Wonderful comments by Msgr. Schaedel re: TLM

Msgr. Joseph Schaedel, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, had some scathing things to say about Fr. Daly's recent CNS article on the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. It can be found here, at the CRITERION's website.

Be Our Guest / Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel
Traditional Latin Mass has
a devoted following in Archdiocese of Indianapolis
Controversy has been
swirling like incense ever since Catholic News Service published a recent column
about the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass by Father Peter J. Daly. The
column also appeared in the Aug. 17 issue of The Criterion.
Internet weblogs
(“blogs”) are full of criticism. There are accusations that Father Daly’s
account of a neighboring pastor who offers the traditional Latin Mass are
inaccurate, and were mentioned without that pastor’s approval. Now the two
pastors are in a snit; one wants to drag an auxiliary bishop into the fray.
These blogs read like soap operas.
The Aug. 24 issue of The Criterion
featured letters from readers critical of Father Daly’s column. Two writers
mentioned the beautiful celebration of the traditional Latin Mass at Our Lady of
the Most Holy Rosary Church in Indianapolis.
As pastor of Holy Rosary
Parish, along with our associate pastor, Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter
Father Michael Magiera, I can say that we are grateful and proud.
As vicar
general of the archdiocese and as pastor of a parish that has offered the
traditional Latin Mass along with the Novus Ordo (post-Vatican II) Mass for
nearly 10 years, I can only say that my observations and experiences are not the
same as Father Daly’s.
We are one, unified parish. We are growing; we are
getting “younger.” I would have to say that his statements about the
“old Mass,” and how and why it is celebrated the way it is, are simply
misleading.
Yet, there are more important points to be made from this
controversy.
To begin with, Catholic News Service is operated by the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops. It is certainly inappropriate for any
columnist—particularly a priest—to use CNS as a forum to vent about or to
second-guess a recent decision made by the Holy Father.
Accompanying the
pope’s moto proprio on the use of the Roman liturgy prior to the reform of 1970
is a letter addressed to the bishops. The second paragraph of his letter
comments about the confusion created by “news reports and judgments made without
sufficient information.”
Later on, in the same letter, Pope Benedict XVI
comments on his personal experience with the hopes and confusion that often
followed the reform of the liturgy. It is also clear that the pope only issued
this directive after long, prayerful consideration and consultation. Before
ending his letter, the Holy Father asks that three years into the moto proprio
the bishops should “send to the Holy See an account of your experiences.”
The moto proprio takes effect on Sept. 14. No one is in a position to
second-guess the decision before it even takes effect, much less to
criticize it simply based on very limited (and evidently flawed) personal
experience or personal preference.
I believe that the pope is genuinely
interested in unity with those inside or outside the Church who have been
alienated over authorized or unauthorized changes in the liturgy. To ram one’s
opinions (liturgical or otherwise) down people’s throats as Father Daly did in
his column hardly seems “in the Spirit of Vatican II.”
More importantly,
take into account the Holy Father’s sense that people long for the “sacred” and
transcendent in the liturgy.
More than 12 years ago, the late Cardinal
Joseph Bernardin spoke at the annual meeting of the National Federation of
Priests’ Councils in San Diego. In soaring imagery, Cardinal Bernardin reminded
priests that they are to be “bearers of the mystery of God.”
As the late
prelate acknowledged a crisis of confidence and confusion among priests then
(and today), he exhorted priests to embrace the role as “bearers of Sacred
Symbols … who draw others to God’s love in Christ.”
Particularly in today’s
world, people long for that sense of mystery. The liturgy enables us to enter
through Jesus Christ into the Mystery Who is God. Pope Benedict XVI must be
keenly aware of this; he has a worldwide perspective on the life of the Church.
On the Feast of the Assumption, Aug. 15, Bishop Salvatore Matano of the
Diocese of Burlington, Vt., offered the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass (“The
Extraordinary Rite of the Eucharist”) in St. Joseph Co-Cathedral.
The
church was packed with people of all ages. Bishop Matano commented, “And if this
is what it takes to fill our churches, so be it!”
I am not yet convinced
that the recent moto proprio will be what it takes to fill our churches.
But
my own experience makes me certain that Father Daly was wrong when he wrote:
“But almost nobody will come.”
He and others who jump to the same
conclusions need to “wake up and smell the incense.”
(Msgr. Joseph F.
Schaedel is vicar general of the archdiocese and pastor of Our Lady of the Most
Holy Rosary Parish in Indianapolis.) †