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Pope Poised To Revive Latin Mass, Official Says
Ancient Tridentine Rite Was Replaced in 1960s
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 13, 2006; A03
Pope Benedict XVI has drafted a document allowing wider use of the
Tridentine Mass, the Latin rite that was largely replaced in the
1960s by Masses in English and other modern languages, a church
official said yesterday.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the
pope told colleagues in September that he was writing the document
"motu proprio," a Latin phrase for on his own initiative, and that
it was in its third draft.
"There will be a document, it will come out soon, and it will be
significant," the official said. Benedict "will not let this be
sidetracked," he added.
Wider use of the Tridentine Mass is a cause dear to the hearts of
many Catholics, for both esthetic and ideological reasons. It was
codified in 1570 and remained the standard Roman Catholic liturgy
for nearly four centuries, until the gathering of church leaders
known as the Second Vatican Council ushered in major reforms from
1962 to 1965.
To some Catholics, the return of the old Latin Mass is symbolic of
a conservative turn away from what they view as the "excesses"
that followed the Second Vatican Council, said the Rev. Thomas
J. Scirghi, who teaches liturgical theology at the Jesuit School
of Theology in Berkeley, Calif.
He said many churchgoers associate the Tridentine Mass with
beautiful Gregorian chants and a dignified service, while they
associate the new Mass -- formalized in 1969 -- with guitars,
drums and short-lived experiments such as "Pizza Masses" in which
pizzas, rather than wafers, were consecrated in a bid to attract
young people.
In fact, the new Mass can be celebrated with great solemnity,
either in vernacular languages or in Latin, said Nathan
D. Mitchell, professor of liturgical studies at the University of
Notre Dame. And the Tridentine Mass, he added, "wasn't always
celebrated with care, beauty, aplomb and musical finesse."
"There's a lot of romanticizing of the old liturgy. Most parishes
celebrated it as what they called Low Masses, with no singing, no
preaching, the priest just mumbling something that was inaudible,"
Mitchell said.
Nonetheless, he acknowledged, the Tridentine Mass has become "an
icon for all the things that people thought had been forfeited and
lost at, and after, the Second Vatican Council. That includes not
only the liturgy but also a church of visible discipline and
hierarchical structure, the ancient discipline of the priesthood,
the moral authority of bishops and the pope, a way of looking at
the human relationship to God."
The old Latin Mass was never formally prohibited, but it virtually
disappeared from the 1960s until the mid-1980s, when Pope John
Paul II allowed it back into limited usage, permitting parish
priests to celebrate it if they obtained permission from their
bishops. Some bishops have freely granted such requests, and some
have not.
In Washington, new Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl has continued the
policy of his predecessor, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, by
making the Tridentine Mass easily available. It is celebrated each
Sunday at three local churches -- St. Mary Mother of God in
Chinatown, St. John the Evangelist-Forest Glen in Silver Spring,
and St. Francis de Sales in Benedict, Md., according to Susan
Gibbs, spokeswoman for the archdiocese.
In the Arlington Diocese, Bishop Paul S. Loverde earlier this year
allowed two churches, St. Lawrence in Franconia and St. John the
Baptist in Front Royal, to begin celebrating the Tridentine
liturgy each Sunday.
Traditionalist Catholics rejoiced yesterday over the pope's
forthcoming decision, which was first reported Wednesday by the
Times of London. But some were cautious, noting that rumors have
circulated for months that Benedict was about to grant a
"universal indult," or general permission, for priests to use the
Tridentine Mass.
"I'll believe it when I see it, because I can't tell you how many
times there have been exact days when this universal indult was
supposed to be issued," said Kenneth J. Wolfe, 33, a choir member
at St. Mary Mother of God.
Experts predicted that the papal document would allow more
Catholics to experience the old liturgy but would not supplant the
new Mass, which is likely to remain the standard in most dioceses.
"Here in the diocese of Galveston, [the Tridentine Mass] is
permitted in one church, and not very many people go. So even if
the indult is granted, I don't think it will lead to a big
division in the church," said the Rev. Michael Barrett, an Opus
Dei priest who runs the Holy Cross Chapel and Catholic Resource
Center in Houston.
The change might, however, help to heal a rift between the Vatican
and followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a French
prelate who bitterly opposed the Second Vatican Council's
decisions. Benedict has reached out to Lefebvre's followers,
signaling that he would allow them to use the old Mass in return
for their recognition of his authority.
"This is an attentiveness to a very, very small faction that he
wants to bring back on board," said Monsignor Kevin W. Irwin, dean
of the school of theology at Catholic University.
In addition, allowing wider use of the Tridentine Mass might
appeal to some older Catholics who miss it and some younger ones
who are curious about it. Most important, according to the
Rev. Robert Gahl, a professor at the Pontifical University of the
Holy Cross in Rome, it would rectify what Benedict has described
as a "breach" in Catholic tradition because the old Mass was
effectively suppressed.
The Second Vatican Council called for the "full, conscious, active
participation" of the laity in the Mass. As a result, the new
Sunday Mass has three readings from Scripture, instead of two, and
some may be done by lay people. The priest usually faces the
congregation and must give a homily each Sunday; in the Tridentine
Mass, the priest faces the altar, with his back to the
congregation, and a sermon is optional.
While the Tridentine Mass contains only one version of the
Eucharistic prayer -- the moment when Catholics believe the bread
and wine become the body and blood of Christ -- the new Mass
offers nine additional versions.
