Love for Neighbor
by Fr. Richard Cipolla
The American bishops Special Message on immigration recently promulgated is certainly to be welcomed as an authentic and moderate Catholic response to and observation of the current state of attitude and response to the often callous and certainly unchristian behavior of those who are empowered to enforce immigration law. This way of enforcing immigration law may often be inhumane and contrary to the American ethos.
It is also contrary to Jesus’ understanding of human interaction that does not deny the law of the state to enforce just laws for the common good but also insists that one must love one’s neighbor as oneself. The Catholic bishops sent a message to those in charge of this country that violence in the name of law must not be tolerated.
And yet, I am deeply bothered by the reaction of the bishops to the overwhelming positive vote in favor of the statement. The reaction was applause. I should have thought that the reaction would be quiet silence in thanksgiving to the Holy Spirit for this gift of courage and insight. Or even better: a time of weeping in response to the unchristian situation in which our beloved country finds itself. For me, and I am ready to be chastised for this opinion, the bishops responded with a Little Jack Horner statement: Oh, what good guys we are!
And yet, what has been the bishops’ response to those in their own flock who have been deprived of the traditional form of the highest form of Catholic worship that is the Mass, the form of the Traditional Mass whose origins are older than St Gregory the Great and whose development was grounded in the very womb of the Church for nearly two thousand years. To be fair and to be thankful, many American bishops have acted pastorally and have allowed, despite the cruelty and irony and the lack of any foundation in reality of Traditionis Custodes, the Traditional Roman Mass to be celebrated in their diocese, Why have they done so? Because of two reasons: the Traditional Roman Mass was never abolished by St. Paul VI--for how could he do such a thing?--and because these bishops, even if they personally did not understand, knew that this was important and good for a part of their flock.
When I read the first draft of the letter of the present bishop of Charlottesville to his people explaining why he felt obligated to remove permission for the celebration of the Traditional Mass, I was astounded at the sheer ignorance in the letter of the inner workings of the liturgy and of the total lack of understanding of the purpose of the liturgy of the Mass itself. To object to a missal stand and insist that the missal should lie flat on the altar and to object to a chalice veil is surely evidence of a profound ignorance of the very meaning of liturgy at its must basic level. There is nothing else to be said about that document.
The condescending arrogance of the Archbishop of Detroit in his letter to the diocese relegating the Traditional Roman Mass to one small church in the diocese, a diocese in which there were a good number of parishes that celebrated the Mass in what has been called the Extraordinary Form--an extraordinary adjective--: one must read the letter to appreciate his understanding of the role of a bishop in his diocese. He offers the possibility of celebrating the Novus Ordo Mass in Latin. His misunderstanding is astounding. His arrogance makes it impossible to understand why the Traditional Roman Mass has such a spiritual appeal to so many people, especially those who young, that is, under thirty years old. These young people are not hankering after oldies but goodies: they are not smitten by some disease of nostalgia--for at their age they are incapable of nostalgia. They have discovered beauty in Catholic worship, beauty that does not depend on them and --importantly--does not depend on the clergy. How many of our bishops believe that the Mass is an icon of heaven, that the celebration of Holy Mass is a glimpse of that incomprehensible beauty that is the worship of God in heaven?
We must love our bishops and priests and laity and each other just as Jesus loved the woman at the well. He did not “like” how she had lived her life--how many husbands?--but he called her to a new life where despite sin, tout est grace. “Beauty will save the world”, said Dostoyevsky’s Idiot. It is at the Holy Mass that Grace and Beauty kiss, and that is what we all have to rediscover.
