How many priests that celebrate tridentine mass are in the world?

[imo]

Anyone has a rough estimate? And how about bishops and cardinals?

 

[stpurl]

You mean as opposed to out of the world? Haven’t died yet? Sorry, j/k but there are some who could (had the training and the experience but do not choose to do so), some who live in areas where either they cannot choose to celebrate except privately, or whose bishops insist on ‘vernacular’ even if the bishops themselves were actually trained in the TLM but they don’t care for it. So it’s hard to give an estimate. Plus, some priests are learning; some think they ‘could’ do it but really can’t, and a fair number seem to think that unless they can fluently speak Latin ‘outside’ the Mass that they aren’t qualified even if they can follow along and know all the Mass words, etc.

The real question is, if the Latin Mass matters to us, how many ways can we support it? Maybe our own bishop won’t ‘allow it’; so maybe we can support another diocese (not neglecting our own and our responsibility as members of that diocese) through time, or treasure, or talent. Maybe we can contribute money to establish classes, or to pay for necessary items to celebrate the TLM. Maybe we can add extra novenas, start prayer chains, do research, run ‘mimeos’, offer our own help if we have any skill in Latin. Maybe we can be the ‘cheering’ section who write letters to those who offer the TLM telling the priests and their bishops how grateful we are. Positive feedback. Maybe we can work extra hard in addition to all the above to be the ‘happy’ and ‘gentle traditionalist’ who makes certain to also write to our own priests who may not offer the TLM or even like it, but who generously and selflessly provide the OF, so that instead of looking like cranks who find the OF ‘lacking’, we are instead the people who are so appreciative of the OF that we can reach out to ‘the peripheries’ knowing that for the majority, the OF is going to be there and nourishing them and so we would hope that example of the solid OF will help bring nourishment and comfort to those who, while loving the OF, feel a call to the EF too. The Church is certainly big enough for the EF as well as the OF.

 

[po18guy]

Interesting question. The Vatican may have an estimate, but otherwise I think it would be a matter of surveying diocese by diocese.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

The real question is, if the Latin Mass matters to us, how many ways can we support it? Maybe our own bishop won’t ‘allow it’; so maybe we can support another diocese (not neglecting our own and our responsibility as members of that diocese) through time, or treasure, or talent. Maybe we can contribute money to establish classes, or to pay for necessary items to celebrate the TLM. Maybe we can add extra novenas, start prayer chains, do research, run ‘mimeos’, offer our own help if we have any skill in Latin. Maybe we can be the ‘cheering’ section who write letters to those who offer the TLM telling the priests and their bishops how grateful we are. Positive feedback. Maybe we can work extra hard in addition to all the above to be the ‘happy’ and ‘gentle traditionalist’ who makes certain to also write to our own priests who may not offer the TLM or even like it, but who generously and selflessly provide the OF, so that instead of looking like cranks who find the OF ‘lacking’, we are instead the people who are so appreciative of the OF that we can reach out to ‘the peripheries’ knowing that for the majority, the OF is going to be there and nourishing them and so we would hope that example of the solid OF will help bring nourishment and comfort to those who, while loving the OF, feel a call to the EF too. The Church is certainly big enough for the EF as well as the OF.

“Run mimeos”? Mimeographs haven’t been commonly used for 40 years. It’s a cheap and efficient way to print, but I haven’t seen one of those in years. I still remember how those spirits from freshly run mimeographs smelled…

I can tell you, and maybe this is just a temperamental thing with me, that if I were a priest, it wouldn’t be the Latin that would throw me — that part’s easy (just knowing enough to get through the Mass, not enough to make a fresh translation of the Summa) — it would be the rubrics. Even as an adult altar server, I found it maddening, not to mention all the kibitzing from those in the pew who remembered “we did X this way when I was growing up, not that way” when X wasn’t even part of the rubrics!

Don’t get me wrong, I far, far prefer the EF to the OF, and would attend solely the EF if I could (distance and family duties don’t allow that), but I would definitely find it a cross to have to observe all those rubrics to the letter. The OF is very free-form by comparison and I can serve the OF without having to give anything a second thought.

(I do love those bells, though! The last time I served the OF, as a last-minute fill-in when none of the young servers showed up, people commented that they’d never heard the bells rung with that much gusto!)

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[Rau]

The last time I served the OF, as a last-minute fill-in when none of the young servers showed up, people commented that they’d never heard the bells rung with that much gusto!

Reminds me of an elderly priest in our area who has remarked he much prefers a “gentle” tinkle of the bell, and not a high energy shake!

 

[HomeschoolDad]

The last time I served the OF, as a last-minute fill-in when none of the young servers showed up, people commented that they’d never heard the bells rung with that much gusto!

Different people like different things and have different sensibilities. I incline more towards the bell-ringing as saying “here It is, world, the most important thing that will ever happen, the God of the universe become incarnate and here on the altar for partaking by the priest and the faithful unto the salvation of their souls and the greater glory of God!”.

Seen that way, a vigorous ringing of the bells seems appropriate.