Easing of Latin Mass Restrictions Could Attract ‘Lost Sheep’
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Worshippers trek to St. Agnes Church to experience Sunday morning Mass as it was celebrated for centuries — until about 40 years ago. The Catholic church on East 43rd Street is one of five in New York City that offer the so-called Tridentine Mass: celebrated almost entirely in Latin and comprising protocols, vestments, and musical components different from the standard, modernized Mass in the local language.
The 400-plus churchgoers who come to St. Agnes from throughout the five boroughs and suburban communities may soon be able to celebrate this traditional Mass at their local parish. The Tridentine rite could become more common in New York and around the world, if, as is widely expected, Pope Benedict XVI eases restrictions on which priests and parishes can hold such services.
The traditional Mass was never officially banned, but was all but dormant between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s, when Pope John Paul II brought it back on a limited basis.Now, priests wishing to celebrate a Tridentine Mass must be granted permission from their bishops.
The president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, William Donohue, said the widely anticipated move could be part of the pope’s efforts to reach out to “lost sheep” — Catholics who feel alienated “because they feel the church is not orthodox enough, or not progressive enough.”
Although easing restrictions on the Tridentine Mass would likely appeal to the church’s more conservative elements, Mr. Donohue said the change would not likely cause an uproar among parishioners not compelled to take part in the traditional rite.”I think very few Catholics would be angered by it,” he said. “The vast majority of people would be basically unaffected, but probably would be in favor of it. There’s really no downside.”
In addition to its changes in Mass liturgy and decorum, the Second Vatican Council instituted various other reforms. It decried anti-Semitism, and, referring to long-held beliefs that Jews were responsible for Jesus’s death, issued a statement that “the death of Christ is not to be attributed to an entire people then alive, and even less today.”
“Benedict XVI has long been interested in strengthening the continuity between pre-Vatican II, and post-Vatican II liturgy,” the editor of Commonweal Magazine, Paul Baumann, said. “He’s always had a high regard for the Tridentine Mass, and its not surprising that he’s be sympathetic to the idea.”
Based in New York, Commonweal is an independent opinion journal, edited by lay Catholics.
If the pope does ease restrictions on the traditional Mass, some Catholics will likely see it as a “reactionary move” — a precursor to other reforms, Mr. Baumann said. “It’s probably not as big of a threat as some progressive Catholics may imagine,” he said.
The old-style Mass probably won’t widely supplant its more contemporary counterpart, according to Mr. Baumann.”It’s unlikely that the Tridentine mass will appeal to a large number of people,” he said.”I don’t think there’s a great longing among most Catholics to return to that.”
When Our Lady of Mount Carmel on East 116th Street inaugurated a Sunday morning Tridentine Mass several years ago, church leaders expected it would attract up to 200 weekly parishioners. Attendance has yet to exceed 40, according to one priest who did not want his name printed. Only a handful of Mount Carmel parishioners regularly attend the Latin Mass, with the remainder coming in from New Jersey or Long Island, he said.
Tridentine Mass regulars are generally older priests and laity, nostalgic for the Mass they grew up with, and younger church members who are very conservative, the priest said.
An Upper West Side resident, Anita Faherty, said the Mass could have a wider appeal. “It’s so mystical in Latin,” Ms. Faherty, a 60-year-old interior decorator who attends Mass daily, said. “There’s so much mystery to it, that it’s all very awesome. The words sound much harsher in English.”
She said that if Tridentine Mass were to become available at her neighborhood parish, she would attend the older-style service on Sundays and holidays, and would otherwise attend the newer, vernacular Mass.
Yet there are practical caveats to increasing the number Tridentine Masses available. For one thing, many priests ordained after 1969, when the New Mass was formalized, are not proficient in Latin and are unfamiliar with the customs of a Tridentine service, a priest at St. Agnes, the Reverend Richard Adams, said. “Many don’t study Latin, sadly,” he said, adding that he hunts “high and low” to find priests able to officiate at the parish’s weekly Tridentine Mass.
In addition to St. Agnes and Our Lady of Mount Carmel, traditional Latin Masses are celebrated weekly at Our Lady of Good Counsel on the Upper East Side, at Our Lady of Peace in Park Slope, and twice a month at the St. John’s Cemetery chapel in Middle Village in Queens.