A Latin-lover's Dilemma.
Most of the church Latin I know I picked up from translating sexy poetry.
As I think about Pope Francis's recent Motu Proprio, Traditionis Custodes, and the Traditional Latin Mass controversy involved, I'm torn. On one hand, unlike President Joe Biden, I’m no fan of “On Eagle’s Wings.” I’ll take a proper Ave Maria over any contemporary Catholic hymn, on any given Sunday. About seven years ago, I began to chant regularly with a Gregorian chant schola. (Good Friday Tenebrae was four-hours long!) We used to meet at the appropriate hours to pray terce and vespers on weekends. I noticed, early on, when we began to chant at Mass, that many worshippers did not enjoy the Latin. These were almost invariably liberal or progressive Catholics who were old enough to remember when Latin Mass was a norm. For them, the incorporation of any Latin at all suggested perilous retrograde motion. The Catholic Church had come so far, had yet so far to go. And now, Latin? I received my first Holy Communion about two years after the conclusion of Vatican II, so my memories of the Latin rite are faint. I do remember preparing for first sacraments amid the excitement attending the Vatican II shift. The controversy about Latin Mass is not really about Latin Mass. Those who favor it are quasi-politically driven by a wish to negate what Vatican II purged and pushed aside. The TLM movement is, in a sense, a Trojan Horse in which a package of other conservative perspectives, preferences and political dispositions are contained.
When I began to chant Gregorian about eight years ago, I thought little of the problems bringing church Latin back might present. I found the Latin exquisite, transporting, quietly walloping. It was old enough, I figured, to be reasonably apolitical. I was wrong.
It's not just church Latin I love. My secular life is Latin-inflected too. I’m a lexicon-dependent poet who likes to translate Latin lyric poems. Most of the church Latin I know I picked up from translating sexy poetry and slogging through “baby Latin” drills in Wheelock and paragraphs about hoplites entering the village and such. Even today, forty years after I sat in Latin class learning about the "ablative absolute" — which I often catch myself using in poems — I see how Latin has wended its way into my composing, cognating and being. I only took one semester of Latin, ever. It was taught by my beloved friend and former professor, (the late) “Stein the Medievalist,” who remained my poetry coach for four decades thereafter. Most of the Latin I mastered, which isn’t much — I was never a great Latinist — I learned by working unofficially, with Stein, on my own, but with his help.
Pope Francis was recovering from surgery when he issued the Motu Proprio on Masses offered in Latin. It was a bold strike he knew he would alienate and even infuriate many traditional Catholics. In doing this, he also amended policy set by his predecessors, which is something pontiffs generally aim to avoid. Why did he do it? Pope Francis wants to hold the line on Vatican II. But nobody on any side of this conflict is thinking only about religion. Pope Francis is also thinking about politics. Via the Motu, Francis both staked a claim for the legitimacy of the Novus Ordo and issued a warning shot to neofascist church leaders.
Traditional Latin Mass goers want Mass in Latin, but they also yearn to return to the way things were, both within and without church, before the convening of the First Vatican Council in 1869. For many TLM -favoring "traditional" and orthodox Catholics, the Tridentine Mass is more a means than an end.
I noticed that the writer of an August 12, 2021 New York Times opinion piece written in defense of TLM, complained about balloons, guitars and "talk show" priests at Novus Ordo (new, more than five-decades old) Masses. This is a wink and a nod reference to the TLM “clown Mass” characterization which is familiar to anyone who follows Cathoic Twitter. The Catholics who call non-Tridentine Masses "clown Mass" - think nothing of deriding "cafeteria Catholics," of insisting that all Catholics should follow every Canon Code and (most) Catechism rules (those set before 1869?) to the letter, while reserving the right, for themselves, to proclaim their "hatred" for popes (as the author of the New York Times piece did), mock the Holy Mass, and deride the sacrament of the Eucharist. Even in 1869 mocking the Eucharist was a heresy.
On one level, this lack of reverence for the pope, the Mass, the sacraments makes sense. Extreme, weirdly elitist exceptionalism is a feature of TLM proponents. The rules are not really for them. The "traditional" Catholic movement may want traditional Catholic liturgies, but they may want traditional Catholic lifestyles even more. (Mel Gibson is a "trad" he built his own church on his private property. See "orthodox" Catholic Steve Bannon.) When it comes to the rules and regulations of Catholicism, the TLM crusaders want both traditional reverence from Catholics in general — and freedom from the rules. One might think of it as oligarchy-flavored Catholicism.
