Tridentine latin mass at St Joseph's
If you had been in the vicinity of St Joseph’s Church at Victoria street last Thursday evening and just so happened to have a hankering to drop by and admire the austere, elegant architecture and plaster saints (just play along with me, dammit), you would have found this rather surreal scene.
The church packed to capacity, fans whirling away; the front rows dominated by pious-looking women with heads covered by immaculate lace veils (think The Godfather, but everyone’s chinese); a choir dressed in scarlet cassocks struggling to fill the cavernous space with the strains of a 16th century mass; a schola of black-cassocked men singing Gregorian chant; the entire service conducted in hardcore ecclesiastic latin. And the whole thing presided over by a priest whose speech patterns give him away as being on the verge of bursting into “Life is a Cabaret”.
Yep. The scraggly, cocktail-coloured choir over there in the corner - that’s us. Five hot, severely-stressed, under-rehearsed singers and two recorder-players specially put together for the occasion - a full-blown Tridentine Mass based on the Roman Missal of 1570 in celebration of the Feast of St Thomas the Apostle (a.k.a Mr Incredulous who famously refused to believe in anything he couldn’t personally see, including Christ’s resurrection). The order of service with English translations ran for a staggering 39 pages.
First a brief history: The Tridentine Mass was the 16th century Pope Pius V’s response to a lack of consistent practice among various catholic regions in celebrating the mass. This was codified in the Roman Missal of 1570, the be-all and end-all of the rite to be conducted across the entire catholic world in latin without variation. This was enforced right up to the radical re-structuring of Vatican II in 1969 which most catholics follow today (one important change being the license to celebrate mass not in latin but in local languages). However, because of its great antiquity and authority, traditional catholics today still occasionally perform the latin rite where resources allow.
As an illustration of just how densely esoteric the whole thing was, here’s a sample of responses for the gospel reading, the English version of which is familiar to all catholics and Anglicans alike:
Priest (chanting): Dominus vobiscum.
Congregation chanting back: Et cum spiritu tuo.
Me: WTF.
Priest: Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Ioannem.
Congregation: Gloria tibi Domine.
Me: Uh, sing now ah?
(And this is the bit where the priest proceeds to chant half the entire new testament in latin. Picture the doily-covered ladies in the front row all leaning forward, straining to listen.)
In illo tempore:cum sero esset die illo, una sabbatorum, et fores essent clausae…
Sometime back, I said of the film The Da Vinci Code that I would rather sit through a 2-hour sermon in latin. So to all the naughty kids out there, be careful of what you wish for… Fortunately for me, Father Cabaret decided to preach in English. His starting point was the speech of the resurrected Christ to St Thomas when He challenged him to feel for himself the wounds in His hands and side: Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe. Incidentally, the church used this same logic during a crucifixion of a different kind in the 17th century to silence Galileo, who took the radical view that one can understand the world based on one’s observations, i.e. scientifically.
Father Cabaret went on to lament the modern generation’s lack of understanding and respect for the ancient traditions of the church, with references to “the one true Catholic and Apostolic Faith” and to “false and conflicting teachings”. This sat rather awkwardly with the welcome extended to “persons of the orthodox and protestant faiths” before the sermon.
In fact, I found myself marvelling that the sermon, except for one small, touching story about Mother Teresa converting a dying beggar which prompted Minnelli-like tears from the pulpit and a short pause to collect himself, would not have been out of place in 16th century Europe. The language used, the subject matter, the type of thinking behind it all - it was all distinctively Counter-Reformation. All in keeping with a 16th century mass, but all quite bizarre for the 21st century. So as far as they were concerned, gay people did not exist, women should be demure, and the catholic church still runs the world.
And if you think that the congregation was treating this like some musty museum-like re-enactment, take one look at the doilied ladies in the front, devoutly clutching their rosaries to their hearts.
The church packed to capacity, fans whirling away; the front rows dominated by pious-looking women with heads covered by immaculate lace veils (think The Godfather, but everyone’s chinese); a choir dressed in scarlet cassocks struggling to fill the cavernous space with the strains of a 16th century mass; a schola of black-cassocked men singing Gregorian chant; the entire service conducted in hardcore ecclesiastic latin. And the whole thing presided over by a priest whose speech patterns give him away as being on the verge of bursting into “Life is a Cabaret”.
Yep. The scraggly, cocktail-coloured choir over there in the corner - that’s us. Five hot, severely-stressed, under-rehearsed singers and two recorder-players specially put together for the occasion - a full-blown Tridentine Mass based on the Roman Missal of 1570 in celebration of the Feast of St Thomas the Apostle (a.k.a Mr Incredulous who famously refused to believe in anything he couldn’t personally see, including Christ’s resurrection). The order of service with English translations ran for a staggering 39 pages.
First a brief history: The Tridentine Mass was the 16th century Pope Pius V’s response to a lack of consistent practice among various catholic regions in celebrating the mass. This was codified in the Roman Missal of 1570, the be-all and end-all of the rite to be conducted across the entire catholic world in latin without variation. This was enforced right up to the radical re-structuring of Vatican II in 1969 which most catholics follow today (one important change being the license to celebrate mass not in latin but in local languages). However, because of its great antiquity and authority, traditional catholics today still occasionally perform the latin rite where resources allow.
As an illustration of just how densely esoteric the whole thing was, here’s a sample of responses for the gospel reading, the English version of which is familiar to all catholics and Anglicans alike:
Priest (chanting): Dominus vobiscum.
Congregation chanting back: Et cum spiritu tuo.
Me: WTF.
Priest: Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Ioannem.
Congregation: Gloria tibi Domine.
Me: Uh, sing now ah?
(And this is the bit where the priest proceeds to chant half the entire new testament in latin. Picture the doily-covered ladies in the front row all leaning forward, straining to listen.)
In illo tempore:cum sero esset die illo, una sabbatorum, et fores essent clausae…
Sometime back, I said of the film The Da Vinci Code that I would rather sit through a 2-hour sermon in latin. So to all the naughty kids out there, be careful of what you wish for… Fortunately for me, Father Cabaret decided to preach in English. His starting point was the speech of the resurrected Christ to St Thomas when He challenged him to feel for himself the wounds in His hands and side: Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe. Incidentally, the church used this same logic during a crucifixion of a different kind in the 17th century to silence Galileo, who took the radical view that one can understand the world based on one’s observations, i.e. scientifically.
Father Cabaret went on to lament the modern generation’s lack of understanding and respect for the ancient traditions of the church, with references to “the one true Catholic and Apostolic Faith” and to “false and conflicting teachings”. This sat rather awkwardly with the welcome extended to “persons of the orthodox and protestant faiths” before the sermon.
In fact, I found myself marvelling that the sermon, except for one small, touching story about Mother Teresa converting a dying beggar which prompted Minnelli-like tears from the pulpit and a short pause to collect himself, would not have been out of place in 16th century Europe. The language used, the subject matter, the type of thinking behind it all - it was all distinctively Counter-Reformation. All in keeping with a 16th century mass, but all quite bizarre for the 21st century. So as far as they were concerned, gay people did not exist, women should be demure, and the catholic church still runs the world.
And if you think that the congregation was treating this like some musty museum-like re-enactment, take one look at the doilied ladies in the front, devoutly clutching their rosaries to their hearts.