"Our Churches will be empty"

Archbishop Albert Malcom Ranjith Patabendige Don is the newly appointed Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship for the Holy See. (Some of you may remember that he presented an address -- in absentia -- at the Fellowship for Catholic Scholars' September, 2006, conference on "Sacrosanctum Concilium and the Reform of the Liturgy" in Kansas City.)

Speaking to the I Media news agency in Rome (Jul. 13, 2006, CWNews.com), Archbishop Albert Ranjith, the Sri Lankan prelate, speaking of liturgical reform, said that "[the reforms] of the Council did not bear the expected fruit, because of the way in which they were interpreted and put into practice." Two extremes, he said, must be avoided: on the one hand, a liturgical free-for-all in which "every priest of bishop does what he wants, which creates confusion"; on the other hand, a complete abandonment of liturgical reforms, leading to a vision that is "closed up in the past." Today, he said, those two extremes are becoming more prominent, and the Church needs to establish a middle ground. Every day, the archbishop disclosed, the Congregation for Divine Worship receives new complaints about serious liturgical abuses, and complaints that local bishops have failed to correct them. If the Church fails to curb these abuses, he said, "people will attend the Tridentine Mass, and our churches will be empty." (emphasis added - source: "Archbishop Ranjith Again," Dominicanus, July, 16, 2006)

The original French interview: "Rome: Le Vatican entend réaffirmer le besoin de discipline liturgique"

Other quotations of interest from the interview (in English translation):

• "Cardinal Ratzinger himself ... has said that the abandonment of Latin and the orientation of celebrating towards the people was not part of the conclusions of the Council."
  
  
• "Each day, we receive so much letters, signed, where people deplore the many abuses: priests who do what they want, of the bishops which ignore this or even who make their priests [do these things] in the name of the `true renewal' We cannot conceal this. It is of our responsibility to be vigilant. Because, in the end, people will attend the Tridentine Mass and our churches will be emptied. The Tridentine Mass does not belong to Lefebvristes."

Dale Vree observes in one of his New Oxford Notes (NOR, Nov. 2006, p. 16) that the August/September issue of Catholic World Report, which reported the I Media interview with Archbishop Ranjith, stated that he supports the "reform of the post-conciliar liturgy," but neglected to mention the Archbishop's above-cited words -- probably, Vree speculates, because the CWR's editor, Fr. Fessio, "is not a big fan of the Tridentine Latin Mass."

Vree goes on to cite Kenneth C. Jones, Index of Leading Catholic Indicators: The Church Since Vatican II and cite statistics: before Vatican II in the U.S., Mass attendance per week was 70-74 percent; now it's ranging around 25-33 percent. ("Of course, this is a taboo subject," he admits.) In France, the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) with its Tridentine Mass, has greater attendance per week than the New vernacular Mass. Amazing.

Currently, one must still have an idult for the Tridentine Mass from the local bishop, which is seldom given, and, if it is, the Mass is often held in out-of-the-way places and at odd times. Nevertheless, says Vree, SSPX and indult Tridentine Mass orders are growing, while New Mass vocations are shrinking in the West as a whole. "Moreover, Tridentiners evangelize and have large families. You see which way the wind is blowing. It's one of the 'signs of the times.' How cruel for the Vatican II-niks!"