Thursday, July 05, 2007

A negative view of the Latin Mass

On the eve of Pope Benedict's Motu Proprio, it might be interesting to consider a negative view of the Traditional Latin Mass. Who do you think said the following?
[That the old Mass was] a lonely hierarchy facing a group of laymen each one of whom is shut off in his own missal or devotional book. [That it was] archaeological [and] so encrusted that the original image could hardly be seen ... [That it was therefore] a closed book to the faithful [and that this was why the liturgy had been marginal to many of the greatest Catholics, why the great mystics, like St John of the Cross and St Teresa of Avilla had drawn little or nothing of their spiritual nourishment from the Mass].
Those words, according to Eamon Duffy, were spoken before the Second Vatican Council by the same man who has written time and again of his deep love and nostalgic love of the liturgy of his childhood, namely, the young Joseph Ratzinger (see Eamon Duffy, "Benedict XVI and the Eucharist," New Blackfriars, Vol 88, Issue 1014, pp. 194-212. Duffy gives as his source for Ratzinger's remarks the following: John L. Allen, "Cardinal Ratzinger," Continuum 2000, pp. 73–5.). The article is worth reading.

[Hat tip to Sun & Wine.]

No comments: