Looking through the Wrong End of the Telescope? Refracting Sacrosanctum Concilium

Abstract

Foley employs the use of a traditional refracting telescope as a metaphor for the process of interpretation that has surrounded Sacrosanctum Concilium ( SC ) since 1963. He cautions that the misuse of the telescope creates serious distortions and even polar opposite readings of things and events. A poorly refracted interpretation of SC can do the same. From the earliest post-Vatican II days various interpretive approaches and frameworks appeared, and most have been helpful toward implementing its teachings. However, Foley holds that what is common and most problematic is the way that SC – or more frequently specific teachings of SC – is interpreted through documents of obviously lesser magisterial weight. A glaring example of this reverse interpretation can be found in the 2001 Vatican Instruction Liturgiam Authenticam , On the use of Vernacular Languages in the Publication of the Books of the Roman Liturgy. This kind of reverse refraction often leads to not only to a minimizing of the teachings of SC but sometimes even their reversal.