By James Baresel
In
one sense, recent suppressions of the Tridentine Mass are a paradoxical if
tragic indicator of a more positive future. While Pope Leo XIV indicates
greater tolerance by permitting its use in Saint Peter’s Basilica and explicitly stating that Traditionis Custodes might be subject to revision,
radical bishops are rushing to do their damage while that motu proprio remains
as a pretext.
How long it will take for any official change to be made, and whether a change will restore relative freedom to the Tridentine Mass or simply allow bishops to be as friendly or hostile as they wish, is obviously a different matter.
The problem is compounded by the fact that—unlike most dating from before the current pontiff’s election—the recent restrictions have been imposed in places where they make the Tridentine Mass all but inaccessible. Arlington, VA still has eight locations. Chicago and Washington have enough access to locations in other dioceses on Sundays and Holy Days when the Tridentine Mass is not permitted within them. Cleveland and Pittsburgh are small enough dioceses for one location to suffice.
In much of Knoxville and parts of Charlotte, the nearest Tridentine Masses can now be at from two to over three hours’ distance. Whatever positions anyone takes on attending Mass at chapels of the Society of Saint Pius X are irrelevant—since none are in any meaningful sense closer. If some priests have sense enough to say the Tridentine Mass “privately” for those who can be relied on to keep quiet, playing it safe will limit the numbers with knowledge and access.
So, the first question is where to go. Prior to modern transportation, the obligation to attend Mass was held to bind anyone living within three miles of a church—approximately an hour’s walk. Serious Catholics today would spend an equal amount of time travelling if it was the only way to attend Sunday Mass at all. Those with a Tridentine Mass within the same distance have no excuse for not attending it every Sunday. It is disappointing if not appalling to see places where the Mass is switched to a Latin New Mass one Sunday a month and much of the congregation attends it despite the Tridentine Mass being available in other places no more than half an hour from their homes.
But what to do when attending the New Mass is the only feasible way to attend Mass—either the Latin one which replaced a Tridentine Mass or in English? If it is obviously better to at least have Latin, ad orientem and the Roman Canon than not, doing so can just as obviously give the appearance of surrender. How can a congregation attend the only available Mass in Latin while still clearly resisting?
I can think of just one solution—look to what Catholics of the past did if attending Mass in the Dominican rite or Carmelite rite. And what did they do? They did exactly what they always did at Mass. Catholics who habitually followed the prayers of the Roman Missal didn’t bother to find missals or booklets with the different prayers of the Dominican or Carmelite rites—they used the same Roman Missal they already did. If they usually said the rosary, watched the priest, engaged in mental prayer or used the non-liturgical prayers in various devotional books, the naturally did so regardless of which rite the priest used.
Enemies of the Tridentine Mass do not want us to merely attend a Mass which a priest is saying using the Novus Ordo. They want us to following the prayers of the New Mass, to “participate” by mindlessly mumbling or shouting “Lord hear our prayer” rather than find whatever method of prayer helps each of us unite ourself to Christ’s sacrifice, to enter into the false spirit which motivated the “reform.
So, if left you are with the Latin Novus Ordo as the only feasible option, read your Tridentine Missal or your devotional books, say your rosary or make your meditations—and remain quiet while the servers alone recite the Confiteor with the priest and the choir sings the psalm responses without congregational accompaniment. And if a particularly spiteful cleric switches the Mass to English because of your refusal to “participate”—double down, continuing to attend the same Mass while changing nothing about how you pray.
Not only will you help defend tradition and help show its enemies that they will never will, you will probably pray better and with something more nearly approaching peace.
How long it will take for any official change to be made, and whether a change will restore relative freedom to the Tridentine Mass or simply allow bishops to be as friendly or hostile as they wish, is obviously a different matter.
The problem is compounded by the fact that—unlike most dating from before the current pontiff’s election—the recent restrictions have been imposed in places where they make the Tridentine Mass all but inaccessible. Arlington, VA still has eight locations. Chicago and Washington have enough access to locations in other dioceses on Sundays and Holy Days when the Tridentine Mass is not permitted within them. Cleveland and Pittsburgh are small enough dioceses for one location to suffice.
In much of Knoxville and parts of Charlotte, the nearest Tridentine Masses can now be at from two to over three hours’ distance. Whatever positions anyone takes on attending Mass at chapels of the Society of Saint Pius X are irrelevant—since none are in any meaningful sense closer. If some priests have sense enough to say the Tridentine Mass “privately” for those who can be relied on to keep quiet, playing it safe will limit the numbers with knowledge and access.
So, the first question is where to go. Prior to modern transportation, the obligation to attend Mass was held to bind anyone living within three miles of a church—approximately an hour’s walk. Serious Catholics today would spend an equal amount of time travelling if it was the only way to attend Sunday Mass at all. Those with a Tridentine Mass within the same distance have no excuse for not attending it every Sunday. It is disappointing if not appalling to see places where the Mass is switched to a Latin New Mass one Sunday a month and much of the congregation attends it despite the Tridentine Mass being available in other places no more than half an hour from their homes.
But what to do when attending the New Mass is the only feasible way to attend Mass—either the Latin one which replaced a Tridentine Mass or in English? If it is obviously better to at least have Latin, ad orientem and the Roman Canon than not, doing so can just as obviously give the appearance of surrender. How can a congregation attend the only available Mass in Latin while still clearly resisting?
I can think of just one solution—look to what Catholics of the past did if attending Mass in the Dominican rite or Carmelite rite. And what did they do? They did exactly what they always did at Mass. Catholics who habitually followed the prayers of the Roman Missal didn’t bother to find missals or booklets with the different prayers of the Dominican or Carmelite rites—they used the same Roman Missal they already did. If they usually said the rosary, watched the priest, engaged in mental prayer or used the non-liturgical prayers in various devotional books, the naturally did so regardless of which rite the priest used.
Enemies of the Tridentine Mass do not want us to merely attend a Mass which a priest is saying using the Novus Ordo. They want us to following the prayers of the New Mass, to “participate” by mindlessly mumbling or shouting “Lord hear our prayer” rather than find whatever method of prayer helps each of us unite ourself to Christ’s sacrifice, to enter into the false spirit which motivated the “reform.
So, if left you are with the Latin Novus Ordo as the only feasible option, read your Tridentine Missal or your devotional books, say your rosary or make your meditations—and remain quiet while the servers alone recite the Confiteor with the priest and the choir sings the psalm responses without congregational accompaniment. And if a particularly spiteful cleric switches the Mass to English because of your refusal to “participate”—double down, continuing to attend the same Mass while changing nothing about how you pray.
Not only will you help defend tradition and help show its enemies that they will never will, you will probably pray better and with something more nearly approaching peace.
