Vatican official calls liturgical renewal 'irreversible path'

Published: 2008-04-28

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Liturgical renewal launched by the Second Vatican Council is an "irreversible path" and has not been affected by Pope Benedict XVI's concession on wider use of the Tridentine rite, a Vatican official said. "The pope's decision has so far not produced any change in the celebrative practice of our ecclesial communities. His gesture was only one of service to unity," Archbishop Piero Marini, who arranged papal liturgies for more than 20 years, said in an interview April 25 in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. "Therefore let's look ahead and let's continue with enthusiasm the path undertaken by the council," he said. Late last year Archbishop Marini was named to head the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses. The archbishop remains involved in international liturgical issues, and he said a revision of the committee's statutes is giving it wider authority over eucharistic congresses at the national and regional level, too.

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