Letter to the Editor

Published: October 4, 2007

To the Editor:

I am writing this in response to Mr. Sterne’s letter in the Sept. 6 edition of The Georgia Bulletin.

I am 16 years old and a student at St. Pius X Catholic High School. My family has attended St. Francis de Sales Traditional Latin Mass Parish since its inception 10 years ago. I have also grown up in Catholic schools, where I am able to experience the Novus Ordo Rite. I enjoy the morning Novus Ordo Masses offered at St. Pius X High School, but I treasure the solemnity, reverence and piety I see in the Latin Mass at St. Francis de Sales.

You cannot compare the Latin Mass to opera; opera is a form of entertainment, while Gregorian chant is composed strictly for the Catholic Church. There is also a large time difference of the institutions of the two things. They are close to a thousand years apart.

With respect to the willingness and expectations of teens to attend a Latin Mass, I wonder whether it is not so much the language used to celebrate the Mass as much as it is the lack of faith formation. Why is it that so many adults believe that it is necessary to make the Mass more “entertaining” in order to coax teenagers to attend?

At St. Francis de Sales, there are many children and teenagers. We have weekly catechism classes for all ages, confirmation classes, adult enrichment classes and a thriving Scout troop. The teenagers at my church seem to have a deep love of the Traditional Latin Mass and do not mind at all praying the Mass in Latin.

Freely allowing the Latin Mass as Pope Benedict XVI seems to have done this summer is hardly an “eradication” of Vatican II. It is the “Extraordinary Rite.” It is offered at but a single parish in the archdiocese. The Ordinary Rite in English is offered daily at hundreds of parishes throughout Georgia.

Robert Q. Shaffner, Atlanta