Sunday, July 8, 2007

What's Latin for 'No one is happy?'



Pope Benedict XVI's revival of the old Latin Mass on Saturday doesn't seem to make anyone happy.

The pontiff is not trying to replace the New Mass (which is over 40 years old, but "new" in Roman Catholic Church years), but is making the Latin Mass available to priests who have a "stable group of faithful" who wish to go old school.

Italian bishop Luca Brandolini was quite unhappy about the Pope's announcement.

"It's a day of mourning, not just for me but for the many people who worked for the Second Vatican Council. A reform for which many people worked, with great sacrifice and only inspired by the desire to renew the Church, has now been cancelled."

It's not just members of the Roman Catholic community who are criticizing the move. The Anti-Defamation League called the move a "body blow to Catholic-Jewish relations." The League is concerned about a prayer from the Good Friday Tridentine (Latin) Mass for the conversion of Jews.

The old prayer goes like this:

For the conversion of Jews. Let us pray also for the Jews that the Lord our God may take the veil from their hearts and that they also may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray: Almighty and everlasting God, you do not refuse your mercy even to the Jews; hear the prayers which we offer for the blindness of that people so that they may acknowledge the light of your truth, which is Christ, and be delivered from their darkness.
The New Mass for Good Friday has the following prayer:

Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant. Almighty and eternal God, long ago you gave your promise to Abraham and his posterity. Listen to your church as we pray that the people you first made your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption.

The move to make the Latin Mass available is aimed at appeasing more conservative members of the Catholic Church, such as the one-million-member strong Society of Saint Pius X. But the group still needs to work out some doctrinal differences with the Vatican before everyone in the flock is satisfied.

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