Online Edition: October 2010
Vol. XVI, No. 7
News and Views
Liturgy Convention in Sri Lanka | St. Louis Liturgy Conference on Missal coming in November | Conference on Canon Law Held in LaCrosse
Liturgy Convention in Sri Lanka
A three-day convention on the Sacred Liturgy, “Let the Eucharist transform you and be a blessing”, was held at Aquinas University College in the Archdiocese of Colombo, Sri Lanka, September 1-3. The convention launched a “Year of the Eucharist” in Colombo, August 2010-2011.
Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, presented the keynote address on the opening day: “The Liturgy, the most effective means with which we can experience the powerful presence of God in our life”.
Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith is the former secretary of the CDWDS. Archbishop Ranjith presented the keynote address on September 2, “Liturgy of the Hours and Priestly Spirituality”. In his address the archbishop gave a brief history of the Liturgy of the Hours, and pointed out the importance of liturgical prayer, especially in the life of priests.
Prayer, he said, “binds us closely together with the Church, especially liturgical prayer like the Liturgy of the Hours.
It opens out our horizons up to levels that embrace creation itself and even meta cosmic realities touching upon the very eternity of God. Jesus opened to us the way to God who for Greek philosophy was unreachable. In Him we can experience the Love of God. The Church is the true presence of Christ in history, and so, praying with Him and in Him helps us to experience God’s goodness and mercy constantly. It widens our horizons.
Father Uwe Michael Lang, a priest of the London Oratory and a consultor to the Vatican Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, presented two talks: “Beauty and Liturgy: towards an understanding of the concept of liturgy as a glimpse of heaven” and “Pope Benedict XVI and New Orientations in the Liturgy”.
At the close of the event, Archbishop Ranjith thanked Cardinal Cañizares for coming to Sri Lanka for the liturgy convention, and for his Solemn Blessing of the Sick at Tewatta Basilica. Cardinal Cañizares imparted the Solemn Benediction concluding the meeting.
The archdiocesan web site provides a link to Ranjith’s complete address: www.archdioceseofcolombo.com/LC_ArchMalcolm_Talk_02.09.2010.php.
For more information, photos, and other talks from the event: www.archdioceseofcolombo.com/LiturgyConvention_ 03.09.2010.php.
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St. Louis Liturgy Conference on Missal Coming in November
“Mystical Body, Mystical Voice” is the title of the Gateway Liturgical Conference to be held November 5-6 at the Cardinal Rigali Center in St. Louis.
The 9th biennial conference on the liturgy sponsored by the Archdiocese of St. Louis will focus on understanding the liturgy — in particular the recently approved English translation of the Roman Missal — and how the language of the liturgy expresses God’s “mystical voice”. St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson will open the event on Friday morning.
Monsignor Kevin Irwin, Dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at Catholic University, will begin Saturday’s sessions with an address titled “Words Matter and the Matter of Liturgical Words”. Since 2006, Monsignor Irwin has been working with the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) to produce catechetical materials for the new English Missal translation.
The four main sessions of the conference will be led by Father Douglas Martis, director of the Liturgical Institute and chairman of the worship department at Chicago’s Mundelein Seminary, and Christopher Costens, director of the Office of Sacred Worship for the diocese of La Crosse and an adjunct faculty member at the Liturgical Institute.
The Liturgical Institute’s “Mystical Body, Mystical Voice” workshops are also being held in other dioceses in the US, with the intention of aiding diocesan and parish leaders in preparing for the new English translation of the Missal — and “to help them understand the beauty of what it offers for the enrichment of their knowledge and fruitful liturgical participation as members of the Mystical Body of Christ who hear and speak Christ’s Mystical Voice”. For details on the Liturgical Institute workshops, see: www.mysticalbodymystical voice.org/default.htm.
Prominent Vatican prelates addressed the two most recent St. Louis liturgical conferences: Cardinal Francis Arinze, then-prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, in November 2006; and Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, then-secretary of the CDW, in November 2008. Both addresses were published in AB, and may be accessed online:
Cardinal Arinze: “Language in the Roman Liturgy: Latin and the Vernacular”: adoremus.org/Arinze_StLouis06.html.
Archbishop Ranjith: “Towards an Ars Celebrandi”: adoremus.org/0309Ranjith.html.
For information and registration for the Gateway Liturgical Conference, contact the St. Louis Office of Worship: 20 Archbishop May Drive, St. Louis, MO 63119; e-mail: [email protected]; phone: 314-792-7230. Conference info online: archstl.org/worship/page/2010-gateway-liturgical-conference.
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Conference on Canon Law Held in La Crosse
A canon law conference was held August 3-4 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The event was hosted by Archbishop Raymond Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, and founder of the shrine.
Archbishop Burke presented two of the conference sessions, one on the administration of temporal goods and another on challenges in the administration of justice.
The three other presenters, all of whom are both canon and civil lawyers, were: Father James J. Conn, SJ, professor of Canon Law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and editor of the canonical journal Periodica de re canonica; Father John J. Coughlin, OFM, professor of Law and of Theology at the University of Notre Dame; and Benedict T. Nguyen, Chancellor of the Diocese of La Crosse and Defender of the Bond at the diocesan tribunal.
Canon and civil lawyers who attended reported the importance of the addresses and of the discussions that followed, and expressed hope that the conference will become an annual event.
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