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French clerics criticize Pope's Latin mass plans
 Pope Benedict's expected revival of the old Latin mass has provoked protests from Roman Catholic clergy in France, a major center of the traditionalist schism the Pontiff hopes to overcome with the gesture. Five bishops and 30 priests -- a considerable number in a church normally wary of open dissent -- have expressed grave concern about making this concession to ultra-conservatives who reject the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).
| Not too sure what the gripe is here. Maybe one of the Catholic readers has a handle on it. To me, it seems like the mass was good enough in Latin for 1500 or 2000 years, same thing, every day, day in and day out. It enabled Catholics to wander from Poland to Portugal, go to church, and still have the same service. Why dump it, especially if the vernacular version's also available? |
Unswerving loyalty to the old Latin, or Tridentine mass, often goes hand in hand with a rejection of the Vatican II reforms, which opened the church to respect for and cooperating with other faiths and switched to a modern mass conducted in local languages.
| If the mass is in Latin, y'see, then y'got no respect for other faiths. Got it. |
The protests printed in the Catholic press highlighted serious issues the Vatican faces if, as church sources have reported, it announces soon that priests are free to say the vintage mass as an alternative to the modern liturgy.
Posted by: Fred 2006-10-24 |
