A New Calendar?

by Gary D. Penkala

Here's a totally theoretically, likely controversial, bit of posturing concerning the odd state of "Liturgical Calendar Discrepancy" that now exists between the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the Roman Rite.

In Summorum Pontificum (July 7, 2007), Pope Benedict XVI clearly writes in Art. 1:

… for they are two usages of the one Roman rite.

He allows for changes in the Extraordinary Form with this comment in the accompanying letter:

the two Forms of the usage of the Roman Rite can be mutually enriching: new Saints and some of the new Prefaces can and should be inserted in the old Missal.

So here, for your edification (or amusement) is my proposal for a single calendar in the Roman Rite. Some highlights of the new calendar:

• January 1 is not a Holy Day of Obligation
• Epiphany is always the first Sunday in January
• Baptism of the Lord is always the next Sunday
• The Epiphany Season is reinstated – labels become, e.g. "3rd Sunday after Epiphany," ending with the Feast of the Transfiguration
• Septuagesima is suppressed
• Ash Wednesday is a Holy Day of Obligation
• Passion Sunday replaces the Fifth Sunday of Lent
• Holy Thursday is a Holy Day of Obligation
• Divine Mercy Sunday replaces the 2nd Sunday of Easter
• Ascension Thursday is celebrated 40 days after Easter
• The Pentecost Octave is reinstated
• The Pentecost Season is reinstated – labels become, e.g. "14th Sunday after Pentecost," ending with the Solemnity of Christ the King
• The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart is transferred to the first Sunday in July

Article written 07 October 2019, the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary