The Bugnini-Liturgy and the Reform of the Reform - MusicaSacra

two requirements. One is that the new forms should spring organically from
the existing ones; the other is that only innovations yielding real and genuine
profit to the Church are to be introduced. Unfortunately the Constitution
itself contradicts these two requirements in certain respects, and in
subsequent years the regulations fell into serious contradiction with the
Constitution on these two points, and in so many other areas as well. It is,
therefore, all the more problematic if Rome, which acts as a guarantee
of the regulations, wishes to reduce the whole matter to a question of
obedience. In this case her own commission could also be called upon to
account for obedience to more universal and comprehensive laws. What
makes the claim of obedience psychologically difficult is that an arbitrary
construction — based to a large extent on individual initiatives and opposed
to the centuries-old customs of the Church -, now claims the reverence due
to the usage of the Church, a procedure which though perhaps valid legally,
is yet contestable from the point of view of contents.
5. In the following discussion, Tradition will not be identified with the
Tridentine liturgy. In fact, the Tridentine liturgy is but one - and not the
most successful one - of the branches of the Roman liturgy; one which
existed in many variants, side by side in remarkable orderliness. Thus our
point of departure will not be the Tridentine but the Roman liturgy as it appears
in the variety of forms found in various localities, religious orders and
historical periods. Once we know this tremendously rich system of variants,
and even in spite of this knowledge, we can scarcely include the Bugnini liturgy
in the category of the Roman liturgy, since it is arbitrary to such an extent
that we can neither regard it as something developing organically from
the older liturgies, nor can we claim that its innovations were called into life
by the "real and genuine" spiritual interests of the Church.
6. In practice, the introduction of the Bugnini liturgy went hand in hand
with the change-over to the use of the vernacular. These two changes are
not "liturgical reforms" in the same sense, because the latter brought about
changes in the manner of the transmission of the liturgy, whereas the former
affected the contents of the liturgy. Although the change-over to the
vernacular is not lacking in difficulties, it is not treated in these articles.
7. The liturgical reform has given rise to a certain conception about the
liturgy in public opinion - primarily among the clergy - which manifests
itself in beliefs, judgments, the celebration of the liturgy, in teachings, and in
practical endeavors. An analysis of this new mentality and its effect on the
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