Can all Priests offer a Latin Mass

[Yeoman]

Can any Priest offer a Latin Mass, or does it require some sort of permission/certification?

 

[Entwhistler]

Technically all priests can celebrate the Latin Mass according to Pope Benedict’s Summorum Pontificum. Of course, if a priest wants to celebrate a Latin Mass as part of his scheduled Masses he should probably ask the bishop first. As I said, technically he doesn’t have to, but some bishops are more touchy than others on this subject. But he can do a private Mass in Latin at anytime.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Can any Priest offer a Latin Mass, or does it require some sort of permission/certification?

1. They have to know how.
2. Even though technically they “could” do so, if a bishop does not want it offered they can make sure it isn’t offered.
3. The community involved needs to be taken into account.
4. It cannot be done at the cost of other Masses…

Our area has no Latin Mass save the sspx. The old bishop was against it, he forbid it. And after BXVI’s MP, he made clear to his priests that while he couldn’t stop a private Mass, under no circumstances would he permit a public regular EF Mass. though every parish has a Spanish Mass. some have basque Masses, Polish, heck even the “teens” get a whole Mass at most parishes.

Our new Bishop is probably more open to it except, almost no priest knows how to do it.

 

[Fuerza]

Like others have said, technically any priest is authorized to offer the TLM as long as he knows how. While a bishop is not supposed to put up roadblocks, he can make life very difficult for a priest who offers such Mass against his wishes. Any priest is also permitted to offer the OF Mass in Latin an even, gasp, ad orientem, if he wishes. As a side note, while I love and mostly attend the TLM, my favorite Mass of all time was a partially chanted Latin OF that used to be offered weekly at my old parish until the priest retired.

Luckily, my bishop is friendly to the TLM community and has even celebrated it himself quite a few times. The EF is gaining traction in my diocese, and the few parishes that offer it seem to be filled to the brim when it is celebrated.

 

[pianistclare]

1. They have to know how.
2. Even though technically they “could” do so, if a bishop does not want it offered they can make sure it isn’t offered.
3. The community involved needs to be taken into account.
4. It cannot be done at the cost of other Masses…

Our area has no Latin Mass save the sspx. The old bishop was against it, he forbid it. And after BXVI’s MP, he made clear to his priests that while he couldn’t stop a private Mass, under no circumstances would he permit a public regular EF Mass. ** though every parish has a Spanish Mass. some have basque Masses, Polish, heck even the “teens” get a whole Mass at most parishes. **

Our new Bishop is probably more open to it except, almost no priest knows how to do it.

The “difference” in the bolded is that those groups speak the language.

 

[Contarini]

I know that most people say “Latin Mass” to mean the “TLM” or “EF,” but they aren’t the same, especially in context of this question. The Ordinary Form or “Novus Ordo” can be celebrated in Latin. I don’t know what the regulations are on that, but certainly all priests are in principle authorized to do it. (I.e., a bishop might not want it as the principal mass in one of his parishes, but the priest has all the necessary faculties, since it’s the same Mass as the “regular” OF just in a different language.)

Apparently priests don’t need special faculties to celebrate the TLM either, right? But that’s a separate question.

 

[Brendan]

I know that most people say “Latin Mass” to mean the “TLM” or “EF,” but they aren’t the same, especially in context of this question. The Ordinary Form or “Novus Ordo” can be celebrated in Latin. I don’t know what the regulations are on that,.

The Ordinary Form of the Mass is normative in Latin. As such, the Ordinary Form can be said in Latin by any Roman Catholic priest in good standing. No permission is needed.

They may also use any other vernacular languages that have been approved by the local bishops conference, and received the appropriate recognito from Rome can also be freely used.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

The “difference” in the bolded is that those groups speak the language.

