The Folk Mass is Ended… Go in Peace
Without my winter beard I’ve got a baby face, and am often mistaken for a 30-year-old. But teaching college students gives me frequent reminders that I really am fortysomething.
These kids don’t remember Communism. It collapsed in Eastern Europe while they were in tiny diapers, and most of what they know of the Soviet bloc comes from the character Borat. So the first time they heard the word “Stalin” was during a sketch about “sexy-time.”
Lucky them. My friends and I grew up on a steady diet of warnings from the media about the details of nuclear warfare, and grim tales (from a few elderly teachers) of how the Communists had murdered missionaries in Africa, herded priests into Chinese concentration camps, and blown up Russian basilicas. This meant we were pretty sure that we’d end our lives either under some kind of foreign dictatorship—or in the sudden blaze of mushroom clouds: Red Dawn or The Day After. Depending on news reports, I’d have searing dreams of one apocalypse or the other, and wake up relieved to see neither Soviet soldiers nor piles of Hiroshima rubble. It was only in the fall of 1989 that another outcome occurred to me—and I was so excited I had to call a friend and tell him: “Hey Anthony, you know what this means? We might actually die of old age! Just like our grandparents.”
To the fresh young faces that look up at me when I lecture, all this is as distant and weird as I found my mother’s fear of the Chinese—whom she never forgave for Pearl Harbor. For these students, Marxism is a flavor of lit crit, which their friends at state universities use while unpacking Jane Austen novels. To me, it was a nemesis and personal threat, and its fall (thanks in large part to Pope John Paul) was the best thing that had ever happened to me.
Until a year ago, that is. Pope Benedict’s Summorum Pontificum (July 7, 2007), which gave universal permission for the traditional Catholic liturgy—effectively suppressed after Vatican II—was for me the spiritual answer to 1989. No, it didn’t open earthly prison camps, or lighten the finger on the nuclear hair trigger. But it did break down a monstrous wall that had been built by bureaucrats, which wrongly divided Catholics and held millions of us in a ghetto. This was healthy neither for us nor for those we had left behind. (Some of us got a little bit… eccentric attending those “private chapels” set up behind laundromats.) Even worse, it walled off from most Western Catholics the brightest treasures of their own worship tradition, putting behind lock and key the golden monstrances, the incantatory songs, the gestures of profound humility and the mode of prayer treasured by the saints we all invoke.
Again, it is hard to explain all this to members of the “John Paul Generation,” many of whom grew up in vibrantly orthodox parishes in the suburbs, where hideous modern architecture and happy-clappy music peacefully co-existed with solid Christian preaching, whose “Eucharistic ministers” also worked long hours at pro-life pregnancy shelters. Having never seen what came before, with no trailing memories of reverence lost or beauty abandoned, these post-modern Catholics rarely understand what we “liturgy-geeks” are talking about. If they drop in to see a Traditional Mass, they might very well find it attractive, in an artsy, alien way. Like a matinee of The Magic Flute. But it’s not worth fighting about.
Well, some of us who grew up in the 1970s will have to answer, “Yes. It is.” Born in late 1964, I have no childhood memories of the full-bore Traditional Mass. Our parish had already embarked on one of a long series of “transitional” liturgies, which eager experts propelled into action in lieu of Pope Paul’s issuing the Novus Ordo Missae (much less its botched English translation). Even so, the Masses I remember held over some of the most important symbols and practices of the old rite—and they proved important for me.
For instance, as a nattering four-year-old, I was stung by the absolute demand for silence, and the spectacle of big, strong blue-collar dads clad in suits, kneeling with downcast eyes as they waited for the richly robed celebrant to raise that shiny white disc, and the cassocked altar boys to shake those tingly bells. I asked my mother once, “Why are they ringing those bells?” She said, “So children like you will be quiet. And why do you have to be quiet?” she said, anticipating my protest. “Because you see that piece of bread up there in the priest’s hands?”
“It doesn’t look like bread….”
“Well it is. And now what the priest is doing will turn it into God.”
“Oh…” My green eyes opened wide at that, and they haven’t narrowed yet. That moment never left me. Indeed, that memory of a carefully orchestrated human ritual has served as an actual Grace, since I’ve never since doubted for a nanosecond the Real Presence in the Eucharist. That fact was seared into me by the solemn way all the grown-ups knelt, abject, at an altar rail—and opened their mouths like tiny birds for a crumb of “bread.” And by the loving care the priest paid to handling the Host, under which an altar boy hovered with a gleaming platter of gold.
