Catholics battle over Latin mass rites and wrongs

On the eve of Christmas, a major row has erupted within the Catholic Church, with the Vatican further restricting the traditional Latin mass and other sacraments.

Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict relaxed restrictions on the old rites, a trend Pope Francis has wanted to reverse.

On the eve of Christmas, a major row has opened within the Catholic Church, with the Vatican further restricting the traditional Latin mass and other sacraments.

New rules restricting the old rite were imposed by the Pope in July but they have been ­quietly ­ignored across much of the church, including in Australia, where the numbers of young families and young people ­attending the old rite has ­increased as numbers shrink in many mainstream parishes.

In Rome on Saturday, the head of the department overseeing worship and the sacraments, English archbishop Arthur Roche, banned use of the old Latin liturgies for confirm­ations, the ordination of priests and, in most cases, for weddings, funerals, baptisms and anointing the sick.

He also announced that no priest would be allowed to offer mass in the old rite and new rite on the same day.

The old rite, which developed in the early centuries of the church with a heavy emphasis on the transcendent, was largely unchanged for about 1500 years until 1970, when vernacular languages and masses said facing congregations were introduced after the second Vatican Council.

Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict relaxed restrictions on the old rites, a trend that Francis has wanted to reverse.

“It is sad to see how the deepest bond of unity … becomes a cause for division,” Archbishop Roche’s document said.

“As pastors, we must not lend ourselves to sterile polemics, capable only of creating division, in which the ritual itself is often ­exploited by ideological viewpoints.’’

In Melbourne, Glen Tattersall, parish priest of the St John Henry Newman old rite parish, said the document was: “a totally unprovoked and unmerited attack on faithful Catholics, who like Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem are told ‘There is no place for you here. Get lost!’ ’’

Father Tattersall said the move was “a grave abuse of power by a clericalist elite’’ and the victims would not accept to be told “You had it coming! You ­deserved this.’’

In Britain, Joseph Shaw, chairman of the British Latin Mass ­Society, said the new document “will have serious negative consequences” and drive some Catholics attached to the old rite to join extremist groups.

The new document is particularly aimed at seminaries that train priests in the old rite and have been told to teach them to embrace the modernised liturgies.