The Old Rite restricted
In another defining moment of his papacy, Pope Francis has decided to discontinue the experiment of having two forms of the Roman Rite running in tandem
The decision by Pope Francis to tightly restrict the use of the Old
Rite was another one of his surprises. Although speculation had been
rife for weeks that he was preparing an intervention, no one had been
expecting a ruling that would so decisively overturn the provisions
offered to traditionalists by his predecessor, Benedict XVI.
Two
days after the 84-year-old Pope was released from Rome’s Gemelli
Hospital following surgery to remove part of his colon, he ordered the
publication of Traditionis Custodes (“Guardians of the Tradition”), a
ruling that reimposes the restrictions on the Tridentine liturgy which
had been in place for much of the post-Vatican II period. It makes clear
that individual bishops must give permissions for priests to celebrate
traditional Latin Masses; that these liturgies should not be in parish
churches; and that no new parishes specially dedicated to the older
liturgy can be established. Supporters of the Old Rite have reacted with
shock, sadness and anger, with many taking to social media platforms to
make their displeasure known.
The restrictions on the Tridentine Mass were controversially lifted by Benedict XVI 14 years ago. In Summorum Pontificum, Benedict allowed priests to freely say the Old Mass in private and whenever a “stable” group of believers requested it. He envisaged the two forms of the Mass in the Roman Rite existing side by side: the Old Rite, dating back to Pope Pius V’s reforms of 1570, which he described as the “extraordinary form”; and Paul VI’s reformed liturgy of 1970, known as the “ordinary form”. There were fears that Summorum Pontificum would deepen the division in the Church. The now Pope Emeritus made it clear back in 2007 that the extraordinary form celebrations must avoid “discord” and favour “the unity of the whole Church”. He didn’t want those attached to the Old Rite to denigrate the liturgy attended by most of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics.
In a letter to the bishops of the Church accompanying Traditionis Custodes, Francis explains that he has reimposed restrictions on the use of the Old Rite because Benedict’s warnings have been ignored. He writes that Summorum Pontificum, rather than enabling unity, had been exploited by traditionalists to injure the Church and expose it to “the peril of division”.
Fr Anthony Ruff, a Benedictine monk and liturgical scholar, told me the Pope’s ruling was “necessary”, even though some will find it difficult to accept. “It is an anomaly to have two forms of worship so different from one another that are supposedly, as Benedict XVI claimed, the same rite,” the associate professor of theology at St John’s School of Theology and Seminary in Collegeville, Minnesota, explained. “Everyone knows that they are really two different rites with differing theologies and understandings of the Church. This is not sustainable long term.” Fr Ruff pointed out that “there is no indication whatsoever” in Vatican II’s document on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, that the “unreformed and reformed rites would be in use alongside each other”, and Pope Paul VI, who oversaw the liturgical reforms, was clear that provisions for the Old Rite should only be given to aged and sick priests.
Last year, the Vatican commissioned a worldwide survey of bishops on the application of Summorum Pontificum, which, the Pope writes in his letter to bishops that accompanies the new ruling, revealed a situation that “preoccupies and saddens me, and persuades me of the need to intervene”. The concerns of bishops and others have been heard in Rome for several years: there are examples of parishes being divided when a new priest decides to introduce the use of the Old Rite. Traditionalists have also been getting permission (from a Vatican office that Francis has since suppressed) to use liturgical books that pre-date the reforms made by Pope Pius XII in the 1950s, something that Summorum Pontificum made no mention of. There was a sense that things had got out of hand.
Francis’ legislation puts a question mark over the long-term future of the Old Rite. It seeks to tackle a trend among some seminarians to start regularly celebrating the Tridentine Mass after their ordination. Traditionis Custodes requires newly ordained priests wishing to say the Old Rite first to seek permission from their bishop, who in turn must consult the Holy See. “Some younger clergy attracted by the aesthetics of the extraordinary form did not recognise the danger to unity which was inherent in starting such celebrations in a regular way,” one senior priest told me.
