Devotion to tradition

Visitors to the noon Sunday Mass at Holy Trinity Church in Boston's South End might be forgiven for thinking time travel is possible. Women and girls wear mantillas -- a lightweight lace -- to cover their heads. Only men are allowed in the sanctuary, the area hard by the altar. The priest faces east, just as the worshipers do, so for much of the service only his back is visible as he quietly mouths ancient prayers in Latin.

When the time comes for the homily, the priest climbs the steps into a pulpit -- rarely seen in Catholic churches today -- and at Communion, men and women, boys and girls kneel before another architectural relic, an altar rail, their mouths agape as they take care not to touch the transubstantiated wafer with anything but their tongues. Much of the service is sung in Gregorian chant.

This is the only approved Latin Mass in the Archdiocese of Boston -- a concession to traditionalist Catholics who, for reasons of nostalgia, theology, politics, or personal preference, balk at the so-called new Mass celebrated in vernacular languages in parishes around the globe since 1969.

But now, this congregation, one of the smallest and least-known in the archdiocese, is bracing for Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley's scheduled announcement Tuesday of which of the archdiocese's 357 parishes will close. O'Malley is expected to close scores of churches, a response to a shortage of priests, worshipers, and dollars, and Holy Trinity is among the 144 recommended for possible closure.

"We are very fearful, because we just feel we're going to be left out -- it's going to be bye-bye to us, and we don't want to go back to the catacombs," said Dorothy Fresolo, 66, who for years worshiped in an unsanctioned chapel with an "independent priest" in West Roxbury, rather than go to her home parish, St. John the Evangelist in Cambridge, which celebrates Mass in English. "I took the new Mass as long as I could, but it just lacked so much for me, it wasn't worship."

....two architectural elements of Holy Trinity play a liturgical role for the Latin Mass worshipers and will be difficult to find in the many churches around the archdiocese that have been updated over the last several decades. Holy Trinity still has an ornate high altar, and the church's free-standing table altar, used at the English Mass, is on wheels so it can be removed for the Latin Mass. And then there is the altar rail, a railing separating the sanctuary from the body of the church, which is preferred by traditionalists but avoided in modern churches.

The Latin Mass worshipers in Boston have struggled to win legitimacy -- first to get permission to hold a sanctioned Mass, then, in 1998, to get permission to hold baptisms, weddings, and funerals using the old rite. The community, which boasts multiple large, young families, holds its own religious education classes and, since last year, First Communion celebrations, but still is not allowed to hold Confirmation rites. The community also has three choirs, one of which, the Preces Cantatae, made several CDs as a fund-raiser.

...In February, Una Voce Boston, the local chapter of an international organization promoting the traditional Mass, suggested that O'Malley turn over administration of Holy Trinity to a religious order, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, which trains priests in the Latin Mass, so the archdiocese wouldn't have to contribute priests or funds to the parish. O'Malley refused, saying he wanted archdiocesan priests to serve the Latin Mass community.

...Most American bishops now permit one Latin Mass in their dioceses, often said by older priests who were trained before Vatican II. "The Latin Mass appeals not simply to older people, but also to a lot of younger people who have nostalgia for something they never knew," Baldovin said. "You get people going there who are not happy with the contemporary church."

At Holy Trinity, the Massgoers cite the style of worship as their reason for attendance.

"I grew up with the acoustic guitars and that whole thing, and it just made it more difficult to take seriously what it is that Catholics believe happens at Mass -- that bread and wine truly is transformed into the body and blood of Christ," said Francis X. Altiere, 22, a Harvard University history student from Kimberton, Pa. "In the traditional Mass, this is made much more obvious. It's a more perfect expression of the Catholic faith."

Notice how many of the traditional churches are ear-marked for closure - and how the new ones being built are modernist monstrosities e.g. the Taj Mahony. Of course, even "restoration" is a feared term too - since you can be almost certain the central tabernacle, high altar, large crucifix, communion-rails, and saints statues will only be "restored" to the garbage-heap. Notice also how many dioceses which allegedly support the traditional Latin Mass - permit no more than one Mass a week. Isn't this a Jansenist mentality? The "priest shortage" excuse the bishops usually employ is spurious since most traditionalist seminaries are full to overflowing - if only their priests would be invited to serve more of our dioceses.

In February, Una Voce Boston, the local chapter of an international organization promoting the traditional Mass, suggested that O'Malley turn over administration of Holy Trinity to a religious order, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, which trains priests in the Latin Mass, so the archdiocese wouldn't have to contribute priests or funds to the parish. O'Malley refused, saying he wanted archdiocesan priests to serve the Latin Mass community.

This same thing was said to my face by my bishop, and exposes the mendacity of these vermin. Out of one side of their mouth, they claim to have their hands tied due to a priest shortage; out of the other, they refuse to bring in priests to support even one single parish.

"We are very fearful, because we just feel we're going to be left out -- it's going to be bye-bye to us, and we don't want to go back to the catacombs," said Dorothy Fresolo, 66, who for years worshiped in an unsanctioned chapel with an "independent priest" in West Roxbury, rather than go to her home parish, St. John the Evangelist in Cambridge, which celebrates Mass in English. "I took the new Mass as long as I could, but it just lacked so much for me, it wasn't worship."

I'm curious as to whether she thinks the early church is Jerusalem and Judea, who worshiped in Hebrew was real worship, or the churches in Antioch, Syria and Ephesus, Corinth, Collosae, etc, who worhipped in Greek, was real worship?

Exactly!! And they have to hurry the closures through, lest the conservative priests offer assistance. I had hoped O'Malley would be different. It's so sad. The scandal wasn't bad enough, but now, how convenient (sarcasm), close down churches under the guise of moving ahead, but just make sure they are the traditional churches, thus completing the sanitizing of our Catholic churches of anything remotely Catholic. And by continuing the modernists' new 'traditions' among the young, serves the double duty of making these traditional churches and priests seem obsolete and foreign, at some point in the future.

A very antagonistic priest at our church (left the priesthood) promised us that this would happen, it was his mission and others like him. He left a wide berth of destruction before he left. And now 10 years later, the 'fruits' of his destruction and other like him are apparent in the decoration of our church, the worship, the attitude and even beliefs of the people, many willingly give up years of previous faith and beliefs just because this new way is easier and feels good. (rant over)

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