Posted on 12/31/2003 10:15:57 AM PST by tridentine
CHESAPEAKE — Common sense would suggest it’s only an ever-dwindling band of nostalgic, silver-haired Catholics who come to St. Benedict Chapel to hear the Rev. Damian A. Abbaticchio lead services in the dead language of Latin.
Yet Sunday mornings find youthful faces throughout the church. A steady trickle of newcomers in their 20s, 30s and early 40s has boosted St. Benedict’s membership to about 200, leading it to add a second Sunday service and expand its building. The chapel had about 80 members when it was founded in 1992.
Many of the young newcomers were restless Catholics who have found in the Latin Mass something tried and proven.“There’s a sense that the whole has been refined over centuries,” said 36-year-old Ron Weber, a Chesapeake resident who grew up going to English-only Masses. “It gives you the sense that God is always the same.” From the old Mass to the rosary, traditions that fell out of favor among their parents after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s are making a comeback among many young Catholics. “They are a big trend in the church,” said Kathleen Cummings of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, which is based at the University of Notre Dame.
The old practices include personal devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ; novenas, which are prayers said over nine consecutive days; and using prayer beads while reciting the rosary. Many of the practices can be done alone.
For the younger generation, which rarely experienced the traditions while growing up, the old practices can serve as a new way of connecting with the divine. “They enable people to pray in a certain way that helps their faith,” said the Rev. James Martin, who has written about the trend as associate editor of America, a Jesuit magazine.
St. Benedict and St. Joseph, established in Richmond in 1991, are the only two churches in the Catholic Diocese of Richmond that celebrate the Latin Mass regularly; both had to receive permission from then-Bishop Walter F. Sullivan. St. Benedict is a mission church operating under the auspices of St. Gregory the Great Church in Virginia Beach.
More than 100 dioceses across the country have parishes that celebrate the Latin Mass regularly. The rite also is know as the Tridentine Mass, because it was institutionalized by Catholic Church leaders at the Council of Trent in the 16th century.
What impresses Abbaticchio about the old rite is that, apart from the sermon, priests have little opportunity to inject themselves into the service. The Mass is scripted and predictable.
“There’s no personal interpretation at all,’’ he said. “The meaning is definite.” Some of the more obvious differences between a contemporary Mass and a Latin Mass were apparent on a recent morning at St. Benedict, which occupies a narrow, former bungalow in Chesapeake’s Princeton Halls community. “Chastity is a Lifestyle” advised a bumper sticker on one of the members’ cars; rosary beads hung from the rear-view mirror.
Inside the sanctuary, most women and girls covered their heads with lacy mantillas or round, doily-like pieces of satin.
During the service, the 86-year-old Abbaticchio, resplendent in a green and gold chasuble, prayed at times behind a wrought-iron railing that separated the altar from the congregational worship space. Some congregants followed along in red missals giving both the Latin text and an English translation, as well as instructions on when to stand or kneel.
“Dominus vobiscum,” Abbaticchio said, speaking to the crowd: The Lord be with you.
“Et cum spiritu tuo,” responded his flock: And with thy spirit.
In a modern Mass, a priest faces parishioners when he performs the sacrament of holy communion. In the Latin Mass, however, Abbaticchio’s back was toward the congregation, with a tinkling bell marking the moments at which the bread and wine became consecrated.
For older Catholics and many baby boomers at St. Benedict, the old liturgy has almost a nostalgic feel: It is the standard with which they grew up. But for some younger Catholics raised on English-only services, the Latin Mass is oddly fresh in its return to tradition.
Weber said he first learned about the Tridentine Mass while studying religion as a student at The College of William and Mary. After graduating and settling in South Hampton Roads, he visited St. Benedict out of curiosity.
He said he finds in the old Mass a quality of “immutability – the sense that God doesn’t change, and neither does the way you worship.”
Joe and Susan Kalis, who live near Smithfield, said they began learning about the traditional style of worship while giving their children religious instruction during home schooling.
“We were re-taught the faith when we taught our children, and suddenly realized we had missed an awful lot,” said Joe, who, like his wife, is 41. Echoing a comment common among their peers at St. Benedict, the couple said the Tridentine rite properly puts a heavier emphasis on the sacrament of communion.
Most typical was Leanne Smith’s view that the Latin Mass demands more reverence than is usually found at the standard worship service. Smith, 35, said she skipped from one church to another before stumbling upon a Latin service in Northern Virginia five years ago. “It opened my eyes,” she said. “This is what our Lord, the apostles, have passed down.”
Compared to the old rite, some younger members said, the contemporary Mass is too unpredictable and too much like Protestant services.
