A Bishop Exercises His Right to Use the Tridentine Mass
Published in Itinéraires of November 1981
Translated for The Angelus by Father John Emmerson
In 1980 the Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship sent a questionnaire to the bishops of the world, asking the extent to which the Tridentine Mass and the Latin version of the New Mass are celebrated or requested. Their response to this questionnaire was scandalous. Where English-speaking bishops are concerned, not one made any attempt to consult his priests or people to discover the demand for the traditional Mass. It is equally evident that they made no attempt to discover the extent to which the Tridentine Mass is still being celebrated in their dioceses, or, having done so, they deliberately falsified the results of their discoveries. The response to the questionnaire was printed in the December issue of Notitiae, official journal of the Congregation. It reveals that Bishops of England and Wales claim that Tridentine Masses are celebrated by priests of the Society of St. Pius X in only two dioceses; the true figure is fifteen. The Bishops of America allege that the Society operates in only twenty-three dioceses. The true figure is at least seventy-five dioceses! There is, however, one point of considerable interest in the Notitiae report. On page 609 it refers to the fact that one bishop has retained the Tridentine Mass as the norm in his diocese, because he considers the New Mass to be of Lutheran inspiration, and the use of the vernacular dangerous to the faithful. The Bishop was not named, but he is Bishop Antonio de Castro-Mayer of Campos, Brazil. When considering the legal status of the Tridentine Mass, its continued use in the diocese of Campos is of very great significance. If the Vatican had considered Bishop Castro-Mayer to be in breach of Canon Law, it would have removed him from office. It might be argued that he was not removed in order to avoid conflict, but in this case he could have been made to retire at the age of seventy-five, without any reason being given. But far from doing this, Pope John Paul II allowed him to remain in office for two years after his seventy-fifth birthday (he was born 20 June 1904). The Bishop retired at the end of 1981. His response to the Vatican is of such significance that we are printing it in full.
A report on the Mass in the diocese of Campos after the 2nd Vatican Council, given in response to questions posed by His Eminence Cardinal Knox, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship, in his letter of June 15, 1980, ref. 1197/80.
His Eminence desires to know:
Firstly,
(a) if Masses in Latin are celebrated within the diocese of Campos;
(b) if requests for Latin in the liturgy are continuing, or growing, or declining.
Secondly, if there exist within the diocese various groups or persons demanding the Mass in the old rite (the Tridentine Mass)? Are these groups important? What are the motives behind their views and requests?
I. Concerning the first question:
In conformity with the Constitution on the Liturgy of Vatican II, nos. 54 and 36, the priests of the diocese of Campos continue to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in Latin. Some priests, by reason of the concessions allowed by the same paragraphs of the Constitution, have admitted the vernacular in those parts of the Mass commonly called "the Mass of the Catechumens," which continues from the beginning to the Offertory; they return to the vernacular for the "Our Father" and the prayers for the Communion of the Faithful.
This continuance of Latin in the Mass satisfies the faithful, as was exemplified recently by the extraordinary numbers present at the Mass of the Holy Savior in the Cathedral, a Mass celebrated entirely in Latin.
The Latin Mass is, further, a guarantee against the desacralizing abuses (sometimes profanations) which became common in some churches at the same time as the entirely vernacular New Mass. A few examples: women approaching the altar to recite the "Our Father" hand-in-hand with the celebrant; laymen helping themselves to the consecrated Host; in short, all those acts which tend to abolish the distinction between the "ministerial priesthood" of the priest and the "common priesthood" of the laity.
The rampant individualism of those priests who have adopted the New Mass and the vernacular reveals the same bias: they refuse whatever the authorities might prescribe which goes against their own preferences. One observes them, in this diocese, refusing to distribute Communion on the tongue, or to those on their knees.
In other words, despite the good fruits of conserving Latin in the Mass, the practice is not exclusive here. All the religious orders1 and some secular priests have introduced an entirely vernacular Mass, in response to the decisions of the Brazilian Episcopal Conference. But it is precisely after this break with the official language of the Latin Rite (Constitution on the Liturgy, no. 36) that the abuses of which we have spoken appeared.
II. Concerning the Second Point, relative to the traditional Mass ("Tridentine Mass"):
(1) Generally speaking, this rite alone is celebrated in our parishes (though not in all), because of the words of paragraph 4 of the Constitution on the Liturgy, that the Church desires all legitimately recognized rites to be in every way conserved and favored in the future. The Council further recommended that revisions, when necessary, be carried out with prudence and in conformity to Tradition.
(2) As for the faithful, in their majority they prefer the traditional Mass. One notices that fervor is greater where the traditional Mass has been maintained. This fact is attested to by persons who visit Campos from other dioceses. In none of these parishes have the abuses mentioned above occurred.