Well… yes and no. The valley I live in has a population around 500,000. Served by roughly 10 parishes. Maybe 18 priests. There is a basque mass a polish mass an African mass. Not necessarily because of serving a large need of these masses, but rather for over 2 generations of priest we basically import. We don’t grow our own. Actually in several parishes you cannot really understand th English masses.
A sizable population would be well served here by having an EF Mass…

At our life teen mass last week 85 people. A handful of teens. A full Mass would be 600 people…

 

[PaulfromIowa]

I know that most people say “Latin Mass” to mean the “TLM” or “EF,” but they aren’t the same, especially in context of this question. The Ordinary Form or “Novus Ordo” can be celebrated in Latin. I don’t know what the regulations are on that, but certainly all priests are in principle authorized to do it. (I.e., a bishop might not want it as the principal mass in one of his parishes, but the priest has all the necessary faculties, since it’s the same Mass as the “regular” OF just in a different language.)

Apparently priests don’t need special faculties to celebrate the TLM either, right? But that’s a separate question.

Correct. Any Latin rite priest can celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass. There are no special faculties or permissions for it. However, as others have noted, every priest has a bishop or religious superior to whom he owes obedience, and that bishop may be hostile to public celebration of the TLM in his diocese.

 

[midori]

I used to live in an area that had a FSSP priest offering a Tridentine Mass.

It was very structured. It wasn’t just a matter of the language difference, but the movements and gestures were extremely precise throughout. And the altar servers were all extensively trained to do things correctly. In addition, the externals were different as well-- the vestments, like the maniple, the biretta, the shape of the chasuble…

Sancta Missa out of Illinois has been offering tutorials and workshops. The Pius X have a DVD tutorial. And there was word about making a copy of the Compendio di liturgia pratica by Ludovico Trimeloni available in English about 10 years ago, but I’m having trouble finding ISBN’s…

 

[JimG]

I know that most people say “Latin Mass” to mean the “TLM” or “EF,” but they aren’t the same, especially in context of this question. The Ordinary Form or “Novus Ordo” can be celebrated in Latin. I don’t know what the regulations are on that, but certainly all priests are in principle authorized to do it. (I.e., a bishop might not want it as the principal mass in one of his parishes, but the priest has all the necessary faculties, since it’s the same Mass as the “regular” OF st in a different language.)

Apparently priests don’t need special faculties to celebrate the TLM either, right? But that’s a separate question.

Yes, the original question was not clear as to whether the phrase “Latin Mass” was meant to refer to an EF Mass or an OF Mass. But I think that either one can be celebrated in Latin.

 

[mdgspencer]

The answer is yes. Any priest has permission to say the pre-1960s Latin mass.
But though the Pope gave permanent permission for this, their bishop may not like it.

 

[Kielbasi]

Can any Priest offer a Latin Mass, or does it require some sort of permission/certification?

A priest would have to know how to celebrate Latin Mass.

There are a lot of rules to know, and most priests just don’t have the knowledge.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

A priest would have to know how to celebrate Latin Mass.

There are a lot of rules to know, and most priests just don’t have the knowledge.

True there are rules (just as there are with the OF, and don’t start me on whether those are followed), but for centuries and centuries we had Jehan, Lothair, Pablo, Padraig, Cadfael, Dunstan, and Aelric, not to mention Constantius, Domenicus, Hippolytus, et. al., i.e., the average parish priest from AD 33 to AD 1900 plus, who were by no means educated in the sense that we expect of priests today (not that they were ‘rubes’ or ignoramuses, nor were the majority of people of all walks of life), and somehow, despite few if any of them being as ‘versed’ in Latin as even today’s priest (who can pick up the books, the dictionaries, go check things out on You Tube, etc.), somehow these simple parish priests were able to celebrate Masses in Latin and they, and their flock, to understand at least as well as the average priest and man/woman/child in the pew do today.

It isn’t rocket science.

You know, the priest out there who is say 55 didn’t grow up with computers, but you can bet most of them manage to handle them pretty well. It was a lot of knowledge, and trial and error, but it could be done, and not just by a select few either, and it didn’t take eons.

