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Misa Dialogada - CLII

Dom Prosper Guéranger
Testigo en Contra del Movimiento Litúrgico

Dra. Carol Byrne, Gran Bretaña
En 1975, en el aniversario de la muerte de Dom Prosper Guéranger, OSB (1805-1875), Abad de Solesmes, Pablo VI lo designó como el “Autor del Movimiento Litúrgico.” 1 Esta afirmación, como muchos otros eslóganes de la época del Vaticano II, ha sido repetida con tanta frecuencia por los devotos del Movimiento Litúrgico que ahora la dan por sentada como indudablemente cierta.

Sin embargo, se demostrará que no se basa en ningún dato verificable y que puede ser descartada como parte del universo de “noticias falsas” en el que habitan hoy los católicos apegados a las reformas conciliares.

Dom Guéranger, un ultramontano fiel
a la Tradición de la Iglesia

El propósito de esta afirmación era evidentemente dar un aire de respetabilidad al Movimiento Litúrgico vinculándolo con la reputación de Dom Guéranger, quien fue conocido por el notable éxito de su renovación litúrgica en Francia tras la Revolución Francesa, la cual había reducido el monacato a ruinas.

Una pregunta pertinente a considerar es cuánta fiabilidad se puede otorgar a una valoración de los logros de Guéranger realizada por miembros del Establecimiento Litúrgico posterior al Vaticano II, en una era que ha sido descrita como la Revolución Francesa en la Iglesia Católica y que ha sido testigo de un abandono generalizado de la vida monástica.

Después de todo, ellos estaban imbuidos de los principios de 1789 – Libertad, Igualdad y Fraternidad – que Guéranger rechazaba. Él era un ultramontano, es decir, un firme defensor de la supremacía papal y del control centralizado de la Iglesia desde Roma, mientras que ellos abrazaban la colegialidad. Con puntos de vista tan diametralmente opuestos, es poco probable que existiera una concordancia de sentimientos entre los dos mundos diferentes de las posiciones previas y posteriores al Vaticano II sobre el monacato, la liturgia o, en realidad, sobre cualquier otro aspecto de la vida eclesiástica.

The first requirement in assessing Guéranger’s work as a Benedictine monk is to place his contribution to the good of the Church in its historical context.

Contraste entre Dom Guéranger y los reformadores posteriores

Si tomamos los principios principales en los que se basó la reforma litúrgica de Dom Guéranger, surgirán varios puntos de divergencia que ponen de manifiesto la incompatibilidad fundamental entre el espíritu de renovación que animaba a Guéranger y el espíritu de reforma que impulsaba la agenda de los liturgistas previos al Vaticano II. Por conveniencia, los principios a los que Guéranger se adhirió pueden agruparse bajo cuatro encabezados:

Pablo VI afirmó de manera deshonesta que Dom Guéranger fue el fundador de las reformas litúrgicas progresistas

  • La reforma litúrgica debe mantener un vínculo ininterrumpido con la Tradición;

  • No debe introducir novedades ni adaptaciones a costumbres locales;

  • No debe permitir que se elimine ninguna parte de la liturgia;

  • Debe ser emprendida por personas destacadas por su piedad más que solo por su erudición.
Teniendo en cuenta todos estos puntos, podemos ver a simple vista que no resultará favorable para quienes sostienen que las reformas litúrgicas del siglo XX se realizaron en el espíritu de Dom Guéranger.

La historia del Movimiento Litúrgico actual está salpicada de experimentos por parte de reformadores que introdujeron novedades de su propia invención en la liturgia. Los primeros años del siglo vieron la práctica creciente de la “participación activa”, la “Misa dialogada” y la Misa de cara al pueblo. Incluso hubo cierto experimento ecuménico, por ejemplo, las iniciativas de Dom Beauduin de intercambio interconfesional en el monasterio de Amay, que fundó en 1925.

Desde mediados de siglo hasta el Vaticano II, a los reformadores litúrgicos se les permitió, con apoyo papal, eliminar elementos significativos del Misal Romano, particularmente en los oficios de Semana Santa, que consideraban inadecuados para los gustos modernos. El Papa Juan XXIII, continuando la política de su predecesor, suprimió muchas fiestas del Calendario General, lo que también afectó al Breviario.

