The Latin Mass story is not going away.
At this point, the question is where this emotional and more than symbolic conflict is going.
It’s clear that there is a small flock of traditional Catholics who view the familiar cadences of the Tridentine Rite Mass as an escape from the reforms — some would say modernization efforts — of the Second Vatican Council. But it also obvious that many bishops believe that this is not the case for the majority of the Catholics (especially young Catholics) who prefer the beauty of the Latin Mass.
Meanwhile, it’s clear that many powerful Vatican leaders, including Pope Francis, see use of the traditional Latin Mass as a powerful wedge issue that divides Catholics and they want to see it go away.
The question: Will the renewed efforts to crush the Tridentine create more dissenters, instead of smothering them?
This brings me to this weekend’s “think pieces” — drawn from two very different sources — the progressive Jesuit magazine America and The Pillar, a more conservative news and commentary site.
First, consider this essay at America: “I love Pope Francis’ commitment to dialogue — which is why his Latin Mass restrictions confuse me.”
Author Gregory Hillis begins by praising the Pope Francis encyclical “Fratelli Tutti,” focusing on its call for unity — built on “genuine dialogue rooted in love.”
The big question: Where is the loving dialogue about use of the Latin Mass?
We cannot be closed to others, Pope Francis taught, whether they be political or ideological opponents or whether they be people yearning to find a new life as immigrants. A “healthy openness never threatens one’s identity,” he wrote (FT 148). Too often we deny “the right of others to exist or to have an opinion,” and as a result, “their share of the truth and their values are rejected” (No. 15). Instead, Pope Francis urged us “to give way to a dialogic realism on the part of men and women who remain faithful to their own principles while recognizing that others also have the right to do likewise.” This, he continued, “is the genuine acknowledgment of the other that is made possible by love alone.”
