Posted on 03/07/2005 10:01:29 AM PST by Cato1
Yearning for the Latin Mass
by Kevin Starr
Courtesy of the San Francisco "Examiner" (Copyright SF Examiner 1978)
A goodly number of pseudo-reformist movements these days consists of powerful elites telling the majority of people what to do. Elites grab control of an agency, an institution, a political body, then proceed to legislate without regard to majority opinion. Take the matter of the Latin Mass. A recent Gallup poll shows 64 percent of American Catholics prefer the return of the Latin Mass.
Sixty-four percent! That's a solid majority, for sure! Among Catholics with a college education, the figure jumps to 73 per-cent-nearly a two-thirds majority. Roughly 10 percent of the Catholics polled had no opinion. Only 26 percent were opposed. Splitting the difference of the no-opinion group, we come up with the fact that roughly 80 percent of American Catholics prefer the return of the oldstyle, Tridentine Latin Mass. After 15 years, in other words, of guitar music, pseudo-folksongs, banal translations, hand-clapping, the kissing of perfect strangers during the offertory in an orgy of dishonest sentiment, most Catholics yearn for the dignity and mystery of the Latin Mass. We've had circus masses with clowns on the altar, where they played "Send in the Clown" during the offertory. You were supposed to leave Church, I suppose, feeling glowy all over. We've had radical masses where the consecration was ushered in with a folksy protest song by Pete Seeger. We've witnessed with-it priests in psychedelic vestments (most of them on the verge of resigning the priesthood) consecrate loaves of sourdough French bread and Gallo Hearty Burgundy. Also used: Ry-Krisp, Wonder Bread (for that homey feeling), Syrian bread (for that archaeologically exact feeling), and Kasanoff's Jewish Rye (for that feeling of ethnic brotherhood). Of late an English-language liturgy of heroic banality has been forced on us, rivaling the Unitarian worship service for sheer avoidance of Catholicity of sentiment, reference or symbolism.
What is the result of all this tasteless disregard for the necessity of aesthetic transcendence in liturgy? What is the result of telling two-thirds of the Roman Catholics in America that they cannot, must not, worship in the manner of their youth: that the way the Church prayed for more than a thousand years was now forbidden? On Holy Thursday I stood in St. Ignatius Church with a sparse and pitiable crowd and tried as much as possible to attend to a liturgy stripped of its transcendence and grandeur. We were, say, a congregation of no more than 300-mainly older women. Twenty years ago the Church would have been filled to its 1,500 seat capacity. Now on Sunday mornings in the Catholic parishes of San Francisco, you could set up an indoor volleyball game in the center of the Church without bothering the sparse gathering of aged parishioners.
All knowledge of God, St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, is by analogy-with the exception of infused contemplation and certain rare forms of mystical prayer. What St. Thomas means is that God is unknowable in Himself. He is eternal and transcendent. We are finite. We try to bridge the gap between God's awful majesty and our own insecure finitude in a variety of ways-prayer, contemplation, good works, and above all else, through sacramental worship. According to Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and responsible Protestant Episcopalian belief, the celebration of the Eucharist is our most powerful link with the Godhead. It recreates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ and Christ's death on Calvary in a way that is at once profoundly symbolic and profoundly true. In reference, then, to St. Thomas' statement about knowing God through analogy, the Eucharist-called the Mass by Roman Catholics-constitutes our most daring flight towards the Godhead, and Almighty God's most generous intersection with us-through the imminent presence of His Son Jesus Christ in the eucharistic sacrifice. According to Catholic belief, the Mass recreates the grand drama of Calvary. It is not a hootenany. It is not a touchy-feely Esalen session designed to make you feel tingly and sincere all over your body.
It took the Latin Church 500 years to evolve a worship service equal to this awesome, compelling leap to the Godhead through die risen, eucharistic Christ. For a thousand years Catholics prayed this way at Mass. In the 16th century Council of Trent, this 1,000 year-old Mass was standardized, codified, made the norm of the Universal Church. Another 400 more years went by-400 years of dignified, compelling worship. In great cathedrals of Europe, the Latin Mass was celebrated by archbishops and cardinals in splendid robes, accompanied by orchestras and trained choirs; in jungle outposts, it was celebrated by sweat-stained missionaries, accompanied by prayers in a thousand different tongues. But wherever it was celebrated-in cathedrals in ancient abbeys, in frontier parishes, in jungle out-posts, it was the same Latin Mass. Every Catholic over 35 in America grew up to its rich cadences. We followed its intricacies in our missals. We bowed our heads in awful silence as the priest bent over the host and the chalice, intoning the ancient words of consecration.
The day the Latin Mass was outlawed by the elitists, the day 80 percent of the Catholics of America were told they could no longer worship in the manner their ancestors worshipped since time immemorial, I was having dinner in New York with another Catholic-novelist Anthony Burgess. "In 10 years time Catholic churches will be empty," Burgess said. "For when you destroy the Mass, you destroy the faith. We English Catholics know this. We literally went to the stake for the Latin Mass."
Anthony Burgess was right. The elite reformers destroyed the Latin Mass. Now the churches are empty. Now no one believes.
Gotta run, off to work!
How do you figure that this story of yours suggests that apostolic succession was broken? The Romans would have had to have killed every bishop in the world, before any of them could secretly consecrate a successor.
Catholic Parishes Flourish in Southern U.S.
