Day's Links - 2014-02-25

The piece on the Tridentine Mass - mislabelled Latin liturgy since even the Novus Ordo is a Latin liturgy - certainly brought a lot of comments and the discussion is predictable.

All the debates I have seen regarding the Novus Ordo versus the Tridentine Mass essentially boil down to one pattern: The traditionalists praise the Tridentine Mass insisting that it represents authentic Catholic tradition (which it does) and that the Novus Ordo in its current form was never intended by the Second Vatican Council. The defenders of the Novus Ordo fall into one of 2 camps - either they say that the Novus Ordo can be performed reverently, or they say that they prefer it because it is easier to understand.

Really, the two groups are arguing about 2 different things. Nobody even bothers to seriously claim that the Novus Ordo is an authentic representation of our liturgical tradition so the Novus Ordo defenders concede that point from the outset. That the Novus Ordo can be said reverently is a good point, but still evades the central point on whether it represents tradition. So we are left with the 3rd point about whether it is easier to understand. It is, of course, unless one is a native Latin speaker, but that brings us to the central point of the Mass. If by understanding we mean linguistically, then the Novus Ordo folks have a point. However, the Mass is not a book, and it is supposed to bring us into contact with the divine, including divine truths. The fact that the best argument that Novus Ordo folks have for it is that it is more easily understood (by virtue of language) would seem to validate the point made by traditionalists that the Novus Ordo is dangerous, because by virtue of that argument, the Novus Ordo folks are conceding that the Mass is centred on the congregants, and not on God, and the fact that many people who attend the Novus Ordo then completely fail to understand basic Catholic understandings of the Mass (because these understandings are obscured in the new Mass) counts against the new Mass more than any theological arguments ever could.