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April 3, 2007

Who will teach the priests Latin?

It looks like the Motu Proprio on the Mass is coming.

Here's Amy Welborn - who is working on talking points and a tip sheet (a GREAT idea).

Here's an example from Fr. Zuhlsdorf.

One of my frequent plaints - here and in comboxes all over St. Blog's - is who will teach the priests? Who will teach them Latin? Who will teach them to chant? My real point - frequently stated openly - is Let's not pretend that the current clergy, by and large, is ready to do this.

Via Fr. Jim Tucker I find this heartening announcement:

... "We felt this presented a historic opportunity for the nation's largest lay organization supporting the traditional Latin Mass -- Una Voce America -- to collaborate with a clerical religious institute whose priests actually use the 1962 Missal -- the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter," King stated.

He explained that most if not all American seminarians study only the modern liturgy that became normative following the Second Vatican Council. This has left a gap in knowledge of preconciliar liturgy that the priest training program will begin to address.

According to King, both Una Voce and the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter view the faithful's devotion to the Latin liturgical tradition as a "unique charism in support of the new evangelization championed by Pope John Paul II -- a charism that is ever ancient, yet ever new." ...

Well, somewhat heartening. I followed the link and clicked on the link to the PDF for the flyer. Una Voce and the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter have got to be the largest lay-run and largest clerical organizations in America that really know what they're doing about the Latin Mass. This is a great idea! I hope people will contribute to them so that priests who can't easily afford travel to Denton, NE, can go.

But let's not rejoice yet. These two organizations are offering 3 sessions this summer. Each session will accommodate twelve (12) priests. That means that by July thirty-six (36) priests currently not trained in the Mass of the 1962 Missal may have been trained.

This is a start. But people who care for the implementation of the motu proprio had better look into sponsoring many, many more of these week-long seminars. Start raising money to offer free training weeks to current transitional deacons - get 'em while they're early middle aged! Target priests already saying Mass in Spanish -- they'll realize the benefits of loan-words more readily than some of their monoglot colleagues.

I think that of all the diocesan priests I know personally there are precisely two who are both interested in and capable of starting up a 1962 Missal Mass pretty quickly - and I don't think either of them owns a maniple.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at April 3, 2007 6:46 AM