Traditionalist Catholics
Una Voce is an organization to promote the Traditional Latin Mass in the Catholic Church. At their conference in Providence, Rhode Island this weekend there has been a list of impressive speakers, including Father Joseph Wilson who kicked off the conference with a talk that sparked a lot of laughter. The serious side of his talk, however was that he showed that things since the Second Vatican Council have gone terribly wrong. The audience of traditionalist Roman Catholics, many of whom will drive over a hundred miles to get to a Latin Mass, couldn’t have been more enthusiastic, and Father Wilson finished his talk to standing approbation.
Where we went wrong was that in spite of the Council, much of what has happened since then has been motivated by self affirmation. By this we can understand “sexual autonomy.” Fr. Wilson said, “You could have put the Mass in English, but you didn’t want uncomfortable reminders that sexual autonomy is not right.”
The Mass in the Catholic Church in style and atmosphere is now very different from what it was before the Council. The use of the vernacular is only one of the differences, and probably the least important. One of the most obvious differences is the use of the free standing altar and Missa versus populum instead of ad orientem. As I understand it, the rubrics of the Roman Missal simply require that the altar be free standing so that the Bishop may go all around it when he consecrates it. This was explained to me by no less a figure than Dom Louis Bouyer. The rubrics of the Missal assume that the priest will be facing East because he is directed at certain points to turn and face the congregation. There is no requirement that the priest celebrate Mass from the back of the altar facing the people. There is also no prohibition either, and so the liturgical reformists have changed the whole atmosphere of the Mass from a holy sacrifice to something that looks like a Protestant Communion Service.
In today’s Mass, the priest comes out and begins with a dialogue with the people. The different options for this in the Missal are so clumsy that most priests end up ad libbing it. For the first part of the Mass the priest sits in a chair, sometimes in front of the altar, and sometimes behind the altar, but elevated so the priest may be seen over the altar. Fr. Wilson derisively refers to this as his Captain Kirk Command Chair. “What is wrong with this?” we might ask. The problem is that it puts the emphasis on the priest rather than on the sacrifice of the Mass. There are other deficiencies, too, which are quickly pointed out by Latin Mass enthusiasts. When a prayer which once existed in the old Missal is nowhere to be found in the new, or is radically changed, they expect that there is some kind of conspiracy to undermine the Faith.
I could not help but draw a comparison with Continuing Anglicans who feel the same way about the new Prayer Book as Traditionalist Catholics feel about the Novus Ordo. They are very similar, and very similar arguments are put forward in support of the position. In the case of the Continuing Anglicans, since the Congress at St. Louis in 1977 when they split from the Episcopal Church, they insist on using the 1928 Book of Common Prayer or the Anglican Missal which is derived from that. Mass is celebrated ad orientem with much kneeling, and frequently with ceremonial that comes from the pre-Vatican II Mass.
Traditionalist Anglicans have been “balkanized” since their split, and there are now probably close to forty denominations or jurisdictions tracing their origin to St. Louis or even before. The current crisis in the Anglican Communion over homosexuality threatens to split them even more.
For the most part, the Traditionalist Catholics are still in full Communion with the Pope, but some of the fringe groups are not. The Church is making a concerted effort to keep them within the fold, and the recent appoint of Bishop Rifan as Apostolic Administrator, who was present at the conference, gives them a sense of stability. This is a little bit like the Ecclesiastical Delegate for the Anglican Use in the Catholic Church. Both the traditionalist Catholics and the Anglican Use sense that they need something more, and both are talking about a separate rite or at least a prelature.
One of the other speakers at the conference was Fra Fredrik Crichton-Stuart who is the international president of Una Voce. He is a colorful personage from Edinburgh, and is a professed member of the Order of Malta. On Saturday Morning he acted as server for the Rite of Braga.
Bishop Rifan played the organ before and after the Mass. At Sunday's Solemn High Mass, he will pontificate from the Bishop’s throne with the permission of the Bishop of Providence.
Fra Freddy in his talk admonished the participants not to attack the person, but to attack the policy. Much of the problems Traditional Latin Mass people have is getting permission to have it. There are some Catholic bishops who will allow any priest to celebrate the Tradional Mass; others will not allow it at all.
I talked with a number of people from Holy Trinity in Boston, and they are unhappy because the plan for them is to merge with a church in the Chinatown district. The church where they presently worship will be closed. Holy Trinity “The German Church” is a beautiful old church in fairly good condition. Although it is in a poor district of the city, it has a good parking lot and very good facilities. Chinatown, on the other hand, has no parking and the church is not as good. This congregation which numbers close to 300 people has been struggling for a number of years. They have to make do with a rotation of four or five priests, many of whom are quite old. The conspiracy theory which many of them feel is unavoidable is that the Archdiocese wants them to die out, and so they are being marginalized in this way.
The Anglican Use in Boston has a similar problem. For a while we were worshipping at St. Aidan’s Church in Brookline, which is an English Style church, still with its High Altar at the East end of the church and a very fine altar rail. But it was already slated to close when we went there. At Saint Aidan’s we began to grow. I think we gave false hopes to the native congregation. Since then, we have been using the convent chapel at St. Theresa of Ávila in West Roxbury and our numbers have dwindled. Repeated requests for us to find another church have come up with nothing. The Archdiocese of Boston wants to consolidate and close churches, not give churches to small groups.
So, in summary, there are a lot of similarities between the Traditionalist Anglicans and the Traditionalist Roman Catholics. Many of the same cultural issues have caused the crises in their respective churches. In the case of the Anglicans, the result has been fragmentation. There is a danger that this could happen to the Traditional Catholics too. But Pope Benedict seems very favorable toward the Traditional Latin Mass, and he is favorable toward the Anglican Use in the Catholic Church too.
