Things Are Looking Up
In one of his classic songs Fred Astaire informed us that things are looking up. They are certainly looking up for those who love the classic Mass of the Roman Rite as a number of recent events have made clear. While a number of retired Cardinals have celebrated the traditional Mass and given their whole-hearted support to those Catholics who seek to preserve the most beautiful thing this side of heaven, as far as I can recollect, the only high ranking serving Cardinal to offer the traditional Mass since the retirement of Cardinal Mayer as President of the Ecclesia Dei Commission has been Cardinal Ratzinger, apart from a single celebration by Cardinal Felici at the conclusion of the Chartres Pilgrimage four years ago. Cardinal Ratzinger has also given unequivocal public support to traditional Catholics, notably at the pilgrimage to Rome in 1998, and for this we must be truly grateful. (Extensive reports on this pilgrimage were published in the 1999 Winter and Spring issues of The Latin Mass.) In May, June, and July this year Pontifical Masses were celebrated by the Prefects of two of the most important Roman Congregations, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos of the Congregation for the Clergy (and also President of the Ecclesia Dei Commission) and Cardinal Medina Estévez, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments. These Masses can be interpreted only as signifying a far more positive attitude to our movement in the highest echelons of the Roman Curia. The lay association Pro Missa Tridentina, which works very closely with the Una Voce Federation, invited Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos to celebrate a Pontifical Mass in Münster during the course of its General Assembly.The Bishop of Münster, Reinhard Lettmann, made his cathedral available for the Mass and invited the faithful of his diocese to be present for the Mass on 12th May. The cathedral was packed to the doors by more than a thousand of the faithful who were impressed by the long colourful procession to the sanctuary which included members of a German Students' club in their striking uniforms, acolytes of all ages, assisting clergy, the hospitable bishop and the Cardinal. Responsibility for the Mass was undertaken by members of the Fraternity of Saint Peter.
The Cardinal's homily focussing on the saints of the day, Nereus, Achilleus, Domitilla and Pancras, and their testimony to the Catholic faith-the confession of Jesus Christ, which they paid for with their lives. In the same way, he explained, today's Christians are called to give testimony of their faith. The church is the Bride of Christ, who is obedient to Him and whom He loves. He continued: "The truth, being active in the love, shall enable you to cultivate the traditional liturgical inheritance and to let it shine in the community of the church. Therefore support this liturgy that is and will continue to be the inheritance of the whole church, so that its beauty and importance will be recognized more deeply, will be wider known and will be better understood. Strive with prudence and carefulness to cultivate and spread the dimensions (which are nowadays so necessary) of adoration, silence, veneration, piety and transcendence. This is a great and important task, to which I not only encourage you but explicitly call upon you to carry out."
Who could have imagined a Cardinal of such importance (apart from Cardinal Ratzinger) giving us such encouragement even three or four years ago. I was able to have a long discussion with the Cardinal during the course of the weekend, and I do not have the least doubt of the sincerity of his expressions of admiration for the traditional Mass or of his desire to promote its celebration. This was made clear a few weeks later on Pentecost Monday when he celebrated the concluding Mass of the Chartres Pilgrimage. During his homily he stated:
" I am therefore happy to be able to accompany a group with a refined sense of love for the noble traditions of the Church, and who have a special appreciation of the sense of the sacred. The old rite of Mass makes it possible for many of the faithful to keep this sense of mystery alive. God is ineffable, incomprehensible, imperceptible (cf. the anaphora of the liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom) ; He is infinitely close because he wishes to unite us with Him, and infinitely far from us because we can never grasp His immensity. The sacred rite, with its sense of mystery, helps us to enter with our senses into the very heart of the mystery of God. The nobility of a rite which has been with the Church for so many years definitely justifies the efforts of a chosen group of the faithful to maintain the appreciation of this rite, and the Church, through the voice of the Sovereign Pontiff, has understood this when it demands that doors shall be open for its celebration:
To all those Catholic faithful who feel attached to some previous liturgical and disciplinary forms of the Latin tradition, I wish to manifest my will to facilitate their ecclesial communion by means of the necessary measures to guarantee respect for their rightful aspirations...moreover, respect must everywhere be shown for the feelings of all those who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition, by a wide and generous application of the directives already issued some time ago by the Apostolic See, for the use of the Roman Missal according to the typical edition of 1962.
