The San Francisco archbishop is urging a return to reverent, traditional Catholic liturgy ahead of a July conference on restoring faith and evangelizing the next generation.
(LifeSiteNews) — San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has advocated for more reverence in the liturgy while promoting a sacred liturgy conference
In an April 6 op-ed published in the National Catholic Register, Cordileone celebrated moves toward more reverence during Mass and encouraged faithful Catholics to join him at a July sacred liturgy conference.
"To me, it is heartening how many young people are drawn to classic Catholic practices that so effectively express transcendent realities," Cordileone declared.
"What is classically Catholic works. It’s time to rebuild with confidence on a solid foundation, including on our knees in reverence before Our Lord Jesus Christ," he continued.
Cordileone revealed that the root problem facing society is the "loss of the sense of the sacred," as many former Catholics have fallen away from their faith in recent years.
"We are seeing it played out before our very eyes: the failure to evangelize the next generation of young Catholics in our pews leading to a cascading decline in Catholic faith and practice, as witnessed by the decline in Mass attendance, marriages, baptisms and religious vocations," he explained.
According to Catholic tradition, the liturgy, or the Mass, is the "summit" of Catholicism. Cordileone questioned if it is still at the heart of Catholics' spiritual life, or if they are swayed by the distractions of the world.
"I sometimes wonder if we truly appreciate the overriding importance of this principle: it means that there is simply no more important issue in the Church, or in the world, than renewing this source and summit of faith in Jesus Christ," he said. "Do we really believe this?"While many acts of reverence were done away with after the Second Vatican Council, Cordileone revealed that he is seeing a revival of tradition within parishes across the United States.
At Cordileone's own parish, St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, an increasing number of the faithful began kneeling to receive Holy Communion. This change led the parish to install kneelers to enable "the old and the infirm and not just the reverent young with healthy knees" to receive while kneeling.
Additionally, Cordileone revealed that the cathedral has begun celebrating Mass ad orientem, with the priest facing the altar during the liturgy of the Eucharist.
"The common phrase we hear, 'the priest with his back to the people,' is emblematic of the loss of the sacred because it completely misses where the focus belongs: not on the priest but on the Church’s march toward the encounter with the risen Christ represented by the eastward direction, the east being the source of light," he explained.
To restore reverence and tradition to the Sacred Liturgy, Cordileone announced his excitement over the Fons et Culmen Liturgy Summit at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park from July 1 to 4.
The event, sponsored by the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music and the Benedict XVI Institute, will gather Catholic prelates, priests, theologians, scholars and lay Catholic leaders to discuss "how to address contemporary issues facing the Church.
Attendees include Cardinal Robert Sarah, Cardinal Seán O’Malley, Dom Benedict Nivakoff of the Benedictine abbot of Norcia, and Bishop Earl Fernandes of Columbus, Ohio.
"While the prelates and other Catholic leaders gathered will bring their distinct perspectives on how to address contemporary issues facing the Church, we are all of one mind with Vatican II that the future of the liturgy is key to the future prospects of the Church’s efforts to evangelize both Catholics in the pews and those who are far away from Christ," Cordileone declared.
