The love of Latin creates controversy in a parish

Scripps Howard News Service ^ | Terry Mattingly

[american colleen]

By TERRY MATTINGLY Scripps Howard News Service 26-NOV-03

Catholics who treasure ancient liturgies smirk and call them "Mass factories."

These churches are visions of horizontal utilitarianism, their flat, plain walls broken by patches of metal and glass while rows of chairs face ultramodern altars. The faithful are more likely to see balloons drift to the rafters than clouds of incense veil images of Jesus, Mary and the saints.

Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Dallas is certainly not a "Mass factory," as both critics and fans of this poor but lively parish in a battered barrio would agree. Its Italian windows have been lovingly restored, Romanesque walls repaired and statuary augmented by treasures abandoned by others.

"Beauty is terribly important, especially for people who have so little beauty in their lives," said Father Paul Weinberger, 44, a beefy, energetic Anglo who arrived 10 years ago after a Spanish-language immersion program.

"People need something that lifts them up, that lets them glimpse something higher. So I want worship here to be extravagant. I want their church to be like a garden in this workaday world. . . I can't guarantee that they'll listen to me, but if their eyes wander around this church they're going to drawn to things that point them toward the mysteries of the faith."

But it was a change in the 1999 midnight Mass that helped create a buzz in Dallas and on the Internet. Weinberger estimates that 70 percent of his flock speaks Spanish and the rest English. The challenge was to find a way for worshippers to gather in the same pews, at the same time, sharing a common language.

The priest's solution raised eyebrows. He embraced the modern Catholic rite _ the Novus Ordo _ but elected to use the Vatican's Latin text, accompanied by preaching in Spanish and English. This rite then filled the 10:45 a.m. slot in the parish's Sunday schedule, mixed in with two Spanish Masses and three in English.

Now Weinberger is being transferred _ against his will _ and supporters believe his love of Latin is one reason for the decision. They fear sweeping changes in this revived parish.

This is nonsense, said Deacon Bronson Havard, spokesperson for Bishop Charles V. Grahmann. It's perfectly normal for a priest to be rotated to another parish after 10 years and the next pastor will make the decision about Latin at Blessed Sacrament.

However, Havard stressed that the Dallas diocese does require priests to seek permission to use Latin rites _ ancient or modern. This is an issue of loyalty. Only a directive from Rome can override the local bishop's authority on matters such as this, he said.

As for Weinberger's conviction that a Latin Mass is a symbol of unity, Havard said: "Using the Latin may mean something to him, but it means nothing to the people in the pews _ especially not to the Mexican immigrants who come into this area. We've had many complaints about that."

This is news to Weinberger. Diocesan policy requires that pastors receive copies of all complaints, he noted, and none have reached his desk.

This whole Dallas dispute sounds sadly familiar, said Helen Hull Hitchcock, editor of Adoremus, a conservative journal about liturgy.

"We hear reports from Catholics across the nation who are accused of doing all kinds of horrible things, like kneeling at places in the Mass where people have been kneeling for centuries," she said. "Then people tell them that if they clash with their bishop . . they're being disloyal to the pope.

It's all very annoying. Some people are mad that these priests and parishes still exist."

This is precisely what worries Weinberger. The days of the Advent season are passing as he prepares for a final midnight Christmas Mass at Blessed Sacrament. Poinsettias, stacked 15 to 20 feet high, will frame the altar.

Pews will be packed for the Latin Mass.

"What father does not want to see his whole family gathered around the same table? That has always been my goal," he said. "I want to see our whole parish there, from the first-generation immigrants who only speak Spanish to the native Dallasites who only speak English. I don't want the language to divide us. I want it to unite us."

(Terry Mattingly (www.tmatt.net) teaches at Palm Beach Atlantic University and is senior fellow for journalism at the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities.

[Catholicguy]

(Terry Mattingly (www.tmatt.net) teaches at Palm Beach Atlantic University

Teachers at PBAU must take a vow they will never take a drink of alcohol, on or off campus, during the calendar year, school in session or not. Students take a similar vow and are required to report to the powers that be any other student who they see drinking any alcohol.

Jesus would have not been acceptable as a Teacher at this Christian University.

