Pope asks if outdoor Masses what "the Lord wanted", takes steps to reform

A fascinating topic broached by Damian Thompson, citing material presented by Fr. Z here.

Thompson first, quoted at length because there is little fluff about it:

Pope Benedict XVI has serious reservations about presiding over the huge open-air Masses pioneered by his charismatic predecessor John Paul II, it emerged this week.

He has no choice but to take part in them during his forthcoming trips to America and Australia – but he has told the priests of the diocese of Rome that these liturgies are “a big problem” that has yet to be resolved.

Benedict is so worried by the prospect of hundreds of priests distributing Holy Communion in the middle of crowds of over-excited pilgrims that he is sending his new Master of Ceremonies, Mgr Guido Marini, to America and Australia to check in advance that the dignity of the Mass will not be compromised.

“If a thousand priests are concelebrating, we don’t know that this is the structure the Lord would have wanted,” Benedict told his priests and deacons during a private question-and-answer session. That’s a pretty forthright way of putting it: the implication is that the vast Eucharistic jamborees favoured by former papal MC Archbishop Piero Marini, who was sacked to make way for his traditionalist namesake, may have been contrary to Christ’s wishes.

Some frank comments about ex-master of papal ceremonies Marini conclude his treatment:

Incidentally, I gather that the archbishop is trying to distance himself from his book on Vatican II whose US tour was mysteriously cancelled after it was widely interpreted as sticking two fingers up to the current papacy.

Marini is now apparently telling people that the book was largely the work of his editors. How very, very embarrassing for any prelate silly enough to have hosted a lavish launch for the volume in his throne room.

Now head over to Fr. Z who has the documentation and expert commentary about what the Pope said.

My quick observations:

• Outdoor Masses stem from the desire of large numbers of people to worship with the Pope
• Pope Benedict is concerned about a) the scandal of treating the Mass as a spectacle and b) the difficulties associated with maintaining the sanctity of the liturgy and c) the challenges which accompany, for instance, distributing communion in these contexts and d) unwiedly numbers concelebrants
• In response to these problems "the Pope decided not to delegate any longer the organization of celebrations to third parties." To that end, he will be sending the new master of papal ceremonies, Msgr. Guido Marini, to both the U.S. and Australia for the purpose of taking on "direct responsibility for carrying out celebrations in those spaces." Note: the pope wishes to reform these liturgies, not cancel them.

One should not take from the Pope's comments a criticism of those who desire to attend large outdoor papal liturgies. Rather, in keeping with the Pope's trustworthy observations, those attending these liturgies in future should do their very best to address in whatever ways they can the issues that the Pope mentions. I'm very happy to see this sort of thing being said and to find out that something concrete is being done about it.

We are blessed to have Pope Benedict as our wise shepherd.