"Latin Liturgy: A Natural and Beautiful Thing"

[Sarabande]

I just received this article in an email subscription I’m part of. I thought I’d share it for those who are living in the Philadelphia/South Jersey areas. One thing I wasn’t aware of until I read this article (and it explains a lot to me in regards to the seminarians coming out today in that area) is that the current Archbishop of Philadelphia “made it a rule that all seminarians train in the traditional rite, as well as the new rite.”

“Latin Liturgy: A Natural and Beautiful Thing” by Thom Nickels, Contributing Editor, 15 July 2009
Weekly Press and University City Review

There’s something “new” and exciting on the (Roman Rite) Catholic Philadelphia landscape, and that’s the return of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM).

After 40 years of buried obscurity, the traditional rite or the so-called Mass of the Ages (Pope Urban VII in 1634 said that the Roman Mass was the envy of souls in Heaven) is being made more available in parishes throughout the Archdiocese. Although there have been random TLM’s at various parishes in and outside the City for years, momentum kicked in after Pope Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio in July of 2007. At that time the Pontiff urged easy accessibility to the ancient rite. For the first time since the close of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, Catholics in parishes throughout the world were told that if they wanted a TLM in their parish, all they had to do was form a small group and request it from their church pastor.

In the Philadelphia-Lancaster-New Jersey area, the number of parishes hosting TLM’s are growing. Every month seems to bring in a new parish, a new inquiry. The traditional Masses are attracting people of all ages, from the middle aged to the very young.

Traditional Catholic seminaries like the Fraternity of Saint Peter, as well as traditional convents and monasteries are also reporting a boom in religious vocations.

Beginning on October, 25, 2009, there will be a weekly TLM at St. Paul’s church in South Philadelphia. This is good news to St. Paul’s pastor, Father Gerald Carey, who calls the October change, “A very natural and beautiful thing.” Fr. Carey, who was ordained in 1998, says he first offered the TLM last year during the Year of Saint Paul. “Out of it came requests from the faithful. That’s what Motu Proprio is all about. I did get requests from parishioners and outside parishioners, so I asked the Archdiocese how I might accommodate them,” Fr. Carey said.

Over 400 people attended the Year of Saint Paul TLM at Fr. Carey’s church. The event was so successful a woman came up to Fr. Carey after the Mass and said that after years of being away from the Church, she was coming back.

Years ago, Center City’s St. John Evangelist church held regular TLM’s but those Masses were eventually moved to Holy Saviour Parish in Norristown. St. Patrick’s church on Rittenhouse Square once held Latin Novus Ordo Masses (or the Mass of Pope Paul VI) twice a month until the death of its pastor, Father Fitzpatrick.

TLM’s have also been a regular staple of the Carmelite Monastery at 66th Avenue and Old York Road. On Thursday, July 16th, on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a Traditional Latin Solemn High Mass will be held at 7:30 p.m., complete with monastery choir and guest soprano, Dolores Ferrico. The nuns will sing the traditional Carmelite chant, the Flos Carmeli.

Fr. Carey says that shortly after the Motu Proprio was issued, he availed himself of an official TLM training session the Archdiocese was offering to priests.

He explains that the process of instituting a TLM is more than just a language thing. Planning a TLM means that the church in question must have altar rails (for traditional kneeling at communion), and altar boys trained in the Latin responses. (If an altar rail has been removed from a church, it’s possible to improvise a “substitute”) In a TLM, the priest as well as the congregation will face east, and the tabernacle must be on the main altar.

Facing East is considered a symbol of the rising Son of God.

“The Motu Proprio is a major step, but to approbate it takes time,” Fr. Carey said. “You have to make sure if priests want to do this, are you going to ensure that they’re going to do it well? And thank God the Cardinal was on our side and really worked hard and provided these workshops. Priests need to know the rubrics. Years ago people grew up with this Mass, they saw it all the time so when you became a priest you sequayed into it. But now you have to study it.”

continued…

 

[Sarabande]

continued from above…

Since the early 1970s The Latin Liturgy Association, Inc. has worked hard to keep the old rite alive.

“When Motu Proprio was first issued,” says Philadelphia Latin Liturgy Association Chairman Dr. Rudolph Masciantonio, “the Association sent the Cardinal a proposal asking that the TLM initially be made available in each of the vicariates of the Archdiocese—North and South Philadelphia, and each of the suburban counties. We thought this would be a start to have a TLM in each of the vicariates.We also pitched for a traditional parish in Center City, much like Ess Cee in Berlin, New Jersey, where all the Masses and rites are traditional.”

