I wonder what will be said of Pope Benedict's liturgies? That they exemplified something different, certainly. That they were true to a different spirit?
M.
Vatican City, 1 October 2007
Most Reverend Sir,
In leaving the direction of the Office of Liturgical Ceremonies of the Supreme Pontiff, I feel the need to thank above all Divine Providence for the singular liturgical experience which was granted to me to live for almost 21 years of service to the Successor of the Apostle Peter, after the 21 years, not any less extraordinary, spent in various organisms of the Roman Curia which guided the implementation of the liturgical reform desired by the Second Vatican Council.
Those years of direct service to the Pope were the central years and the most demanding of my human and priestly life: from the time I had nearly completed 45 years when all my horizons opened up to me, until just short of 66 years of age.
Looking back over the journey now completed, I thank the Lord who called me to live a special ministry in the Church of God. Above all for being in the immediate service of the Successor of Peter in the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries: first, of Servant of God John Paul II for nearly 18 years and subsequently of the present Pontiff Benedict XVI for the first intense two and a half years of the beginning of the Pontificate. It was an ecclesial experience which allowed me to experience the presence of the shadow of Peter in the today’s Church: he, in fact, in his Successors continues to announce the word of the gospel and celebrate the Sacraments in the Church of Rome and in the different communities of faithful scattered through the whole world. It was a unique and unrepeatable ecclesial experience, enough to think about the 80 international trips I completed twice, without counting those in Italy. No liturgical experience in our time is comparable for the variety of salvific events commemorated, for the diversity of places of celebration, for the multiplicity of situations and of solutions, for the number of people encountered, for the composition of the assemblies, for the diversity of traditions and of cultural roots, than those lived in these years of service at the cathedra of Peter.
Together with the Successor of Peter, in these years I learned to love the liturgy of the Church, which I consider with the faith the greatest gift received which gives a sense to my human and priestly life in the world.
In any event, providence has called me to look forward. In this glance, which pertains to my old age, the prospect of continuing to busy myself with the celebrations of the Sacred Mysteries of the Church consoles me. Every time, in fact, I celebrate I feel that my being is in communion with life: every time the light of the Risen One illuminates and warms the hears, the eyes recognize and shine with joy in the peace of the Holy Spirit.
At the end of these thoughts suggested by the heart, I desire to thank the two Supreme Pontiffs whom I had the grace to serve as Master of the Pontifical Liturgical Ceremonies. Above all, the Servant of God John Paul II, who nominated me at 43 years to be Undersecretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, and two years afterward he entrusted the responsibility of the Pontifical Liturgical Ceremonies and in 1988 he imposed hands on me in episcopal ordination.
I thank him for always having fostered the development of the Office of Liturgical Celebrations: he established it with juridical autonomy, and promised and gave his approbation for the updating (aggiornamento) of the papal ceremonies of the liturgy, and, finally, in Rome, and above all in the numberless communities visited in the whole world, he received and approved with conviction the proposals of adaptation to the different cultures in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council. During his Pontificate the papal celebrations thus became for the particular Churches a sure point of reference for recognizing the face of the liturgy which the Council wanted. In reality, John Paul II was not an expert in liturgy in the technical sense, but he entrusted himself to his Maestro and with his pastoral enthusiasm for evangelization he became in the Church the most authoritative interpreter and the most tenacious executor of the liturgy of Vatican II. For this, I feel the need to say thank you to him who now celebrated in the communion of saints the liturgy of the heavenly Jerusalem.
I extend a filial and special thanks also to Pope Benedict XVI who, as soon as he was elected, wanted to confirm me as Master of Pontifical Liturgical Ceremonies. In truth for me it was not an entirely new experience because I had already been his master of ceremonies at the beginning of his cardinalate. Also for this reason from the first moment I felt myself welcomed by Pope Benedict as a son. In him I was able to recognize, with my true satisfaction, not only a professor but a Pope expert in liturgy. I will not be able ever to forget the emotion I had of finding myself alone with him in the Sistine Chapel just after his election, an emotion experienced during the carrying out of the rites of the beginning of his Petrine Ministry. They will remain fixed in memory and heart because I consider them the most complete and successful icon which the liturgy has given of the Church after the Second Vatican Council. Thank you, Pope Benedict, for having approved such rites and for having celebrated them with the Holy People of God. Finally, thanks for having given me, at the end of my service as Maestro (Master of Ceremonies), a new task which permits me to continue to busy myself up close with the celebrations of the Eucharist in the Church of God. It will be easier for me to continue to sense his friendly and paternal proximity.
I desire to thank, at last, all the people who in these years helped me to carry out better my service in the pontifical liturgical ceremonies: the personnel of the Office, the pontifical masters of ceremony, the consultors, the personnel of various entities of the Holy See and so many other collaborators in Rome, in Italian dioceses and in the particular Churches in the whole world. Without them it would not have been possible for me to live the marvelous ecclesial experience in the pontifical ceremonies.
To all my thanks from the heart for the help and the witness of the faithful.
+Piero Marini
