Father Abbot Marcel Rooney, O.S.B., an internationally renowned liturgist who served in Rome as abbot primate of the Benedictines throughout the world, is beginning to contact priests in the Diocese of Tulsa, where Bishop Edward J. Slattery has named him president of the new Diocesan Liturgical Institute.
Father Abbot, who advised Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI on liturgical matters, is living near the Church of St. Benedict in Broken Arrow and asked the newspaper to publish his home phone number (286-1565) so priests can contact him with questions or ideas on how to enhance liturgy in their parishes and the Diocese.
“Some of the priests know him personally because they attended Conception Seminary, where he was abbot and teacher,” Bishop Slattery said Aug. 24. “He’s here already, and he is going to help us organize and plan this liturgical institute, and where it goes exactly we don’t know yet, but he will help us become more knowledgeable of the liturgy and its history, and it should improve the experience of worship,” he said.
“I am so happy that he will be in Tulsa,” said Father Mike Knipe, who attended Conception Seminary from 1982-84. “I took an entry-level Introduction to Catholic Life and Thought and an upper level course on the Eucharist. I count him among the top five teachers I have ever had the good fortune to have in my life as a student from grade school through post-graduate studies in Canon Law.
“His gift is to make the faith and the Truth come alive,” said Father Abbot Rooney’s former pupil, now pastor of St. Pius X Church in Tulsa. “He knows the history backwards and forwards and is able to offer critical assessments without diminishing the teaching. The effect reshapes how one sees the dynamic of liturgy and revelation.”
Father Abbot Rooney joined the priests and deacons at last month’s Clergy Days, and he has met with Father Matt Gerlach, director of the Office of Divine Worship, former director Father James White and spent a weekend at St. Bernard Church in Tulsa with Msgr. Patrick Gaalaas, St. Bernard pastor and vicar general for the Diocese.
“I want to hear from the priests and deacons what they see are the needs. I want to ask them if they had liturgical expertise at their fingertips, how would they use it?” Father Abbot Rooney said.
He also plans to meet with lectors and other lay people who help with liturgy and said he will offer “formation programs like on Wednesday nights” in the parishes, perhaps with people from several other parishes joining in the sessions or “three Monday nights on theology for readers and then two nights for practice. “We have an enormous amount of good we can do for the man and women in the pews.”
The thrust of the new institute, which Bishop Slattery announced in May, is three-fold, said Father Abbot Rooney, adding that “it will be my job to set the theological tone and curriculum.”
- First, the institute will teach very orthodox theology. “We want to teach people what real liturgy is, that is, how do we meet God?”
- Second will be on emphasis on spirituality. “How do we really pray with the liturgy when we go to Church? How do you pray while you’re singing the song, doing the liturgy, leading the people to holiness.”
- The third component is pastoral, he said. “How do we help the people in the parish to do their ministry better?”
