Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 8, 2023 / 17:30 pm (CNA).
Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., explained his reasoning for limiting the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass in his archdiocese, saying that allowing the old form of the Mass is an “exception” and that the post-Vatican II Mass should be “the dominant rite.”
Gregory’s comments on the Traditional Latin Mass, also known as the Tridentine Mass, were given in response to a student’s question at The Catholic University of America’s Presidential Speaker Series on Thursday night. The Catholic student had asked how he could respond to his peers in “a loving and opening way” as to why the Traditional Latin Mass could not be offered on campus.
Gregory answered by saying that the Traditional Latin Mass is “not forbidden, but it’s limited.”
WATCH: Asked why CUA students have no access to TLM on campus, +Wilton Gregory says “Tradition dies a slow, sometimes bloody death”, acts like Summorum PontifIcum never happened, & adds that #PopeFrancis “is right to say (through #TraditionisCustodes) deal with the priests.”(1/4) pic.twitter.com/VlDYv2FDTc
— Diane Montagna (@dianemontagna) December 8, 2023
“When Pope Paul VI instituted the new ritual tradition, he made an exception for older priests … who, it would have been just too much for them, they had celebrated the Tridentine Mass for 60 years, he made an exception for them. But it was his desire, his intent, to say that when that generation goes that everyone will be in the new Mass.”
Though the celebration of the newer form of the Mass, which follows the 1970 Roman Missal, is the norm throughout the world; the Traditional Latin Mass, which follows the 1962 Roman Missal, is still celebrated by many members of the faithful.
In July 2021, Pope Francis published the apostolic letter Traditionis Custodes, which established new guidelines for how the older form of the Mass could be celebrated. The Holy See then published additional guidelines in February that clarified that any dioceses wanting to grant parishes special dispensations to celebrate the old Mass needed the express approval of the Vatican to do so. The result of these instructions was a restriction on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass throughout the world.
In line with Traditionis Custodes, Gregory published his own liturgical guidelines in July 2022 in which he reduced the number of parishes that could celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass to three. The three churches Gregory said are allowed to celebrate the old form of the Mass are St. John the Evangelist in Forest Glen, Maryland; the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in Washington, D.C.; and St. Dominic in Aquasco, Maryland.
Gregory pointed out that he allowed the Traditional Latin Mass to be celebrated without restriction in his former Diocese of Belleville, Illinois, and Archdiocese of Atlanta. His decision to restrict the Latin Mass did not come until the pope’s new guidance in Traditionis Custodes.
Variances among dioceses
Bishops have taken differing approaches to implementing Traditionis Custodes in their various dioceses. Bishop Jeffrey Monforton, formerly of the Diocese of Steubenville, Ohio, made headlines when he stopped the Traditional Latin Mass from being celebrated on the campus of Franciscan University, keeping the old Mass available only at a parish in downtown Steubenville. Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, worked to preserve the celebration of the old form of the Mass in his diocese and vocally defended faithful who prefer to attend that Mass.
Many dioceses continue to offer the Traditional Latin Mass or allow groups such as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter to celebrate the old Mass. The Traditional Latin Mass remains available to the faithful in most parts of the country, though with limited Mass times.
Gregory, who has been the head of the Archdiocese of Washington since 2019, said he believes that by restricting the Traditional Latin Mass, “the Holy Father is trying to complete what Paul VI began,” that is, establish “the new rite as the dominant rite, but with exceptions, modest exceptions.”
“Tradition dies a slow death, sometimes a bloody death,” Gregory added, pointing out that “two hundred years after Trent, there were still places that were celebrating the pre-Trenten Mass, so it took that long.”
As to why the new form of the Mass should be the dominant rite, Gregory said that it’s “because that’s the Church’s liturgy.” “If you want to belong to another ritual family, you can be Ruthenian, you can be Maronite, you can be Melkite, but the Roman rite has one dominant rite.”
Gregory also said the Church’s goal is to unite people around the new Mass over time by also restricting the number of priests who are allowed to celebrate the old Mass.
“Any priest that wishes to celebrate that has to write to the bishop and say I accept the liturgical reform, I’m not fighting the reform, but I’d like to be able to make myself available to celebrate under these conditions; that’s for priests who are already priests,” Gregory explained, adding that “anyone who is not yet ordained but would like to learn to celebrate [the old Mass] has to write to Rome.”
Gregory added that he believes the pope is “right to say ‘deal with the priests’” promoting the Traditional Latin Mass.
“In many of the places where it grew, the Tridentine rite, it grew because priests promoted it,” Gregory said.
“In other words, if you had a guy that came into the parish and said, ‘Well I like this rite, I’m going to do it,’ and he gathered people together, and now all of a sudden he created the need in places where there wasn’t a need there.”
Monsignor Charles Pope, who serves as coordinator for the celebration of the Latin Mass in the Archdiocese of Washington, further clarified to CNA that any faithful wishing to worship through the older form of the Mass can still do so in the archdiocese.
“Here in the Archdiocese of Washington we remain committed to meeting the needs of Catholics attached to the old rite in the three locations,” Pope said, adding “that commitment remains something that we’ve abided by.”
He further emphasized that “these Masses will continue to be celebrated at these locations” to “meet the needs of the faithful.”
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This is so sad, that the beauty of holiness is reduced to a cookie to be thrown as if the faithful AND I EMPHASIS FAITHFUL as if they are like a dog is repugnant. Your Eminence you have not an aesthetical bone in your body!