Él eliminó el Confiteor antes de la Comunión en el Ordinario de la Misa y alteró el inmutable Canon con la adición del nombre de San José. Así, para el momento de la Constitución sobre la Liturgia en 1963, si el vínculo con la Tradición no estaba completamente roto, al menos estaba peligrosamente desgastado.

En cuanto a la cuestión de la erudición litúrgica, el propio Guéranger fue un practicante ejemplar en este ámbito. Tenía todas las cualidades esenciales para la tarea: piedad, erudición, celo por la verdad y un sincero deseo de servir a la Iglesia preservando sus tradiciones. Muy distinta era la situación con los reformadores litúrgicos previos al Vaticano II.

Pío XI acusó a los modernistas de carecer de piedad y erudición

Una investigación minuciosa sobre sus métodos de estudio demostrará que su objetivo no era proporcionar la verdad y ampliar el conocimiento, sino más bien publicitar únicamente aquellos hallazgos que respaldaban sus nociones preconcebidas de reforma litúrgica, mientras ignoraban las evidencias contrarias.

Una comparación con la obra de Guéranger (quien logró la unidad dentro del rito romano en estricta fidelidad al Concilio de Trento) revelará que los progresistas del siglo XX tenían una concepción totalmente distinta de la renovación litúrgica. Para ellos, el estudio basado en la investigación era simplemente una estrategia para impulsar cambios de política en el más alto nivel de la Jerarquía de la Iglesia. En esto tuvieron un éxito notable, como lo atestigua la historia de la liturgia del Novus Ordo.

En 1924, el Papa Pío XI había criticado el “espíritu orgulloso y engreído” de ciertos eruditos reformistas que carecían de las disposiciones correctas para la investigación académica en asuntos litúrgicos:

“Sin embargo, estos estudios de los ritos antiguos deben ir precedidos de la preparación necesaria para el conocimiento y deben ir acompañados de piedad y de una obediencia dócil y humilde. Y si estas faltan, cualquier investigación sobre las liturgias antiguas de la Misa resultará impía e infructuosa: porque cuando se ha despreciado la suprema autoridad de la Sede Apostólica en materia litúrgica —que con razón rechaza la erudición engreída y, con el Apóstol, ‘habla sabiduría entre los perfectos’ (1 Cor. 8: 1,2: 6)—, ya sea por ignorancia o por un espíritu orgulloso y engreído, amenaza inmediatamente el peligro de que el error conocido como Modernismo sea introducido también en asuntos litúrgicos.” 2

El Movimiento Litúrgico impregnado de Modernismo

Irónicamente, un Modernismo resurgente ya avanzaba de manera constante durante el pontificado de Pío XI, y había ganado tal terreno en la época de Pío XII que incluso un teólogo protestante, alentando desde la barrera el progreso del Movimiento Litúrgico, observó en 1954:

“Es especialmente en su método teológico que el Movimiento Litúrgico evidencia una relación con los errores del Modernismo condenados por Pío X en Pascendi… algunas de las tendencias más fructíferas condenadas por Pío X en su condena general han servido para hacer del Movimiento Litúrgico la gran potencia que es hoy.” 3

Continuará ...

  1. “Auctor illius spiritalis motus.”apud Cuthbert Johnson OSB, Prosper Guéranger (1805-1875), Un teólogo litúrgico: una introducción a sus escritos y obra litúrgica, Pontificio Ateneo Sant’Anselmo, 1984, p. 14.
  2. Pío XI, Missale Bracarense, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1924, p. viii. El Rito de Braga se configuró en la Arquidiócesis de Braga entre los siglos XI y XIII. Al tener más de 200 años de antigüedad en la época del Quo Primum del Papa Pío V del 14 de julio de 1570, se permitió que el Rito de Braga continuara en uso.
  3. Ernest Koenker, El Renacimiento Litúrgico en la Iglesia Católica Romana, University of Chicago Press, 1954, págs. 29, 30-31.

Publicado el 7 de agosto de 2025

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Pre & Post Liturgical Movement Attitudes to Minor Orders - Dialogue Mass 109 by Dr. Carol Byrne
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Dialogue Mass - CX

Pre & Post Liturgical Movement Attitudes to Minor Orders

Dr. Carol Byrne, Great Britain
When we compare the traditional view of Minor Orders with the treatment they received at the hands of liturgical reformers in the 20th century, it becomes evident that the two positions stand in dire contrast to each other. To illustrate this point in greater depth, let us turn again to the exposition of Minor Orders made by Fr. Louis Bacuez who modestly introduced his magnum opus as follows:

minor orders

Starting the whittling away of respect
for the Minor Orders...

