<i>Visibilium et invisibilium</i>: Hacia una visibilización y análisis integral de la arquitectura religiosa del Movimiento Moderno en Puerto Rico, 1925-75

In the decades following the Second Vatican Council, Catholic liturgy became an area of considerable interest and debate, if not controversy, in the West. Mid-late 20th century liturgical scholarship, upon which the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council were predicated and implemented, no longer stands unquestioned. The liturgical and ecclesial springtime the reforms of Paul VI were expected to facilitate has failed to emerge, leaving many questions as to their wisdom and value. Quo vadis Catholic liturgy? This Companion brings together a variety of scholars who consider this question at the beginning of the 21st century in the light of advances in liturgical scholarship, decades of post-Vatican II experience and the critical re-examination in the West of the question of the liturgy promoted by Benedict XVI. The contributors, each eminent in their field, have distinct takes on how to answer this question, but each makes a significant contribution to contemporary debate, making this Companion an essential reference for the study of Western Catholic liturgy in history and in the light of contemporary scholarship and debate.

From the middle of the 19 th century until convocation of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), several spiritual and intellectual revival movements were visible in the Catholic Church. They had one overarching objective – return to the origins (French: ressourcement ). The revival of Biblical Studies, as the first of these movements, was implemented mainly at two specialist universities: the School of Practical Biblical Studies (French: École pratique d’études bibliques) of Father Marie-Joseph Lagrange OP and at the Pontifical Biblical Institute (Pontificium Institutum Biblicum) founded by Pope Saint Pius X. The Movement of Liturgical renewal, on the other hand, began at the Benedictine abbeys in Belgium, France and Germany, and was later popularised by Father Prosper Guéranger OSB, Father Lambert Beauduin OSB and Father Odo Casel OSB. Similarly as in the case of the Biblical revival, the teaching of successive Popes – and of Pius XII in particular – had a significant influence on changes in the Catholic liturgy. In contrast, the Ecumenical Movement was characterised by its bottom-up nature, and its beginnings were associated initially with Protestant missionary circles. An important contribution to this transformative movement were meetings between the Catholic and the Anglican Church, known as the Malines Conversations (French: Conversations des Malines), as well as the Una Sancta ecumenical movement developing robustly in Germany. Finally, the last crucial phenomenon – ain particular from the perspective of genesis of the Second Vatican Council – was the rise of Nouvelle Théologie, a new school of thought in Catholic theology. Its representatives include leading theologians of the 20 th century: Father Henri de Lubac SJ, Father Karl Rahner SJ, Father Yves Congar OP, Father Marie-Dominique Chenu OP, as well as Father Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) and Father Hans Küng. It should be emphasised all the above Catholic renewal movements had a decisive influence on development of dominant tendencies at the Second Vatican Council, and the consequent conceptual framework used in the Council documents.

This article explores the transformative changes in Catholic liturgy during the twentieth century and their implications for the stability of religious meaning and cultural identity in the West. In critical dialogue with Chantal Delsol’s diagnosis of the decline of Christianitas, this study argues that the reform of ritual following the Second Vatican Council, rather than political entanglements, played a decisive role in weakening the public credibility of Catholic truth claims. Drawing on Roy A. Rappaport’s theory of ritual as a stabilizer of cultural meaning, the author analyzes how this postconciliar liturgical reform altered the semiotic structure of Catholic worship—shifting communication from indexical to symbolic forms and reorienting the liturgy from a vertical–concentric order to a more decentralized horizontal dynamic. The chosen method combines theoretical reflection with liturgical anthropology to assess how changes in the Roman Missal, ritual posture, and spatial arrangement disrupted the transmission of canonical messages. The conclusion suggests that this semiotic transformation undermined the liturgy’s capacity to ritually confirm the truths of faith, contributing to the broader civilizational disintegration observed by Delsol. Ultimately, this article contends that any future revitalization of Catholic culture will depend less on political influence and more on recovering the liturgy’s ritual capacity to sustain belief in transcendent truth.

ABSTRACTIn 1963 the Vatican in Rome, as part of the Second Vatican Council, authorized vernacular languages to be used in Catholic liturgies around the world. For English speaking countries, a commission was formed to translate the Latin into English for the Mass as well as for all of the various rites such as baptism, anointing of the sick, marriage, and the ordination of priests and bishops. An International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) set to work, and by 1970 it had a provisionary translation completed. The commission then set out to revise its work in a more thoughtful and studied manner. These new translations were sent to the English‐speaking bishops all over the world for approval and comment, which were then revised accordingly. This work continued until 2002 when a new regime in Rome revised their instructions for translation, dismissed the work that had been done, and appointed a new international commission. This article documents the history of ICEL from 1969 to 2002.

