Having been raised a Catholic, I am still fascinated by all things Catholic even though I treat Catholicism as I do all religions; human inventions.
What caught my eye this time was Pope Benedict XVI’s removal of sanctions against the old Latin Mass of my youth called the Tridentine Mass.
If you are my age or later, you will remember a Mass where the priest basically faced the altar and not the congregation and muttered everything in Latin.
As a former altar boy, I was required to learn all the Latin responses to what the priest was saying. I knew the words, just did not know what they meant; neither did the congregation nor maybe even the priest. The rationale was that the priest is facing the altar just like the congregation is and is actually leading the congregation in prayer to the altar where God resides.
The new Mass has the priest facing the people with the monstrance (where God resides) in front of him as in joining the people in prayer instead of leading them – kapish?
I must admit that the whole Latin Mass affair had a kind of mystery about it and a certain solemnity that the English language just can’t compete with mainly because we understand it.
I admired Pope John XXIII for his liberal views and for calling together the Second Vatican Council which reformed the Mass and proscribed the use of the local vernacular in the new Mass among other changes.
There was opposition of course, even my mother was against the change but it was smart policy to allow more congregational participation in the Mass and my mother along with most Catholics are used to it and love it.
The Vatican had to ban saying of the old Latin Mass because it had to force the new one into use otherwise people just wouldn’t change. So why is ole’ Benedict reversing that order now?
I know Benedict is conservative but to go against Vatican II? – that is very big and may cause a big split.
On the surface, it seems he is trying to reconnect with the ultraconservative twits that never accepted the changes made by Vatican II. Remember Archbishop Lefebvre in France that started a splinter group of Catholics? He was excommunicated in 1988 along with all his followers. Does Benedict want them back? Why? How many are there?
Benedict maintains that it is much ado about nothing. He isn’t revoking the changes made by Vatican II or turning back the clock or starting in a new direction backwards towards fundamentalism but I am not sure of his motives.
If he is just trying to accommodate a group of Catholics, he is making a huge change just to please a few? Benedict is a smart boy and he maybe be thinking that a common Mass language (Latin) is a uniting factor among world Catholics and that using local languages is a dividing factor.
I may not know Benedict’s motives entirely but I will tell you this may change things big time as far as Church unity is concerned. He may go down in history as a Pope that started the big modern schism.
He did allow for a re-visit to his proclamation in three (3) years and if all hell has broken loose then maybe he will retract his ruling – so much for Papal infallibility.
Oh and also the Jews are mad because the old Mass called for their conversion to Christianity which Vatican II threw out as stupid and insulting – is there a trend here?
What caught my eye this time was Pope Benedict XVI’s removal of sanctions against the old Latin Mass of my youth called the Tridentine Mass.
If you are my age or later, you will remember a Mass where the priest basically faced the altar and not the congregation and muttered everything in Latin.
As a former altar boy, I was required to learn all the Latin responses to what the priest was saying. I knew the words, just did not know what they meant; neither did the congregation nor maybe even the priest. The rationale was that the priest is facing the altar just like the congregation is and is actually leading the congregation in prayer to the altar where God resides.
The new Mass has the priest facing the people with the monstrance (where God resides) in front of him as in joining the people in prayer instead of leading them – kapish?
I must admit that the whole Latin Mass affair had a kind of mystery about it and a certain solemnity that the English language just can’t compete with mainly because we understand it.
I admired Pope John XXIII for his liberal views and for calling together the Second Vatican Council which reformed the Mass and proscribed the use of the local vernacular in the new Mass among other changes.
There was opposition of course, even my mother was against the change but it was smart policy to allow more congregational participation in the Mass and my mother along with most Catholics are used to it and love it.
The Vatican had to ban saying of the old Latin Mass because it had to force the new one into use otherwise people just wouldn’t change. So why is ole’ Benedict reversing that order now?
I know Benedict is conservative but to go against Vatican II? – that is very big and may cause a big split.
On the surface, it seems he is trying to reconnect with the ultraconservative twits that never accepted the changes made by Vatican II. Remember Archbishop Lefebvre in France that started a splinter group of Catholics? He was excommunicated in 1988 along with all his followers. Does Benedict want them back? Why? How many are there?
Benedict maintains that it is much ado about nothing. He isn’t revoking the changes made by Vatican II or turning back the clock or starting in a new direction backwards towards fundamentalism but I am not sure of his motives.
If he is just trying to accommodate a group of Catholics, he is making a huge change just to please a few? Benedict is a smart boy and he maybe be thinking that a common Mass language (Latin) is a uniting factor among world Catholics and that using local languages is a dividing factor.
I may not know Benedict’s motives entirely but I will tell you this may change things big time as far as Church unity is concerned. He may go down in history as a Pope that started the big modern schism.
He did allow for a re-visit to his proclamation in three (3) years and if all hell has broken loose then maybe he will retract his ruling – so much for Papal infallibility.
Oh and also the Jews are mad because the old Mass called for their conversion to Christianity which Vatican II threw out as stupid and insulting – is there a trend here?
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