Old Mass or New Mass: Whats the Fuss About? On 7 July 2007 issued the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, which allowed priests everywhere to celebrate the old or Tridentine Latin Mass using the 1962 Missal, the last version in force before the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). Catholics who for one reason or another were dissatisfied with the post-Vatican II liturgical changes, and in particular, with the new Order of Mass (Novus Ordo Missae) promulgated by Paul VI in 1969, greeted the Motu Proprio with joy. Benedicts action also gave a great boost to Vatican-approved priestly societies (the Fraternity of St. Peter, the Institute of Christ the King, etc.) that had already been using the old rite in their apostolates. Websites promoting the old Mass proliferated, filled with the latest photos of Solemn High Masses in the old rite, conducted in Roman basilicas by clergy wearing eye-popping Baroque vestments--venues where an attempt to mount such a production ten years earlier would probably have prompted the sacristan to summon the carabinieri. Old style church furnishings connected with the old rite, which were once nearly impossible to find, are available from church goods suppliers once again. Ditto, the old liturgical books and rubrical guides. The Motu Propio likewise attracted the attention of a younger more conservative generation of clergy, both diocesan and religious, who had been using the reformed, post-Vatican II rites in their sacramental ministrations. Organizations that promoted the use of the pre-Vatican II rites conducted seminars and produced videos to teach priests like these how to offer the old Mass correctly. Articles appeared in the press quoting young priests who spoke enthusiastically about the experience of offering Mass in the old rite--its dignity, the reverential atmosphere that surrounds its celebration, its ordered symmetry and beauty, its deep roots in the tradition of the Church, and so on. In reading such statements, one could sense the depth of the sincerity behind them. One could also sense something else that was perhaps unintended: the implications that the Mass of Paul VI, in comparison does not possess all these admirable qualities. This logically leads to the question: Why? The answer to the question is our subject. In brief it will be this: the doctrinal presuppositions behind the new rite. The difference in turn affected the externals of the new rite: its prayers and ritual gestures. So if one perceives, for instance, that in the old rite: its prayers and ritual gestures. So if one perceives for instance, that in the old rite the treatment of the Blessed Sacrament is more respectful, the actions of the priest are more dignified, and the atmosphere is more other-worldly when compared with the new rite, this is so because the new rite is based on a new theology of the Real Presence, of the priesthood and of the general purpose of the Mass. If the theology behind the Mass of Paul VI is substantially different--if it does not in a word reflect Catholic doctrine--the practical consequences are obvious. A Catholic cannot merely prefer the old rite to the new; he must also reject the new rite in its entirety. The faith obliges him to do so. In circles where the old Mass is celebrated under the auspices of a Vatican-approved priestly organization or a diocesan bishop, the doctrinal problems that the Mass of Paul VI presents seem to be either unexplored, ignored, treated obliquely or regarded as high-voltage third rail which one dare not touch. Instead, motives like beauty or preference are offered for adhering to the old Mass. Doctrinal Motives of the Motu Proprio This is extremely ironic. These organizations exist--and indeed diocesan sponsored Motu Propio Masses exist--only because the Vatican could not stamp out the ongoing traditionalist resistance to the New Mass that began in the 1960s. And from the beginning, the reasons that traditionalists offered for adhering to the old liturgy and rejecting the liturgical reforms had little to do with beauty or preference--they were almost exclusively doctrinal and moral: (1)Doctrinal. The Mass of Paul VI was Protestant, modernist, non-Catholic, destructive to the Catholic faith, a vehicle for doctrinal revolution, and generally presented a new religion. Hence, a Catholic was obliged to reject the New Mass and seek out a Mass that was Catholic, i.e., the old or Tridentine Mass. (2) Moral. The Mass of Paul VI was grossly irreverent and sacrilegious (it treated things in an unworthy and disrespectful manner) or even invalid (it lacked the sacramental efficacy because the meaning of the essential words in the rite had been changed). The most well known critic of the New Mass was, of course, Archbishop Marcelle Lefevre, founder of the Society of St. Pius X, who ordained priests and sent them throughout the world to offer the Traditional Latin Mass. From 1969 onwards, when the Mass of Paul VI first appeared, the archbishop considered it a threat to the integrity of Catholic doctrine and the salvation of souls. Though later, in connection with his efforts to regularize the status of the Society of St. Pius X, the archbishop would ask the Vatican to permit an experiment in tradition (la experience de la tradition) for those Catholics who preferred it, his earliest pronouncements on the liturgical reform concentrated almost exclusively on condemning its doctrinal errors. Thus in a 1971 conference in Rome, Lefevre denounced the Mass of Paul VI as Protestant, modernist, potentially invalid, embodying a new conception of the Mass and the priesthood, and profaning churches throughout the world. In a 1975 lecture in Florence, he drew parallels between the New Mass and the liturgical reforms of Luther. Since the law of praying is the law of believing, the archbishop said, the fact of imitating Luthers reform in the liturgy of the Mass must infallibly lead to the gradual adoption of the ideas of Luther. Repeatedly to seminarians in Econe in the 1970s, Archbishop Lefevre denounced the New Mass as inimical to Catholic doctrine on the Mass, destructive to the Catholic priesthood, and a slow poison for the faith of Catholics who participated in it. Most famously, in his Declaration of 21 November 1974, he said: It is not possible profoundly to modify the lex orandi [law of praying] without modifying the lex credendi [law of believing]. To the New Mass there corresponds a new catechism, a new priesthood, new seminaries, new universities, the charismatic and Pentecostal Church. The Latin expression that Archbishop Lefevre used, lex orandi, lex credendi (the law of praying is the law of believing), appeared in many traditionalist critiques of the New Mass. It is a time-honored formula used in papal pronouncements, theological works and liturgical commentaries to express the reciprocal relationship between liturgy and dogma. Put simply, it means that liturgical prayer both reflects common beliefs, and affects common beliefs. Changes in the doctrinal content of liturgical prayers, therefore, will inevitably change the beliefs of the worshippers. And therein, traditionalists believed, lay the danger of the New Mass. In the two decades immediately following the Vatican II liturgical reforms, traditionalists produced countless books, tracts, and articles making essentially the same argument. In 2001, after the interest in the old rite had become more widespread, the Society of St. Pius X raised the doctrinal issue once again in The Problems of the Liturgical Reform: A Theological and Liturgical Study. This perceptive and scholarly work systematically analyzed some of the main theological errors behind the reform of the Mass, and concluded that the new rite constitutes a dogmatic rupture with tradition and a danger for the faith. Adherence to the old Mass, then, was bound to the firm rejection of the Mass of Paul VI as inimical to the faith, sacrilegious and potentially invalid. These two themes were insuperable, and were repeatedly sounded, with countless variations, by priests, writers and publications in the traditionalist orbit.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 22:11:14 +0000
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