The Full Use of the Rituale Romanum

While Father Ryan T. Ruiz in the July 2017 issue of Adoremus Bulletin rightly and briefly explains that the form of the Rituale Romanum approved by Summorum Pontificum is that which was approved by 1962, there is the broader issue regarding the legislation in the new book of blessings, De Benedictionibus (1984), and the relationship between the two rituals.

The 1984 ritual, which excludes the rituals for the administration of the sacraments, repeatedly emphasizes the adaptability of the blessing rituals to particular circumstances. So that the priest is free to invent it according to his wit and holy desire, maintaining the general structure of the ceremony. That being the case, there can be no restriction to the use of any or all elements of the blessing rituals of the Church from traditional rituals of the past in whatever language he sees fit and in the translation he might prefer, even making it up himself. The priest determines the particular adaptation of the blessings. For example, free use of the blessings in the 1964 English translation texts of the Collectio Rituum must certainly be allowed and even encouraged under that very broad 1984 ritual norm. Furthermore, there is no Spanish translation of the Collectio Rituum. The priest, under the liberal 1984 legislation, is encouraged to make his own faithful translations, even, when necessary, ad libitum, for the glory of God and the good of the Church. Pope Benedict's motu proprio regarding this simply reaffirmed this regarding the traditional Latin texts, what was already law from 1984.

N.B. I will often give a brief instruction explaining in the vernacular the wording of the blessing and then say it in Latin according to the 1962 dispensation, though the same blessings in the vernacular cannot be forbidden when priests are encouraged to even make up their own spontaneous prayers for every manner of blessing.

Cf. De benedictionibus, Caput XLI Ordo benedictionis pro variis circumstantiis, 1246. Ordo, qui hic præbetur, adhiberi potest tum a sacerdote, tum a diacono, tum a laico, ritibus et formulis pro ipso prævisis, qui omnes, ritus structura et potioribus elementis servatis, personarum et locorum adiunctis singulas partes aptabunt.