By Rev. Fr. Dominic Radecki, CMRI The modernists, in their attempt to destroy the Catholic liturgy, gradually and astutely introduced the "New Mass", also called the "Novus Ordo", the new sacraments and the liturgical changes that resulted from Vatican II. As a consequence Catholics became reluctant to liturgical change. Unfortunately some traditionalists have gone further, even rejecting the legitimate changes introduced by Pope Pius XII, who they consider to be a legitimate Pope.
They erroneously maintain that some of these changes, including the Reformed Holy Week, were the first steps toward the Novus Ordo, due to the involvement of Monsignor Annibale Bugnini, as well as some retouches made by other Modernists. These strongly stubborn souls do not completely reject changes; they pick and choose what they will accept and what they will reject. For example, they observe the Pope's reform of Eucharistic fasting and permission to say evening Masses. Who gave them the authority to determine what to follow regarding liturgical rites, decrees and rubrics?
Pope Pius XII promulgated several liturgical changes, among which are the following:
1) For many centuries the Catholic Church required people to fast from midnight without eating or drinking anything, including water, before receiving Communion. In 1950 Pope Pius XII changed the fasting laws to one hour for non-alcoholic beverages and three hours for meals and alcoholic beverages. You can drink water and take medicine at any time before receiving the Holy Eucharist. The result of these moves is that Catholics can receive Our Lord in Holy Communion more frequently. American priests who often recite several Masses or evening Masses on Sunday appreciated these changes.
2) His Holiness allowed the celebration of Mass in the evening and evening - a very noticeable change from the previous observance.
3) In 1955 he simplified the rubrics of the Roman Breviary and the Missal by changing the class of some feasts and discarding some octaves and vigils. He implemented to the Breviary the reforms Pope St. Pius X made for the Monastic Breviary.
4) In 1955 Pope Pius XII approved the New Holy Week, in which some of the ceremonies that were altered over the years were restored. He also made it easier for workers to attend the Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil ceremonies by returning them to their original and appropriate time. In apostolic times the Catholic Church celebrated the liturgy of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil "at the very hours of the day when those sacred mysteries occurred. Thus, the institution of the Eucharist took place on the evening of Holy Thursday, the Passion and Crucifixion took place in the hours after noon on Good Friday and the Easter Vigil took place on the night of Holy Saturday, ending on the morning of Easter day with the jubilee of Our Lord's Resurrection.
"During the Middle Evo... [the Church], for various pertinent reasons, began to do in earlier hours the liturgical performances in those days, then towards the end of that period all those liturgical services have been transferred to the morning. This was not without detriment to the liturgical meaning and confusion between the Evangelical narratives and the liturgical ceremonies attached to them" (Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, pp. 1-2, November 16, 1955).
The solemn liturgical services of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil were held in the morning in almost empty churches because few could attend them. Schoolchildren had to supplant the men at the foot washing ceremony on Holy Thursday because they had to work. Due to the restoration of Holy Week by Pope Pius XII the Church is now full and the faithful come in large numbers to attend the ceremonies and receive Holy Communion.
In 1951 Pope Pius XII restored the Easter Vigil for the evening, his own time:
"For centuries the Church has seen the incongruity of the celebration of the Easter Vigil - a service whose texts [e.g. alleluia] and symbolisms [e.g. Lumen Christi] obviously lean toward the evening hours - in the early hours of Holy Saturday morning when certainly Christ had not yet arisen. That this has not always been so is historically proven beyond any doubt. (John Miller, C.S.C, "The History and Spirit of Holy Week", The American Ecclesiastical Review, p.235.)
Pope Pius XII reduced the number of lessons recited from twelve to four, returning to the practice of St. Gregory the Great. The Pope ordered that the Lenten fast be concluded at midnight on Holy Saturday instead of in the evening to complete the 40 days of fasting, not 39 days of fasting. This disciplinary law ensures that Holy Saturday retains its character of sadness at the death of Our Redeemer lying in the Holy Sepulchre.
