Back to the future for Latin Mass, sort of

Joe Ratzinger decided yesterday to allow greater use of the Latin Mass in dioceses, where a congregation demands it. In a way, that sounds like a good thing because it may help stem a growing revolt within the Catholic Church in such far flung places as The OC and Bavaria where some rebel congregations have set up under the breakaway Society of St. Pius X. (There's also another well known "independent Catholic" church financed almost entirely by Mel Gibson -- I think you might know where this is going.)

This doesn't mean the Catholic Church is going back to all Latin any time soon and that's a good thing -- most of those from Generation X (mine) forward don't know anything about Latin anyway. But that's not what worries me.

Rather than use only the Novus Ordum, the Vatican II Latin Mass that later became the basis for the vernacular Masses used worldwide, Ratzinger has opted to also permit use of the Tridentine Mass. And the Good Friday service pre-1960 contains some very inflamatory language about Jewish people -- that they are "perfidious" and need to be "converted." Many Catholics, who oppose any dialogue with fellow Christians, let alone Jews whom they absolutely hate, will probably celebrate this retrograde move. Including Mel Gibson and his even more anti-Semitic father.

I am not one of them. I have no problem with voluntary use of Latin provided it's the Novus Ordum, not the Tridentine. (I discussed why here.) The Jewish people are God's Chosen People, not the accursed. They do not bear collective guilt for the execution of Jesus of Nazareth; only the Quislings of the Sanhedrin of the day, and the Roman authorities they sold out to.

If anything, ecumenism has been a positive force for Catholicism. I don't just mean via dialogue. It would have been unthinkable to hear Reformation hymns (such as Martin Luther's "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God") or Gospel music ("How Great Thou Art," to name just one) in a Catholic Church even 20 years ago, now it would be unimaginable not to have it. And many Protestant hymnals have returned the favour -- most include such Catholic classics as Cardinal John H. Newman's "Lead, Kindly Light, Amidst the Encircling Gloom."

And it's no longer a sin to be a friend to a Jewish person -- probably never was, actually, but there is no longer a stigma attached to the concept.

This announcement, in its present form, may be a huge setback and turn the Church into an "us against them" fortress. We have enough of that with Word-Faith evangelicals who scorn us as well as mainstream Protestants. We don't need something that will make things worse between Catholics and Protestants, let alone Catholics and Jews.

With all due respect to the Pope, the Tridentine is a relic of history -- a despicable history of church-sanctioned anti-Semitism that in part led to the Holocaust, and it's time to consign that form of the Mass to the trash heap once and for all. No matter what Mel Gibson thinks.

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