Reviewed by: Domesticating a Religious Import: The Jesuits and the Inculturation of the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe, 1879–1980 Frederick Klaits Domesticating a Religious Import: The Jesuits and the Inculturation of the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe, 1879–1980. By Nicholas M. Creary. (New York: Fordham University Press. 2011. Pp. xviii, 339. $45.00. ISBN 978-0-823-23334-2.) Nicholas Creary’s book on the Jesuit mission during Zimbabwe’s colonial period addresses an ecclesiastical audience as much as an audience of historians. An Africanist historian with a background of two years as a Jesuit novice, Creary writes with a strong belief in the potential of the Church to become inculturated—that is, adapted to the particularities of local cultures. The term inculturation was popularized by Pedro Arrupe, the superior general of the Jesuit Order from 1965 to 1983. Drawing upon Arrupe’s language, Creary writes with the conviction that “catholicity . . . allows for local cultures to influence the church universal by taking elements of broader Christian culture and incorporating them into their respective cultural contexts, while simultaneously offering their respective symbols to enrich the Christian context” (pp. 248–49). While documenting the popularity of Catholicism among the VaShona people of Zimbabwe, Creary writes with disappointment about the attitudes of Jesuit leaders, who tended to be suspicious of grassroots religious innovations. Such innovations included the incorporation of marriage payments into church practices; the adaptation of ancestral veneration into Catholic ritual; and the use of Mwari, a deity with shrines throughout the region, as a legitimate name for God within Catholic liturgy. For Jesuits, problems of inculturation were crucially shaped by canon lawmaking. The book concentrates on debates among the Jesuit leadership of Chishawasha Mission, the oldest Catholic mission in Zimbabwe, about the legitimacy of religious innovations under terms of canon law. In addition, Creary incorporates perspectives of [End Page 618] members of the lay Catholic Association as well as of Mariannhill missionaries who established convents for women during the 1920s, a time when the colonial government was making efforts to uphold local patriarchal authority. Creary’s intent to study “the efforts of African Christians to shed the European influences of an imported Christianity and transform it into an African religious experience” (p. 17) is carried out most effectively in a chapter concerning controversies over kurova guva, rites of honoring ancestors. These rites were banned for Catholic adherents in the 1890s by Jesuit missionaries, whose collective memory had been shaped by controversies during the eighteenth century between Jesuits and Dominicans over comparable Chinese rituals. Creary documents ongoing debates among Zimbabwean Catholics over the value and significance of ancestral veneration. In the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, African Catholic priests argued that kurova guva fulfills the commandment to honor one’s father and mother, and received permission from Rome to incorporate the rite into liturgy under the term kuchenura munhu (to purify the person). Yet in 2007, the Southern African Catholics Bishops’ Conference issued statements opposing the rite on grounds that it is performed out of fear of ancestral curses. Creary disputes this latter position, arguing that it overlooks commonalities between kuchenura munhu and prayers to saints, and represents a step backward from inculturation. Local ambivalence about ancestral demands is clearly a significant component of popular Catholicism in Zimbabwe; yet the implications of this issue are obscured by the text’s emphasis on the degree to which the Church has been inculturated. Owing to the atmosphere of fear associated with political violence in Zimbabwe since 2000, Creary was unable to conduct oral interviews that might have enriched descriptions of popular religious practices such as pilgrimages to the shrine of Bernard Mizeki, an Anglican martyr revered by Zimbabwean Christians of many denominations. In addition, the focus on inculturation glosses over Catholic responses to colonial and postcolonial violence. What this book has to offer instead is a detailed account of how the Jesuits’ own commitments to defining church law shaped their assessments of the cultural practices of their parishioners. Frederick Klaits Northern Kentucky University Copyright © 2012 The Catholic University of America Press

After the Second Vatican Council, national languages began to be used in the Catholic liturgy and it was necessary to prepare translations of liturgical books. On this occasion, in the Czech Republic, the translation of the Bible was also revised and a new hymnal was published. The translation of the missal, especially the speeches delivered by the priest and the faithful at every mass became a very urgent task. In this article, we deal with the linguistic side of these translations, mainly of the Czech Missal. The translation of liturgical texts into Czech is not literal, it does not copy the syntax of the Latin original, but it always preserves its meaning. A neutral literary Czech was deliberately chosen for the translation so that the language of the liturgy would not become obsolete. After several years of using the Czech Missal, some modifications were made. For example, masculine forms were replaced by neutral ones so that they could be recited by both men and women.