Such memories sustained me, as the bureaucratic vandals loped through the sanctuaries—knocking down this altar rail, pulling out that altar, and banishing the chant. They taught us in grammar school that “the pope wanted us” to stand for Holy Communion, to take it in the hand, from ordinary laymen—and that all this was demanded by “Vatican II,” which was apparently still in session somewhere, issuing these edicts verbally… because none of it was to be found in the Council documents. Then again, neither was all that business about the Omega Point, or Mary’s other children, or Jesus not rising physically from the dead, or Liberation Theology and women priests that they taught at my Catholic high school. But in order to check it, I would have needed to slog through that 1,000-page book of conciliar documents written largely in 1960s Newspeak. Not even I was nerdy enough in high school to do that….
I remember as I got older, how increasingly silly my own religion began to seem. What once we had knelt, amidst solemn music, to humbly be fed by a white-haired celibate in special robes, we now waltzed up to collect like a movie ticket from our gym teacher—all to the tune of “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Indeed, growing up I assumed that “B. Dylan” was some obscure composer of modern Church music, since the only place I ever heard his songs were at “Folk Mass.” The lyrics were flowery and made no sense to me, so I assumed they must just be from the Old Testament—like those droning, desperately joyless “responsorial psalms.” (King David wept….) I kept on dragging myself there, every Sunday, even though I sometimes wondered why—because in some cranny of my soul, I still heard those bells, and still felt that alien, supernatural thrill.
I would later learn from reading the works of that great Catholic apologist Michael Davies that most of what our teachers and pastors told us was false—that Communion in the Hand, the widespread abuse of Eucharistic ministers, the abolition of chant, the desecration of altars, the exclusive use of Mass facing the people, even the abolition of Latin and chant, all of it… all of it… was done on the initiative of tiny coteries of experts, often in plain defiance of Church law. In fact, these assaults on the Mass were conducted via the same ruthless office politics as the “renewal” of Catholic education, with similar results. It’s a cliché to talk about weak-chinned bishops and pants-suited nuns with grudges getting together at four-star hotels for weekend conferences to reinvent the Faith of 2,000 years—but that is sadly what happened. Or almost happened—thanks to the firm refusals of Pope John Paul and then-cardinal Ratzinger.
What is worse, as the visible form of our worship mutated so radically, it was hard to resist the suggestion: If this could change, why couldn’t everything else? (This is what Pope Benedict means by the “hermeneutic of discontinuity.”) The first thing a revolutionary regime typically does is to replace the country’s flag—to let the common people know that all bets are off, and their new masters plan to start from scratch. The bishops and theologians who rejected Humanae Vitae—and with it, virtually the whole of New and even Old Testament teaching on sexuality—found these liturgical changes mighty helpful. Indeed, many of the same people who crafted modern catechesis (and modern annulment norms) also helped along in the changing Mass, in a veritable synergy of mediocrity. Communion in the hand, for instance, was introduced in an act of plain defiance of Catholic practice and Church documents—then presented after a decade or so to Pope Paul VI as a fait accompli: This is now our local custom. So he reluctantly approved it. That’s not what they taught us in grammar school. So when Pope Benedict makes clear that he strongly prefers the traditional mode of receiving the Host, millions of us silently whisper “Amen.” And when he liberated the Latin Mass, millions of us screamed “Alleluia!”
If bishops faithfully follow the Holy Father’s wishes—which apparently now extend to training new priests to say both rites—it will work miracles at luring back the scandalized souls of the 70s. It will gradually convince the gun-shy, self-styled Traditionalists to poke around at their old parishes. This will take time, of course. Given the sheer number of falsehoods imposed on Catholic laymen trying to schlep our way to Heaven by “highly placed officials” and the committees who loved them, is it any wonder that when some people learned the truth, they became a little… suspicious? No wonder so many of those people I met at reluctantly tolerated “indult” Latin Masses—it was easier, in some places, to get permission for gay-sponsored Dignity liturgies—carried plastic grocery bags full of poorly printed pamphlets with the names of “cardinals who are 33rd degree Freemasons.” It wasn’t so much a sign of a “schismatic mentality” (although that exists) as a symptom of Post-Conciliar Stress Disorder. I once adopted a beagle whose previous master used to beat him; he still winces whenever I try to pet him. But he’s learning to trust….
