CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE
A question of meaning Demand for the Traditional Mass will increase, says Joseph Shaw
T
he Summer 2021 edition of Mass of Ages was dominated by Traditionis Custodes. The Holy See has now provided us with another document, the Congregation for Divine Worship’s Responsa ad Dubia, the ‘dubia’ being questions about the meaning of Traditionis Custodes. The consequences of Traditionis Custodes have not been anything like as shattering as many first imagined they would be. Without minimising the further restrictions on the Traditional Mass the Responsa has stimulated in some countries, it seems destined to have still less effect. I don’t think it necessary to re-print the Latin Mass Society’s careful Canonical Guidance on the Responsa in Mass of Ages: it is available on the website. It suffices to say that where the Responsa go beyond Traditionis Custodes, they go beyond what the Congregation for Divine Worship has the authority to determine as a matter of law. The Tablet reports on our Canonical Guidance, quoting two individuals to criticise it. Both admit, in effect, that the Responsa do not have legal force, but add that they show ‘where Rome stands’. So be it. But since we have just experienced a 180 degree change in ‘where Rome stands’ on the subject of the Traditional Mass, it seems fair enough for bishops and priests to give their first attention to what the Church’s law actually requires. Things were very different in the 1960s. I have been reading a proofcopy of Fr Bryan Houghton’s excellent Unwanted Priest, autobiography, written in 1990 but only now to be published in English: it should come out in February. As Fr Houghton explains, Masses started being said in the vernacular long before permission was given in 1964, and after 1964 Mass in Latin immediately almost completely disappeared. Cardinal Heenan, in fact, insisted that parishes
SPRING 2022
"I wonder if you can tell me the meaning of 'collegiality?' " From Cracks in the Curia by Br Choleric (Hubert van Zeller) 1972.
in the Archdiocese of Westminster put on one Latin Mass each Sunday, but this only lasted a few years. This was despite the fact that many priests opposed the changes. Nevertheless, there was a sense that this was the way things were going, the path of least resistance, or what one would not be criticised for doing, and the changes were accelerated and amplified by the people on the ground. The same thing happened with Communion in the Hand, and then Altar Girls: a mere permission, allowing something already being done illicitly, turned in practice into an almost universal rule. We are living in a different era today. Rome’s invitation to bishops to stifle the Traditional Mass has not been taken up with a great deal of enthusiasm. A follow-up document which tries to make the invitation sound more forceful is not going to make much difference. There is very little pent-up desire to get rid of the ancient Mass. Pent-up demand will now start building up in the other direction. When the wind turns again, as it inevitably will, there will be a rush of priests and bishops responding to official encouragement, as there was in 2007 to Summorum Pontificum.
There are many precedents for reversals of official policy. Papal policy on the Franciscans’ understanding of poverty veered in different directions in 1279, 1312, and 1322. The decidedly untraditional Breviary of Quiñonez was imposed on the secular clergy in 1535, and supressed in 1568. Rituals honouring ancestors were permitted to Chinese Catholics in 1656, banned in 1704, and permitted again in 1939. These controversies caused great harm—various Franciscans were burnt for heresy, and the Church in China was persecuted—but they do not impinge on the Church’s infallibility. To live through such times, Catholics have to keep a firm grip on common sense, giving the law of the Church its due, while recognising its limitations. It is thanks to Providence that the Church’s ancient liturgical tradition has never ceased to be celebrated, in public, with the permission of ecclesiastical authorities. From 1971 until 1984 such celebrations were unique to England and Wales; since 1984 they have been world-wide. As readers can see from our Mass listings, despite all difficulties the Traditional Mass remains widely available in this country. Let us resolve, in 2022, to make the best possible spiritual use of these Masses and associated events, and to pray for those priests and bishops who have made them possible. Postscript I encourage readers to take part in the Synod on Synodality currently underway. Without placing exaggerated hopes on the outcome, at this critical moment in the Church’s history the voice of Catholics attached to the Traditional Mass needs to be heard. It may not be, but let us not make this a forgone conclusion by declining the invitation to speak. A guide to how to take part can be found on the LMS website.
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