In the decades following the reforms of the Second Vatican
Council, many Catholics thought that the Old Roman Liturgy, commonly known as
the “Tridentine Mass” or the “Latin Mass,” was abolished by Pope Paul VI, and
could no longer be celebrated, having been replaced by a new Liturgy, the Novus
Ordo.[1] In many places, the imposition of the Novus Ordo Mass was both
traumatic and bewildering for faithful Catholics. In dioceses around the world,
Masses began to be celebrated that resembled little, if anything, of Catholic
worship. Such Masses quickly became the norm in many parts of the Church. As
eminent liturgist, Monsignor Klaus Gamber observed:
“...the liturgical reform welcomed with so much idealism and
hope by many priests and lay people alike has turned out to be a liturgical
destruction of startling proportions-a debacle worsening with each passing
year. Instead of the hoped for renewal of the Church can Catholic life, we are
now witnessing a dismantling of the traditional values and piety on which our
faith rests. Instead of a fruitful renewal of the liturgy, what we see is a
destruction of the forms of Mass which had developed organically during the
course of many centuries.”[2]
Repeatedly, faithful
and clergy who both loved and wanted to preserve the ancient and orthodox form
of the Church’s immemorial worship of God, and resisted the abuses that became
commonplace, were ridiculed and even persecuted for their attachment to the Church’s
traditions. It was in this chaotic time that one bishop, and later a Cardinal
of the Roman Catholic Church, began to take notice. This prelate was named Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger. Unlike many other hierarchs around him, the Cardinal did not
remain silent, but began to speak strongly and boldly about the modern
liturgical reform:
“I am convinced that
the crisis in the Church that we are experiencing today is, to a large extent,
due to the disintegration of the liturgy.”[3]
“The liturgical
reform, in its concrete realization, has distanced itself even more from its
origin. The result has not been a reanimation, but devastation. In place of the
liturgy, fruit of a continual development, they have placed a fabricated
liturgy. They have deserted a vital process of growth and becoming in order to
substitute a fabrication. They did not want to continue the development, the
organic maturing of something living through the centuries, and they replaced
it, in the manner of technical production, by a fabrication, a banal product of
the moment.”[4]
“For fostering a true
consciousness in liturgical matters, it is also important that the proscription
against the form of liturgy in valid use up to 1970 [the older Latin Mass]
should be lifted. Anyone who nowadays advocates the continuing existence of
this liturgy or takes part in it is treated like a leper; all tolerance ends
here. There has never been anything like this in history; in doing this we are
despising and proscribing the Church’s whole past. How can one trust her at
present if things are that way?”[5]
To the joy of faithful Catholics everywhere, Cardinal Ratzinger
was elected as the Successor of St. Peter the Apostle on April 19th,
2005, taking the name Benedict XVI as Pope of Rome. It would not be long before
he would take concrete action to restore the Church’s ancient patrimony. On
July 7th, 2007, Pope Benedict issued an Apostolic Letter, the motu proprio
Summorum Pontificum, replacing an
earlier permission of Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia
Dei, for the Traditional Roman Mass to be permitted, with the permission of
the local bishop.[6] The new legislation came into full force on September 14th,
2007.[7] Pope Benedict’s new Apostolic Letter made void the previous one of
John Paul II, now giving full freedom to the Old Roman Mass to be said by any
Latin Rite priest, without needing permission from his bishop. The document was
a bombshell in that the Pope admitted what many Catholics were told for decades
was not the case: the Traditional Roman Mass was never actually juridically
abrogated by law in the Roman Church. The Pope made it clear by saying that
where there is a desire for Old Rite among the faithful, pastors should make it
available for them on weekdays, Sundays, and feasts, as well as for marriages,
funerals, and pilgrimages. Included in this Apostolic Letter, the Pope says
that the older ancient forms of the other Sacraments of Baptism, Marriage,
Penance, and Holy Unction should be provided for the faithful who request them,
as well as Bishops serving the old form of the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Clergy are also allowed to use the older form of the Roman Breviary. The Pope also
suggested that the bishops establish “personal parishes” in their respective
dioceses, where the ancient Roman Rite may be celebrated exclusively.
