VATICAN
CITY — It was one of the most radical reforms to emerge from the Second
Vatican Council. The Mass, root of Roman Catholic worship, would be celebrated
in the vernacular and not in Latin. Now, little more than a generation
later, Pope Benedict XVI is poised to revive the 16th-century Tridentine Mass.
In
doing so, he will be overriding objections from some cardinals, bishops and Jews
— whose complaints range from the text of the old Mass to the symbolic
sweeping aside of the council's work from 1962-65. Many in the church regard
Vatican II as a moment of badly needed reform and a new beginning, a view at
odds with Benedict, who sees it as a renewal of church tradition.
A Vatican
official, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, confirmed earlier this month that
Benedict would soon relax the restrictions on celebrating the Tridentine Mass
because of a "new and renewed interest" in the celebration —
especially among younger Catholics.
In recent
decades, priests could only celebrate the Tridentine Mass with permission from
their bishop. Church leaders are anxiously awaiting Benedict's decision, to see
how far he will go in easing that rule. Castrillon Hoyos denied the move
represented a "step backward, a regression to times before the
reforms." Rather, it was an attempt to give the faithful greater access to
a "treasure" of the church.
Benedict
also was acting, Castrillon Hoyos told bishops in Brazil, to reach out to an ultra traditionalist
and schismatic group, the Society of St. Pius X, and bring it back into the
Vatican's fold. The late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre founded the society in 1969
in Switzerland, opposed to Vatican II's reforms, particularly its liturgical
reforms. The Vatican excommunicated Lefebvre in 1988 after he consecrated four
bishops without Rome's consent. The bishops were excommunicated as well.
Benedict has been keen to reconcile with the group, which has demanded freer use
of the old Mass as a precondition for normalizing relations.
But bishops
in neighboring France, where Lefebvre's group is strong, have objected publicly
to any liberalizing of the old rite, saying its broader use could lead to
divisions within the church, and could imply a rejection of other Vatican II
teachings. "Such a decision risks endangering the unity among priests as
well as the faithful," according to a statement issued late last year from
the bishops of Strasbourg, Metz and Besancon.
Progressive
Belgian Cardinal Godfried Daneels echoed that concern, saying that greater
celebration of the Tridentine Mass could polarize the church and, depending on
how the document is written, could lead to the "negation" of Vatican
II reforms such as support for religious freedom. "The rite is not the
important thing, but what comes after," Daneels told The Associated Press.
"We can't go back. Vatican II is a council like all the others."
Other
concerns have come from groups involved in Christian-Jewish dialogue, because
the Tridentine rite contains prayers that some non-Christians find offensive. By
its very nature, the Tridentine liturgy predates the landmark documents from
Vatican II on improving relations with Jews and people of other faiths. Rabbi
David Rosen, who is in charge of interfaith relations at the American Jewish
Committee, said he wrote to several cardinals in March expressing concern about
a prayer for the "unfaithful" in the Mass, as well a prayer used
during the church's Holy Week liturgy which had contained references to
"perfidious," or faithless, Jews. He was assured by Cardinal Walter
Kasper, who is in charge of the Vatican's relations with Jews, that the
Tridentine missal used now doesn't contain the reference to the
"perfidious" Jew. But in a letter, Kasper added: "I was unable to
obtain a clear answer" concerning the prayer for the unfaithful.
Monsignor
James Moroney, the liturgy expert at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,
said he didn't think the move would have a terribly significant impact because
it affects so few people. However, he said that in resurrecting and promoting
the old rite "by definition you are rejecting the judgment on liturgical
matters of pontifical and episcopal development" over the last 40 years.
Despite such concerns, Benedict is going ahead with the document, though a date
for its release hasn't been announced.
The
Tridentine rite differs significantly from the New Mass that emerged after
Vatican II. In addition to the Latin prayers, which are different from those
used in the modern liturgy, the priest faces the altar, so that he is seen as
leading the faithful in prayer. The rank and file don't participate actively in
the service.
The
pope's plans are being welcomed by "traditionalist" Roman Catholics
who are still in good standing with Rome. These Catholics simply prefer the
Tridentine service over the modern one — and their numbers are reportedly
growing, particularly among the young for whom the old Mass is actually new.
"I
don't think the pope would be addressing this if there weren't a growing number
of people ... an increased interest not just among laity but among clergy,"
said Michael Dunnigan, the U.S. chairman of Una Voce, an international lay
movement that seeks to preserve the Latin liturgy.
There
are no global statistics on participation in Tridentine Masses. But in the
United States — where demand appears to be higher than in much of Europe —
105 of the 176 Roman Catholic dioceses offer at least one traditional Mass each
Sunday, Dunnigan said.
Ginevra
Crosignani, 34, is a regular at the 10 a.m. Tridentine rite celebrated each
Sunday at the Gesu e Maria church in central Rome. She says she started coming
about 10 years ago and finds it a much more transcendent experience than the
modern services, which she said were more like going to a "nightclub"
because of the music and showman-like role of the priest. "The New Order
became a social celebration rather than a religious celebration," she said
one recent Sunday as she put away the white lace scarf she wore over her head.
The pews at the Mass had been full — and more than half the people looked to
be under 40. "Before, it was more old people attached to that rite,"
she said. "I think young people (now) are looking for something, they're
eager to find it and they don't find it in the New Order."
In a 1988
document, Pope John Paul II urged bishops to be generous in granting the
so-called indults to allow the Tridentine rite to be celebrated. But many
proponents say bishops have been stingy — either for personal reasons or
because they simply don't have enough priests who know how to celebrate it. To
counter that, Una Voce is teaming up with the Priestly Fraternity of Saint
Peter, a traditionalist community, to run a training seminar for priests to
teach them the ritual-filled Latin Mass. "We've got a waiting list
now," said Dunnigan. Similarly, the seminaries of another small
traditionalist community, the Institute for Christ the King, are overflowing,
said the institute's vicar general, Monsignor R. Michael Schmitz. "There is
no vocation shortage at all," he said. "On the contrary, we have so
many vocations we can't take them all."
Benedict
has made clear for years that he greatly admires the Tridentine rite and has
already incorporated Latin into Masses at St. Peter's. In a recent document,
Benedict urged seminarians and the faithful alike to learn Latin prayers, and in
the 1997 book "Salt of the Earth" he said it was "downright
indecent" for people who are still attached to the old rite to be denied
it. "I am of the opinion, to be sure, that the old rite should be granted
much more generously to all those who desire it," then-Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger said. "It's impossible to see what could be dangerous or
unacceptable about that."
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