The roots of the ‘liturgy wars’

A CHALLENGING REFORM: Realizing the Vision of the Liturgical Renewal 1963 – 1975, by Archbishop Piero Marini. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota. 2007. 205pp

Reviewed by Paddy Kearney

The author of this scholarly study, Archbishop Piero Marini, was Papal Master of Ceremonies from 1987 to 2007. I had the pleasure of interviewing him in his Vatican office during that time, and seeing the spectacular view he had of St Peter’s Square. He must have often looked down into that square as he choreographed splendid outdoor liturgical celebrations during John Paul II’s pontificate.

Piero Marini is of course not to be confused with another Marini, his successor as papal MC, Mgr Guido Marini. Not only are they not related, but they appear to have little in common.

Archbishop Piero is steeped in Vatican II theology and liturgical reform, while his namesake is part of the move to turn the clock back, introducing a much more extensive use of Latin in the liturgy, going into the “Vatican attic” to bring out vestments of an age when lace was all the rage, re-instating kneeling for Communion on the tongue, and so on.

Already at the time of my interview in 2005, Piero Marini made the telling remark about the state of liturgical reform: “We are in a time of difficulties.” The roots of those difficulties are the subject of this book which documents the great struggle from 1963-75 to implement the Vatican II vision of a reformed liturgy. Though the decree on liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium) had been passed by 2147 votes, with only four opposed, according to Archbishop Marini “the more traditionalist members of the curia would try to circumvent the process of implementation by opposing real liturgical change and maintaining the status quo”,  a stance resoundingly rejected by the council.
Pope Paul VI who knew very well what obstacles there would be in the path of thorough reform, instituted a new structure known as the Consilium to ensure that Sacrosanctum Concilium would be implemented despite stiff opposition. He placed the Consilium under the presidency of the ardent reformer,  Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro of Bologna, with another notable progressive, Fr Annibale Bugnini, as its highly efficient and effective secretary. Pope Paul gave them his full backing, but was not always able to counter resistance from the Sacred Congregation of Rites which was distinctly unhappy that it had been side-lined in the process.

This book recounts the power struggle between these two bodies and how sometimes the battle was won by the Consilium and sometimes by the Congregation of Rites. Eventually both structures were scrapped in 1972 and replaced by one body, known as the Congregation for Divine Worship. This time the tension was not between two bodies but within one because Paul VI used what was apparently a favourite strategy, appointing a conservative president (Archbishop James Robert Knox of Melbourne) and a progressive secretary (Annibale Bugnini), hoping that would satisfy both conservatives and progressives. More often it led to a kind of paralysis. In this case, after Bugnini found himself increasingly marginalised, he gave up the unequal struggle.

Piero Marini, who was Bugnini’s secretary for several years, is well placed to tell the inside story. But what he has produced, though meticulously researched and accurate, is not exactly a “page turner” — more like a text book for advanced liturgical studies. The reader needs to be well versed in Latin because of the numerous untranslated quotations and titles of documents, and to have a taste for regurgitated minutiae of innumerable meetings.

If one manages, with Gandhian self-discipline, to cut a swathe through dense thickets of detail, one will emerge with important insights that will help in understanding the liturgical wars currently raging, for example about the new English text for the Mass.

It’s clear that the Roman curia is now calling the liturgical shots almost without opposition. In this era, Archbishop Marini’s role is limited to organising eucharistic congresses and writing books.