Is Latin a “Sacred Language”? The “Iconostasis of the West”? A unifying, universal language? Or are we being fed a bunch of “Just So” stories? What attitudes might these “Just So” stories be inculcating? The Use of Latin While Latin...
Six weeks ago Pope Francis issued an Apostolic Letter called “Traditionis Custodes” (“Guardians of the Tradition”). When I heard the news and read the letter, my first thought was, “thank God.” In this essay, I want to explain why, and suggest...
A particular theme stood out among the comments on my recent article. Some critics claimed that the Vatican II liturgy downplayed sacrificial symbolism in the liturgy in favor of meal symbolism, and so is inferior to the older forms of...
Every three years, the Sunday Gospel readings spend a few weeks working through chapter 6 of the Gospel of John. The Year B Gospel readings mostly focus on Mark’s Gospel and so John 6 comes as a somewhat startling and...
“It seems as though we aren’t even part of the same religion.” Sometimes saying a thing enough times does make it true, and in his public response to Traditionis Custodes in a New York Times op-ed, Michael Brendan Dougherty makes...
By the time I became a Catholic on April 4, 1999, I was already immersed in the Tridentine Mass. Also known as the Traditional Latin Mass, the Mass of St. Pius V, or the Extraordinary Form, I loved the prayers...
The National Catholic Register recently published a blog post by Kevin Di Camillo, which argued that the “Traditional Latin Mass” shouldn’t be “silenced,” since a diversity of liturgical expressions doesn’t threaten Church unity. He writes: My liberal Catholic friends usually...
An area of contention and debate surrounding the state of the Roman liturgy today is sacred music. Many today will point out that Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, states, “The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as...
Pope Francis recently issued Traditionis Custodes, which restricts, but does not prohibit, the celebration of older forms of the Roman Rite. In his accompanying letter, Pope Francis explains that he is taking this action because the traditionalist movement has become...
A big mistake that some Catholics make is to think of the liturgy as clergy-centered. Honestly, it’s difficult to blame them—priests really do play a great role in liturgical celebrations. For example, without a priest, it is impossible to have...
When I heard that Pope Francis had promulgated a motu proprio reimposing restrictions on the celebration of the 1962 Missal (or the Vetus Ordo), my first thought was this was greatly needed and long overdue. My second thought was that...
In his post yesterday, Adam Rasmussen explained the theological and ecclesiological reasons for Pope Francis’s motu proprio, Traditionis Custodes. In the midst of all the controversy, there is much hope to be found in this rather bold decision. I don’t...
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