Reviewed by: Authentically Black and Truly Catholic: The Rise of Black Catholicism in the Great Migration by Matthew J. Cressler Kim R. Harris (bio) Matthew J. Cressler, Authentically Black and Truly Catholic: The Rise of Black Catholicism in the Great Migration (New York: New York University Press, 2017). 288 pages. Five members of the Black Panther Party and fifty others identified as "Concerned Black Catholics and Whites Concerned about the Black Community" occupied the narthex of St. James Church, Chicago, for a first "Black Unity Mass" on January 5, 1969. Members of the Chicago Police Department's "Red Squad" tactical unit observed the protest, taking notes on what they dubbed a "prayin." During the same hour, "regular" church goers attended Mass in the nave of St. James, undoubtedly hearing the prayers and freedom songs ringing out from the demonstration. Ironically, the protestors' General Intercessions, controversial in their time, have a contemporary ring. Their prayers for Black pride, unity, faith and in honor of a Black Baptist minister could appropriately be offered in 2018, for one of the many Catholic liturgies in celebration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday. Similarly, the fact of present-day Black Catholic celebrations in parishes and cathedrals, accompanied by piano, drums, electric bass, interpretive dance and diocesan-wide gospel choirs, was made possible, in part, by the confrontations, prayers, determination, and cultural evangelization of Black Catholic Chicagoans. Historic and present-day liturgical comparisons and the detailed descriptions of ecclesial conflicts in Authentically Black and Truly Catholic, underscore author Matthew J. Cressler's thesis. He contends that undergirded by official changes in the Catholic Church's liturgical practice and engagement [End Page 123] with the "modern world" after the Second Vatican Council, the intersection of Black Catholics in the United States and Black Power in the late 1960s and 1970s ignited a revolution in the expression of Black Catholic identity and in the community's worship style. In particular, Cressler attributes both local and national influence among Black Catholics, as well as in the wider United States Catholic Church, to the courage and "missionary" zeal for ecclesial self-determination and cultural relevance of Black Catholics in Chicago. Cressler begins by documenting the exponential increase in the numbers of Chicago's Black Catholics from 1940 to 1975. Most were converted to what they came to believe to be the "One True Church," universal and above the racial color line. White religious, women and men of orders such as the Society of the Divine Word and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People, self-described "missionaries," dedicated themselves strategically and systematically to the conversion of newly arrived African-Americans of the "Great Migration." Cressler illuminates his research with converts' personal testimony gathered from journal entries, interviews (many conducted by himself), letters, and other archival materials. Cressler offers a complexity of reasons for the African-American conversions. He contends that not only the prospect of greater educational opportunities, but also the experience of "quiet" and "dignified" liturgies, the inspiration and maintenance of family relationships, and the chance to "be somebody" all impacted conversion decisions. Cressler highlights the so-called "Chicago Plan" of mandatory family religious education and Mass attendance for all who sent their children to Catholic schools, as a foundation for many conversion choices. The author's analysis contains little comparison between the Chicago Black Catholic mid-twentieth century conversion experience with that of African-American Chicagoans who chose other "high church" Christian denominations, also featuring "quiet" or "dignified" liturgies. He makes strong connections, however, between the converts' embrace of new devotional traditions, their chosen separation from former associations, and alternative participation in contemporaneous "religio-racial movements," including the Nation of Islam, the Moorish Science Temple of America, and the Commandment Keepers Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation of the Living God. Cressler provides a riveting telling of the struggles for Black Catholic self-determination between priest-activists such as George Clements and Rollins Lambert, along with Concerned Black Catholics, the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, the Afro-American Patrolman's League and Chicago's Archbishop Cardinal John P. Cody. He also includes accounts of [End Page 124] intra-group leadership and...