While in power, Pope Benedict XVI and "the pope saint" extended license to various traditional, fringe, groups which had been viewed as "schismatic" or perhaps effectively schismatic. Opus Dei, Legionaries of Christ and the Lefebvrists are a few examples. Some of these groups attend Latin Masses, but most of the aforenoted groups find the Novus Ordo acceptable. What these groups do have in common is that they are ultra-right politically. In the United States, they were invaluable in installing Trump. Traditional Catholics reject Pope Francis's teaching on the climate crisis. Some even believe it is best not to interfere with God's plans for the earth in this regard. They are anti-immigrant, and pro-greed.
When Pope Francis moved to rein in the Latin Mass liturgies, he was reminding the TLM set that they were once in formal schism. Under the new policy, Catholics desiring TLM don't lose the chance to attend Tridentine masses, but they lose some of the ease of having them without supervision.
What is interesting is that those seeking Tridentine Mass every Sunday are unlikely to do what other groups unhappy with the mainstream institutional Catholic Church do: rent a space, hire a rebel priest willing to break the rules, host their Masses. Aesthetics is a huge part of the Traditional Latin Mass zeitgeist —They like incense, exquisite statuary and reredoses, gem-encrusted tabernacles, pipe organs, gold monstrances, crucifixes, chalices, and ciboriums. This costs money. This is not a religious group that will be content to see Masses "offered" in people's living rooms and Protestant church basements. They are also after money. They are in it for the opulence and pomp. They want financial support from the Vatican.
TLM Catholics like many other "traditional" or "orthodox" Catholics want to see women wearing veils at mass; wearing dresses, not trousers; and working in the home, not outside of it. (Exceptions are made for their own special "girl bosses" who can elevate the "trad" brand and cause. E.g. Amy Coney Barrett). Traditional secular life, moreso that Traditional Latin Mass, may be more of a priority for many TLM crusaders. Futhermore, they don't just want traditional Catholic life for themselves, or even for just Catholics. They want everyone on board. They want Catholic law to shape secular, civil law. The long-term goal is integralism. We are already seeing this crusade play out in the public square in the United States.
TLM Catholics want clerics, starting with Pope Francis, to scale back their critiques of the avaricious, the polluters, the ultra-wealthy, the racists, the xenophobes, and the makers of war. (Mainstream Catholicism and “traditional” Catholicism, both, unfortunately, aligned in continuing to uphold other bigotries: e.g. misogyny, homophobia, transphobia.) They want a world governed by white Catholic and Christian men of European heritage. On a global level, the Tridentine Mass set has religious alliances with Russian, Polish and other orthodox churches. It is unlikely that these affiliations can properly be seen as strictly religious. (I’m thinking about Vladimir Putin, Steve Bannon, Pussy Riot … )
Pussy Riot: Prophets
My first thought, when I read Traditionis Custodes was: why shouldn’t people worship in the languages they favor? Why throw that gorgeous Latin baby out with the baptismal water? But the analysis is not that simple, because the controversy is only minimally about Latin. Pope Francis, who is old now, understands that. Fear of Catholic schism is in the air. The pope wants to hold on to the best of Vatican II.
Latin chant has played a critical role in my own contemplative prayer life. I sometimes even pray the Rosary in Latin, and when I’m not praying in Latin, I’m often trying to read/ translate R-rated poems by Catullus — which is also "holy." Because I love Latin so much, I understand, with my heart, why some Catholics object to the pope's Traditionis Custodes, by means of which he (Latin construction! See?) restricted the “offering” of the Latin Mass; but in my head I know that Pope Francis’s Motu was a much needed shot over the bow. Whatever else Pope Francis's legacy will encompass, his perspectives on greed, neofascism, climate injustice, white supremacy and the making of war, are sure to be prominent therein.
Latin was not the language of Jesus. It was the language of his executioners and occupiers. I might be a Catholic Latin-lover in extremis, but I would gladly sacrifice the melopoeic beauty of liturgical Latin for a Catholic Church more dedicated to the Christ, especially given that I, like any other Catholic (individual or group) always have the option of "going into my room" and praying. Even in Latin, if I wish.
Michele Somerville
August 13, 2021