March 2007 Print

There is new interest in the traditional Latin Mass around the world, especially on the part of younger clergy. In response to this, the Society of St. Pius X in Germany recently produced a DVD for priests there to learn the traditional Mass. The overall results are encouraging. Angelus Press has translated this interview with Fr. Nicholas Pfluger, First Assistant to the Superior General, Bishop Fellay.

Father, first we want to congratulate you on being elected First Assistant during the General Chapter of the Society. Does this mean you will relocate to the General House of the Society in Menzingen, Switzerland, after having come to Germany just two years ago?

Thank you for your congratulations. Yes, the General Chapter assigned me to this new office. Usually, a District Superior has a six-year term and can be appointed for a second or even third term. But now that I was elected First Assistant, for the foreseeable future I will exchange my current home for Menzingen in the (Swiss) canton of Zug, where our General House is situated. For some time now, there has been a strong desire to have both assistants live at the headquarters to support and to lighten the burden of the Superior General in his worldwide tasks, and the last General Chapter decided it. The increasing worldwide expansion of the Society makes it necessary; in particular, the establishments in America, Asia, and Australia demand a closer contact with the headquarters of the Society.

In the short term, the contacting of priests among the diocesan clergy and religious orders was of special concern for you. There were several meetings of priests in the seminary at Zaitzkofen near Regensburg.

That is correct. This fall (2006), another one of these meetings for priest-friends among the diocesan clergy is planned in northern Germany, to spare the long trip to Zaitzkofen (south of Regensburg). These meetings began with an initiative of Fr. Franz Schmidberger during his time as Superior of the Seminary of the Sacred Heart in Zaitzkofen, via a newsletter to priest-friends, which is sent out from Zaitzkofen to 800 priests in the German-speaking countries four times a year. The first aim of the statutes of the Society is the education and sanctification of its own priests and members. The care of our own clergy and the contact with others was by far my most extensive task in Germany. But our statutes mention as a further aim of the institution to impart the priestly ideals to priests beyond our own ranks–an example of the farsightedness of our founder in facing the crisis in the Catholic priesthood. The friendships we cultivate–in newsletters and meetings–also serve this purpose. We are convinced that the treasures of Tradition will aid those priests to live their priesthood in the modern world in a better way, especially since the formation in normal diocesan seminaries has to be considered quite deficient, particularly regarding the formation of an authentic priestly spirit and character. It is our desire to help all priests have access to the treasures of Tradition and to bestow on them a new joy in their vocation.

How is the feedback?

We found that there is a great openness for Tradition, and in particular for the traditional Catholic rite, the Mass of all time, among the young clerics. Such contacts existed already during the 1970's and early 1980's, but mostly for nostalgic and clerical reasons. Now we are discovering something quite new, in fact everywhere, in the US, in France, Italy, and also in Germany. The requests of fellow priests are noticeably increasing in quantity lately. They feel a desire for the old liturgy although they never experienced or knew it in their youth. While talking to such priests, I get the impression that they are by intuition, and even physically, sensing that with their modern education they are lacking something very essential for their priesthood, and they thirst for what characterizes the Catholic priesthood–the celebration of the sacrifice of the Mass. First and foremost a priest is ordained to offer the sacrifice, the bloodless sacrifice of our Lord. These priests of the Church–particularly young priests–feel that they are lacking what is most important. So they approach us and several begin to experience and to learn how to celebrate the so-called "old" rite at our seminary in Zaitzkofen or at one of our priories. We see a desire for a solid basis of the priestly life, a foothold in the eternal, the unalterable, and the divine in a time when apparently even the Church submits to the law of universal change. Those priests are in search of the true identity of the Church and of the priesthood as our Lord Jesus Christ instituted it. This movement has another effect: The bishops and those elderly priests who are still convinced of the rectitude of the Second Vatican Council seem to be concerned. And that's good.

Learning the traditional rite is surely not easy for those priests?

Yes, this is obvious. The old rite has to become a habit. It calls for one's entire obedience to the wise adjustments of the Church together with great reverence. The old rite demands great fidelity–may I say obedience?–to the rubrics, the ancient instructions of the Church, and they prevent the priest from vain posturing or self-glorification, which can quickly slide into clericalism (being understood in the worst sense of the expression) or, what's even worse, gentrified affectation. Today the faithful know this well enough from the modern "liturgies." Meanwhile, the traditional rite is entirely "virgin soil" for the younger generation of priests. There are priests ordained this year who were born in the 1980's. We should bear in mind: Because the Novus Ordo was invented in 1970, one has to be 60 years old to have been ordained in accordance with the old rite! There is a gap of 40 years in the handing down of the classic rite to the next generation of priests, and unfortunately those have been 40 years of an incredible "self-destruction of the liturgy." This expression doesn't stem from me but from our current pope. He used this expression in his autobiography. So it is understandable that the traditional liturgy must be like a revelation of the Church, an epiphany of the priesthood, for many priests of the younger generation. Learning to celebrate the old rite requires an intense preparation for months, because over the centuries the Church left nothing to the discretion of the priest at presenting the holy sacrifice, but directed with utmost precision how the priest is to act at the altar. Leaving the procedure to a priest's subjective ingenuity, you impress the seal of being optional, adjustable, and superficial on the Most Holy. We have been able to observe this since the implementation of the Novus Ordo. To speak about it in the words of Martin Mosebach, an author highly respected by the pope:

Only holy men like Ambrose or Augustine or Thomas Aquinas should be permitted to add something to the holy Mass, but it should never be permitted to men in offices, even if those are situated in the Vatican.

