I'm including this video of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass so that people like me, who have never seen the old Tridentine Mass, know what it is like.
It's been a week and a day since Pope Francis put new restrictions on the use of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, after his predecessors Popes Benedict and Pope St. John Paul the Great having allowed for the expanded use. It's also been, therefore, a week of really extensive discussion among Catholics, or at least among those Catholics who pay attention to such things, which is quite a few. Generally, the reaction has been shock, to shock and understanding, to shock and angst.
The Pope's orders allow the Extraordinary Form to go on, but with much more in the way of restrictions at the Diocesan level. Bishops can choose to omit it entirely if they wish to. Most aren't, and in the US a lot of them gave immediate approval for those now offering it to continue to do so.
Beyond that, however, the likely result of the order will be the eventual elimination of the Trindentine form completely, as newly ordained Priests will require Papal approval to offer it and they are very unlikely to receive it, at least from Pope Francis. Why is that?
Well, while his actions were sudden, immediate, and came without warning, he made his opinions clear that in his letter. His action was taken as it was his concern that the Extraordinary From was a center of ongoing and perhaps even building resistance to Vatican II, and he was done with that.
And in fact, while I'd like to dispute his action, I feel he was basically right. I note that Catholic Answers host Cy Kellet, in his typical much more gentle way, essentially came to the same point of view, while also lamenting the action to some extent.
Kellet also noted, which would not have occurred to me, that when prior Popes authorized the Extraordinary Form they did not envision it going on forever. This is occurring in the Latin Rite of the Church, and there was now intent to have two rites within the Latin Rite. Just one.
I'm sure that's correct as well.
The old rite was allowed to continue as an accommodation to those who were attached to the old form, and frankly to try to avoid an outright schism with the SSPX. Pope Francis seems done with that as well and referred to those problems as a "schism", even though in later years it hasn't been regarded as one and Pope St. John Paul II was, if I recall correctly, very careful about formally declaring one in the hopes of avoiding one. What happens now with these groups remains to be seen. No healing of the rift is likely.
One thing that this has done for people like me, who have never seen a Tridentine Mass, is to expand our knowledge on the topic. And in doing so, at least in my case, and in the views of some others I've heard discuss it, it has expanded our appreciation of the current Ordinary Form.
The Ordinary Form, or Novus Ordo as it's often referred to, has features the Tridentine Mass does not. Those attached to the old form point out that there are prayers in the Tridentine Mass that are omitted in the Novus Ordo. That's true, but it's also the case that the readings in the Trindentine Mass never changed, but were the same year after year. In the Novus Ordo they do change and something on the order of 85% of the readings in the Bible, Old and New Testament, are covered over a four-year period. I was shocked, frankly, that wasn't the case in the Tridentine Mass.
Given all of this, frankly, Pope Francis was right.
Not that this means that the story we're dealing with here is really over. Pope Francis is old, and obviously not in the best of health. His papacy has been controversial with conservative Catholics, and he's gathered a lot of opposition in the pews and also with certain Bishops. To my surprise, Bishop Burke issued a statement questioning his ability to act on the Latin Mass as he did, which shows how deep some opposition is (I think there's very little question he can do what he did). Given his age and trends, long term, there's more than a little bit of a chance this action may see modification by his successors.
Whatever that may mean, it's also worth noting that some of the current turmoil that we're seeing came about not due to Vatican II, but the abuse of it's "spirit". The Novus Ordo, as we've already pointed out, wasn't really a product of Vatican II but came about in its era. That's often completely missed. Abuses occurred with the Novus Ordo that were never envisioned by the Papacy. And, as Kellet pointed out, the "alter rails didn't have to come out". In recent years there's been an effort to fix this and things have in fact dramatically improved in many locations. Sort of a symbolic, if not actual, restoration of the alter rails.
That trend is likely to continue.
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