Dr. Masciantonio says that while the Association didn’t receive a written response from the Cardinal, it got something better.

“The Cardinal acted on it. He appointed a priest to be the facilitator of the TLM in the Archdiocese, Msgr. Charles L. Sangermano in Norristown, and he made it a rule that all seminarians train in the traditional rite, as well as the new rite. And he specifically authorized a weekly TLM at St. Paul’s beginning October 25th.”

“We’re very grateful for that,” Dr. Masciantonio says, “and the future looks good.”

While there are still no traditional Catholic parishes in Center City, Dr. Masciantonio believes that this will change. “More and more people are interested in the traditional Latin Mass. The TLM is one of the best things that the Church has going for it,” he said.

The Latin Liturgy Association advocates the preservation of Latin in the Church, even in the “new” Mass of Pope Paul VI. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy at Vatican II decreed that, “The use of Latin is to be preserved in the Latin rite.” As to the question, “Why Latin?” the Association’s website answers that question by reminding readers that “Latin helps us overcome limitations of time and place, and helps us participate in the universal reality of the Catholic Church, linking us with the generations who have worshipped before us.”

“Once people get used to these Masses again, and understand how valuable they are spiritually and aesthetically there will be a real reluctance to give them up,” Dr. Masciantonio says.

Father Adrian Fortescue, an English liturgical historian and author of the book, “The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy,” believed that “the Mass of the Roman Rite is the most venerable in Christendom.”

Like historic architecture, how can this venerable rite not be preserved?

“I can assure you that all the priests I know, even if they don’t have a familiarity with the Latin language, are very supportive of the TLM,” Fr. Carey says. “Most of them say the Mass as the Church directs them, and if they make a mistake it is unintentional. These younger guys really aren’t about innovation; they just want to say the Mass.”

 

[bpbasilphx]

If the Latin Liturgy were so “natural”, there would not be people who prefer the OF or Eastern Liturgies. I myself am among the latter.

As regards something being “beautiful,” that’s a subjective evaluation.

Father Adrian Fortescue, an English liturgical historian and author of the book, “The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy,” believed that “the Mass of the Roman Rite is the most venerable in Christendom.”

Again, this is a statement of opinion, not of fact.

These remarks not to be considered as an attack on the EF, but simply to say that personal preference for it, even when experessed in superlatives, is no proof of superiority.

 

[brotherhrolf]

Good Bishop - I suspect you and I are of an age. I have no experience with the East except for going to an Eastern Orthodox liturgy for what I can only call the Holy Saturday Liturgy in 1977. I cried because I realized all that we had lost.

I am one of those people who was satisfied with chant and the Latin Mass, etc. before 1967. I have learned alot about our Eastern brethren on these fora but I am more concerned about the restoration of that which was lost to us in 1967.

I have prayed and prayed for 40+ years that that which we lost, would be restored. It’s not happening here in my diocese. Yes, it’s subjective.

Still in all, the baby got thrown out with the bathwater in 1967. We know you are Eastern, please let us be Western. You don’t have the a’strummin’ and a’grinnin’ folks. We do.

I’ve sung in a cathedral choir for 20 years. I grew up with a Missa Cantata in which the congregation chanted the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Pater Noster, Agnus Dei. My very soul cries out to me that we should return. It’s not triumphalism on our part, good Bishop, merely a return to our roots.

 

[Layman]

Nice to see a bishop actively supporting the TLM, and in the “City Of Brotherly Love”, no less.

Positive remarks about the TLM do not imply an attack on Eastern Catholicism. I’d say most Latin Rite Catholics know nothing at all about Eastern Catholicism. They don’t know much about the TLM either, but that seems to be slowly changing, so “Deo Gratias”.

 

[JustaServant]

My wife and I very much enjoyed attending a TLM in Pittsburgh last weekend. It was indeed very beautiful. I noticed about myself, when I attend an OF at my parish here, I have no problem wearing jeans and a polo shirt. At St. Boniface it seemed, well, wrong. I wore dress clothes and a tie because it is a more formal. I felt like I was at Mass.
At a folk Mass, I feel simply like I’m taking a trip to Woodstock in '69.
Don’t flame me for this, it was just something I noticed about my own behavior.