Abstract: The Nova Vulgata, or Neo-Vulgate, is a revised Vulgate Bible published in 1979 by the Catholic Church for use principally in Latin-language liturgies, and as a template for vernacular lectionaries. The Second Vatican Council’s 1963 call for a revised Latin Psalter led to the formation of a committee that was soon expanded to undertake a revision of the entire Bible. The dozen committee members and their collaborators used modern editions of biblical texts in the original languages to correct the Vulgate when it significantly diverged from these. The near-total collapse of the use of Latin in Catholic liturgies after the Council has meant that the Neo-Vulgate is read mostly by a minority of clergy and laypeople, still numbering in the thousands, who daily pray the Liturgy of the Hours in Latin.

From the Editor Uwe Michael Lang Lord, I love you"—these were reported to be the last words of Pope Benedict XVI before he died on December 31, 2022.1 The words echo the threefold profession of faith the Apostle Peter made to the Risen Christ in John 21. Both Joseph Ratzinger's warm personal faith, which he had treasured since his childhood in Catholic Bavaria, and his profound theological work were animated by his friendship with Christ. It is no easy task to render justice to the immense legacy of Benedict XVI, whose lifework stands out in so many ways. In the first place, we must be truly grateful for his loving service to God and the Church, as a theologian and pastor. Having had the grace of knowing Joseph Ratzinger personally, I have always found it painful to see how a man of such gentleness, humility, and openness in listening to others was often met with anticipated hostility from the wider public, and with thinly veiled obstruction from some even inside the Catholic Church. So many assaults on him were personal, manifestly unjust, full of verbal abuse and intended to distract from the real reasons why the opinion makers of our time intensely disliked him. Joseph Ratzinger was a Catholic thinker who explained the faith in a luminous and attractive way and intelligently questioned the assumptions of the relativism that has dominated the public square in the Western world for some time and is now showing increasingly totalitarian features. Throughout his long life and ministry that led him to the See of Peter, he strove to put God first and ensure that Christ was at the [End Page 1] center of the Church's mission. Since his early years of formation, he found in the New Testament "the soul of all theology."2 As cardinal and pope, he challenged the hubris of historical-critical exegesis and called for a rediscovery of what it means to read the Bible in the tradition of the Church. In the three volumes of his work Jesus of Nazareth, written during his pontificate, Benedict XVI invited us to join his search for the face of Christ, which he has now completed. Even though his university career focused on fundamental and dogmatic theology, Joseph Ratzinger considered the liturgy central to his academic and pastoral work and hailed it as the "living element" of theology, "without which it would necessarily shrivel up."3 Divine worship brings us into the right relationship with God and with one another, and its true meaning and relevance far exceed the actual liturgical celebration. As Joseph Ratzinger concludes from his reading of the Exodus narrative: the worship to which the people of Israel—and, by extension, all the nations—are called "embraces the ordering of the whole of human life."4 Joseph Ratzinger lived and worked at a time when the form and expression of the Church's faith in the sacred liturgy had become a highly controversial topic. As a theologian and bishop, he did not shrink from entering this contested arena with admirable lucidity. He was convinced that infelicitous choices have been made in the actual implementation of the sound principles of the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. With his election to the See of Peter, Benedict XVI found himself in a position to shape the future of the Catholic liturgy, a position he could only approach with misgivings, because he strongly held that genuine liturgical renewal does not happen by decrees and instructions. Instead, he [End Page 2] intended to create favorable conditions and open perspectives for an "organic" development of the liturgy that would avoid the discontinuity that had done so much damage to Catholic ritual in the post-conciliar period. The Society for Catholic Liturgy is indebted in a particular way to the liturgical vision of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. Authentic liturgical renewal needs to be grounded in scholarship that is academically rigorous, faithful to the Church's perennial teaching, and guided by charity. The various activities of the Society, above all its annual conference and its journal Antiphon, promote such scholarship in the service of liturgical formation. It is rewarding...

