I was saddened to read the letter from Msgr Basil Loftus (The Tablet, 23 August) encouraging parishes to disobey the liturgical laws of the Church and take us back to the bad old days of liturgical chaos, when it was common for parishes to “experiment” with the liturgy.
Surely, the Church has rubrics governing her liturgy to protect the faithful from the liturgical whims of their parish clergy. The priest is a servant of the Church’s liturgy and is ordained faithfully to celebrate the Sacred Mysteries according to the rites of the Church and not according to the priest’s personal tastes and opinions. These laws free the priest and any community from their likes and dislikes and enable them to serve as the Church decrees and not as they see fit, thereby accepting the liturgy as a gift and not a possession.
As far as I am aware these rubrics apply to the humblest curate and to the Holy Father himself, unless of course, the rubrics are changed for us all!
Fr Sean Thornton, Catholic Church of the Transfiguration, London
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