Posted on 05/07/2002 6:24:44 AM PDT by NYer
For worshipers, St. Peter's recalls the past
Troy -- Church is the only one in Albany diocese authorized to celebrate Latin Mass
By
Staff writer
First published: Sunday, May 5, 2002
At the St. Peter's Church noon Mass each Sunday, the priest still chants Latin prayers and the women still cover their heads. To sit among the faithful is to step back to a time when few Catholics questioned the authority of their church.
As the scandal of sex crimes involving priests engulfs the Roman Catholic Church, posing one of the greatest challenges to church authority in years, the 100 worshipers who come here regularly quietly revel in a church of the past.
"We reject completely women priests, married priests, all these things they are talking about today,'' said Ed Foley, 81, of Cohoes. He describes the current crisis as "an exploitation by dissident Catholics.''
The church is one of an estimated 500 nationally, and the only one in the Albany diocese, authorized to celebrate the old Latin Mass. The weekly offerings of its largely middle-class congregation allows the parish to survive while many others in the inner city are struggling.
The place Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard has set aside for the worshipers to listen to Gregorian chants and gather afterward for lunch is in an aging Troy neighborhood near the Hudson River. Hubbard tapped the pastor of St. Peter's, the Rev. James McNerney, to be chief celebrant and diocese liaison for the congregation, which formed three years ago.
The 1849 church also was chosen because it retains the soaring altar and altar rail that are essential for the Tridentine Mass. In the old rite, the priest must turn from the congregation and toward the altar to consecrate the Eucharist, the wafer that Catholics believe becomes the body of Christ.
When High Mass is sung the first Sunday of each month, more than 300 people attend. Many come primarily to hear the New York Catholic Chorale sing chants that once echoed through medieval monasteries. On the other Sundays, about 100 show up, some with children who never heard Latin prayers and professions of faith until their parents brought them to St. Peter's.
There is diversity among the core members -- including, for example, both staunch anti-abortion advocates and "countercultural'' Catholics, McNerney said. But other issues bring them together. "There are certain things they don't like about our culture -- schools being one,'' he noted.
One staunch advocate of home schooling, James Gainer, drives an hour from Lenox, Mass. "The traditional Mass establishes the order of things,'' said Gainer, 43, a business consultant.
For James Tagge, the old Mass "was where everyone found absolute truth and didn't apologize. Since Vatican II, there has been a relaxation of principles and standards, which have led to the scandalous problems we have now,'' said the 48-year-old engineer, who also lives in Lenox.
As part of the revolutionary changes launched by Pope John XXIII, the second Vatican Council decreed in the latter half of the 1960s that priests worldwide would now offer Mass in the spoken languages of their congregations. The strict formality and some prayers of the Tridentine Mass, which date from the Council of Trent in 1545, were gradually replaced by more fluid forms that permitted priests and laity to choose music and some invocations.
Hubbard, generally regarded as part of a theologically and politically liberal wing of the Catholic Church, was an advocate of those changes.
"The Tridentine Mass is frozen,'' the bishop said. "The new liturgy offers more options, and the laity are involved in selecting those options.''
But newer forms displeased some believers.
Retired FBI agent Mike Codner said some of the changes that began in the 1970s, including allowing women to serve at the altar, make him uncomfortable. He and his wife, Karen, searched the Internet for a church near their West Sand Lake home where they could share the Latin rituals with their daughter, Becky.
"We don't have a lot of intercongregational things going on. You are not worrying about when it is time to shake hands,'' Codner said.
But for liberal Catholics, rituals such as allowing the laity to read the Scriptures during Mass signify that the church is moving from the rigidity and unquestioning devotion clergymen demanded for centuries. Many agree with Harvard University Professor Mary Jo Bane, who said most Catholics prefer the new rite because it emphasizes that the laity and the clergy are called to holiness.
"The kind of liturgy that invites the participation of everyone is an important statement about being Catholic,'' said Bane, who was New York state commissioner of social services under Gov. Mario M. Cuomo.
The Vatican virtually banned the Tridentine Mass for almost 20 years. Catholics who wanted to hear it had to attend underground services in such places as Holiday Inn ballrooms. Some established their own independent chapels without the permission of the Vatican, like the splinter group that founded St. Michael's Chapel in Glenmont in 1970.
In 1988, Pope John Paul II, in an effort to reach out to traditionalists, allowed the Latin Mass, but left it up to individual bishops to authorize. Hubbard was petitioned in 1999 by a group from St. Michael's.
In the more than 30 years since Vatican II, the number of American parishes offering the Latin Mass has risen dramatically. Organizations such as the Society of Saint John in Shohola, Pa., have sprung up to publicize the Latin rite and train celebrants.
Some theologically conservative bishops won't allow the Latin Mass because they are uncomfortable with demands from the laity or deviations from prescribed rituals and authority.
The number of followers remains small. "It's a minor blip on the radar screen of Catholicism,'' said Lawrence Cunningham, professor of theology at Notre Dame University.
But McNerney, who celebrates the English Mass at 10:30 a.m. for parish members, then turns to the Latin Mass at noon for the traditionalist congregation, says he is uncertain whether support for the old rite is a blip or a wave of the future. At a tumultuous time when some Catholics cling to old forms for guidance and comfort, he said, they may turn to the centuries-old rite.
"It is giving people options,'' McNerney said. "People do know what they need spiritually.''
This fact disqualifies her from even commenting, imho. V's wife.
The High (with Gregorian Chant) Mass is the third Sunday of the month. I don't go often, because I want to support the parish in my community, but when I do go, it is a wonderful experience and I get to use my grandmothter's St. Joseph Missal to follow along with the Latin and the English. I felt it was important to show my children the history/continuity of the Catholic Church and the reverance for the Mass that has been marginalized in our parish. Also nice to brush up on your latin!
I'm probably a rotten person, but I don't like shaking hands and of course, there is no shaking hands during the Latin Mass, but plenty of time for friendliness downstairs in the parish hall after the Mass.
From the moment I walked into the church, I felt as though I had just stepped out of a time machine, calendar set to 1962. It was truly a strange feeling. This is the mass I attended all throughout my youth . I must confess however, that I have grown to love many aspects of the Novus Ordo mass, especially the consecration. There is an older church in downtown Albany which blends the best of both masses.
I had to wear a veil on my head! My daughter did as well, she doesn't like it, but I always tell her there is very little chance we'll bump into someone that knows her at the Latin Mass... I don't know anyone who goes.
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