Editorial: And So The Liturgy Continues To Slip Away

Editor Sebastian Beckett Writes That Society's Influence On The Liturgy Continues To Grow, Further Increasing The Schism Within The Pews.

Laudetur Iesus Christus.

Last Christmas, in the former Catholic stronghold of Ireland, a group of young women, in hot pink, lime green, purple and aqua robes pranced around a nativity scene at the Christmas vigil mass.

Eamon Martin, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, stood by impassively while what looked like a mix of Irish dancing and jiving was the Gloria, an ancient prayer sung since the third century.

In Stark Contrast, The United States Bishops. Photo: CNS

In the age of 'inclusivity' each to their own, except worshippers who prefer the traditional form of worship developed over 1500 years. However, their love of traditionalism will not be tolerated, they have been told.

The dancing spectacle, which has gone viral in Church circles, was a world away from traditional Latin mass parishes on the same night. There, in the darkened, candlelit church, as a prelude to carols and midnight mass, an ancient ritual, Christmas Matins, was chanted.

The psalms and readings, some of which dated back to the time of King David, 1000 years before Christ, exuded calm solemnity and transcendence. "Come, let us praise the Lord with joy; let us joyfully sing to God our saviour. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make joyful noise to him… For the Son of God, when the fullness of time was come, which had been fixed by the unsearchable counsel of God, took upon Him the nature of Man, that he might reconcile that nature to Him Who made it."

Most of the traditional Mass participants were in their 20s and 30s. It felt timeless, a bridge to shrug off the busyness of the holidays, tuning minds and hearts to the sacred mysteries and celebrations to come.

One said, "As a newcomer, I could see why it has withstood the test of centuries. The Latin translation was easily followed in a booklet. But Latin is not the main point. What mattered was the gravitas and otherworldliness of the words and rituals."

It is not everybody's taste. Nevertheless, neither is modern liturgical dancing. Why not live and let live if communities are welcoming to newcomers, tolerant of other forms of worship and wish to do no more than worship in churches, built and funded by their families for generations, to pray in the rite developed over 15 or more centuries. So why is modernism tolerable but not tradition?

A few days ago, The Times' Philip Wilan reported that Marco Politi, one of Pope Francis's biographers, had referred to the "the civil war going on inside the Catholic Church". Opposition to the Pope's reforms, Wilan wrote, had coalesced around the Latin mass, among other issues. The Pope, he wrote, was "at times grim-faced as he stood on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica for his Christmas blessing. He has had no respite from his ideological battle against conservative enemies, even as Christians around the world pause in the season of goodwill."

Many of those packed into the church I attended believe they are under an existential threat to the Mass and services they value. "Will this be our last midnight mass?" one young man wondered. Others ask why freedom of religion, central to the Second Vatican Council, is afforded to everyone else but them. Why has the Church reneged on commitments made by Pope Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI to respect their aspirations?

The battle lines are drawn. The push by Pope Francis and his clerical bureaucrats to 'cancel' the Latin mass has made it a far more significant issue than before, and the row has drawn new adherents. As a result, it is shaping as an issue in the next Conclave.

Suppression will ultimately prove futile, US priest Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla wrote last week, questioning whether the Pope and his curia had the legitimate authority "to cancel that memory that is at the heart of tradition". The Church that eventually emerges from the battle could look very different.