Bede Griffiths Center

for Contemplative Prayer


Concerning Papal Wasps


by Gerald E. Hoke





When Benedict XVI launched his July 7th “Motu Proprio”, he apparently opened a wasps’ nest the contents of which has stung more than a few theologically sensitive souls. It appears that it is going to take some time before the swelling recedes and the pain eases. But, there is something I remember from my grandfather’s words of wisdom: wasps usually only sting when they sense they are being attacked. I expect that applies to phantom wasps as well the real McCoy.

One of the first to begin waving his arms about attempting to scare the papal wasps away was the much-respected co-chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, Rabbi Michael Lerner. Rabbi Lerner claimed to be moving in solidarity with his Catholic brothers and sisters, and, no doubt, there are some who share his perceptions in this matter. Michael Lerner is one of the best minds and spirits we have to help guide us through this epoch of political and spiritual chaos and the fact that he has a few blind spots in his vision of the complex issues that face the Catholic Church as an institution shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

The fact of the matter is that the celebration of the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass ( as ordered in the 1962 Missal) has nothing to do with the political history of the Roman Church and has no content that can be considered as offensive to Jews or any other ethno-religious group. Now, that is not to say that there is not some offensive material in that 1962 Missal. However, that material is not contained in the order of the Mass and it is, after all, the order of the Mass that is the subject of the Pope’s decree. There are two very short prayers in the Good Friday service which do ask for the conversion of the Jews in language that is not precisely diplomatic. These particular prayers are offensive not only to Jews but to many professed Catholics. Those two little prayers take up about four lines in a Missal which has over two thousand pages. Pope Benedict addresses this issue indicating his awareness of the problematic texts and provides the remedy for the correction of this issue and any others. The Church is not a static structure set in marble and granite; it is a living spirit growing and expanding in its wisdom in a continual process of expanding awareness.

The danger in Rabbi Lerner’s rush to defend and/or support is that he has stepped into the problems of a culture which is essentially foreign to him. While he is certainly aware of the intellectual/academic material published about contemporary Catholic liturgical practices, he does not and cannot share in the religious experience to which these materials refer. There is an enormous experiential gulf separating the contemporary Catholic experience and the modern American Jewish experience.

Better suited to speak out on the implications of the Pope’s recent decree is Rabbi Lerner’s co-chair in the NSP, the Benedictine nun and respected liberal author, Sr. Joan Chittister. She maintains a clear and open feminist agenda and has lived the full contemporary Catholic experience. Sr. Joan does not like the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass and in her recent National Catholic Reporter article she gives cogent and popular socio-political objections to its extended use. Sister’s fears seem rooted in a lack of respect for the intellectual competence and spiritual development of those who appreciate and welcome the greater access to the Traditional Latin Mass. But, again, Sr. Joan’s fears are centered in the fact that the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass does not do a particularly good job of teaching socio-political values which she feels should be shared by all Catholics. It is worth noting that Sr. Joan uses the term “Tridentine Mass” repeatedly in referring to the pre-Vatican II Mass thereby ignoring the fact that the Traditional Latin Mass has undergone continual textual readjustment since the Council of Trent in the 16th Century CE.

Sr. Joan tells us that the Latin Mass is “a priestly act, a private devotion of both priest and people.” She points out that “the instruction in what it means to live a Gospel life -- is, in the Tridentine Rite, at best, a minor element.” Here is, perhaps, Sr. Joan’s most serious complaint against the Latin mass:


In the Latin mass, the sense of mystery -- of mystique -- the incantation of "heavenly" rather than "vulgar" language in both prayer and music, underscores a theology of transcendence. It lifts a person out of the humdrum, the dusty, the noisy, the crowded chaos of normal life to some other world. It reminds us of the world to come -- beautiful, mystifying, hierarchical, perfumed -- and makes this one distant. It takes us beyond the present, enables us, if only for a while, to "slip the surly bonds of earth" for a world more mystical than mundane.


She goes on to exalt the Vatican II liturgy reminding us that it “steeps a person in community, in social concern, in the hard, cold, clear reality of the present.” The twentieth century has been marked by an increased shift toward the secularization of liturgical events. Sr. Joan’s attitude would seem to encourage this shift. I doubt there are many serious Catholic thinkers who would dispute the value of the objectives which Sr. Joan and others who feel the need to defend the Vatican II liturgy share. Sr. Joan’s liturgical objections center on the question of the proper context for the teaching of these values. The “traditionalist” would probably suggest that the Gospel teachings as applied to everyday life be explored in the classroom or the social hall rather than in the Sanctuary.

Chittister’s comments on the Latin Mass seem accurate enough; but there is a pejorative undertone in her writing. It may be that she fails to recognize the essential contemplative nature of the Traditional Catholic Mass. It is the formation of a spiritual community through contemplative prayer that unites the people, priest and servers through the Holy Spirit to experience as much as each is possible the increased spiritual consciousness that brings us all closer to the God we all adore and seek. It is not an event as such, but rather a single and unified universal prayer. These experiences transform the consciousness of the individual and become an essential part of the every day experience so that one is aware of the glory of God that is revealed in all creation. Referring to the Traditional Latin Mass and the new Vatican II liturgy, Sr. Joan argues that we should “make no mistake: in their fundamental messages, they present us with more than two different styles of music or two different languages or two different sets of liturgical norms. They present us with two different churches.” And therein lies the tragedy of radical positions. From Sr. Joan’s point of view, the unity which the Pope aims at achieving within the Catholic Church is a foregone impossibility. The end result of such attitudes can only be division and dissension. Why our Sister would want to turn this attempt at unity into an either/or cause is difficult to grasp; her attitude seems contrary to the stated objectives of the NSP she co-chairs.

Fr. Bede Griffiths, also a Benedictine, reminds us that "[each] of us comes forth eternally from the hidden depths of the Father into being in the Word." This is the mystery that is celebrated in the Traditional Latin Mass as well as the new Eucharist. And the Christ spoke directly to the problem of “unity” that confronts us: “That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us. . ." (John 17:21). There is no need to fear the mystical and the transcendental. The sociologist Peter L. Berger sees a hope for religion and contemporary culture when he states that a “rediscovery of the supernatural will be, above all, a regaining of openness in our perception of reality.”