5) In 1954 Pope Pius XII revised the Divine Office, omitting several prayers, such as the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Creed before the hours, the prayers in Lauds and Vespers with some exceptions, the long Athanasian Creed, with the exception of the day of the Most Holy Trinity, and so on. According to the Sacred Congregation of Rites, the proposed objective of these modifications was "to reduce the great complexity of the rubrics to a simpler form".
Pope St. Pius X had already introduced some of these changes into the Monastic Breviary. Through the influence of the Benedictines, Pope Pius XII extended them to all clergy. By simplifying the rubrics and decreasing the prayers, the Breviary became easier for priests to carry out faithfully and devoutly their obligation to recite the Divine Office every day. The clergy gladly received these wise changes.
Pope Pius XII officially approved and promulgated these changes. Bugnini had no authority to promulgate anything. To refer to the New Holy Week as if it were Bugnini's liturgy is not very ingenious and even intellectually dishonest. Whatever role it has taken, that does not obscure the fact that several cardinals and orthodox liturgists were involved in the preparations for these changes.
The Sacred Congregation of Rites was established to direct the liturgy of the Latin Church. By Latin Church is meant that part of the Catholic Church, by far the largest, that uses Latin in its ceremonies. Pope Pius XII established a commission "to examine the question of the restoration of the Holy Week Ordo and to propose a solution. Having obtained the answer, His Holiness decreed, as the seriousness of the matter demanded, that the whole question be subject to a special examination by the Cardinals of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.
When the Cardinals met at the Vatican in 1950,] "they considered the matter in depth and voted unanimously that the restored Holy Week Ordo be approved and prescribed, subject to the approval of the Holy Father. Cardinal Prefect, His Holiness deigned to approve what the Cardinals had decided. Then, by special mandate of Pope Pius XII himself, the Sacred Congregation of Rites has declared the following... [giving specific directives, including:] Those who follow the Roman Rite are obliged... to follow the Ordo of the Reformed Holy Week, set forth in the official edition of the Vatican" (Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, pp. 1-2, November 16, 1955).
According to Pope Pius XII, the liturgical reforms he promulgated were "a sign of God's providential disposition in the motion of the Holy Ghost to the Church for present times" (The Assisi Papers, Proceedings of the First International Congress on Pastoral Liturgy, Assisi-Rome, September 18-22, 1956, p. 224). Christ said to St. Peter and all his legal successors, "He who hears you hears me. (Luke 10:16). The issue at hand is obedience to the legitimate supreme authority of the Catholic Church. A true Pope approved of these changes. We must accept these changes as legal and worthy of follow-up unless we can prove that Pope Pius XII was not a true Pope.
Anyone who says that Pope Pius XII did not approve of Restored Holy Week says so without foundation. It is ridiculous to say that Pope Pius XII had no idea that the Sacred Congregation of Rites and the entire Catholic world were doing about Holy Week. Isn't this the same argument that some use to defend post-conciliar "Popes" - that since the death of Pope Pius XII, the "Vicars of Christ" have had no idea what was going on in the Catholic Church? The argument that he was already old or had any other disability to rule the Church is also completely absurd because of the clarity of his last encyclicals, directives and speeches in the very year of his death.
Pope Pius VI stigmatized as "at least erroneous" the hypothesis "that the Church could establish a discipline that was dangerous, prejudicial, conducive to superstition or materialism. (Dz. 1578). In section 22, canon 7, the Council of Trent condemned anyone who says that the ceremonies of the Church are a stimulus to impiety rather than piety.
The changes introduced by Pope Pius XII are legal, holy, and conducive to the sanctification and salvation of souls. The Catholic Church has consistently taught that a valid Pope cannot promulgate a liturgical ceremony or law that is prejudicial to faith and piety and that displeases God. In such decisions the Pope is protected by infallibility. Theologians teach that universal disciplinary laws and liturgical changes are secondary objects of infallibility. This is clearly explained by Monsignor Van Noort: "The well-known axiom, Lex orandi est lex credendi (the law of prayer is the law of belief), is a special application of the Church's doctrine of infallibility in disciplinary matters. This axiom says in effect that the formula of the approved prayer for the public use of the universal Church cannot contain errors against faith and morals" (Christ's Church - p.116).
