VATICAN: Return of the Latin Mass? "celebrate Latin Mass on a weekly basis in every parish in world"

Inside the Vatican News ^ | May 13, 2003 | Robert Moynihan

[Polycarp]

The Return of the Latin Mass?

Exclusive: The Vatican is preparing to call, in the clearest way since the Second Vatican Council, for an end to liturgical abuses -- and for far wider use of the old Latin Mass

“The do-it-yourself Mass is ended. Go in peace.”

By Robert Moynihan

VATICAN CITY, May 13, 2003 – Forty years after the Second Vatican Council, after four decades of liturgical "experimentation" which has troubled many of the faithful, Rome is about to issue a major disciplinary document, ending years of a generally "laissez faire" attitude toward liturgical experimentation and “do-it-youself” Masses.

The document is now in draft form and is expected to be published between October and Christmas this year.

In a bombshell passage, the document will also encourage far wider use of the “old Mass”, the Tridentine rite Mass, in Latin, throughout the Roman Catholic Church.

The new, stricter guidelines for celebrating the liturgy, and the mandate to celebrate the old Latin Mass more widely, even on a weekly basis, in every parish in the world, will be contained in a document to be published by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, headed by Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze.

“We expect the document to be published before Christmas,” Arinze told "Inside the Vatican" in an exclusive interview. “We want to respond to the spiritual hunger and sorrow so many of the faithful have expressed to us because of liturgical celebrations that seemed irreverent and unworthy of true adoration of God. You might sum up our document with words that echo the final words of the Mass: ‘The do-it-yourself Mass is ended. Go in peace.’”

We will be reporting in more detail on this historic document in future issues of "Inside the Vatican."

[ultima ratio]

The Church can turn on a dime when it wants to.

[narses]

You posit necessity, I refute it. You then claim 2.5 seconds is "irreverent", it isn't. It is actually quite reverent. Your argument fails Deacon Bitter. Again.

[narses]

Oh yeah, Deacon, with your help you could extend that reverent 2.5 seconds, couldn't you?

[JNB]

What I would find ironic is if the Vatican ends the Indult and makes the normative mass based on the 65 missal. Just about all the prayers taken away from the mass with the Novus Ordo would be restored, there is a option to say the prayers at the foot of the altar at the beginning of mass, yet it can be said entirely in the vernacular, and the rubrics can and were set up very similar to the Novus Ordo of today.

[sinkspur]

You then claim 2.5 seconds is "irreverent", it isn't. It is actually quite reverent.

Well, to each his own. I'd say it takes a good 10-15 seconds with each communicant in my parish.

Is your "chapel" SSPX?

[sinkspur]

The Church can turn on a dime when it wants to.

Usually only when it involves a dime, or a dollar, or a lawsuit.

[narses]

What difference would that make Deacon Grand Inquisitor? You work for an SSPX adherent, yes?

[narses]

Three to four MAN (or women) HOURS per thousand? Y'all need to practice a bit more.

[sinkspur]

What difference would that make Deacon Grand Inquisitor? You work for an SSPX adherent, yes?

No. But you've answered my question by not answering it.

[sinkspur]

Three to four MAN (or women) HOURS per thousand?

We've got six Extraordinary Ministers at every Mass.

[narses]

Oh no, not another mindreading inquisitor! No Deacon, no, don't try reading my mind.

Jumping to conclusions, judging other's piety and defending Modernism and Americanism seem to be your strong suits Deacon, what next, stoning sinners?

[sinkspur]

Jumping to conclusions, judging other's piety and defending Modernism and Americanism seem to be your strong suits Deacon, what next, stoning sinners?

Actually, it's laughing at hysterics, as I'm doing right now.

[TotusTuus]

Christos Voskrese!

Thanks be to God.

Deo Gratias! ;-)

[fatima]

Resign.

[ultima ratio]

Or traditionalists. It fired the Superior General of the FSSP as well as several of its theologians--responding to a handful of disgruntled members within weeks. It knows how to make heads roll when it wants to, and fast. It doesn't want to. It took a gay scandal to dislodge Weakland--and even then the Vatican only accepted his resignation when the media got into the act.

[dsc]

"Your attempt at being ridiculous is no more ridiculous than doddering seniors attempting to kneel to receive the Eucharist where there is no altar rail."

If I have to, I'll crawl.

[dsc]

"In parishes where there is a strong wish on the part of some Catholics to receive kneeling, then, by all means, stick a pre-dieu at one of the stations served by a Eucharistic Minister."

The raw malice in that statement is repellent.

[TotusTuus]

Christos Voskrese!

There's nothing easier to sing than chant. Trust me on this.

In the Byzantine Rite, chanting is the only game in town. The whole Divine Liturgy is chanted (no musical instruments), including the readings, except for the homily and a pre-Communion prayer. EVERYBODY chants, you have to. Men, women, (doddering seniors ;-)Even the children as young as 3 and 4 years old chant the Liturgy (at the top of their lungs, no less)! And since the Liturgy was written at the time, and to counter, the great Trinitarian and Christological heresies (Arianism and Nestorinism) in Church history, these kids are chanting on a weekly basis the central truths of our Faith! No minor detail, that.

I suppose it's the "Eastern form" of Gregorian chant. Anybody could pick it up by their second Divine Liturgy. Even people who can't carry a tune! That's part of the genius of chant. That, and it reverently, in a mystical way, lifts the mind and heart to God with voice in a way that is not understood as being "performed".

I don't understand why people think chanting is so hard...

[dsc]

"Mozart's Coronation Mass...the Ave Verum Corpus"

Thanks for the list. Got any more?

[welfareworker]

Nice thought by the Vatican, but the Latin traditional rite can't just be re-introduced by fiat. Its been some 35 years you know.

Not enough priests know enough Latin to even begin to say Mass in the language. And that doesn't even begin to consider the huge number of rubrics or rules on how to say Mass in the traditional rite that priests would have to learn.

In other words, I'll believe it when I see it, a huge amount of learning will have to come down before this can be enacted.