Number of Catholics Rises by 15 Million (Diocesan Priests Increase; Religious Decrease)
Spanish Catholicism still very robust (3 shrines and The Sagrada Familia)
Catholics outsource praying to India
Catholic Priests in India 'Outsourced' to Meet Clergy Shortage in West
Christian Coalition head (in Ala.) becomes Catholic
Church growth continues for Catholic and Pentecostals; six mainline denominations decline
Young people turn against their parents' 'church lite'
Pope calls US Church to repentance and renewal
A father for the 11th time - Widower becomes Catholic priest
Number of Adults Who Don't Attend Church Service Doubles
Huge Christian growth shocks China's leaders
Church Attendance Increased : Protestants have now clearly overtaken Catholics in church attendance
Catholics Trail Protestants in Church Attendance [Gallup]
Church Attendance Linked to Longer Life
Dozens of Episcopalians Follow Leader into Catholic Church
You realize these people were made saints because they won, don't you? The church, as it stands now, sided with these men, and eventually the heresies these saints were railing against were dispelled.
No, there are two more. Do a search for malachy
I believe the Orthodox Church has Constantine as a saint and also has sometimes referred to him as the '13th apostle' - I dunno, you'd have to ask an Orthodox about that.
I said the next pope would be 'next-to-last' according to Malachy. That means there are two left after the current pope.
I was unaware that the list was purported to be eshaustive, though. I think that aspect had been 'read into' the list by commentators, but nowhere does Malachy say (or even suggest) that it's a complete list.
I could be wrong, though. I will look it up.
Yeah, Latin, that'll solve all of our spiritual problems.
What Catholic sites did you find that in? A brief googling of "St. Constantine" yields a few DIFFERENT Constantines from Catholic sites, and many references from Orthodox sites. Catholic sites do not refer to the Roman Emporer as a Saint.
Now, I thought you were citing someone else's work, when I called it shameless. Someone who published his work should have done their homework to know that edits were perverting the text. Since you're not a scholar, I will rescind the comment about "shameless," and simply recommend you do a lot more learning about Catholic church history from a lot better sources before you see fit to edit the writings of a saint, and tell you that those citations do not refer to what you think they refer to at all.
As for other postings I've seen, your conclusion that hyperbole=lie is incorrect. St. Basil is using very strong language to address what is is a very grave problem. And yes! The Catholic Church agreed and stomped out the heresies St. Basil is addressing! What is meant by hyperbole is not a lie: When he says, "the bishops..." he is not meaning every bishop, as one might infer. Therein lies the hyperbole. Rather, he means many bishops, but not all. From the fact that their heresies were eventually suppressed, you can historically deduce that many bishops did not fall for the heresy.
Church attendance collapsed within five years of the institution of the New Mass, dropping from 80%+ to somewhere around 22%. This was before the scandals broke. But the scandals themselves, together with a general loosening of morals, coincided with the Vatican Council.
My mistake -- I thought you said last.
Hearing about more Churches with standing room only at mass is great.We must continue to pray. It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.About 5 years ago we began perpetual adoration.Our Church is open every minute of every day of the year.
When did you recognize the errors of your ways and convert to Catholicism?
**We must continue to pray. It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.About 5 years ago we began perpetual adoration.Our Church is open every minute of every day of the year.**
Agree withall three of your points here. Praying, look at the positive and perpetual adoration.
Your assertion that three out of four Catholics quit attending church is simply false.
80%+ of able-bodied, prime-of-their-life Catholics attended Church, perhaps. Few received Eucharist regularly however. Today, according to surveys, about 40% of all Catholics, including the aged and infirmed, attend mass. The surveys I've seen show the drop-off at stopping about the mid-80's, until the priest scandals. THen the # dropped to 27%, before rebounding back to over 40%.
Personally I suspect this is the greatest reason for the drop-off that did occur: It used to be that the "unworthy" attended mass weekly, and skipped just communion. But so did most everyone else. Then, after Vatican 2 made communion more acceptable (less fasting, more masses scheduled, big push on everyone should receive who can, etc.), those who did not feel worthy felt singled out. The expectation was that if you showed up, you should receive communion, and if you couldn't, then you were an outcast.
Then came Humanae Vita (sp?), and millions of people who had expected that the Church's position against the birth control pill was obsolete, were stunned to find that the church considered them to be in mortal sin.
Exactly my point - the list doesn't purport to be exhaustive. There are two more popes on the list (after JP2). That's not to say there are only two more popes - there could be popes in between the last two Malachy put on the list.
>> But the scandals themselves, together with a general loosening of morals, coincided with the Vatican Council. <<
That is factually false. The scandals were underway by 1963.
LOL, that's a good one.
My daughter is engaged to a Catholic. He was talking about Lent and said "I can't eat meat on Fridays during lent...I don't know if I'll go to hell if I do or what". I asked further and he said "That's the thing about Catholics, you never know if you're going to hell or not".
I'd say that is true and quite a sad testimony.
The idea that the Novus Ordo, concocted by a committee of humanists a few years ago, is an improvement in any way, shape, or form over the ancient Mass guided by the Holy Spirit over the course of over fifteen hundred years, is a myth that needs some demythologizing badly. It's repeated over and over by Novus Ordo churchladies to influence the gullible young who cannot remember when liturgies were focused on God and not on themselves, and who wouldn't know the difference between a sacred liturgy and a particularly boring movie.
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