The Concelebration Conundrum
Should a priest be required to use the new missal, or more, to concelebrate the Novus Ordo with his bishop? Does it go against charity and respect for the Holy Father for a priest, or anyone, for that matter, to avoid the new Mass entirely (assuming that one fulfills his Sunday obligation)?
Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos wants to see concelebration, but doesn't say it is the law. Fr. Berg says it has never been required of FSSP priests. Finally, Cardinal Ottaviani reminds us of the theological note of the new missal.
Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos at the FSSP ordination on May 30, 2008, in Lincoln, Nebraska:
As President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei I have particular interest in these young men who will celebrate the Holy sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacraments primarily according to the liturgical books of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite which is a treasure for the entire Church. This obviously meets a desire on the part of a good number of the faithful. While I am pleased to promote our Holy Father’s will expressed in his Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum and invite in implementing this important document I also invite my dear sons and brothers to strive to be an integral part of the dioceses in which you will serve; brothers of your brother priests showing deep respect for the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, concelebrating with your bishops at the Chrismal Mass and when this sign of priestly communion is specially appropriate.
Fr. Berg, superior of the FSSP, interviewed this July:
One, I think this is kind of before my time, by and large. During the time I have been doing this, I haven’t run into any bishops who have made [concelebration] a sine qua non in order to come into the diocese. Again, if we look back at the liturgical changes and we see that for 1,000 years this [concelebration] didn’t take place, ecclesial unity was obviously achieved through other elements.
So I think there is a seeking of those elements of unity for communion with other priests and the bishop and the faithful in the diocese that runs much deeper than one annual liturgical action. It hasn’t been set up as a sine qua non.
My response to the bishop is that I have been given this responsibility and put in this position to govern and not to legislate, and I must do what the Holy See has asked me to do with what the Fraternity is able and allowed to do within the diocese.
[The New Order of the Mass] represents, both as a whole and in its details, a striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Mass as it was formulated in Session 22 of the Council of Trent.
