What Was That Pope Francis Was Saying About Ritualism?

As I've said, I've got no dog in the fight over the Latin mass. There's no canonical requirement that I attend it, and I'm more than pleased with our novus ordo parish. I have, though, taken a contnuing interest in the fate of Anglicanroum coetibus. Pope Benedict XVI's constitution setting up a personal prelature for former Anglicans, which over more than a decade has not had a happy life. The latest controversy is over a second volume of its liturgy, covering the daily office and liturgy of the hours.

Let's remember that the total world population of ordinariate members under Anglicanorum coetibus is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000, divided about evenly between the US and UK, with essentially miniscule and declining memberships in Australia and Canada. [A visitor reports that according to the latest official figures available from the 2020 Annuario Pontificio, the membership of the North American ordinariate is 6,040 while that of the UK is 1,850. (At its highest to date, 2016, it was 3,500) Canadian membership probably accounts for about 250 of the North American total.] However, the liturgical authorities have issued two editions of the daily office, one for the US and Canada and one for the "Commonwealth", although Canada is in the Commonwealth.

This is, I think, a reflection of the way any attempt by any Christian denomination to respond to the decline of Anglicanism takes on a comic-opera quality. On the other hand, Anglicanism is no longer a subject that would even be worth the attention of a latter-day Trollope.

The current controversy surrounds the North American edition. According to Wikipedia,

The Divine Worship: Daily Office: North American Edition is printed by Newman House Press and was released in late 2020. The first printing of 500 books quickly sold out to parish communities, with further printings being announced shortly after. The first editions were bound in blue cloth hardcover and printed in red and black text.

The psalm translation is that of the 1928 Episcopal revision of the Coverdale Psalter. Permutations of the Coverdale Psalter are used in many Anglican Books of Common Prayer including the 1662 Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England and 1928 Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church. Collects and other excerpts come from Divine Worship: The Missal, which itself sources from the Anglican Missal and other Anglo-Catholic texts.

Following the initial printing, several significant textual errata were noted, along with several dozen typographical errors. Among them, the latter half of the hour of None was missing. There were also complaints regarding specific omissions–such as prayers for popular English saints like Thomas Becket–as well as several popular hymns from the English Christian tradition. These concerns and other were anticipated to be in part addressed during the North American Edition’s second printing. The second printing was released in May 2021 and featured several corrections, including adding the missing portion of None. However, this new edition also introduced the omission of other portions of None–specifically the readings for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday–as well as errors in collects and commons.

Visitors have referred me to the Breviary and Divine Office Discussion Facebook group, as well as various Anglican ordinariate Facebook groups for examples of the complaints. One visitor suggests the Wikipedia entry aptly summarizes the objections, but another says

The Wikipedia account is quite restrained compared to the feedback on the two Ordinariate Facebook fora I lurk. Besides the many errors in the text, the binding has been criticised as unlikely to survive regular congregational use, and Canadians aren’t happy that they have to use an American-themed Divine Office when there is a “Commonwealth” edition in the works.

Apparently those in North America still dissatisfied with their edition of the daily office are now instructed to order a copy of the forthcoming "Commonwealth" edition. However, a commenter on that site remarked,

This is essentially the North American Ordinariate giving up, and asking its faithful to buy an office book from the UK that won't entirely match up with its own calendar. Furthermore, the UK edition uses unrevised Coverdale psalms, and the North American uses 1928 US BCP. You could not pray out loud from the UK edition at an Evensong in North America.

As a member of the [North Anerican ordinariate], and someone with years of publishing experience, I feel justified in saying that this is a ridiculous own-goal from the Chancery. There is a blueprint to follow to properly edit and publish a liturgical book, and at every turn Houston did not follow the blueprint.

One thing that interests me is that, with all the other issues occupying the diocesan Church, like eucharistic coherence, the continuing issues posed by COVID, the decline of vocations, and the overall decline in mass attendance, this little clique is focused on an enormous and unwieldy book of liturgy produced to gratify a tiny, insular faction of hyphenated Catholics.

I've got to say this, for all the skepticism I see over Francis's supposed agenda, when I look at what's gone on in the ordinariates, it drives me more and more to the view that the Holy Father actually has a point. He had some remarks to make about "ritualism" just last month. Two weeks ago, I cited his observation "prayer is not ritualism — the rigid end up in ritualism, always."

In a general audience on June 9, he expanded on this:

At the same time, a prayer that alienates itself from life is not healthy. A prayer that alienates us from the concreteness of life becomes spiritualism, or worse, ritualism. Let us remember that Jesus, after revealing his glory to the disciples on Mount Tabor, did not want to prolong that moment of ecstasy, but instead came down from the mountain with them and resumed the daily journey.

A visitor remarked of Bp Lopes, the North American ordinary,

I wonder if he hasn’t a mandate to screw everything up until Benedict dies. He can’t be that stupid.

I think the answer may be simpler -- we know them by heir fruits. The ordinariates are so tiny and insignificant, even in comparison with the Latin mass groups, that they haven't even attracted Francis's notice.