Posted on 06/19/2008 12:45:51 PM PDT by Ebenezer
LONDON (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI would like every Catholic parish in the world to celebrate a regular Tridentine-rite Mass, a Vatican cardinal has said.
Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos also told a June 14 press conference in London that the Vatican was writing to all seminaries to ask that candidates to the priesthood are trained to celebrate Mass according to the extraordinary form of the Latin rite, also known as the Tridentine Mass, restricted from the 1970s until July 2007 when Pope Benedict lifted some of those limits.
The cardinal, who was visiting London at the invitation of the Latin Mass Society, a British Catholic group committed to promoting Mass in the Tridentine rite of the 1962 Roman Missal, said it was "absolute ignorance" to think that the pope was trying to reverse the reforms of the Second Vatican Council by encouraging use of the rite.
"The Holy Father, who is a theologian and who was (involved) in the preparation for the council, is acting exactly in the way of the council, offering with freedom the different kinds of celebration," he said.
"The Holy Father is not returning to the past; he is taking a treasure from the past to offer it alongside the rich celebration of the new rite," the cardinal added.
When asked by a journalist if the pope wanted to see "many ordinary parishes" making provision for the Tridentine Mass, Cardinal Castrillon, a Colombian, said: "All the parishes. Not many, all the parishes, because this is a gift of God.
"He (Pope Benedict) offers these riches, and it is very important for new generations to know the past of the church," said Cardinal Castrillon, president of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei," which works to help separated traditionalist Catholics return to the church.
"This kind of worship is so noble, so beautiful," he said. "The worship, the music, the architecture, the painting, makes a whole that is a treasure. The Holy Father is willing to offer to all the people this possibility, not only for the few groups who demand it but so that everybody knows this way of celebrating the Eucharist in the Catholic Church."
He also said his commission, which also is responsible for overseeing the application of "Summorum Pontificum," the 2007 papal decree authorizing the universal use of the Tridentine rite, was in the process of writing to seminaries not only to equip seminarians to celebrate Mass in Latin but to understand the theology, the philosophy and the language of such Masses.
The cardinal said parishes could use catechism classes to prepare Catholics to celebrate such Masses every Sunday so they could "appreciate the power of the silence, the power of the sacred way in front of God, the deep theology, to discover how and why the priest represents the person of Christ and to pray with the priest."
In "Summorum Pontificum," Pope Benedict indicated that Tridentine Masses should be made available in every parish where groups of the faithful desire it and where a priest has been trained to celebrate it. He also said the Mass from the Roman Missal in use since 1970 remains the ordinary form of the Mass, while the celebration of the Tridentine Mass is the extraordinary form.
The document did not require all parishes to automatically establish a Tridentine Mass schedule, but it said that where "a group of faithful attached to the previous liturgical tradition exists stably," the pastor should "willingly accede" to their request to make the Mass available.
Cardinal Castrillon told the press conference, however, that a stable group could mean just three or four people who were not necessarily drawn from the same parish.
Later in the day, Cardinal Castrillon celebrated the first pontifical high Mass in the Tridentine rite in London's Westminster Cathedral in 39 years. The event drew a congregation of more than 1,500 people, including young families. None of the English or Welsh bishops attended.
Faith of Our Fathers ping
Good. Probably impossible to fully implement, but the effort alone would be an excellent development.
How about just a nice NO without innovation?
No handholding, no laity doing orans, no made up or added words. Like historically correct?
This is about the sixth article I’ve seen on this..I would expect them to fight it tooth and nail here in Boston.
Despite the fact that you talk to people who haven’t been to a Mass in the Extraordinary form since it was the Ordinary form (40 years) and say how much they miss it.
I think if it was in each Parish, except in hokey pokey land it would quickly become popular in each given parish.
Three teeth?
That sounds great.
I think it would inform people on how to do the NO better.
I pray you’re right, but sadly, I think innovative masses remain that way.
They are huge Broadway productions with a part for everyone. (and I am a lector, btw) Very little concentration on Jesus in the Eucharist. People aren’t going to give up the ego boost of being the “star”. Whether it be the cantor “lifting up” the responses, the laity doing the “and also with you” toss or everyone taking the priestly position of “Hands Extended” during the Our Father, it’s become miles away fromt the TLM. Catholics today won’t recognize much in the TLM. And silence, whoda thunk it?
Just look at how many parishes has the tabernacle squirreled away someplace. Not Christ centered at all. People bow to an altar with a presider’s chair behind. Bad, really bad.
Better they start discouraging the Catholic wave, sprinkle in Latin and Greek and basically take a cue from EWTN. Their NO is what should be in EACH parish, even if the noon mass is innovation central.
I’ve never stopped to analyze it by that “lifting up” of the responses by the cantor has always given me a bit of a queasy feeling. And I’ve gotten to where I don’t even do the bit about crossing forehead, lips, and heart at the Gospel anymore — and ten years ago I thought that was the greatest thing going.
We’ve got the sign of the cross and genuflection. I don’t see why we need anything more.
I will refrain from comment on this.
Pope Benedict, I love you.
Anybody can do this! Anybody! We're enchanting!
(Not to mention Incensed...)
If you need anything in particular, do let me know.
How's the Latin Ordinary of the Mass working out? If you just sing the chant in the rhythm of speech, you'll be fine. Don't worry about the stresses and points in the Solesmes method at first (but I'll bet the Chant Kit says that right up front!)
(Not to mention Incensed...)
**************
LOL! Mrs. Don-o, enchanting you are. :)
Don't think that's an innovation. It's in the GIRM as well.
Not an innovation -- definitely was part of the TLM!
Yes! The “On my mind, on my lips and in my heart” gesture before the gospel is very traditional and is in the GIRM.
Anything that is not in the GIRM, Handholding, Orans for the laity, the “lift up your hearts” toss (I have no idea what to even call that) and the like, should not be done. Let’s work on the NO before we put a TLM into every parish. Every Vicariate, sure thing. A Historic NO, should be first and foremost in EVERY parish so people understand what we are all doing. Clean up the ordinary before pushing the extraordinary.
Last time I was in Cleveland, I went to a parish that replaced the Orans/handholding with a gesture that looked like someone was holding a gun on the entire congregation. Even the priest was in a “stick um up” position.
Until we clean up that stuff, the TLM needs to remain available but not pushed.
Miserere Domine, progress has been so-o-o-o slow. But I aim not to be slothful. I aim to stick with it. If you have a bead available on your Rosary, please pray for me.
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