Heard in the Aula

The Holy See's guardian of the liturgy showed this morning that his presiding skills could use a little work. A mole about the Synod Hall reports:

[Cardinal Francis] Arinze -- president for today -- screwed up Terce [mid-morning prayer from the Divine Office]. After the reading he said, "Verbum Domini", which is not done in the Liturgy of the Hours (as you and anyone else who has ever been in the habit of reciting the Hours in community knows); then after Papa Ratz finished his little homily [Arinze] immediately called on the first speaker, which prompted the Pope to tug his sleeve and remind him that Terse is to be completed with a final prayer.... It all went from snore to snore. Scola then read his 52-page Latin text (though he skipped over large chunks) while almost everyone listened to bad simultaneous translations in five languages.

As you can see, your bishops are hard at work. More than one prelate has said that "The greatest challenge of the Synodal process is staying awake."

And I think I'm coming to a change of mind on a question of great import. It might just be time for Archbishop Marini to pack it in and for a new Master of Papal Liturgical Celebrations to be appointed. As the above example shows, his expertise is gravely needed elsewhere -- as Cardinal-Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

God knows the man would never flub a liturgical text.

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