Church documents library

Mediator Dei

On the Sacred Liturgy

Encyclical · Pope Pius XII · November 20, 1947

Pius XII's teaching on the liturgy and the liturgical movement: the Mass as the sacrifice of Christ, the active participation of the faithful, and a warning against both neglect and an "exaggerated and senseless antiquarianism" in reform.

Read the official text

Analyses citing it

One analysis cites this document.

Return to Tradition is right about Pius XII and “antiquarianism”, wrong about Communion in the handIn an episode on the Amoris laetitia meeting, Anthony Stine says the Church condemned interfaith marriages until Vatican II, that Communion in the hand was not the practice of the early Church, and that Pius XII condemned reviving ancient practices for their own sake. The last holds up; the first two do not.Read the analysis