ARTICLES
JANUARY 2005 ARTICLES
Contents © 2005
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
All That Frippery
Wanted: A "Liturgical Parish"
BY CHARLES A. COULOMBE
Judging by the latest documents on the topic from the Holy See, liturgical life in the Church is somewhat less than ideal. The Congregation for the Divine Liturgy and Discipline of the Sacraments has called for both new, accurate translations of the text of the Mass from Latin into the vernacular (Liturgiam authenticam, May 7, 2001), as well as an end to sundry liturgical abuses (Redemptionis Sacramentum, April 23, 2004). If the competent authorities, charged by the pope with supervising the liturgy, are to be believed, the liturgical picture seems rather bleak.
Despite the unpleasant situation the Roman documents suggest, there are parishes here and there, usually in the center of some of our larger cities, which can only be described as "liturgical parishes" for the faithful adherence to the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.
Do we have any such "liturgical parishes" in Southern California?
To answer this question, we need to examine more closely the character of such parishes. These favored locales are generally in older, historic churches, which have retained their architectural integrity. High and side altars, altar rails, and central tabernacles are all intact; statues and pictures remain. This physical plant is necessary for the nature of the liturgy that is offered in these places. There will usually be a Latin Mass with Gregorian Chant at least once on Sunday; often, but not always, the local Tridentine indult Mass will be housed there. A few places, like St. Agnes in St. Paul, Minnesota, will offer orchestral Masses, such as those written by Mozart or Gounod. The rubrics are adhered to quite strictly, even at English liturgies; often the Mass will be said ad orientem, that is, facing the tabernacle.
Many features of the liturgy, abandoned in most churches, are retained in liturgical parishes. The inevitable schola cantorum will rehearse frequently and play a big part in the lives of the faithful. A liturgical parish will revel in processions: Rogations, Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart, Christ the King, and so forth. There will be May crownings, sung Vespers on Sunday, and the like; and devotions are many: Eucharistic adoration, benediction, rosary, novenas of various kinds, and so on. The pastors of these places encourage frequent confession so that Sacrament may often be found on days of the week other than Saturday.
Such parishes tend to lay great store on orthodox catechesis. If they can have a school, they will; but there will be many courses and classes for adults, children, and adolescents. Typically, the laity are much involved in various organizations, from the altar guild to the Holy Name and St. Vincent de Paul Societies; in contrast to many other parishes, however, the proportion of parishioners involved tends to be much larger.
To be fair, this kind of parish with a High Mass every Sunday and deep involvement in the everyday life of the congregants was not that common before the Second Vatican Council. But back then, the liturgical parish was seen as a kind of role model for other parishes to aspire to. Today, such places usually seem to be embattled outposts, hanging on despite their bishop's tacit disapproval or, at best, his cold tolerance.
While most major cities can boast at least one such church, what of our own archdiocese of Los Angeles? There were a few in years gone by. St. Philip's in Pasadena, under the guidance of Monsignor William North, always enjoyed a Latin High Mass on Sunday, into the 1980s. More recently, St. Denis of France, Diamond Bar, although a recent construction, fit the bill in very many respects. But perhaps the closest candidate was St. Timothy, near Century City. When Bishop John Ward was pastor, every Sunday saw a Latin Novus Ordo. Although a Latin schola was hired twice a year or so, most of the time the chant was performed by the congregation, as envisioned by the liturgy decree of Vatican II. Parishioners sang from Jubilate Deo, the small manual of simple chants issued by Paul VI and intended by him for use in every Latin-rite parish throughout the world.
After Roger Cardinal Mahony became archbishop, these three places were rather rapidly snuffed out. Could any parish in the archdiocese today be considered liturgical, in the sense described here? The closest candidate would be St. Victor's, West Hollywood, as a look at the parish's website will show. But the parish suffers from two drawbacks; rightly or wrongly, it is much more associated in the public mind with gay ministry than orthodox teaching or Roman liturgy; and its architecture is stark and modern (though former pastor, Monsignor George Parnassus, spent much of his own money on artwork for the church). At the moment of writing, however, Los Angeles has no place to compare with Detroit's Assumption Grotto or Chicago's St. John Cantius.
Is this much of a loss for the archdiocese, however? Is it important? I asked two local clerics for their opinions on the matter. Both priests asked to remain anonymous. Nevertheless, in separate interviews, I asked Father L. and Father Q., both of whom are very knowledgeable in such fields as liturgy and canon law, the same question: does the archdiocese need a liturgical parish?
