An account of the colloquium on blogging at the Oxford Newman Society meeting.

5 Comments

1. Bro. AJK says:

   19 February 2008 at 12:40 PM

   You’ve an open tag. You can delete this later.
2. The Expectation of Our Lady says:

   19 February 2008 at 2:39 PM

   I wish I could have come down! However I had to stay in Birmingham because of work.
3. Derik C says:

   19 February 2008 at 9:00 PM

   Fr Z. is that you speaking in the library at the right
   hand side of Fr John Hunwicke?
4. Gordo the Byzantine says:

   21 February 2008 at 5:30 AM

   Father Z,

   Sounds like it was a fascinating conversation.

   Not suprisingly, I thought this comment from Fr. John Hunwicke particular insightful:

   “He suggested that if a sad barrier to the Latin tongue is what prevents priests from using the 1962 missal, would not an entire vernacular translation be a bridge to it, and preferable to the current state of affairs?”

   I have said this before. The Tridentine Mass is not just a vehicle for bringing “Latin back to the masses” (in every sense), rather it is a modality of worship which brings body and soul into communion with the Holy Trinity in a way which is distinct (and superior) from the Ordo of Paul VI. The best way to mainstream the 1962 Missal (and eventually sideline the Ordo of Paul VI, at least in all it aberrant manifestations) is to permit its celebration in the vernacular.

   I hope that, for the sake of my Latin Catholic bretheren – the largest Church in the communion of Catholic Churches – this is being explored on some level. The true renewal/reform of Latin Catholic worship across the world can only stand to benefit our communion as a whole, as well as to facilitate a greater rapproachment with the Orthodox Churches of the East.

   As it stands, the modality of worship in the average Latin Catholic parish is an object of derision and sadness for many Orthodox (and by many of us Eastern Catholics) and viewed as the full flowering of so-called Western “heresies”. I won’t say that heresies are not involved in the Western crisis. Semi-Arianism and Gnosticism have seemed to run rampant for decades, but certainly NOT on any official or magisterial level. But all of that seems to be changing with the ascendancy of a new generation of bishops, priests and religious, thank God. The mainstreaming of the Tridentine Ordo through a proper vernacular translation can only help facilitate this trend towards orthodoxy and orthopraxis.

   I say this as a member of this communion – this “household of faith” – who loves both his Latin Catholic brethren and Pope Benedict, who in my own estimation is perhaps both the greatest theologian and Pope of the 20th and 21st centuries.

   But my hunch is:

   a. It would be opposed by those who fear that a proper vernacular usage (perhaps blended with certain Latin responses and Gregorian Chant) will somehow diminish or corrupt the beauty and glory of the Tridentine Ordo…or perhaps they somehow appreciate participating in liturgical services that require a book with translations to understand all the prayers. As if without that language barrier it is not enough of a Sacred Mystery!

   b. It would be opposed by those hierarchs who would wish to relegate this Ordo to a certain “type” of Latin Catholic who is overly attached to pre-Vatican II thinking and worshipping, and thus is a matter of little concern for (real) mainstream Catholics…PLUS, this would remove any final excuse for attempted episcopal control over its use…a Language Proficiency threshold!

   Of course, this is just a hunch.

   In ICXC,

   Gordo
5. Father J says:

   22 February 2008 at 12:41 AM

   Gordo

   Excellent commentary and sound thinking… but you’re probably right on both counts!

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