Cardinal Sarah reflects on the tenth anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s instruction Summorum Pontificum saying that both the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the liturgy should bring to the faithful “the beauty of the liturgy, its sacredness, the silence, the recollection, the mystical dimension, and adoration.”
Despite the controversies and abuses following the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic liturgy is ultimately a source of unity that forms Christians in the sacrifice and salvation of the cross, Cardinal Robert Sarah has said.
If Catholics feel they are undergoing a divisive “liturgical war,” the cardinal said, they should see it as “an aberration.” Instead, the liturgy is “the space par excellence where Catholics should experience unity in truth, in faith, and in love.
“As a result, it is inconceivable to celebrate the liturgy while having sentiments of fratricidal conflict and rancor,” he said. “In this ‘face to face’ with God that is the liturgy, our heart must be pure of all enmity, which requires that everyone must be respected in his own sensibility.”
Cardinal Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, stressed the need to reaffirm that the Second Vatican Council never called for a break from the past. Rather, the council’s vision of liturgical renewal should be promoted.