Latin Mass

When I attended the 2 P.M. Mass on a recent Sunday at San Miguel Mission in Santa Fe, I thought that I had traveled back in time to an earlier decade before 1962 when the Mass was almost universally celebrated in Latin. To my surprise the Mass at San Miguel was in Latin with the priest facing the tabernacle and not the congregation. Although I had trained as an altar server for the Latin Mass in the early sixties and had studied Latin for 4 years in the mid sixties at Bellarmine, a Jesuit high school in Tacoma, my Latin these days is very rusty so I had difficult keeping pace with the liturgy. Certain Latin phrases such as "et cum spiritu tu o" are easy to remember and the" Agnus Dei" is often cited in mixed English- Latin Masses. For other responses and prayers I needed to use the Latin- English Missal Guide in the pews. What struck me most about the rendition of the Latin Mass was the seemingly large number of blessings and genuflections performed by the priest. Also those receiving communion knelt at the altar rail and took Communion on their tongues - just as practiced when I was an altar server. I remember holding the patent to prevent the Eucharist from dropping on the rail or the floor. The women in attendance at San Miguel Mission all wore scarves or hats and some wore veils. The congregation was also older than at the English Mass I attended at San Miguel Mission although there were a number of college age students. My general impression of my first all Latin Mass in 50 years was favorable. The Latin liturgy is beautiful to hear as Latin is a very vowel heavy language, albeit different than  the melodious vowel tones of a Hawaiian Mass I once heard. Spoken Latin sounds like a sacred language so I would imagine that a Latin Mass would be especially appropriate for a wedding or an ordination to invoke the sanctity of those events. I also found San Miguel Mission, an ancient church, ideal for this liturgy. Again I will admit that despite my Latin background I couldn't always keep up with either the prayers or the responses but I presume that regular attendees at the Latin Mass become very familiar with the Latin phrases and their translations.  Also it was difficult to see exactly what the priest was doing with his back to us. I wondered whether the Latin Mass couldn't be celebrated with the priest facing the congregation.
 Upon returning home that evening I was curious - why had the Latin Mass all but vanished in the sixties and was it making a comeback? The Latin Mass has also been known as the Tridentine Mass, which is the form of the Roman Rite Mass, contained in the typical edition of the Roman Missal that was published from 1570 to 1962, promulgated originally at the Council of Trent. In 1962  permissions were granted from Pope Paul VI to celebrate the Mass in vernacular languages. Subsequent liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council from 1962-66 encouraged a wider participation of the laity in the liturgy of the Mass. The priest was to face his congregation to make the Mass more relevant and to encourage the laity to join in prayers and liturgical responses.  The Roman Missal was translated into modern languages also to enhance understanding of the liturgy. In 1969 the Mass of Pope Paul VI was introduced and officially replaced the Tridentine Mass. It was to be celebrated in the popular languages of the congregations. I will mention that neither the Second Vatican Council nor the subsequent revisions of the Roman Missal abolished Latin as the liturgical language of the Roman Rite. Indeed the official text of the Roman Missal continues to be in Latin. After 1969 permission to celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass had to be granted by the local ordinate and was reserved for unique liturgical occasions. As an older generation of priests versed in the Latin Mass retired, they were replaced by a younger generation of priests without any training in the Latin Mass. In some respects the Latin Mass went away with the attrition of the previous generation of priests.  Also the fervor from the Vatican Council for the modern Mass of Paul VI led to the restrictions placed on the classic Tridentine Latin Mass. The 'times were also changing' in the Catholic Church in the sixties.
Yet the Latin Tridentine Mass still had its advocates. Traditionalist Catholics, who rejected some of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, such as the move away from the Latin Mass, either broke from the Catholic Church altogether or sought relief from their Bishops for the celebration of Latin Masses. Those who separated from the Vicar in Rome, such as Archbishop Marcel Lefebrve of France, were excommunicated. Those who remained within the Catholic Church and who attended approved Latin Masses continued to petition the Vatican for a relaxation of the restrictions placed on celebrating the Latin Mass.  In 2007, Pope Benedict issued an Apostolic Letter "Summorum Pontificum" liberalizing the approval for celebration of the Latin Mass. He encouraged Bishops to make the Latin Mass more available upon requests by the faithful. Indeed the Latin Mass at San Miguel Mission was officially approved by Archbishop Michael Sheehan in 2008 in  response to a petition from some of the faithful in Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Espanola. I was informed that attendance at the Latin Mass at San Miguel has steadily increased since its inception.
I encourage Catholic Pilgrims to attend a Latin Mass. The Latin Mass isn't meant to replace the Mass of Paul VI, yet it has its own unique beauty and sacredness. It is the Mass our parents and grandparents celebrated. The Catholic Mass in New Mexico, whether celebrated in English, Spanish or Latin has always been a summons for us to encounter Christ and to become the holy people of God.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

To read Pope Benedict's "Summorum Pontificum" click on

Summorum Pontificum 

www.vatican.va/.../hf_ben-xvi_let_20070707_lettera-vescovi_en.html‎