Two of our recent commentators, Frs Daniel Donovan and Kevin Murphy, have written to the editor drawing attention to some comments Sr Joan Chittister has voiced in her regular column in National Catholic Reporter regarding Pope Benedict's recent decision regarding the Latin Mass. Here are their further thoughts…

"When affecting the Disaffected becomes disaffecting the Affected"

Further commentary by Fr Daniel Donovan…

Recently in an article for Catholica, "What is the nature of the crisis facing the Church?", I drew attention to Pope Benedict's recent changes regarding the Latin Mass and highlighted that this would be a means of reconciling disaffected groups with the Church. Readers of Catholica will recall that the article named some other "disaffected" groups in the Church and the fact that the Pope was not intending to extend the same rule of reconciliation to them. Sister Joan Chittister, also writes in National Catholic Reporter on this subject. It is interesting to note from Sr Joan's commentary that the Pope has taken this decision "…contrary to the advice and concerns of the world's bishops."

Chittister indicates some of the bishop's concerns which seem to have been ignored by Benedict:

But it does not, at the same time, make reconciliation easier with women, who are now pointedly left out of the Eucharistic celebration entirely, certainly in its God-language, even in its pronouns. Nor does it seem to care about reconciliation with Jews who find themselves in the Tridentine Good Friday rite again as "blind" and objects of conversion. It's difficult not to wonder if reconciliation is really what it is all about.

Like Chittister, my article in Catholica suggested that Benedict's ongoing agenda must "…demonstrate the same concern for those who are similarly disaffected but for other reasons." If Benedict does not or will not concede to the concerns of the other "disaffected" groups then one can legitimately wonder about the Pope's real agenda.

	Sr Joan Chittister … Is reconciliation "really what it's all about"?

In introducing the "new rite" there has been a change to the law governing the celebration of the Tridentine mass in a diocese. There has always been a provision for a group to request from the local bishop permission for the Latin mass. However Benedict's "new rite" cuts across the discretion of the local bishop requiring only a request from the laity. This is an interesting position which has been adopted by the Pope and raises serious canonical implications for local bishops. If lay groups can require that the local bishops provide the Latin mass then there is a precedent in law for other groups to make similar requests when specific Church laws "disaffect" them. Chittister is certainly justified when she wonders "…if reconciliation is really what it's all about."

Chittister's article draws attention to the obvious different theological understanding of the Eucharist in the Tridentine liturgy and the Vatican II mass. In the former celebration the people are reduced to being "observers", Vatican II has restored community participation. The Tridentine mass emphasises the role of the priest and his responsibility to exact the rubrics under pain of mortal sin. The people shared in "the spiritual fruits of the sacrifice."

The seminary manuals treated Eucharist as a part of moral theology and the priest's role to ensure the validity of the sacrament. Eucharistic validity depended on the priest who must have the right matter (bread and wine), the right form (the words of Jesus) and the right intention (to do what the Church intended). People were superfluous.

At Vatican I (1870), the Constitution, Dei Filius (Son of God), presented the first precise theological investigation of Church. In the years between the closure of Vatican I and the convoking of Vatican II there gradually developed a new theological discipline, sacramental theology. Historically, this discipline owed much to the Scriptural, Liturgical and Catechetical Movements which gained momentum in the Western Church following Trent and the unflagging efforts of journals like Orate Fratres. These movements and journals were solidly based on the writings of the early Church Fathers who witness to the communal nature of the Eucharist in their Churches from the first to the fifth centuries. The Didache provided a most important description of an early Eucharistic celebration and community participation. Vatican II restored many of the liturgical practices and structures of the early Church. Through its use of the advances in technology and scholarship, Vatican II had a commanding overview of Eucharistic celebrations their origins and historical development in the Eastern and Western traditions. As the sacrament of Christian unity, the Eucharist is not to be considered as the peculiar possession of any one rite or specific Church community.

Vatican II was able to distinguish the legal approach to the sacraments which developed during the Middle Ages from the communal approach which prevailed in the early Church. By the time of Lateran IV (1215), Eucharistic participation had fallen to such a low level that the Church had to legislate that its members who had reached the "age of reason," must receive the Eucharist worthily "once a year." Receiving Eucharist was determined by law rather than active participation. Trent continued to stress and increase the laws surrounding the Eucharist and emphasised the priest's powers of consecrating and forgiving sins.

The Code of Canon Law (1917) established the Eucharist (and other sacraments) firmly in the domain of moral theology. Morally, the priest was responsible for the valid celebration of the sacrament. Even at communion, the person knelt at the altar rails while the priest prayed: "May the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, preserve your soul unto life everlasting. Amen" For the lay person, his or her reception was directed toward "everlasting life" lacking any relationship to daily life and Christian maturity.

There is a need to debunk the mistaken belief of the "disaffected," who insist on labelling the Latin mass as "traditional," even when this view is shared by senior members of the hierarchy. The Latin mass is "medieval" and embodies the shortcomings and cultural limitations of the period. Vatican II has not so much reformed as restored the Eucharist to serve the needs of the Christian community in the new millennium.

"The way we celebrate Mass is indicative of our spirituality"...

Further commentary by Fr Kevin Murphy…

In her regular National Catholic Reporter article, this week Sr Joan Chittister writes about the Tridentine Mass and its associated spirituality in contrast with Vatican II liturgy and the spirituality it calls for. Give link

For Catholics, the way we celebrate Mass is indicative of our spirituality.

Not surprisingly, Joan Chittister sees Vatican II Liturgy and spirituality, when properly understood and celebrated, as incorporating authentic values that we need in today's world.

Unfortunately, it has happened too often that people have tried to celebrate Vatican II liturgy with a Tridentine spirituality. It doesn't work.

A characteristic of Vatican II liturgy is active participation by all those are present. This active participation goes way beyond simply joining in the set prayers, rituals and hymns. It means a consciously integrated community, operating with a creative interactive dynamic that invites everybody to make their own personal contributions to a shared experience of the transforming presence of Jesus Christ, motivating mission.

It is difficult to achieve this kind of participation with a large congregation, though there is a place for larger celebrations of liturgy, even Eucharistic liturgy, on special occasions. Perhaps we need to aim at small community congregations of 20-50 people, including young people and children, as the basic and normal way for Catholics to gather for their regular weekly Sunday liturgy. Until we have many more priests most of these liturgies will have to happen in the absence of an ordained priest.

At least there could be proper interactive participation in these small congregations and they might well be more effective in attracting people to praise God and to support each other as they endeavour to live transforming lives in the world.

The church policy, motivated by Tridentine spirituality, that closes down church congregations because of a shortage of priests, succeeds in maintaining the dominant position of the priest, but it fails the people who drift away.

For whenever and wherever there is a decrease in the times or places that Sunday liturgy is celebrated there is a consequent overall decrease in the number of people involved in the church. They drift away, never to return to the old established style).

Link to original commentary by Fr Kevin Murphy on Tridentine Spirituality.

[Index of Commentaries by Fr Daniel Donovan]