ROME — A veritable “Who’s Who” of United Kingdon (UK) cultural and political bigwigs have written an open letter petitioning the Vatican not to ban the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM).
Responding to widespread and persistent rumors that the Vatican intends to thoroughly quash the TLM, the letter — which believers and non-believers alike signed — weighs the historic, spiritual, and cultural impact that the TLM has had and implores the Vatican “to reconsider any further restriction of access to this magnificent spiritual and cultural heritage.”
The more than 40 signatories of the letter, which was published in the Times of London Wednesday, include composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, historian Tom Holland, Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, human rights activist Bianca Jagger, opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa, interior designer Nina Campbell, fashion designer Paul Smith, actress Susan Hampshire, philanthropist Lady Getty, authors Antonia Fraser and A.N. Wilson, Princess Michael of Kent (a member of Britain’s royal family), cellists Steven Isserlis and Julian Lloyd Webber, conductor Jane Glover, sopranos Sophie Bevan and Felicity Lott, and pianists Imogen Cooper, Stephen Hough, András Schiff, and Mitsuko Uchida, along with nearly a dozen members of the House of Lords.
The letter presents itself as a successor to the “Agatha Christie letter,” a similar appeal made to Pope Paul VI in defense of the Latin Mass, which the Times published on July 6, 1971. That original letter was also signed by Catholic and non-Catholic artists and writers, including Agatha Christie, Graham Greene, and Yehudi Menuhin.
The “Agatha Christie letter,” which prompted the pope to grant permission for the celebration of the Latin Mass in England and Wales, contended that the ancient Latin rite has “inspired priceless achievements … by poets, philosophers, musicians, architects, painters and sculptors in all countries and epochs. Thus, it belongs to universal culture.”
This appeal, like its predecessor, is “entirely ecumenical and non-political,” the text states.
The “worrying reports from Rome” that the Latin Mass is to be banished from nearly every Catholic church is “a painful and confusing prospect, especially for the growing number of young Catholics whose faith has been nurtured by it,” the letter reads.
The letter goes on to describe the traditional liturgy as a “cathedral” of text and gesture, developing “as those venerable buildings did over many centuries.”
“Not everyone appreciates its value and that is fine,” it continues, “but to destroy it seems an unnecessary and insensitive act in a world where history can all too easily slip away forgotten.”
“The old rite’s ability to encourage silence and contemplation is a treasure not easily replicated, and, when gone, impossible to reconstruct,” it says.
A celebrating priest leads traditional Latin vespers at Rome’s ancient Pantheon basilica in Rome, Italy, on October 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, file)
Pope Francis’s love for diversity and inclusivity in all things appears to come to an abrupt halt when faced with the traditional liturgy, and, in 2021, he issued an apostolic letter, ironically titled Traditionis Custodes (“Guardians of Tradition”), in which he banned the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass in Catholic parishes and eliminated existing accommodations to priests who want to use the extraordinary form of the Catholic liturgy.
The letter reversed measures relaxing restrictions on the use of the traditional form by Pope Benedict XVI, who, in 2007, noted that many of the faithful continued to be attached with “love and affection to the earlier liturgical forms which had deeply shaped their culture and spirit.”
Pope Francis, on the other hand, seems to regard the traditional Mass with particular contempt, and, on several occasions, he has referred to those who prefer the traditional liturgical form as “backwards.”
For his part, Pope Benedict noted that Saint John Paul II had sought greater liturgical inclusiveness by granting the faculty of using the older form and “exhorted bishops to make broad and generous use of this faculty on behalf of all the faithful who sought it.”
Benedict declared that the Roman Missal promulgated by Pope Paul VI “is the ordinary expression of the lex orandi (rule of prayer) of the Catholic Church of the Latin rite,” whereas the older Roman Missal promulgated by Saint Pope Pius V “is nonetheless to be considered an extraordinary expression of the same lex orandi of the Church and duly honored for its venerable and ancient usage.”
Francis, on the other hand, asserted that the 1970 Roman Missal is not the “ordinary expression” but rather “the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite” (emphasis added). The exclusive ruling seems to eliminate the older form of the Mass as a legitimate expression of the lex orandi of the Church despite its venerable tradition.
Pope Francis (Stefano Costantino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The Vatican’s own website, however, states that “the Latin language still holds primacy of place as that language which, based on principle, the Church prefers, even though she recognizes that the vernacular can be useful for the faithful.”
The Vatican goes on to say that “Latin should be safeguarded as a precious inheritance of the Western liturgical tradition.”
The Code of Canon Law, which governs Church activity and liturgy, similarly stipulates: “The eucharistic celebration is to be carried out in the Latin language or in another language provided that the liturgical texts have been lawfully approved.”
John Paul II urged the continued use of Latin in the Church to maintain ties with its own history and traditions.
“The Roman Church has special obligations towards Latin, the splendid language of ancient Rome,” he wrote, adding that “she must manifest them whenever the occasion presents itself.”
Pope Francis has justified the reversal of the more inclusive approach of his predecessors by insisting that their pastoral kindness “was exploited to widen the gaps, reinforce the divergences, and encourage disagreements that injure the Church, block her path, and expose her to the peril of division.”
In his 2007 lifting of restrictions on the use of the older rite, however, Pope Benedict XVI wrote that his efforts had been “opposed on account of two fears,” one of which was “the fear that the document detracts from the authority of the Second Vatican Council, one of whose essential decisions – the liturgical reform – is being called into question.”
“This fear is unfounded,” Benedict replied.
The second fear, he wrote, was that “the possibility of a wider use of the 1962 Missal would lead to disarray or even divisions within parish communities.”
“This fear also strikes me as quite unfounded,” he stated, noting that “the two Forms of the usage of the Roman Rite can be mutually enriching.”
At that point, Pope Benedict went on to declare pointedly:
What earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place.
“The total exclusion of the new rite would not in fact be consistent with the recognition of its value and holiness,” he stated.