125 BOOK REVIEWS Nouvelle Théologie – New Theology: Inheritor of Modernism, Precursor of Vatican II. By JÜRGEN METTEPENNINGEN. London: T. & T. Clark, 2010. Pp. 218. £19.99 (paper). ISBN: 978-0-567-034010-6. In the ongoing debate over the hermeneutics of the Second Vatican Council it is neither pertinent to search for an elusive “spirit of the Council” nor sufficient to focus on the promulgated texts and their geneses: it is also necessary to study the various pontificates and theological schools and movements in order to reach an insight into the minds of the council fathers and their periti. This study is therefore a welcome contribution to this debate since it intends “to introduce the reader into the most important building blocks, into the specificity and development” (xiv) of the nouvelle théologie “as the inheritor of Modernism and one of the precursors of Vatican II” (xiv). The author considers the contribution of several Dominicans to be “innovative” in this respect. He describes this innovation as follows in the introduction: “before, during and after the Second World War, [several Dominicans] called for a theology that was oriented towards the sources of the Christian faith and not (exclusively) towards a system based on scholasticism. In short, theology needed to restore its contact with the living reality of the faith. . . . In order to achieve this goal, theologians had to become aware of the urgent need to refresh theology’s bonds with history. . . . To draw from the well of history is to return to the true sources of the faith and thereby transform the faith into the living object of theology” (xiii). Whether and how the author succeeds in giving the reader a deeper insight into this rather vague description remains to be seen. The book has two main parts, each divided into three chapters, in which the author, drawing on published and archival material in various modern languages, studies the concept and context of the movement (3-40) and the various phases of the nouvelle théologie prior to the Second Vatican Council (41-140). The book ends with some briefconclusions (141-46), which are followed by endnotes (14786 , which contain almost solely bibliographical information), a bibliography (187-214) and an index (215-18). In part 1, chapter 1, the author considers the nouvelle théologie to be a “cluster concept” (7) which is difficult to define, the more so since representatives such as Congar, de Lubac and Bouillard were critical of its use and its application to their thought. He nevertheless considers the following four BOOK REVIEWS 126 features to be essential to the movement: the use of the French language, the place of history within theology, the appeal of a positive theology in search of the sources of the faith and in particular the thirteenth-century Thomas, and finally a “critical attitude towards neo-scholasticism” (11), which was viewed as a “conceptual system” that “defined the norms of orthodoxy” to the detriment of the “relationship between theology, faith and life”; it “was not open to reality and history and was thus closed to the fully fledged contribution of positive theology” (ibid.). The author intends, in chapter 2, to offer the “theological background” and “historical embeddings” of the nouvelle théologie between 1819 (the year in which Johann Sebastian Drey established the Tübinger theologische Quartalschrift ) and 1960 in less than 15 pages (15-29). This leaves little room for nuances. For instance, to John Henry Newman is ascribed the idea that “Christianity is not a theory or a closed system,” that “[neither] the Church’s doctrine nor the Church itself are static entities, but rather living realities,” that the faith is “not simply to be imposed from above (the magisterium), but requiring consultation and an awareness of the faith of the laity” (17). Or, treating ultramontanism, neo-Scholasticism and Vatican I under the same heading, the Syllabus errorum of 1864 is stated to be “a rejection of modern thought,” which “necessitated the creation of a counterweight: an anti-modern intellectual framework” of which Thomism “became the focus of attention” (18). The one-page description of Modernism ends by describing its relation to the magisterium as “a clash of good...

