Vatican grants a revival for old-style Latin Mass

Recently Pope Benedict authorized the return to the Latin Mass; an event, which many liberals within the Church fear may be an omen of even more retrogressive steps yet to be taken, and which ultimately may reverse many of the modernizations that were put into effect as a result of Vatican II. The Pope has opened the door to wider use of the Latin Mass by allowing priests to say the Mass without requiring authorization from their local bishop.

The Tridentine Rite, in Latin, was the official form of worship for Catholics until 1970, but priests had begun experimenting with the use of English translations about six years before that as a result of changes set into motion by the Second Vatican Council, which ran from 1962 to 1965.

From the point of view of church officials, the switch from Latin to English in the 1960s is one of the reasons an estimated one million people worldwide have left the Catholic Church.

"I find a greater spiritual awareness of the presence of God," one enthusiastic worshipper remarked concerning the Latin Mass. Scholars say the Latin Mass evokes a different set of emotions for many worshipers than today's Mass, which tends to be more informal and participatory. "There's something that's clearly religious and sacred about the old rite -- there's something mysterious about it, the sense of the holy, awe before something that's a lot bigger than you -- and a lot of people are unhappy with the way they are experiencing mystery in the current rite, which does not convey the same thing at all," said the Rev. John F. Baldovin, a professor of historical and liturgical theology at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge.

I find all of this discussion to be strikingly familiar. Over the past few decades, there have been more and more Hebrew prayers and songs re-introduced into the worship services of most Reform congregations. The new Reform prayer book which is soon to be introduced (but not at Sinai!) essentially is a Hebrew siddur. The justification for this trend falls along similar lines, i.e., that Hebrew is somehow more clearly religious and sacred than English. Apparently, when one recites the prayers in the vernacular, rather than in Hebrew or in Latin, the sense of mystery is lost.

Let's examine this proposition. If you were to attend Shabbat services at most Reform congregations these days, you would hear the congregation reciting and singing long passages in Hebrew. And yet, if you were to quiz the average congregant as to what the meaning is of that prayer that they had just pronounced, most would be unable to respond. And that's the problem. How can a prayer be an authentic prayer if the worshipper doesn't even understand what he/she is praying for? Would I prefer that more Jews become Hebraically literate? Of course, but that seems unlikely. The Reform movement was established on the basis of rational faith. The vernacular was adopted as the primary language of worship because it was believed that a worshipper should comprehend the content of his/her prayers. Furthermore, it is certainly our belief that God must comprehend all languages.

Those responsible for the introduction of so much Hebrew are of the belief that Hebrew is the authentic language of Jewish prayer and that anything else is a compromise. I simply cannot accept this premise. The intoning of Hebrew may sound or feel "more Jewish" but of what value is this, minus comprehension?

If Catholics wish to return to the Latin Mass, that's their business of course. Time will tell whether the re-introduction of the Latin Mass will draw disaffected Catholics back to church. As for Reform Judaism, I believe that the current heavy emphasis on Hebrew is actually in conflict with the core values upon which our movement was founded. From the very outset, we have held the conviction that worship is intended to instruct, to motivate and to inspire, not merely to feel good. To the extent that Hebrew acts as an obstacle to these objectives, it detracts from rather than adds to the significance of religious services. Hebrew should continue to occupy a sacred role in Reform Judaism, but it should not be the primary language of Reform Jewish worship.