On Religion: Pope Leo XIV Urges Proper Latin Mass as Path To Healing Liturgical Divides
(ANALYSIS) Early in the Mass, the priest — chanting in Latin — leads the congregation in a prayer of repentance.
The faithful respond: “Confiteor Deo omnipotenti et vobis, fratres, quia peccavi nimis cogitatione, verbo, opere et omissione," which in English is, "I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers (and sisters), that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do.”
Then everyone adds: "Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa" — "through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault."
This Mass is in Latin, but it's the basic Latin text for the Vatican II Novus Ordo, noted Pope Leo XIV in lengthy interviews with Elise Ann Allen of Crux.
A big issue in current conflicts, he said, is that "people always say 'the Latin Mass'. Well, you can say Mass in Latin right now. If it's the Vatican II rite there's no problem. Obviously, between the Tridentine Mass and the Vatican II Mass ... I'm not sure where that's going to go."
It doesn't help, the pope added, when Catholics witness "abuse" of the Novus Ordo. This offends those "looking for a deeper experience of prayer, of contact with the mystery of faith that they seemed to find in the celebration of the Tridentine Mass. Again, we've become polarized, so that instead of being able to say, well, if we celebrate the Vatican II liturgy in a proper way, do you really find that much difference between this experience and that experience?"
Pope Leo's call for celebrating the "Vatican II liturgy in a proper way" — including in Latin — “will strike at least some American Catholics as either pointedly ironic or frustratingly hypothetical, given the number of bishops who have restricted 'traditional' celebrations of the ordinary form, even those 'proper' according to the rubrics,” noted Ed Condon, editor of The Pillar, in a recent online essay.
If the goal is to heal "polarization around the liturgy," the pope needs to describe "proper" ways to celebrate the Novus Ordo, Condon added. But it "remains to be seen if those bishops who have clamped down on ordinary liturgical practices, or taken a relaxed view of liturgical abuses, will feel moved to revisit their positions in the light of the pope's words — or if the pope will do anything to actively encourage them to do so."
While Leo's strategy risks ambiguity, it's clear that he wants unity, unlike Pope Francis “who preached dialogue but in practice left room only for those aligned with his views,” noted Gaetano Masciullo, writing for The European Conservative.
The question is whether Vatican leaders can build unity between bishops who back Pride Masses and those who approve Latin Masses.
The new pope, Masciullo added, is trying to hold "within the Church both fire and water: the conservative cardinal alongside the most radicalized, gay-friendly and agnostic Jesuit.”
The cautious approach continued in discussions of LGBTQ+ issues. Leo affirmed that the church welcomes all as "a son or daughter of God," then added: "People want the church doctrine to change, want attitudes to change. I think we have to change attitudes before we even think about changing what the Church says. ... I find it highly unlikely, certainly in the near future, that the church's doctrine in terms of what the church teaches about sexuality, what the Church teaches about marriage [will change]."
Was the pope gently affirming tradition or showing an openness to gradual change?
“I am in the camp that thinks that Pope Leo, a Chicago native, is speaking in Midwestern," said theologian David Deavel of the University of St. Thomas in Houston, via email. "All these seeming hints at the possibility of change are not actually what they seem. Instead, they are the kind of laconic, polite 'no' that one would receive from the receptionist at the resort in Wisconsin or Minnesota.”
The question is whether “this is the wisest way of going about this. We know Leo wants peace in the Church. Will this kind of soft-spoken 'no' be taken as that of a loving spiritual father? Or will it be taken as passive-aggressive by those who think it's an opening to a revival of '60s liberal Catholic desires?”
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Terry Mattingly is Senior Fellow on Communications and Culture at Saint Constantine College in Houston. He lives in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and writes Rational Sheep, a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media.