With Summorum Pontificum, Benedict XVI "wanted to establish a sign of reconciliation in the Church, one that has brought much fruit," he said.
"We are called to continue to pursue this path of reconciliation and unity, as an ever-living witness of Christ in today's world."
Cardinal Sarah's address focused on silence and the primacy of God in the liturgy. He stated that "silence of heart, mind and soul" are the key to achieving "full, conscious and actual participation" in the liturgy, which was the very goal of the liturgical movement.
Pointing to the "scandal of the divisions" in the Church following the liturgical reform following the Second Vatican Council, Cardinal Sarah said Summorum Pontificum has done a lot to mend these divisions, but noted that there is also "more to do to achieve the reconciliation Pope Benedict XVI so desired, and which work Pope Francis has continued."
"We must pray and work so to achieve that reconciliation for the good of souls, for the good of the Church and so that our Christian witness and mission to the world may be ever stronger."
The extraordinary form ought to be seen as "a normal part of the life of the Church of the twenty-first century," he said. And while statistically the number of people who attend the older form might, as predicted by Benedict XVI, stay a minority, "there should be no competition between the more recent rites and the older ones of the one Roman rite."
"Both should be a natural element of the life of the Church in our times," he said, adding that "Christ calls us to unity, not division! We are brothers and sisters in the same faith no matter which form of the Roman rite we celebrate!"
Offering a "paternal word" to all those attached to the traditional rite, Cardinal Sarah noted that many people refer to them as "traditionalists," and that even those who attend Masses in the old rite refer to themselves as such, "or hyphenate yourselves in a similar way."
"Please do this no longer," he said. "You do not belong in a box on the shelf or in a museum of curiosities. You are not traditionalists: you are Catholics of the Roman Rite as am I and as is the Holy Father."
As members of the Catholic Church, those who are drawn to the extraordinary form of the Mass "are called by God, as is every baptized person, to take your full place in the life and mission of the Church in the world of today, not to be shut up in – or worse, to retreat into – a ghetto in which defensiveness and introspection reign and stifle the Christian witness and mission to the world you too are called to give."
If experiencing 10 years of Summorum Pontificum has meant anything, "it means this," he said, and told his audience that "if you have not yet left behind the shackles of the 'traditionalist ghetto,' please do so today. Almighty God calls you to do this."
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Elise Harris was senior Rome correspondent for CNA from 2012 to 2018.