The ‘Reform of the Reform’ in Broad Context: Re-Engaging the Living Tradition

Abstract

If a partial rupture in the Western liturgical tradition followed the Second Vatican Council, then repairing this breach will require us to reconcile the two conciliar themes of ressourcement (a return to the sources) and aggiornamento (updating). That there was such a rupture is evident from a comparison between the liturgical prescriptions of the Council and the innovations which followed in many places: e.g. Mass facing the people, communion in the hand, as well as changes to the texts of the Missal. Nevertheless, there is sufficient continuity between the two forms of the Roman Rite to justify (in context) the claim of Pope Benedict XVI that the Missals of 1962 and 1970 represent variants of a single rite. True ressourcement (which is not the same as ‘archeologism’) is necessary to restore the Patristic understanding of the Mass as a communitarian action. This ressourcement gives a context and grounding to any legitimate attempts at aggiornamento. A future reform of the reform (for which many have called in recent years) may aim ultimately at a reconciliation of the two forms of the Roman Rite, to be achieved through the creative appropriation of the old in view of present circumstances — a proper synthesis of ressourcement and aggiornamento.

Keywords:

• reform of the reform
• liturgical tradition
• Sacrosanctum Concilium
• ressourcement
• aggiornamento
• Summorum Pontificum
• rupture
• continuity

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thomas M Kocik

Fr Thomas M. Kocik (born Binghamton, NY, 1965) is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, MA (USA). He is the author of Apostolic Succession in an Ecumenical Context (Alba House, 1996), The Reform of the Reform? A Liturgical Debate (Ignatius Press, 2003), and Loving and Living the Mass (Zaccheus Press, 2007). His essays have appeared in Catholic periodicals such as Homiletic and Pastoral Review (HPR), The Catholic Answer, Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal, Saint Austin Review (StAR), and Second Spring. He is a member of the Society for Catholic Liturgy, a former editor of the journal Antiphon, and a contributor to the New Liturgical Movement website. Presently he serves as a parish priest in Fall River.

Correspondence to: [email protected]