Thursday, February 6, 2014

Andrea Grillo, Alcuin Reid, and Control

Two Liturgy Geeks Face Off

It started, I think, on 21 January, when Dom Alcuin Reid posted what I believe is usually called a ‘scathing review’ of Dr Andrea Grillo’s Beyond Pius V on Amazon. (Hey, at least he gave him 2 stars.)   The New Liturgical Movement also posted the review  (identical but for an additional comment about The Liturgical Press).   Dr Grillo then posted a response to this review on his blog (Come se Non), to which Dom Alcuin replied on NLM, to which Dr Grillo replied again on CSN. Thus far the story.

Meanwhile, discussion of this virtual debate was noted elsewhere, for instance at Fr Auge’s blog Liturgia Opus Trinitatis (qui e qui; don't be fooled by the Latin blog title!).  Our good friends at Pray Tell Blog noted the exchange here and here. (Note that the English translation of Dr G’s book is published by The Liturgical Press, hence the connection to PTB, which has duly been promoting it, and hence the comment on the first NLM review.)

A Confession

Dom Alcuin has written a book, too, The Organic Development of the Liturgy, which I think you can safely say is the polar opposite of Dr Grillo's.   But I haven’t read either of them, yet.  I’ve promised Dr Grillo I’d read his (and now I need to find a cheap used version—the beginning is available free, here).  I’ve read Dom Alcuin’s PhD dissertation, on which his book was based, because that was free too.

Missing comments and a question

Now according to a comment on NLM, some comments from LOT ‘disappeared’, but all I can say is  Fr Auge has been polite to me on his blog, even though my Italian is pretty horrific and I keep misspelling his name.  Nor has Dr Grillo played the censor, though sadly his blog seems poorly trafficked. Go on over and say ciao.

At PTB, on the other hand—this will shock those of you who know that blog—some of my comments just evaporated.  Not all, just some.  And the funny thing is, the drum I kept beating was, 'Why can't we all listen to each other?'  Which is hard to do if comments get zapped.  And I have a funny feeling I'm not the only one, either.  So I thought it would be fun to comment here on the things I’m not allowed to comment on over there.  And if anyone cares to do the same, or just join in the fun, they’re more than welcome.

But here's my question:  is there a correlation between (i) wanting to control a conversation and (ii) wanting to control how people worship?  Because the party line at PTB is:  'This is how the liturgy must be; you must do it our way.'  Thoughts on this question welcome.

TBC...

In my next post, I'm going to call out some of the more interesting comments made in the two PTB posts linked above, add my own thoughts, and of course invite further comments from anyone who cares to chime in.

1 comment:

Tancred said...

I have no idea where you're coming from. If you despise Gay, Tell blog as much as I do, why are you always giving the posters and the blog EF such grief?