Real Catholic Blog

What a coincidence! After yesterday’s post about the Vatican announcement that the use of the Latin Mass is acceptable under any condition, I received an article from Catholic Family News about the Bishop of the Diocese of Tulsa, his Excellency, Edward J. Slattery. While he doesn’t celebrate the Mass in Latin (yet), he does celebrate it facing the Altar and not the congregation.

Bishop Slattery explained in his diocesan paper:

Christ’s sacrifice under the sacramental signs of bread and wine. … From ancient times, the position of the priest and the people reflected this understanding of the Mass since the people prayed, standing or kneeling, in the place that visibly corresponded to Our Lord’s Body, while the priest at the altar stood at the head as the Head, We formed the whole Christ — Head and members — both sacramentally by Baptism and visibly by our position and posture. Just as importantly, everyone — celebrant and congregation — faced the same direction, since they were united with Christ in offering to the Father Christ’s unique, unrepeatable and acceptable sacrifice.

More about Bishop Slattery is at the blog ad altare dei. A Bishop practicing this traditional form of celebration truly is exciting for the Church in America. Whether you prefer the “new Mass” or the traditional, one should respect the method of celebrating Holy Mass as the Church offering the options to attract as many people to Christ as possible.

The Vatican continues to send signals, clearer all the time, that normal Sunday Mass may be celebrated in the “Extraordinary” or Tridentine (Latin) form. In November, it sent priests instructional videos on presiding over such a Mass. According to CathNews Asia, the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei made the recent ruling ”that parishes may replace a normal Sunday Mass with one celebrated in the ‘Extraordinary’ or Tridentine form,” in response to questions from the Polish Diocese of Rzeszow.

Here is the summary of the Vatican’s responses promulgated to the Diocese of Rzeszow, and which are applicable universally:

1. If there is no other possibility, because for instance in all churches of a diocese the liturgies of the Sacred Triduum are already being celebrated in the Ordinary Form, the liturgies of the Sacred Triduum may, in the same church in which they are already celebrated in the Ordinary Form, be additionally celebrated in the Extraordinary Form, if the local ordinary allows.

2. A Mass in the usus antiquior may replace a regularly scheduled Mass in the Ordinary Form. The question contextualizes that in many churches Sunday Masses are more or less scheduled continually, leaving free only very inconvenient mid afternoon slots, but this is merely context, the question posed being general. The answer leaves the matter to the prudent judgement of the parish priest, and emphasises the right of a stable group to assist at Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

3. A parish priest may schedule a public Mass in the Extraordinary Form on his own accord (i.e. without the request of a group of faithful) for the benefit of the faithful including those unfamiliar with the usus antiquior. The response of the Commission here is identical to no. 2.

4. The calendar, readings or prefaces of the 1970 Missale Romanum may not be substituted for those of the 1962 Missale Romanum in Masses in the Extraordinary Form.

5. While the liturgical readings (Epistle and Gospel) themselves have to be read by the priest (or deacon/subdeacon) as foreseen by the rubrics, a translation to the vernacular may afterwards be read also by a layman.

The Vatican has been in the YouTube age for some time, but it has released a DVD for priests on how to celebrate the Latin Mass, excerpts of which can be found on YouTube. Some see this as a signal that it won’t be long before the option is a little less optional and the Vatican gets the Bishops in gear in ensuring each parish has at least one Mass per weekend in Latin.

After all, it is the Latin Rite isn’t? This comes via Telegraph UK (of all places) and PewSitter.com, a magnificent Catholic news resource and which we welcome to our media links as of today.

Forgot what the Latin Mass was like? So have many priests. Here’s a refresher. The Vatican may be about to ensure that each parish, where possible, offer one Latin Mass as an option for those who choose to worship that way.