Pope Benedict understands all this, and has shown a fatherly compassion toward those of us who suffered from priestly liturgical abuse. His warmth and wisdom are washing away the bitterness, even as solemn liturgies attract new vocations to the priesthood. (When I was in Rome, the Latin liturgies were always scattered with curious seminarians from Indiana.)
What remains is an outreach to the other lost sheep of the 1970s, the millions who drifted away from catechetical psychobabble and liturgies lacking the dignity of Cub Scout ceremonies. Faced with the prospect of a Church that was being dressed up by wishful thinkers in the trappings of dying, “mainline” Protestantism, one out of three Americans who grew up Catholic have already left the Church. Many ceased all religious practice, but far more sought out the starker certitudes of Evangelical churches—whose embrace of Biblical principles and rejection of sacramental rites is straightforward and sincere.
I’m not saying that people who’ve gone off to Pentecostal churches to speak in tongues will be lured back by hearing Latin. But the recovery of the Church in the West from a generation of chaos and self-indulgence can only be advanced by the slow and solemn recovery of dignity, beauty, and order. A liturgy that teaches us to humble ourselves can in time teach us the far greater lesson—to forget ourselves altogether, and gaze at the Face of God with our eyes wide and mouths agape. To kneel like tiny birds waiting to be fed.
Comments
<< A liturgy that teaches us to humble ourselves can in time teach us the far greater lesson—to forget ourselves altogether, and gaze at the Face of God with our eyes wide and mouths agape. To kneel like tiny birds waiting to be fed. >>
I wonder if you could find it in yourself to abandon your own ideas about the morality of lying, and instead permit the Church to feed you her pure and true doctrine?
Wouldn’t that be a gain for you, and for those you have been misleading?
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“liturgies lacking the dignity of Cub Scout ceremonies” Nice turn of phrase, with the added value of being true.
I wish the Latin mass had returned before my knees gave out. I can just about make it to Communion on the kneeler, then I embarrass myself by sitting down.
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An excellent piece.
And John’s memory of first hearing about transubstantiation reminds me of my sister’s first lesson, which occurred at about the same age. When my Mom told my sister that the priest was changing the bread and wine into Christ’s Body and Blood, my sister then asked, “Is that big red book his cook book?”
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But in order to check it, I would have needed to slog through that 1,000-page book of conciliar documents written in 1960s Newspeak. Not even I was nerdy enough in high school to do that….
Good point. Only a nerd would desire to read the Documents of an Ecumenical Council that occurred during their lifetime.
I would later learn from reading the works of that great Catholic apologist Michael Davies that most of what our teachers and pastors told us was false...
Davies books mixed a LOT of personal judgment poison in with referenced citations from the very Magisterium he spent too much of his life opposing. He also made tons of factual errors.
Even when Priests, like Fr. Harrison, corrected him on his errors vis a vis Religious LIierty, Davies refused to admit or correct his errors.
Innumerable are those in whom he successfully sowed enmity and mistrust against the Church Jesus established. It is often truly said of him that he mid-wifed many into schism.
The English speaker and writer Michael Davies is now established solidly as the most influential apologist for traditionalist Catholicism in the English-speaking world. (By “traditionalist” I mean that wing of the Church which is generally critical not only of the manifold violations of official Catholic doctrine, worship and discipline which have plagued the Church since Vatican Council II, but also of the officially introduced changes themselves.) Davies has the kind of literary merits which also characterize a good lawyer: a clear and forceful style which laymen can readily understand; the ability to be polemical without lapsing into fanaticism; diligence in digging out recognized authorities who support his positions and adversaries who concede them; and the absence of that ambiguity and fuzziness, that dependence on emotive buzz-words, which so often mars the effusions of liberal dissidents.
