Latin Mass Catholics Prepare for World Youth Day 2008

Latin Mass Catholics Prepare for World Youth Day 2008

Download this press release as an Adobe PDF document.

My emphases and comments.

Brooklyn, NY (PRWEB) January 4, 2008 — A youth movement for Catholics devoted to the classical form of the Roman liturgy (the so-called [well put!] "Latin Mass") is planning to attend World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, Australia. Juventutem [I wish it had an "I" rather than a "J"…] derives its name from a Latin word for "youth" and is a multi-national organization dedicated to the daily sanctification of young Catholics through traditional devotions and liturgy. Pope Benedict has recently advocated a wider use of the Latin Mass in the Church in his papal letter "Summorum Pontificum," and devotion to this "extraordinary rite" of the Roman liturgy is growing. [Contrary to sour grapes reports.]

One of the most surprising news stories to come out of World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne, Germany was the presence there of a group of young Catholics, numbering some 1000-strong, who were worshipping God using some of the oldest rites in the Catholic Church — including the Tridentine (or "Latin") Mass. This multi-national group called itself "Juventutem", a term which appears at the beginning of the pre-Vatican II missal of the Catholic liturgy: "Introibo ad altare Dei. Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam," meaning "I will go up to the Altar of God. To God, who gives joy to my youth."

Newspapers and magazines covered the story of these unusual young people who were so devoted to the ancient traditions, music and devotions of the Catholic Church. Cardinal Francis George (USA), Cardinal George Pell (Australia), Bishop Fernando Arêas Rifan (Brazil) and Archbishop Raymond Burke (USA) were among those Church dignitaries celebrating liturgies and leading devotions for Juventutem in 2005, which were often attended by WYD pilgrims coming from other groups to participate in the beautiful Masses and experience Gregorian chant.

Although 2005 was the beginning of Juventutem, much has happened in the intervening three years. It is now not so unusual to hear of a group of people devoted to the classical form of the Roman liturgy in the Catholic Church. In July of 2007, Pope Benedict issued a papal letter entitled "Summorum Pontificum", in which he advocated a wider use of these liturgical books in the Church. One reason for doing so, in fact, was the widespread devotion to these liturgical forms by young Catholics throughout the world.

"Immediately after the Second Vatican Council it was presumed that requests for the use of the 1962 Missal would be limited to the older generation which had grown up with it," the Holy Father writes in his letter to bishops accompanying "Summorum Pontificum", "But in the meantime it has clearly been demonstrated that young persons too have discovered this liturgical form, felt its attraction and found in it a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist, particularly suited to them."

Juventutem and other groups devoted to what Pope Benedict has now termed the "extraordinary form" of the Roman Rite are not the curiosity they once might have been in 2005.

Juventutem has now become an international youth movement whose goal is the daily sanctification of Catholic youth through Roman traditions. A contingent of Juventutem members will meet this summer in Australia for WYD 2008, and the organizers plan a 2-week long schedule of religious and cultural events.

Juventutem USA has organized a WYD 2008 group package, led by Rev. Fr. Denis Buchholz of the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest. This priestly order, founded in 1990, is entirely devoted to the liturgical forms of the extraordinary rite. Fr. Buchholz was part of Juventutem at WYD 2005 and is currently pro rector of Old St. Patrick Roman Catholic Oratory in Kansas City, MO. The schedule of events includes daily Mass according to the extraordinary rite; lauds, vespers, and compline on most days; catechesis and rosary; attendance at the Papal Mass; and of course, some days to explore Australia. All Catholics aged 16-30 are welcome to join the group.

For more information on joining Juventutem USA in Australia for WYD 2008, please visit www.juventutemusa.org.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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11 Comments

  1. danphunter1 says:

    Thank you Lord for the youth that love the Tridentine Mass.
    God bless you

  2. woodyjones says:

    “Juventutem [I wish it had an “I” rather than a “J”…]”

    Maybe the founders were Juventus fans.

  3. Having attended the inaugural event in Bavaria and Cologne, I can wholeheartedly recommend to those individuals with the resources and time to go to Melbourne and Sydney.

    I myself do not know if it is meant for me to attend this edition, but I can say without reservation that singing in the Juventutem Pilgrims’ Choir in 2005 was my personal Mount Tabor experience.

  4. Christopher Sarsfield says:

    I do not mind the J in liturgical contexts. Ecclesiastical Latin is a living language, and should not be shamed into adopting the antiquarian demands of high brow classicists, who insist that Latin is a dead language. The introduction of j was an organic development of the language, just as the introduction of w was in English. What is next? Should we wish for the reconstructed pronunciation of Latin in our Churches? Isn’t this the same attitude that gave us the Pius XII version of the Psalms, which is so loved by Catholics throughout the world? :)

  5. Deborah says:

    Juventutem is the only way to go to WYD. They have the *best* solidly Catholic catechesis and needless to say the *best* Sacred Liturgies.

    I have been subjected to the horrendous daily catechesis and Masses full of abuses at WYD. The stories I could tell!

    A big scandal to be forewarned about, this year the star WYD theme singer, Guy Sebastian, is pro-homosexual “marriage”, hangs out at “gay clubs” and a protestant evangelical fellow who won the Australian Idol contest. He will be performing live on stage at WYD and meeting the Holy Father.

