A Privilege of the Ordained MICHAEL DAVIES THE NEUMANN PRESS, 1990 Published on the Web with Permission of the Author 8. A Wicked Movement Probably the most frequently reiterated argument in favor of the abuse is that it is a return to primitive practice. This was the same argument which the Protestant Reformers used to justify it. Pope Pius XII had condemned attempts to subvert the liturgy, under the guise of a return to primitive practice. In his encyclical Mediator Dei (1947), he described this tendency as "a wicked movement that tends to paralyze the sanctifying and salutary action by. which the liturgy leads the children of adoption on the path to their heavenly Father." He explained that: "... the desire to restore everything indiscriminately to its ancient condition is neither wise nor praiseworthy. It would be wrong, for example, to want the altar restored to its ancient form of table; to want black eliminated from the liturgical colors, and pictures and statues excluded from our churches." Mention has already been made of Cardinal Newman's explanation of the process of doctrinal and liturgical development. The great Cardinal warned that to reverse the course of an existing development is not a development but a corruption. PURCHASE THE BOOKLET, SITE 1 PURCHASE THE BOOKLET, SITE 2 BACK----E-MAIL--------HOME----NEXT www.catholictradition.org/Priests/privilege8.htm