“This little book is a sequel to one we have published on Tonsure. God grant that those who make use of it may conceive a great respect for Minor Orders and prepare for them as they should! The dispositions with which they approach ordination will be the measure of the graces they receive, and on this measure depends, in a great part, the fruit that their ministry will produce. To have a rich harvest the first thing necessary is to sow well: Qui parce seminat parce et metet; et qui seminat in benedictionibus de benedictionibus et metet. (2 Cor. 9:6)” (1)

Little did he realize that when he wrote these words every vestige of respect for the Minor Orders would be whittled away by the concerted efforts of progressivists with a negative and dismissive attitude towards them; and that the Liturgical Movement, which had just begun when he published his book, would be dominated by influential liturgists discussing how to overturn them.

Long before the term “Cancel Culture” was invented, they presented the Minor Orders as a form of class-based oppression perpetrated by a clerical “caste” and as a form of spiritually empty legalism, and they went to great lengths to make them look ridiculous.

Far from showing due respect, this involves quite a considerable degree of contempt, not only for the generations of seminarians who were formed within this tradition, but also for the integrity of the great institution of Minor Orders that had served the Church since Apostolic times. In fact, so great was their animosity towards the Minor Orders that they could hardly wait to strip them of their essential nature as functions of the Hierarchy and turn them into lay ministries.

A tree is known by its fruits

These, then, were the hate-filled dispositions that inspired the progressivist reform, and would determine the graces received and the fruit to be produced by those who exercise the new lay “ministries” as opposed to, and in place of, the traditional Minor Orders.

Fr. Bacuez, who wrote his book in the pontificate of Pius X, could never, of course, have envisaged the demise of the Minor Orders, least of all at the hands of a future Pope. He was concerned lest even the smallest amount of grace be lost in the souls of those preparing for the priesthood:

blighted fruit

Blighted fruits from a sick tree

“We shall see, on the Last Day, what injury an ordinand does to himself and what detriment he causes to souls by losing, through his own fault, a part of the graces destined to sanctify his priesthood and render fruitful the fields of the Heavenly Father: Modica seminis detractio non est modicum messis detrimentum. (St. Bernard)” (2)

We do not, however, need to wait till the Last Day to see the effects of a reform that deliberately prevents, as by an act of spiritual contraception, the supernatural graces of the Minor Orders from attaining their God-given end: “to sanctify the priesthood and render fruitful the fields of the Heavenly Father.” For the evidence is all around us that the tree of this reform produced blighted fruits.

First, we note a weakening of the hierarchical structure of the Church and a blurring of the distinction between clergy and laity; second, a “contraceptive” sterility resulting in vocations withering on the vine and below replacement level, seminaries and churches closing down, parishes dying, and the decline in the life of the traditional Catholic Faith as seen in every measurable statistic. The conclusion is inescapable: those who planted this tree and those who now participate in the reform are accomplices in a destructive work.

Advantages of the Minor Orders

A substantial part of Fr. Bacuez’ exposition of the Minor Orders is devoted to the inestimable benefits they bring to the Church. These he divided into the following three categories:
  • The honor of the priesthood;

  • The dignity of worship;

  • The perfection of the clergy.
It is immediately apparent that the Minor Orders were oriented towards the liturgy as performed by the priest and his ministers. In other words, they existed for entirely supernatural ends invested in the priesthood.

A significant and entirely appropriate omission was any mention of active involvement of the laity in the liturgy. Fr. Bacuez’ silence on this issue is an eloquent statement of the mind of the Church that the liturgy is the preserve of the clergy.

We will now take each of his points in turn.

1. The honor of the priesthood

“A statue, however perfect, would never be appreciated by most people, unless it were placed on a suitable pedestal. Likewise the pontificate, which is the perfection of the priesthood, would not inspire the faithful with all the esteem it merits, if it had not beneath it, to give it due prominence, these different classes of subordinate ministers, classes inferior one to another, but the least of which is superior to the entire order of laymen.” (3)

toppling statues

Toppling statues has become popular today:
above,
Fr. Serra in central Los Angeles, California

It is an example of dramatic irony that Fr. Bacuez unwittingly chose the theme of a statue supported by a pedestal to illustrate his point. He was not to know that statues of historical figures would become a major source of controversy in the culture wars and identity politics of our age.

