Mass in Latin?
Comments(0)There are literally dozens of news stories being posted to Google from the BBC News, San Jose Mercury News, Telegraph.co.uk, and the Seattle Post Intelligencer (those last just today; there are more articles posted from October 10-11 as well!) on the Pope allowing for the celebration of the Tridentine Rite Mass without permission from the local ordinary.
I just said a bunch of words that people may not understand. So let’s back up and find out what these things are. First, the easy one: Ordinary. That is, the Bishop of the diocese in which a person lives. Normally, to celebrate a Rite (that is, style of Mass or worship service) other than the Rite under which you normally reside, the priest would need the permission of the ordinary. The Pope may soon circumvent this restriction and allow the Tridentine Rite to be celebrated unless the ordinary forbids it in writing, at the discretion of the parrish priest.
What is the Tridentine Rite? It is a fancy name for the Mass said in Latin. There are certain other conventions which are foreign to most younger Catholics, such as the celebrant kneeling facing the altar instead of the congregation. This, according to Roman Catholic tradition, is the way the Mass has been said for over 400 years prior to the Vatican II Council and it is the way that many Catholic conservatives would like the Mass to continue to be said.
I’m not Catholic, but I do attend Catholic Mass from time to time (since my family is Catholic). I, for one, would like to be able to understand what I’m hearing. Personally, I can’t worship in spirit and in truth, as Jesus commands, if I don’t know what is being said. I don’t like answering a celebrant who, for all I know, just told me to commit myself to the Dark Lord Voldemort and swear to be a Death Eater for All Time.
Okay, that’s sarcasm. But really, I can’t understand why anyone would be in favor of this. But, I will–ever the dutiful apologist–follow this story closely and report on it. This should prove to be very interesting.
