More Latin to be used at Mass in Vatican clampdown

Sunday Business Post, Ireland ^ | Kieron Wood

[Polycarp]

Sunday, May 25, 2003 :

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More Latin to be used at Mass in Vatican clampdown

By Kieron Wood

The celebration of a Tridentine-rite Mass by a senior Vatican cardinal in Rome yesterday looks set to mark the start of a clampdown on worldwide liturgical abuses and a return to the use of Latin in the Mass.

Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, celebrated Mass in the basilica of St Mary Major using the traditional Latin liturgy, which was the nor m in the wester n Church before the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. He is the first prelate to use the old rite in Rome for more than 30 years.

According to the magazine Inside the Vatican, Rome is also planning to issue a major disciplinary document, ending liturgical experimentation. The document ^ already in draft form ^ is expected to encourage wider use of the Tridentine Mass, possibly on a weekly basis, in every parish.

Fr Paddy Jones, director of theNationalCentrefor Liturgy at Maynooth, said the new document was signalled in the Pope's recent encyclical on the Eucharist.

Jones,who has just returned from a US liturgical conference inWashington, said he expected the Congregation for Divine Worship to publish the document before the end of the year.

The head of the Congregation, Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, told Inside the Vatican: ``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'.''

Also last week, Pope John Paul set up a newVatican commission to restore Latin to its ``proper place'' in the Roman Church. Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, the prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, will head the commission. Grocholewski is said to be more fluent in Latin than in his native Polish.

As long ago as 1988, Pope John Paul addressed the concerns of Catholics by issuing a document insisting that ``respect must be shown for the feelings of all those who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition, by a wide and generous application'' of Vatican directives allowing the use of the old Latin rite.

Despite the Pope's expressed wish, most bishops throughout the world have refused to allow regular use of the old rite.

In Dublin, Cardinal Desmond Connell has allowed only one regular Sunday Mass, at 11am in St Audoen's church near Christchurch Cathedral. Daily Mass is not permitted. Other Irish bishops have flatly refused to allow any celebration of the old rite, despite repeated requests.

The Pope's 1988 statement followed the excommunication of the former head of the Holy Ghost Fathers, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, for illicitly ordaining four bishops without Rome's permission. The bishops were also excommunicated.

Pope John Paul is known to be anxious to reconcile the followers of Lefebvre with the Church before his death. Last year,he approved a settlement with traditionalist Catholic Bishop Fernando Rifan in Brazil.

Last month, the Irish superior of Lefebvre's Society of St Pius X, Fr Louis-Paul Dubroeucq, told The Sunday Business Post: ``Any reconciliation depends on Rome granting liberty for all priests in the world to celebrate the Tridentine Mass if they wish to do so.''

The chairman of the Latin Mass Society of Ireland, 34-year-old civil servant Peadar Laighleis,welcomed the developments in Rome.

``Cardinal Hoyos' Mass and the ending of the ban on traditional rite Masses in Rome's major basilicas are a major step towards the acceptance of traditionalism worldwide,'' he said.

``This is a concrete gesture in the Pope's own diocese, which reinforces what the Holy Father called for in the 1984 indult and in his 1988 letter Ecclesia Dei Adflicta.

``Rome is acknowledging the rapid growth of the traditional movement on every continent. Even here in Ireland, we are expanding, with regular Masses in several dioceses, and more planned. As the rest of the Church reports decline in all the Catholic indicators ^ vocations, church marriages, baptisms and Mass attendance ^ we are experiencing increases.

``In regard to vocations, for example, the traditionalists have a different sort of crisis: there isn't nearly enough space to accommodate more than a small fraction of the applicants.''

[B Knotts]

YESSSSS!!!!!!

[B Knotts]

I should add that what I am happiest about is not the apparent generous application of the Tridentine Mass, but that but about cracking down on liturgical abuses! That is GREAT news!

[LiteKeeper]

I ask this question in all sincerity - do most of the people you worship with understand Latin? Do they understand the words that are being said during the Latin Rite?

[Loyalist]

Pingus ad orcae schismaticae et bumpus ad summum.

[tridentine]

Following the Latin Mass is not particularly difficult. My parents and granparents and great-grand parents had no particular problems, with it, and none were familiar with Latin in the slightest save for Church.
Latin-English missals remain in use at the Latin Mass, and numerous visual cues exist to assist the congregation. My wife and I started attending a local Tridentine rite parish about a year ago. I was reasonably familiar with the process. She, being a bit younger than myself, was not. It took some getting used to for both of us, but really not much at all. The use of Latin in the Mass increases the sense of reverence, of universality, and of timeliness.

