Introduction

Theological Foundations for Liturgical Participation
Liturgical Participation: The Pastoral Challenges
Toward Full and Active Liturgical Participation

Conclusion

I.

Catholic Social Teaching and the American Church's Response in the 1920s
The Social Encyclicals
Catholic Social Movements and Worship
The Campion Propaganda Movement

II.
The Liturgical Pioneers and Social Justice
The Legacy of Virgil Michel
Hans A. Reinhold
Reynold Hillenbrand

Conclusion

Introduction

Tools for Liturgical Education
Liturgical Education in Schools
Liturgical Adult Education

Conclusion

Introduction

The Liturgical Movement and Art: Liturgical Environment
The Liturgical Movement and Architecture
The Liturgical Movement and Music

Conclusion

Foreword

In his Apostolic Constitution “Missale Romanum” Pope Paul VI writes: “No one should think that this revision of the Roman Missal has come out of nowhere. The progress in liturgical studies during the last four centuries has certainly prepared the way.” Something similar can be said of the liturgical agenda defined by Vatican II and implemented by the postconciliar reform. Both vision and implementation have not come out of nowhere, but had been prepared for over fifty years by scholars, pastors, and lay leaders.

After more than thirty years of postconciliar liturgy there is an ever growing interest in the liturgical movement that happily concluded with the promulgation of the Constitution on the Liturgy. Who were the people and what were the factors responsible for the liturgical movement that swept across the globe? We can understand and evaluate more objectively the present state of the postconciliar reform when we examine more closely its historical background.

Books and articles have appeared tracing the history of the movement in general or as it evolved in some countries. In the United States a number of authors have written on the different aspects of the movement, including the work of notable pioneers like Virgil Michel and Godfrey Diekmann. The present volume by Keith Pecklers is one that studies the liturgical movement in the country in an integral and synthetic way. Pecklers examines the history of the movement not only from the perspective of the people who were behind it but also from its socio-cultural context. In many respects this work may fittingly be described as a social history of the liturgical movement in the United States. Although Pecklers studies the theological foundation of the movement, which is a call to full and active participation, he significiantly contributes to history in those pages where he discusses the alliance between the liturgical movement and the socially-oriented movements such as the Catholic Worker, Friendship House, and the Grail.

An important finding of the author is that liturgical participation and social justice were intertwined during the early stages of the liturgical movement in the United States. He explains this by recalling the profound impact the doctrine of the Mystical Body had on the pioneers at a time when the social conditions in the country were at a deplorable state. Liturgical participation by the socially and economically afflicted became an expression of being part of the Mystical Body and a sure hope of finding community and justice in an oppressive world.

While the initial pioneers of the liturgical movement in the United States were clergy, lay leaders quickly joined them with amazing dedication. Pecklers names these lay pioneers: Justine Ward, John Ross Duggan, Sara Benedicta O’Neill, Dorothy Day, Nina Polcyn, Catherine De Hueck Doherty, Ed Marciniak, and Elizabeth Sullivan. It is interesting to note that unlike in other countries, especially in Europe (Germany excepted), many of the pioneers were women.

The liturgical movement in the United States raised the hope of many for the advent of Christian cooperation based on social justice and respect for each person’s human dignity. Liturgy and community are an inseparable reality. Pecklers hopes that the community spirit of the liturgical movement will continue to inspire the Church in the United States as it works for Christian community among its multicultural members. Much has been achieved in matters pertaining to social justice, but the call for unity in cultural diversity remains a challenge. Perhaps a postconciliar liturgical movement is needed.

Anscar J. Chupungco, O.S.B.
Third Sunday of Advent, 1996

Preface
“Redeem the unread vision in the higher dream.”
T. S. Eliot, “Ash Wednesday”

The vision of the liturgical pioneers—of Virgil Michel and his colleagues in the reformation of American Catholic—liturgy carried with it the hope and promise that a renewed liturgical participation would demand social responsibility, uniting the table of the Eucharist with the table of daily life.

This book is an attempt to introduce the reader to the liturgical movement, to the socially-minded vision of its pioneers and promoters, and to the major themes and issues that emerged. Acknowledging that their vision has yet to be fully realized, the text concludes with a call for a refounding of the liturgical movement in our time. The historical period of this study extends from 1926, when the liturgical movement in the United States was founded, to 1955, when under the leadership of Pope Pius XII, the Sacred Congregation of Rites restored the Easter Triduum culminating in the Great Vigil on Easter night. Those reforms, only several years after the publication of Pius XII’s encyclical on the liturgy, Mediator Dei, were the culmination of years of liturgical pioneering on both sides of the Atlantic, and gave clear indication that the liturgical movement s call for full and active participation was being heeded and authenticated by official Church leadership.

The first chapter explores the European roots of the liturgical movement in the United States, focusing on developments in France, Germany, Belgium, and Austria. The chapter concludes by examining the European influences upon Virgil Michel, Benedictine monk of St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville, and founder of the American movement.

Chapters Two through Five are divided thematically, and the material in each is treated chronologically, beginning with a consideration of the topic in its broader socio-cultural context. Chapter Two treats the fundamental goal of the liturgical pioneers: full and active liturgical participation. Liturgy was the celebration of the whole Mystical Body of Christ—women and men, ordained and lay members together. Cultural differences in liturgical participation among immigrant groups are explored, with special attention given to the liturgy of the hours, the missa recitata, and the debate over use of the vernacular in the liturgy.

Chapter Three explores the strong relationship between the liturgical and social movements during the 1930s and 1940s. From an examination of the Church’s response to the Great Depression, we look more closely at the response of liturgical leaders and their efforts at helping American Catholics recognize that liturgical participation and social activism were intimately connected. Liturgical pioneers and social activists shared a common foundation in the Mystical Body theology and supported one another’s projects. Several interesting points surface in this chapter: (1) it was Germans and German-Americans who first recognized and fostered the intimate relationship between liturgy and social activism; (2) Chicago was the center of such activism; (3) the social outreach that took place was often done without any governmental or institutional support.

The fourth chapter deals with liturgical education in all spheres of American Church life, from elementary school through adult education. American Catholics were educated liturgically in such unlikely places as the Boston Common, and through lectures organized by women in religious bookstores. The final chapter studies the relationship of the liturgical movement to the arts: art, architecture, and music.

The United States is a young country compared with countries in Europe or other parts of the world, and so, too, the American church. Our youth, however, can lead some to an impoverished sense of history, to the impression that all liturgical renewal in the United States began with Vatican II. It is the hope of the author that this book will prove otherwise.