LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS
BENEDICT XVI
TO THE BISHOPS ON THE OCCASION OF THE PUBLICATION
OF THE APOSTOLIC LETTER "MOTU PROPRIO DATA"
SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM
ON THE USE OF THE ROMAN LITURGY
PRIOR TO THE REFORM OF 1970

My dear Brother Bishops,

With great trust and hope, I am consigning to you as Pastors the text of a new Apostolic Letter "Motu Proprio data" on the use of the Roman liturgy prior to the reform of 1970.  The document is the fruit of much reflection, numerous consultations and prayer.

News reports and judgments made without sufficient information have created no little confusion.  There have been very divergent reactions ranging from joyful acceptance to harsh opposition, about a plan whose contents were in reality unknown.

This document was most directly opposed on account of two fears, which I would like to address somewhat more closely in this letter.

In the first place, there is the fear that the document detracts from the authority of the Second Vatican Council, one of whose essential decisions - the liturgical reform - is being called into question.

Church no, Christ maybe, the Pope yes:  the Sense of the Laical Church

Old and New Dicotamies

 Those of us who lived through the protests of the 1970's or through the echoes of their aftermath, will well remember the slogan that circulated even in theological circles: Christ - yes, Church - no! A dichotomy which in reality is theologically unfounded but that has ancient resonance in the heresies of all times. Such a dichotomy has produced figures such as Hans Kung who like other "theologians" has intensified the impossible split between faith and reason, as between the real presence of Christ in history and the ideal Christ, present only in such a way as to confirm one's own theories and personal sentiments.
  Even the early communities experienced such dichotomies and dramatic tensions if St. Paul allowed himself to write about the marvelous comparison to the body in his first letter to the Corinthians in Chapter twelve. The supporters of this split have always maintained that the ecclesiastical hierarchy had placed them in such a situation. Even if it were considered as partly true from the sociological/relational point of view, in reality, we can attest to a scarce amount of faith in Christ and in His Words. We can in fact say that at the basis of the great schisms with the Catholic Church, there has been and there still is substantially a lack of Faith in Christ and in His will which are historical Spirit and Power. It is interesting to point out that the advocates for "Faith alone" and for the authority of the Sacred Scriptures are the very same who -before any others- betray both Faith and Scripture. But we will affront this matter later on. This virulent feeling has been diffused in a pseudo/intellectual conscience starting from a humanistic one which is actually hardly human.