(3) The reasons for this adhesion to the Tridentine Mass are of various kinds:
(a) the manifest scandals evoked by the new vernacular Masses;
(b) the absence within the New Rite of any clear affirmation that the Mass is a true sacrifice in the strict sense of the word, having a propitiatory character (indeed the unequivocal statements of the traditional Mass, as in the Offertory, have been suppressed).
This last point is very noticeable to our people, who are familiar with numerous Protestant sects. These present the liturgical changes of the Catholic Church as a recognition of past errors and an admission that the Mass is not a sacrifice in the strict sense, and certainly not a propitiatory one.
Arguments of this sort are at least in appearance confirmed by the many changes introduced by the New Mass, changes which coincide with those introduced by Luther and other Protestant leaders when they decided to replace the Mass, a true sacrifice, with a simple meal commemorative of that which Jesus celebrated with His Apostles before His Passion. Allow me a few more examples which variously highlight either the desacralization of the Mass, or the confusion between ministerial and common priesthood, or a distancing from fundamental dogmas concerning the Holy Eucharist.
- The Lutherans invoke the Trinity six times only in their Eucharist. The New Mass has likewise reduced the number of Trinitarian invocations to six.
- Luther suppressed all references to the Blessed Virgin, the angels, the saints, or the absolution of sins in his version of the Confiteor. More than that, he made of the Confiteor a prayer of priest and people together. Very similar changes have been made to the Confiteor in the New Mass. A small reminder of the Blessed Virgin, the angels and saints remains, the priestly absolution after the people's Confiteor is gone; indeed, the Confiteor is now said by priest and people together.
Listen to these words of a Lutheran pastor in a recent book concerning the theological import of the Lutherian changes to the Confiteor: "In recognizing the principle of the priesthood of all the faithful, one makes of the Confiteor an act, not only of the priest, but of the assembly as a whole" (Luther D. Reed, The Lutheran Liturgy [Fortress Press, Philadelphia], 1947, pp. 255-6).
- Luther suppressed the Offertory, because it expressed without ambiguity the sacrificial and propitiatory character of the Mass. In the New Mass the Offertory loses these characteristics to become a plain preparation of the gifts.
- The New Mass has reintroduced the "Prayer of the Faithful," also a part of the Lutheran liturgy. The "Prayer of the Faithful," Reed tells us, "is an important part of the liturgy, that part which probably best expresses the active participation of the assembly in their functions as the priestly action of the faithful."
- The use of the vernacular and the increase in biblical readings also brings the New Mass closer to Protestant liturgies.
Listen to Mr. Reed (op. cit. p. 234) as he considers the liturgical movement within the Catholic Church:
"The medieval church had destroyed the primitive unity and the sense of the communitarian cult, in giving excessive relief to the priestly class, and in dispensing the laity from their active role. The Reformation corrected this deviation, in attributing to the priesthood of the faithful and to the communitarian character of the liturgy the importance they deserved. Masses without communicants were forbidden and frequent communion for the laity was established. The use of the vernacular, frequent hymns, and preaching to the people, all played an important role in this process. The Liturgical Movement active in the Catholic Church today constitutes a late effort to promote an active and intelligent participation of the laity within the Mass, in such a manner that all of the faithful can consider themselves as 'concelebrants' with the priest" (Our italics).
The introduction of the Institutio generalis Missalis Romani, Article 7, insinuates that the attention given by the Ordo Missae of St. Pius V to the eucharistic dogmas of the Real Presence, Transubstantiation, and the ministerial priesthood were due to the attacks directed against these dogmas at the time. The implied conclusion is that such an (over-) emphasis is no longer necessary, as the dogmas are no longer under attack.
Such an implication, at a time when Paul VI devoted an entire Encyclical, Mysterium Fidei, to a defense of just these dogmas against modern errors, can only cause surprise.
The logical conclusion to the Holy Father's concern ought to have been the conservation of the barriers against error of the traditional Mass. It surely ought not to have been the absence of such a concern on the part of those who put the Introduction together.
We have, then, succinctly exposed a few of the reasons which lead the faithful of Campos to remain attached to the traditional, or "Tridentine" Mass. They wish to assure the purity of the Faith and the integrity of Revelation.
+ Antonio de Castro-Mayer, Bishop of Campos
1. Religious orders are more or less free of the bishop's authority regarding their internal affairs. This "exemption," as it is called, is often contested and even overridden by the forces of the Conciliar Church. In Campos, where it suits their purposes better, they have naturally adopted the opposite attitude. (Note by the Editor of ltinéraires.)
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