The Novus Ordo Was Decadent from the Beginning - Quotes
- Paul VI claimed on 13 January 1965: "The new religious pedagogy which the present liturgical renewal [= degradation] seeks to establish is part of, and almost the driving force behind, the great movement enshrined in the constitutional principles of the Church of God and made easier and more imperative by the progress of human culture.
- "It would be nonsense to be interested in the liturgy without caring about the design of the places where it is celebrated." (E. Vauthier, "L'aménagement des églises", Esprit et Vie - L'Ami du clergé 27, 5 July 1984, p. 393).
- "It has often been pointed out that the image of Christ in the Eucharist is very different depending on whether the altar resembles a simple table or a monumental tomb." (Jean-Yves Quellec, "Le Dieu de nos églises", Communautés et Liturgies 4, September 1981, pp. 275 and 278).
- "The altar retables of the seventeenth century, designed for adoration according to the Council of Trent, represent a certain vision of the faith. Today we have a different vision of the Real Presence" (Philippe Boitel, "Une église peut-elle être un musée? "Informations catholiques internationales 402, 15 February 1972, p. 5).
- "The first concept of the Church, that of the Church before the Second Vatican Council, corresponds, for example, to an ecclesiastical architecture in which the sanctuary is disproportionately large, well separated from the people, dominating all the faithful, an insignificant body (in the true sense of the word) with a hydrocephalic head." (Lucien Deiss, Les ministères et les services dans la célébration liturgique, éditions du Levain, 1981, p. 8).
- "The form of our ancient churches does not lend itself immediately to the changes desired by the Council" (Jean Huvelle, "Liturgical reform and the renovation of churches", Revue diocésaine de Tournai, 1965, p. 236).
- "Once the definitive altar [= table] has been installed [facing the people], it will be necessary to consider the removal, relocation or any other option for the old altar" (Thierry Maertens and Robert Gantoy, La nouvelle célébration liturgique et ses implications, Publications de Saint-André-Biblica, 1965, p. 57).
- "It should also be stressed that priests are invited to continue to adapt their churches to the needs of the liturgy. In particular, they are recommended to place the Blessed Sacrament in a chapel separate from the main nave of the church, and to give a new place to the treasures of sacred art if they have to be removed from their present location" (Informations catholiques internationales 290, 15 June 1967, p. 8).
- "A semicircular church, where everyone can see each other and feel connected, certainly allows a better implementation of the post-conciliar reform [= Novus Ordo] than a long nave built according to other aesthetic and religious canons" (Jean-Claude Crivelli, Des assemblées qui célèbrent : une pratique des signes du salut, Commission suisse de liturgie, 1980, p. 11).
- "This spirit has led us to go further: the choice of benches instead of chairs (to avoid turning around and the noise this causes), the elimination of the kneelers (the faithful remain standing or seated during the liturgical action)" (Thierry Maertens and Robert Gantoy, La nouvelle célébration liturgique et ses implications, Publications de Saint-André-Biblica, 1965, p. 21).
- The alleged need to remove side altars "applies a fortiori to the many devotional objects that still so often adorn the walls and columns of our churches: the Stations of the Cross, statues, indiscreet confessionals, etc. If they have their place in churches, they should be removed." (Thierry Maertens and Robert Gantoy, La nouvelle célébration liturgique et ses implications, Publications de Saint-André-Biblica, 1965, p. 21).
- "The reform requires new creations: the layout of the churches, with the altar facing the faithful, the place where the Word of God is celebrated, the celebrant's chair, the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, a new concept of the confessional" ("Interview with Cardinal Knox", La Documentation catholique 1674, 20 April 1975, p. 368).
- "It is quite clear that the liturgical reform cannot be limited to a few changes in the content of the texts read by the ministers or in the gestures of the celebrants. (Commission épiscopale de liturgie, "Le renouveau liturgique et la disposition des églises", Notes de pastorale liturgique 58, October 1965, p. 41, or La liturgie, Documents conciliaires V, Centurion, 1966, p. 201).
- "Liturgical renewal [= decadence] and the way in which the Church is placed in the world require a new type of architecture" (F. Agnus, "Architecture and liturgical renewal", Notes de pastorale liturgique 76, October 1968, p. 46).
- "A domus ecclesiae, for example, could be built on one or two floors of a large building and, in addition to a few small rooms (one of which could be used as an oratory for private prayer and visits to the Blessed Sacrament) and the offices of the permanent staff, it would contain a large room that could be used for various purposes (conferences, meetings, celebrations, receptions, liturgy, etc.) using truly mobile furniture." (Pierre Antoine, "L'église est-elle un lieu sacré?", Études, March 1967, pp. 442-444).
- "It is clear that today we must abandon the more or less pagan and triumphalist concept of the temple, where the elements of monumentality and sacred space predominate, and rediscover the Christian concept of the assembly, where the values of humility, interiority and personal relationships prevail. The churches would then once again become house churches rather than sanctuaries of the Most High" (Dieudonné Dufrasne, "Contribution à une spiritualité du samedi saint", Paroisse et Liturgie 2, March-April 1972, p. 115).
- "We cannot say what the forms of worship will be in the future. For this reason we cannot plan churches solely on the basis of the present conception of the liturgy without running the risk of making them obsolete by the time they are completed." (J. G. Davies, "La tendance de l'architecture moderne et l'appréciation des édifices religieux", in Espace sacré et architecture moderne, Cerf, 1971, pp. 94, 95 and 99).
- "If the Constitution [on the Liturgy] is observed in letter and spirit, the liturgy is no longer in danger of becoming fixed or immobilised. Like a tree whose roots are strong and whose sap is nourishing, it will bear on its branches, which are living and spreading, new flowers and new fruits" (Mgr H. Jenny, "Introduction" in La liturgie, Centurion, 1966, p. 41).
- "Let us not presume to build churches for the centuries to come, but be content to build modest and functional churches which meet our needs and before which our sons will feel free to consider new ones, to abandon them or to modify them as their time and their religious sensibility suggest" (Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro, "Message to the Symposium of Artists held in Cologne on 28 February 1968", La Maison Dieu 97, 1st trim. 1969, pp. 16-17, or in Espace sacré et architecture moderne, Cerf, 1971, pp. 25-26).
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