Missal of 1962 in relation to Vatican II
  • RomanticStringsRomanticStrings
    Posts: 340
    I am curious about the timing of the 1962 Missal of John XXIII in it's kairological (as opposed to chronological...) relation to the Second Vatican Council. It seems from a search of the archives of this forum that not much changed with that new Missal beyond a few additions/cuts and perhaps acknowledgements of calendar developments, but it came out in the same year that Vatican II opened, a year before Sacrosanctum Concilium. If it seemed apparent that the liturgy was to be revisited and revised, why did the 1962 Missal come out? There are obviously also questions about when it became apparent that a new Missal would come out of V2 as opposed to a revision of the 1962, but those are probably best left to those reading the new de Lubec publication.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,116
    IIRC, it was Pius XII who directed a further revision of the Missal and the Breviary, and that was underway while preparations for the council were ongoing.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    When Vatican II started probably none of the Council Fathers thought that the substance of the Liturgy would be changed so drastically after the Council, that a completely new Order of Mass would be drawn up that would be a departure from past practice in the Roman Latin Rite.

    I have read S.C. several times, and apart from the few "time bombs" that were detonated afterward by Bugnini & Co., I can't find anything that warrants the revisions that were drafted by the consilium, at least not to the extend in which they were carried out; which leads me to believe that the Fathers of the Council who voted for this document did not read into it what the radical reformers did. The suppression of 3/4 of the Roman Missal was not on the agenda of S.C.

    Also, none of the documents of Vatican II contain the signature of John XXIII: all were approved and promulgated during the reign of Paul VI. Therefore, it isn't really appropriate to call Vatican II "Pope John's Council"---he hardly had anything to do with it, it was really more "Pope Paul's Council"
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Romantic Strings, I don't know if this summary is of help, but it's something I wrote on another thread a while back re: the 1962 Missal.

    De Musica Sacra, which was in its own way an aggorniamento of the liturgy according to the wishes of the preconcilar popes, was promulgated in 1958 under Pope Pius XII and signed by Cardinal Cicognani, the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. It was followed in short succession by the Graduale Romanum (1961) and the Missale Romanum (1962) which can be rightly considered the fruits of De Musica Sacra, which was, in some sense, the fruit of the original Liturgical Movement.

    So, for all intents and purposes the Roman Rite was set for the next century, at least, and this huge accomplishment was no doubt due to the great efforts and labor of Cardinal Cicognani. However, almost simultaneously, work was begun on an even more radical reform of the liturgy. I read recently that Cardinal Gaetano Cicognani (who had a brother who was also a cardinal) was named the head of the Preparatory Commission on the Liturgy by Pope John XXIII. Annibale Bugnini was appointed the Secretary of the Commission by the Pope a month later, and they began work in November, 1960. They completed their text in early 1962 and Cardinal Cicognani signed the text for submission on Feb. 1, 1962, and died four days later.

    Bugnini reportedly wrote: "If Cardinal Cicognani had not signed the Constitution, humanly speaking it would have been a disaster. Everything would have been up for discussion again. But 'Who knows the ways of God?'"1

    My comment and question are: What a strange confluence of events, and what must it have been like for Cardinal Cicognani to be in the midst of producing and promulgating the 1962 Graduale Romanum and Missale Romanum and at the same time realize that the Church was headed in an entirely different direction and all his tremendous efforts to update the liturgy were for nothing, as it must have looked to him then?

    P.S. Just think, as he was signing the Constitution, he must have known that the 1962 Missal and the Graduale Romanum---both massive accomplishments and liturgical masterpieces---would soon be defunct. He was signing, in effect, the death warrant for his own life's work.
  • mahrt
    Posts: 517
    The 1962 Missal was issued to bring it in line with the minor but fairly extensive revision of rubrics in 1961, the deletion of "perfidis" from Good Friday, and the inclusion of St. Joseph in the Canon.
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Yes, Pope John XXIII's Motu Proprio in 1960 reduced the rubrics of the Roman breviary and missal to a simpler form, as per the wishes of many bishops during the reign of Pope Pius XII.

    However, the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, July 26, 1960, AAS 52, 596, issued the next day, also refers to the active participation of the faithful as outlined by De Musica Sacra (1958). The Rev. Patrick Murhpy in his book on the changes of the 1962 Missal said that the new 1962 rubrics refer to the detailed description of the rules for the active participation of the faithful at High Mass and Low Mass given in De Musica Sacra. (I don't have a copy of the 1962 Missale Romanum so I can't cite the exact section of it which refers to De Musica Sacra.)

    So, in that particular sense ---the emphasis on the active participation of the faithful in those parts of the Mass that pertain to them---- the 1962 Missale Romanum can be said to be a fulfillment of De Musica Sacra and the original Liturgical Movement.

  • ClergetKubiszClergetKubisz
    Posts: 1,912
    It's in part III. Rubricae Generales Missalis Romani, number 272 (emphasis mine):
    De hac fidelium actuosa participatione fusius
    actum est in Instructione de Musica sacra et sacra
    Liturgia     a S. Rituum Congregatione data die 3 septembris
    anni 1958.
    Thanked by 1JulieColl
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Thanks so much for this, Clerget! I've been trying to find this for a very long time. I knew this section was in the 1962 Missal since my bishop hinted at it once, but I couldn't ever seem to find the actual section.

    Is this document online?
  • ClergetKubiszClergetKubisz
    Posts: 1,912
    Yes. I believe you can download a free copy at Sanctamissa.org.
    Thanked by 1JulieColl
  • Elmar
    Posts: 506
    Just try this one: http://media.musicasacra.com/pdf/missale62.pdf
    The citation in question (no. 272) is on p.19.

    For an English translation: http://maternalheart.org/library/1962rubrics.pdf
    (on p.51-52, which is on p.33-34 of the pdf file)
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen JulieColl eft94530
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Thanks for the links and the very helpful page numbers! This is an enormous breakthrough for my own study, and I'm quite struck by the implications.
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