What are the minimum requirements for practising Catholics which will not imperil the soul?
The background is that last week the Hail Mary was dropped from the mass and replaced with a Latin song (only a few people knew it and we thought it was a one off) and this week, without notice the Lord Have Mercy was replaced with Latin (again, only a few knew it). We have been told that all Sunday masses will be part Latin and part English (even though only a handful of people speak the language). There are Latin masses for Latin speakers, in fact there were masses for most languages, but now it looks like the Church in our area sees no need to cater for native English people. I cannot fully participate in a mass, if I do not understand it; and refuse to offer vain and repetitious prayers.
I have emailed Father to ask why this is happening and if there will English masses offered for people who do not understand Latin. The whole thing is very distressing and frightening (it is one step away from Jesus saying “Go away, I don’t know you”), if the Church founded by Jesus rejects you then there is little hope and nowhere to go.
I do not think our parish priest has willingly done this and suspect it is from the Bishop. I just do not understand. All I can think of is trying to get to the root of what is the minimum requirements if the Church will not allow me to meet my obligations without compromising integrity.
Your post brings back many memories of days before I reached the moment of retirement from pastoral responsibility. When I was a pastor, it was very painful to confront the reality that, whatever decision I made, there would be people not only unhappy but invariably outraged.
In some places the diocesan bishop and in other places the priests more recently ordained have a zeal for Latin less present than in another time. It is a language that I taught once upon a time, one I came to know in my distant youth. On the one hand, I appreciated those who had some interest in the language. I always understood those who had no interest in it. It is a language. It played a unique role in Christianity – some positive, some negative.
In
Sacrosanctum Concilium and in
Jubilate Deo there is expressed the need that Latin be “preserved” and that there are parts of the Mass that every Roman Rite Catholic ought to be able to say and even sing. On the other hand, the Council Fathers said that ultimately the extent of the use of the vernacular they permitted was to be determined by the Conferences of Bishops diffused throughout the world and that their determinations then had to be confirmed by the Holy See. The determination of the world’s bishops, who are the successors to the apostles after all, was that the extension of the vernacular was to be without limit. And in each manifestation of this determination, the Holy See gave confirmation.
I confess, I am confused by one thing you say…“Latin speakers.” I don’t encounter them very often…and the largest concentration I have found are actually in Finland, remarkably. Since you reference English, I make bold to presume that you are not Finnish. Is it possible you find yourself in a parish where there is a university that has a Classics department?
For some people, Latin evokes nostalgia from their youth. For others, it is evocative of something they did not experience. Some like it. I remember, for example, in the years after the reform of the liturgy, we had two Masses in Latin in the diocese – and one other Mass weekly in which those parts of the ordinary that were sung were sung in Latin. These Masses were sparsely attended but those who did so were there because of the Latin and the Masses complied with preserving Latin’s use in the diocese; the contemplative nuns in the diocese also retained the use of Latin.
There are others, of course, who do not care for Latin and do not miss it or want to encounter it – and you are obviously in that camp. Like many of my confreres in the priesthood, I have dealt with both ends of the spectrum and every point in between relative to affinity for the language and its place in contemporary liturgy.
Beyond writing to your pastor, I encourage to write to the bishop of your diocese. Having worked in a chancery, I can assure you that people do write in to manifest their thoughts. There are those writing to ask for more Latin. There are those writing to express that they are grateful for the Masses that are completely and exclusively in the vernacular. You may add your voice to that side of the discussion. It is actually important to do that so that what the bishop “hears” is representative of his flock and not simply the clamoring of one or another segment.
I do counsel you, however, to accurately relay to the bishop what precisely is being done in Latin by your parish priest. It would irrevocably damage your credibility if you overstate the case…as the bishop will almost certainly query the priest about what he is actually doing (or have a curial official do so) in response to your letter. A marked disparity between the two expositions – from you and from the priest – will cause the bishop to inquire further and would cause him displeasure if he learns that the one writing to him exaggerated the matter.
Are you, perhaps, in a place where you can attend Mass in another parish or chapel that does not use Latin?
Finally, in answer to Ecclesiastical Latin not being “Latin Latin” (I am not sure how to understand that) I will just add that Ecclesiastical Latin truly is Latin…it is distinguishable to a Latinist. And, of course, in your own prayers, you would never have to use a language you don’t wish to use.
