adhuc + negative clause: inclusive or exclusive of present?

Question

_{Cdl. Cajetan's early 16^th cen. commentary on an article of St. Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica:}

adhuc Romana Ecclesia coram Summo Pontifice non utitur [organum].
_{until now the Roman Church does not use an organ in the presence of the Supreme Pontiff.}

Does this mean an organ is now used in the presence of the pope, when before it was not?

Lewis & Short says adhuc means

hitherto, thus far (designating the limit, inclusive of the whole space traversed

But is the present included when adhuc is followed by a negative clause?

Answer 1

No, it means that an organ is still (including today) not used in the presence of the pope.

One would have to change the tense of utor from utitur (present indicative) to a perfect tense, which shows the action was completed some time in the past: usus est (perfect) or usus erat (pluperfect).

Perhaps a clearer English translation would be:

the Roman Church still does not use an organ in the presence of the Supreme Pontiff.

---

^{what Cdl. Cajetan did not say:}

^{until now the Roman Church did not use [perfect] an organ in the presence of the Supreme Pontiff.}

^or

^{until now the Roman Church had not used [pluperfect] an organ in the presence of the Supreme Pontiff.}