The Italian daily La Repubblica is reporting that since summorum Pontificum there has been growth in requests for the TLM.
Apparently Masses are springing up everywhere, despite the fact that last April the bishops of Tuscany had sent a protest, with a certain approval of the conference, over the forthcoming Motu Proprio. You will recall that one of the greater denouncer of the Motu Proprio was the Archbishop of Pisa. Furthermore, it is not older people who are going to the new old Mass, but young people.
In one place, for example, the 55 year old parish priest said "No" while the 34 year old assistant backed the group of people who want the TLM. Even though this group has been pushing since August, the pastor says No. The people? "We’re not asking for much… just one out of the five Masses celebrated between the two churches." To be fair, the parish priest is saying, "My No isn’t a categorical No. I only said that preparation is needed, to understand what the old rite consists of. … I have to learn it. And it isn’t exactly easy, saying this Mass of Pius V".
So, we can see the pattern repeating itself all over the world. The older priest is reluctant, doesn’t know the older Mass, drags his feet. The younger priest is more open, perhaps more willing to learn. The result is a delay.
Meanwhile, resources are being distributed to help priests learn the older Mass and there are places priests can go to study the extraordinary use.
Brick by brick.
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Isn’t Tuscany where Michael Davies retired to….and there was a TLM there at that time? I think this area has been friendly to the Mass of BJXXIII for some time now.
Even so, this is good news.
Michael Davis (RIP+) died in England in 2004.
I’m not surprised so many young are flocking to the Tridentine Latn Mass. In my area, the older (69) year old pastor grdugingly allowed for an 8:30 AM TLM on Sundays, but expected not many people. He would consider himself justified in cancelling it in afew months. Meanwhile, He decided to thbring back the “Guitar Mass” which had been discontinued afew years before as a balance to the TLM. If you’ve ever watched Trinity Broadcasting on cable TV, or the Gaither Gospel Hour, that’s what this Mass is like. You’d think you were at a “Born-again” evangelical Protestant camp meeting. The result….despite the relative early hour, 600 people attended last weeks Tridentine Latin Mass (High Mass). Only 80 went to the 10:00 Guitar Mass. (To be fair, about another 600+ went to the other two regular Novus Ordo Masses (6:30 am and 12:00pm).
A few kilometers from Siena on the road towards Florence, the town of Poggibonsi is home to the Ordo Militiae Templi, whose headquarters is a modest 12th c. complex grandly called the “Castello della Magione”. There the Extraordinary Form is celebrated in true noble simplicity, reverence, and beauty. It was well worth the trouble my wife and I took to seek the place out for Sunday Mass while on our Tuscan honeymoon.
Romulus writes: A few kilometers from Siena on the road towards Florence, the town of Poggibonsi is home to the Ordo Militiae Templi, whose headquarters is a modest 12th c. complex grandly called the “Castello della Magione”.
Attending the Castello for the ER is fine, but be cautious! This is a soi-disant “Templar order” that has been erected as a “diocese association of the faithful;” it is NOT> a chivalric Order. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militia_Templi.
“…in 1979 [the castle] was purchased by Count Marcello Alberto Cristofani della Magione the founder and current Grand Master of the Militia Templi….”
An heraldic expert at rec.heraldry states:
“…Creating a new association of the faithful in an Italian diocese seems like a good thing if it helps individuals’ spiritual development but none of this makes it any more a chivalric order than the local Holy Name of Jesus Prayer Circle which is also an association of the faithful….”
Again, as a location to attend the EF: fine. But please do not think this “association of the faithful” is an authentic Order of Chivalry as its name implies.
–Guy Power
“Furthermore, it is not older people who are going to the
new old Mass, but young people…”
Perhaps St. Augustine’s phrase “Beauty ever ancient, ever new” can be applied fittingly here.
I really hope the fruits of the SP will also spread here in Japan. :)
At least there is hope for many of us. If in Tuscany the use of the Usus Antiquior grows, how much better it is for the hard-line liberal Dioceses to finally accept this form of Mass?
A few years ago I happened to attend a WONDERFUL “Novus ordo” Latin mass in the cathedral church of Florence.
It was a Sunday mass, and totally in Latin (including, I think, the readings).
The homily was beautiful, too: it was about the glory of God.
I then wrote a letter to His Eminence the cardinal archbishop of Florence, Antonelli, to thank him: it was a true joy indeed to hear that mass!
I do hope that, along with many classical masses (in the extraordinary form, I mean), we shall be given the opportunity to hear many Latin masses in the ordinary form, worthily celebrated, with a true sense of beauty and with faith.