TRIDENTINE MASS

The Pope extends an olive branch
But do Toronto's 1.6 million Catholics want a Latin mass? Do priests even know the classical language?
Oct. 15, 2006. 01:00 AM
LESLIE SCRIVENER
FEATURE WRITER

It was good news from the Vatican for Eileen Anderson last week, with reports that the Catholic Church may be ready to relax restrictions on the traditional Latin mass.

As one who favours the old ways, Anderson, president of the Toronto Traditional Mass Society, has not been happy with the reformed mass that emerged from the Second Vatican Council in the mid 1960s. It seemed to lack reverence, she says. "The priest turns toward the people, like in a Protestant service," she says. "A lot of the old parts of mass were left out ... the whole outlook of the mass changed.

"Altar servers were always boys. The purpose was to encourage boys to the priesthood if they had a vocation."

Nor was she pleased with the change that allowed the priest to place the communion wafer in the hands of those receiving communion. Previously, only the priest could touch the host.

"Now you also have Eucharistic ministers, who are women, to serve communion. That was not part of the women's role in the church or the Mass."

Anderson, 66, does not go to these modern services, however. Catholics are allowed to attend the Tridentine mass, as the pre-Vatican II mass is known. But priests may perform the mass only with permission of their local bishops, in this case, Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic, Archbishop of Toronto.

Reports say that Pope Benedict XVI intends to reverse the protocol. To reach out to the most conservative Catholics and bring dissenting groups back into the church, the Pope will allow the Tridentine mass to be said by any priest in the world, unless expressly forbidden by his bishop.

One problem may be who will be able to say the mass in Latin? "They will be few and far between," says Mark McGowan, principal of St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto. At St. Augustine's Seminary in Scarborough, Latin is offered, but it's no longer compulsory.

Most priests don't know the gestures and prayers spoken sotto voce at the Tridentine mass, says Rev. Michael McGourty, director of liturgy and acting dean of studies at St. Augustine's.

"It is a whole different ritual, much more complicated on the part of the celebrant, with much less participation on the part of the congregation," he says.

And who would be interested in such a mass, where little is required of congregants?

"Among an older generation of Catholics it might be popular and some conservative youth, a generation of twentysomethings dreaming of what might have been, nostalgizing for a church they never experienced," says McGowan.

In the U.S. this longing has become something of a movement — movie star Mel Gibson is a devoted practitioner — with some churches packed with Saturday morning Latin classes.

Most of Toronto's 1.6 million Catholics go to parishes where mass is said in English or some 30 other languages. Fewer than 200 churchgoers attend Tridentine mass, which is said in a few parishes, including St. Vincent de Paul in the west end and St. Theresa's in Scarborough.

"I don't think you could argue there's a great need for it in the archdiocese," McGourty says.

Rev. Howard Venette, who heads a St. Catharines parish where the traditional Latin mass is said exclusively, says Catholic dioceses are hesitant to advertise the older ritual, not wanting to compete with the "ordinary" mass. With 160 parishioners at Queen of Angels Oratory, he says the parish is growing. Most families have an average of six children.

People under 30 are drawn to the Tridentine mass, but he disagrees they are motivated by nostalgia. "There is nothing casual about it ... For those looking for God's mysterious presence, it comes through more clearly."

Venette attended seminary in New York state after Vatican II, and for 20 years said the modern mass. But he joined a religious order, the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, where he was trained in the old rites.

"My response to the changes? Joy. The church has truly been deprived of this since the Second Vatican Council. But I also respond with a note of caution. I don't want it to suffer the difficulties of the new rite. I don't want it to become commonplace or celebrated without a sense of solemnity."

Anderson, too, has a wish.