    The Australian WYD planning committee was notified about Mr. Sebastian’s homosexual “marriage” public comments and decided to do nothing about it since this is considered an “ecumenical event”. Say what? I thought it was at least considered Catholic – guess not.

    Also, the Australian organizers will be promoting activities hosted by the Muslim community where Catholic youth are invited to join them for their Friday prayers. Oh, and a promise was made by the WYD organizers that we will not try to convert any Muslims to Catholicism. This is only a snippet of the kind of scandalous ideas that are taught at WYD to our youth.

    In the end, what will the youth, who don’t know their Catholic faith and are presented with fraudulent ideas of Catholicism, come away with after WYD?

  6. Domenico says:

    “I wish it had an “I” rather than a “J”…”
    From the memories of my ‘juventutis’:
    – Introibo ad altare Dei. Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.
    – Judica me Deus et …
    – Confiteor … beato Joanni Baptistae, …
    – … Tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe. …
    – Jube Domine benedicere.
    – da nobis per hujus aquae et vini mysterium, ejus divinitatis esse consortes,
    – ut in conspectu divinae majestatis tuae, …
    – Vere dignum et justum est,
    – ut admitti jubeas, deprecamur,
    – Juravit Dominus,
    – justitia ejus manet in saeculum saeculi.
    – Jucundus homo qui miseretur et commodat, disponet sermones suos in judicio.

    but note ‘qui labia Isaìae Prophetae calculo mundasti’: in Isaìae the accented ì.

    That ‘j’ in Italian has become the soft ‘g’: ‘Gesù, giustizia’, and of course ‘gioventù’. Mine is lost.
    Happy new year!

  7. Giordano says:

    Just a side comment; Fr. mentions he wishes Juventutem was written with an I rather than a J. Feel free to correct me but making use of J to distinguish from the vowel was actually a wonderful innovation of the Carolingian renaissance with the alphabet and linguistic enhancements called Carolingian miniscule many centuries ago; and therefore the J is more in line with Catholic usage whereas the only using I is more inline with Roman pagan Latin (which of course is rich with contributions). So let us not be ashamed of the J in Latin, in fact I wager you would likely find most proponents of using I are the neo-pagan experts who feel being a purist involves ignoring the majority of output in Latin language (done by the Church) and focusing solely upon pagan Rome.

  8. Fr Renzo di Lorenzo says:

    GOOD FOR JUVENTETEM!

    In view of World Youth Day, the best thing about the 1962 Missal is that there is no concelebration allowed. At these “events”, I’m told, many N.O. concelebrants do not receive from the chalice at the “event Masses”, and are relegated to such a distant place that it is hard even to see the altar. One priest told me that this was not a problem for him, since it is more important just to “be there”.

    O.K., “be there” for Confessions, catechesis, for inviting Muslims to know the truth about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the God-Man, and for offering Holy Mass apart from the “event Masses”, but not for liturgical abuse.

    But, maybe, just maybe Marini-II will surprise everyone with a sober offering of the Sacred Mysteries, excluding concelebration. Maybe, just maybe this will be Pope Benedict’s first public 1962 Mass. Now, wouldn’t THAT make a statement!

  9. Berolinensis says:

    I agree with the comments supporting the “J”. There is no “J” in classical Latin. However, with the development of disctint vocal and consonant pronuciations in later latin, a different character was divised to mark this and facilitate correct pronunciation. People in late antiquity/early middle ages did not say “I-esus” (“EE-aysoos”), but “Jesus” (“Yaysoos”). I see absolutely no reason to stick to a “purer” classical spelling, when all the books published before Vatican II employed the “J”, at least in Germany. In fact, this idea of the “purity” of classical Latin in respect to ecclesiastical usage smacks of the same “archeologism” we rightfully bemoan when applied to the rites of the sacred liturgy. I for one make a point of using the “J” in all ecclesiastical Latin texts. Also, if you really wanted “classical purity”, you should only use “V”, not “U”, since they developed in the same way as “I” and “J”, thus you had to write “Iesvs” and “Ivventvtem”. Sorry for the rant, but I read this so often…

  10. Andrew says:

    There was a need to differentiate between the “i” (vowel) and the “i” (consonant “j”) from way back long before the renaissance. Some Roman inscriptions used a taller “I” to differentiate it from the simple vowel “i”. Cicero and others preferred to use a double “i” as mentioned by Quintilianus in words such as “aio”.

    (Ciceroni placuisse “aiio” “Maiiam” geminata i scribere… (Institutio Oratoria.)
    What might be gained by restricting both sounds to one letter now?!

    You all might have heard about Pope John Paul II who signed his name with a “J” for Joannes in front of his Latinist for the first time and to his latinist’s objection of “there is no J in Latin” the Pope finished signing his name with a J and replied “and now there is”.

  11. Paul Mac says:

    Just as a matter of interest, retired Bishop Basil Meeking of Christchurch, New Zealand, has been invited to be part of the Juventutem celebrations at the WYD in Sydney in July. Until his return to New Zealand, Bishop Meeking as assistant to Cardinal George in Chicago.

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