Nevertheless, I think he has a tendency to draw exaggerated conclusions from the data which he compiles and expounds so lucidly and persuasively. I have read - and enjoyed - most of his books, but often end up with serious reservations about his final positions. One feels a strong underlying sympathy with Davies’ controlled anger as he documents the sorry tale of desolation which is the essence of much recent Church history; but mentally one often has to withhold assent from his rather sweeping conclusions. If I may be pardoned for the seeming contradiction, Davies is a straight shooter who does not always shoot quite straight. And it is precisely his shots which go slightly astray which tend to be snapped up and recycled by followers of the Society of St Pius X and other hard-line traditionalists who live and worship in a state of disobedience to the Pope and hostility to the main body of the Church.
http://www.rtforum.org/lt/lt44.html
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Re Non-Spartacus: You kind of missed the joke. You needn’t be a nerd to read the docs of Vatican II. Except if you’re in high school....
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OK, thanks for the correction, Mr. Z.
Do you think Vatican Two was written largely in 1960s Newspeak or was that jocularly hyperbolic?
For the record, my heart soared when Pope Benedict was elected and the reality he was elected put the lie to the claim, on the part of far too many self-anointed traditionalists, that one could not be in Communion with the Church and remain a traditionalist.
I am the same age as Israel and I was learnt the Faith during the time when what some folks now are calling the Gregorian Rite was normative and the Pastor, Msgr. Nolan, at Saint Mary’s Church, in Springfield, Vermont, would say the 6:45 am Mass in less than 30 minutes - that time too was normative back in the day.
Mr. Z. You are a very very bright man. However, like many others who differentiate themselves from all other Catholics by adopting a qualifying adjective, you make the mistake of engaging in ideation whose subtext is that it was the Church itself, and not the errors of the age, which was responsible for such a sudden collapse of Faith.
And in constructing mental images upon that subtext, one is just illustrating they are tinged, if not suffused, with the very same liberalism they identify and condemn in others.
IOW, it is the soi disant traditionalist who thinks of himself as being immune to the errors of the day while he judges it is the Church which has been infected with the errors of liberalism.
And that is Protestantism in Fiddlebacks, brother.
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I had lunch with the late Cardinal Hickey and was grousing about Latin and chant and he said read the documents. It was a revelation.
Rome wants the Mass parts in English translated to conform more closely to the Roman Missal and the Bishops can’t agree on that.
There is talk of B16 asking the Dicastry in charge of Divine Worship to investigate the feasibility of returning Latin to at least the key parts of the Sacraments.
Unfortunately my pro-Latin pastor died and his replacement is the first priest younger than many of the parishioners since the V2 dropped on us. I was asking about Latin within days of his arrival and he said he is of the middle generation of priests that had no Latin. Our 70/80-something priests were trained in the Extraordinary Form. There is massive reluctance on the part of the active people to do any Latin. Especially the musicians. I refer to myself as a renegade cultists for this reason. I just pray the reconnection with the past continues apace.
I loved John Paul but Papa Ratizinger is amazing. They say people went to Rome to see John Paul but they now come to Rome to listen to Pope Benedict.
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Re: Spartacus (not):
I revised that snark about Vatican II documents to read “largely” in “1960s Newspeak,” since both the Dogmatic Constitutions are actually quite clear, inspiring, and of enduring value and importance.
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Great piece as always, John. Only one (maybe not so) minor correction: communion in the hand is technically an indult, not a normative practice, granted by way of exception to those areas of the Church that have it (Woody might say: that are so degenerate as to need it). This has again been made clear by the Pope’s chief liturgist, Msgr Marini, among others. By way of contrast, after Summorum Pontificum, the Extraordinary Form is a legal right of all the faithful, and thus should be available everywhere. That it is not is a scandal and suggests that the recalcitrant bishops are employing the old read, sit, stall and delay (my apologies to a great law firm whose original name this used, unfairly, to parody) tactic, waiting for him to pass on to his reward, which is even more of a scandal.
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@Non-spartacus
Protestantism, whether in fiddlebacks or not, is the creations of a new religion(s). The Traditionalist is not interested in a new religion but rather the old—or better said, the true—religion. He rejects turning either the Pope, or councils, or the visible Church into some sort of idol to be worshiped. Rather, we seek first the kingdom of Heaven, just as Jesus told us. The Church only makes sense when it is ordered to that end. If aspects of the Church are no longer ordered such, then they are not to be followed. That may look like Protestantism to the materially minded.
