History of The Center For Liturgy
In 1981 Fr. Timothy Healy, S.J., then president of Georgetown University, and Fr. Al Panuska, S.J., the Provincial of the Maryland Province, recognized the critical need for specialized centers to assist the American Catholic Church with the implementation of the liturgical reforms initiated by the Second Vatican Council. This prompted Fathers Healy and Panuska to establish The Georgetown Center for Liturgy, Spirituality and the Arts (now known as The Georgetown Center for Liturgy), a unique joint project of Georgetown University and its neighbor, Holy Trinity Catholic Church. Being rooted in both a university and a parish assured that the Center’s work would be supported by the strength of the university’s resources and educational expertise and informed by the actual pastoral experiences of a parish.
Fr. Lawrence J. Madden, S.J., who held a doctorate in liturgical studies from the University of Trier, Germany, was selected to head up this new project. Father Madden had been Director of Campus Ministry and a member of the Theology Faculty at Georgetown University for the preceding ten years. Upon becoming Director of the new Center for Liturgy, Father Madden also became an associate pastor of Holy Trinity parish; later he served as pastor. His participation in the life of the parish helped to shape the overall mission of the Center as one concerned not only with the theoretical dimension of liturgy but also with congregational praxis.
Under Madden’s direction, the Center for Liturgy became a nationally known and widely respected education, research, and consultation center whose primary focus is to ensure the quality of Roman Catholic worship in the United States. Worship is the heart of parish life, “the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit.” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 14.) Since the Second Vatican Council, remarkable strides have been made in the renewal of Catholic liturgy, including the use of the language of the people in the liturgy, the involvement of the laity, the greater role of Scripture in Catholic worship, and the composition of new music to enhance the celebration of the reformed rites.
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