[Dajjal]

``Cardinal Hoyos' Mass and the ending of the ban on traditional rite Masses in Rome's major basilicas are a major step towards the acceptance of traditionalism worldwide,'' he said.

I hope it's true, this time.

Of course, what this means is that the Traditional Mass might now be on an equal footing with a WYD Rock 'n Roll Mass -- because it has been done in Rome with Papal approval, a local bishop will have fewer reasons to deny requests.

[Dajjal]

I ask this question in all sincerity - do most of the people you worship with understand Latin? Do they understand the words that are being said during the Latin Rite?

It's not all that difficult! As one wag put it, "Little children have been forced to learn Latin since the Stone Age!"

[k omalley]

I can't speak for the people I worship with but I think that for most of us who worshipped at the Latin Mass pre-VII the words and the translation are engraved in our minds. For those who don't know Latin, one can quickly become familiar with it by using a Missal with side-by-side Latin and English.

[JNB]

I doubt that the final document will require every parish in the world to have at least 1 mass in Latin every Sunday, much less require them to have a Tridentine mass. My guess is the final document to be released this fall will call for greater use of Latin in the liturgy, and give people calling for more Latin greater authority to achieve these goals, it also may suggest more changes in the missal down the road too, possibly to insert more prayers taken out of the mass when the Novus Ordo was introduced. The document will probably reference a large portion of Cdl Ratzingers book on the liturgy that he wrote a few years ago.

[Aloysius]

I ask this question in all sincerity - do most of the people you worship with understand Latin? Do they understand the words that are being said during the Latin Rite?

It takes some effort to learn the Latin. I was, however, never able to understand the new-age, mumbo jumbo spoken at the Novus Ordo.

[Aloysius]

My guess is the final document to be released this fall will call for greater use of Latin in the liturgy, and give people calling for more Latin greater authority to achieve these goals,

...and the bishops will likely ignore it as they did Ecclesia Dei.

[Salvation]

This should make some people happy!

[Salvation]

**cording to the magazine Inse the Vatican, Rome is also planning to issue a major disciplinary document, ending liturgical experimentation.**

This is good. Do you think celebration of the Latin Mass will be mandatory?

[Salvation]

**Following the Latin Mass is not particularly difficult.**

True, but I would still rather attend in English!

[Antoninus]

"In regard to vocations, for example, the traditionalists have a different sort of crisis: there isn't nearly enough space to accommodate more than a small fraction of the applicants."

FYI, on a continuing bone of contention...

[Hermann the Cherusker]

I ask this question in all sincerity - do most of the people you worship with understand Latin?

But of course! It is a thing of beauty that draws you in. Lavabo inter innocentes manus meas: et cicumdabo altare tuum, Domine: Ut audiam vocem laudis, et enarrem universa mirabilia tua. Domine, dilexi decorem domus tuae, et locum habitationis gloriae tuae. Ne perdas cum impiis, Deus, animam meam, et cum viris sanguinum vitam meam: In quorum manibus iniquitates sunt: dextera eorum repleta est muneribus. Ego autem in innocentia mea ingressus sum: redime me, et miserere mei. Pes meus stetit in directo: in ecclesiis benedictam te, Domine.

Do they understand the words that are being said during the Latin Rite?

Yes, yes, yes. Its easy. Come along!

Et introibo ad altare Dei, ad Deum qui laetificat juventutam meum.

[sinkspur]

"In regard to vocations, for example, the traditionalists have a different sort of crisis: there isn't nearly enough space to accommodate more than a small fraction of the applicants."

There is one FSSP seminary in the United States.

If there were only twenty-five Novus Ordo seminaries, the very same thing could be said.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

One eensy weensy little correction is needed in your sentence to make it correct ...

I was, however, never able to understand the new-age, mumbo jumbo spoken at the Novus Ordo Nervous Disorder.

[Antoninus]

There is one FSSP seminary in the United States. If there were only twenty-five Novus Ordo seminaries, the very same thing could be said.

Point taken. However, this article is talking world-wide, not just in the US. And as for the US, let's have the FSSP open another 3 or 4 seminaries and see if they fill up as well. What do you want to bet? The Holy Spirit is at work.