Pope Benedict was simply trying to restore the Roman Church’s
patrimony to its rightful pride of place: “What earlier generations held as
sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden
entirely forbidden or even considered harmful...”[8] Not only have the older generations
of Catholics welcomed the return of the Old Rite, in many ways being finally vindicated
for their battles to keep it alive [9], but younger generations as well. Fr.
James Wehner, rector of the Pontifical Seminary the Josephinum, of Columbus,
Ohio, says, “These young Catholics are inspired by a sense of mystery...it
seems to touch younger Catholics in a way that their sense and pursuit of
mystery, of awe, of sacredness, is somehow captured in the extraordinary form
that is responding to their needs.”[10]
Another intention of Pope Benedict with the Apostolic Letter
was to promote reconciliation within the Church, particularly traditionalist Catholic
groups who were alienated following the Council. It could very well be said
that the full restoration of the Traditional Roman Mass to the Church on the
part of Pope Benedict owes much to the witness and request of the Roman Catholic
priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). Years before Pope Benedict’s Apostolic
Letter, H.E. Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior General of the Society, repeatedly
requested that the Holy See, to both help the Church and to create an
atmosphere of mutual trust between the SSPX and Rome, formally declare that
every Latin Rite priest has the full right to say the Old Mass without fear of
sanctions from his bishop.[11] Pope Benedict made their request a reality. In
justice, every Catholic who loves the Old Mass should have gratitude towards the
SSPX as well, whatever their opinion of them might be.
Since the promulgation of Summorum Pontificum, not only have Catholic clergy and faithful all
over the world rediscovered their ancient heritage, leading to a resurgence of
Catholic life and vocations, but also, the full reconciliation between Rome and
the SSPX has come ever closer. Every Catholic who values and loves the rich
heritage of the Latin Church should offer a heartfelt thanks to, and warm
prayer for, Pope Benedict XVI, who, history will surely one day say, began the
revival of the Catholic life in the West by his Summorum Pontificum.
1 Hull, Geoffrey. The Banished Heart: Origins of Heteropraxis in the Catholic Church.
(New York: T&T Clark International, 2010), p. 1-22.
2 Gamber, Klaus. The
Reform of the Roman Liturgy: Its Problems and Background. (Fort Collins:
Roman Catholic Books, 1993), p. 9.
3 Ratzinger, Joseph. Milestones: Memoirs, 1927-1977. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press,
2005).
4 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in Revue
Theologisches, Vol. 20, Feb. 1990, p. 103-104.
5 Ratzinger, Joseph. The Spirit of the Liturgy. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000).
6 The Holy See. Apostolic Letter of Pope Benedict
XVI, Summorum Pontificum, 7 July 2007,
at: https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/letters/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20070707_lettera-vescovi.html
7 The Holy See. Pontifical Commission Ecclesia
Dei Instruction On the Application of the Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum, 30 April 2011 at: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_commissions/ecclsdei/documents/rc_com_ecclsdei_doc_20110430_istr-universae-ecclesiae_en.html8 The Holy See. Apostolic Letter of Pope Benedict XVI, Summorum Pontificum, 7 July 2007, at: https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/letters/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20070707_lettera-vescovi.html
9 Zaleski, Carol. “Worshipping with Agatha Christie.” The Christian Century, 124 no. 17 (2007), p. 35.
10 O’Brien, Joseph. “New Vatican instruction clarifies importance of old Mass.” Our Sunday Visitor, 100 no 5 (May 29 2011), p. 5.
11 Bishop Bernard Fellay. Conference given November 10, 2004 at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Kansas City, MO: http://archives.sspx.org/sspx_and_rome/what_catholics_need_to_know.htm
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