OUR LITURGICAL INHERITANCE

Respect for Tradition

The principal aim of the Latin Mass Society is to preserve the venerable form of Mass in the Roman rite which has been handed down to us from great antiquity and which has, until recently, remained essentially and substantially unchanged from the time of Pope St Gregory the Great in the sixth century. The principle of conservation in the liturgy was always insisted upon by successive popes who, as heirs and trustees of a divinely guided tradition, did not allow the liturgy to be governed by contemporary trends or the demands of inculturation, so as to safeguard the integrity of the Faith and guarantee the common identity of the Latin Church.

The Latin Mass Society upholds this centuries-old pastoral responsibility not only out of respect for the Church's sacred liturgical traditions but also out of sensitivity for the sensus fidelium, that is the feelings of the ordinary Catholic in the pew whose faith and corporate identity might be disturbed by radical innovations introduced into the Mass.

Sacred Music

Until recent times the Church has guarded her repertoire of sacred music as, in the words of the Council Fathers of Vatican II, "a treasure of inestimable value" (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 1963 art. 112), representing centuries of inspired artistry lovingly wrought to celebrate the majesty of God, His glory and His absolute transcendence. By promoting the study, appreciation and use in worship of the traditional music of the Church, the Latin Mass Society plays an important role in the reform of the Church's liturgy which was initiated by Pope St Pius X in 1903, continued by Pius XII in his Instruction De Musica Sacra (1958) and by Vatican II's Constitution on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium (1963).

The Latin Mass Society upholds the Vatican II mandate that "the treasury of sacred music is to be preserved and cultivated with great care" (art. 114). The Society supports a range of choral resources from Gregorian chant (described by Pope St Pius X in his motu proprio of 1903 "as the supreme model for sacred music" ) and in whose simpler melodies all can participate, to classical polyphony.

In conformity with the wishes of the Council, "keeping to the norms and precepts of ecclesiastical tradition" (art. 112), the Society is fulfilling the main objectives of the Liturgical Movement as regards sacred music: namely to ensure that the liturgy is performed with the greatest reverence and dignity, using the best means at our disposal, so that all the faithful may be spiritually uplifted and participate actively in the celebration of the sacred mysteries.

Restitution

In striving to restore to our altars more frequent celebrations of the old order of Mass and sacramental rites, the Latin Mass Society represents the views of all the faithful for whom the previous form of liturgy expresses their idea of worship and spirituality. It is their wish that the sacred language, prayers and rituals inherited from past centuries should not be disowned in order to accommodate present-day trends.

Relatively few realise exactly how much of our heritage has been lost in the modern adaptation of the liturgy. It is not generally known, for example, that reforming liturgists discarded the bulk of prayers in the old Missal contained principally in the Proper of the Mass which, throughout the liturgical year, bore witness to central truths of the Faith which are 'constants', that is to say ever-present realities.

These noble orations, some of them in continuous use since the sixth century, were suppressed because they alluded to so-called 'negative' themes such as divine judgement, eternal punishment, human wickedness or frailty, detachment from earthly things, fasting and self-mortification etc., and the perspective of most of the remaining prayers has been altered in order to purge them of any elements considered unpalatable to modern tastes.

However, there are many of the faithful who grieve not only over the loss of these prayers and rituals but also over the removal of others from both the Ordinary and the Proper of the Mass which elucidate specifically Catholic tenets such as that of the Real Presence, the propitiatory nature of the Holy Sacrifice, the merits of the saints, the nature of the ministerial priesthood or suffrages for the souls in purgatory.

It is they who now request their right of widespread access to their full spiritual patrimony, free from the influence of modern trends and ideologies, as it is expressed with full doctrinal integrity in the traditional Latin Mass and preached consistently by the Church from earliest times.

Copyright © 1997 The Latin Mass Society