I think that somebody (you can probably Google it) once said something to the effect that 2000 hours worth of practice on a given subject can make people an expert. When you break it down, that equates over 2 years to less than 3 hours a day; and over 3 years, less than 2 hours a day. Three years isn’t that much time, and less than 2 hours is the equivalent of a movie, or watching the local and national news followed by Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! --hardly that much time at all. And one doesn’t have to put in those hours in a huge ‘chunk’ all together, either. If Father has an hour a day to get on the treadmill, why not be watching You Tube tutorials, or propping up the written materials at the same time? If Father is doing the laundry, same thing. Etc.

 

[Don_Ruggero]

Can any Priest offer a Latin Mass, or does it require some sort of permission/certification?

I rather frequently offer Eucharist in Latin now that I am retired…if I am celebrating without a congregation and simply in our own chapel…but always using the novus ordo. As I told the bishop: never ever again in the vetus ordo. Retirement does have its advantages.

The last time I presided using the 1962 missal was for an indult community years ago now, although I have helped the young priests with the rubrics who have wanted the experience of having celebrated according to the vetus ordo.

The indult need no longer be sought…but there are regulations in place concerning the use of the vetus ordo, above all when it concerns a priest not simply offering a Mass without a congregation. Where I am, we have the novus ordo in Latin as an announced Mass, and it is well attended, but elsewhere the priest with cura animarum would have to determine if it was pastorally indicated or appropriate in the given situation…

 

[poche]

The answer is yes. Any priest has permission to say the pre-1960s Latin mass.
But though the Pope gave permanent permission for this, their bishop may not like it.

Actually the missal is the missal of 1962.

 

[Samuel_Mary]

The Ordinary Form of the Mass is normative in Latin. As such, the Ordinary Form can be said in Latin by any Roman Catholic priest in good standing. No permission is needed.

They may also use any other vernacular languages that have been approved by the local bishops conference, and received the appropriate recognito from Rome can also be freely used.

I would love to see more Ordinary Form in Latin (my local Oratory offers a good one) or partially but significantly in Latin, for example the Mass Ordinary and the dialogue in Latin

While I am grateful for Summorum Pontificum I do wonder if one negative side effect is that it has actually pushed this further away from becoming more common. The would-be interest for more Latin in the OF is just funneled towards local celebrations of the Vetus Ordo instead.

 

[Yeoman]

Quite a few responded to what would be my next question, but I take it that a Priest could (taking into account everything else stated here, say the “regular” Mass, i.e., the Ordinary Form we see every weekend, in Latin, if he knew how.

Correct?

 

[Kielbasi]

Quite a few responded to what would be my next question, but I take it that a Priest could (taking into account everything else stated here, say the “regular” Mass, i.e., the Ordinary Form we see every weekend, in Latin, if he knew how.

Correct?

If the bishop told him to, sure.

If the bishop wants the priest to say mass in English, or in Spanish or another foreign tongue, instead, that’s what he is expected to do and what he will do.

I’m sure the priest can make his own ideas known in regards to the matter, but if the bishop says “no” that’s the way it is.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

If the bishop told him to, sure.

If the bishop wants the priest to say mass in English, or in Spanish or another foreign tongue, instead, that’s what he is expected to do and what he will do.

I’m sure the priest can make his own ideas known in regards to the matter, but if the bishop says “no” that’s the way it is.

While Bishops have many personalities and are as diverse as any group, for a priest, running a parish is generally not something done on a whim. One has to take into account the spiritual needs and politics of not only the parishioners, but other nearby parishes. And ultimately the Bidhop decides who is at and what is offered in the Parishes. It’s more than a priest just deciding the 11 am Mass will be the EF or The OF fine in Latin…
Plus, a bishop usually would direct the training of someone in the EF if he wanted someone to say it…

About 4 years ago, a priest decided to offer the EF in a small college town with two parishes The neighboring priest complained publically in the diocesan paper, The old bishop stopped the EF at that parish.

I pray every day for the EF to be offered here.