From the inimitable Msgr. Charles Pope:
A Modest Proposal
A few bishops in our country have adopted a stance that I think can help. It involves teaching the faithful and encouraging — but not requiring — priests to adopt certain practices designed to foster greater reverence, more solemn demeanor and increased focus.
For example, a few bishops have informed their priests that they may gradually reintroduce the ad orientem stance for the Eucharistic Prayer.
The same can be said for the gentle reintroduction of other pious traditions, such as kneeling for Holy Communion and receiving on the tongue, restoring altar rails, the wider use of Latin, and more silence.
It’s going to be a long journey. I realize that some who read this will say, “Why don’t we just admit that the Mass of 1970 was a failure and put everything back the way it was — now!” But that just isn’t realistic. The ordinary form is here to stay; more than 90% of Catholics attend Mass in the ordinary form. Parishes are diverse, and people have differing sensibilities. Within this complex reality, it is prudent to reintroduce things gradually and by way of offering more options. It is an important step toward loosening the grip of the liturgical police and permitting greater freedom to pastors and parishes under the guidance of their bishops who, I pray, will see wisdom in this gentle way forward. SOURCE
Notwithstanding that Msgr Pope recognizes that after 40+ years the “reform of the reform” has been a total failure: The once-hoped-for “reform of the reform,” wherein the ordinary form could retain advantageous aspects, such as the new lectionary and a wider use of the vernacular while benefiting from the reintroduction of a more reverent ars celebrandi, a healthy dose of Latin, wider use of kneeling for the reception of Holy Communion, and the ad orientem stance for the Eucharistic prayer, seems to have stalled.
Notwithstanding that the current supreme pontiff has specifically rejected these practices and has actually prohibited the use of the term “reform of the reform.”
Notwithstanding that the principal advocate of this approach, Benedict XVI, was able to accomplish absolutely nothing in this direction in the course of his pontificate.
Notwithstanding that the existence in Europe of selected but prominent churches (e.g., those of the Oratorians in the UK, major baroque churches and cathedrals in South Germany and Austria) that celebrate Novus Ordo liturgies which retain many of the trappings of the Traditional Mass has done nothing to prevent an even more rapid collapse of the faith there than in the US.
But on the bright side – and truly solid ground for hope: am I to deduce from Msgr. Pope’s remarks that he believes that up to 10% of Catholics now attend Mass in the extraordinary form? That’s an amazing shift in a little over ten years!
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I actually thought that was a pretty good article, but we still have too many cowardly bishops of the wrong generation to make it happen. Right now there are many young priests who would either offer the EF outright or even reintroduce traditional elements into the OF– if only the bishop would just quietly let them know that he had their backs and wouldn’t throw them under the bus or send them to diocesan Siberia if they did it. And just when I’m about to give up on the OF, I get to a really good one that reminds me that it can be done reverently and traditionally. Regardless of what I think, though, the traditionalists are going to win because they’re the ones reproducing and the bishops of 25 years from now will come from their ranks– because there won’t be anyone else. The heterodox side of the Church is in the process of imploding. The bad news there is that it is that 90% of the Church that Msgr. Pope references. It’s going to be the 10%, maybe 20% of the right that is going to have to sustain the rebirth of Catholicism. Fortunately, God doesn’t need numbers– just quality.
I am Traditional Catholic and I believe you are being delusional. The number of Catholics who attend the New Mass is not 90%, it is 99%. Even in countries with a little more of Traditional options like the US, it must be around 98%. In Latin America the Tridentine Mass is unexistent, a few chapels for more than 400 million Catholics, the same in the Philippines and Africa. What we need to do in the places where we have a relatively solid presence of Traditional faithuls its to try to have as many Catholics and non Catholics been encouraged to attend the Mass. Those people are our friends and relatives, they live around us. Lets try to invite every Sunday a friend or relative to the Mass, lets show them the beauty and truth of the Catholic faith. Its up to the laity, with Gods help, to bring the faith.
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