Well, I have to give this priest some credit, he does not just recite the party line. This is some innovative opposition.
What the Tridentine Mass requires by Father Eugene Hemrick
It seems like only yesterday that I was celebrating Mass in Latin with my back to the people. [Can we please find another cliché ?] Perhaps it was my Italian background or having inherited the musical side of my family, but I really enjoyed singing Mass in Latin. The vowel sounds in Romantic languages add a certain beauty to singing that is ever so melodious.
In preparation for celebrating Mass in Latin, we studied latin for five years and then read and spoke it for seven years in the major seminary. Those 12 years of study truly Latinized us. [Uh oh! I think I see where this is going.]
The Tridentine Mass is more than reciting Mass in Latin; it also contains a long list of traditions. Its rubrics were much more numerous than those for today’s Mass. [Yes. Is that bad?]
For example, when a priest ascended the altar he was to start with his right foot. Even his most minute gesture was measured for correctness. [For a pitcher throwing in the big leagues, every minute gesture is measured for correctness. Which is more important?]
Many of the Masses during the week were requiem Masses (for the dead) in which the priest wore black vestments. [Black is slimming]
Women weren’t allowed to serve Mass. Only a priest could touch the chalice and ciborium. Altar rails were common, and everyone received the Eucharist on the tongue. The Communion fast began at midnight. [This is what the dark ages were like, do you really want to go back to this? DO YOU?!]
With Pope Benedict XVI promoting the Tridentine Mass, many priests and laypersons are concerned about further divisions this may cause in parish communities. [The mass that there is no call for will cause division. Do teen / folk masses cause division? Do Spanish masses?] What concerns me more, however, is the manner in which the Tridentine Mass will be celebrated. [OK. Get ready for the innovative part.]
Most of today’s priests are well-versed in languages, especially Spanish. Most, however, are not schooled in Latin. In fact, most don’t know Latin nor have they been properly trained in the rubrics of the Tridentine Mass. [Whose fault is that?]
In studies of the priesthood, priests have told us that the celebration of Mass is at the heart of their life. As true as this is, celebrating Mass or, as is often the case today, several Masses in a day taxes a priest’s ability to be reverent, one in thought with the words he is reciting. Even when you are speaking in your mother tongue, it is easy to just mouth the words and go through the motions.
What concerns me is a younger generation that is not Latinized enough to make the Tridentine Mass truly reverent and meaningful. Most have not endured the rigors of learning Latin, speaking and studying in it. The language and culture of Cicero and the early church are foreign to them.[You gotta give it to him. He loves the ‘Tridentine’ mass soooo much, respects it soooo much, we shouldn’t do it. Unless you are a Latin scholar, you cannot possibly do it reverently. I think it was Chesterton who said “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly”]
The word “hypocrite” [playing hardball] means to playact, to take on the character of someone other than oneself. My prayer is that when priests new to Latin celebrate the Tridentine Mass today, they not playact – that the Latin spoken becomes a true part of them. [My prayer is the priests do not playact their love for the ‘Tridentine’ Mass as veiled opposition. I guess we may both be disappointed.]
This article appeared in the August 15th issue of the Catholic Commentator of the Diocese of Baton Rouge.
Fr. Hemrick |
Fr. Eugene Hemrick, who writes “The Human Side” column, is a research associate with the Life Cycle Research Institute at The Catholic University of America, and coordinator of institutional research at Washington Theological Union. He writes weekly on issues pertinent to the church and the human spirit. He may be reached at: Fr. Eugene Hemrick, c/o Catholic News Service, 3211 Fourth St. N.E., Washington, D.C. 20017. |
August 23, 2007 at 8:19 am
Really, Fr. Z., our anti-traditionalist enemies are becoming almost as boring as the New Mass is banal. This latest attack from Baton Rouge is less daring, less exciting, than Bishop Trautman’s suggestion that celebrants of the old Mass in his high and mighty Diocese of Erie just might have to sit Latin exams.
August 23, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Yes, this is indeed creative. What this says to me is that there is a need to return to rigorous study of latin in the seminaries rather than an abandonment of tradition. I doubt that the author truly hopes that the result will be reverent and truly felt Tridentine Masses. This argument has been heard so many times already. How about applying some of this new found desire for reverence and authenticity to the NO Masses in your parish? Why not have your priests break in their latin skills at the NO Masses, where they can concentrate on the texts and not have to be distracted by all those pesky rubrics? If the authors concern is TRULY that there be reverent and authentic TLM Masses, why not impart some of the knowledge given to him in his long years of latin study to this next generation of priests who will apparently be needing it more than he has? I don’t wish to be uncharitable, but for God’s sake… if you don’t want to be a part of the future, at least don’t be an obstacle for others!
August 23, 2007 at 1:58 pm
You know, I really don’t see much of a threat here. This priest clearly does not know what he is talking about. If he did, he would know that he has little if any control at all over future events. He’d also know what a lousy writer he is. I’m afraid people like this are going to have to be humored for awhile, until they see the faithful make up their own minds.
August 23, 2007 at 9:27 pm
The Church is many things, and one of them is an organization. Having a career in Personnel/HR, I apply organizational theories to The Church; especially performance management.
Using a bell-curve analogy, in the middle of the curve are the vast majority of people (in this case Priests), who do a good job, and do it day in, day out.
On one end of the curve, you have the “Uber” performers; and, unfortunatley, such as the case here, on the other end of the curve you have the foot-draggers. You know, the ones that always see the glass half empty. And is some cases, they are actual internal terrorists.
I would conservativley guess that there has to be at least 1% of the population that fall into this category. Considering there are (according to one website) 400,000 priests on the planet, that means there are at least 4,000 duds out there.
Unfortunatley, these are the guys (and gals if you include renegade religious) that get all the ink.
August 24, 2007 at 1:05 am
Father Hemrick is a good, if somewhat out of touch, Priest.
I served his Mass when he offered it for me and my wife privately. After that, he baptized our newborn in the old Rite.
This was only three years ago.
People shouldn’t be so quick to impute ill motives.
August 26, 2007 at 4:24 pm
I don’t see this as a threat at all. In fact, he makes some pretty good points. I hope that in the future that the seminaries “Latinize” priests the way he was. In the meantime, we have to play the cards we are dealt, and in spite of what some construe as antipathy to the old mass, I see this priest as somone who actually, whether he agrees with it or not, cares that is done correctly. I’d bet that, with encouragement, he’d be a darn good “trainer” for some youger priests.