Priest Actively Discouraging Me From Attending EF Mass

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Hello all! I’m currently attending an Ordinary Form parish, but I’ve been wanting more and more to go to an EF Mass, there is a church in my city that offers it, and I’ve been considering on going. I’ve been studying Latin, and I really love the beauty of the Extraordinary Form.

I’ve purchased a 1962 missal, but when I brought it to my priest to bless it he looked disgusted. He said “Why do you even have this?” I explained to him my desire to also attend an EF Mass in our city, and he explained to me that I need to be careful about that “old stuff”, and that the EF Mass is anachronistic and that is why the Church changed the Mass.

I was quite shocked my priest would ever discourage me from attending Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Both the OF and EF are valid rites within the Church yes?
 
Some priests just don’t know better. Let me guess – is he in his 50s or 60s?
 
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Around here, you have to drive about 2 hours to get to your closest FSSP parish. On the occasions when I’ve tentatively broached the subject of whether a “regular” priest had ever thought of offering a Tridentine Latin Mass as an option, it’s usually been laughed off. They don’t have the training for it, they don’t have the personal interest in it, and if they did ever have training— well, that was so long ago— etc. It’s discouraged, but in a lighthearted way.

I’ve experienced much more hostility from EF priests towards the OF. They point out that previously, changes to the Mass had grown organically, and Vatican 2 was inorganic. Or they don’t like Communion for the congregation under both species because they think it’s gross-- “I’d be afraid of the backwash.” Or stuff like that.

So generally, go to the Mass you want to go to, because it calls to you, or because you’re curious, or because you just have an interest. Whether it’s a folk mass, or an OF rite, or an EF rite, or in Spanish with a mariachi band, or whatever. But don’t expect anyone, whether they’re a priest or not, from Column A to share your enthusiasm for worship a la Column B---- and it’s human nature, if we see someone doing something we disagree with (or merely don’t understand), to want to ‘correct’ them, even if there’s nothing actually wrong. 🙂 But it boils down to the concept of “all of my friends don’t necessarily have to be friends with each other”. You just have to keep everyone in their own box.

So get your EF priest to bless your 1962 Missal, and go to the EF Mass, and be very happy that you have one within reasonable distance of yourself. 💚
 
Yes, he is! My priest went to seminary in the 1970s, at the height of the Vatican II reforms when the Church was essentially dumping all the old traditions in favor of reform.
 
There you have it – he feels like you are rejecting all those wonderful groovy things he helped put in place in the 1970s! I have a pastor about the same age, and he’s not too excited about the EF either. : ) Maybe if you are positive without being pushy, he can see the value of it?
 
We cannot jump to conclusions, especially uncharitable conclusions, about our OP’s pastor. Perhaps the only “EF” mass in town is offered by a congregation not in communion with Rome.
 
I’m glad you asked that question, I’ve done my homework, and we actually have two churches in my city (Kansas City) that offer EF Mass, one is SSPX (St. Vincent de Paul Church, and will not go there), the other is at the Old St. Patrick Oratory which is in full communion with Rome. Our bishop (James Johnston) has sometimes made occasional appearances for Mass at the oratory as well.
 
Scott84 said:
I was quite shocked my priest would ever discourage me from attending Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Both the OF and EF are valid rites within the Church yes?
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My advice would be to just go to the EF Mass in the other parish without mentioning it to the OF priest. And conversely, when you’re in the other church, it would probably be safer not to tell people there that you also go to the OF mass (which they probably call the Novus Ordo Mass).
 
Both the OF and EF are valid within the Church. That being said, something about the EF seems to foster a more reverent atmosphere. I’d say go to the EF Mass at the Oratory and ask the priest there bless the missal.
 
Question: Has he actually read Vatican II documents? I find that extremes on both sides, the ones that blame V II for all the Church’s ills, and the other that thinks the Church has become a different body altogether often haven’t. As long as the EF Mass is in a canonically regular status, I say go, if you wold like to.
 
Scott84 said:
, at the height of the Vatican II reforms when the Church was essentially dumping all the old traditions in favor of reform.
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It appears that you , as much as your priest , have problems .

Do you speak in such terms to your priest ?
 
We’ve had our discussions, and a historical fact remains a historical fact, no matter if you use politically correct language or not.
 
Scott84 said:
Both the OF and EF are valid rites within the Church yes?
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Yes, they are. You have every right to attend the EF Mass, as long as they’re in communion with Rome.

Perhaps he was concerned that you were going to the SSPX Mass?
 
I try and have some compassion on priests from this time period who are like this. They are men of their time and often this is what they were taught. In many ways, they are the anachronism, stuck in those optimistic days, in denial about the role they played in the rapid decline that has followed.

Just bring the missal with you and ask the priest who offers the traditional Latin Mass to bless it.
 
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Scott84 said:
I was quite shocked my priest would ever discourage me from attending Mass in the Extraordinary Form
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Maybe the priest was planning to ask you to volunteer for the Usher Corps or even to be an EMHC, and he seeing his plans get foiled? After all, he is familiar enough with you that you felt comfortable enough to approach him on this matter.
 
Scott84 said:
I’m glad you asked that question, I’ve done my homework, and we actually have two churches in my city (Kansas City) that offer EF Mass, one is SSPX (St. Vincent de Paul Church, and will not go there), the other is at the Old St. Patrick Oratory which is in full communion with Rome. Our bishop (James Johnston) has sometimes made occasional appearances for Mass at the oratory as well.
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Then all is well and you should be fine there.

If your priest was in the seminary in 1970 then he was being taught why the Mass was changing, and those reasons would have been focused on the pros of the new mass the cons of the old.

Many new seminarians today are being taught to bring tradition back and to have a healthy balance.

Also, some older priests see the EF in terms of what their Seminary experience was like before the new mass, not so much the Mass itself. Most of them don’t want to go back to the way priestly life was before Vatican II. So some of those older priests see the EF (rightly or wrongly) as an attempt to bring back the old days, even the bad parts of the old days.

Finally, the EF today is said VERY reverently and everyone there is typically very devout, which is why it’s very beautiful. But before Vatican II, you had the priests who were liturgical abusers flying through the mass and average, non-devout Catholics lost in the pews.

Therefore, many of the older priests remember the way things were before the new mass legitially fixed them, but since most of them have never been to an EF mass post Vatican II, they don’t realize that it isn’t the same latin mass they remember.

I hope this helps.

God Bless
 
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