I don’t really have a dog in this fight, but on some level it is good to see that Pope Benedict XVI has removed the restrictions on performing the old Latin Mass in Catholic Churches:
VATICAN CITY, July 7 — Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday removed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass, reviving a rite that was all but swept away by the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
The decision, a victory for traditional, conservative Roman Catholics, came over the objections of liberal-minded Catholics and angered Jews because the Tridentine Mass contains a prayer for their conversion.
Benedict, who stressed that he was not negating Vatican II, issued a document authorizing parish priests to celebrate the Tridentine rite if a “stable group of faithful” requests it. Under Vatican II rules, the local bishop must approve such requests — an obstacle that supporters of the rite said had greatly limited its availability.
“What earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us, too,” Benedict wrote.
And, quite honestly, even when I did attend Church on a regular basis, the vernacular Mass of Vatican II just didn’t have an air of, well, divinity about it…..especially when you added in guitars and folk songs. Going back to what worked for centuries may not be a bad idea after all.
