For All You MP Watchers Out There

The following comes from the blog of Cardinal O’Malley in Boston.  I thought it was interesting that, with all the internet buzz, he speaks of how the Latin Mass issue is a very minor one in the US. However, I am still watching to see how this plays itself out. It doesn’t look like this will bring about a great deal of change. I notice a couple of things: 1. The NO will still be the primary and normative Roman liturgy. 2. This MP is really motivated by B16’s desire to placate the schismatics like SSPX. In light of this, I don’t think the MP is as radical a move as some are proposing (both in favor of the MP and against it).

Categorize the next paragraph under “I Know I Don’t Have a Dog in This Hunt But”:

Considering the majority of the Roman masses I have attended over the past decade or so have been so God-awfully executed, more time and energy should have been committed to revision of the GIRM and the upcoming liturgical translations. Those will have impact on far more people (both Roman and Rome watchers) than the MP. I am sure once the new missal is available, I will snatch up a copy for study and reference.

Anyway, on to the good Cardinal’s thoughts:

From Cleveland I flew to Rome at the request of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to participate in a meeting discussing the Holy Father’s Moto Proprio about the use of the older form of the Latin Mass. There were about 25 bishops there, including the president of Ecclesia Dei Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, the prefect of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments Cardinal Francis Arinze, several heads of bishops’ conferences as well as some cardinals and other residential bishops.

They shared with us the Moto Proprio and the Holy Father’s letter explaining it. We also had an opportunity to read the Latin document. We each commented on that, and then the Holy Father came in and shared some of his thoughts with us. The Holy Father is obviously most concerned about trying to bring about reconciliation in the Church. There are about 600,000 Catholics who are participating in the liturgies of the Society of St. Pius X, along with about 400 priest.

The Holy Father was very clear that the ordinary form of celebrating the Mass will be the new rite, the Norvus Ordo. But by making the Latin Mass more available, the Holy Father is hoping to convince those disaffected Catholics that it is time for them to return to full union with the Catholic Church.

So the Holy Father’s motivation for this decision is pastoral. He does not want this to be seen as establishing two different Roman Rites, but rather one Roman Rite celebrated with different forms. The Moto Propio is his latest attempt at reconciliation.

In my comments at the meeting I told my brother bishops that in the United States the number of people who participate in the Latin Mass even with permission is very low. Additionally, according to the research that I did, there are only 18 priories of the Society of St. Pius X in the entire country. Therefore this document will not result in a great deal of change for the Catholics in the U.S. Indeed, interest in the Latin Mass is particularly low here in New England.

In our archdiocese, the permission to celebrate the Latin Mass has been in place for several years, and I granted permission when I was in Fall River for a Mass down on the Cape. The archdiocesan Mass is now at Immaculate Mary of Lourdes Parish in Newton. It is well attended, and if the need arises for an extension of that we would, of course, address it.

This issue of the Latin Mass is not urgent for our country, however I think they wanted us to be part of the conversation so that we would be able to understand what the situation is in countries where the numbers are very significant. For example, in Brazil there is an entire diocese of 30,000 people that has already been reconciled to the Church.