ANNO XXX - 2013
Editorial
4th
December 2013 is the 50th anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium. Our
review does not want to pass the celebration of this important birthday by, and
it feels the need to dress for the celebration in a new set of clothes, a fact
that is already clear from the new cover. But what has changed is not just the
outer wrapping. The workers have also changed. They have come at the eleventh
hour to replace those of the first, who by their wisdom and great dedication
over the years have been able to let this 'little baby' grow – as Father Adrian
Nocent called the review after his appointment as its first editor – so that it
has now grown up and, in April 2014, will be able to complete its own 30 years
of life.
At this historical moment both for the liturgy, on the jubilee of the
Sacred Constitution on the Liturgy, and for this review, on its 30th birthday,
I am pleased, as the new academic editor of EcclesiaOrans, to recall
the foundational principles that have given it life in putting it at the
service of scientia liturgica in the wake of the reforms of the
Second Vatican Council. They are principles that can be summarised under the
general title of 'formation'. Articles 15 and 16 of Sacrosanctum Concilium speak of the liturgical formation,
both of teachers as well as of future priests, of a liturgy that inter disciplinas necessarias et
potiores, in facultatibus autem theologicis inter disciplinas principales est
habenda. We could define the liturgy, as a result, as the 'principal
discipline' that draws all other subjects into itself. Paragraph 16 continues: et sub aspectu cum theologico et
historico, tum spirituali, pastorali et iuridico tradenda. Curent insuper
aliarum disciplinarum magistri, imprimis theologiae dogmaticae, sacrae
Scripturae, theologiae spiritualis et pastoralis ita, ex intrinsecis exigentiis
proprii uniuscuiusque obiecti, mysterium Christi et historiam salutis excolere,
ut exinde earum connexio cum Liturgia et unitas sacerdotalis institutionis
aperte clarescant. So, while we are conscious of the fact that the 'the
sacred liturgy does not exhaust the entire activity of the Church (SC 9),' it
becomes their 'summit and the source' in as much as it is fides in actu: the mystery
that other disciplines study and whose understanding they deepen in a
speculative sense with the help of reason, the liturgy makes alive and active
in its celebration as the event of our salvation. This is 'formation'
understood in a very precise sense, not simply or exclusively as making demands
on the mind or speculative reason to understand what has been handed on by
Tradition of by the faith of the Church at an intellectual level, but as
letting oneself be 'forged', or 'take the shape' of the Mystery celebrated. As
a result, the human being does not become a container in which the findings of
theological or liturgical science can be put, but a person who is to be
involved and shaped both by knowledge and a conscious, active and fruitful
celebration.
Our review has sought to make a contribution to this process over
the last 30 years; by welcoming various contributions to its pages of a
properly scholarly nature, based on the research of their various authors, it
has offered itself as a means to promote the theological learning needed to
underpin a ritual celebration that is more engaged and more aware of what it is
doing. Among the objectives of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and,
before that, of the liturgical movement, was the intention of supplying the
means needed for scholarly research of the celebration of the liturgy that
might lead to heightened awareness of the reality being celebrated. That is
why, in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, various series and editions
of sources have come into existence, above all of patristic and liturgical
sources, that over the years have become indispensable tools for the
construction of a liturgical science and the development of liturgical
theology. That is spelled out by paragraph 23 of the Constitution on the
Liturgy: Ut sana traditio
retineatur et tamen via legitimae progressioni aperiatur, de singulis Liturgiae
partibus recognoscendis accurata investigatio theologica, historica, pastoralis
semper praecedat.
The policy of a review with a strictly scholarly
character is determined by this principle: to offer a place for scholarship,
discussion and reflection needed to provide a serious theological ground on
which to base liturgical celebration. In this sense, Ecclesia Oranshas become an
authoritative voice, the echo of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute, which
over more than 50 years of its life has promoted its research on what the
Church's Tradition, in its most authoritative forms, has committed to us. And
it is in line with this that the most important contribution of this first
issue of 2013 has been included, the letter received by the editor of the
review, from the emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. On 14th October I had the
opportunity of sending both to the Holy Father, Pope Francis, and to the
emeritus Pope Benedict XVI the special edition of Ecclesia Orans 2012, which included the Acta of the
Ninth International Liturgical Congress of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute
of Sant'Anselmo, Rome, under the title of The
Pontifical Liturgical Institute: between memory and prophecy, which was
held in Rome on the 4th – 6th May 2011. The first reply was that of Pope
Francis, from the Secretariat of State; shortly followed by the surprise of a
reply under the clearly written signature of Pope Benedict XVI, who in
affirming his profound interest in the subject of the liturgy, sent his best
wishes to the Pontifical Liturgical Institute and to the review. This is the
letter we have chosen to publish right at the start of this issue.
Our gratitude
for the replies both from Pope Francis and from Benedict XVI allow us the
opportunity to underline the profound commitment of the review to being the
servant of the Church before being the servant of the Liturgy, or rather to
being the servant of the Church in being the servant of the Liturgy. To
continue in this service, the collaboration is as precious as ever, of all
those who would like, from their engagement in scholarly research in the field
of liturgical studies, to offer the fruit of their labours to the attention of
the new editorial committee for publication. To this end it will be a help to
consult the review's website, which was recently launched, www.ecclesiaorans.com.
It is still in the process of being set up, but it already provides various
kinds of informations and tools for acquaintance with the review itself.
In
giving a new impetus to the start of this 'new spring' for the review, I would
first of all like to thank all our subscribers who, especially in these last
years, have shown the patience of a farmer awaiting the birth of each issue in
their different seasons; a patience that demonstrates a feeling and a love for
the review, because of its scholarly seriousness and its uniqueness in the
academic field. It is also shown by the growth of subscriptions over the last
few months. If there have certainly been delays, this is because of the zeal
and the editorial precision with which the various numbers have been prepared
so as to provide a reliable and serious instrument of study. Finally, thanks to
all who are already at work as well as to those who will work in the service of Ecclesia Orans, in the
certainty that this valuable service to the Church and to the academic world
will bear new and more abundant fruit in opening minds and hearts to the
treasures of the Mystery of Christ, that is celebrated in the rites of the
Christian Church and unfolded too in the learned and luminous pages of our
review.
PIETRO ANGELO MURONI
Editor