Posted on 05/16/2003 11:55:14 AM PDT by Polycarp
Analysis: No more messy Mass?
By Uwe Siemon-Netto
UPI Religion Editor
From the Life & Mind Desk
Published 5/15/2003 6:02 PM
WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- You don't have to be a Roman Catholic to feel some nostalgia for the days when the holy Mass was a less messed-up affair -- and sung in Latin. Now there are signs of hope that some of the beauty of the Church's ancient liturgy will soon return.
Vatican sources told United Press International Thursday that three congregations of the papal curia are working on a document setting liturgical norms intended to put an end to the frequently ugly abuses that have become rampant since the Second Vatican Council 1962-65.
The paper will be published before the end of the year and include "prescriptions of a juridical nature on this very important subject," as Pope John Paul II stated in his latest encyclical letter, Ecclesia de Eucharistia" (Church of the Eucharist).
In this context, a Vatican insider said it was highly significant that Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, recently celebrated Mass according to the old Tridentine Latin rite in St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome.
"It's not that the Church will return to the Latin liturgy full-time," a Rome-based prelate cautioned, "but we should celebrate it more often." He added that this should contribute to the reconciliation between the Vatican and the followers of the late French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the traditionalist Society of Pius X headquartered in Switzerland.
According to the Rev. John McCloskey, director of the Catholic Information Center in Washington, the desire for such reconciliation was one contributing factor in the Vatican's plans for a return to liturgical stringency.
"Now, as I understand it, nothing will stand in the way of a priest wishing to celebrate the Tridentine Mass anymore," he said. "So at least on this score there will no longer be a reason for disagreement with the Lefebvre people."
The Tridentine Mass, whose luxuriant beauty inspired some of the world's greatest composers, was celebrated in all Roman Catholic Churches from 1565 until 1965, when Vatican II bungled -- in McCloskey's words -- the liturgical reform.
That was the time, too, when altars were turned around so that the priests now stood behind them and faced the congregation while consecrating the Eucharist. Ever since, traditionalists used to jest, priests and congregants worshiped each other, a thoroughly postmodern exercise.
The Rev. Gerald E. Murray, a canon lawyer and pastor of St. Vincent de Paul's Catholic Church in New York City, bemoaned the TV culture that has taken over worship since Vatican II. "It's all about the people. Everything is directed at them; everything is didactic."
Many Protestant liturgical congregations, especially in Europe, did not automatically follow Rome's example but continued the practice of the faithful and the celebrants facing what is called the East Wall, where traditionally the altar stood in most old churches. In Catholicism, too, some priests refused to go along with the 1960s practice -- and were perfectly within their rights, McCloskey explained.
In much of the Western world, the Vatican II liturgical reforms led to a trivialization of divine service. As in many Protestant congregations, "creative pastors" strumming their guitars to folksy tunes often became the norm. This liturgical free-for-all following the abandonment of the Latin Mass "must have driven hundreds of thousands out of our churches," McCloskey reckoned.
John Paul II has long been painfully aware of this -- and the need to place a "final point" under Vatican II, correcting this mistake. This "final point" will presumably consist of two things: first, a general permission for all priests to celebrate the Latin Mass whenever they wish, which especially highly educated urban Catholics desire, according to Murray -- and second, crystal-clear rules for other forms of divine service,
Like all other clerics interviewed for this story, McCloskey sounded enthusiastic about this expected new development in his church: "This is extremely important -- it is extremely good."
Copyright © 2001-2003 United Press International
"Now, as I understand it, nothing will stand in the way of a priest wishing to celebrate the Tridentine Mass anymore," he said. "So at least on this score there will no longer be a reason for disagreement with the Lefebvre people."
This liturgical free-for-all following the abandonment of the Latin Mass "must have driven hundreds of thousands out of our churches," McCloskey reckoned.
