It has been a year since Pope Benedict XVI issued his Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum, which removed all legal obstacles to priests wishing to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass. Yet implementation of the Holy Father's wishes has been spotty at best. In some dioceses training programs for priests unfamiliar with the older rite have been wildly popular and oversubscribed. In other dioceses liberal bishops have instituted an array of conditions, such as rigorous Latin examinations for priests and other onerous rules that have, for now, thwarted the clearly expressed wish of the Pope.
Here in South Carolina they just pretend they never got the memo. There is not a single additional Latin Mass in the State of South Carolina as a result of the Holy Father's Motu Proprio. Those of us in the state's largest city and capital have a Latin Mass on the first Sunday of each month in a former Anglican parish that was corporately received into the Catholic Church. On other Sundays, those wishing to attend a Latin Mass can drive east, two hours/122 miles to Sullivan's Island, or two hours west/115 miles to Taylors, South Carolina. Requests to the chancery office for an additional Mass receive no response.
Given the enormous popularity of the traditional Latin Mass in some dioceses and its total absence in others, it is clear that clericalists who demand obedience from the laity, but offer none to those above, even to the Pope, are standing in the way. They are men who really enjoyed the seventies. They cling to their felt banners, tambourines and guitars and think "Kumbaya" marks the high water mark in sacred music. Fortunately, these old men who thought themselves "cool" more than thirty years ago are reaching retirement age. More often than not, they are replaced with priests who appreciate the ineffable majesty and sacredness of the divine liturgy.
Hat Tip to the Real Clear Religion blog for calling attention to this great article about the traditionalist revolution underway in Britain.
And for those who will suggest that the tacky, semi-circle pit churches with their kitchen table altars, so favored by the double-knit set, can't accommodate the traditional Mass, here's a great video showing how it can be done.
Dan,
ReplyDeleteWe can sympathize since our diocese is a liturgical wasteland also.
It is a great source of frustration to us too that Pope Benedict has bent over backwards to make the Latin Mass available for the rank and file Catholics, and yet some bishops are so slow to go along with his new program.
What that really shows is the corrosive effects of the liberal reforms of the past 40 years.
Liberal Catholicism leads to nothing more than a scorched earth.
It is the antithesis of Christian civilization.
Robert