Pastoral Liturgical Congress of Assisi
The first International Pastoral Liturgical Congress was a gathering of Roman Catholic bishops and priests in Assisi in September 1956 . He was of great importance in the preparation of the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council .
The main theme of the congress was the pastoral orientation of the liturgy . In particular, the question of the use of the national language in worship and the reform of the Liturgy of the Hours were discussed controversially. Around 80 bishops and abbots as well as over 1,400 priests from all parts of the world attended the congress . It was given an official ecclesiastical character because the Prefect of the Congregation for Rites , Cardinal Gaetano Cicognani , was the chairman; Vice-presidents were five cardinals , each representing a language family, including the Cologne Cardinal Joseph Fringsfor the German-speaking countries. The congress was held in Assisi from September 18 to 21, 1956 and closed on September 22 in Rome with an audience with Pope Pius XII. The Pope gave a highly regarded address in which he paid tribute to the liturgical movement .
The German theologians and Jesuits Josef Andreas Jungmann and Augustin Bea gave fundamental presentations. Jungmann spoke about pastoral care as the key to the history of the liturgy, the exegete Bea, then consultor of the Congregation for Rites and from 1959 cardinal to the curia , about the pastoral importance of the Bible in the liturgy. The director of the German Liturgical Institute in Trier, Johannes Wagner, was a member of the four-person central organizing committee of the congress and gave a lecture on “liturgical art and pastoral care”. Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro gave a lecture on " simplifying rubrics and reforming the breviary" and made suggestions for the selection and distribution of the psalms , hymns and readings that were later taken up in the reform of the Liturgy of the Hours. A large number of those attending the Congress called for the introduction of the mother tongue in the liturgy, while Cardinal Cicognani strongly advocated the need to keep Latin as the language of the liturgy. The cardinal's departure before the end of the congress was initially understood as a protest against the demand for church services in the mother tongue, but it was actually due to health reasons; He transferred the chairmanship to Cardinal Lercaro.
Johannes Wagner described it as the aim of the congress, Pope Pius XII. to thank for his support of the liturgical renewal, "to show the pastoral fruits that it has already brought" and "to indicate the hopes that are connected with it for the deepening of the worship life in the future". The liturgist Annibale Bugnini , who played a leading role in the implementation of the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council, sees in retrospect in the Congress an important “factor for the resolute initiation of the liturgical reform”, which shows that the liturgical reform “the fruit of a long period of Tires ".
literature
- Johannes Wagner : The renewal of the liturgy from the spirit of pastoral care under the pontificate of Pope Pius' XII. First International Pastoral Liturgical Congress Assisi 1956. In: Liturgisches Jahrbuch (LJ) 6 (1956), pp. 189–199.
Individual evidence
- ^ Johannes Wagner: The renewal of the liturgy from the spirit of pastoral care under the pontificate of Pope Pius' XII. First International Pastoral Liturgical Congress Assisi 1956. In: Liturgisches Jahrbuch (LJ) 6 (1956), pp. 189–199, here p. 189.
- ^ Annibale Bugnini: The liturgical reform. 1948-1975. Testimony and Testament. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 1988, ISBN 3-451-20727-3 , p. 32f.