[rogator]

"Terry Mattingly (www.tmatt.net) teaches at Palm Beach Atlantic University "

It's too bad that a Catholic news service hasn't reported on this blatant abuse of episcopal power.

[k omalley]

"Mexican immigrants are incapable of understanding simple, repetetive Latin."

I am tired of these AmChurch clergy and liturgists who argue against the use of Latin because we poor simple people in the pew are too mentally challenged to understand it. Little children learned it all the time in the pre-VII church. If you read it side by side with English in the missal it soon becomes second nature. And I thought that the VII documents encouraged the continued use of Latin in the Mass with only certain parts of it in the venacular.

[Cicero]

The solution to this would be a new bishop. Grahmann appears to be a disaster, and this isn't the first time he has been in the news.

The Pope has indeed given an indult to the effect that saying the Mass in Latin is legitimate, and Vatican II did indeed encourage masses in Latin; but it is true that the bishop should give his permission. If he is a good bishop, he won't hesitate in most circumstances. If he's a bad bishop, he'll make trouble.

It's also true that 10 years in one parish is a long time, and priests are usually circulated. But in this case it's obvious that the bishop was acting for other reasons and has managed to get more egg on his face.

[JNB]

And what, may I ask, does where Mr Mattingly teach have anything to do with the article in question?

[B Knotts]

However, Havard stressed that the Dallas diocese does require priests to seek permission to use Latin rites _ ancient or modern. This is an issue of loyalty. Only a directive from Rome can override the local bishop's authority on matters such as this, he said.

Huh?

Permission is needed to celebrate the Novus Ordo in Latin? Since when?

[narses]

Silence often is better than speaking out, at least the way I did and sadly the way you did in post 45. Your admonition of dsc was lacking in apparent charity, and like my post regards Sinkspur, at least ought to have been made privately, not publicly. In my opinion of course.

Forgive my being so forward, but I have always been impressed by your posts and feel some kinship based on our shared faith. God Bless.

[narses]

And of course, I hit reply rather than "private reply" as I thought I did. My error, my apologies.

[dsc]

I dispute the assertion that my comments were mean-spirited.

I think they were mild, accurate, and warranted.

The Church is and has been under attack. Pretending that isn't so is no virtue.

[american colleen]

Hey guys, more information on this particular case. I happened on it on Catholic World News "sound off" and it's written by Fr. Joseph Wilson. I'm going to post it all here. It's mindboggling.

THE CORNFLAKES DISPENSATION
Elsewhere I have written about the lovely Blessed Sacrament Parish in Dallas, TX., an inner-city parish ably shepherded by Fr Paul Weinberger. Journalst Rod Dreher wrote movingly of his first visit to Blessed Sacrament, an account I included in an article on the Liturgy.

By coincidence I just returned from the Dallas/Fort Worth area, where I preach a week-long Mission in Arlington and stayed at Blessed Sacrament for the weekend. As always, it was a thoroughly inspiring visit. I marveled at the full and generous schedule -- daily Masses, rosaries, confessions, spiritual conferences and an ongoing "Center for Virtue and Learning" offering throughout the week a full program of presentations on a variety of aspects of the Faith: scripture, liturgy, spirituality, morality, lives of the saints, Vatican II, etc. And a balanced Mass schedule with convenient Spanish and English-language Masses, anchored by an achingly beautiful, sung Novus Ordo Latin Mass at 10:30AM.

Of course, this must be stamped out. Bishop Grahmann is determined to transfer Father Weinberger. Father's designated successor has been instructed that the Latin Mass must go. The Bishop even criticized Fr Weinberger because there should be, he says, more Baptisms in that church, based on the local births at hospitals.

Now, it could be argued, I think, that Bishop Grahmann hasn't exactly been the greatest advertisement for The Catholic Church: A Great Place To Raise Your Kids.

Moreover -- a thousand baptisms a year aren't enough for a single parish? This single parish is the site of 15% of the baptisms in the 66 parishes of Dallas!!!

Scripps-Howard Religion newswriter Terry Mattingly explores this situation.

