Posted by LifeSiteNews spoke to Dr. Joseph Shaw, Oxford University Professor and Chairman of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, who said that Francis’ comment against the use of Latin in the Mass readings stems from a misunderstanding of the liturgical tradition.
“Pope Francis’ comment suggests a kind of ‘mutual incomprehension’ between those attached to the Church’s older and newer liturgies,” Shaw said, adding that “in fact the incomprehension only goes one way.”
Explaining the rationale behind proclaiming the readings in the Church’s traditional Latin tongue, Shaw noted that “the liturgy is not a purely didactic, rationalist, functionalist endeavor.” Instead, “the proclamation of the lections is part of the worship we offer to God: an offering of His own words, like the singing of the Psalms. This is as well as, not instead of, the understanding of the lections, which, as the Council of Trent recommended, should be later explained in the sermon.”
Shaw contended that “no one who attends the Old Mass fails to understand the rationale behind proclaiming the lections in Latin,” but expressed a need to “explain the reason the Church has traditionally proclaimed them in a sacred language” to those who may be unfamiliar.
Continuing, Shaw criticized the Pope for applying an apparent double standard to sacred languages used in the liturgies of the East and West, and those of other religions.
“I do not think Pope Francis would say that Hindus, Muslims, Orthodox Jews, or the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches are laughing at their sacred books when they proclaim them in a sacred language, usually to congregations with little or no understanding of them. If he did, it would not bode well for ecumenical and interfaith relations.”
“We should spare a thought for those many millions of Catholics who experience a liturgy they do not understand,” Shaw said, “not because it is in a sacred language which might have some symbolic meaning for them, but in a vernacular language they do not share: like Cantonese Catholics, many African Catholics, and many migrants and refugees.”
Pope says Mass readings in Latin ‘like laughing at the Word of God’ in new interview