From CWNews.com, October 27, 2006:

The prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship spoke out sharply against liturgical abuses during an October 26 presentation in Paris.

Speaking at the Catholic Institute of Paris, Cardinal Francis Arinze decried the “banalization, desacralization and secularization of the liturgy.” He rebuked priests who take an “overtly egocentric” approach to the liturgy, violating the norms of the Church. And he also criticized priests whose ” false humility” leads them to “share their role with the laity.”

“The sacred liturgy is not a domain in which free exploration reigns,” the Nigerian-born cardinal said. He suggested that many liturgical abuses can be traced to “the undue place given to spontaneity, or creativity, or perhaps a false idea of liberty, or even that error that goes by the name of ‘horizontalism,’ which consists in placing man at the center of the liturgical celebration instead of directing attention upward, that is, toward Christ.”

Cardinal Arinze went on to say that priests should deliver homilies that are “rooted in Sacred Scripture,” rather than offering thoughts based on sociology, psychology and politics. He reminded his French audience that priests are ordained to proclaim the Word of God rather than to offer their insights on matters that lay people can study equally well. By interfering in the province of the laity, he added, priests confuse their own role, and “that always causes damage.”

In an address that repeated themes frequently set forth in Vatican documents, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship concluded with the observation that “the liturgy is not the property of anyone — neither the celebrant nor the community in which the mysteries are celebrated.” He exhorted priests to approach the Mass with reverence and an appreciation for their own role in the Eucharistic mystery.