In some ways I am glad I am retired. I don’t have to contend with providing Mass for every major language group in my parishes.
Let me be clear. My formative years as a Catholic took place in a diocesan parish in Augusta that catered to active and retired Army families. We were very diverse because of war brides. We had Italians, the best country, then we had Germans, Filipinos, Puerto Ricans, Panamanians, French, Koreans, Japanese and Vietnamese. When the Mass was the TLM, we all were together. We didn’t go to different language Masses with those who only spoke our language. We were together!
I am not opposed to inculturation. But that should take place in devotions and piety apart from Mass. Every country prior to Vatican II had culturally oriented devotions, either private or public. These were strong and satisfying as most devotions were prayed in the vernacular of the people and with their own pieties and ways of praying
Mexicans, as we know, have a wonderful tradition of private and public devotions, especially surrounding Our Lady of Guadeloupe.
These don’t need to be dragged into the Mass.
And this is really novel for the modern local parish. Let’s have Mass in a dead language, so no living language is given superiority over other languages spoken locally! And even more novel, let that language be Latin, with a small smattering of Greek and ancient Hebrew.
But let private and public devotions, never dragged into the Mass, be inculturated and in the vernacular of those who celebrate it.
How novel!
5 comments:
Spot on! But the slugs in the clergy would never go for this
Sign me up!
Father, you are division!
Besides the sheer intolerance of your suggestion it has deep suggestions of antisemitism, homophobia, anti LGBTQ sentiments, white supremacy and outdated western linear thinking.
Thank God we have the FBI keeping tabs on sleeper cells of antirevolutionary violence in our churches and the instigators like YOU who encourage this hate.
And I especially thank God for our exemplary, honest, GOOD CATHOLIC president who is using his moral and intellectual superiority to protect the rest of us.
Pax,
Jerome,
The Israelites in OT times had their famous word “shibboleth” to detect real or perceived threats from outsiders or infiltrators…
My uncle, Fr James ………, retired priest and author, aged 88, who I still make use of, instead of Google, as a living person with almost a theological dictionary lodged in his memory……has suggested a number of possible modern “shibboleths” that a TLM group or TLM individual could use to detect an outsider, with malevolent intent, attempting infiltration to gather information on your typical American TLM Catholic male, who, as such intellectual and moral giants as Biden, Pelosi and Garland rightly know, is not only intellectually, morally and emotionally rigid, warped and immature etc but is a threat to national security wanting a return of the death penalty for such offences as military personnel who engage in sodomy or annoying eccentric old crones with cats …and the return of the practices of French medieval villagers (such as and including hurling stones at Jewish neighbours on Good Friday) and so on…….is to such suspect new member either request he correctly pronounce Lamentabili or Lefebvre or Pascendi or thrust a brown scapular in his face and shout “in 20 words or less” explain what this is !
In the Eastern Byzantine traditions, the liturgy is the liturgy. It does not belong to us nor is it to be altered on a whim. We pride ourselves for being good stewards and adherents.
Inculturation, to the extent that it exists, occurs outside of liturgy. This includes the use of hymns.
Differences in practice, Russian Orthodox/OCA to Byzantine Ruthenian (I'm thinking Vespers for Good Friday and Matins for Holy Saturday) are more driven by regional differences than culture.
The above said, the common parts of Mass should be in a unified language as the Council intended. Then, readings could be in the venacular where possible. Then, cultural items could occur outside of Mass or, during if a place is available for such a possibility - with us, after the Ambon Prayer is a possibility however, greatly limited to preserve the resurrectional sanctity of Sunday, if on Sunday.
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