 

[brotherhrolf]

Nice to see a bishop actively supporting the TLM, and in the “City Of Brotherly Love”, no less.

Positive remarks about the TLM do not imply an attack on Eastern Catholicism. I’d say most Latin Rite Catholics know nothing at all about Eastern Catholicism. They don’t know much about the TLM either, but that seems to be slowly changing, so “Deo Gratias”.

Hate to do this, but the good Bishop is Eastern Orthodox and is out in Phoenix, AZ. (We’ve been on the forums for awhile). You make another “mistake” in saying that we don’t know about the TLM. Excuse me, but I grew up with the TLM. I was an altar boy. “I’m not dead yet; I’m feeling better!”

There’s a whole bunch of us who were kids before Vatican II and have never forgotten. You young people have my fervent support but don’t ever, ever, believe that those of us in my generation all went along with what happened. We submitted to the magesterium of Holy Mother Church.

I have prayed and prayed for over 40 years that that which was taken away would be restored. I have both of my missals. I haven’t been to a TLM since the 1970s but I could attend one today and not need my missal. I’d have to brush up on the server’s rubrics but I’d have no problems with the server’s responses.

JustaServant? Before Vatican II, and just before airconditioning came to church (oh, yes, I remember when all we had were big oscillating fans), my mother and sister wore hats. Here in the Deep South, dress codes were different. Sis and Mom wore chapel veils ca. 1962. When I wasn’t serving, dress shirt and dress slacks were OK.

 

[Layman]

Just going from my own experience. When I mention the Latin Mass to my extended family, I get “Ohhh, I wouldn’t understand that”. And they’d be fairly well-educated, mass-going people as well.

I had a third-level education, did some Latin in school, was interested in the ‘New Age’ before I came back to Catholicism, yet had no idea about the Latin Mass, beyond hearing something about an Archbishop Lefevbre. I learned the Gloria, the Agnes and Ecce Sacerdos, (which the good brothers taught us in school just as post-Vat. II started to get going) and “Hoc Est (Enim) Corpus Meum”. But of the Mass they were connected to I knew nothing.

I wonder how many Catholics nowadays know about mortal sin, Hell and how the two are connected; the sort of thing you don’t hear much about from the pulpit or in the classroom, as far as can tell. In Ireland, I hear kids are being taught Catholicism through some course called “Alive-o!”, rather than a basic catchecism.

I was surprised more Catholics weren’t flocking to the TLMs since I’d heard about it [grin], but it’s just because they don’t know.

So extrapolating from that, Eastern Catholicism is certainly terra incognita in Ireland and the UK. Even now, living in London, I’d have to make enquiries about where to attend one of their Masses.

 

[Sarabande]

If the Latin Liturgy were so “natural”, there would not be people who prefer the OF or Eastern Liturgies. I myself am among the latter.

As regards something being “beautiful,” that’s a subjective evaluation.

Again, this is a statement of opinion, not of fact.

These remarks not to be considered as an attack on the EF, but simply to say that personal preference for it, even when experessed in superlatives, is no proof of superiority.

I really don’t think this article had anything to do with attacking Eastern Catholicism, either, although I can understand how you would take it that way. You have to think of the context of why and how this article was written. There are apparently many people excited that the EF is becoming more available in the Philadelphia area, especially if it is being written about in a couple local papers - The Weekly Press and The University City Review which concentrate more on things that locals are interested in or concerned about.

Many people were very happy when the Archbishop came to Philadelphia in late 2003. It did mark a change in the archdiocese. Something my friends and I noticed, especially at the Cathedral masses. The seminarians changed, you found more younger, devout Catholics of our age much more interested in tradition and reverence in the Mass, even the music liturgy of the huge archdiocesan masses changed because the archbishop switched out the Director of Worship who was in charge of planning those masses for someone more in line with proper music liturgy. It also finally showed to the rest of the diocese that the music program at the Cathedral which never stopped doing chant and polyphony and just good sacred music in general during the regular Sunday masses, that they were doing what the Church wanted them to do. Concerning those that the writer is talking about, the EF is a beautiful thing and I found nothing wrong with him stating that. It is obvious that this piece was not meant to be a controversial piece, but more of talking about what is happening in the area. If it was to be controversial, he would have included naysayers.

