Liturgy
Orthodoxy & Dissent
St. Pius X, in his encyclical Vehementer (1902), wrote: “By its very nature the church is a society of unequals; it is composed of two categories of persons: the...
'The Spirit Is Still on the Job'
On October 11, 1963, Bishop Luigi Bettazzi addressed the Second Vatican Council on the need for collegiality. He was the newest bishop participant, having been...
A Jazz Mass?
Last year marked the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Mary Lou Williams, the jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. There are few women in the pantheon of great...
Vatican II Continued
Catholics have been arguing about the Second Vatican Council—about what it did and didn’t do, about what it meant and still means or what it never meant and could...
Turning Point
In the fall of 1965, I worked in the final session of the Second Vatican Council. A young priest and doctoral candidate, I was tasked with distributing documents...
The Floating Sacrament
Not a Reset ButtonThomas L. KuhlmanI am a practicing psychologist and a practicing Catholic. Recently a Catholic client expressed serious concern about his...
The Aftermass
Read Peter Steinfels's dotCommonweal post--along with the comment thread in which Steinfels participates--here.Related: J. Peter Nixon comments on his experience...
Missal Defense
This year, thanks to the adoption of the new translation of the Roman Missal, the First Sunday of Advent is looming like a date with a root canal. As I mentioned in...
The War on Beige
The search for good resources for adult religious formation is not an easy one. There is the Catechism of the Catholic Church itself, of course, authoritative and...
It Doesn’t Sing
Beginning in Advent of this year, the language of the Mass will be very different. A new translation of the Roman Missal—the book of prayers used in the Mass—will...
Roman Missal Crisis
1963: Vatican II allowed the use of “the mother tongue” in the liturgy, entrusting bishops conferences with overseeing translations, which Rome would then approve....
Liturgy by Committee
The banished heart of Geoffrey Hull’s title is the traditional Roman liturgy; his subtitle refers to the present liturgical practice of the Catholic Church; and the...
