Latin Mass Is Problem for Conclave

As the cardinals of the Catholic Church go into conclave to elect the next pope, many of them are reading a dossier that lists the statements their brother cardinals have made on climate change, allowing women into the diaconate, and the status of the Latin Mass. It’s that last one that sticks out like a sore thumb. The last two papacies have found themselves partly consumed by the issue of the church’s form of worship and whether it’s permissible to use the books from 1962 or before. This concerns a tiny minority of Catholics, and yet, in some ways, it is symbolic of the biggest debate in the church.

Only about 4 percent of American Catholic parishes offer the traditional Latin Mass. And America is the country where the traditional movement is strongest. Latin Mass enthusiasts have been a tiny minority ever since the church adopted the new, vernacular liturgy in 1970. And yet, traditionalist Catholics have always punched above their weight in politics and the arts. William F. Buckley Jr., Patrick Buchanan, and Antonin Scalia in the conservative movement; English writers like Evelyn Waugh and Piers Paul Read; wild-man actor and auteur Mel Gibson; and so many artists (even non-Catholics) have expressed their devotion to the Roman Rite as it was, dating back to the original Agatha Christie intervention in Catholic liturgical debate or its sequel which featured Bianca Jagger and A. N. Wilson.

As the cardinals of the Catholic Church go into conclave to elect the next pope, many of them are reading a dossier that lists the statements their brother cardinals have made on climate change, allowing women into the diaconate, and the status of the Latin Mass. It’s that last one that sticks out like a sore thumb. The last two papacies have found themselves partly consumed by the issue of the church’s form of worship and whether it’s permissible to use the books from 1962 or before. This concerns a tiny minority of Catholics, and yet, in some ways, it is symbolic of the biggest debate in the church.

Only about 4 percent of American Catholic parishes offer the traditional Latin Mass. And America is the country where the traditional movement is strongest. Latin Mass enthusiasts have been a tiny minority ever since the church adopted the new, vernacular liturgy in 1970. And yet, traditionalist Catholics have always punched above their weight in politics and the arts. William F. Buckley Jr., Patrick Buchanan, and Antonin Scalia in the conservative movement; English writers like Evelyn Waugh and Piers Paul Read; wild-man actor and auteur Mel Gibson; and so many artists (even non-Catholics) have expressed their devotion to the Roman Rite as it was, dating back to the original Agatha Christie intervention in Catholic liturgical debate or its sequel which featured Bianca Jagger and A. N. Wilson.