“As a conclusion, I would like to present a thought that brings us back to the beginning of our reflections: the Christian liturgy is a cosmic liturgy— that’s what St. Paul tells us on his letter to the Philippians. We must not fall from that greatness, even if it is to give in to the enchantment of a small group or to what one makes of oneself.

(…)

What was said may allow us to understand that a stiff attachment to a certain form of liturgical evolution that was surpassed by the Church as a whole is also a way of escaping towards a small community, of keeping oneself distant from that which is common, in order to fabricate one’s own liturgy. We must understand very clearly that the true opposition is not between the old and the new books, but between the liturgy of the universal Church and the one that we make ourselves.”

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Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (future Benedict XVI)

La fête et la joie—Contribution à l’étude de la structure de la célébration liturgique

Communio, n ° III, 6 – novembre-décembre 1978, p. 44