We are celebrating together a beautiful rite, a rite which was celebrated by many saints, a beautiful Mass which has filled countless cathedrals, while in tiny chapels throughout the world its mystic accents have resounded."
A few weeks later I had the privilege of being present at the Seminary of Christ the King at Gricigliano near Florence when the ordinations for this year were performed by His Eminence Cardinal Medina Estévez in a magnificent ceremony in the newly completed chapel of the seminary.
The Cardinal made clear that he had driven from Rome that day to make public his support for the Traditional Mass and the priestly orders dedicated to its celebration. As one who has been involved in the struggle for tradition from almost the very first hour I was quite overwhelmed at the extent to which these ordinations made clear the progress that has been made since Cardinal Heenan obtained the so-called English Indult from Pope Paul VI on 5 November 1971. It permitted the occasional celebration of the 1965 (yes, not the 1962) Missal for particular groups on special occasions, but never for scheduled parish Masses. In a personal letter accompanying the indult, Archbishop Bugnini wrote:
"His Holiness (meaning himself) knows very well that your Eminence will ensure that this permission is granted with that prudence and reserve that the matter requires. It is also very desirable that the permission be given without much publicity."
Msgr. John Humphrey's, Secretary of the Liturgical Commission of the English bishops interpreted the indult as allowing celebrations of the 1965 Missal in homes for old people or at meetings of the Latin Mass Society of England and wales for only a limited period of between five and ten years. One wonders what his reaction is, if he is still alive, to the public celebration of the 1962 Missal as scheduled parish Masses in such important London church as the Oratory of St. James, Spanish place, not to mention public celebrations all over the USA in churches such as St. John Cantius in Chicago where a thousand Catholics assist at the two scheduled traditional Masses each Sunday. (Full details of the "English indult are available in my book Pope Paul New Mass, pages 564-568, available from Carmel Books, P.O. Box 281, Bristol, BS00 3ER).
Mention must also be made of the first priestly ordinations for the Fraternity of St. Peter in Australia. The Fraternity is now firmly established in the antipodes thanks to the generous support of Archbishop Pell of Melbourne who has now been appointed to Australia's premier diocese of Sydney. On 30th June Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Nebraska ordained six new priests for the Fraternity of St. Peter. There is, however, a rather sad footnote to what would otherwise be a very encouraging item of news. In a report on the ordinations published in the Newsletter of Una Voce Rochester, Father Raymond Dunn, S.J. informs us that Father Paul Carr, District Superior of the Fraternity in the USA, revealed that 80 (yes, eighty) worthy applicants had been interviewed for the seminary that year but only 18 applicants could be accepted as the seminary is bursting at the seams. $5 million is needed urgently to complete a second wing which will enable a far greater number of applicants to be accepted. Father Dunn suggests that we should all make a sacrificial offering to enable the first seminary in the USA to be build from the ground up to be completed. I cannot imagine any reader who is truly dedicated to the preservation of Tradition ignoring Father Dunn's appeal. Cheques should be sent to Father John Emerson, 6 Belford Park, Edinburgh EH4 3DP and marked "Seminary Fund".
My very dear friend, the late Hamish Fraser insisted that journals such as The Latin Mass are of no value if subscribers simply read them and put them down. If they do not result in action on the part of the readers, he insisted again and again, then they might as well not be published. The action required in this case is evidently the immediate despatch of a cheque to Father Carr. Things are certainly looking up since the dark days of the early seventies. They can look up to an unlimited height if we say the appropriate prayers and make the appropriate sacrifices.
Michael Davies
[Taken from the Latin Mass Society's August 2001 Newsletter.]