Paix liturgique

Cardinal Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship, is 76 years old and has therefore exceeded the age limit for Curia officials. However, the Pope can decide to extend his term, and in fact, on May 9, 2025, he was again appointed prefect ad interim, along with the other prefects. Nevertheless, his resignation may be accepted at any time.

For a year now, the most optimist have been promising us "good appointments." However, an analysis of those which have already taken place would not support such prediction (see LifeSiteNews).

Running at the forefront for the nomination, and arguably implicitly postulating his own candidacy, is Cardinal Roche's second-in-command, Monsignor Vittorio Francesco Viola, 60, Secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship. In Rome, it is often said that the ones actually running the Dicasteries are their Secretaries. This is true in all that concerns the administrative work, drafting the Prefect's speeches and addresses, and preparing the official documents. And it is particularly with respect to the Divine Worship, since Cardinal Roche is not particularly known as a tireless worker.

Monsignor Viola could have already aspired to the cardinalate under the pontificate of Pope Francis (see the Paix Liturgique Letter of July 11, 2024, Paix Liturgique France): Mauro Gambetti, a Franciscan like him and of the same age, became Archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica and was created a cardinal, and Viola has, at least as much as Gambetti, all the qualities needed to hold a high ecclesiastical office. Vittorio Viola was Bishop of Tortona before becoming Secretary for Divine Worship in 2021, succeeding Bishop Roche, who became Prefect. He is a pure product of the University of Sant'Anselmo, the Roman university dedicated to liturgy, which provides professors in this field to all seminaries and universities in Italy. Viola himself taught liturgy at Sant'Anselmo and in Assisi.

His career was “boosted” by Bishop Domenico Sorrentino, who was prelate of Pompeii, a city that houses a very popular shrine dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, then secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, and finally bishop of Assisi. It was there that he met Vittorio Viola, who held positions of responsibility within the Franciscan Order, in the dioceses of the region as head of the liturgy and also in the administration of the Caritas office. It was in this capacity that he organized a luncheon for Pope Francis with the poor during his first visit to Assisi.

Viola belongs to the circle of admirers and successors of Annibale Bugnini, the architect of the liturgical reform under the pontificate of Paul VI. The leading figure in this circle is Piero Marini, Bugnini's secretary, later Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations under John Paul II, and a personal enemy of Joseph Ratzinger both before and after he became Benedict XVI. Vittorio Viola is therefore part of this group, along with others such as Corrado Maggioni, also formed at Sant'Anselmo and a professor there too, and Undersecretary of the Dicastery, as well as Aurelio García Macías, who currently holds that same position.

Vittorio Viola has thus established himself as an interpreter of Traditionis Custodes and the subsequent texts. He contributed to the drafting of the text that he and his friends intended to be the foundation for a new configuration of the reform, the 2022 apostolic letter Desiderio desideravi ("I do not see," wrote Pope Francis, "how one can claim to recognize the validity of the Council—although I am surprised that a Catholic could claim otherwise—and not accept the liturgical reform").

It is important to know that Viola is responsible for the systematic prohibitions imposed until now on young priests whose bishops request permission from the Dicastery for them to be able to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass, which is required according to the procedure now in place. He is, therefore, the interlocutor of Bishop Touvet of Fréjus-Toulon in the case of the six deacons of the Missionaries of Divine Mercy community, who have been waiting for their priestly ordination for two years.

Vittorio Viola devoutly wears Annibale Bugnini's episcopal ring, and he also holds the position of Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, as Bugnini once did. It is said, however, that this promotion was a disappointment to Viola, who was presented as a promising young cleric with the potential to become prefect of the new liturgy immediately. But perhaps his moment is yet to come. Perhaps Vittorio Viola, the disciple, will receive the purple that Bugnini, the master, was not able to obtain. The same Viola, of whom Andrea Grillo, the outspoken critic of the traditional liturgy, states without hesitation: “Viola is more left-wing than me.”

It doesn't matter! For more than fifty years, the Bugninians have tried to halt the development of the traditional liturgy, and they have failed. You are all quite aware of this, dear Parisian sentinels, who pray the rosary at 10 rue du Cloître-Notre-Dame, Monday to Friday, from 1:00 to 1:30 p.m., at Saint-Georges de La Villette, at 114 avenue Simon Bolivar, on Wednesdays and Fridays at 5:00 p.m., and in front of Notre-Dame du Travail, on Sundays at 6:15 p.m.