De volkstaal: onomkeerbaar?

Peter Kwasniewski heeft een aantal interessante gedachten over de ironie van de volkstaal:

"Being in Europe convinced me past all doubt that the switch after the Council to an exclusive use of the vernacular for the Mass was the most foolish and nearsighted change that could have been made. Instead of making the Mass more deeply accessible, it localizes, particularizes, and relativizes it, shutting off everyone who does not speak the local tongue; traveling or immigrant Catholics are thrust into a foreign environment that alienates them far more than the solemn Latin liturgy ever alienated the simplest peasant."

" On my sole visit to Lourdes, I attended a Mass in which the languages were being shifted constantly to accommodate the international congregation, an elaborate show of linguistic gymnastics that I found highly distracting, and it was almost impossible for me to pray. The already overly verbal and self-involved character of the new liturgy was heightened all the more by this preoccupation with proportional coverage of language groups."

" Moreover, as Jacques Maritain says in Peasant of the Garonne, the believer who, by simply kneeling at Mass and letting his mind be drawn to heavenly things, is caught up in silent worship of God, does not need words, missals, long readings and sermons; it is enough for him to be there. As the peasant  in the parish of the Curé of Ars put it: “He looks at me and I look at Him.” When the liturgy breaks this immediate spiritual contact in favor of verbal didacticism, it does a disservice to the spiritual lives of believers."

"We are living in the age of travel, the age of the “global village.” At least in the Western world, almost everyone travels at some point or another; there has never been a time in the entire history of the world when so large a number of people take trips within their country as well as to foreign countries. How foolish it was to break down the universal mode of worship just when it has become more needed than ever!"