.- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger revealed this Monday that Pope John Paul II has already signed the Latin version of a new document on the liturgy, which will probably be made public during the Easter Season.
The document is an updated compilation of diverse norms published by the Holy See in order to assure an adequate and dignified celebration of the Mass. The necessity of such a document was underscored by the Pope in his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia: “Our time, too, calls for a renewed awareness and appreciation of liturgical norms as a reflection of, and a witness to, the one universal Church made present in every celebration of the Eucharist. Priests who faithfully celebrate Mass according to the liturgical norms, and communities which conform to those norms, quietly but eloquently demonstrate their love for the Church. Precisely to bring out more clearly this deeper meaning of liturgical norms, I have asked the competent offices of the Roman Curia to prepare a more specific document, including prescriptions of a juridical nature, on this very important subject.”
