A Defense of the Novus Ordo
All Souls Mass, November 2, 2021
Mary Our Queen Catholic Church
This past Tuesday night, Will and I attended the All Souls Mass at our parish, Mary Our Queen in Peachtree Corners. It was the first time I’ve attended a Solemn Mass in the Novus Ordo Missae form, including several prayers that were chanted in Latin, and it was absolutely beautiful. In fact, it was so ornate that I remembered thinking that I was glad we didn’t do these very often because that would make the beautiful into the familiar, and that’s not exactly a sentiment that you want to allow when it comes to attending Mass.
There’s a lot of talk about the Novus Ordo, also known as the Mass of Paul VI, comparing it with the older Tridentine Mass; unfortunately, a lot of the opinions tend to be negative. This has increased following the publication of a recent motu propio (official letter from the Pope) called Traditionis Custodes; in it, Pope Francis imposed new restrictions on the celebration of the Tridentine Mass. The online howl was heard worldwide, but interestingly enough, the majority of objections came from Western countries.
Living in a Western country myself means I often get asked why I attend the Novus Ordo, particularly given that there are two Tridentine Mass parishes in the Atlanta area, both of which are relatively convenient for me. St. Francis de Sales, which is in full communion with the Pope, is in Mableton; St. Michael, which is irregular but not fully schismatic, is in Roswell.
After all, I don’t live in Mary Our Queen’s geographical parish and I occasionally attend Ordinariate Form Masses at St. Aelred, which is also in full communion with the Pope. As long as I’m going outside of my parish to go to Mass, why not go to a real Mass? Especially since both St. Frances de Sales and St. Michael are closer than St. Aelred?
My answer is simple: while Will and I might check out St. Francis de Sales at some time in the future just to assuage our curiosity, the Novus Ordo is a real Mass; in fact, it’s a Latin Mass! Further, it’s (mostly) the Mass I grew up attending - in was the only Mass available in the geographic area where I lived at the time - and, besides, it’s the normative Mass for the Rite into which both of us were baptized. As a Latin-Rite, diocesan-based Catholic, I should attend the Novus Ordo as my regular practice.
This answer doesn’t always satisfy people, and either results in an attempt to draw me into an argument so that the challenger can “prove” that the Novus Ordo is wrong, or in the challenger concluding that I don’t have any appreciation for beauty or tradition. Some have even accused me of being a Protestant in disguise. Others assume that I do it as a matter of unthinking default.
I don’t deny that some of my personal spiritual influences have been Protestant, but I very definitely am not. What I am, though, is a Catholic who doesn’t need for my particular spirituality to be unique and who is adequately fed by the standard offerings. As Mark Shea once put it, I’m okay being one of the everyday folks in the pews. It doesn’t make me irreverent or less Catholic; it just means I have a less eclectic or exclusive style.
These days, I usually avoid the online arguments about the Novus Ordo because, quite honestly, I no longer have the time or interest to get into them. I’m busy working on other aspects of my life and spirituality. That, however, does not mean I haven’t thought through the issue. I have spent a good bit of time doing so, and these were the reasons I ultimately realized it was where I needed to stay.
To start, I should point out that Mary Our Queen was my geographical parish from 2011 through 2019; my most recent move only placed me a couple of miles outside of its boundary. Since our family was already established there, it made sense to stay. Further, due to the demographics around it, most activities at my geographical parish minister to the immigrant and non-English-speaking populations. Make no mistake; that is a good thing. The Church needs such ministries. But I don’t. I’m better suited to the ministries offered at Mary Our Queen. They are aware that we live outside the parish boundaries; we’re not the only ones.
For the argument about reverence, my answer is that all Masses are as reverent as you make them. Detractors of the Novus Ordo often point to examples such as the “clown Mass,” Masses involving Gospel or guitar music, and so forth. I can’t address the clown Mass as I wasn’t there. As far as the musical differences, many of the Gospel and guitar Masses I have attended have used the same hymns as the traditional Masses. Only the musical settings themselves were different - and musical setting is primarily a matter of personal taste.
A related argument is that the Novus Ordo lends itself to liturgical abuses. I have yet to see any actual proof of this argument; liturgical abuse is liturgical abuse, and it’s possible to go off-script when saying any Mass. The priest is not a robot and can make mistakes. Further, sometimes it’s even necessary to get a little off the rubrics; an example is when priests stop and briefly explain the communion guidelines (including, for pastoral reasons, a brief explanation of the Church’s beliefs) when they’re officiating a funeral that has many non-Catholic attendees. I’m sure that practice didn’t just start in the 1960s; even if it did, that doesn’t make it invalid.
One argument that often makes me laugh is when the speaker insists that Mass in Latin means that it’s a universal Mass which everyone can understand. First, Vulgar Latin (which was the origin of Ecclesiastical Latin) hasn’t been spoken as a vernacular language since sometime around the late fifth century; by then it had started to fragment into today’s Romance languages. Second, the general populace stopped learning Latin as a second language in the Middle Ages. During the past several centuries, only people with a certain level of education spoke Latin. Most Catholics just recited prayers and responses by rote.
Besides, as I pointed out above, the Novus Ordo is a Latin Mass. That is, the definitive versions of the rubrics and prayers are written in Latin and all vernacular Masses are translations from that version. (The English translation has been updated at least twice during my lifetime.) In fact, one of the documents from Vatican II expressly teaches that the Novus Ordo should primarily be said in Latin. It also can be said ad orientem (facing the altar) instead of versus populum (facing the people). I’ve been present for this several times, including at last Tuesday’s Solemn Mass.
The funniest arguments, though, are the ones that refer to the Tridentine Mass as the ancient or first tradition. Historical scholars know better; it’s very clear that the Mass recounted in the writings of the Church fathers was a vernacular (usually Koine Greek) liturgy said around a table. The Tridentine Mass wasn’t even said for the majority of the current era; it was mandated in 1570 in order to address liturgical abuses. Christianity is more than a millennium older than that.
Most of the remaining arguments against the Novus Ordo are of the type that I call “style over substance.” They refer to the music, the simplified vestments and decorations, the Eastern Europe and Western Asian-influenced aesthetics and similar. In my mind, they really are aesthetic arguments, and my aesthetic influences are rather North American in nature. I grew up attending Mass in a converted gym, and I’m more comfortable without all the “smells and bells.” It has been a bit disorienting to even adjust to the increased use of incense at Mary Our Queen that came with our new pastor this past summer.
Arguments about the use of non-American styles smack of the same snobbiness and exclusivity that, ironicially enough, was a reason the Tridentine Mass was promulgated in the first place. It was a refresher that was meant to cut down on liturgical abuses. The Novus Ordo was also a refresher; its intent was to return the Mass to its older, more original form and to make it more accessible to the same people that Jesus himself befriended.
In short, there’s no reason to oppose it, and some very good reasons to support it. The best way to support any Mass is to actually attend on a regular basis; and that’s the very reason why I do just that.
Originally posted at https://collingwest.blog/2021/a-defense-of-the-novus-ordo/.