Pope Francis has extended his controversial overhaul of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments. On January 14th, the Pope announced the addition of a host of new advisers after an initial shake-up removed some leading conservative Cardinals.
In October 2016, Pope Francis replaced a significant number of the members of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
The dicastery is headed by Cardinal Robert Sarah.
Many commentators viewed the move as the Pope’s response to Cardinal Sarah’s recent attempts to encourage priests to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass ad orientem, that is, facing toward the altar and away from the people.
It is clear that the majority of the Pope’s new choices have a distinctly preferential approach to Blessed Paul VI’s Novus Ordo Missae, the “ordinary form” of the liturgy most widely used in the Latin Church today.
The 17 new advisers named Saturday include priests, laymen and two women. These experts in liturgy and theology join 27 cardinals and bishops named as full members last October. That reshuffling removed tradition-minded Cardinals Raymond Burke and George Pell from the roster, although other conservatives were kept on.
Now, let us hope that the new members of the Congregation will recommend the return of a more sensible and colloquial English translation of the Roman Missal (formerly the Sacramentary). Most will agree the present translation is appalling and not conducive to public prayer.
Perhaps the prayers of many Priests are finally being answered in this long overdue restructuring of the Congregation.
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