“I emphasize again that the liturgical life and its study should lead to greater unity of the Church, not to division. When liturgical life is a bit like a banner of division, there is the stench of the devil in there, the deceiver,” the Holy Father said April 7.
Pope Francis said on Saturday that the liturgy should not be “a battleground” for “outdated issues”.
“I emphasize again that the liturgical life and its study should lead to greater unity of the Church, not to division. When liturgical life is a bit like a banner of division, there is the stench of the devil, the deceiver in there,” Pope Francis said. mentioned at the Vatican on April 7.
“It is not possible to worship God by making the liturgy a battleground for issues that are not essential, even outdated, and to take sides, starting with the liturgy, with ideologies that divide the Church”.
Speaking during an audience with the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in the Apostolic Palace, the pope said he believed “every reform creates resistance.”
Pope Francis recalled the reforms made as a child by Pope Pius XII, particularly when Pius XII reduced the requirement of fasting before receiving Holy Communion and reintroduced the Easter Vigil.
“All these things outraged closed-minded people. It happens today too,” he said.
“Indeed, these closed-minded people use liturgical frameworks to defend their views. Using the liturgy: This is the drama that we experience in ecclesial groups which move away from the Church, question the Council, the authority of the bishops… to preserve tradition. And the liturgy is for that.
Pope Francis spoke to the Pontifical Liturgical Institute, an institute in Rome whose school of liturgy had growing influence in the liturgical norms from the Vatican.
The secretary and undersecretary of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship were both trained by the institute, which was established in 1961 by Pope St. John XXIII as part of the Pontificio Ateneo Sant’Anselmo.
Andrea Grillo, one of the most eminent professors of theology at Sant’Anselmo, was an ardent defender of Traditional custodiansthe motu owner issued by Pope Francis in 2021 which restricted Masses celebrated in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite.
In the Pope’s remarks, Francis further warned against “the temptation of liturgical formalism,” which he said can be seen today “in those movements that attempt to go back a bit and deny the Council Vatican II itself”.
Pope Francis delivered his speech from a wheelchair. The 85-year-old pope has been making public appearances in a wheelchair since May 5 due to a torn ligament in his right knee.