Nor could he have foreseen that toppling monuments – both metaphorical and concrete – was to become a favorite sport of the 20th-century liturgical reformers, their aim being to exalt the status of the laity by “active participation” in clerical roles. And never in his wildest imagination would he have suspected that a future Pope would join in the iconoclastic spree to demolish the Minor Orders about which he wrote with evident pride and conviction.

'Don’t put the priest on a pedestal'

However, the revolutionaries considered that esteem for the Hierarchy and recognition of its superiority over the lay members of the Church was too objectionable to be allowed to survive in modern society. The consensus of opinion among them was that clergy and laity were equals because of their shared Baptism, and placing the priest on a pedestal was not only unnecessary, but detrimental to the interests of the laity.

“Don’t put the priest on a pedestal” was their battle cry. It is the constant refrain that is still doing the rounds among progressivists who refuse to give due honor to the priesthood and insist on accusing the Church of systemic “clericalism.”

But the fundamental point of the Minor Orders – and the Sub-Diaconate – was precisely to be the pedestal on which the priesthood is supported and raised to a position of honor in the Church. When Paul VI’s Ministeria quaedam dismantled the institutional underpinnings of the Hierarchy, the imposing pedestal and columns that were the Minor Orders and Sub-Diaconate were no longer allowed to uphold and elevate the priesthood.

The biblical underpinnings of the Minor Orders

Fr. Bacuez made use of the following passage from the Book of Proverbs:

“Wisdom hath built herself a house; she hath hewn out seven pillars. She hath slain her victims, mingled her wine, and set forth her table.” (9: 1-2)

exorcism

An ordination to the minor order of exorcist, one of the seven columns

He drew an analogy between “the seven columns of the living temple, which the Incarnate Wisdom has raised up to the Divine Majesty” and all the clerical Orders (four Minor and three Major) that exist for the right worship of God. In this, he was entirely justified. For, in their interpretation of this passage, the Church Fathers concur that it is a foreshadowing of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass performed, as St. Augustine said, by “the Mediator of the New Testament Himself, the Priest after the order of Melchisedek.” (4)

In the 1972 reform, no less than five (5) of the seven columns were brought crashing down from their niches in the Hierarchy to cries of “institutionalized clericalism,” “delusions of grandeur” and “unconscious bias” against the laity.

To further elucidate the affinity of the Minor Orders to the priesthood, Fr. Bacuez gave a brief overview of the cursus honorum that comprised the Orders of Porter, Lector, Exorcist, Acolyte, Sub-Deacon, Deacon and Priest before going on to explain their interrelatedness:

“These seven powers successively conferred, beginning with the last, are superimposed one upon the other without ever disappearing or coming in conflict, so that in the priesthood, the highest of them all, they are all found. The priest unites them all in his person, and has to exercise them all his life in the various offices of his ministry.” (6)

After Ministeria quaedam, however, these rights and powers are no longer regarded as the unique, personal possession of the ordained, but have been officially redistributed among the baptized. It was not simply a question of changing the title from Orders to “ministries”: the real locus of the revolution was in taking the privileges of the “ruling classes” (the representatives of Christ the King) and giving them to their subjects (the laity) as of “right.”

The neo-Marxist message was, and still is, that this was an act of “restorative justice” for the laity who had been “historically wronged.” For the liturgical progressivists, 1972 was, apparently, the year of “compensation.”

Continued

  1. Louis Bacuez SS, Minor Orders, St Louis MO: B. Herder, 1912, p. x. “He who soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who soweth in blessings shall also reap blessings.”
  2. Ibid., St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Lenten Sermon on the Psalm ‘Qui habitat,’ Sermones de Tempore, In Quadragesima, Preface, § 1: “If, at the time of sowing, a moderate amount of seed has been lost, the harm done to the harvest will not be inconsiderable.”
  3. Ibid., p. 6.
  4. St. Augustine, The City of God, book XVII, chap. 20: "Of David’s Reign and Merit; and of his son Solomon, and of that prophecy relating to Christ, which is found either in those books that are joined to those written by him, or in those that are indubitably his."
  5. These were the four Minor Orders and the Major Order of the Sub-Diaconate.
  6. L. Bacuez, op. cit., p. 5.

Posted December 10, 2021

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Volume IV
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Volume V
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Volume VII
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