One interesting aspect about this is that we have a diocesan spokesman candidly admitting that a Dallas priest would need PERMISSION to celebrate a Latin Liturgy according to the norms of the Missal of Paul VI. The permission of the Bishop is required in that diocese to use the official liturgy of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. The Fathers of Vatican II, postconciliar liturgical implementation documents, periodic exhortations of Paul VI and John Paul II ALL call for the preservation of Latin in the Liturgy, and especially for the fostering of Gregorian Chant.

But in the Dallas Diocese, you need the permission of Bishop Grahmann. One suspects that Dallas clergy must phone the chancery every morning for permission to sprinkle sugar on their corn flakes. The next time you're tempted to rejoice at some Papal or Curial document on the Liturgy, stop and remember that there are bishops like the Bishop of Dallas out there.

And deacons like his spokesman, cynically trashing the reputation of a fine, outstanding and inspiring priest who is the object of the respect and affection of laity throughout the Metroplex and beyond.

[american colleen]

VISITING BLESSED SACRAMENT CHURCH, Dallas TX Interesting; I checked the link to the account Rod Dreher wrote of his visit to Blessed Sacrament Church in Dallas, and where it had worked, it doesn't -- and there's no reason not to post the text here: ________________________

“Just got in a few minutes ago from Dallas, where we were visiting my wife's family. I had to write and tell you some wonderful news from that city, which has been so badly afflicted by Catholic episcopal leadership over the past decade. Fr. Joseph Wilson, our Brooklyn priest friend, recommended that we go to Mass at Blessed Sacrament parish in Oak Cliff, a relatively poor neighborhood in Dallas. The pastor is Fr. Paul Weinberger, an old friend and seminary classmate of Fr. Wilson's. 'You'll love it there,' Fr. Wilson said.

"Fr. Weinberger was basically sent in to close that parish, but he's revitalized it." So, we took the advice. Fr. Wilson has never steered us wrong. His record still stands. Mass was terrific! We went to the 10:45 a.m. mass, which is the Novus Ordo done almost entirely in Latin. The congregation was mixed by ethnicity -- Anglo, Latino and African-American -- and age (there were elderly folks there, middle-aged parishioners, and young families too). The mass began in a church filled with incense and Gregorian chant. Fr. Weinberger was astonishingly reverent (astonishing to those of us accustomed to the hugger-mugger mess that most Novus Ordo priests make of the liturgy), but he wasn't the least bit remote or stiff, and my wife and I didn't feel alien to the liturgy, as we have on the occasion that we've attended the Tridentine Mass.

"His homily was wonderful. He preached about how John Paul II was formed in sanctity by his own father, and by the good example and loving care of holy laymen throughout his early life. His point was that the laity was absolutely key to the making of our sainted pope's character, and that we in the congregation should understand that we too are the Church, and responsible for living and teaching sanctity. He said that in this time of terrible scandal for the Church, we shouldn't look to the bishops and the clergy to lead us out of the mess. If they do, that's great, but we mustn't despair and forget that the Holy Spirit is calling us to do our part to restore holiness and righteousness to the Body of Christ.

"The liturgy of the Eucharist was amazing. The lights went down in the church for the consecration, and Fr. Weinberger confected the Eucharist by candlelight, through a curtain of incense. He held the Host and then the chalice high for a solid minute. We received kneeling at the altar rail. When we returned to our pew, my wife was making her thanksgiving, and started crying. She couldn't stop weeping, and I asked her if she was okay. She said, 'This is what I thought the Church was. This is why I became Catholic.'"After mass, Julie was speaking to one of the parishioners outside the parish about how great the Mass was. She said to the woman, 'Do you realize what you have here?' The woman replied, 'You don't have to tell us! We know how blessed we are.'

"There is so much to be angry and depressed about in the life of the Church these days. In a poor corner of a troubled diocese, there is one priest lighting a tremendously bright candle. People should know. Best, Rod.”

[american colleen]

OF CANONS, RIGHTS, AND OTHER INCONVENIENCES
"...in order that the mutual relations of the Faithful may be regulated according to justice based on charity, with the rights of individuals guaranteed and well defined..." -Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Constitution "Sacrae Disciplinae Leges," promulgating the new Code of Canon Law.

On November 17th, Father Paul Weinberger, Pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church in Dallas, was astonished to receive a letter dated the same day from his Bishop, the Most Rev. Charles Grahmann of Dallas. “You are hereby relieved of your duties as Pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish and given permission to take a six-month sabbatical, effective January 6, 2004.” The letter was signed by the Bishop of Dallas and notarized by the chancellor, Ms Mary Edlund: clearly, it is meant to be a decree.

