Desiderio Desideravi

Apostolic Letter on the Liturgical Formation of the People of God

Pope Francis urges Catholics to value the liturgical reform borne out of Sacrosanctum Concilium, Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. He calls for a "serious and dynamic liturgical formation" for all. Without a proper understanding, the celebration can easily fall “into a preoccupation with the exterior (more or less refined) or into a concern only for rubrics (more or less rigid)."

Pope Francis adds: “With this letter I simply want to invite the whole Church to rediscover, to safeguard, and to live the truth and power of the Christian celebration. I want the beauty of the Christian celebration and its necessary consequences for the life of the Church not to be spoiled by a superficial and foreshortened understanding of its value or, worse yet, by its being exploited in service of some ideological vision, no matter what the hue.”