Saturday, June 11, 2011

Archbishop Conti tells clergy: do not promote the Extraordinary Form of the Mass – there is 'no call for it' (Contribution)

Here is an extract from Archbishop Mario Conti’s Ad Clerum letter to to the priests and religious of the Archdiocese of Glasgow. 

It drips with contempt for the Old Mass and (in my opinion, at least) attempts to suppress the full and free application of Summorum Pontificum. (Conti has form in this regard.) 

Here is the relevant passage:
Some have argued that the options opened to those who hark back to the old Mass provide an example of how personal preferences can be indulged.
The Holy Father and those who advise him have decided to make the old Mass, the so-called Tridentine, or pre-Vatican II, more available to the faithful for pastoral reasons; that is something we must respect.
However, even with the most recent instruction from Ecclesia Dei, there is no requirement or indeed encouragement for any of us to promote the so called Extraordinary Form.
I venture to suggest that there is no call for it, or pastoral reason to change what has become the settled practice of the Archdiocese, which I read as contentment and indeed appreciation of the pastoral advantages of Mass in the vernacular, and in a form which is less mysterious than at least some aspects of what my generation can recall of the “old” Mass.
There is, and I now speak frankly, a difference between mysterious and mystery.
The mystery of the Mass is, to the wonderment of the priest and people, the presence of God in the sacrificial offering of the Body and Blood of His Son’s humanity, effective through the ministry of those called to be priests, ministering at the altar where the gifts of the faithful of bread and wine are laid.
The awesomeness of the holy exchange can be manifested in the way in which we celebrate the Mass, avoiding all that could triviliase the sacred, without any extravagant gestures, but on the contrary taking advantage of the rich potential within the rites themselves to enchance the significance of what we do by way of the dignity of our actions, the singing of those parts of the Mass which are marked for song and wearing vestments of noble simplicity.
Some thoughts.

1. The dichotomy between the “mysteriousness” of the old services and the “mystery” of the revised ones is more than a figment of Archbishop Conti’s imagination: it is a cheap rhetorical trick that insults many Catholics. The implication is that the faithful at the traditional services are being denied full spiritual participation by things they aren’t supposed to understand

Also, I can’t help thinking that John Knox would have admired the implied dig at the “hocus pocus” of the Tridentine Missal.

2. Archbishop Conti entirely misunderstands Summorum Pontificum if he thinks that it leaves the “settled pattern” of new and old Masses in his hands; rather, that pattern will be determined by those numbers of the faithful – however small – who ask for Mass according to the Missal of Blessed John XXIII. The Archbishop must accommodate them.

3. No doubt most Glasgow Catholics are contented with the New Mass. But, even if they weren’t, they would think twice before expressing a desire for an alternative. The behaviour of some of its senior clergy towards traditionalists is little short of bullying. It’s high time that Ecclesia Dei woke up to the flagrant disregard for the Pope’s wishes in Scotland generally.

4. I take it that the reference to “extravagant gestures” is a dig at the rubrics of the Old Mass. Again, a cheap jibe. Properly celebrated, the gestures of the Extraordinary Form are detailed and complex but also immensely dignified and discreet.

5. “Vestments of noble simplicity”? Is that a reference to the Star Trek Gothic favoured in many Glasgow churches? Incidentally, I’ve noticed that +Mario likes to squeeze himself into a purple-trimmed soutane complete with faschia, mozzetta and zucchetto. Noble simplicity indeed. In contrast, Cardinal Keith O’Brien is much more likely to dress as a simple priest with pectoral cross.

6. Presumably Archbishop Conti is trying to bind his successor to a minimalist, and probably illegal, application of Summorum Pontificum. I hope the new Papal Nuncio ensures that he is able to do no such thing.

7. Archbishop Conti’s snooty attitude towards the Mass of the Ages is typical of “conservative” control-freak prelates who favour “the reform of the reform”.

8. +Mario retires soon without a red hat. That was a decision of Blessed John Paul II, in one of many displays of his beatific wisdom.