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John,
OK post, but the more I hear from the Traditionalist wing about the glories of the old rite. The more I think the real problem is with reverence. And frankly, the decline of reverence or even respect in Western culture for anything except non western culture has been a much larger phenomenon than what is chronicled in the liturgical abuses since V2. You mention things like men in suits with eyes averted and kneeling and extraordinary ministers swaggering past the tabernacle. But is this really a result of the change in the mass structure? I can understand that there are difficulties with some of the translations of the Eucharistic prayers and I can understand that you don’t like the informality of RC churches today and I can understand wanting to hear the glorious chant again, but whining about a loss of reverence is hardly making me want to switch back to the mass in a language I don’t speak and can’t share with my three kids under 5.
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John, in defense of Michael Davies against the criticism here, I offer the eulogy of one Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger: “I have been profoundly touched by the news of the death of Michael Davies. I had the good fortune to meet him several times and I found him as a man of deep faith and ready to embrace suffering. Ever since the Council he put all his energy into the service of the Faith and left us important publications especially about the Sacred Liturgy. Even though he suffered from the Church in many ways in his time, he always truly remained a man of the Church. He knew that the Lord founded His Church on the rock of St. Peter and that the Faith can find its fullness and maturity only in union with the successor of St. Peter. Therefore we can be confident that the Lord opened wide for him the gates of heaven. We commend his soul to the Lord’s mercy.”
Had he really been as disastrous as our critic says, I doubt he would have earned such a eulogy, especially when we recall how rare such words of praise are from Ratzinger/Benedict.
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Thanks, Tom. If Davies made the occasional honest mistake, I’ll stack that any time against the torrent of conscious lies with which liturgical reformers sprayed the laity through the post-conciliar period. Davies was a kind and humble man, whom I was privileged to meet once, and I bet his intercessory prayers played no small part in helping the Holy Father overcome the huge resistance he faced in issuing Summorum Pontificum.
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Michael Davies was a close personal friend of mine for many years. I met him in 1975 at
Econe. He asked me to do an appendix for the first volume of his study, APOLOGIA PRO
MARCEL LEFEBVRE, and later he visited me in North Carolina. As Thomas Woods states,
quoting now Pope Benedict XVI, Michael Davies was a thinking son of the Church. His studies
of the liturgy (three volumes) remain, along with the work of Fr. Adrian Fortescue, some
of the finest writings around on the topic. While his analysis of the Vatican II’s statement
on religious liberty ("Dignitatis humanae") has received a critique from Fr. Brian Harrison,
even Fr. Harrison would be the first to recognize the seriousness and merit of much of what
he wrote (and admit that all is not clarity in that council document). In all, he loved
the Church and was faithful to orthodoxy.
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Mr. Woods, The Pope has had kind words for Martin Luther also.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3492299.ece
Now, this is not to say that Mr. Davies was Luther, but, it is accurate to observe that Pope Benedict never speaks ill of anyone and in his words about Mr. Davies he, rightly, praised the good while restraining himself from highlighting Mr. Davies numerous errors both brought to the fore and corrected by faithful Catholics such as Shawn McElhinney in his Prescription against Traditionalism....
http://matt1618.freeyellow.com/shawn.html
I have no doubt Mr. Davies had the best motivation but he spent WAY too much time flogging the lies that Mons Lefevbre was not excommunicated,didn’t sign the documents of Vatican Two etc etc etc among other things.
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The Church only makes sense when it is ordered to that end. If aspects of the Church are no longer ordered such, then they are not to be followed.
Thanks, Charles.
Jesus taught, “He who hears you (charles) hears me,” was in which Gospel?
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Spartacus, I agree with you that many Trads went much too far--as I stated in the article. However, it strikes me as very strange that you are so much more concerned with the excesses of the victims than the actions of those who abused their authority. Laymen aren’t supposed to HAVE to worry about when their bishops and pastors are lying to them about the intentions and wishes of the pope. But that is what happened, consistently, for a generation--placing parents, as stewards of their own and their children’s souls, in the awful position of having to shop around to find parishes that WOULDN’T corrupt their children’s faith and morals, degrade their reverence for the sacraments, and alienate them from the Church. Some of these laymen made mistakes. So did some of the priests who tried to help them. Agreed. But your outrage seems oddly selective....
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Mr. Zimark. My outrage is specific to the contents of the post vis a vis the trads.
