In this edition of Oriens we introduce a new Catholic movement "Adoremus". We briefly background the movement and invite two of our key writers to comment. GLEN TATTERSALL co-founder and long-time Chairman of the Ecclesia Dei Society critically analyses the "Adoremus" agenda and FATHER JOHN PARSONS, priest-in-charge of St Brigid's traditional parish in Canberra, bowls at "Adoremus" a personal proposal about where it should be headed.
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As Father Joseph Fessio SJ, the dynamo-founder of "Adoremus", tells the story, he was in Colorado Springs (Colorado) in late 1994 at a conference on Eucharistic Devotion.
One of the speakers there was Father Brian Harrison OS - an exile son of Australian soil. Father Harrison's paper was on the need for a new era of liturgical reform, for a so-called "reform of the reform". Father Fessio was inspired. He leaped onto the stage at the end of the address and said, in effect, "That fantastic. Let's form a new liturgical movement."
Today "Adoremus" claims the sponsorship of a Who's Who of American conservative Catholics. It's Board of Advisers rings with famous names: Mother Angelica of the Eternal Word Network; Fr Kenneth Baker SJ, of the "Homiletic and Pastoral Review"; Helen Hull Hitchcock (editor of the "Adoremus Bulletin") representing Women for Faith and Family; her husband Professor James Hitchcock from the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars; Professor Ralph McInerny of "Crisis" magazine; Mons Richard Schuler of "Sacred Music" and Father Peter Stravinskas of "The Catholic Answer"; and, of course, Father Fessio SJ himself.
Father Fessio is the all-American, can-do type whose works have been blessed with success. Founder of the now famous Saint Ignatius Institute at the University of California, founder and editor of the thriving Ignatius Press, one time editor of the English-language edition of "30 Giorni" ("30 Days"), and now publisher of its more accomplished competitor, "The Catholic World Report", Father Fessio is at the centre of an influential network of vigorous, orthodox, Catholic intellectuals.
Father Fessio recently visited Australia under the auspices of the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy and was heard by large crowds everywhere he spoke.
What then is "Adoremus"? For the moment we note what "Adoremus" says of itself:
Vatican II in Sacrosanctum Concilium which is held to be "an expression of the word of Christ himself".
In sum, "Adoremus" proposes is a "rediscovery and restoration" of the "Church's rich liturgical tradition while remaining faithful to an organic, living process of growth" though without returning to the pre-conciliar liturgy.
On the other hand, "Adoremus" declares that it looks forward to "mutual collaboration and a fruitful exchange of ideas" with those of who, like Oriens, hold a different view.
Our position is that the preservation, and practical incorporation into daily life, of "already existing", traditional forms of the liturgy - which the 1969 Missal has discarded - is a norm for Catholic worship and one which cannot be compromised by any genuine liturgical development.
With these principles in mind, Oriens takes up the offer of a
collaborative exchange of ideas.
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