This lecture was given at the Augustianum in Rome on October 28, 2022 at the Paix Liturgique Conference that took place ahead of the Populus Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage.
“Hyperpapalist apologists — those who defend the idea that the pope has a virtually unlimited power to change the liturgy — are wrong precisely because of the way they have framed the conversation. To start by placing the liturgy on the operating table like an anaesthetized patient with the pope as the head surgeon is to begin with so fundamental an error that one will not be able to avoid a cascade of absurd conclusions. Since the belief that the liturgy is the pope’s toy (to use the colorful expression of Bishop Mutsaerts) is out of the question before any discussion begins, there need not be a laborious inquiry into whether he can smash his toy or replace it with a toy he likes better. Indeed, the hyperpapalists never seem to ask themselves a very simple question: If what they maintain were true, then why has no pope prior to modern times ever behaved as if it were true?… Judging from the actions and words of popes (that is, when they spoke of it at all) and the general practice of the Church, the impression one gains from Catholic history is that the sacred rites — not just the ‘form and matter’ of the sacraments — are a hallowed inheritance to be revered and followed with humility.”
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