Of course, as the Pope realises, support for the Old Rite will not
suddenly collapse. Some people are drawn to its contemplative,
other-worldly spirituality, something I have witnessed in churches in
Rome and London. It can attract followers who yearn for the transcendent
in a world where everything is immediate or fleeting. A few weeks ago, I
went to a celebration of a traditional Latin Mass. The atmosphere was
prayerful and meditative, and the liturgy dignified. But then came the
homily. A young priest told the congregation that the views of ordinary
Catholics were “irrelevant” when it came to matters of Church teaching,
and he lambasted what he described as “incessant demands for doctrinal
novelty”. His words struck me as contrary to Vatican II’s description of
the Church as the “People of God”, while contradicting St John Henry
Newman’s classic statement from 1859 on consulting the faithful in
matters of doctrine. It didn’t just feel like I was witnessing a
different liturgy; it felt like I was attending a different Church.
“Many
faithful of a traditionalist mindset were given to hope that the
liturgical reform would gradually be rolled back, and to believe that
Vatican II could be questioned and eventually revised or even revoked,”
Fr Ruff told me. “They were misled. This mindset has taken root and a
parallel Church has arisen.” This is also the Pope’s concern. The issue
is not fundamentally about liturgy, the use of Latin, or whether the
priest faces the congregation or turns to face east during the Mass.
Papal liturgies regularly use Latin during the eucharistic prayers, and
Vatican II expected that while the use of local languages would be
introduced, the ancient language would be preserved. The issues at stake
concern the ecclesiology and ideology that often accompany the use of
the Old Rite, in particular the rejection of the reforms of Vatican II.
While Francis, like Paul VI and John Paul II, is making room for the
Old Rite to continue, he is reaffirming that Catholic groups wishing to
celebrate the traditional Latin Mass cannot reject the teaching of the
Church. The rejection of Vatican II crosses a red line. Francis has
described the council’s liturgical reforms as “irreversible”; as he told
a group of catechists in January, those refusing to follow Vatican II
“do not stand with the Church”. He has now gone a step further. “To
doubt the council”, he explains in his letter to the bishops, is “to
doubt the Holy Spirit himself who guides the Church”.
As Francis
once memorably remarked, “faith is not a thing of the past, like an
artefact in a museum”, but the nurturing of a living reality. He is not
denying the “grandeur and the dignity” of the Mass promulgated by Pius
V, but he points out that the liturgy has been “adapted many times over
the course of the centuries according to the needs of the day, not only
[to] be preserved but renewed”. The Pope’s view of tradition echoes
Jaroslav Pelikan’s famous formula: “Tradition is the living faith of the
dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”
Releasing
his ruling so soon after returning from hospital also sent a signal
that he is back in charge, and made it clear that the operation had not
removed any of his risk-taking boldness. It was notable that the text of
his ruling was released only in Italian and English, a recognition that
it is primarily in the Anglo-sphere where liturgical divisions have
become most pronounced. The “Anglo-traditionalist” followers of the Old
Rite have often been among those leading the opposition to this papacy.
The Francis pontificate has consistently looked to supporting the
emerging Churches in Africa, Asia and in the Amazon region. In these
places, the use of the older form of the Roman Rite has had little
impact. Rather than imposing one uniform liturgy, the effort has been to
establish forms of worship that speak of the mysteries of God to a vast
array of cultures. In 2019, for example, the Pope celebrated a Mass in
the Zaire Rite in St Peter’s Basilica, a Congolese liturgy that was
established as a result of Vatican II.
Liturgical reform is
fraught with difficulties and takes time. It sometimes requires
restraint, and sometimes firmness. Fr Ruff says bishops will need to be
“understanding, patient, and prudent” when applying Francis’ latest
ruling; and to ensure that all the faithful return to the reformed
liturgy of 1970 will “require great sensitivity and patience”. He says
it could “take years, perhaps generations”. Given the magnitude of the
task, Francis does not have time to waste.
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