Home News Tribune Online 10/14/06
By KEN TARBOUS
STAFF WRITER
"In nomine Patris."
"In the name of the father."
Catholics could start hearing more of such phrases if Pope Benedict XVI decides to allow wider use of the old Latin Mass throughout the church.
But in Central Jersey there is little demand for the 16th-century Mass, said Monsignor Michael J. Alliegro, the diocese's director of the office of worship and pastor at St. Bartholomew's R.C. Church in East Brunswick. The Latin Mass is celebrated only once a month in the Metuchen Diocese, on the fourth Sunday of each month at the Shrine Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in Raritan, with 30 to 50 people, mostly older Catholics, attending.
Rumors have been floating around since the pope's election 18 months ago that he would act to give general permission for priests to use forms of the Latin Mass, also known as the Mass of Pius VI and popularly called the Tridentine Mass, Alliegro said Thursday. A news report this week quoted an unnamed Latin official as saying that the pope would soon issue a decree on the subject.
The 1962 version of the Latin Mass, which includes revisions by Pope John XXIII, was replaced in everyday use by the New Mass, or Novus Ordo (New Order), around 1968, after the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65, he said.
"(Latin) Mass can be celebrated, but it needs specific permission of the local bishop," Alliegro said.
In the Latin Mass, the priest has his back to worshippers as he faces the altar, with more ritualized service in which the priest praying silently or in a low voice with little or no participation from those in attendance.
In the new Mass, the priest faces the congregation, lay readers and modern music are included, and the new form presupposes more participation by members of the church.
The Latin Mass in its traditional form takes about 30 minutes, whereas the New Mass takes closer to an hour.
But one barrier to use of the Latin Mass is that most people, including priests, don't understand Latin, Alliegro said.
"Probably, today there are only a handful of priests who can do that (Mass)," Alliegro said. "That's the piece that people are forgetting."
In the Metuchen Diocese, Mass is regularly celebrated in 11 languages: English, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Korean, Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese, Hungarian, Slovak, and Italian.
Most of the drive for pushing the Latin Mass back into the forefront of the church repertoire has been emanating from European Catholics.
Linda Mennella, 59, of Milltown remembers when the Latin Mass was a regular fixture of Sunday visits to her Catholic Church.
"I think it stinks. We didn't understand anything," Mennella said.
She doesn't believe Mass in a language virtually no one speaks fits in the United States, and she doesn't relish the thought of going back to the old ways.
"They changed so many things," she said.
Nancy Messina of South Brunswick thinks bringing back the Latin Mass would be counterproductive.
"It's ridiculous," she said. "I need to go to church to understand what's going on to grow closer to God."
Young people have lost the respect and understanding that the church is Jesus' home, she said.
Monsignor Donald M. Endebrock at St. Joseph R.C. Church in Carteret, who celebrates the Mass in Raritan, said the older Mass was more contemplative and got across the idea that something very special was happening.
"There was much more in the way of reverence shown to our Lord and the Blessed Sacrament (the Eucharist), because there were many more genuflections, now they're minimum," Endebrock said. "You get back to a mode of saying Mass that, I think, would help toward restoring a dignity to the Blessed Sacrament which has been kind of lost in recent years."
The old Mass was very much planned with the priest's actions the same from parish to parish, extending a sense of certainty and comfort.
Some old-timers say going to church a real spiritual experience, where everything was quiet, and even a bit mysterious, Endebrock said. But much of that aura has disappeared. Today, Masses can sometimes be filled with distractions, like balloons or clowns, he said.
But Endebrock said Pope Benedict's decree, if there is one, won't change the church.
"The Mass itself, from a Catholic viewpoint, whatever rite is said, is the same thing whether it's the old Latin Mass or the New Mass," Endebrock said.
Mike Gigilio, 34, a Rutgers University student who said he has left his Catholic upbringing behind in favor of personal spirituality, said although the old Mass wouldn't draw him back to the church, he liked the idea of hearing Latin.
"It would be kind of cool," he said.
