Rorate Caeli

A new book on the Benedictine Reform

Two great names come together to present to a wider audience the Benedictine liturgical reform. Father Nicola Bux is the author of La Riforma di Benedetto XVI - La Liturgia tra Innovazione e Tradizione (The Reform of Benedict XVI - Liturgy between Innovation and Tradition) - the book is published by Piemme, and the preface is written by the most famous religious journalist in the world, Vittorio Messori.

The reform of Benedict XVI
(by Nicola Bux)

[Presentation of the publisher:]

When, in July 2007, the motu proprio of Benedict XVI restored the celebration of the Latin Mass, loud voices of protest rose from several places.

The widespread fear was - and is - that Pope Ratzinger had at last thrown away his mask, revealing that reactionary defender of Tradition that many accused him of being since the days in which he was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, that is, the former Holy Office. Benedict XVI replied by showing how the recovery of the Latin Rite was not a "step backwards", a return to days prior to the Second Vatican Council, but rather forward-looking, retaining from past Tradition all that it may offer of what is most beautiful and significant to the current life of the Church.

What Pope Ratzinger wishes to do in his patient work of reform is to renew the life of the Christian faithful - the gestures, the words, the time of everyday- restoring to the liturgy a wise balance between innovation and Tradition. Thus arises the image of Church always on her path, capable of reflecting upon itself and to value the riches of which its millennial treasury is full.


Update (October 12): With a review of Father Bux's book, Vaticanist Andrea Tornielli also reports on the probable indication of Cardinal Cañizares, of Toledo, as new Prefect of Divine Worship, before Christmas or early next January - and a possible indication, several months afterwards, of Archbishop Ranjith (current secretary of Divine Worship) as the new Archbishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka. [We reported on this matter last April.]