Latin Mass Appeal (Op-Ed in New York Times)

[basenji]

A nice op-ed piece by Kenneth J. Wolfe in today’s edition of the New York Times: Latin Mass Appeal

(This seemed a better forum for this than the generic Popular Media portion of CAF)

 

[jackinbox]

Thanks for the link. That was a great article.

 

[Shin]

Well well well, once in a blue moon, and it is a blue moon I hear soon…

Even the NY Times can actually have a decent OP-ED. Shocking but true.

Good article to read!

 

[Like]

Thanks for the link!

God bless Pope Benedict XVI!

 

[Ockham]

“Many of Bugnini’s reforms were aimed at appeasing non-Catholics, and changes emulating Protestant services were made, including placing altars to face the people instead of a sacrifice toward the liturgical east. As he put it, “We must strip from our … Catholic liturgy everything which can be the shadow of a stumbling block for our separated brethren, that is, for the Protestants.” (Paradoxically, the Anglicans who will join the Catholic Church as a result of the current pope’s outreach will use a liturgy that often features the priest facing in the same direction as the congregation.)”

I guess it is ironic that our Mass was Protestantized in an ecumenical gesture yet the only significant group of Protestants considering a return to the Church are Traditional Anglicans.

“Benedict understands that his younger priests and seminarians — most born after Vatican II — are helping lead a counterrevolution. They value the beauty of the solemn high Mass and its accompanying chant, incense and ceremony. Priests in cassocks and sisters in habits are again common; traditionalist societies like the Institute of Christ the King are expanding.”

Clearly this pope won’t do what Paul VI did and just do away with the OF. The liturgical liberals would go into schism. So the stategy is one of attrition. Wait for the aging hippy generation to die off before order can be restored. The Novus Ordo may not go away entirely but be religated to a more appropriate setting like outdoor folk Masses for those clamoring for them.

 

[ljubim]

“Benedict understands that his younger priests and seminarians — most born after Vatican II — are helping lead a counterrevolution. They value the beauty of the solemn high Mass and its accompanying chant, incense and ceremony. Priests in cassocks and sisters in habits are again common; traditionalist societies like the Institute of Christ the King are expanding.”

Clearly this pope won’t do what Paul VI did and just do away with the OF. The liturgical liberals would go into schism. So the stategy is one of attrition. Wait for the aging hippy generation to die off before order can be restored. The Novus Ordo may not go away entirely but be religated to a more appropriate setting like outdoor folk Masses for those clamoring for them.

I agree… to an extent. Personally (never been to EF yet… but I’m moving soon(for college) and I’m planning to be an EF junkie:thumbsup

I like the NO in one nearby parish, that is very orthodox, so orthodox I’m shocked that they don’t offer a Latin mass. As in half the congregation says Ah-men, we bow our heads during the Credo, etc. There’s zero abuses. But I think what’s so appealing about this particular parish is that it’s the most traditional OF I’ve ever seen (compared to music on a projection screen behind the altar… or no kneelers)

NO will survive until my parent’s generation are off to heaven. After that, when my generation is in charge, that’s when you’ll see the EF everywhere again. There will be some OFs for those people who like to be in orans position and sway around with their eyes closed to Christian rock in mass… but then probably by my children’s generation, or grandchildren’s, will things be back to normal And we’ll all laugh about the really weird things that happened back in the old days… and thank God that everything’s good now! I really believe this will happen… perhaps we will lose some lukewarm, Protestant-y Catholics along the way, but the gates of hell will not prevail against us.

 

[DOShea]

The Holy Father, being older than “the hippie generation” as you call it, likely won’t be here when they are all gone. I also think it’s a mistake to believe a return to the Mass of 50 years ago is going to solve so many problems.

Many seminaries don’t even teach Latin anymore. Recently, in a discussion with several younger priests in our diocese, all ordained between 3-5 years ago, this topic came up. Only one of them wanted to see any regular use of a Latin Mass, and every one of them favored a vernacular Mass. So I’m not so sure about this idea of a younger generation of priests so willing to jump back into 1960s worship.

I think there is a place for the Latin Mass, I respect people’s viewpoint that they find it a more beautiful expression of the Mass. Personally, having grown up in it and served those Masses, I don’t find it more beautiful, only different. I think there is ample room for the Mass in both forms.

 

[ljubim]

The Holy Father, being older than “the hippie generation” as you call it, likely won’t be here when they are all gone. I also think it’s a mistake to believe a return to the Mass of 50 years ago is going to solve so many problems.

Many seminaries don’t even teach Latin anymore. Recently, in a discussion with several younger priests in our diocese, all ordained between 3-5 years ago, this topic came up. Only one of them wanted to see any regular use of a Latin Mass, and every one of them favored a vernacular Mass. So I’m not so sure about this idea of a younger generation of priests so willing to jump back into 1960s worship.

I think there is a place for the Latin Mass, I respect people’s viewpoint that they find it a more beautiful expression of the Mass. Personally, having grown up in it and served those Masses, I don’t find it more beautiful, only different. I think there is ample room for the Mass in both forms.

That’s true. If there’s not a widespread movement back to Latin, however, we must have a movement back to the traditional, and get rid of such novelties as removing pews from churches, and saying that the miracle of loaves and fishes was not a miracle. Things like this are a danger to the faith.

 

[AJV]

The article has several factual errors. It would be nice if authors did a tad more fact checking when they wrote. Facing the people came in much earlier even if it only took off in the 60’s. Even folk music came in a tad earlier than Advent '69. I have since lost any surprise that Bugnini takes on mythic proportions in Traditionalist articles. He is the arch-villan who, apparently, did the ecclesiastical equivalent of everything from landing on the moon to inventing the pencil. I truly feel sorry for all the other *periti *who worked on the Mass and the Commissions, whose names are more or less subsumed into his. Not only, as I’ve been at pains to point out in the past, is Lefebvre’s paraphrase of Bugnini trotted out, but that old idea of Protestant observers is hinted at, despite the fact that they arrived on the scene well after most of the changes were made. Wonderfully as always, we are fed elements of the usual lore - in this case, Pope Paul VI not realizing that the Octave of Pentecost was abolished. While this is certainly a deliciously tragic tale, it’s not substantiated anywhere. Paul VI wasn’t a senile puppet - he was quite involved with the reform and most of what came out of it.

To be sure banality, desacralization and all kinds of nonsense have emerged from the reform. Nonetheless, articles would have a bit more punch if they didn’t rely on the usual myths that swirl around the Internet.

 

[ProVobis]

Many seminaries don’t even teach Latin anymore.

Doesn’t anyone take Canon Law seriously anymore?

Can. 249 The Charter of Priestly Formation is to provide that the students are not only taught their native language accurately, but are also well versed in Latin, and have a suitable knowledge of other languages which would appear to be necessary or useful for their formation or for the exercise of their pastoral ministry.