I hear many talk disparagingly about the New Mass. I don’t know if either Mass is ‘better’ than the other but I thought this gentleman Decrevi had an interesting perspective regarding thinking about both Masses. Maybe this is a good way to heal any rift between both groups.
First Part of the Video – Explaining the First Indult to Allow the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)
The first part of the video is about the Marnau Petition – a petition written in 1971 which asked Pope Paul VI for special permission to allow the Traditional Latin Mass to be celebrated in England and Wales. The petition was signed by many people, including Agatha Christie.
Decrevi says:
“According to legend…when Paul VI saw her name – she wasn’t a Catholic – he allowed this permission for the Latin Mass to be continued to be said in England and Wales. This was the first approval. Obviously, there have been many more but there has been a fight in the Church over the last 50 years over this Mass.”
The indult was granted by Pope Paul VI.
He then reads the original petition, as well as the letter from Archbishop Bugnini to Pope Paul VI.
Second Part of the Video – Brief history of the TLM
But what I want to look at is what Decrevi says in the second part of the video:
The battle for the Traditional Latin Mass has been going on for 50 years.
This was the first indult granted that allowed the Traditional Latin Mass.
We had a second indult in the early 80’s which allowed bishops to give special permission for the Mass to be said.
After Bishops Lefeve’s ordination in 1988 we had the Ecclesia Dei permission, which gave far more liberty to the Mass.
With Pope Benedict we saw Summorum Pontificum which allowed any priest in the world to celebrate Traditional Latin Mass. They didn’t need to ask permission.
Pope Francis, in 2021, abrogated Summorum Pontificum, limiting when the TLM could be celebrated.
So the struggle for the TLM has been ongoing for 50 years.
3rd Part of the Video – Healing
Then he addresses those who love the TLM, and offers advice on how to look favorably on Vatican II and the New Mass. He says,
Don’t be worried about what’s going on. If it wasn’t for the Novus Ordo and the reform of the Mass, we wouldn’t have the reform of the Traditional Latin Rite…I don’t know if devotional Catholicism…would have survived the modern era.
Catholics before Vatican II were devoted but they couldn’t defend their faith. They didn’t know how to teach the faith. In Ireland, pre-Vatican II it was up to the clergy to teach the faith.
People today are coming to church with their Missals, they are highly involved in the Mass, in short they are stronger Catholics than many of those pre-Vatican II. The people are more devoted, understand the Mass better, participate more, and because of this and in many ways the Church is growing stronger.
What we have today is radically different TLM that what we had 50 years ago…if you go to any TLM in 2022, everybody that takes up the challenge of going to TLM knows what is being said at every moment in that Mass.This didn’t exist 50 or 60 years ago to the same extent.
So let’s not be too hard on the Second Vatican Council and the Council Fathers and those in the 1960’s.
We should be grateful that the TLM survived, but look at this in how the Church is being purified over the last 50 years because today the TLM is a different movement than what we had before. It is a movement that is intentionally looking to preserve something that is sacred and to say it with reverence, love and respect.
It is simply not right to say that before Vatican II and before the reforms everything was rosy, it simply wasn’t. Reform was needed. And whether we like it or not the Vatican II and the reforms after Vatican II, those reforms also reformed the TLM movement…and now you have this new movement that is growing exponentially, republishing the Missals, the laity going to Mass with their Missals…following the order of the Mass with their Missals. I think the Church should be embracing what the Holy Spirit is doing. If it was up to me I’d put the Vetus Ordo and the Novus Ordo Missae, put them into the same Missale Romano and say, look, whatever the faithful are nourished by, you can use…Let the faithful, the priests and bishops offer a Mass that is working in their communities. And let’s not divide ourselves.
Father Ripperger says, “What the bishops and pope need is your prayers not your gossiping. If you’re going to use your tongue, wag it at God and not at the other people.” I think Decrevi, in this video, goes a long way towards healing, and puts forth a good way to look at the TLM and New Mass.