We read: “Gregory […] said he believes that by restricting the Traditional Latin Mass, ‘the Holy Father is trying to complete what Paul VI began,’ that is, establish ‘the new rite as the dominant rite, but with exceptions, modest exceptions’.”
Another clericalist example of either inattentive listening or cognitive adolescence (?)…and the revolutionary “hermeneutics of discontinuity”?
Under Pope Benedict there are/were to be two “forms” of the ONE (!) “rite” (Ordinary and Extraordinary). Such that the two forms might be more reconciled within the one perennial Catholic Church; and partly with the Novus Ordo elevated from the hands of too many tribal liturgists. Since, as we all have heard, “the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist is that you can negotiate with a terrorist.”
Is Cardinal Wilton Gregory’s explanation for limiting the TLM correct? I didn’t think that the Pope intended for the OF to totally replace the EF–is this really true?! I personally have no interest in attending a Mass in a language that I don’t understand. I am a convert from Evangelical Protestantism, and my background has formed me to want to understand what I am hearing and reading. I accept that other Catholics feel differently and find the foreign language uplifting and reverent, and I can see no reason for the TLM to be phased out. I also think it could be a draw for curious people, including non-Christians. I personally prefer music that is in my own language, although I think it’s fun to sing a song like Silent Night in German once in a while. I think other Americans feel the same way–a little music in a foreign language is fine, but not all the time. As a skilled pianist and competent but not skilled organist, I am discouraged with the few families who get their children involved with sports but not music. I think this bodes badly for churches, especially those who are hoping to hear more traditional music of the type that is done in the TLM. I was on my high school volleyball team, but at 66 years old, I don’t play volleyball anymore–but I do play piano or organ almost every day and enjoy it. I also was able to get paying work in high school and college with my piano (mainly in churches), but I don’t know of too many sports that offer paying work to teens and college students (perhaps a church team would hire them, but it’s more likely that some of the moms or dads would step up to coach). But back to my question–is the goal to phase out the Latin Mass entirely? I didn’t think this was the plan.
I believe that (eventually ending the Latin Mass entirely) was the wording of Pope Francis’s Traditionis Custodis, something about allowing a period of time for the priests who celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass to educate their congregants about the virtues of the New Mass so that they can change over in awhile. About being able to understand what is said at Mass: as someone in a parish with one of our priests from another country, with a strong accent, (we are thankful for him in many ways!) and who sometimes attends a Latin mass, I can’t hear either in clear English, but at both I can follow along in a missal. We have congregants from Spanish speaking countries and from Vietnam, and I’m sure they would not be hearing their native tongue either. We could all be united in a Latin language mass, with good missals to follow along with.
You might want to look more deeply into the content of the TLM. There’s a world of difference. Also look into why Latin is important in other ways such as exorcism.
I also think you will find Latin pretty easy since most of the English language we speak is from Latin roots thanks to the Church in England. There is a chapter in JK Wittbrodt’s book that explains this.
“I didn’t think that the Pope intended for the OF to totally replace the EF–is this really true?!”
In his letter to bishops accompanying the motu proprio, Francis does speak of the “need to return in due time to the Roman Rite promulgated by Saints Paul VI and John Paul II.” So it seems that *is* his goal.
And yet, last year, he signed a decree to the FSSP encouraging them in continuing their apostolate devoted to the traditional rite. So, maybe it’s not entirely clear how firm or exclusive he is about that goal.
It’s mostly not about the Latin, which is why most people at the TLM use a missal, so we can understand. The TLM is not permitted to be celebrated in the vernacular. But it does provide a very clear distinction between normal life and the nearest thing to heaven on earth.
It’s more about ad orientem, and the triple kyrie, and the long penitential rite that lets you work through your problems gently. The Last Gospel, the Communion rail, the beautiful propers that guide you to pray for help in everything, and trust you’ll get it. It’s about easy access to Confession, and Gregorian Chant (and sometimes polyphony), and processions and fires for the vigils. There’s the silence in the liturgy that lets you meditate and contemplate. There’s the incense, and bells, and the solemn, unhurried, precise movements of the priest and servers.
But back to your question. As far as the TLM being something that you can typically assist at regularly if you’re willing to drive an hour or two, I expect they are trying very hard to end that. Given that new priests are required to get permission from ROME to celebrate, probably they aren’t intending there to be many of them. At best, the closing down of the diocesan TLMs is a good indicator that a wedge is being driven between those that assist at the NO and those that assist at the TLM, given that they won’t see each other regularly anymore. Given that the Pope called the NO the “only” form of the Mass in the Latin Church, it is hard to see him intending any other to be allowed, except as the Sarum Rite is allowed. When’s the last time you heard of one of those being celebrated?
I think it is unlikely to work.
Yes,but the “good news” is that this pink cabal of cardinals are increasing the lmnop+ banner Masses…
Dominus flevit!
It’s just a bit strange that when bishops are keen to trumpet how many different languages are used to offer Mass in their diocese, they aren’t proud to have one more language. Diversity is supposed to be a bedrock virtue until the extraordinary form comes along. The Catholic Church offers Mass in many different rites; it seems reasonable that we should have room for one more. But then I keep in mind what’s happening in the Syro-Malabar rite with physical violence on account of the “uniform posture” and hope that things in the Roman rite don’t degenerate similarly.