Pope Benedict XVI's Reform

Here's the thing... I think people aren't looking at the big picture. A lot of people get all up in arms and get quite angry when Pope Benedict XVI does something small in regards to the liturgy, such as asking people to kneel when receiving Communion from the Pope. Also take for example Pope Benedict allowing, not forcing, parishes and bishops to more widely use the Tridentine Mass.

There are two things that I want to talk about:

1. I love having different Rites and different forms of the Mass. It's so beautiful to go to a Catholic Orthodox Mass, then go to a Latin Rite English Mass, and soon the new Anglican Rite Mass. It's all the same Mass, just simply different traditions (with a lower case "t"). This does not, by-the-way, mean that we should just allow all types of cultural traditions into the Mass; but that just as it's amazing to go to a Mass in Spanish or Italian, so too it's amazing to go to different rites or different forms within a rite (in the Latin Rite, for example).

2. Pope Benedict XVI, against the fears of some people that sound like conspiracy theorists, is not going to make Mass all into Latin again, nor is he going to change everything that the "Spirit of Vatican II did". Rather, many traditions were simply thrown away because it was "old" or "archaic" (something that is old is not necessarily bad or needs to be done away with or changed. The U.S. has been around for over 200 years, and it's one of the young ones! This doesn't mean that the government should be done away with or be changed simply because of age). Traditions such as the ordinary form of receiving communion on the tongue (an indult is given for receiving in the hands), or the traditions of Catholic architecture (which has deep theological meaning) and statuary (which have sometimes been unceremoniously ripped out of Churches). He simply wants to bring the "beneficial old" (that which is old and of benefit) with the "beneficial new" (that which is new and of benefit).

Finally, I would like us to remember that we aren't the only voters in what happens to the Mass. There are 2,000 years worth of Catholic peoples who also get a vote... through tradition. Tradition is their form of vote, and to do away with tradition altogether is to not only ignore their vote, but to be rather tyrannical.