Mr. Louis Tofari has a well-known series in defense of the possibility and certain advantages of the "Dialogue Mass". Mr. David Werling, following a couple of response articles in The Remnant, says today that "I simply cannot, in good conscience, recommend the Dialogue Mass as a legitimate or fruitful method of hearing Mass, and I apologize if anything I have written on the topic in the past gives a contrary impression".
Traditional Catholics simply have to accept the simple fact that the division on the Dialogue Mass is mostly a geographical and cultural one. As anyone who has been to Traditional Masses in different continents knows very well, there is a British-Irish aversion to the Dialogue Mass (a position kept throughout the Anglophone world and that is defended almost to the lengths of collective paroxysm in America), while in Continental Europe and almost everywhere else in the world it is not only common, but the usual and, at times, the almost exclusive version of the Low Mass.
We have always tried to keep silent about the Dialogue Mass here in Rorate because it is simply a fact of life for a considerable number of Traditional Catholics around the world - in fact, with sparse exceptions, almost all those living outside English-speaking areas. Either position should not be elevated to more than what it is, and unity should be kept between English-speaking and all other Traditional Catholics - and sources in English should not be viewed, due to the contemporary preeminence of English as a global lingua franca, as providing a template for Traditional Catholics everywhere. Regardless of their history, today both the non-dialogue and the dialogue Mass are cultural preferences, and must be viewed as preferences. Both are rubrically legitimate and may bring plenty of spiritual fruits to the faithful, as long as these have the appropriate internal disposition.
Traditional Catholics already face so many problems in the Church! Let us not absolutize what is eminently relative, and let us respect, without impositions from either side and exaggerated rhetoric, a legitimate variety that is absolutely licit.
[Comments to this post must take the last paragraph into consideration.]