Pope Benedict XVI on the Postconciliar Liturgical Reform: An Essay in Interpretation William H. Johnston Fifty years ago the Second Vatican Council, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “launched the most extensive renewal of the Roman Rite ever known.”1 What was Pope Benedict’s assessment of and response to that renewal and the way it was carried out in the Church in the years since the Second Vatican Council? Many see that assessment as fundamentally negative. Shortly after Cardinal Ratzinger (later to become Pope Benedict XVI) published in 2000 his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, John Baldovin described it as a “powerful indictment of the last thirty-five years of Roman Catholic liturgy,” finding that “almost no aspect of liturgy escapes his wrathful pen.”2 More recently, Massimo Faggioli portrayed Pope Benedict’s establishment of the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the Roman Rite through the 2007 Motu proprio on the liturgy, Summorum Pontificum, as “not far from renouncing Vatican II as such, stopping every pastoral effort aimed at receiving the liturgical reform and Vatican II through the liturgy.”3 James Sweeney also interpreted Summorum Pontificum as an action “reversing the thrust of the liturgical renewal.”4 Helen Hull Hitchcock held that Cardinal Ratzinger (and John Paul II) 1 Benedict XVI, Video Message for the Closing of the Fiftieth International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin (June 17, 2012), available at http://www. vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/pont-messages/2012/documents /hf_ben-xvi_mes_20120617_50cong-euc-dublino_en.html. 2 John Baldovin, “‘Lo, the Full, Final Sacrifice’: On the Seriousness of Christian Liturgy,” Antiphon 7 (2002) 10–17, at 13. 3 Massimo Faggioli, True Reform: Liturgy and Ecclesiology in Sacrosanctum Concilium (Collegeville MN: Liturgical Press, 2012) 144. 4 James Sweeney, “How Should We Remember Vatican II?” New Blackfriars 90 (2009) 251–260, at 254. Antiphon 17.2 (2013): 118–138 119 Pope Benedict XVI on the Postconciliar Liturgical Reform: An Essay in Interpretation judged “the post-Conciliar liturgical reform” in need of “a thorough re-evaluation.”5 The list could be lengthened. Are these views sound and accurate? It is certainly true that various of Joseph Ratzinger’s writings and statements, especially before but also after becoming pope, communicated a critical judgment regarding the liturgical reform. In his memoirs, for example, he described “the crisis in the church” in the postconciliar era as due “to a large extent…to the disintegration of the liturgy.”6 A search through his body of work for words describing results of the liturgical reform or features of its implementation can produce a strikingly negative lexicon, ranging from “banality,” “superficiality ,” and “deficiencies” to “fragmentation,” “frightening impoverishment ,” “wretchedness,” “deformation,” “disintegration,” “destruction,” “devastation,” “anarchy,” “chaos”—and the like.7 Many strong words, all pointing in the same direction. 5 Helen Hull Hitchcock, “Pope Benedict XVI and the ‘Reform of the Reform,’” in Benedict XVI and the Sacred Liturgy, ed. Neil J. Roy and Janet E. Rutherford (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2010) 70–87, at 81. 6 Joseph Ratzinger, Milestones: Memoirs 1927–1977 (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1998) 148. 7 For “banality,” see Joseph Ratzinger, The Feast of Faith: Approaches to a Theology of the Liturgy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986) 100, 120–121; idem, A New Song for the Lord: Faith in Christ and Liturgy Today (New York: Crossroad, 1996) 39, and elsewhere; “superficiality,” idem, New Song, 198; “deficiencies,” idem, “The Spirit of the Liturgy or Fidelity to the Council: Response to Father Gy,” Antiphon 11 (2007) 97–102, at 99; “fragmentation,” idem, “Assessment and Future Prospects,” in Looking Again at the Question of the Liturgy with Cardinal Ratzinger, ed. Alcuin Reid (Farnborough: Saint Michael’s Abbey Press, 2003) 145–153, at 148; “frightening impoverishment,” Joseph Ratzinger and Vittorio Messori , The Ratzinger Report: An Exclusive Interview on the State of the Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1985) 128, also Joseph Ratzinger, “Zur theologischen Grundlegung der Kirchenmusik,” in idem, Theologie der Liturgie: Die sakramentale Begründung christlicher Existenz, Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 11 (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2008) 501–526, at 503; “wretchedness,” idem, The Spirit of the Liturgy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000) 130; “deformation,” idem, New Song, 174; “disintegration ,” idem, Milestones, 148; “destruction,” idem, “Assessment and Future Prospects...

This article discussed the hermeneutics of the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council. Liturgical reform has been of the most important fruits that the Second Vatican Council produced for the life of the Church. However, the liturgical reform, especially the one of ordo missae, has been one of the most debated issues in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) until now. The implementation of liturgical reform after the Second Vatican Council was not only welcomed with warm reception, but also with critical attitudes and even rejection. This article showed that the debates and controversies surrounding liturgical reform are rooted in different hermeneutics regarding the Second Vatican Council, and specifically regarding the Constitution of Liturgy. The problem actually arises from two conflicting and contradictory hermeneutics and interpretations. On the one hand there is a so-called hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture. On the other hand, there is a hermeneutic of reform, or a hermeneutic of renewal in continuity with the one Church.

