ACK IN 1978, Fr. Joseph Gelineau wrote: “We must say it plainly: the Roman rite as we knew it exists no more. It has gone.” 1 On 28 January 2007, Fr. Reginald Foster—a high-ranking Vatican official for more than 40 years—declared categorically that Pope Benedict XVI would never authorize the traditional rite:
“He is not going to do it. He had trouble with Regensberg, and then trouble in Warsaw, and if he does this, all hell will break loose.” Then Fr. Foster added: “It is a useless Mass and the whole mentality is stupid. The idea of it is that things were better in the old days. It makes the Vatican look medieval.”
Those priests obviously never read Yogi Berra, who once quipped: “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Consider the following images, kindly sent by a reader. They were taken during a spectacular liturgical conference held in Poland last week:
To Fr. Gelineau and Fr. Foster, I can only say: “Rumors of the traditional liturgy’s death have been greatly exaggerated.”
By the way, there are more amazing images at this website, and those who can understand Polish will want to visit their splendid homepage.
I can’t understand Polish, but I’d like to know more about the singers. It seems the music was was sung by Robert Pozharsky, Marcin Bornus-Szczyciński, Konrad Zagajewski, Jan Golaski, Joanna Eagle, Paulina Kukiz, Magdalena Krzywda-Krzysteczko, and Bogumil Kazmierczak.
NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:
1 Gelineau said this even though paragraph 50 of Sacrosanctum Concilium declared: “the rite of the Mass is to be revised in such a way that the intrinsic nature…may be more clearly manifested, and that devout and active participation by the faithful may be more easily achieved.”
