Return of Latin Mass

[Guest guest]

The Return of the Latin Mass?

By: Robert Moynihan

 

Exclusive: The Vatican is preparing to call, in the clearest way since the Second Vatican Council, for an end to liturgical abuses -- and for far wider use of the old Latin Mass

 

“The do-it-yourself Mass is ended. Go in peace.”

 

By Robert Moynihan

 

VATICAN CITY, May 13, 2003 – Forty years after the Second Vatican Council, after four decades of liturgical "experimentation" which has troubled many of the faithful, Rome is about to issue a major disciplinary document, ending years of a generally "laissez faire" attitude toward liturgical experimentation and “do-it-youself” Masses.

 

The document is now in draft form and is expected to be published between October and Christmas this year.

 

In a bombshell passage, the document will also encourage far wider use of the “old Mass”, the Tridentine rite Mass, in Latin, throughout the Roman Catholic Church.

 

The new, stricter guidelines for celebrating the liturgy, and the mandate to celebrate the old Latin Mass more widely, even on a weekly basis, in every parish in the world, will be contained in a document to be published by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, headed by Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze.

 

“We expect the document to be published before Christmas,” Arinze told "Inside the Vatican" in an exclusive interview. “We want to respond to the spiritual hunger and sorrow so many of the faithful have expressed to us because of liturgical celebrations that seemed irreverent and unworthy of true adoration of God. You might sum up our document with words that echo the final words of the Mass: ‘The do-it-yourself Mass is ended. Go in peace.’”

[Guest guest]

Many traditionalist Catholics had to leave the church when they did away with the Tridentine mass. For thousands of years the church had practiced it and considered anything other than mass in Latin as apostasy. Then in the 60s they throw out tradition, and decide to change with the times. Good old fashioned traditionalism is good for the soul.

[Tarun 6]

I recall "guitar mass" being introduced 'round 1971 instead of Latin Mass.

Then I heard PrabhupAd chanting this zloka:

nAma cintAmani kRSNaH ... whose last line "nAma-naminoH" sounded so Latin I had to join.

[Guest guest]

Latin Mass Celebrated in Rome

 

A Tridentine rite Latin Mass was celebrated in one of Rome's major basilicas today for the first time in decades. A turning point for the Church's liturgy?

 

ROME, May 24, 2003 -- In what may in future be seen as an important turning point in the history of the Catholic Church's liturgy and worship, today, for the first time in decades, a traditional Latin Mass was celebrated in a major Roman basilica.

 

The solemn 2-hour liturgy, which began in the basilica of St. Mary Major with a rosary at 3:30 p.m. and ended a little before 6 p.m., moved some of the approximately 2,000 present to tears.

 

Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy, celebrated the Mass according to the pre-Vatican II 1962 missal -- also called the Mass of St. Pius V or the Tridentine Mass -- with Pope John Paul II's explicit permission and blessing.

 

"The rite of St. Pius V cannot be considered extinct," Castrillon Hoyos said in his homily, which was the only part of the Mass not in Latin (he spoke in Italian).

 

At communion, those present were instructed to receive the host according to the traditional rite, kneeling and on the tongue, not in the hand. Castrillon Hoyos celebrated the Mass turned toward the people, facing east.

 

The "Latin Mass" is not entirely in Latin; it contains Greek phrases ("Kyrie eleison" or "Lord, have mercy") and Aramaic words ("Amen,Alleluia") which would have been spoken by Jesus himself. It thus represents a fusion of the liturgies of the primitive Christian communities in the Greco-Roman world of antiquity.

 

Many present commented on the solemnity with the which the celebration was conducted, calling it "beautiful" and "inspiring."

 

Marygold Turner, from Kent, England, said: "This Mass is very, very significant. The Tridentine Mass has been banned in England. This is the rapprochement (between Rome and those who desire the restoration of the old Mass) the Pope calls for. The Pope wants it. Our Lady wants it."

 

But one Irish Catholic tourist, present by chance at the Mass, expressed a view shared by many "progressives" in the Church. He said he feared the Mass represented a Roman shift toward a more "clerical" and "rigid" Church. "I'm worried that this is a step backwards," he said.

 

Today's Mass came amid other signs that Rome will soon be pressing for wider celebration of the "old Mass" around the world.

 

Indeed, just yesterday, a group of Catholics from England received permission to celebrate Mass according to the old rite in the Hungarian chapel in the grotto beneath the main altar in St. Peter's Basilica itself.

 

The Mass was celebrated at 7:45 a.m. on May 23 and attended by about 25 people associated with the Latin Mass society in Great Britain.

 

And two weeks ago, as we reported at the time, Cardinal Francis Arinze revealed to "Inside the Vatican" that Rome expects to publish a document this fall mandating the celebration of the old Latin Mass in parishes around the world wherever groups of parishioners petition their bishop to allow it.

[Guest guest]

I couldn't be happier. Good riddens to Vatican 11, nuns without habits and the guitar strumming kumbaya, let's everybody hold hands Massses and the let's draw childrens' pictures and talk about our feelings CCD classes. The rest of the world left Woodstock behind decades ago. It's about time the Catholic Church does too.

[Guest guest]

Pardon my typo

[Guest guest]

Oh you are too harsh, whatever happened to the "no hard and fast rules" stuff.

 

I remember, prior to Vatican II, an african latin mass album titled "missa Lubba", I wish I still had that album. Id trweasure it with all my other sorrowfully lost albums like A-cid Symphony by timothy leary's BOEL )The old laguna beach (woodland drive) temple's neighbors.

 

Maybe Ill start a new thread about long lost music recordings.

 

ys, mahak