A priest reports: “The old Mass goes mainstream”

In the current number of the Catholic Herald (28 August) there is a piece by "Pastor Iuventus" entitled "The old Mass goes mainstream"

He wrote:

"I returned from Suffolk to attend the training conference [at London Colney] run by the Latin Mass Society in conjunction with the Archdiocese of Westminster.  I know from its rather prejudiced leading article what the Tablet expected it to be like.  I had some anxieties of my own, but now that the Holy Father has de-politicised the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, I decided it was time to learn to celebrate it properly and so I have come on the course.  I am very pleased I did."

Commenting on the priest who attended:

"It is not full of priests plotting to undo the claimants to the Bourbon throne, just run-of-the-mill priests who feel that celebrating the extraordinary form once in a while could help them in their particular quest to be good, devout priests, or who are learning it in respons to the pastoral needs of their congregations.  For those reasons alone, there is nothing marginal or marginalising about the conference."

In the same edition of the Catholic Herald there is an comment by James Preece reminding Archbishop Nichols that it is not the traditionally minded Catholics who are a cause for worry. It is not so much the traditionalists who think that the newer form of Mass, the Novus Ordo, is in some way deficient.  It is the priests who abusively change the Novus Ordo around because they think it is "deficient".

 

And an editorial piece stating that a "Reform of the Reform" of the liturgy, as proposed by the Congregation for Divine Worship, would not be a cold imposition on God’s people but would be a pastoral, sensitive move for the good of the Church.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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5 Comments

  1. drea916 says:

    “it is not the traditionally minded Catholics who are a cause for worry.”

    It’s us “youngsters” you have to worry about. We realize what certain Catholic leaders (lay and clertics) have been “hiding” from us. I finally figured out my missal for the TLM the other day (I had been attending and just watching since the beginning of the year.) and it felt like I had REALLY attended Mass. I’m in love!

  2. Jacob says:

    Disappointment, disillusionment, sorrow, regret, anger…

    These are the feelings I feel as a young man who never got to experience the Extraordinary Form before losing my hearing as a young adult.

  3. pattif says:

    Pastor Juventus is a wonderfully inspiring and gifted priest, whose book, Diary of a City Priest (a collection of his columns in the CH), would not disgrace your sidebar, Father.

  4. Gail F says:

    “It is not so much the traditionalists who think that the newer form of Mass, the Novus Ordo, is in some way deficient. It is the priests who abusively change the Novus Ordo around because they think it is “deficient”.”

    Isn’t that the truth! I am a 45-year-old woman. I would love to go to TLM sometimes, and I would also like to go to the NO mass in Latin (as I was once able to do) sometimes. Ad orientam is fine with me, but I can take it the “normal” way. But I would be ECSTATIC to go to my NO parish every Sunday and hear the readings and prayers AS THEY ARE (not changed to be “inclusive) and to have everything else be as it’s supposed to be — no skipping vital parts of mass, and no dreary fake folksong hymns. THE N.O. MASS IS GREAT, as far as I’m concerned, if they would just do it right!!!!

  5. JamesP says:

    My comment in the Herald was a condensed version of my blog entry: Turning Their Back on the Church’s Ordinary Pattern of Prayer

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