Cardinal George fires Gabe Huck, longtime
liturgical publisher
By ROBERT J. McCLORY
Special Report Writer
The recent firing of Gabe Huck, longtime director of one of the
major publishers of liturgical materials, is the latest indication of a
campaign to change the course of liturgical renewal underway since Vatican II.
Huck, 60, was officially notified of his removal as director of [Liturgy
Training Publications] (LTP) in mid-July during a meeting with Chicago
Cardinal Francis George.
[Liturgy Training Publications] is owned by the
Chicago archdiocese. The company, which publishes books and training materials
that are widely used in Catholic parishes and schools, has been in the
forefront of liturgical renewal in the Catholic church for the past two
decades.
In a letter to Huck, the cardinal thanked him for his good
work, adding, I believe this is a new moment in liturgical
catechesis, one that requires new policy and new direction.
Huck told NCR the cardinals action surprised me
in the timing, though he acknowledged his relationship with George has
been stormy. We have had some clashes over inclusive language, he
said, citing disputes regarding the companys publication of the Psalter
prepared by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), over
a book on Eucharistic prayer and over the publishing houses use of the
New Revised Standard Version translation of scripture.
Two years ago, Georges appointment of Msgr. Francis Mannion
to launch a Liturgy Institute was viewed by many as a move to dilute
Hucks position, but Huck continued his work unimpeded, reporting to
Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry, with whom, he said, Weve had a good
relationship.
[Liturgy Training Publications] has grown
dramatically since Huck joined a two-member staff in 1977 when it produced
about $100,000 in sales yearly. The staff has grown to more than 50 and sales
to about $7 million a year. The company provides a sizable subsidy to the
archdiocese.
The companys books and training materials have won scores of
awards from the Catholic Press Association, associations of liturgical leaders,
marketing groups and visual and graphic art associations, both religious and
secular. Recently materials in Spanish have found growing acceptance in the
United States and in Latin America.
Huck himself is author of the companys Liturgy with
Style and Grace and a variety of other works dealing with the Paschal
Triduum, the Communion rite, preaching and communal singing.
Huck said the cardinal indicated to him that he wants to work more
closely with the Bishops Committee on the Liturgy, whose present staff
Huck finds excessively compliant with Vatican directives. Huck faulted the
staff for constantly shuttling back and forth from Rome to Washington,
playing an active role in the whole series of retro measures aimed at putting
an end to the liturgical renewal begun by Vatican II, and involving itself with
the circle of Roman authorities only too eager to hear the complaints of
reactionaries in this country and to translate those complaints into new
legislation or into heavy-handed changes.
He was even more outspoken in a speech last fall when the
Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Consultants presented [Liturgy
Training Publications] with the Msgr. Frederick McManus Award for
leadership in pastoral liturgy.
We are in the midst of a whirlwind of the line-drawers and
the literalists, Huck declared, the successors of those fearful
curial folk who never wanted a council in the first place. He referred to
the Second Vatican Council (1963-65), the impetus for widespread liturgical
renewal in the church.
Huck regretted that the Catholic genius for sacramentality
and metaphor is being replaced by the Catholic weakness for power
and for the literal. He was particularly angry, he said, about
Romes suffocation of ICEL and our bishops so-far willing
compliance, and about the way that the General Instruction on the
Roman Missal has been recast in Rome without consultation beyond those unhappy
few who grind their paltry axes.
In his letter to Huck, the cardinal did not amplify on how he
understands the new moment requiring new leadership, but some
limited insight may be gleaned from his commencement address at Thomas Aquinas
College in California last spring. George stressed a need for more literal
translation of Latin in the liturgy and extreme restriction on inclusive
language.
The translations still being used in our celebration of the
liturgy were done far too quickly, he said, probably with good
intent. But, he said, they did not adequately capture the Latin
original. And a new document [Authenticam Liturgiam]
from the
Holy See presents guidelines for the second generation of translated liturgical
books, which must be understandable in English but with the first
emphasis on fidelity to the Latin. There is great difficulty, he added,
in making these translations inclusive. We want to see that this language
is inclusive as possible, he noted. And yet we cannot do that, and
most bishops, being kind men, are sensitive to that. Very often, he
explained, in the kind of language that now is politically correct, we
have an idiom that is unable, in itself, intrinsically incapable of expressing
the mysteries of our faith.
Bishop Donald Trautman, former head of the U.S. Bishops
Committee on the Liturgy, told NCR he was saddened by the removal of
Huck, whom he called an extremely competent liturgist who has done so
much for the American liturgical renewal.
A former director of the bishops committee, Divine Word Fr.
Thomas Kosnicki, said he fears the progress we have made since Vatican II
can be too easily eroded.
Fr. Michael Joncas, liturgical author and professor at the
University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, said, I regret that Gabes
contribution to renewal has been diminished, if not removed. Joncas
praised Huck for his refusal to let liturgical renewal be divorced from social
justice issues, his profound gift for crafting language, his
respect for historical tradition, and his sensitivity to what is possible
in parish settings.
Huck, who has until Aug. 31 to depart from his position, said he
has no idea what his next move will be, but Fr. Joseph Champlin, former
associate director of the Bishops Committee on Liturgy, said, I
think someone will surely take advantage of his experience and
expertise.
National Catholic Reporter, August 10, 2001
[corrected 09/07/2001
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