Celebrating The Holy Eucharist by Francis Cardinal Arinze

Author:Francis Cardinal Arinze [Arinze, Francis Cardinal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9781586171582
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 2010-07-03T05:00:00+00:00

7

ADAPTATION AND INCULTURATION IN

THE EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION

Adaptation and inculturation concern the entire life of the Church in a given place, the expression of the Gospel in a cultural situation. They are most visible in matters liturgical, especially with reference to the Eucharistic celebration. Here we are focusing on adaptation and inculturation in matters touching Holy Mass.

General Directives of Vatican II

The general directives on adaptation and inculturation are given by the Second Vatican Council in its very first document, Sacrosanctum Concilium. They are directives, however, of careful openness.

Even in the liturgy [the Council says] the Church has no wish to impose a rigid uniformity in matters which do not involve faith or the good of the whole community. Rather she respects and fosters the spiritual adornments and gifts of the various races and peoples. Anything in their way of life that is not indissolubly bound up with superstition and error she studies with sympathy and, if possible, preserves intact. Sometimes in fact she admits such things into the liturgy itself, as long as they harmonize with its true and authentic spirit. (SC 37)

This fundamental directive is one to which reference has to be made again and again. It respects both the unity of the Catholic faith and the positive elements with which God has gifted all cultures.

The Council wanted the substantial unity of the Roman Rite to be maintained. Given that safeguard, it wanted liturgical books to allow for legitimate variations and adaptations to different groups, regions, and peoples, especially in what were in those days considered mission lands. It even speaks of possible structuring of rites and devising of rubrics (see SC 38). This will become clearer as these reflections unfold.

The intentions of the Council were, in the first place, implemented in the way in which the revised Latin editiones typicae were drawn up, mostly in the late 1960s and the 1970s. The new texts differed at many points from the books current before the Council in that they allowed some built-in flexibility and choice that was left to the celebrant to make use of according to his pastoral judgment. This provision in the liturgical books for the taking of on-the-spot options by the priest is in the Latin text of some of the liturgical legislation referred to as accommodatio, for which there is no easy equivalent in English and so tends to be called “adaptation”. Another level of flexibility provided by the liturgical books concerns those things that are explicitly left to the decision of the Bishops’ Conference at the moment when vernacular translations are prepared.

The Diocesan Bishop

The diocesan Bishop is the high priest of his flock. The life in Christ of the faithful under his care in a certain sense derives from him and depends upon him (see SC 41).

The Bishop is therefore to promote, regulate, and be vigilant over the liturgical life in his diocese. If we take the important example of the missal and the celebration of Mass, he regulates the discipline of concelebration (see GIRM 202)

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.