LifeSiteNews has been permanently banned on YouTube. Click HERE to sign up to receive emails when we add to our video library.
July 5, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – On Sunday, July 4, the FIUV — the International Una Voce Federation — took out an advert in the Rome edition of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, to make a statement about the Traditional Latin Mass. It points out:
“The growth of interest in the traditional liturgy is not due to nostalgia for a time we do not remember, or a desire for rigidity: it is rather a matter of opening ourselves to the value of something that for most of us is new, and inspires hope.”
That it is controversial to be attached to the liturgy used by the Church for more than a dozen centuries is the sign of a deep malaise in the Church. Two prominent prelates in the Roman Curia have recently been reported making remarks about the Extraordinary Form (EF) of extraordinary hostility, and these have come after weeks of speculation about a new official document which will in some way roll back the freedom which Pope Benedict XVI gave to the more ancient liturgy in 2007.
Possibly all these stories and rumors are false or taken out of context — the Vatican can seem like a hall of mirrors sometimes — but the mere fact that these stories are circulating is a reminder that the Old Mass has determined enemies in Rome.
Whom does it threaten? Who needs to be worried by an eccentric group of people — still numerically small in relation to the Church as a whole — who for some reason want to attend Mass in Latin, perhaps with Gregorian Chant? Here are a few of the things detractors say.
“Having Mass in Latin will put people off.” But no-one is going to be put off by finding that, say, a fraction of 1% of the Masses in an area are in Latin.
“Having more than one kind of liturgy in a diocese is divisive.” But many dioceses have Masses in multiple languages, plus the liturgy of one or more variety of Eastern Catholics. Then again, there is a huge range of ways in which the Ordinary Form can be celebrated even in one language. In terms of creating groups of Catholics who don’t often go to each other’s Masses, this variety is much more significant than little groups of Latin Mass-goers.
“The Latin Mass gives the priest an unhealthy, exalted status.” Actually, it obliges him to make repeated references to his unworthiness. Facing away from the congregation for most of the Mass, and unable to impose his personality on the liturgy with options or liturgical abuses, the priest is less a celebrity than an anonymous functionary who allows Christ to act in the liturgy through him.
“The Latin Mass has an unhealthy effect on young people, particularly men.” In a 2016 report by the respected, secular, British Social Attitudes Survey, it was apparent that women outnumber men at Mass in the U.K., as they do in the U.S.A. and elsewhere, by about two to one. The number of men aged 18-24 who attend Mass “at least weekly,” however, was zero: there were none in the sample. We need to think long and hard about condemning a form of the liturgy for bringing in young men in a way we don’t like. We should be grateful that there are any coming to Mass at all.
A senior Church prelate is strongly opposing a new Vatican proposal to ban private Masses and restrict traditional rite Masses at the world's premier church, St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Cardinal Raymond Burke said that the new directions, issued by Pope Francis’ Secretariat of State, should be "rescinded" since they are "contrary to" and in "direct violation of" universal Church law.
Therefore, we ask you to SIGN and SHARE this petition, which is directed to Pope Francis and the current and just retired Archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica (Cardinals Mauro Gambetti and Angelo Comastri, respectively), and which asks them to rescind the new directive banning private Masses and restricting traditional rite Masses at St. Peter's.
On March 12th, the Vatican’s Secretariat of State circulated a note with details of new dispositions restricting all “individual” Masses in Saint Peter’s, with special, even more restrictive measures for the traditional rite.
The note, which was unsigned, stated among other things that "individual celebrations are suppressed."
In response, Cardinal Burke said the new rules cause the faithful, and above all, priests, the "deepest concerns."
In particular, he addresses the celebration of private or "individual" Masses at the Basilica, something that the new document appears to target, writing:
The document imposes concelebration upon priests who wish to offer the Holy Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica, which is contrary to universal Church law and which unjustly conditions the primary duty of the individual priest to offer the Holy Mass daily for the salvation of the world (can. 902).
In what church more than in the Basilica of Saint Peter would a priest desire to offer the Holy Mass, which is the most perfect and fullest way in which he carries out his priestly mission? If an individual priest wishes to offer the Holy Mass in the Basilica, once the directives in question are in force, he will be constrained to concelebrate, in violation of his freedom to offer the Holy Mass individually.
Quoting from the Council of Trent, Burke then emphasized the fact that the whole Church benefits spiritually from every Mass that is said, whether with people attending or without, stating:
The holy council would certainly like the faithful present at every Mass to communicate in it not only by spiritual devotion but also by sacramental reception of the Eucharist, so that the fruits of this most holy sacrifice could be theirs more fully.
But, if this does not always happen, the council does not for that reason condemn as private and illicit Masses (can. 8) in which only the priest communicates. Rather, it approves and commends them, for they too should be considered truly communal Masses, partly because the people communicate spiritually in them and partly because they are celebrated by a public minister of the Church, not for his own good alone, but for all the faithful who belong to the body of Christ’ (Session XXII, Chapter 6).
Please SIGN now and support the call to Pope Francis and the current and just retired Archpriest of St. Peter's to rescind the new directives which would severely restrict priests from offering private and traditional rite Holy Masses at St. Peter's Basilica.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Cardinal Burke: Vatican’s ban on private Masses in St. Peter’s Basilica should be ‘rescinded’ - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-burke-vaticans-ban-on-private-masses-in-st-peters-basilica-should-be-rescinded
**Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
These objections only really make sense in the context of a more fundamental one, which is this: “The old Latin Mass is theologically problematic.” It doesn’t matter very much exactly what theological issues might be in mind here, because this claim in itself is explosive, and is in danger of blowing up in the faces of the people making it.
Because what they are saying is that their own understanding of Catholic theology is incompatible with that expressed in the Traditional Mass. Whatever kind of divide this is about, the Extraordinary Form shares its side of the canyon with the Fathers, Doctors, Popes, and Saints who composed its prayers, developed its ceremonies, celebrated it, attended it, and recommended it to others. This was the Mass, indeed, which was celebrated during the Second Vatican Council, as well as all the previous General Councils of the Church in the West, with minor variations. If there is a “rupture” between what some theologian thinks the Catholic faith is about, and what the Traditional Mass is about, that theologian has put himself on the wrong side of the dividing line.
The idea that the EF is theologically wrong in some way is never made in the official documents of the Church. These always present the aim of the liturgical reform not as correcting theological errors, but as trying to produce something which would bear more abundant pastoral fruit. It is because of the importance of the Church’s pastoral work, the proclamation of the Gospel and the sanctification of souls, that today the Latin Mass is being celebrated more widely. In the conditions of today, it has been found, at least for some people, that the EF works.
On the logic of the reform, as long as it continues to work, it must be allowed to keep on working.
