THE GENIUS OF THE MASS IN LATIN AND GREEK IN THE LATIN RITE

As I watched the Papal Mass for “The Initiation of the Bishop of Rome as the Vicar of Christ and Supreme Pontiff”, I am grateful that at such a diverse congregation of nations, peoples and languages that the two primary languages spoken are Latin and Greek, uniting the East and the West. 

It brings me back to my little, humble parish of Saint Joseph Church in Augusta, Georgia where I was a member from 1960 to 1976, the age of 6 to 22. 

Although a civilian parish in the Diocese of Savannah, most of the laity were active or retired Army. Thus in the early 1960’s, we had war brides from Italy (my mother being one of them) as well as from Austria, France, Germany, Yugoslavia, Poland and other places in Europe. We also had a large community of Spanish speaking Puerto Ricans. We also had many Korean brides from the Korean War and soon to have many Vietnamese brides from the Vietnam War. 

The Mass we all attended was the Traditional Latin Mass. No language group had their own Masses isolated from other language speaking groups in the parish. We were all united by the Latin Mass. 

It wasn’t until about 1970 I think, that the Korean community in my parish grew so much that with the vernacular Modern Mass they sought a Korean priest to offer Mass for them in Korean. Thus they became their own Mass community separate from the other Masses in the parish.

What a joy it was, though, before the Balkanization of languages in our Latin Rite, to be with so many different nations, peoples and languages at our Sunday Mass in little old St. Joseph Church in Augusta, Georgia. What a cosmopolitan parish it was united under one roof and one Mass in our Risen Lord Jesus Christ.