Fr. L. said, "absolutely. Of course, we have a problem here that predates the [Second Vatican] Council. The Irish who came to this country, although very faithful people and orthodox in belief, had, because of their history in Ireland, lost their liturgical sense; they had gone from the intricate ritualism of the early Celtic Church to a preference for a very simple, 'low' kind of liturgy. They tended to look at the Mass in a very pragmatic, matter-of-fact kind of way and were leery of what they saw as an overemphasis on the liturgy: they saw High Masses and all that as 'frippery.' As a result, it was primarily the parishes of Central European and other ethnic groups who worked hard to offer the liturgy in its fullness. And this is a difference you still see today.
"But [liturgical] parishes are essential if the Church in a given place is to thrive," continued Father L. "They show forth the Catholic life in all its integrity. It is not only a question of orthodox doctrine but of integrating all elements of the Faith -- doctrinal as well as cultural -- into an organic whole. As Vatican II says, Catholic life flows from and returns back to the liturgy, which is both its fruit and summit. Nowhere will you see this demonstrated better than in the kind of parishes you describe. So they are extremely important, and the more of them there are in a diocese, the better off it is, and the more fully the Faith is lived."
Father Q. has another view. "I see the question a little differently than you do," he said to me. "Every parish in the diocese should be the kind of place you describe. Following the Roman Rite ought to be the rule, rather than the exception. All parishes should be allowed to follow the decrees of the Holy See and to have a vibrant liturgical life."
Of course, this last comment points up an important fact; it is the ordinary of the local diocese who determines the liturgical course the parishes in his care shall follow. And Cardinal Mahony, it seems, has charted a ritual path independent from that of Rome. Certainly, comparison of the cardinal's liturgical instructions, such as The Day on Which We Gather and Gather Together Faithfully with those of the Congregation for Worship appears to reveal two different views of the liturgy, as well as, by implication, of where authority resides in the Church.
That aside, however, since, as the cardinal has emphasized (in his September 4 statement, "The implementation of Redemptionis Sacramentum"), he determines liturgical usages here, it may be that our definition of a liturgical parish, as being one in which the Roman Rite is celebrated, is a false one, at least as far as this archdiocese is concerned. It is certain that the rite of Roger Cardinal Mahony can indeed be found in one church in its entirety -- the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. There, where the architecture most closely reflects the mind of His Eminence, he has been able to carry out his own liturgical model.
Armed with this insight, I re-approached both priests and asked their opinion of the cathedral as our archdiocese's liturgical parish. Fr. L. replied that the cathedral showed that local Catholic leadership "first lost their taste, then they lost their faith, and now we have nothing." Fr. Q.'s answer was that "the notion of the cathedral being the model of good liturgy in the archdiocese should fill Catholics with terror."
Both comments may perhaps be a bit caustic. But if the cardinal does not mind appearing to reject Roman authority, he must not be surprised if, in time, his own comes to be rejected by his priests. In the meantime, however, lay folk who want to see the Roman Rite in either version fully integrated into the life of a parish will have to continue traveling -- either in reality or on the internet.
SIDEBAR:
Liturgy in Cyberspace
An interesting development in recent years is that liturgical parishes have gone on the World Wide Web. Seeing this medium as a method of evangelization, a liturgical parish will often have an elaborate site, containing a history and many photos of the church, detailed (and useful) explanations of such things as the liturgy, chant, church dogma, and the like. Their links section will be filled with access to all sorts of useful sites.
Liturgical parishes on the Web:
St. Victor, West Hollywood: http://www.saintvictor.org/
Holy Trinity, Boston: http://www.holytrinitygerman.org/
St. Peter, Troy, New York: http://stpeters-troy.tripod.com/index.html
Assumption Grotto, Detroit: http://www.assumptiongrotto.com/
St. Agnes, St. Paul: http://www.stagnes.net/church/Main.do
St. Alphonsus, Baltimore: http://www.stalphonsusbalt.org
St. Patrick's, New Orleans: http://www.oldstpatricks.org/
St. Francis Shrine, San Francisco: http://www.shrinesf.org/
St. John Cantius, Chicago: http://www.cantius.org/HomePage.htm
Holy Rosary, Indianapolis: http://www.holyrosaryindy.org/
St. Thomas Aquinas, Dallas: http://stthomasaquinas.org/
Old St. Mary's, Cincinatti: http://www.oldstmarys.org/introduction/index.html
Brompton Oratory, London: http://www.bromptonoratory.com