To some extent, interest by some young Catholics in devotional practices reflects a wider appreciation within Catholicism for time-honored ways. Pope John Paul II declared the period from October 2002 to October 2003 as the Year of the Rosary, and last month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a document describing how traditional practices can fit into Catholic life.
Martin called the document an attempt to map a middle ground for Catholics with strong feelings about traditions like religious devotions.
“On the one hand, you have people, mostly liberals, who say, 'It’s baloney and superstitious,’ and you have other people who say, 'You’re not a real Catholic if you don’t pray the rosary,’ ’’ he said. Martin said the old traditions will continue to find young adherents.
“The most salient part is that for many young Catholics, these devotions and things like the Latin Mass are just sort of exotic, sensual, mysterious, very other, so it sort of fascinates them,” Martin said.
Additionally, he said, younger Catholics are less likely to be biased against traditional practices they haven’t experienced than some older Catholics who remain glad to be rid of ways that they found stifling or outmoded.
Some research indicates young Catholics are more conservative than their parents as well.
But Cummings said the old practices also appeal to some within the younger generation who are struggling to find ways of defining and demonstrating their Catholic identity.
“The Latin Mass would be one way to proclaim one’s self as distinctly Catholic,” she said.
Re. your tagline, my Dad taught me to read before I was enrolled in school, and to love reading when the school made it boring. So I'll thank him, and get both of your points covered in one "thank you". :')
Interesting thing I've noticed about the Diocese of Arlington: of the churches I've either interpreted at or attended, the most wonderful ones are those manned by religious communities, such as Christ the Redeemer (SA - Greyfriars) and St. Joseph's in Herndon (TOR Franciscans).
Tell me about it! The Christmas Eve Mass at my parish was a prime example. Our pastor is gay but I don't hold it against him. He is quite the artist - uses the sanctuary like a stage, with a floor to ceiling blue banner sporting his own interpretation of the Star of Bethlehem. Uplighting highlights a contemporary 3 piece Nativity scene. Green boughs, along with red and white poinsettias are meticulously woven together like. The altar was set with a red drop cloth and two tapestries hanging down the front that color coordinated with his vestments. - YES - he wore red vestments! According to the GIRM, the proper color for Christmas is white. There is one codicil that allows a priest to switch colors on special occasions. He took full advantage.
The 'contemporary music group' performs at this mass. Yes - performs! During the consecration, the pianist and guitarist played 'background' music. I wanted to jump up and tell them to stop! The highlight came after communion when they played an upbeat, kumbaya piece. One little girl began dancing in the pew - the pastor smiled (he may even have glanced in my direction). It was a veritable show stopper. There was a rousing round of applause at the end of their performance. I refrained from joining in, bit my tongue and pleaded with our Lord to forgive the malice I felt in my heart in that moment. /sigh/
You just made my day. Thank-you.
I will also try to attend, since this is the parish I attend on Sundays. I attended my first Traditional Latin Mass there in June, and have been going there ever since. I am a member of the schola that does Gregorian chant on the third Sunday of the month at 9 am. I take the Metro up from the Huntington area south of Alexandria. It will be a low Mass most likely. I like the pastor. His name is Father David Conway. We are both natives of the state of Delaware.
How true this is! More frequently than not recently, the parish I attend (as well as others in the diocese) cross this line all too often. It gets very frustrating for someone relatively "new" to the church who is seeking tradition that has held true and steadfast for centuries.
Hopefully our recently installed new bishop here in Phoenix will bring some of that tradition back to it's faithful followers, who have longed for the way our Lord and Apostles passed down to us.
Fr. Chad Ripperger was at our parish recently and after his conference he was talking about the talks for the universal indult in Rome. I'm paraphrasing here, but he said that one of the Cardinals said that if any priest could say the Traditional Mass anytime and if the Mass was offered frequently, then in 10 years no one would attend the New Mass except the fruits and nuts.
Fine. So put me with the meat and potatoes. That's where I want to be in 10 years.
I have been to Father Conway's Masses. I think he is a very holy and pious priest.
I'm sure that's why folks like it. They feel like it has more to do with GOD, and less to do with the personality of Father Whathisname.
Really? What interesting news. I understood that he was a priest of the diocese of Arlington, and as this thread has confirmed, they are unable to get permission to offer the traditional Mass. I know the Arlington bishop has cracked down even on kneeling at Christendom College. I also heard recently that a priest at Christendom who was saying the Latin Mass privately and inviting select students was discovered and had his faculties revoked. Do you have any more information about Fr. Scalia's status?
I'd like to hear more about this. Fr. Ripperger has impressed me as one of the best minds in the Church today.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.