Messa in Latino has the interview. Dutch Cardinal Willem Eijk celebrated his first Pontifical High Mass in the Traditional Roman Rite as an “impressive and unforgettable experience.”
Here is part of what the Cardinal said:
The Eucharistic celebration at the Grote Kerk in Oss was my first Pontifical Holy Mass in the extraordinary form. Fortunately, there is a team of priests there, along with a master of ceremonies and a group of acolytes and altar servers who are familiar with this rite, which made it a truly beautiful ceremony. I found it a very impressive and unforgettable experience. The church was filled with people praying devoutly. Most were young, and there were also many families. There was widespread recourse to the sacrament of penance and reconciliation (confession). The Tridentine Rite is very solemn and offers many moments of silence, thereby providing ample opportunity for personal prayer. The priest celebrates the Eucharist, not as is often claimed ‘with his back to the people’, but facing the altar and thus Christ. This helps those present to consciously turn towards Christ as well.
Other bishops and priests have recounted how moved they were to have said the TLM for the first time. Some have wept. It is for many like saying Mass for the first time.
The Cardinal mentions in the interview that he once declined doing an ordination because he had to learn the TLM first.
I would add that – IMO – the easiest liturgical role there is (provided he can pronounce Latin) for a bishop is to be celebrant of a Pontifical Mass. There are all sorts of people around the bishop who can guide him here and there. The bishop is free to pray.
This underscores a major difference in the ars celebrandi of the Novus Ordo and the Vetus Ordo.
In the Novus Ordo, a great deal of weight is put on the priest or bishop celebrant to carry forward the liturgical action.
In the Vetus Ordo, very little weight is put on the celebrant because he is controlled by the rubrics and the style of celebration and the layout of the sanctuary. His eyes should be lowered, his chair faces to the “north”, not toward the people. It is as if he is in a suit of armor that knows how to move on its own.
Thus, the priest is freer than at the Novus Ordo even though the priest at the Novus Ordo is ironically free to do much of what he wants according to myriad options.
This burden on the Novus Ordo celebrant personally have to “drive forward” the liturgical action is, I think, what scares bishops away from celebrating the old rite. They imagine its complexities and mistakenly thing that it is going to depend on them to make it all happen, as it would in the Novus Ordo. And let’s not even get into the issue of Latin (which canon law required them to learn before ordination – really – can. 255). Hence they draw back with anxiety. And because bishops don’t like to seem that they don’t know what to do, their anxiety can turn to hostility.
Yeah, I’m psychoanalyzing. So what. Am I wrong?
I’ll just repeat that the easiest liturgical role there is for a bishop is to be celebrant of a Pontifical Mass. There are all sorts of people around the bishop who can guide him here and there.
Your Excellencies… try it… you’ll like it.
