I have long maintained that one of the most important achievements, indeed, gifts from the pontificate of Benedict XVI was the implementation of Summorum Pontificum, which I like to call the “Emancipation Proclamation”. It certainly freed the priest and the People of God to engage in an authentic revitalization of the Church’s all-important sacred liturgical worship.
We are our rites.
When are rites were brutally changed in the 60’s and an artificially created form was imposed with little explanation … or, in retrospect… demand… a great wound was inflicted on our collective Catholic identity.
Benedict, understood this wound. He understood the dangers of an encroaching Dictatorship of Relativism within the Church and without. Summorum Pontificum serves much like the Marshall Plan served Europe after the devastation of the war: it provided a bulwark against atheistic, materialistic Communism and it rebuilt economies and structures to provide for trade and stability etc.
I saw at the blog of the Benedictine dom Mark Kirkby, of Silverstream Priory, his points about the benefits of Summorum Pontificum over the last ten years. HERE The Priory, by the way, has produced beautiful altar cards for Holy Mass, which I am using on my own altar. HERE They also produced a wonderful Way of the Cross especially for priests. I have used that myself HERE In short, dom Kirby and the guys have got game. They also have needs… HERE.
Back to the ten points positive fruits of Summorum Pontificum identified by dom Mark a while back. Here they are in bullet points. Peter Kwasnieski recently posted about them at NLM. Go read the whole thing HERE.
1. A clearer manifestation of the sacred liturgy as the work of Christ the Eternal High Priest and Mediator.
2. The opening, for many souls, of a secure bridge between celebration and contemplation.
3. A serene and lucid transmission of the doctrine of the faith.
4. A renewed appreciation for the link between worship and culture.
5. The affirmation of the primacy of latria in the life of the Church, following the principle of Saint Benedict that “nothing is to be preferred to the work of God” (Rule, Ch. XLIII).
6. Encouragement given to the recovery and renewal of Benedictine monastic life in the heart of the Church.
7. Joy and beauty brought to Catholic family life.
8. A renewal of true priestly piety.
9. The birth of new expressions of consecrated life that find their source and summit in the traditional liturgy, Holy Mass and Divine Office.
10. An infusion of hope and, for young people, an experience of a beauty that renders holiness of life enchanting and attractive.