C. David Burt
Una Voce is an organization to promote the Traditional Latin Mass in the Catholic Church. At their conference in Providence, Rhode Island this weekend there has been a list of impressive speakers, including Father Joseph Wilson who kicked off the conference with a talk that sparked a lot of laughter. The serious side of his talk, however was that he showed that things since the Second Vatican Council have gone terribly wrong. The audience of traditionalist Roman Catholics, many of whom will drive over a hundred miles to get to a Latin Mass, couldn’t have been more enthusiastic, and Father Wilson finished his talk to standing approbation.
Where we went wrong was that in spite of the Council, much of what has happened since then has been motivated by self affirmation. By this we can understand “sexual autonomy.” Fr. Wilson said, “You could have put the Mass in English, but you didn’t want uncomfortable reminders that sexual autonomy is not right.”
The Mass in the Catholic Church in style and atmosphere is now very different from what it was before the Council. The use of the vernacular is only one of the differences, and probably the least important. One of the most obvious differences is the use of the free standing altar and Missa versus populum instead of ad orientem. As I understand it, the rubrics of the Roman Missal simply require that the altar be free standing so that the Bishop may go all around it when he consecrates it. This was explained to me by no less a figure than Dom Louis Bouyer. The rubrics of the Missal assume that the priest will be facing East because he is directed at certain points to turn and face the congregation. There is no requirement that the priest celebrate Mass from the back of the altar facing the people. There is also no prohibition either, and so the liturgical reformists have changed the whole atmosphere of the Mass from a holy sacrifice to something that looks like a Protestant Communion Service.
In today’s Mass, the priest comes out and begins with a dialogue with the people. The different options for this in the Missal are so clumsy that most priests end up ad libbing it. For the first part of the Mass the priest sits in a chair, sometimes in front of the altar, and sometimes behind the altar, but elevated so the priest may be seen over the altar. Fr. Wilson derisively refers to this as his Captain Kirk Command Chair. “What is wrong with this?” we might ask. The problem is that it puts the emphasis on the priest rather than on the sacrifice of the Mass. There are other deficiencies, too, which are quickly pointed out by Latin Mass enthusiasts. When a prayer which once existed in the old Missal is nowhere to be found in the new, or is radically changed, they expect that there is some kind of conspiracy to undermine the Faith.
I could not help but draw a comparison with Continuing Anglicans who feel the same way about the new Prayer Book as Traditionalist Catholics feel about the Novus Ordo. They are very similar, and very similar arguments are put forward in support of the position. In the case of the Continuing Anglicans, since the Congress at St. Louis in 1977 when they split from the Episcopal Church, they insist on using the 1928 Book of Common Prayer or the Anglican Missal which is derived from that. Mass is celebrated ad orientem with much kneeling, and frequently with ceremonial that comes from the pre-Vatican II Mass.
Traditionalist Anglicans have been “balkanized” since their split, and there are now probably close to forty denominations or jurisdictions tracing their origin to St. Louis or even before. The current crisis in the Anglican Communion over homosexuality threatens to split them even more.
For the most part, the Traditionalist Catholics are still in full Communion with the Pope, but some of the fringe groups are not. The Church is making a concerted effort to keep them within the fold, and the recent appoint of Bishop Rifan as Apostolic Administrator, who was present at the conference, gives them a sense of stability. This is a little bit like the Ecclesiastical Delegate for the Anglican Use in the Catholic Church. Both the traditionalist Catholics and the Anglican Use sense that they need something more, and both are talking about a separate rite or at least a prelature.
One of the other speakers at the conference was Fra Fredrik Crichton-Stuart who is the international president of Una Voce. He is a colorful personage from Edinburgh, and is a professed member of the Order of Malta. On Saturday Morning he acted as server for the Rite of Braga.
Bishop Rifan played the organ before and after the Mass. At Sunday's Solemn High Mass, he will pontificate from the Bishop’s throne with the permission of the Bishop of Providence.
Fra Freddy in his talk admonished the participants not to attack the person, but to attack the policy. Much of the problems Traditional Latin Mass people have is getting permission to have it. There are some Catholic bishops who will allow any priest to celebrate the Tradional Mass; others will not allow it at all.
I talked with a number of people from Holy Trinity in Boston, and they are unhappy because the plan for them is to merge with a church in the Chinatown district. The church where they presently worship will be closed. Holy Trinity “The German Church” is a beautiful old church in fairly good condition. Although it is in a poor district of the city, it has a good parking lot and very good facilities. Chinatown, on the other hand, has no parking and the church is not as good. This congregation which numbers close to 300 people has been struggling for a number of years. They have to make do with a rotation of four or five priests, many of whom are quite old. The conspiracy theory which many of them feel is unavoidable is that the Archdiocese wants them to die out, and so they are being marginalized in this way.
The Anglican Use in Boston has a similar problem. For a while we were worshipping at St. Aidan’s Church in Brookline, which is an English Style church, still with its High Altar at the East end of the church and a very fine altar rail. But it was already slated to close when we went there. At Saint Aidan’s we began to grow. I think we gave false hopes to the native congregation. Since then, we have been using the convent chapel at St. Theresa of Ávila in West Roxbury and our numbers have dwindled. Repeated requests for us to find another church have come up with nothing. The Archdiocese of Boston wants to consolidate and close churches, not give churches to small groups.
So, in summary, there are a lot of similarities between the Traditionalist Anglicans and the Traditionalist Roman Catholics. Many of the same cultural issues have caused the crises in their respective churches. In the case of the Anglicans, the result has been fragmentation. There is a danger that this could happen to the Traditional Catholics too. But Pope Benedict seems very favorable toward the Traditional Latin Mass, and he is favorable toward the Anglican Use in the Catholic Church too.
C. David Burt
posted by C. David Burt | 8:14 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home