Numquam Abrogatam: Considerations and Consequences

One of the most striking statements made in Pope Benedict XVI's Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum was the assertion that the 1962 Missale Romanum was "never abrogated." The consequences of this legal dictum will be discussed and analyzed. This article further intends to foster a harmonization of the liturgical texts of the forma extraordinaria with current disciplinary and liturgical law. To accomplish this, certain aspects of disciplinary legislation touching upon the celebration of this liturgical form will be considered. A draft schema will be constructed, using a text from Notitiae as a paradigm, to summarize those changes which must be made in the discipline surrounding the 1962 liturgical texts to bring them into harmony with the current Code of Canon Law.