Groundswell of support may revive use of Latin Mass

Morning Call ^ | October 29, 2006 | Daniel Patrick Sheehan

[NYer]

Four decades of change in the Roman Catholic Church have made the Latin Mass, the beloved rite of centuries, a stranger in its own house. So when an under-50 Catholic beholds the venerable ceremony for the first time, it's with the surprised and wondering eyes of a tourist.

''Introibo ad altare Dei,'' says the priest, his back facing the congregation, uttering Latin more familiar nowadays from fiction — the opening of James Joyce's ''Ulysses,'' where Buck Mulligan flippantly uses the phrase on his way to shave — than from exposure on Sunday. It means ''I will go in unto the altar of God,'' and it opens an hour of reverent, murmured worship defined as much by its silences as its words.

The Mass, formally called the Tridentine Mass because it was codified under Pope Pius V at the 16th century Council of Trent, was supplanted by the Mass of Pope Paul VI — the largely vernacular Novus Ordo, or new order — in the 1970s.

That was a decade of jarringly rapid change in the church as the reforms of the Second Vatican Council — which called for the church to open itself to the modern world — were implemented. The loss of the Tridentine rite, which could only be celebrated afterward by special permission, devastated many Catholics, some of whom departed for the unchanged liturgies of Orthodox churches or retreated into resistance or outright schism as they strove to sustain the old ways of worship.

[Pyro7480]

Thanks NYer! I had just read this article.

[Salvation]

**Groundswell of support may revive use of Latin Mass**

In the U. S.??

With the U. S. bishops??

(Yes, I realize I am being very skeptical.)

[Notwithstanding]

Glad you posted this! I just opened up FR to post it myself, planning to ping you.

I was born after the council, but long for consistency in liturgy that I realize after all these many decades can only be found in the Latin Mass.

[Frank Sheed]

Served it at the foot of the altar into high school, can still recite the Confiteor (albeit with mistakes) and look eagerly for its return on a wider basis.

Francis himself

[Coleus]

What Paul VI should have done is what maybe Benedict XVI may do--have both type of masses offered on Sundays giving people a choice on how they should worship. Communion in the hand leads to many abuses. I was recently told by someone that every Sunday a man in his parish puts the host in his mouth and breaks a piece off taking it with him.

[goodform]

''Introibo ad altare Dei,'' says the priest, his back facing the congregation

Correction: ...the priest, facing our Lord...

[Maeve]

I read things like this and all the years of Irish dancing just come to the fore and I have to get up and dance in joy!

[CatholicLady]

"his back facing the congregation"

Every time I see this worded this way it makes me furious.

His back is not facing the congregation but rather his "front" is facing Christ as are the rest of the congregation.

[ducdriver]

Exactly. And how can a "back", "face"? Maybe you don't want to have that answer.