Is church unity worth a Latin Mass?

(RNS) — “Paris is neatly worth a Mass” was reportedly the attitude of King Henry IV when he was attempting to obtain the French throne. As a result, he converted from Protestantism to Catholicism in 1593. 

Today, the Eucharist, which is speculated to be the sacrament of unity, is simply too usually a battlefield between Catholics who assist the Traditional Latin Mass and of us that want to search it disappear. Each aspect want to ask themselves whether or no longer the combat is worth one thing extra important than Paris: the unity of the church.

You wants to be my age to bear in thoughts before the Second Vatican Council, when the liturgy was totally in Latin in Catholic churches, aside from in these using Eastern Rite liturgies, where it was usually in Greek. In Rome, it had been changed from Greek into Latin in the third and fourth centuries so the normal other folks may perhaps understand it — a pragmatic resolution, no longer a theological one.

After I was younger, we took it for granted that the Mass was in Latin. It was one thing that made us various from Protestants. We may perhaps lumber to the same Mass anywhere on the earth. The Scripture readings had been in Latin, although on Sunday the priest would reread the Gospel in English before giving his sermon. In any other case, except you had a translation, you had no idea what the readings had been.

The Eucharistic prayer was the priest’s prayer, which he said at the side of his back to us. The altar boy would ring the bells to express us when the priest raised the host and chalice for us to adore. The bell also rang to call us to Communion.

Other than that, the priest did his thing and the congregation passively watched or prayed in silence.

In high college from 1958 to 1962, I had a St. Joseph’s Missal with Latin on one aspect of the page and English on the alternative so that I may perhaps discover what the priest was praying after I went to daily Mass, nonetheless that was no longer the norm. My parents had prayerbooks they read at some level of Mass that had no connection to what the priest was doing. Others in the church silently said their rosaries at some level of Mass.

And before the 20th century, Communion was infrequent. My parents had been among the primary younger other folks allowed to head to Communion. Individuals that want to declare back the Tridentine liturgy, in the event that they want to be really traditional, must calm lumber to Communion less usually and no longer allow their younger other folks to head to Communion. In any other case they are accepting early 20th-century innovations.

Although I entered the Jesuits before the Second Vatican Council and went thru a very traditional novitiate, I did no longer obtain the liturgical changes complicated to accept. Our conservative novice master taught us a course on the history of the Mass using Josef A. Jungmann’s “Mass of the Roman Rite,” which was revealed in English in 1951. It taught us that the Mass was always changing at some level of history.

The transition was also made easier by our traditional novitiate’s emphasis on obedience. If the church decided to change the liturgy, we had been to accept it without examine. To enact otherwise would be disobedient.

The Jesuits in charge of formation had been no assist at some level of the transition. They had been clueless about what was happening. The classics professors argued about how we must calm say “Amen” in English. The first time our superior said the Eucharistic prayer in English, he got as far as the institutional narrative and switched to “Hoc est enim corpus meum.” The next day, he was able to enact it all in English.

Some of my classmates had problems with the transition. Earlier than ordination in 1973, one confessed that it legal wasn’t the same because in the weak church, after ordination, he would be allowed to contact the consecrated bread for the primary time. Now anyone may perhaps obtain Communion in the hand. It was as if part of his priesthood had been taken away.

But for essentially the most part, the liturgical changes had been accepted and carried out with pleasure and joy. They had been essentially the most viewed reforms of Vatican II. And after a little bit of bewilderment, they had been accepted overwhelmingly by Catholics in the pews.

But there have been two groups of holdouts.

First, there have been of us that came upon the change complicated because they had been faded to the weak ways and the reforms weren’t neatly explained. Popes Paul VI and John Paul II wanted to deal with these other folks with pastoral sensitivity and patience, nonetheless the popes made clear that eventually, the weak Mass was to fade away.

The opposite community of holdouts was extra problematic. They objected to the recent liturgy in principle and felt it was blasphemous. In fact, these ideologues objected to all the reforms of the council, no longer legal liturgy. They had been divisive and contentious.

These varieties of dissenters had been led into schism by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, regardless of all the Vatican’s efforts to appease him. To undermine Lefebvre and catch back schismatics to the church, the Vatican approved extra frequent celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass. This strategy was partially profitable, as exemplified by Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, which celebrates the weak Mass nonetheless is in unity with the pope.

But there was an unanticipated aspect attain: Some who grew up after Vatican II began to attend these Latin Masses. Most weren’t ideologues, nonetheless pious, theologically unsophisticated Catholics who had been attracted by the ritual and mysterious ceremony that allowed them to focal level on adoration and private prayer without the distraction of communal participation.

It is miles a mistake for liturgical reformers to lump this third community in with the ideologues who reject Vatican II. These are legal, devout these that want to near nearer to Jesus and obtain spiritual nourishment in the weak liturgy. Their existence is a result of our failure to raised explain the reforms and to make the recent liturgy extra appealing to them. We must calm have encouraged them to head to Benediction and explained the way it is various from Mass.

Pope Benedict XVI erred in taking away the local bishop’s regulate over the Latin Mass and allowing any priest to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass anywhere, any time. Pope Francis erred in seeing supreme the ideologues and no longer the pious Catholics who cherished the weak Mass. 

Now, dismal Pope Leo XIV have to resolve out easy deal with this mess in a pastoral way that does no longer empower the ideologues and affirms that the Traditional Latin Mass have to eventually fade away. Here is why he will get the broad bucks.

Leo must calm maintain in place the Francis mandate that seminarians are to be trained and ordained for the reformed liturgy. If they just like the weak Mass, they must calm no longer be ordained.

On the alternative hand, Francis’ ban on the Latin Mass in parishes may perhaps have extra flexibility. It may perhaps make sense to near the authority over this to diocesan bishops, although some may desire to blame the Vatican for no longer allowing it. And but, this is exactly the roughly dispute that wants to be handled in a synodal fashion at the local stage. And diocesan bishops can extra easily resolve whether or no longer these asking for the Latin Mass are pious Catholics or ideologues, and reply accordingly.

In any case, I’d maintain some limits on the availability of the Latin Mass. It wants to be banned on major feasts fancy Christmas, Holy Week, Easter and holy days, so that the total community can gather for and take part in these feasts. And, the Latin Mass must calm no longer be available every Sunday. Every person must calm skills the recent liturgy on a regular basis, at least as soon as a month, especially families with younger other folks. If one totally rejects the reformed liturgy, then one is out of step with the church.

Meanwhile, Leo must calm relaunch liturgical reform. The 1998 English translation of the Roman missal by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy wants to be approved. Individual prefaces wants to be written for each Sunday in the A, B and C cycles of Scripture readings. Unusual Eucharistic prayers that are extra scriptural wants to be written.

Henry IV compromised his faith to catch Paris. Catholics of all stripes wants to be able to compromise on the liturgy to maintain the unity of the church. We have to always admire and care for one another, regardless of our liturgical differences. And everyone must calm know that we are Christians by our care for, no longer know that we are Catholics by our fights.