Nearly two decades ago Karl Rahner published an important study on the problem of “many Masses and one sacrifice”. That study, which maintained that the mere multiplication of Masses did not in itself provide an “increase” in God’s glory, provoked a widespread controversial response which has not died down to this day. The issue was not merely theoretical since it directly concerned the relationship of private Masses to concelebrated ones.
Now Father Rahner returns to this question, and in the light of the Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, confirms and amplifies his original thesis. The thesis is further supported by Angelus Haussling’s scholarly history of the problem.