From the Bishops Celebration of Mass changes, evolves over time

Apr 23, 2009

Father John Dietzen writes a question and answer column for Catholic newspapers throughout the United States in much the same style as did Father Isidore Mikulski for The U.P. Catholic for so many years.

 

Father Dietzen recently touched upon the hot button issue of changes in Catholic worship. A member of a couples group asked him about the meaning of Kyrie eleison.  The inquirer wrote, “The Mass means a lot to us (mostly born Catholics but two converts). We wonder why prayers like this are said that we cannot understand and share. Can you help?

 

This is a timely issue for we are now preparing to pray with the third edition of the Roman Missal published in the spring of 2001 under Pope John Paul II.  The English translation is near approval by the U.S. bishops who will then await the approval of the translation by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.  That will come, we hope, in 2010.

 

We do well to have an open mind for accepting a new missal and a new English translation of the Latin.  Enormous amounts of work have been put into this effort by liturgical and language scholars. It also receives a critique from a pastoral view by the bishops for they carry the responsibility for liturgical worship in the parish churches and chapels of their dioceses.

 

I used the word “open” because change in the liturgy can be upsetting to the faithful and generate complaints. Letters to the diocesan papers and on the blogosphere can be less irenic and upbuilding for the church as one would hope.

 

Kyrie eleison is not Latin but Greek and has been in the liturgy since the fourth century. The church retains it as part of the treasury from the great tradition of worship that our ancestors in faith honored and used, explains Father Dietzen.  But he continues, “Catholic liturgical worship is not a museum.  As Pope Paul VI told a group of Latin Scholars in 1968, ‘While the Latin language must not be disdained by the Roman rite, we must plainly never forget that Latin must be subordinate to the pastoral ministry and is not an end in itself. ... The highest law must be the well-being of souls.’”

 

The Vatican Council taught us that all liturgical elements, most of all in the celebration of Mass and the Sacraments, must be chosen “to ensure that the faithful take part knowingly, actively and fruitfully,” and thus be formed into a community of praise of God.

 

We balance these words of the Council and of Paul VI with the respect for our tradition that Pope Benedict has emphasized.  The Holy Father has introduced the practice of the wider use of the Latin as in the extraordinary form of the Mass, sometimes called the Tridentine Mass.

 

Likewise, the facility of using Latin for the common parts of the Mass that the people pray is encouraged so that we can worship in one language at international gatherings.  The pope envisions that the extraordinary form would be celebrated relatively infrequently.  The emphasis is on “full, conscious and active participation” in the liturgy which is not to be lost when using this form.

 

Some have sounded the alarm that celebrating the Tridentine Mass is about going back to non-participation.  In fact that is not at all what the Holy Father says.

 

You may have noticed recently that at papal Masses those receiving Communion from the hands of the pope kneel and receive on the tongue while the rest of the assembly stand and receive in the hand or the tongue.

 

In addition there are consultations being undertaken by the Vatican Congregation for the Liturgy about moving the sign of peace from the traditional place to another, such as before the offering of the gifts at the altar.

 

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Throughout the history of the church the popes and councils have made adjustments in the texts, the calendar and actions and language of the liturgy of the Mass.

 

Msgr. Irwin, dean of liturgical studies at the Catholic University of America, writes that, “There is a basic structure to the western liturgy and there was and is a variety and flexibility to what is celebrated based on different cultures and ecclesial needs.”

 

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal today gives Episcopal conferences such as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the competency to make adaptations such as the vernacular, according to the needs of the local churches.

 

As we prepare for the new Roman Missal and to be open to any changes that may come we should realize that the Church tries to balance the great traditions of worship that our ancestors in faith honored and used with the recognition that being ancient does not make something better.

 

 If that were true, Father Dietzen writes, we would still be offering Mass in the Aramaic dialect that Jesus spoke at the Last Supper. Indeed, we are not living in a museum but a changing world and the language of worship should serve “the well-being of souls.”

 

Printed with permission of The U.P. Catholic, the newspaper of the Diocese of Marquette, Michigan.

 

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