Ratzinger calls for return to Latin liturgy

National Catholic Reporter, Jan 8, 1999 by Matt Kantz

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the church's top doctrinal official, called for a new generation of bishops to foster a return to liturgy in Latin as an antidote to the "wild creativity" of postconciliar rites that "have made the mystery of the sacred disappear."

Ratzinger's comments came in a mid-December 1998 interview with the Italian publication Lo Stato. He said that liturgy in Latin should be rediscovered.

One must try to convince the bishops, Ratzinger said, since "even if some of them misuse their discretion and do not respect the rights of the faithful, they are not persons of bad will."

Today's bishops "have had a formation and education according to which the ancient liturgy is a closed case, a quagmire which risks damage to unity, above all in contrast to the council," Ratzinger said. On the contrary, he said, "We must make it possible to form a new generation of prelates which realizes that the ancient liturgy does not represent an attack on the council, but a realization of the council. The ancient liturgy is not obscurantism, is not a ferocious traditionalism ... but it is really the desire to be with divinity."