Latin Liturgy: A Slow But Sure Return to Tradition

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.

Summorum Pontificum Contact Database

The excellent, award-winning, Catholic website, LumenGentleman, has developed a Summorum Pontificum Contact Data Base.

An obstacle to the implementation of the Holy Father's Motu Proprio has been the networking required to find other Catholics interested in attending the Traditional Latin Mass. The Summorum Pontificum Contact Database allows Catholics in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, United Kingdom, India, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, United States, Ireland, Hungary, and South Africa to register their interest in the traditional Latin Mass and to contact others in their parish, region or diocese so that they might petition local, diocesan or, if necessary, Vatican authorities to request the Holy Mass. Additional countries will be added to the Database.

While some bishops have acquiesced to the Pope's wishes that the ancient Mass be available to all those who want it, many dioceses have yet to acknowledge the Motu Proprio and ignore all requests from the laity. Here in South Carolina there are two traditional Latin Masses at opposite ends of the state, more than two hours from Columbia, the state capital and a major city in the center of the state. While there is a once-a-month traditional Latin Mass offered in Columbia by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, the closest traditional Latin Mass offered weekly is at a chapel of the Society of St. Pius X, 93 miles away. Requests to the Diocese of Charleston are ignored.

This data base is an excellent tool in overcoming ecclesial arrogance and the authoritarian liberals of Amchurch who defy the Holy Father and have driven so many of the faithful to schismatic chapels.

Deo Gratias!

Forty years ago "they created a wasteland and called it renewal." Since the Tridentine Mass was largely abandoned in the late sixties, ideologues infected by a virulent strain of clericalism, have imposed on the faithful every kind of liturgical experiment, abuse, and blasphemy. The result has been cataclysmic, with division and a worldwide loss of faith. Most Catholics no longer attend Mass on Sunday; only about a third believe in the Real Presence; and dire as things may be in the United States, once-Catholic European countries are slipping into anti-Christian paganism.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: "The Church's faith precedes the faith of the believer who is invited to adhere to it. When the Church celebrates the sacraments, she confesses the faith received from the apostles - whence the ancient saying: lex orandi, lex credendi. The law of prayer is the law of faith: the Church believes as she prays. Liturgy is a constitutive element of the holy and living Tradition."

With the publication of the following documents, the Holy Father has begun the journey toward greater unity and holiness, through a liturgy that more fully embodies the faith handed down to us from the Apostles.

Pope's letter accompanying the motu proprio [English translation from Vatican]

Summorum Pontificum (unofficial Vatican translation of the motu proprio)