IT IS THE CHURCH AS A WHOLE THAT JUDGES CORRECTLY

     This will be another “heavy” essay, but I think it is important. It’s a reflection on the 2^nd of 2 articles by Kyle Hamrick in the 16-22 issue of Lagniappe, dealing with Alex Crow, dealing with his fascination with the “Tridentine” Rite of the Mass. It was the liturgy used before the renewal of the Second Vatican Council.
     I am, frankly, opposed to concessions to use this Rite. But I also know that there is a strong minority (very vocal and, to judge by Facebook posts, very “in your face”) that pressured Archbishop Rodi to permit it. And he did, in a very limited way that frustrated those who wanted much more than once a month, only in specific churches.
Those who crave this form of the Mass praise what they see as the mystery, but in fact what is being vaunted is a form of clerical and congregational elitism, thinking that by this form folks can now be “more Catholic than the pope,” and in fact more Catholic than all other Catholics. The priest’s back is to the congregation (what they refer to as ad oriens, or everyone facing east); he prays virtually silently in Latin (a language most of these priests can perhaps pronounce, but don’t ask them to parse the grammar of any sentence). Since no one can hear, congregants are free to attempt to follow in their missals, or else pray from prayer books or rosaries. They strongly believe that the only permissible posture for receiving Holy Communion is on the tongue while kneeling. Some advocates actually recommend suppressing the current Rite, and this article quotes one such person as calling it [referred to as the Novus Ordo, the new rite] as “…it’s a pretty fakin’ gay way to spend the first part of your Sunday…” On the other hand, for centuries Mass at St Peter’s in Rome has been (and still is) celebrated by the pope facing east, but with the congregation facing west, so that the pope faces the congregation. Consider it this way: the priest faces the altar, and the congregation faces the altar, and Christ is the central focal point for all.
Now, for the relevance of the title of this essay.
In the 4^th century there was a movement in North Africa called “Donatists.” Their view was that they were the only “true” Church because (they claimed) none of their bishops broke down during persecution, and therefore all other bishops were heretics/apostates and could not validly celebrate the sacraments. One of their great targets (and one of their most cogent opponents) was St Augustine. The Donatists thought that the rest of the Catholic Church was “in sin,” and that they were the only faithful believers, the only truly holy ones. On the other hand, in one of his commentaries on the Psalms, Augustine would write: “The clouds roll with thunder, that the House of the Lord shall be built throughout the earth: and these frogs sit in their marsh and croak—We are the only Christians!”
Centuries later, another Christian would try to justify being part of a small, insular, separatist Christian body that was neither Catholic nor Protestant: the Church of England in the vision of the Oxford Tractarians. John Henry Newman was the de facto leader, struggling with the idea but loath to consider “going to Rome” until a friend showed him an article written against the Tractarians which quoted Augustine: Securus judicate orbis terrarum. By this, Newman came to see that an “insular Catholicism” was a self-contradiction. 6 years later, he became a Catholic.
We don’t need the kinds of schisms that the Donatists fomented, and we don’t need those schisms now, as the “Tridentites” are fomenting them. We need the humility of unity and the understanding that it is not “my” or “your” Church but rather the Church of Jesus Christ. Before His death, Jesus prayed for unity for His Body. The Eucharist is His; the Eucharist is Him. The Church has for 50+ years asked us to pray this way. Are we as individuals wiser than the “orbis terrarum” (the Church as a whole)? I think not.
                                                                                                                                 -Fr. David