The liturgical changes of Pope Pius XII - the institution of the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, the restoration of Holy Week, the laws for Eucharistic fasting, etc. - are not sinful. If anyone were to say that they are heretical or sinful, he would be accusing the Church's infallible doctrinal authority of sacrilegious practices and doctrinal errors that corrupt the faith, compromise its doctrines and harm souls. Such an accusation would deny that Christ protects His Church and her sacred liturgy from evil and error.
Pope Pius XII prohibited without exception, in a more precise language (Mediator Dei), priests from using the ancient liturgy. He also condemned antiquarism (archaeology), that is, the practice of returning to primitive liturgical observances for non-conformity with concurrent rubrics and ecclesiastical laws, which on such an occasion would be implicit in the non-activity of the Holy Spirit in leading the Church. Nor is the oldest always the best, especially when it defies the orders of a true Pope.
The reason why we follow the liturgical changes of Pope Pius XII is the infallible authority of the Church to teach. The changes were authorized by an infallible Vicar of Christ and were officially promulgated to replace the old existing rites and laws. Since Pope Pius XII was a true Pope, we must obey his orders regarding the sacred liturgy. Obedience is the surest, the most consistent and the rule of orthodoxy.
On the other hand, those who accept Pius XII as a true Pope while refusing to accept his liturgical decrees demonstrate rebellion and disobedience. By gathering and choosing what they want, they place themselves as the supreme authority of the Catholic Church. They claim the right to judge the Pope, screening what he teaches and deciding what they will obey and what they will reject. To pick and choose what will be obeyed and what will be rejected is an error. It is a seal of rebellion to deny obedience to the true vicar of Christ; rebellion in matters of obedience to legitimate authority is always a danger to the Faith.
Galicanism was a heresy against papal jurisdiction, which tended to limit the Pope's powers. It began at the beginning of the 15th century and spread throughout Europe. A continuous act, many Europeans lost their census of obedience to the Pope. In 1682 the French clergy formulated the Four Articles which became obligatory for all schools and for all teachers of theology. The four articles stated that papal judgment is worthless without the consent of the Church. Popes Alexander VIII and Pius VI and the Vatican Council condemned Galicanism. Sadly, the spirit of Galicanism prevails today.
Those who reject the liturgical changes of Pope Pius XII are inconsistent. If they accept Pius XII as Pope, they must reserve their own opinion about his liturgy, cast aside their liturgical likes and dislikes and simply obey him. The Catholic mentality is to obey legal superiors in everything except sin.
The spirit of obedience to legitimate authority was expressed by the mother of Lucia, one of the children of Fatima. When Lucia's mother was questioned about why the new parish priest did not allow dancing and the old one did, she replied: "I don't know why the old parish priest did and the new one did not. If the new parish priest does not want the dances, my children will not dance."
We will conclude with a speech by Pope St. Pius X to the priests of the Apostolic Union:
"When one loves the Pope, one is not left to debate what he advises or commands, one does not ask to what extent the rigorous duty to obey extends and one does not mark the limits of this obligation. When one loves the Pope, one does not object that he has not spoken with complete clarity, as if he were obliged to repeat his will in the ear of each one what he very often expresses not only viva voce, but also by letters and other public documents; one does not question his orders under the pretext - easily used by anyone who does not want to obey - that they do not emanate from him, but from his legacies; one does not limit the space in which we can and must execute his will; one does not oppose the authority of the Pope because other persons, perhaps literate, differ from the opinion of the Pope. Moreover, notwithstanding his great knowledge, his sanctification is in expectation, for there can be no sanctity where there is discordance with the Pope. (AAS 1912, p. 695)
We must remember that all of this is incumbent upon the legitimate and valid elected Pope; this does not apply to a heretic or an invalidly elected "Pope" - a false Pope.
