renewing this source and summit of faith in Jesus Christ. Do we really believe this?" The Archbishop then speaks positively of this, talking about how he and many other clerics and laity, have this ideal at a summit which they held.

Then he speaks of implementing ideas of bringing reverance into the liturgy. "Here’s the good news: implementing practices that foster greater reverence in the Mass does not have to stir up the controversy and dissension that those of us who are well-seasoned as Catholics experienced in the years following the Council — that is, when done with proper catechesis and pastoral sensitivity. It was precisely that lack of such pastoral common sense that made the years of “the changes” so traumatic for so many." He speaks about certain changes he made as a pastor, such as enforcing a dress code for Eucharistic Ministers, or stationing certain ushers to make sure no one walked out with a consecrated host. He also talks about implementation at the Archdiocesan Cathedral, that the rector there implemented. Including kneeling for communion, adding in kneelers for the faithful, and this led more people to do it.

He also speaks of the moving of the altar to ad orientem from versus populum. The rector of the cathedral, took time to educate people onto why and how this would be happening.

"To me, it is heartening how many young people are drawn to classic Catholic practices that so effectively express transcendent realities. What is classically Catholic works. It’s time to rebuild with confidence on a solid foundation, including on our knees in reverence before Our Lord Jesus Christ." We must begin to understand that we need to bring tradition back into liturgy, and true understanding of our faith. We must inspire love of God and the liturgy into the people. 

Above all, I stand firmly by this, what we need, is good priests. What will help revitalize the church, is good priests. And good clergy just in general. If we look at the Rector the Archbishop speaks of, or even of the Archbishop himself, we see examples of good clergy. What we need is good clergy, and people who are willing to grow liturgically, to be willing to improve. 

The liturgy is a moving thing, it has many parts and people, who are neccesary. And each of these parts is important. We need to work on revitalizing the liturgy to revitalize the faith.

I have considered working on a document on revitalizing the liturgy, and Archbishop Cordelione has certianly inspired me more with this document. I would love to discuss these things with Archbishop Cordelione. I like his article and agree with him completely.