ROMA, October 3, 2007 \ufffd In restoring full citizenship to the ancient rite of the Mass, with the motu proprio “Summorum Pontificum,” Benedict XVI said that he wanted in part to react to the excess of “creativity” that in the new rite “frequently led to deformations of the liturgy which were hard to bear.”<\/p>\n
In view of what happens in some areas of the Church, this creativity affects not only the liturgy, but also the very foundations of Catholic doctrine.<\/p>\n
In Nijmegen, Holland, in the church of the Augustinian friars, each Sunday the Mass is concelebrated by a Protestant and a Catholic, with one presiding over the liturgy of the Word and the sermon, and the other over the liturgy of the Eucharist, in alternation. The Catholic is almost always a layperson, and is often a woman. For the Eucharistic prayer, the texts of the missal are passed over in favor of texts composed by the former Jesuit Huub Oosterhuis. The bread and wine are shared by all.<\/p>\n
No bishop has ever authorized this form of celebration. But Fr. Lambert van Gelder, one of the Augustinians who promote it, is sure that he is in the right: “In the Church there are different forms of participation, we are full-fledged members of the ecclesial community. I don’t consider myself a schismatic at all.”<\/p>\n
Also in Holland, the Dominicans have gone even farther, with the consent of the provincials of the order. Two weeks before the motu proprio “Summorum Pontificum” went into effect, they distributed in all the 1,300 Catholic parishes a 9,500-word booklet entitled “Kerk en Ambt”, “The Church and the Ministry,” in which they propose to make into a general rule what is already practiced spontaneously in various places.<\/p>\n
The proposal of the Dominican fathers is that, in the absence of a priest, a person chosen from the community should preside over the celebration of the Mass: “Whether they be men or women, homo or heterosexual, married or unmarried is irrelevant.” The person selected and the community are exhorted to pronounce together the words of the institution of the Eucharist: “Pronouncing these words is not thought to be the sole prerogative of the priest. The words constitute a conscious declaration of faith by the whole community.”<\/p>\n
The booklet opens with the explicit approval of the superiors of the Dutch province of the Order of Preachers, and its first pages are dedicated to a description of what happens on Sundays in the churches of Holland.<\/p>\n
…The Dutch bishops’ conference is refraining from making an official reply. But it has already let it be known that the Dominicans’ proposal appears to be "in conflict with the doctrine of the Catholic Church."<\/p>\n