Dear Rev. Know-It-All,

My pastor is planning to reintroduce the old Latin Mass.  Thank God he is not going to replace any of the current Masses, but will add a Latin.  This is a tragedy.  I see the church, which has made a little progress toward inclusion, sliding back down into the morass of the dark ages and my lunatic pastor is leading the charge. 

The revived “old ” will be mumbled in Latin without any amplification.  The priest will have his back to the congregation so that any interaction or participation will be impossible.  I have heard that he is even going to put up the little rope that blocks the altar off from the community.  No women will be allowed to exercise their ministries of communion minister, altar server or lector.  (I myself am a leader of liturgical dance.)  Women won’t even be singing in the choir.  It will be nothing more than a men’s club!  It simply should not be allowed!

Please comment.

Juana Stoppet

I see that you are a liberal, and want to make sure that the church is more inclusive, just as long as you don’t have to include people who like the old Mass.  I always enjoy the inclusive crowd in the church which won’t allow anything that doesn't match up with their definition of inclusion. 

I can solve all of your problems about the old Mass.  DON’T GO TO IT. 

Or did I misunderstand?  Perhaps in the spirit of tolerance and inclusively, you don’t want anyone else to be allowed to go to it.  Remember what Chairman Mao said in his little red book, “ Let a thousand flowers bloom!”  He was another famous liberal.

The Tridentine Mass, or for convenience let me call it the old Mass, was essentially the Mass of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church for at least 1,600 years, give or take.  It nourished the soul of Europe until the 1960's.  Have you noticed that Europe is dying?  The plummeting birth rates are a matter of record.

Something happened in the twentieth century that ripped the heart out of our culture.  I don’t really understand what happened, but something happened.  I believe that the Holy Spirit dealt with the disaster in the Vatican Council and the Liturgical changes were also inspired by the Holy Spirit for a generation that had lost the ability to enter into the mystery of the Eucharist. 

The new mass  is much more understandable, but it is much less mysterious. I believe that the same Holy Spirit has inspired Pope Benedict to make the old Mass available to the culture once again.  We live in a loud world of  i-pods and blackberries and embarrassing TV commercials, an age which, in the words of Cardinal George, “permits everything and forgives nothing.”  The Holy Spirit gave us a new form of the Mass that can reach  people who cannot find the interior stillness necessary for the old Mass.

The old mass, however, has refused to go away.  It means something to a lot of people and, who knows, it may help to revive a culture that is overwhelmed by endless news reports about Paris Hilton and Brad Pitt sightings. 

“Well,” you may say, “why can’t women participate as fully as men?” 

I would say “Au contraire!” The participation in the old Mass is a very interior kind of experience.  I maintain that there has never been a feminist movement.  There has been a masculinist movement. What women did was meaningless, such un-fulfilling work as the care of children, teaching and, heaven help us, motherhood.  No, doing what men did is what really mattered to the so called feminists.  The empty womb and the career would make men and women equal.

Has it never occurred to you that the devil is clever. He realized what most of us never understood:  humanity is a woman.  He didn't tempt Adam.  All he had to do was to fool Eve and then Adam was his.  So with the culture.  The death of our culture has to do with the death of authentic feminism, and I fear that the devil has fooled us once again. 

The old liturgy recognizes the weakness of masculinity.  In the words of St. Paul, “the less honorable  is clothed with greater dignity.” 1Cor.12:23 

The old Mass emphasizes an interior experience and recognizes what the modern world has forgotten, that there is a real difference between men and women and real difference is the foundation of family life, and family life is the foundation of any culture.  Perhaps Europe died when the wars of the 20th century forced women to do men’s jobs while men were on the battlefront.  I don’t know, I just know that the last institution in Western culture which acknowledges the real difference between men and women is the Roman Catholic Church, whether the old or the new Mass. This recognition is just a bit more obvious in the old Mass.

I have to stop for now, but I’ll continue next week.  [click here for Part 2]

Yours sincerely,

Rev. Know-It-All
 

PS - Anyone who thinks women were powerless in the old church never met Mother Mary Walburga C.S.J.  When I was a kid, priests were largely ornamental and fairly harmless.  The nuns had the key to the gym and the power of life and death regarding whether or not you went on to the fifth grade. 
 
 

Editorial Note:
don't forget to read Part 2 of this Q&A
Why bring back the Old Mass? - Part 2 of 2
to be published on Sept. 9, 2007