The Return of Latin
Thursday, June 28, 2007
I'm hardly an expert in Catholic liturgical practices, but I have to wonder if what the Catholic Church needs at this moment is to bring back more Latin to church. Is this way to grow the faith? I don't have to wonder at all, as a supporter of Interfaith relations, if dialing back on Vatican II is good for religious dialogue today. It would be a disaster.
Pope Benedict XVI has approved a document that relaxes restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass used by the Roman Catholic Church for centuries until the modernizing reforms of the 1960s, the Vatican said Thursday.
Benedict discussed the decision with top officials in a meeting on Wednesday and the document will be published in the next few days, the statement said. The meeting was called to ''illustrate the content and the spirit'' of the document, which will be sent to all bishops accompanied by a personal letter from the pope.
The decision comes after months of debate. Some cardinals, bishops and Jewish leaders have opposed any change, voicing complaints about everything from the text of the old Mass to concerns that the move will lead to further changes to the reforms approved by 1962-65 Second Vatican Council.
The 16th century Tridentine Mass was sidelined by the New Mass that followed the council. The reforms called for Mass to be said in local languages, for the priest to face the congregation and not the altar with his back to worshippers and for the use of lay readers.
Labels: Christianity, Interfaith Relations
Posted by B Feiler at 9:34 AM
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I need to ask you to consider how bereft of beauty our liturgy has become (especially musically)since Vatican II. I think that people are reading too much into this. It's more about reclaiming our lost cultural heritage than it is about interfait relations. Realize that Pope Benedict is a classically trained musician and a large part of his reasons for doing this might be to make sure that the treasury of Catholic music is once again available to us within its original liturgical context.
Curiously, the Latin Mass has significant support among younger Catholics, who are yearning for deeper roots and rebelling against the guitar and tambourine Masses of their parents' generation.