Your Parish Can Have Latin Masses

By Michael J. Cummings

Catholics who prefer Latin masses take heed. The Vatican permits your pastor to schedule them anytime without special permission.

What’s the catch? This: the mass must be an approved translation into Latin of the post-Vatican II modern version. Such a translation is available in Roman missals sold online and in bookstores. So are booklets for the congregation to follow along.

The modern version, called the Novus Ordo Missae (new order of the mass) is now said worldwide in the language of a country or region. For example, English predominates as the language of the modern version in the U.S., although the language may be Spanish in parts of states with large Hispanic populations. French is the main language of the modern version in most parts of Quebec, Canada, which has a large French-speaking population. However, English is the main language in other provinces. In India, the people can attend the Latin Novus Ordo translated from native languages.

Pope Paul VI approved the modern version in 1968 after its authorization by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council when it convened in Rome from 1962 to 1965. According to Wikipedia, the council declared,

The rite of the [old] Mass is to be revised in such a way that the intrinsic nature and purpose of its several parts, as also the connection between them, may be more clearly manifested, and that devout and active participation by the faithful may be more easily achieved.

The Vatican introduced the Novus Ordo in November 1969 for parishes throughout the world to replace the traditional Latin mass. Shortly thereafter, some Catholics began lamenting the replacement of the old mass with the new version.

Over time, disenchanted Catholics—including some priests— petitioned the pope to approve reinstatement of the traditional, pre-Vatican II mass with its original language and liturgy. Here are some of the ways the traditional Latin mass (TLM) differs from the Novus Ordo:

1. In the TLM, the priest and the congregation face the altar during the mass, a position called ad orientem (to the east), suggesting symbolically or literally that it indicates everyone is facing the tabernacle and God. In the Novus Ordo the priest faces the people (versus populum) during the mass.
2. The wording of prayers differs. For example, after the priest blesses himself in the opening of the TLM, he says, “Introibo ad altare dei” (“I will go in to the altar of God”). The altar server replies, “Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam” (“To God who gives joy to my youth”). In the Novus Ordo, the priest blesses himself and says, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” The congregation replies, “And with your spirit.”
3. In the TLM, it is the altar server who responds to the priest. The congregation remains silent. The server always replies in Latin.
4. The TLM requires everyone to genuflect before the tabernacle when passing from one side of the church to the other. In the Novus Ordo, people bow before the tabernacle.
5. There is more kneeling in the TLM but more standing in the Novus Ordo.
6. There is no kiss of peace or handshake in the TLM. (Critics of the new mass say the addition of this practice distracts congregants from concentrating on God. They also say that it increases the possibility of passing an infectious disease from one person to another.)
7. Communicants kneel at a railing in the TLM to receive the Eucharist as the body of Christ on the tongue. There is no distribution of the Eucharist as the blood of Christ (in a chalice). In the Novus Ordo, congregants proceed to the front of the church to receive communion in a hand or on the tongue. In many churches, they may also receive the blood of Christ from a chalice containing consecrated wine. Critics of the Novus Ordo say communion in the hand increases the possibility that the communicant will drop the sacred host or save it for a vile purpose, such as a satanic rite.
8. Hymns and sung parts of the mass are in Latin.

There are other differences. They center on the arrangement of the parts of the mass, readings, and prayers.

Current Vatican rules permit any Catholic church to celebrate the Novus Ordo in Latin. However, the mass must retain the kiss of peace, versus populum orientation, and other changes made after Vatican II.

The Vatican frowns on efforts to reestablish the TLM as the prevailing version of the mass. However, priests can still celebrate it on occasion, but they must obtain permission from their diocesan bishops to do so. There is no guarantee that the bishops will grant it.

Efforts to bring back the traditional mass for daily and Sunday services have spawned roiling controversy in the 2020s. The Vatican believes that the Novus Ordo better serves the spiritual needs of all Catholics. However, many Catholics—including young people who think the old Latin mass better conveys a sense of the sacred—insist that the traditional Latin mass is the superior version. They argue that it should be a Vatican-approved alternative for Catholic parishes everywhere without the requirement of special permission.

Meanwhile, parishes that wish to hear their walls echo with the sounds of Latin may do so with translations of the Novus Ordo.