...John Paul II has long been painfully aware of this -- and the need to place a "final point" under Vatican II, correcting this mistake. This "final point" will presumably consist of two things: first, a general permission for all priests to celebrate the Latin Mass whenever they wish, which especially highly educated urban Catholics desire, according to Murray -- and second, crystal-clear rules for other forms of divine service,
Like all other clerics interviewed for this story, McCloskey sounded enthusiastic about this expected new development in his church: "This is extremely important -- it is extremely good."
Presumably, stricter norms for the celebration of the NO mass will be instituted(?). I'm hoping the pope points to the EWTN mass and sanctions that as the norm. This may leave a lot of musicians in the lurch.
Don't the bishops have some say in their own dioceses? Can they pose a stumbling block?
They'll certainly try.
I hope the document banning gay priests is published at the same time.
There seems to be a major crossover between liturgical nazis and liturgical queens.
I was switching through channels last week and happened on EWTN's News progam and heard that this might be in the works. I asked our pastor and he said it was not a rumor and was a definate. The only question is how it will be worded. Universal indult means any priest can say the Tridentine without permission from the local Bishop. One interesting thing my pastor said was that our Archbishop is not opposed to the Tridentine but has never given permission for it to be said. He thinks that because the Cardinals would have known this was coming for at least a year, the Cardinal probably decided he didn't need to take the "heat" for deciding to allow the Tridentine to be said and will just wait for the universal indult.
Our parish is in good shape to immediately start using the Tridentine but I doubt many churches would even be able to say the Latin Novus Ordo much less the Tridentine. I am very happy to hear that norms are coming and that there will be a universal indult. It will take a long time to recover the sacred nature of the liturgy in some churches. I am always stunned to see the Eucharist ignored in Catholic Churches and the blatant disregard for Catholic heritage and beauty. Thanks for posting the article.
Just what were we offering before?
when Vatican II bungled -- in McCloskey's words -- the liturgical reform.
I am very surprised to hear him say this. Isn't McCloskey Opus Dei?
The Tridentine Rite is itself a bit of a misnomer, as the Council of Trent and Quo Primum did not create a new rite, but instead codified the established liturgical practice in the West, with the exception of a number of local rites.
McCloskey is very much Opus Dei, which has opposed the return of the Traditional Mass.
Something is strange with this report. Of course, one of the upcoming documents praised in this article is the new G.I.R.M., which, among other things, will command that all congregants in a church stand until every last person has received Communion.
Just what were we offering before [1565]?
Well, it wasn't the "Tridentine" Mass. The Traditional Roman Liturgy was performed with minor local variants throughout Western Europe. The Council of Trent standardized the Missal for all Europe (with a few exceptions, like Milan).
It was intended as a move to fight Protestantism. Personally, I have some doubts about the wisdom of the effort. Trent centralized litugical decisions in a way that had not been done previously. Vatican II could overturn the Traditional Mass only because Trent had given it the centralized power to do so.
There never should have been anything preventing the old Latin Mass to begin with. Future church historians are going to have to look at this whole postconciliar period with inquiring eyes to make sense out of all of the loony modernist extremisms and abuses which were spawned by "liberals" in the church. It's bizarre but when they stopped requiring seminarians to learn Latin during the giddy period a lot of liturgical nonsense resulted because clerical liberals were too lazy to study. The tendency to make the priesthood just another career option opened the doors for much of the nonsense and, sadly, many of the horrors that followed.
I thought there was an exception granted for the U.S. in this instance. Under the GIRM, we're supposed to stand immediately after the priest prepares the gifts and washes his hands, unlike what I was used to before. Under the exception, Americans can kneel during the Eucharistic prayer, and after they receive Communion.
Concerning Fr. McClosky and Opus Dei, this is the first I heard that they opposed the Tridentine Mass' return. I actually left him a copy of this article when I visited the Catholic Information Center about 2 hours ago. I recently moved to Washington, DC, and I wanted to go back there to get the RSV Catholic Edition of the Bible and a new book about Tolkien. So before I left work, I printed a copy for him, and one of the workers there left the copy on his desk, since he was out leading a retreat this weekend.
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