Never again could ‘they’ say it was ‘a sin’ to go to the Tridentine Mass
Prior to 7/7/2007, how these invectives used to fill the air; ‘you have no right to go to a Latin Mass. That was banned!’ ‘It’s an act of disobedience to go to a Latin Mass, it’s only obedient to go to the Pope’s Mass, which is the English Mass.’ Or worse of all, ‘it’s actually a sin now to go to the Tridentine Mass.’ A minute before the Motu Proprio was announced anti-Latin Mass nonsense was thought to be valid intellectual speechifying. But that changed instantly with the Pope’s pronouncement that the Latin Mass was ‘never abrogated’; and ‘the love’ that young people in particular have for the Latin Mass was acknowledged.
The Motu Proprio was a groundbreaking, historical occasion – and put the kibosh on that ‘disobedience’ double-talk.
The Motu Proprio had a hugely positive influence on my teaching of the faith. The year after the Motu Proprio, I was teaching history to a bunch of ten year old boys. The Irish curriculum prescribed that they learn about life in 1950’s Ireland, when their grandparents were growing up and attending the Latin Mass. I simply gave the children a few facts, and a few ‘visual aids’ about the Latin Mass, and invited them to interview their grandparents about the Latin Mass. It really took off; their grandparents became extremely enthused about explaining the Old Mass, and the children became more competitive about whose gran/granda had told them the most about the Latin Mass. It also gave the children a real flavour of local culture; ‘my nan [grandmother] says to me the gir-erls weren’t allowed wear red nail polish or bright lipstick to Mass, and the fan-cay dresses they would wear dan-cay-ing were not allow-ed at the auld Mass eye-ther’
Never did the grandparents tell the children that the Mass had been ‘banned’. And one day I heard, ‘Miss O’Reee-gah-an, where d’ya get the auld Mass now? In America or someplace?’ I told them that there were more Masses being planned, that week, in their own town.
Sorry,the photograph is of a High Mass at the High Altar celebrated about 9 year (?) at St Edmund's College,Old Hall Green,Ware, at the Latin Mass Society Day of Recollection, offered by Fr Armand de Malleray, the deacon is Fr Patrick Heywood and the subdeacon is Fr Andrew Southwell. The Motu Proprio is not an unmixed blessing; I believe it makes the Traditional Mass a bit too easy. Today, I "happened" upon a Mass, purportedly traditional, but the priest was saying the Canon aloud [I arrived in the church just at the consecrations], the Placeat was said aloud and the server in cassock and cotta was a young woman [which would not be acceptable at the Novus Ordo Masses said in many conservative churches]. Is this a new example of "Liturgical abuses" in the Traditional Mass ? Alan Robinson
ReplyDeleteHave just changed the photo to a bone fide Ss Peter and Paul's one.
ReplyDeleteI have tagged you for a prayer meme.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much Kate. I remember all Catholic bloggers in my first Rosary of the day, especially when praying The Presentation in the Temple, as it is my Favourite Decade of the Rosary, and also there is something of the Anna and Simeon in all of us bloggers at the moment; keenly anticipating the Vicar of Christ's visit; waiting for ‘a light to enlighten the Gentiles’. Yet, it's still as true today that 'the secret thoughts of many will be laid bare', including all those who promote The Pill.
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