There has to be a return to virtue and reverence for the patriarchal traditions of the Church, agreed?

Yes. A true reform can only ever take place in reverence for Tradition; this applies in particular to the liturgy. The demand of "renewing" everything and leaving nothing untouched is a certain sign of the spirit of destruction being at work. Pope Benedict stated with the following words, which for clarity leave nothing to be desired:

The proscription of the pre-1970 form of the liturgy has to cease. Whoever pleads for the continuity of this liturgy today or takes part in it is treated like a leper; every tolerance ends there....There has never been such a thing in history, since you are proscribing the whole past of the Church. How should one trust in the Church's present if that is so? (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, God and the World: Belief and Life in Our Time–A Conversation with Peter Seewald, 2nd edition [Munich, 2000], p.357.)

The rite that "had been valid until 1970" is often called the Tridentine rite, referring to the Council of Trent. But this seems to be a bit shortsighted, doesn't it?

Yes, the famous liturgical scholar, Msgr. Klaus Gamber, asserts in his book The Reform of the Roman Liturgy that there is strictly speaking no "Tridentine" Mass because a new Ordo wasn't formed after the Council of Trent. Msgr. Gamber remarks that the missal of St. Pius V–who strove to realize the Council's decrees–is nothing other than the missal of the Curia, which accrued centuries before in Rome and was introduced in great parts of the West by the Franciscans. The modifications of the missal made by St. Pius V only catch the eyes of experts. In fact, the Canon of this Mass was already developed under Gelasius I (492-496) in the form which is valid now, except for slight modifications under Gregory I (590-604).

That means the Latin rite basically dates from the time of the early Church?

Yes, of course! We can even assume it dates to apostolic tradition. In the aforementioned book of Msgr. Gamber, he quotes Pope Innocent I (402-417), who describes all this as commonly known in his letter to Bishop Gubbio (Migne, PL 20, 551-561), in which primarily liturgical questions are discussed. He accounts for his claim for continuity in the rite with the words:

Namely, who doesn't know that what was handed down from the first Apostle Peter (!) to the Roman Church and what was conserved until today, has to be preserved by all...?

And in his letter to the Metropolitan of Braga, Pope Vigilius (538-555) speaks about the Canon of the Mass, "which we received through God's grace by apostolic tradition" (PL, 69,18). So basically this rite is an immemorial practice of the Church, which is as old as the Church herself. It is inconceivable that it was virtually destroyed by the new Ordo.

How did Pope Benedict express it in his autobiography: "The old building was demolished and a new one was built" (About My Life, [DVA 1997], p.173).

This has to do with a reform as serious as the one at the time of the so-called Reformation, and a true renewal of the Church. So there is only one thing to do: Turn back! If you are standing in front of an abyss, every step back is an advance. This is our current situation.

I know a diocesan priest who complained: "I'm the last of my class that was ordained the same year. All the others are married. Now I see: It's impossible with the new rite."

And that's it! One must return to the reverence the Council of Trent speaks about concerning the traditional rite in its 22nd Session. You really have to "savor" those words spiritually, because those lines diffuse a truly ecclesiastical spirit:

And since it is fitting that holy things be administered in a holy manner, and this sacrifice is of all things the most holy, the Catholic Church, that it might be worthily and reverently offered and received, instituted the sacred canon many centuries ago, so free from all error, that it contains nothing in it which does not especially diffuse a certain sanctity and piety and raise up to God the minds of those who offer it. For this consists both of the words of God, and of the traditions of the apostles, and also of pious instructions of the holy Pontiffs. (Dz. 942)

You commissioned making a video to enable priests to relearn the traditional rite. How did this come about?

The impulse came from our fellow priests in the US. Seminarians from our seminary in Winona were given the mission of interviewing diocesan priests and religious who had returned to the old rite–after saying the New Mass for some time–after they had learned the old rite again. More than a dozen priests were interviewed about the reasons which made them return to Tradition and how they evaluate the influence of the old traditional Mass on their priestly life in comparison to that of the Novus Ordo. These interviews were sent to all the priests in America in the form of a book with the title Priest, Where Is Thy Mass? Mass, Where Is Thy Priest? [published by Angelus Press.] In this book attention was called to a training video for the traditional rite. About 400 priests ordered this video and began to learn the old rite. Our fellow priests in England, Australia, and France have organized similar campaigns.

Following the English example, a video was made in German.

