[Erin] The battle for liturgical propriety

I'm convinced--from talking to people--that reverent forms (of the Novus or Latin varieties) of the Mass are preferred by parisheners. The silly stuff is wide-spread, but I don't think it's particularly rooted for by the majority of Catholics. I wonder--if we parisheners just made a concerted effort to seek out Masses that were of the more reverent variety, might this not help shift things? Wouldn't those in charge see that--numbers wise--there is a disproportionate supply vs. demand? I guess I'm mostly talking to people who live in big cities, and have the option of different parishes, from the super-silly to the Latin to everything in-between. But I know that even in smaller communities, some parishes have several options on a Sunday morning, some silly and some more reverent. Maybe it's not this easy, but I wonder: if the parisheners made it a priority for themselves, in as much as they have the option at all, could this help?

I'm in Rome now, with a group from the university where I teach. On Sunday we went to Mass at St. Peter's -- a Novus Ordo Mass celebrated in Latin by a crowd of priests, with many other clerics in attendance (including a cardinal, if I interpreted the regalia correctly). A choir from Monterey, CA sang; apparently they'd been preparing for a year.

I don't usually care for the Novus Ordo, in any language, but I have to say that it was really lovely, and really reverently done. And it was packed.

I agree that the guitars-and-felt-banners crowd is on the way out. More and more faithful Catholics want the reverence they feel is missing from their usual Sunday Masses. I love the traditional Mass and prefer it, but I recognize that it will always be a minority taste. But I think that as it becomes more common, it is going to exert a gravitational pull on the Novus Ordo, which I suspect is what Pope Benedict wanted.

As for a liturgy frozen in the past, that really applies to many Novus Ordo "folk Masses" these days. It astonishes me that so many self-proclaimed "hip" liturgists think that the way to appeal to young people is to drag out bad folk-ish guitar music from the 70s.

"Many Mass-goers are unaware of the fact, but the Catholic Church in England and Wales is sliding towards civil war".

Oh, not AGAIN!!

A couple of related points to note:

(1) Cardinal Castrillón said that it was the Holy Father's wish that the TLM be celebrated in all parishes throughout the world. Not "many" but "all".

(2) The SSPX has until 28 June to accept the conditions for a return to communion with Rome. The society would have the standing of a personal prelature similar to Opus Dei. Their seminaries would continue to train priests for the Gregorian/Tridentine/traditional liturgy.

Pope Benedict has been quite clear that he would like to see the old rite revived; even within the Novus Ordo he has distributed communion on the tongue to kneeling communicants. He has described the Novus Ordo as a fabrication; specifically it is a post-V2 service concocted by a freemason (Annibale Bugnini) and Protestant consultants. Our Bavarian Catholic pontiff clearly wants to purge the Reformation accretions from the Mass. He ought to profitably use his Australian junket to celebrate the Gregorian Mass for World Youth Day.

Yet the return to tradition will probably not be successful in the Church as presently constituted. Benedict has spoken of a "smaller" Church. That will undoubtedly be the remnant after the modernists and relativists and sexual libertines and women priestess / married clergy activists and abortion / contraception / embryonic stem cell liberals finally achieve their aims via schism. From my experience they are obnoxiously vociferous and adamantly perverse in pushing their un-Catholic agenda.

M.Z. Forrest: the good Cardinal was saying that the TLM should be seen as a necessary part of parish life and not optional. This is quite different than the interpretation many have placed upon his remarks as to mean that the EF should be offered in every parish come hell or high water.

Yes, I agree that is the pragmatic import of his remarks. After all, this was a wish, not a motu proprio, bull, brief, or encyclical. But as easy as was the descent to liturgical Avernus, the ascent to the empyrean will be difficult. Hostile forces are arrayed against it.

There should not be so much war over this. The TLM should be available in many in not all places. In its pure form it may be problematical since it requires some space in front the altar and many altars today have been moved forward on the elevated platform so there may be limited room for this. Plus some churches do not have communion rails. So some compromised may be needed for logistical reasons.

It is good that the TLM remains as a force to counter liturgical abuse with some Novus Ordo celebrations.

It would be wonderful if more people would go to both rites and get a mix.

Erin:

Honestly, in spite of 13 years of Catholic schooling, there are times when it's embarassing to be a Catholic.

This is one of them: The vision of an aged prelate processing to-and-fro in a 20 foot scarlet cape of watered silk conjures up three words:

Religious Drama Queen!

In stark contrast: Mother Theresa!

The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster was right to boycott this silly display!

Cruelly complex rubrics????

Whew. The author sure made his or her opinion clear there, eh?

Erin, I can sympathize with the overwhelmingness of figuring out what on earth is going on in the Latin Mass, but the beauty of it all is that even when you can't understand what the priest is saying, you can still "get it." The reverence is palpable.

And as far as feasibility goes, I sometimes attend a parish where the rite is celebrated in the church basement, with a VERY makeshift altar (backed by a bulletin board covered with fabric and a crucifix) and kneelers instead of a communion rail...

It is a long way from the best possible environment, but you can at least see the possibilities.

The sad thing is that there are chapels all over the place that retain all the necessary acoutrements, but either the 'powers that be' refuse to utilize them, or the local priests are so overwhelmed, managing up to 6 parishes by themselves, that no parishoner has the heart to ask the poor guy to add a Latin mass.

Does anybody find it strange that these poor priests (nearly always older priests...) are stretched to the extreme, while big liberal parishes have 4 or 5 priests in residence? Or that liberal seminaries have been caught turning away traditional applicants, while the few traditionalist seminaries are too full to accept any more applicants?