Pope Benedict has appointed Sri Lankan archbishop Malcolm Ranjith to be Secretary of the Congregation of Divine Worship.
After serving as a priest and bishop in his native country, Abp. Ranjith became an official of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Since 2004, he has been nuncio in Indonesia, where he served during the tsunami disaster.
To get a sample of his thinking in general — though this doesn’t give us any indications about his views on the sacred liturgy — here’s a paper he presented to an evangelization conference about “How to Evangelize in Asia”. The Church, he indicates, should make it possible for Asians to discover Christ as Savior in personal experience, and show a connection between Revelation and the rooted religious traditions of the Church in Asia.
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I don’t know a thing about him, but I’m encouraged by his efforts at the Synod for Asia to emphasize the centrality of Christ in salvation. It puts him in opposition to those from the Indian subcontinent who would want to employ the “different paths to the same God” route.
Also, while we in theWest are primarily concerned about the abuses we face in the liturgy, having a voice from a different culture, might put some things in a different perspective.
Thirdly, if I’m not mistaken, Sri Lanka is included as an associate member of ICEL. His view of the translations, coming from a polyglot perspective but nonetheless familiar with the English, might bode well for a more authentic translation. He’d be more attuned to the fidelity of the translation to the Latin normative text than to North American idiom.
Here’s wishing him well in his new post!
see also the commentary at the Shrine of the Holy Whapping, in particular, Belloc’s posting and translation of the article from Il Giornale, wherein it appears that Patabendige Don is strong on cleaning up liturgical abuses.