The video is a kind of priests' training handbook in visual form. We asked our German confrere, Fr. Wolfgang Goettler, to help in this undertaking. He had worked in our American seminary for over 15 years, and all that time he had the special task of teaching the aspirants to the priesthood and diaconate how to celebrate the holy Mass. He arrived from the US for the shooting last fall (2005). They were made over three days of shooting at the high altar of a parish church. The parish priest was very friendly–and brave–to make his church available to us. We–and I think a lot of priests in Germany–are quite thankful for that. After about 300 hours of post-production, the video, with a running time of 170 minutes, was finished. It basically contains two parts: In the first section, Fr. Goettler explains the old rite step by step at the altar, with the camera positioned up close–of course, not during an actual Mass–to make visible what is usually not visible to the faithful attending a traditional Mass, because the priest is celebrating towards God, with his back towards the people. The second section shows an old Mass without any commentary so that the rite can be observed without disruptions. The ability to skip to specific points in the film allows the viewer to easily repeat sections of the rite to aid the learning process. All priests are heartily invited to learn the Mass in our priories and our seminary. In the end, rubrics can not substitute for live instruction from priest to priest.

During the last week of September (2006) you began to mail a book with a personal letter from you to all the priests of Germany. There is attached an order form for the DVD.

Yes, the letter is an appeal to all the bishops and priests of Germany to get to know the traditional Catholic liturgy (again) and to restore the right of the liturgy, for the love of the Church and for concern about the salvation of immortal souls, which have difficulties staying firm in belief without the rite of the Mass which expresses that belief with unsurpassed clarity. By that, we also want to express officially that we don't consider the issue of the old rite as an issue concerning us alone. We don't want a special permission from Rome only for our Society. We don't even want "indults." What we want is the old rite for all priests in the whole world without any conditions! It's a duty of justice to acknowledge this right to all priests, because a rite which dates from the early Church's tradition can't be abolished! The law of the Church is clear on this point. Through this campaign we hope to find combatants among the diocesan clergy and religious orders, and perhaps even among the bishops, who with us will raise their voices in Rome with this attitude and decry the nameless injustice that is almost everywhere prevailing in the Church at the moment, namely, that priests must anticipate incurring the strictest disciplinary measures the instant they take the liberty of celebrating the old rite in public.

There was a detailed booklet entitled New Desire for the Old Rite attached to your letter.

The book, over 100 pages long, begins with the reaction of the press to the 40th anniversary of the liturgical constitution of Vatican II. We argue in the first part that the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council has failed. In the second section of the book, we collected numerous statements of well-known individuals in the Church and in society who are in favor of the traditional Catholic liturgy and against the New Mass, amongst them in the first place the statements of our current pope, Benedict XVI, and the liturgist who is so esteemed by him, Dr. Klaus Gamber, who rendered outstanding services to defend the old rite. During his time as cardinal, Pope Benedict showed his sympathy for the old rite again and again, and called for a reconciliation with the 2000-year-old liturgical tradition of the Church, because the outcome of the liturgical reform after the Council "wasn't re-animation, but devastation" (in Der Gedenkschrift für Msgr. Klaus Gamber, edited by Wilhelm Nyssen, Cologne: 1989], 14). The book should be thought-provoking and contribute to a critical debate concerning how the dilemma of this liturgical pile of rubble, in front of which we are standing today, could happen. It is shown in particular that the "makers" of the new rite, who cannot point to a directive from the Council at all, have betrayed the Council's mission by changing and profaning the Church's holiest possession to further indifferentist ecumenism.

An open letter to the German bishops rounds out your campaign. It ends with the request: "Would you please admit this legally correct status of the traditional rite and remove the threat of sanctions against priests wishing to renew their loyalty towards the old Mass, which has shaped the Church's life for over 1500 years?"

We feel prompted to make this appeal, because the misery of our brothers, who have found a guarantee for their priesthood in the traditional Latin rite and no longer want to deprive their parishioners of this treasure, cannot exert strong pressure. At the moment it is impossible in Germany to get an official post for pastoral ministry if you only want to offer the old Mass and remain faithful to Tradition. This injustice can't be tolerated any longer, especially considering that except for traditional practice, nothing is prohibited in church: disco Masses, Masses for homosexuals, self-made Offertory prayers and changed prayers of Consecration, etc. For many pastors there seems to be only one grave sin left–and that's the old Mass and the return to Tradition. This structure of injustice has to be broken by all means; otherwise the Church in our country will suffocate in this stranglehold. It has to be broken first by intense prayer and second by our personal dedication to the spreading of the old rite.

Father, how many priests will receive your mail?

According to the information of the German Bishops' Conference, there are 16,100 priests at the moment. We hope to address all of them. During the last week in July alone, almost 700 priests received our mail, among them priests of the dioceses of Cologne, Treves, Berlin, Munich, and Muenster. God willing, we'll address the rest within the next months. Furthermore, our fellow brothers in German-speaking Switzerland will follow our campaign.

Thank you for the interview. May God bless your project with success.

 

Translated exclusively for Angelus Press by Mrs. Christine Karl from Kirchliche Umschau, July-August 2006, pp. 4-6 (see upper right hand corner of p.11 in
this Angelus). Mrs. Karl lives in Regensburg, Germany, with her husband Paul and their newborn son Leonhard. They operate a new Catholic publishing house, Patrona Bavaria Verlag. You can view their titles on the web at www.patrona-bavaria-verlag.de.