Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Auxiliary Bishop Chris Coyne: I'm pretty sure it was still a valid Mass

Read this bit from Bishop Coyne. To summarize, he was worried enough about how the Mass was offered that he didn't ask the priest celebrant to hear his confession. His conclusion is interesting.


Every time people ask my why some in the Church have a desire for the "extraordinary rite," the traditional Latin Mass, I guess I can give them at least one good reason. Masses like this. When one attends the Mass according to the Tridentine Rite, you know what you are going to get. There is no one being 'creative,' no one making up their own prayers or rite, and no question of validity. I am a chid of Vatican II. From the time I was old enough to understand what was happening at Mass, it has been the Mass of Pope Paul VI. I have been formed in it. I have studied it. I love it. Out of it, I have been ordained a deacon, a priest, and a bishop to celebrate it for the people of God. I have no desire to celebrate the Tridentine Rite but any time I hear people criticize those who want the "traditional" Mass, I am more inclined to understand why they want this form of the Mass. Perhaps if each priest were committed to the correct celebration of the present Mass of Paul VI - the Church's rites and not the rite of Fr. X - then maybe there would be less clamor for the "traditional" rite. Just a thought.

It's a good theory. It should go without saying that many folks were driven to "traditional" Catholicism by disco liturgy. Whether or not things would shift if the Pauline Mass was treated with more respect by its ersatz defenders is a difficult question. I doubt very much you'd see the clamorers asking to go back to the OF. Would it slow down the number of folks hastening to the TLM? Perhaps.

More likely, a reverent OF would thin out a lot of disco parishes after the mass exodus of DJ Deacon-Rock and the Funky Bunch to the nearest parish that would let them get away with it. If that wasn't an option, I can see them leaving the Church altogether or setting up a schismatic alternative. That's the weird thing about this kind of liturgy. It's like a drug. People get addicted to their own self-importance in concocting and participating in these abominations. Once they are asked to decrease so that He may increase, it isn't fun anymore, and they seek out somewhere that will let worship be all about them again.

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