Using Missal of 1965?

[MarkThompson]

I strongly agree. Look at SC:

1. Lastly, in faithful obedience to tradition, the sacred Council declares that holy Mother Church holds all lawfully acknowledged rites to be of equal right and dignity; that she wishes to preserve them in the future and to foster them in every way. The Council also desires that, where necessary, the rites be revised carefully in the light of sound tradition, and that they be given new vigor to meet the circumstances and needs of modern times.
   See? The council didn’t even ask that everything be revised, as it has been. It asks that
   where necessary it be revised “in the light of sound tradition.”

So you’d expect that a large proportion of the thousands of bishops who approved Sacrosanctum Concilium would be on record as disapproving the new Mass – or at least doing their best to minimize the changes and maximize continuity, in keeping with your interpretation of what SC was asking for. Wouldn’t you?

 

[archangel04]

J.M.J.
A brother priest of mine- an orthodox Spiritan Father- would like to know if it would be permissible for him to offer Holy Mass according to the Missal of 1965. I am also a bit curious myself. The texts of the Mass are a lot closer to the traditional Latin Mass, and seem a lot more reverent, especially putting more emphasis on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Both of us were ordained after the Second Vatican Council, and we have managed to already obtain some liturgically approved missals from 1965. If anyknow knows, could you answer the following questions:

1. Would it be required to seek permission from the Bishop (or in my friend’s case, his Superiors)- and would they be allowed to give this permission?
2. Would the use of the '65 Missal be restricted to private Masses, or if so desired, could it also be used for public Masses. We are considering the '65 just for our private Masses. For public Masses, I am more thinking of my priest-friend while he is out in the missions, trying to bring extra reverence to the liturgy.

Thanks very much for your time and effort to answer these questions. May Our Lord and His Holy Mother bless and keep you!

Two word for you Fr, that is ad orientem in my opinion this pratice is very underatted. The current missal allows your to celebrate the mass in this direction. You might get the “why are you turning your back towards us” comments but who cares! I will say again and again if you wan’t more reverence in the mass it needs to be focus towards God, not us. Ad orientem is the first step.

 

[Oblationem]

Two word for you Fr, that is ad orientem in my opinion this pratice is very underatted. The current missal allows your to celebrate the mass in this direction. You might get the “why are you turning your back towards us” comments but who cares! I will say again and again if you wan’t more reverence in the mass it needs to be focus towards God, not us. Ad orientem is the first step.

J.M.J.
Thank you everyone for the above comments. Yes, Mass ad orientem is most reverent. I say Mass this way as often as possible- especially private Masses.

Since so many people have put their time and effort into these thoughtful responses, I thought it only fair to give you an update. My brother priest- the Spiritan whom I mentioned previously- has asked some of his Spiritan superiors about permission for using the 1965 Missal for his private Masses. In more words or less, they said “Go ahead; we give you permission to use the '65 Missal if you want.” They basically said “We don’t have any problems with you using it as long as it’s only for private Masses.”

Now they didn’t give any sort of formal dispensation- just a sort of “word-of-mouth” permission. Those of you who are knowledgable: do you think this is valid? I didn’t know the superiors could just give permission like that. Their reasoning was along the following lines: since it is an authorized Missal, valid Eucharistic prayer, correct rubrics, etc. it is okay. Would you go ahead with their blessing? They just didn’t want it celebrated publicly to create the appearance of an “alternative” Missal being used. I might also add that private Masses are uncommon among most/all of the other Spiritans- so it probably doesn’t make a difference to them. (But not for the two of us- we haven’t missed one single daily Mass over the course of our priesthoods!) I hope that I’ve explained everything.

Thanks again, and God bless you all for your good efforts!