Saturday, April 09, 2005
A "Classic" 1970 Rite Roman Liturgy
Mark Sullivan asks at Irish Elk, "A magnificent, historic scene, as the world converges on St. Peter's Square – and could a better case have been made for the beauty and majesty of the classic Roman liturgy in the universal language of Latin?"
My answer: no, this was about the tops. It was magnificently great liturgy.
But your average parish Mass is not a masterful sendoff for a sainted pope. You can't recreate the mountaintop experience of a papal funeral every time two or three are gathered. Your average parish priest is no cardinal prompted by trained St Peter's MC's. Your average parish liturgist and committee are not the college of cardinals aided by a professional staff that regularly does liturgy on a stadium scale. Most telling, people went to the pope's funeral because they wanted to go, and in some cases dearly wanted to go. Many people treat Sunday Mass as an obligation. And it shows.
Latin was the vernacular for the dying half of a world empire when it overtook the use of Greek for Christian worship. Rome rightly abandoned the language of the New Testament to maintain the liturgy for non-Greek speakers in the West.
Today, we have near universal acceptance of the vernacular in the Catholic world. Say it true: we are not going back to Latin. Latin fits and works for these huge international gatherings. There it is appropriate. There it is suitable. There, it bears the weight of worship.
But for your average parish liturgy, Sunday or daily, don't lose focus of the essentials: praying and celebrating well. The papal funeral was beautiful. But it would most likely have been just as beautiful and almost as meaningful if celebrated in Italian. Latin is not a panacea for liturgical problems of modern parishes. But I agree with Mark that when done well, the best of the 1970 Rite and the reformed Order of Christian Funerals is at least equal to the best of the 1962 Rite. I certainly would add it is superior for our day and time.