Father Weinberger's astonishment was due to the fact that he had never resigned his pastorate. In previous conversations with Grahmann and the coadjutor, Bishop Joseph Galante, it had been made clear to Father Weinberger that he was not part of their future plans for the parish, yet those conversations, held a year ago, had never been followed up with a letter stating what had been agreed upon. Nor, when Father Paul initiated a correspondence which resulted in a meeting last June, was that conversation followed with a letter.

Father Paul's expectation has been that he would, as Pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church, be granted a sabbatical and an Administrator appointed in his stead; upon his return, he would either reassume his duties at Blessed Sacrament or receive another Pastorate. This is the usual procedure. Bishop Grahmann's expectation, on the other hand, seems to be that he would relieve Father Weinberger of his Pastorate and send him off to sabbatical and an uncertain future. This is manifestly unjust.

One way or the other, a Pastor is not removed by such a decree. Pastors have certain rights, and the procedure for removal, for cause stated in writing, is outlined in Canon Law. Moreover, the custom in Dallas is that Pastors are appointed for a six year term renewable once, so a Pastor can expect twelve years in a place. Fr Weinberger has been at Blessed Sacrament for just ten.

Bishop Grahmann pointed out that there was no term stated in Father Weinberger's letter of appointment. This is true -- it was expected that Blessed Sacrament would be closed within a year or so, although after Father Weinberger got to work, the place started flourishing. A canonist Fr Weinberger consulted said that the absence of a set term should make for a more, not less, stable assignment.

There are, at any rate, a couple of Priests in that Diocese who have been in their current Pastorates twenty years or longer. Interestingly, in no way is the standard to which Father Weinberger and Blessed Sacrament are being held the normal one.

Last Sunday morning, after the eight o'clock a.m. Mass, I was standing utside greeting the congregation when a young Mom came up to me and giggled slightly. "I have to say, you really disappointed my little ones today when they saw that Father Paul wasn't on the altar" (actually, she did NOT have to say that, did she? But that's why God made Purgatory). I met a family who drive up to Blessed Sacrament from Houston, and another family who drive there each Sunday from near the Oklahoma border.

And throughout the morning, sitting at my computer terminal, my desk next to the window overlooking the plaza bordered by the front of the rectory and the church, I watched this easy, relaxed scene as people came out of Mass, mingled easily and happily. It was evident to me that the Latino and Anglo communities here got along well. It was also the case that the Latin Novus Ordo Mass had a fine age and ethnic mix. If I were a Dad, I'd be so glad to be able to bring my family to Blessed Sacrament on Sunday morning, and to have my children experience this as their worship.

CHRIST is in that place. Every time I visit there, I'm struck by how quietly joyful it is, both in the rectory and in those gatherings on the plaza. I'm edified, in the best sense, to see how carefully and effectively Father Paul has formed Francisco and the other young men on whom he relies as sacristan, what gentlemen they are, how respectfully they deal with parishioners, how revent they are with the liturgy and how thoroughly they know it, how well they deal with the younger altar boys. On Christ the King Sunday they had a Eucharistic Procession, and to see the joyful everence would move anyone to tears.

[american colleen]

Hey Happy Thanksgiving to you guys!

You guys are prolly all sprawled on the sofa with your stomachs full and aching (thank you God for enough food, family and friends!) and here I am at work (thank you God for the abundant employment opportunities!) bored but making time plus one half until midnight.

[american colleen]

That part really got me, too. I think because we can really identify with it.

~some~ bishops really just don't have a clue. I'm sure they would think that people shouldn't be hung up on the priest himself, but I don't believe that is what these parishioners are there for. Instinctively, we know reverence and beauty in the liturgy when we experience it, no matter what priest is there. In other words, we don't need no stinkeen liturgists to tell us what is good!

[american colleen]

Can't find an e-mail address for the bishop but here is the telephone, fax and snail mail address:

Catholic Diocese of Dallas Post Office Box 190507
3725 Blackburn
Dallas, TX 75219
214-528-2240
Fax 214-5261743