NEWS FEATURE: Latin Mass Comeback _ Not Just for the Nostalgic

c. 2004 Religion News Service DUNN, N.C. _ They came to a tiny rural church from all over North Carolina and as far away as Maryland to celebrate Mass in a language that’s scarcely been spoken in the state’s Roman Catholic churches for nearly 40 years. Once inside, they saw a version of the church […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

DUNN, N.C. _ They came to a tiny rural church from all over North Carolina and as far away as Maryland to celebrate Mass in a language that’s scarcely been spoken in the state’s Roman Catholic churches for nearly 40 years.

Once inside, they saw a version of the church as it looked and sounded before the reforms of the 1960s. The altar was pushed back against the wall. The priest said the Eucharistic Prayer with his back to the congregation.


The Mass was celebrated in Latin.

As part of its efforts to reach out to all members, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh is allowing traditional Latin masses at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Dunn, some 35 miles south of Raleigh. For some, it is a walk down nostalgia lane. But for many more it is a new experience _ one that appeals especially to young people.

Indeed, Latin is enjoying a modest comeback. Movies such as Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” spoken in Latin and Aramaic, may be partly responsible. More likely, the traditional Latin Mass owes its fascination to a longing for timelessness and transcendence.

“There’s a sense of mystery and holy sacredness,” said Kim Hoover, 42, of Clayton, N.C.,who recently attended the first such Mass with her family. “I don’t know how to explain it _ a reverence you don’t find a lot of times.”

The late afternoon was hot and humid during that Latin Mass. Still, people arrived prepared for church the way generations once did. The women wore lace veils; the men, suits and ties. Not a word was spoken before the service began, and people kneeled before the altar as they received the Eucharist on their tongues.

The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) replaced the Latin Mass with a modern version spoken in the language of the people. In it, the priest faces the congregation, and lay people participate, reading from the Bible and offering prayers.

But some hanker for the older rite. Older people regard it as the only genuine form of worship. Younger people are awed by its solemnity.

In 1988, Pope John Paul II gave permission for the Latin Mass to be celebrated in its traditional form with the consent of the local bishop. Today, 194 parishes across the United States celebrate at least one such a month, according to the Latin Mass Society, an association that promotes the traditional Mass.


Sixty-nine other parishes celebrate the modern Mass in Latin; 28 more celebrate a hybrid Mass of Latin and English.

That’s still a tiny fraction of the nation’s 19,000 Catholic churches, but it’s a resilient group, increasingly made up of people 50 years of age and younger.

“There’s an innate desire for otherworldliness,” said William J. Leininger, president of the Latin Liturgy Association in Staten Island, N.Y. “When you go into God’s temple, you want to use another language than you would at McDonald’s.”

Although the early Christians spoke Greek (one of the earliest languages of the New Testament), Latin has been the lingua franca of the church since the middle of the fourth century. For that reason, many see it as the sacred language of the Christian church, much as Hebrew is sacred to Jews and Arabic to Muslims.

To some, like Frank Korzekwinski of New Bern, N.C., it is the only language deserving of the Mass. The 76-year-old was one of nearly 200 who signed a petition saying they would attend a Latin Mass if it were offered in the diocese.

Fortunately for Korzekwinski, Bishop F. Joseph Gossman allowed the Rev. Paul Parkerson to celebrate it. Parkerson, a 33-year-old convert, is pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Dunn.


Raised in a Baptist church tradition, Parkerson fell in love with Roman Catholicism as an undergraduate at Campbell University.

“You could tell there was something much greater than the local customs of a particular culture,” he said. “You had the sense it was something universal.”

Parkerson said the response to the recently initiated Latin Mass was overwhelmingly positive.

“People want to step into a piece of heaven,” he said. “We make that very hard with the way we build our churches and the mundane and banal way we have worshipped.”

It’s not that Parkerson is switching wholesale to Latin. He will continue to celebrate Mass in English and Spanish most Sundays and the Latin Mass will be celebrated once a month.

Nor does he believe the modern liturgy is lacking. But he said the Latin Mass has given him a richer understanding of why the modern Mass is celebrated as it is.

And he’s won a group of admirers willing to make the trek to Dunn.

“A lot of traditional Catholics feel marginalized and alienated from the life of the parish and the hierarchy,” Parkerson said. “I feel like God is asking me to minister to these people. If I can do something for them, and the bishop will allow me, I’ll do it.”


DEA/PH END SHIMRON

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