Auctoritates · ad fol. ii
nn. 90–94
Venite ad me · De Liturgia
ad fol. ii · n. 91 · videtur, sed contra, respondeo: the Council, Pius XII and the Code, reported
Videtur quod
It would seem that fidelity to tradition and a message that can be understood cannot both be kept; for what is handed down must be kept whole, and what is made understandable must be changed.
Sed contra
Sacrosanctum Concilium 21
parte immutabili … partibus mutationi obnoxiis
The Council says that the liturgy is made of a part that cannot change, being of divine institution, and of parts that can; and that these may, and indeed ought to, change with time if something has entered them that does not fit the liturgy’s inner nature, or if they have grown unsuited to it.
In the reform, it says, texts and rites are to be so ordered that they show more plainly the holy things they signify, and that the Christian people, as far as may be, can grasp them readily and share in them fully and actively, as a community.
Sacrosanctum Concilium 37
rigidam unius tenoris formam
It says the Church does not want, not even in the liturgy, to lay a “rigid uniformity” on matters where neither the faith nor the good of the whole community is at stake. She honours and fosters the gifts of the peoples, looks with favour on whatever in their ways is not bound fast to superstition and error, keeps it unharmed if she can, and at times admits it into the liturgy itself, provided it agrees with the liturgy’s true spirit.
Sacrosanctum Concilium 38
servata substantiali unitate Ritus romani
It says that the revision of the books should leave room for lawful variation and adaptation to diverse assemblies, regions and peoples, in mission lands above all, so long as the Roman rite keeps its substantial unity; and that this be remembered in framing the rites and the rubrics.
Respondeo
I answer that the tension is between two parts of one thing. Trent kept the substance untouched and left the rest to the Church to order (fol. ii, c), and the Council does the same; what is made understandable moves only within what may be moved.
Tabula IV · Aptatio
One tile, half lapis and half gold, laid by four laws: all alike; turned by row and column; turned by the diagonals; turned by the bits of APTATIO, two at a time. The tile is never altered, only the law of its laying. Not a rigid uniformity, and still one tile (SC 37–38).
Reported, not reproduced · the texts are at vatican.va
I deſire