Reviewed by: Singing His Song: A Short Introduction to the Liturgical Movement by Thomas M. Kocik Kevin D. Magas Thomas M. Kocik Singing His Song: A Short Introduction to the Liturgical Movement Revised and Expanded Edition Hong Kong: Chorabooks, 2019 68 pages. Paperback. $12.64. Since then-Cardinal Ratzinger called for a "new liturgical movement" to "call to life the real heritage of the Second Vatican Council" in his memoir Milestones,2 there has been a renewed interest in reengaging the historical roots of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Liturgical Movements and their relationship to the Second Vatican Council and its implementation. Kocik's work aims to provide a short sketch of this historical trajectory by introducing a popular audience to some of the major phases, figures, and ideas in both the classical and "new" manifestations of the Liturgical Movement. Kocik's introduction highlights the predominantly spiritual goals of the Liturgical Movement to restore liturgical worship to the center of Christian life. Kocik's explanation of his title provides a moving image of this: "to sing one's life and live one's song" is "being in tune with the life of Christ by nourishing and living our faith through the Church's sacred liturgy" (2). Kocik's exploration of the first phase of the Liturgical Movement, "Recovering Lost Treasures," introduces readers to early liturgical pioneers and major figures such [End Page 147] as Beauduin, Guardini, and Pius X. Kocik takes care not to romanticize the state of the celebration of the liturgy prior to the Second Vatican Council and highlights the reasons a liturgical renewal was called for. In general, the contours of Kocik's analysis follow Alcuin Reid's thesis that the Liturgical Movement had the restoration of a distinctively liturgical spirituality rather than ritual reform as its primary motivation. The second phase, "The Movement Comes of Age," focuses on the affirmation of certain aspects of the movement in the magisterium of Pius XII as well as a criticism of its excesses, such as the dismissive attitude towards popular devotions in some of the movement's proponents. Here Kocik casts the shift towards a reform of the liturgical texts and rites themselves in a negative light, indicated by the subtitle "a storm brews." While Kocik's account of the "Third Phase: Vatican II" contains only a brief expository description of the content of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, he devotes more time to postconciliar reforms and implementation. Kocik views the state of the liturgy after the council as debased and attributes the liturgical malaise to deficient social-cultural attitudes, a climate of dissent in the Church, and the weaknesses of the Consilium commissioned with the liturgical reform. This fourth and final phase, "Towards a 'New Liturgical Movement'" provides an overview of the magisterial response of John Paul II and Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI to the postconciliar situation and the main proponents in the "reform of the reform" and "new liturgical movement" umbrella. Kocik concludes by offering his own reflections on the liturgical reform, which are critical not only of the implementation of the council but the revised liturgical books themselves. A final "liturgical examen" returns to the spiritual moorings of the introduction by leading readers through an examination of whether the rhythms of the liturgy truly shape their daily lives. As a short introduction, Kocik's book favors breadth over depth and does well in distilling a wide range of ideas and figures in the complex history of twentieth-century liturgical reform and renewal. One of its major goals is to make available to non-specialists the more technical studies of the twentieth-century Liturgical Movement, and Kocik largely succeeds in translating the perspectives of Reid, Dobszay, [End Page 148] Bux, and his own previous writings to a more popular audience. Readers' perceptions of this work will depend on their own assessment of the postconciliar situation and whether they find the standard narrative of various "reform of the reform" or "restorationist" agendas convincing. This short work could likely serve as a book for a study group with some preliminary formation in liturgical issues. Kocik's account is typically marked by a balanced tone but at times contains...

In an era of globalization and interconnections, addressing environmental challenges requires effective communication and collaboration on a global scale. This abstract highlights the critical role that modern languages and translations play in promoting sustainable environmental practices. By facilitating the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and best practices across linguistic and cultural boundaries, modern languages and translation services empower individuals, organizations, and governments to work together toward a more sustainable future. This interdisciplinary approach explores the significance of multilingualism, the challenges of linguistic diversity, and the opportunities for innovation in the quest for a harmonious coexistence between humanity and the environment. The abstract emphasizes the need for the integration of language expertise and translation technologies into environmental sustainability efforts, ultimately leading to more inclusive, informed, and effective solutions to pressing ecological issues. Modern languages and translations enable people from different linguistic backgrounds to collaborate and share insights on sustainable practices, conservation strategies, and policy development. This collaboration is essential for addressing global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource management.

The Misa Criolla by Ariel Ramirez is a symbol of liberation theology in South America. Written between 1963–1964, this musical work is the result of the decisions made on the sacred liturgy at Vatican II and the Indigenous Movements of the 1960s and 1970s. It became popular around the world and helped bring attention to the indigenous poor of South America through its indigenization of the Roman Catholic Mass text and music directly after the Second Vatican Council. The Misa Criolla, however, can only be fully appreciated by understanding its process of localization, from its historical context, theological underpinnings to its musical attributes. From a liberationist perspective, it represents the compromise of the openness, liturgically and theologically, of Vatican II and more conservative movements afterwards through the localization of the Catholic Mass liturgy.