While a showy storm of controversy has been raging two blocks from the site of the former Twin Towers in New York over the planned construction of the Ground Zero Mosque, another poignant and perhaps more significant loss in the struggle to maintain America’s Judeo-Christian identity has occurred on Cathedral Street in Baltimore, Maryland. On October 31, 2010, America’s first Roman Catholic Cathedral, in the first archdiocese of the United States, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated its final regularly scheduled Novus Ordo Latin Mass. Only one Mass in the Latin language in the Tridentine form will remain in the entire Archdiocese of Baltimore.Emanating from the Vatican, Latin is the language which binds the Church universally and inter-generationally.
The Latin Mass or Tridentine Mass is a common name for the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962. In nearly two-thirds of every country, the Mass was celebrated exclusively in Latin. It was in response to a decision of the Council of Trent that Pope Pius V promulgated the 1570 Roman Missal, making it mandatory throughout the Western Church to have Latin Mass. Only those regions and religious orders whose existing missals dated from before 1370 were exempt from this decree. After the publication of the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal, the 1964 Instruction on implementing the Constitution on Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council laid down that "normally the epistle and gospel from the Mass of the day shall be read in the vernacular." Episcopal conferences were to decide, with the consent of the Holy See, what other parts, if any, of the Mass were to be celebrated in the vernacular.
Homegrown Roman Catholicism is sagging in the United States, and the demise of Latin Mass is not helping. Numbers of Catholics have been dropping since the 1960s in the United States. Since Vatican II, Catholic enrollment has experienced a precipitous drop only buoyed by an immigrant Catholic population. Originally celebrated in the Greek until the fourth century, the Latin Mass became intertwined with Christian theology and priceless to Christian worship. The Latin liturgy needs to be reignited not extinguished. This historic tragedy is going relatively unnoticed due to a decline in Mass attendance and a creeping inculturation into modern America by the Catholic Church. But when juxtaposed with the erection of the Islamic Cordoba House near the focal point of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the waning of Latin in this particular spot is mournful. The irony lies in the geography and architecture. Designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, best known as the architect of the United States Capitol building, the Basilica sits in the colony in which the Maryland Religious Toleration Act of 1649 freed Catholics to practice their faith. Much of our Constitutionally-guaranteed religious liberty is derived from this Act. The muffling of Latin is symbolically and substantively a great loss to our nation’s heritage.
The abandonment of Latin tradition can be attributed to several concurrent factors. The percentage of Americans identifying as Roman Catholic reached a high point in the 1970s and 1980s. While nearly one-in-three Americans (31 percent) were raised in the Catholic faith, today fewer than one-in-four (24 percent) describe themselves as Catholic according to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of 2007 conducted by the Pew Research. These losses would have been even more pronounced were it not for the offsetting impact of Catholic immigration from Latin America.
The timing of this drop in Catholic affiliation corresponds chronologically with the latent effects of Vatican II. Vatican II, or The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, was the 21st Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and lasted from 1962 to 1965. The convocation sought to blend modern human political, social, economic and technological experiences with Christian teachings, harkening to the early Church Fathers and Scriptures as the font of Christian theology. The four main issues addressed were ecclesiology, scripture and revelation, governance and liturgy.
Most tangible for the laity in the pews were the liturgical reforms in both structure and linguistics. Greater lay participation in the Mass was the goal. Permission was therefore granted to celebrate most of the newly structured Novus Ordo Mass in vernacular languages. Novus Ordo was written in Latin, then translated into the indigenous tongue. Latin was no longer required, but this reform was not meant to render the old Tridentine Mass or even the Latin version of Novus Ordo nearly extinct in the United States. However, by 1988 less than 20 Latin Masses were being celebrated nationwide weekly. Today, few priests remain who are able to celebrate in Latin.
Latin again seemed a dead language. "It is the question of a dead language and a dying language. Every living language is a dying language, even if it does not die. Parts of it are perpetually perishing or changing their sense; there is only one escape from that flux; and a language must die to be immortal," as English writer G.K. Chesterton brilliantly pointed out. In other words, Latin in its death is the most appropriate language in which to celebrate the resurrection of Christ weekly. Yes, Latin of the ancients died with the fall of the Roman empire, but was preserved in the surviving monasteries and revived by Doctors of the Church like Saints Augustine, Jerome and Thomas Aquinas.
In July 2007, Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed this resurrection in Latin with the issuance of the document Summorum Pontificum which proclaims that every priest of the Latin Rite is free to offer the Traditional Latin Mass without special permission. Since then, a slow but steady reawakening has occurred and weekly celebrations are up to 380 across America. The Holy Father expressed his wish that there be at least one Mass in the Extraordinary Form every Sunday in every parish.
The Coalition Ecclesia Dei is ardent in its support of the Pontiff’s wish. They offer educational and promotional publications aimed at rekindling Latin worship. In a September 2010survey they asked, “If Mass were celebrated in Latin and Gregorian chant in its Extraordinary Form in your parish without taking the place of the ordinary in English, would you attend it?” Of Catholics who said that they are now present in Mass at least monthly, 43 percent said they would attend weekly, with 23 percent indicating monthly and 17 percent occasionally.
Fertile ground exists for consumption of Latin Mass, old or new. “It is good to remember that Latin is the official language of the Church and its use does contribute to the idea and reality of its universality. If it is done with simplicity and great respect, it contributes to a worthily celebrated Mass. It is furthermore useful if in the congregation a large number of nationalities are present,” says Dr. Zoltan Szabo Catholic violinist. This sentiment resonates with many orthodox Catholics. “For me, Latin means universality in the Roman Church. It is the 'official' language of the Church and when it is used in liturgy, it connects us with all Roman Catholics. It not only binds us to Roman Catholics here and now, but also to countless saints in the heavenly court whose holiness here on earth grew through the Latin Mass,” says Jeffrey S.J. Allan who writes Portus Secretioris a blog of Catholic meditations.
Latin died an earthly death, but has eternal life in Christian theology; and Christian theology in Latin. Christianity is congruous with natural law. The U.S. Constitution is the premier legal defender of natural law on earth. The U.S. Constitution is not a “living, breathing” document, but protects eternal life for natural law in its original intent. It is therefore fitting that we secure our blessings of liberty where two or more are gathered with prayer in the form of Latin Mass. E pluribus unum. Laudetur Iesus Christus! Or as we say in the vernacular, “Out of many, one. Praised be Jesus Christ!”
-Kelly Kathryn Llobet is a writer living in Baltimore, a veteran Navy spouse and a proud mother of five.
