The whole question of what Pope Leo is going to do to resolve the issues surrounding the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) could very well be a litmus test for his pastoral approach to neuralgic ecclesial issues during his papacy.
Having been a priest for 51 years and growing up with the TLM in my childhood, this issue is of particular interest to me. I continue to have a keen interest in liturgical theology, the Liturgical Movement of the 20thcentury and liturgical reform. In fact, my STL tesina or short thesis at the University of Louvain was on the ‘History of the Liturgical Movement in the United States.’
From my perspective, much of whatever Leo does is anchored in the maxim of Prosper of Aquitaine: Lex orandi statuit legem credendi (The law of prayer establishes or is the root of the law of belief). In other words, the manner and text of our ritual heritage especially when it comes to the Eucharistic liturgy speaks volumes about our self-understanding of who we are as a Church as much as what we believe about Eucharistic theology at this pivotal moment that shapes our identity as Catholic Christians.
Historically, from my perspective, the old missal and ritual was desperately in need of substantive reform. The work of the liturgical historians, Dom Bernard Botte of Mont Cesar abbey in Louvain and the eminent Jesuit liturgist, Josef Jungmann, testified to the evolutionary character of the Eucharistic liturgy and the stagnation of the post-Tridentine rite with its accretions of antique Byzantine court ceremonial, useless repetition and a completely silent or non-participative assembly of the faithful.
Premonitions of reform occurred under Pius XII with his encyclicals Mystici Corporis that laid a rediscovered ecclesiological reform for his great encyclical, Mediator Dei, that was the magna carta that embraced and blessed much of the good work of the European Liturgical Movement. The subsequent reform of the Holy Week Rites in the early 1950’s and the introduction of the Dialogue Mass with its varying degrees of participation of the faithful pointed to what would eventually be realized in the very first document of the Second Vatican Council on the reform of the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium.
Skipping forward, the reformed liturgy mandated by the Council reflects a completely renewed ecclesiological vision as articulated in Lumen Gentium which in many ways anchors and expresses in ritual words and actions this renewed expression. It is for this reason that I strongly objected to Benedict’s conviction in Summorum Pontificum that both the so-called ordinary and extraordinary rites give expression to the same theology of the Church. No. They are radically different with the TLM presenting a wholly deficient, desiccated and highly clericalized ecclesiology where the lay faithful had virtually no role save for the reception of communion.
While I appreciated Pope John Paul II’s carefully nuanced pastoral concessions in 1984 for the continuing celebration of the TLM under clearly circumscribed circumstances, (I celebrated the first TLM in the Diocese of Orange under those concessions), the wholesale opening of the doors under Pope Benedict for any priest to celebrate the pre-reformed rites, in my humble opinion, proved to exacerbate unhealthy polarization in the church. My own experience at the Mission San Juan Capistrano when I was pastor and oversaw the indult Masses every Sunday substantiated this. In questioning folks, there was an oh so thinly veiled vocal acceptance of the conciliar reforms but deep down, they resented this liturgical change as well as many of the ecclesial reforms of the Council. Perhaps that reflected the mindset of the pastor at the time of the Council. He adamantly refused ever to celebrate the novus ordo and illicitly continued to celebrate the TLM after the promulgation of the Pauline Missal. As the old saying has it: As the pastor goes, so goes the parish…
Lest one think that I’m devoid of complete pastoral sensitivity to those who continue to spiritually benefit from the pre-reformed Rite and while I would personally like to see the complete implementation of Traditionis Custodes and its provisions retained by Pope Leo, I acknowledge that there are elements of this document that continue to cause division and for some, hurt, in the Church. I strongly suspect that Pope Leo together with the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments will wisely arrive at a compromise solution that could very well involve the following elements:
- A reiteration of Article 1 of Traditionis Custodes: The liturgical books promulgated by Saint Paul VI and Saint John Paul II, in conformity with the decrees of Vatican Council II, are the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite.
- Lifting of the prohibition that the TLM cannot be celebrated in parish churches or announced in parish bulletin with the expressed permission of the Diocesan Bishop.
- For those communities that regularly celebrate the TLM, at least one Mass a month be celebrated in the novus ordo in Latin or the vernacular.
- The Sacred Triduum must be celebrated either in Latin or the vernacular using the Pauline Missal
- For communities of religious that adhere to the pre-reformed Rite serving in dioceses, e.g. Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP), as a sign of fraternity with Diocesan priests along whom they serve, they concelebrate the annual Chrism Mass with the Diocesan Bishop, not simply in choir dress.
- A reiteration of the prescription in TC that in every TLM celebration, the proclamation of the Word of God be either read or sung in the vernacular
- All celebrations of the TLM follow the varying degrees of the Missa dialogata permitting the assembly to verbally and actively participate in the various parts of the Mass that pertain to them.
- In the Sunday and Feast Day celebrations of the TLM, the Solemn Mass with three sacred ministers is to be preferred rather than the Missa Lecta or so-called Low Mass. The congregation should be taught the ordinary chants of the Mass (e.g., Missa de Angelis) so that they can enter into the full and active participation in the Sacred Mysteries.
- In celebrations of the Missa Lecta during weekdays, dialogue masses with the faithful vocally participating in the parts formerly reserved to the servers is to be preferred as an ecclesial expression of full and active participation in the Sacred Mysteries.
- Care must be taken by Diocesan Bishops in the appointment of priests and granting permissions for the celebration of the TLM in their Dioceses. A thorough knowledge of the Latin language as well as the requisite adherence to the normative conciliar liturgical rites should be evident.
- Finally, the anomaly of the different liturgical calendars and Feasts and Solemnities should cease with the reformed calendar becoming the norm for the universal church.
Rather than being viewed from a punitive perspective, such provisions should hopefully be an expression of the unity within the Body of Christ rather than exacerbating the polarization that this issue has occasioned in the recent past.