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To: ClearBlueSky
A preference for the Tridentine Mass cannot possibly make one a schismatic. JP the Great ruled that it was "adherence" to the SSPX schism that made one a schismatic. Disobedience and not ritual was at the root of the excommunications and declaration of SSPX as being in schism.

Perservere WITHIN the Church and you take the most reliable road to restoration of the magnificence of Tridentine worship. Also, Latin language is not the real crux of the matter. It is the NO promotion of the "presider" as rock star: "Hi, I'm Fr. Bruce and will be your presider today! Hallelujah!", the priest facing the people as though they were worshipping him, the agonizingly heterodox translations into Enmglish, the lack of a sense of the sacred, etc.

I am in the Rockford diocese where Bishop Thomas Doran has told each and every priest that the priest may say the Tridentine Mass without further permission. The bishop has said the Tridentine Mass and conferred confirmation in the Tridentine Rite. Not only is he not a schismatic but he sits on the seven-judge Signatura, the Church's Supreme Ecclesiastical Court in Rome. Also, Latin Novus Ordo Masses have always been allowed.

338 posted on 05/03/2005 8:58:16 AM PDT by BlackElk (Dean of Discipline of the Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Club)
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To: BlackElk

You are fortunate in your diocese.
Here in the New Orleans area there are no Latin masses in parish churches- at least not to my knowledge. I remember hearing about ONE, but I'm not sure that was ever true.
The general feeling at the parish where our children attend school is that you ARE schismatic if you attend Latin mass instead of the regular mass at parish church.
The tiny church that offers the traditional Latin mass is on the outskirts of the city, not easy to get to but it's filled every Sunday.It is the Society of St Pius- that is the only option here. Why this is so I do not know; but a very old, traditonally Catholic city like New Orleans has a LARGE number of of Catholics who would attend Latin mass if their parish churches offered it-and they would not made to feel like schismatics doing so.

Would the entire parish? Probably not. But neither would an entire parish attend mass in any number of foreign languages. Why do numbers matter? Are five worshippers not worth the priests time? Does it have to be (x) number in the pews before any mass is said at all?
You make an important point with the 'rock start' analogy.
When the priest faces the altar, not the congregation, he is leading his congregation in worship- facing God.
The lack of 'sense of the sacred' and the feeling of mystery and awe is what we lost.
Some say that is good- that God shouldn't be mysterious, that we should not be in awe, but as comfortable as if he were on our couch having coffee. And, certainly , one can worship God anywhere. One place is as good as another. Church should be as familiar as any other place you go.
Those are the arguments for increasingly secularized religion. And they have worked.
Fewer people are in church nowadays. There is no special feeling of stepping out of everyday life and into the presence of God by connecting with an age-old ritual. Without that feeling you might as well stay home and talk to God while you listen to the radio.
Or say your prayers in Latin and recite your rosary. Which many are doing. And so churches are empty.


357 posted on 05/03/2005 9:40:51 AM PDT by ClearBlueSky (Whenever someone says it's not about Islam-it's about Islam. Jesus loves you, Allah wants you dead!)
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