"People are tired of not knowing what they're going to find" when
they go to Mass, said the Rev. Joseph Fessio, the pope's
English-language publisher and a leading conservative in the
U.S. church. "Benedict is saying, 'The people have a right to the
immemorial spiritual customs of the church.' "
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
Pope Poised To Revive Latin Mass, Official Says
Ancient Tridentine Rite Was Replaced in 1960s
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 13, 2006; A03
Pope Benedict XVI has drafted a document allowing wider use of the
Tridentine Mass, the Latin rite that was largely replaced in the
1960s by Masses in English and other modern languages, a church
official said yesterday.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the
pope told colleagues in September that he was writing the document
"motu proprio," a Latin phrase for on his own initiative, and that
it was in its third draft.
"There will be a document, it will come out soon, and it will be
significant," the official said. Benedict "will not let this be
sidetracked," he added.
Wider use of the Tridentine Mass is a cause dear to the hearts of
many Catholics, for both esthetic and ideological reasons. It was
codified in 1570 and remained the standard Roman Catholic liturgy
for nearly four centuries, until the gathering of church leaders
known as the Second Vatican Council ushered in major reforms from
1962 to 1965.
To some Catholics, the return of the old Latin Mass is symbolic of
a conservative turn away from what they view as the "excesses"
that followed the Second Vatican Council, said the Rev. Thomas
J. Scirghi, who teaches liturgical theology at the Jesuit School
of Theology in Berkeley, Calif.
He said many churchgoers associate the Tridentine Mass with
beautiful Gregorian chants and a dignified service, while they
associate the new Mass -- formalized in 1969 -- with guitars,
drums and short-lived experiments such as "Pizza Masses" in which
pizzas, rather than wafers, were consecrated in a bid to attract
young people.
In fact, the new Mass can be celebrated with great solemnity,
either in vernacular languages or in Latin, said Nathan
D. Mitchell, professor of liturgical studies at the University of
Notre Dame. And the Tridentine Mass, he added, "wasn't always
celebrated with care, beauty, aplomb and musical finesse."
"There's a lot of romanticizing of the old liturgy. Most parishes
celebrated it as what they called Low Masses, with no singing, no
preaching, the priest just mumbling something that was inaudible,"
Mitchell said.
Nonetheless, he acknowledged, the Tridentine Mass has become "an
icon for all the things that people thought had been forfeited and
lost at, and after, the Second Vatican Council. That includes not
only the liturgy but also a church of visible discipline and
hierarchical structure, the ancient discipline of the priesthood,
the moral authority of bishops and the pope, a way of looking at
the human relationship to God."
The old Latin Mass was never formally prohibited, but it virtually
disappeared from the 1960s until the mid-1980s, when Pope John
Paul II allowed it back into limited usage, permitting parish
priests to celebrate it if they obtained permission from their
bishops. Some bishops have freely granted such requests, and some
have not.
In Washington, new Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl has continued the
policy of his predecessor, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, by
making the Tridentine Mass easily available. It is celebrated each
Sunday at three local churches -- St. Mary Mother of God in
Chinatown, St. John the Evangelist-Forest Glen in Silver Spring,
and St. Francis de Sales in Benedict, Md., according to Susan
Gibbs, spokeswoman for the archdiocese.
In the Arlington Diocese, Bishop Paul S. Loverde earlier this year
allowed two churches, St. Lawrence in Franconia and St. John the
Baptist in Front Royal, to begin celebrating the Tridentine
liturgy each Sunday.
Traditionalist Catholics rejoiced yesterday over the pope's
forthcoming decision, which was first reported Wednesday by the
Times of London. But some were cautious, noting that rumors have
circulated for months that Benedict was about to grant a
"universal indult," or general permission, for priests to use the
Tridentine Mass.
"I'll believe it when I see it, because I can't tell you how many
times there have been exact days when this universal indult was
supposed to be issued," said Kenneth J. Wolfe, 33, a choir member
at St. Mary Mother of God.
Experts predicted that the papal document would allow more
Catholics to experience the old liturgy but would not supplant the
new Mass, which is likely to remain the standard in most dioceses.
"Here in the diocese of Galveston, [the Tridentine Mass] is
permitted in one church, and not very many people go. So even if
the indult is granted, I don't think it will lead to a big
division in the church," said the Rev. Michael Barrett, an Opus
Dei priest who runs the Holy Cross Chapel and Catholic Resource
Center in Houston.
The change might, however, help to heal a rift between the Vatican
and followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a French
prelate who bitterly opposed the Second Vatican Council's
decisions. Benedict has reached out to Lefebvre's followers,
signaling that he would allow them to use the old Mass in return
for their recognition of his authority.
"This is an attentiveness to a very, very small faction that he
wants to bring back on board," said Monsignor Kevin W. Irwin, dean
of the school of theology at Catholic University.
In addition, allowing wider use of the Tridentine Mass might
appeal to some older Catholics who miss it and some younger ones
who are curious about it. Most important, according to the
Rev. Robert Gahl, a professor at the Pontifical University of the
Holy Cross in Rome, it would rectify what Benedict has described
as a "breach" in Catholic tradition because the old Mass was
effectively suppressed.
The Second Vatican Council called for the "full, conscious, active
participation" of the laity in the Mass. As a result, the new
Sunday Mass has three readings from Scripture, instead of two, and
some may be done by lay people. The priest usually faces the
congregation and must give a homily each Sunday; in the Tridentine
Mass, the priest faces the altar, with his back to the
congregation, and a sermon is optional.
While the Tridentine Mass contains only one version of the
Eucharistic prayer -- the moment when Catholics believe the bread
and wine become the body and blood of Christ -- the new Mass
offers nine additional versions.
"People are tired of not knowing what they're going to find" when
they go to Mass, said the Rev. Joseph Fessio, the pope's
English-language publisher and a leading conservative in the
U.S. church. "Benedict is saying, 'The people have a right to the
immemorial spiritual customs of the church.' "
© 2006 The Washington Post Company