Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela, Archbishop Emeritus of Madrid, has issued a renewed call for greater reverence in the Church’s sacred liturgy, warning that widespread abuses following the Second Vatican Council have caused serious harm to the faithful’s understanding of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
According to LifeSiteNews, the 89-year-old Spanish cardinal made the remarks during an interview published July 21 by the Spanish newspaper El Debate while discussing the sacred liturgy and his recent appeal to restore Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 apostolic letter that broadened access to the Traditional Latin Mass.
Reflecting on the decades following the Council, Cardinal Rouco Varela argued that many of the liturgical reforms were implemented in ways that departed from the Church’s authentic vision for worship.
“A liturgical reform was carried out at Vatican II, which, in many and widespread cases, turned into a parody of the liturgy,” he said.
The cardinal warned that the consequences of these abuses extended far beyond questions of style or preference.
“And, of course, when the parody reaches such a profound level that it affects the very truth of the sacrament, the conscience of the faithful, and even the very aesthetic sensibility of humanity – in the face of the almost anarchic indiscipline of the liturgy in many cases and in many parts of the Church during the 1970s – it led groups of the faithful to return once again to the tradition that predated the Second Vatican Council reform,” he said.
According to LifeSiteNews, Cardinal Rouco Varela also suggested that while many Catholics sought a return to greater liturgical tradition, some responses went too far in the opposite direction, creating additional divisions within the Church.
Recalling examples he witnessed during the years after the Council, the cardinal described celebrations that he believed departed dramatically from the Church’s understanding of the Eucharist.
“There was all sorts of behavior, and, what was worse, in houses of formation – for men and women religious, in seminaries … Celebrating the Eucharist in the living room at a low table,” he said. “Sitting or squatting, bringing wine from the fridge, bread of who-knows-what, and then each person saying whatever came to mind … Almost the only thing that could be reduced to theological truth (was) the words of consecration.”
The cardinal contrasted those experiences with the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist as Christ’s true sacramental sacrifice.
“In other words, we moved from the celebration of the Eucharist instituted by the Lord – the sacrament of his sacrificial and sacrificed presence on the cross that nourishes our souls; his flesh and blood; the presence of the Divine in the midst of your life and your history – to a sort of game among buddies or friends, nothing more. There is an infinite distance between the two,” he said.
The Catholic Church teaches that the Mass is the source and summit of the Christian life, making reverent and faithful celebration of the sacred liturgy essential to the life of the Church. The cardinal’s remarks contribute to the continuing conversation about preserving the integrity of Catholic worship while remaining faithful to the Church’s liturgical tradition.
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