“Many critics seem to want to lay blame for the Roman Catholic Church’s problems on the doorstep of a badly engineered reform… they move quickly from criticizing liturgical abuses to confusing the reform and renewal of the liturgy with those abuses.”[1]

 We certainly did experience strange times in liturgy after the publication of the Constitution on the Liturgy by the Second Vatican Council in 1964[2]. This Constitution represents the fruits of the work of a Council of the Catholic Church – it is not simply the theological opinion of a few learned academics in the Church. The many documents of the Vatican Council were the fruit of the generous and studious work of many scholars which was blended with the wise, pastoral experiences of the numerous Bishops gathered in Council from all experiences of Church. It was then the decision of the Bishops in Council who voted first in favour of the schema of the document (2,162 Council fathers voted in favour of the schema, with only forty-six negatives votes, in November 1962), and then the following year voted overwhelming in favour of the final document. (Interestingly Pope Paul VI voted in favour in 1962 as Archbishop Montini, Archbishop of Milan, and then in 1963 as Pope[3].) Thus we were entrusted by one of the highest teaching offices of the Church with a clear teaching on Liturgy.

            Unfortunately, the reception of that teaching by local Churches varied greatly. Within the European and North America environments, for example, there had been for years a ferment of formation and education of many communities in this understanding of Liturgy[4]. However there were many other communities that were not so blessed and set about implementing the liturgical reform without wisdom. This implementation was also in the contact of an ecclesiology which had long been formed by the experience of the people being told what to do! The environment of an obedient Church made it possible for the local parish priest to begin the Sunday Mass on the first Sunday of Advent in 1964 with the invitation to the community “to turn to opening page of the new booklet and we will begin ‘In the name of the Father…’”[5]. Thus many began their first formation to their beloved Mass in English – neither priest nor people were provided with the necessary tools for understanding this monumental change in the life of the Church! The change was only possible because of the faithful obedience of the community who could unquestioningly follow the direction of the pastor, whether that be bishop or priest. Such faithful obedience was to be put to the test in the coming years as endless changes appeared. For a liturgy that was sold as being unchangeable, this experience was extremely painful for some.

            Now forty years later, the liturgical reform has been re-affirmed by the Magisterium of the Church with the third edition of the General Instruction on the Roman Missal[6]. Now is the time for us to return to the principles of the reform to ensure that the critics of the many abuses of the past may experience the Liturgy as envisaged by the Council fathers. Our communities gathered in prayer must always be formed by the Liturgy so that “each time we offer the memorial sacrifice the work of our redemption is accomplished”[7] where the faithful “may express in their lives, and manifest to others, the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church."[8]