Dr. Alcuin Reid at the Toronto Oratory : The real radicalism of the 1960’s was represented by the revolutionary reforms of Vatican II. Breaking with a tradition that stretched back almost 1300 years...

Dr. Alcuin Reid, the well known liturgical scholar, author of The Organic Development of the Liturgy recently spoke at the Toronto Oratory this past Wednesday, February 18th, as part of their "Wednesday Evenings at the Oratory" series.

The setting for the talk was a filled to capacity hall at the primary church of the Toronto Oratory, Holy Family. Approximately 150-200 people filled the hall, which included the presence of the Archbishop of Toronto, Thomas Collins, and Fr. Jonathan Robinson, provost of the Toronto Oratory and author of The Mass and Modernity: Walking to Heaven Backward. Also present were a number of seminarians, religious, and many laity, young and old.

The paper delivered was Continuity or Rupture: The Second Vatican Council’s Reform of the Liturgy - Some Preliminary Questions. The basic question approached is as follows: "Was the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council a rupture or was it in continuity with the liturgical tradition of the ages?" The question is not new, but it is one which has stirred some quite strong responses both for and against in recent decades and not always where one might expect. Consider for example the thought, quoted by Reid, that

The real radicalism of the 1960’s was represented by the revolutionary reforms of Vatican II. Breaking with a tradition that stretched back almost 1300 years...READ...