I have been watching many of the inculturated Masses of Pope Leo in the various countries of Africa. There is an exuberance in how the congregation participates in the Mass especially the use of the body and various movements or ritual dances.
The music is exuberant too, but like so much of our folk and contemporary music imposed on the Mass here in the West, I am not sure how to judge or critique the appropriateness of this music even an inculturated African Mass.
Also, there seems to be a disconnect with an American Pope and His Holiness’ sober style of celebrating the Mass and the other elements of the African way of celebrating Mass. It’s eclectic to say the least.
But with that said, the Catholic Church, in both the east and the west has had and still has liturgical diversity. Most Latin Rite Catholics are very confused by the Eastern Rite liturgies and I have to say I am too, but these are beautiful.
And even in the Latin Rite there are various forms of the Mass from city to city in Europe and here in the USA we have the normal Ordinary Form Mass with all of its diversity not only from diocese to diocese but within the same parish.
And then there is the Anglican Ordinariate Mass with its United Kingdom cultural ethos.
But the epitome of European, yes, Roman inculturation of the Mass is the Tridentine Mass, often called the TLM or the Extraordinary Form of the one Latin Rite, with its two expressions, ordinary and extraordinary.
With all the various ways in which the Mass is celebrated in the east and west and especially its diversity in the Latin Rite, why in the Name of God and all that is Holy, is there a problem with the Tridentine Mass and ancillary liturgies.
Why is there a serious religious pathology in this regard?
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