I have spent many many years dealing with dead Dioceses - such as the Diocese of Portland (the state of Maine) where I had the Chancellor of that Diocese tell me, “We all think you are crazy. We laugh at you.” so I am well aware of the recent unpleasantness.
I am of the opinion the Church is almost always in a state of crisis - it is either purifying or putrefying - and the, apparent, “golden age” of Catholicism into which I was born was, in actuality, a state of unhealthy clericalism in which our parents left it to the Priests to educate us and the Faith, as I and me friends experienced it, was built upon rules, rubrics, and rhetoric about fear whereas , Traditionally (see the Catechism of Trent)the Faith was built upon love of God.
And Catechetical Instruction is, primarily, the duty of the parents.
At least one of my objections to the (otherwise many praiseworthy results) fruits of Mr.Davies books and articles was it drew so many of the, apparently, best and brightest away from the field of battle into the schism and those of us who maintained the Bonds of Unity, in Worship, Doctrine, and Authority, were left with diminished numbers in our combat against progressive-minded men and women and the Chancery, Deanery, and local Parish.
All Ecumenical Councils trail in their wake all manner of crackpots, apostates, schismatics,kooks, cranks, and weirdoes but what is new is the self-anointed blaming the Church for all of the demented detritus floating near the surface of our consciousness.
Well, I can see I am getting wound-up so I will just cease.
I really do appreciate your intellect, humor, knowledge, and industry, Mr. Zimark and If I, from time to time, take issue with you, it is not my fault.
It is genetics (I am Irish-Agonquin) and geography (I am a Vermont Crank) and so I cannot accept responsibility :)
Oh, I do want to end by observing how thin-skinned are they who can not tolerate to read criticism of Mr. Davies but who, routinely, attack Holy Mother Church (a most untraditional action)
Peace, brother.
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Egad, how I remember the relentless nuclear drills at school because the commies had nuclear weapons and could wipe us out any minute now.
Nearly forty years of fear factor crisis management by government only to replaced by a new bunch of madmen with possible nukes.
Im feared out.
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Non-spartacus,
It seems you miss the point: blue-collar families sometimes have neither the time nor ability to discern catholic fact from fiction. Not everybody is a philosopher. Presumption of a brilliant audience is the chief mistake of right wing literature, and why we will lose this pres election.
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It seems you miss the point: blue-collar families sometimes have neither the time nor ability to discern catholic fact from fiction.
Agreed, Joe. That observation supports my point. I was born into a time of unhealthy clericalism. Back in the day, we Christians left Christianity up to the Priests and Bishops and Pope
Entire Parishes were turned upside down and the pew denizens just went along with the changes.And ALL of those denizens were raised in the Old Rite which puts the lie to the idea the 1962 Roman Missal is a bulwark against heresy and apostasy.
Now, this was Vermont I am writing about. Vermont. We were not California back in the day. Yet Joe Ecclesia was willing to have, seemingly, everything be changed without so much as a whispered - “Ah, jes a second here. We never did it this way before...”
But, try and change a procedure at a Town Meeting back then and there would have been hell to pay…
The LAST thing Joe Ecclesia needed back then was a convert like Mr. Davies who was sowing enmity and distrust against the Pope and who rhetorically held open the sheep gate as the sheep wandered out into the maws of the schismatic wolves singing from the Davies Hymnal, “Lefevbre, How Great Thou Art”
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John,
Where are these “vibrantly orthodox parishes in the suburbs” that helped form the “John Paul Generation?”
I have been in and around New York and New England suburbs for the last 40 years and more and have never met anything like you describe. Perhaps I have been missing something?
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I was born in 1977 and grew up in the Chicago suburbs, and I’ve never seen one of those vibrantly orthodox suburban parishes either. I was a Lutheran girl and was always really, REALLY unimpressed when I went to church with Catholic friends. Years later I returned home from college as a Catholic and couldn’t find a single parish in my area that made any effort to distinguish itself from Pizza Hut. Finally I found a Tridentine Mass at a small town in the country and drove half an hour to get there every Sunday.
However, there is a parish in Manchester, NH (not the suburbs) that fits Mr. Zmirak’s description perfectly—totally orthodox preaching, perpetual adoration, rock music, communion in the hand, etc.
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