[The following is taken from a bulletin insert from last year, written by Father Lappe]Two years ago, in July of 2007 our Holy Father Pope Benedict issued two letters on the liturgy – the first was a Motu Proprio, which means it sets down provisions or norms by the Holy Father’s own Authority and was entitled Summorum Pontificum. The second was an accompanying letter to all the bishops of the world on the implementation of the Motu Proprio.
When these letters were issued the most common headline read, “Pope Brings Back Latin Mass”. That is really inaccurate as every priest, everywhere has always been permitted to celebrate the Mass in Latin in its entirety. The Latin Language is not what was at issue. The other most commonly mentioned perception of the document was that the priest would now be permitted to say Mass facing, “with the People” toward the Altar. Again, that has always been permitted after the Second Vatican Council in fact in the rubrics of the Mass as we say it, there are parts which say things like, “The priest, facing the people, says aloud, ‘Lord, I am not worthy…” and the “Facing the Altar he says…”
So the document was really not about language nor about the direction the priest faces. What the document did do was allow for the priest to use the Missal that Blessed John XXIII promulgated in 1962. This is generally called the Tridentine Missal, because it was approved at the council of Trent which began in 1562. Those of you who remember the Mass before the post-Vatican II changes remember that there were a number of ceremonial differences from the way Mass is celebrated using the Missal of Paul VI which began being used in 1970.
In the Tridentine Missal there were prayers at the foot of the altar, a very different set of prayers were said at the offertory, a number of the prayers we say once were repeated, there was the last Gospel at the end of Mass, there were many small things that happened that many people were not aware of that the priest did, for instance he made the sign of the cross 52 times throughout the Mass.
Again, its not about Latin, its not about the direction the priest faced, its not even about the people saying the Rosary during Mass and only the altar boy doing the responses. Those may be the most noticed things that have changed since the Second Vatican Council, but those things were neither essential to the old usage of the liturgy, nor are they mandated by the new usage.
Since 1970 there has always been an “indult”, which means special permission, given for certain older priests, or religious communities allowing for the usage of the Missal of Blessed John XXIII, and then in 1984, Pope John Paul II asked that Bishops throughout the world would be “generous” in giving permission for priests to offer that Mass. This Motu Proprio simply continues that permission, but in a universal way, so that the Bishop no longer needs to give his permission.
The most important point however is why -- why did the Holy Father feel that this was an important step at this time? The first and simplest reason is why not? Why not allow for all that the faith allows? Why not allow for legitimate diversity within the worship of the Universal Church? Why not remove any unnecessary obstacles to those who have left the church and gone into schism over the liturgy? He is not forbidding anything or taking anything away, but rather, he is simply adding to the richness of the Church’s liturgy.
The second reason, which is very important, is that, as Pope Benedict wrote in his accompanying letter, “In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but no rupture. What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful.” Our Holy Father would like us to see more clearly the organic growth and development which is necessary for liturgical renewal.
Some people asserted, at that time, that the Pope was seeking to roll back the clock, and to undo the work of the Second Vatican Council. No, the Mass according to the Missal of Paul VI continues to be the ordinary form of the liturgy, whereas the previous form will be “extraordinary”. What he is doing is restoring a sense of the rootedness, of the universality of the church, that it is a church with a history which takes us back, not just to the 1960s and not just to the 16th century with the Council of Trent, but back to the very beginning with the Apostles at the Last Supper, with Christ at Calvary.
In the Motu Proprio article 5, it states: “In parishes, where there is a stable group of faithful who adhere to the earlier liturgical tradition, the pastor should willingly accept their requests to celebrate the Mass according to the rite of the Roman Missal published in 1962, and ensure that the welfare of these faithful harmonises with the ordinary pastoral care of the parish, under the guidance of the bishop in accordance with canon 392, avoiding discord and favouring the unity of the whole Church.”
After having received many requests in my past year and a half here at Our Lady Star of the Sea for the Extraordinary Form of the Liturgy I have decided to begin to offer that Mass on a regular basis. We will celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass on the third Tuesday of the Month at 7:00 PM.
