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  • Care for the Church and Its Liturgy: A Study of Summorum Pontificum and the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite by William H. Johnston
  • Kevin D. Magas
William H. Johnston
Care for the Church and Its Liturgy: A Study of Summorum Pontificum and the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite
Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2013
xiv + 326 pages. Paperback. $29.95.

Johnston’s Care for the Church and Its Liturgy joins an increasing number of recent works calling for a ceasefire in the “liturgical wars” of post-conciliar Catholicism. Recognizing that this state of polarization was heightened after Pope Benedict’s Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum allowed for a broader use of the pre-Vatican II Mass, Johnston seeks to provide an irenic yet critical analysis of the document and its accompanying letter to bishops, Con Grande Fiducia.

Johnston embarks on a dialogue of charity and mutual understanding, and his introduction orients the reader to his methodology and tone. He aims for an informed, appreciative, critical, and constructive reading of the Motu Proprio and its accompanying letter, characterized throughout by a spirit of listening and empathy. The following chapters counterbalance one another, as the second one addresses the major criticisms of Summorum Pontificum from both within and outside of the liturgical academy, while the third one summarizes the multiple purposes Benedict sought to accomplish through his Motu Proprio. Together they represent a very valuable, succinct distillation of the wide array of responses to the document in multiple languages and ecclesial contexts.

Part 2, a line-by-line translation and commentary on Summorum Pontificum and its accompanying letter to bishops, forms the heart of the text. Johnston’s appreciative commentary contextualizes the document from a wide variety of perspectives, such as liturgical history, pastoral praxis, and canon law. Especially helpful is his reading of the document in continuity with Pope Benedict’s earlier writings on the liturgy. Here, as throughout the text, Johnston’s commentary is marked by balance, even-handedness, and attempts to move beyond simplistic caricatures of nuanced liturgical positions. His complete translations of Summorum Pontificum with side-by-side original Latin text and Con Grande Fiducia with its Italian original are provided in an appendix. [End Page 52]

Part 3 contains some of Johnston’s constructive proposals for the implementation of Summorum Pontificum, including a variety of pastoral implications and a vision for what the process of “mutual enrichment” Pope Benedict called for might look like. He considers how to assess Summorum Pontificum in light of Vatican II’s call for “active participation,” ways to properly emphasize the Extraordinary Form in educational institutions and catechetical ministry, and the role of a diversity of liturgical ministries in both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Form. Here Johnston appears conscious of an audience drawn largely from the “academic liturgical establishment.” His use of academic liturgists, such Mark Searle’s three-part schema on active participation or Aidan Kavanagh’s ideas on the development of rite, helps to form an apologetic bridge to bring together ideas and names not often associated with one another.

Johnston’s proposals avoid extremes; Summorum Pontificum should neither be ignored as irrelevant nor hailed as a panacea to all of the modern Church’s ills. They are mutually critical, challenging not only those “progressives” who deny the possibility of “active participation” in an Extraordinary Form Mass, but also those on the other side of the divide who espouse a static traditionalism closed off from legitimate developments and adaptations of the rite. Johnston, for example, suggests that the new ministerial roles exercised by laity in the Ordinary Form might be a point of mutual enrichment for the Extraordinary Form. While these proposals are marked by sound pastoral prudence, some readers may feel they are too idealistic and lack concrete detail. At any rate, Johnston admits that he is only sketching the outlines of pastoral questions that merit further study and exploration. His closing thoughts on developing generous hearts, mutual understanding, and a spirituality of communion echo a fitting coda to the themes rehearsed throughout his work.

In a field regrettably marred by ideological divide, Johnston’s work is a refreshing exercise in the virtue of hope. Its...

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