August 6, 2007VOL. 45, NO. 14Oakland, CA

Church leaders seek ways to
‘implement’ Latin Mass directive

Father James F. Pereda celebrates a Tridentine Mass at St. Pius X Chapel in Uniondale, N.Y., July 8. Pope Benedict XVI has relaxed restrictions on the use of the Latin-language liturgy that predates the Second Vatican Council. CNS PHOTO/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ/LONG ISLAND CATHOLIC

By Mark Pattison
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In the days immediately following the July 7 issuance of the apostolic letter “Summorum Pontificum,” which allows for greater use of the Tridentine Mass, many questions have been asked about how to apply it when the norms outlined in the letter take effecta Sept. 14.

“Bishops and liturgical directors who are seeking ways to effectively implement the apostolic letter” have called and “asked for clarifications and raised questions,” said Msgr. James P. Moroney, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for the Liturgy. “Fortunately, we hope to be able to address them in the near future.”

The U.S. bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy had already scheduled a meeting Aug. 13 on other issues, but will add matters surrounding “Summorum Pontificum” to the agenda, Msgr. Moroney said.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops does not maintain a list of which dioceses, or which parishes in dioceses, currently use the Tridentine rite with the permission of the diocesan bishop, according to Msgr. Moroney. However, a Web site maintained by a Dallas group called the Mater Dei Latin Mass Community lists more than 280 churches in the United States and Canada where the Tridentine Mass is said, with addresses and times.

In the Oakland Diocese the Tridentine Mass is celebrated weekly at St. Margaret Mary Parish in Oakland.

“I’m not certain that there will be a significant increase in the number of requests for celebration of the 1962 missal,” Msgr. Moroney said, referring to the 1962 Roman Missal, which includes the Tridentine rite.

The Mass from the Roman Missal in use since 1970 would remain the ordinary form of the Mass, while celebration of the Tridentine Mass would be the extraordinary form.

Differences from the ordinary form -- some subtle, some less subtle -- would be in evidence at a Tridentine-rite Mass, beyond that of the priest having his back to the people.

Vestments are slightly different. “There are many suppliers today of more traditional vestments, but yes, there are differences,” Msgr. Moroney said.

“Traditionally, between the preconciliar and postconciliar (the Second Vatican Council) period, the maniple was suppressed, and it traditionally was worn in the 1962 rite.” The maniple is a small cloth band hanging over the left forearm of the priest celebrating Mass in the Tridentine rite.

He added, “There is, however, not an enormous difference between the form of vestments we wear.”

The 1962 Roman Missal itself would be different from missals and missal aids prevalent in U.S. parishes today. Msgr. Moroney said its availability should not pose much of a problem, as several publishers have already been producing copies of the 1962 missal.

However, an instruction in “Summorum Pontificum” that the 1962 missal be updated with, among other things, the feast days of new saints will pose its own set of challenges.

“I’m sure the (Vatican’s) ‘Ecclesia Dei’ commission will begin to examine the integration of the new saints into the 1962 rite,” Msgr. Moroney said. “However, their timelines are something I have no knowledge of.”

Training priests to use the 1962 missal will also be a challenge to dioceses where large numbers of Catholics want to have Tridentine Masses in their parish.

Msgr. Moroney said that Bishop Donald W. Trautman of Erie, Pa., chairman of the bishops’ liturgy committee, has already written the U.S. bishops to say that any questions they have for the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” or “anything the bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy can do to effect the implementation of the letter will be the subject of the committee’s meeting in August.”

The pontifical commission is charged with “maintaining vigilance over the observance and application” of the new decree, according to “Summorum Pontificum.”

If a parish wanted to conduct Tridentine Masses exclusively, it could not do so.
“A parish community would not have the power to declare itself a parish of the extraordinary use,” Msgr. Moroney said. “This would be a matter for the bishop to decide. Any bishop, according to the apostolic letter, can establish later a parish to use the extraordinary form.”

And even though altar girls have served in virtually all U.S. dioceses for many years, they could not at a Tridentine Mass.

“The celebration of the extraordinary form (the Tridentine rite) is governed by the liturgical law in force at the time,” Msgr. Moroney told CNS. “The 1962 missal does not envision the use of women altar servers.”

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