Letter to the Editor from Marietta, GA

Published: December 2, 2004

To the Editor:

Denise Dale’s letter (The Georgia Bulletin, Nov. 18) regarding the Tridentine Mass is sincere but inaccurate. The reformed Mass of the Council of Trent was promulgated in 1570 and was not “the same Mass that nourished the saints for at least 1,500 years,” as she incorrectly states. The Roman Liturgy experienced a gradual and steady but uneven development from its origins in the first-century city of Rome until the Council of Trent. Beginning with over two centuries of humble worship in homes, Roman Christians eventually found their faith embraced by the Roman Empire. In this freedom, which began in the fourth century, the liturgy was able to expand and develop in public places and without restraint. Pope Leo the Great (+461) and Gregory the Great (+604) would probably feel very much at home with the reformed Liturgy of Vatican II. The liturgy during their lives expressed communal participation by all the faithful, a deep appreciation for the ministries of the people of God and the importance of the Church gathered hierarchically.

When the Fathers of the Council of Trent gathered to end the abuses of the Middle Ages, they recognized the importance of reforming the liturgy, encouraging believers to rediscover the liturgy at the center of their lives as Christians. They encouraged the faithful to receive the Eucharist each time they attended Mass, a practice far removed from the custom of the day. The Missal of Pope St. Pius V (1570) did its best to eliminate the abuses of the day and sought to reform the liturgy to its best ability. Liturgical scholarship, especially in the late 19th and early 20th century, which unearthed missals and sacramentaries unknown to the reformers of Trent, laid the groundwork for the reform of Vatican II, which sought to restore much older and traditional practices of the Eucharist which had disappeared during the Middle Ages (the General Intercessions, Concelebration, Communion under two kinds are just a few of these). The missal of Paul VI (1970) also sought to remove accretions and medieval practices and prayers that obscured and complicated the Roman liturgy, a liturgy traditionally marked by its simplicity and austerity.

I would recommend a simple study guide to the history of the Mass published by Liturgy Training Publications (Chicago) entitled “From Age to Age” by Edward Foley. It is unpretentious, easily readable, and corrects the misapprehension that “the Church has always done it this (my) way.”

Father Paul W. Berny, Marietta