The Jersey Journal has an article on the implementation of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum in
My emphases and comments.
Church celebrates a return to traditional mass in Latin
Monday, September 24, 2007
By CHARLES HACK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITERAt a solemn Latin Mass yesterday, the Holy Rosary Church in Jersey City heralded the return to favor of the once universal language of Christianity. [Tell that to the Eastern Churches!]
The Sixth Street church yesterday held its first traditional Latin Mass to be officiated by a bishop [HUZZAH!] in almost 40 years, church officials said. Dom Carillo Gritti, bishop of Itacoatiara, Brazil, presided over the pontifical Mass just over a week after Pope Benedict XVI’s issued a "motu proprio" allowing priests to perform Latin Mass without permission of the bishop. [Yep.]
The Latin Mass fell out of favor in the 1960s when the Church allowed Catholics to celebrate Mass in their local language. [What a wretched sentence.] The Rev. Rino Lavaroni, Holy Rosary’s pastor, conducts a traditional Latin Mass every Sunday, but this is the first time a bishop has officiated [Second time this word was used. Odd.] over it since the 1960s.
Gritti sees the Pope’s order as an inevitable return to a centuries long tradition that saw a gap in the last few decades.
"Finally we have started again what was there forever," Gritti said. "We have to see this continuity in the Catholic Church."
"We can start the renewal that will transform our church and that will be the salvation for every person," Lavaroni added. "We are starting a new chapter with great enthusiasm." [This guy gets it.]
Apart from the language, there are other differences to the service, Lavaroni said, including the fact that the celebrant does not face the people during prayer, because it is not a "social event," but communion with God. [LOL! Yep! He does get it.]
Born in Bergamo in northern Italy, Gritti did most of his training in seminary there. But for more than 30 years, he has been in the Amazons in Brazil. A trained civil engineer, Gritti supervised the construction of his parish church and a local hospital.
The good thing in this article is that the priest clearly sees the connection between the use of the older form of Mass and the renewal we need in the Church.
Loading ...
I like this Bishop Gritti. He’s one of the few who actually seems to be 100% in favor of the Tridentine Latin Mass. His comments are 100% true. God bless this good Bishop. I hope He’s not too old. Maybe He could be in line to replace the Cardinal Archbishop of Rio, or another important Brazilian See.
Because of “perform Latin Mass” and “officiate Mass” I’ll have to dock the writer to a B+ for an otherwise good article. But his great newspaper name, Charles Hack, certainly gets an A+.
Only good things can happen in this type of scenario.
Long live His Excellency.
Wow. The bishop is a missionary and he thinks the TLM is actually a tool for salvation. This doesn’t seem to agree with all those who seem to think that Latin is a hindrance to the missionary effort (which for many of these people has little to do with salvation). Well, here you have it from a real missionary, the TLM is an important tool for the salvation of souls. Of course these seems to make sense, after all how many people have been converted since the abrogation of the TLM.
Born in Bergamo in northern Italy, Gritti did most of his training in seminary there.
IIRC from my time attending at Holy Rosary, Rev Rino Lavaroni also was born in northern Italy. I don’t recall the town.
This is excellent news! My husband is from Jersey City and so now I’ll be able to attend the TLM when we’re visiting. I’d attend one closer to our home but it’s in the Archdiocese of Boston and not many are interested in the TLM here, according to Cardinal Sean…
Lynne, the TLM has been in Jersey City at Holy Rosary Church for over five years.
Mike in NC, Dom Carillo Gritti is the bishop of Fr. Lorenzo who is a friend of Fr. Lavaroni. Fr. Lorenzo stays at Holy Rosary when he isn’t in Brazil. They are all from northern Italy.
Anthony, you are combining the quotes of Bishop Gritti and the pastor, Fr. Lavaroni. Although, I think it is likely that Bishop Gritti would agree with what Fr. Lavaroni said.
It was said that when this Bishop arrived in his see, the Canadian Missionaries who had transformed the entire diocesan machinery into agit-prop political machine where not even offering regularly scheduled masses in the Cathedral. The Diocese which is in the deepest Amazon includes many tribes that have not yet been touched by Christianity or the West. The race is on in that region between the Evangelicals and the Catholics. The Bishop who was most impressive in person is committed to buidilng a solid basis for the rebirth of the Church in that area where the people are facing almost insurmontable problems (the political graft there is engough to make Jersey City seem like Plato’s Republic from reports I’ve heard).
I am not surprised that two Italians say ‘officiate [Mass]’ in particular connected to a Bishop, because this is the Italian use.
I am not surprised that two Italians say ‘officiate [Mass]’ in particular connected to a Bishop, because this is the Italian use. ‘Officiare’ means ‘to celebrate the Mass’ in Italian.