The writer, also was simply stating the sentiments of those who are pleased and excited about all of this happening. I personally did not see it as the writer trying to state that the EF was superior to any other Rite. He probably thought that by using a quote by Fortesque, as well as other quotes by noted Catholics, it would show that this apparent love for the EF in Philadelphia is not just something coming out of the city, but something bigger, especially since he is writing to a wider audience of all different denominations and not just to Catholics. Most Philadelphians (which has huge Catholic population in the Latin Rite in the city and the suburbs) probably wouldn’t even think about Eastern Catholicism. Most of them would only know the OF in the Roman Rite.

 

[Sarabande]

Nice to see a bishop actively supporting the TLM, and in the “City Of Brotherly Love”, no less.

Positive remarks about the TLM do not imply an attack on Eastern Catholicism. I’d say most Latin Rite Catholics know nothing at all about Eastern Catholicism. They don’t know much about the TLM either, but that seems to be slowly changing, so “Deo Gratias”.

I think you are right about this. I grew up in the 80s and 90s and had absolutely NO CLUE about the TLM until I graduated from college and attended one for the first time. We did have Latin OF masses at the cathedral, so I was familiar with the Latin prior to that. I knew a little about Eastern Catholicism - actually just knew a couple of people who were Eastern Catholics, which was the extent of it. The majority of Catholics I know were of Roman Rite and when you are Philadelphia, the majority of people I meet are Catholic. It’s a large Catholic area in that sense.

 

[brotherhrolf]

Just going from my own experience. When I mention the Latin Mass to my extended family, I get “Ohhh, I wouldn’t understand that”. And they’d be fairly well-educated, mass-going people as well.

I had a third-level education, did some Latin in school, was interested in the ‘New Age’ before I came back to Catholicism, yet had no idea about the Latin Mass, beyond hearing something about an Archbishop Lefevbre. I learned the Gloria, the Agnes and Ecce Sacerdos, (which the good brothers taught us in school just as post-Vat. II started to get going) and “Hoc Est (Enim) Corpus Meum”. But of the Mass they were connected to I knew nothing.

I wonder how many Catholics nowadays know about mortal sin, Hell and how the two are connected; the sort of thing you don’t hear much about from the pulpit or in the classroom, as far as can tell. In Ireland, I hear kids are being taught Catholicism through some course called “Alive-o!”, rather than a basic catchecism.

I was surprised more Catholics weren’t flocking to the TLMs since I’d heard about it [grin], but it’s just because they don’t know.

So extrapolating from that, Eastern Catholicism is certainly terra incognita in Ireland and the UK. Even now, living in London, I’d have to make enquiries about where to attend one of their Masses.

Eastern Catholicism and Eastern Christianity are terra incognita here in the southern United States as well. I had a classmate who invited me to the Eastern Orthodox Holy Saturday Liturgy back in 1977. I cried because I realized just how much we had lost with Vatican II.

I am of Irish ancestry and I was baptized, made my First Communion, and was confirmed before Vatican II. I’m 57 and don’t think of myself as particularly “old”.

This Catholic knows all too well about mortal sin. This Catholic lives in fear for his mortal soul. (Don’t hear too much about that today, do you, boys and girls?)

I am still living the Catholic faith under which I was raised.

Layman, my Irish ancestors have been here in the United States since before Black '47, We’ve kept the cultural traditions from that time period that I don’t expect you to have followed them since they are 19th century customs.

I grew up with the Latin Mass. I was an altar boy. I’ve sung in a cathedral choir for 20 years. I am an anthropologist by training. I am quite happy to be gloriously Catholic.

Since I grew up before Vatican II, the Latin Mass is second nature to me. I got my first missal when I made my First Communion in 1957 and I got my big missal when I was confirmed in 1963. After all these years, I don’t need a missal to follow along with the Mass in Latin. I understand the Latin.

 

[sklenko]

You folks are blessed to have TLM in many resorts.
I am from Slovakia,where there are only 2 places where TLM is regularly celebrated (at least once a month).Otherwise,there is not a much of interest neither from laity nor from the clergy.
As one Dominican priest recently commented, especially young people brought up in traditional way of life (even if post-concilliar) desire to drift away from that enviroment and looking something new.That is why communities of charismatic renewal movement have success with young people when sharing the faith.Catholic post-communist countries such as mine which didn´t experience liturgical abuses after VII are now heeding for the same experiments peculiar to post-VII era.
I think it would take some time when those people see the intent of Motu Proprio and start looking for something like TLM. Just,my two cents.

