Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Mixed reviews for retro rule on Latin Mass

New York Post
By BEN FRUMIN with Post Wire Services

July 9, 2007 -- Pope Benedict XVI's decision to make it easier to celebrate the old Latin Mass got a decidedly mixed reaction at St. Patrick's Cathedral yesterday - with some lauding the nod to tradition and others fretting that it will turn off young people.

"The Catholic religion is one of tradition. When we did away with the traditional Latin Mass, we lost something. We lost meaning," said Dayne Baughman, 21, a senior from Kenyon College in Ohio who was visiting the famed Midtown church.

But Frances Ruth, 51, of Dublin, Ireland, argued that the move means "the Church is not going forward. And it should be."

Sally Maier, 56, of upstate Webster, said, "Older people, they might enjoy that [Mass]. But the younger people wouldn't understand what's going on."

The pope's decree Saturday allows proponents of the Latin Mass - largely tossed aside in favor of local-language Masses with Vatican reforms in the 1960s - to request that their priest offer the 400-year-old liturgy and, if denied, to appeal all the way to the Vatican.

The decree, which does away with the requirement that bishops approve such requests, has pleased traditionalists who miss the pageantry of the old Mass, during which the priest faces away from worshippers.

But the decision worries some who fear it will burden an already thin rank of priests, many of whom do not know how to say a Latin Mass.

"Where there are groups that want it, it's going to be a real pain in the neck for the pastor," said Father Tom Reese of Georgetown University.

Father Keith Pecklers, professor at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, said The pope's "desire, of course, is to help to foster unity. A concern on the part of many bishops is that . . . reaching out to this very small minority . . . will actually bring about disunity in the mainstream church."

posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 10:09 AM