 

[bpbasilphx]

I really don’t think this article had anything to do with attacking Eastern Catholicism, either, although I can understand how you would take it that way.

---

**I never did take the article as an attack on Eastern Catholicism, nor was I attacking the Extraordinary form.

Please re-read what I actually said.**

 

[bkovacs]

I live in Upper Bucks county and I can’t seem to find one Tridentine Mass, within a 10 mile radius. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has a long way to go before the TLM will become mainstream. It’s a good start, but way more is needed.

 

[Sarabande]

I really don’t think this article had anything to do with attacking Eastern Catholicism, either, although I can understand how you would take it that way.

---

**I never did take the article as an attack on Eastern Catholicism, nor was I attacking the Extraordinary form.

Please re-read what I actually said.**

I did not think you were attacking the EF, but you appeared to have been a bit sensitive about the article and your wording made it seem as if you felt as if it was attacking Eastern Catholicism in terms of the quote you took by Fortesque. Thank you for clarifying your thought processes on this, though.

 

[Sarabande]

I live in Upper Bucks county and I can’t seem to find one Tridentine Mass, within a 10 mile radius. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has a long way to go before the TLM will become mainstream. It’s a good start, but way more is needed.

No, unfortunately, the suburban areas around the Archdiocese is lacking in that. But in the city and around it, you are finding more TLMs. It’s one of the major reasons why my husband and I travel into the city for mass. You can find many more reverent OF and EF masses there than in the suburbs. Since I’m heavily involved in the music community around here, I get to hear a lot more about them happening. I know that the younger people are more interested in this, so there will be more of an uphill battle in the suburbs where the leftovers of my parents’ and grandparents’ generations are. For instance, the Director of Worship for the Archdiocese is trying to get all parishes to do more chant, the propers, etc. for mass, but I have yet to hear it done at mass in the suburbs, although have heard it done at mass in the city.

Beside all that, I think what is great is that the Archbishop is behind this. If we didn’t have that, none of this would have taken off the ground. It will take time, I think this is a much better start than in most dioceses.

 

[bkovacs]

No, unfortunately, the suburban areas around the Archdiocese is lacking in that. But in the city and around it, you are finding more TLMs. It’s one of the major reasons why my husband and I travel into the city for mass. You can find many more reverent OF and EF masses there than in the suburbs. Since I’m heavily involved in the music community around here, I get to hear a lot more about them happening. I know that the younger people are more interested in this, so there will be more of an uphill battle in the suburbs where the leftovers of my parents’ and grandparents’ generations are. For instance, the Director of Worship for the Archdiocese is trying to get all parishes to do more chant, the propers, etc. for mass, but I have yet to hear it done at mass in the suburbs, although have heard it done at mass in the city.

Beside all that, I think what is great is that the Archbishop is behind this. If we didn’t have that, none of this would have taken off the ground. It will take time, I think this is a much better start than in most dioceses.

It would be nice if there was a FSSP or an Institute of Christ the King parish in Upper Bucks County. My only exposure to traditional Catholicism is either the internet, or a friend of mine that I work with who brings me back traditional Catholic material from his SSPX mission church in Chicago.

 

[I_Believe]

… the current Archbishop of Philadelphia “made it a rule that all seminarians train in the traditional rite, as well as the new rite.”

 

[bpbasilphx]

I did not think you were attacking the EF, but you appeared to have been a bit sensitive about the article and your wording made it seem as if you felt as if it was attacking Eastern Catholicism in terms of the quote you took by Fortesque. Thank you for clarifying your thought processes on this, though.

My point is that what is “beautiful” and “natural” (especially the former) in liturgy is strictly subjective.

There may be some people who consider their happy-clappy NO to be beautiful and natural.

 

[Sarabande]

My point is that what is “beautiful” and “natural” (especially the former) in liturgy is strictly subjective.

There may be some people who consider their happy-clappy NO to be beautiful and natural.

True, but that wasn’t the point of the article - at least in my view - meaning when “beautiful” and “natural” was being used in the article, it was just expressing the views of those who are making the TLM happen in the Archdiocese and nothing more. All the same, thank you for clarifying your point.