Weekly Mass in Latin draws faithful to Troy

By MARILYN HIPP
Sunday Gazette Reporter

TROY - They come from out of state and across the region to worship in a tradition nearly as old as the Roman Catholic Church itself. Catholics who attend the weekly traditional Latin Mass at St. Paul the Apostle make a controversial choice.
	Rev. James McNerney celebrates Mass on March 12 at St. Paul the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in Troy.

Even the pastor of the Roman Catholic church, which is tucked away up on Hutton Avenue and 12th Street in the Beman Park section of the city, realizes that.

"The Tridentine Latin Mass is somewhat of a controversy, because some people see it as heading backwards to the pre-Vatican II church," said the Rev. James McNerney. Vatican II was a council of church leaders that ushered in change in the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960s. "It's not the Latin that is attracting people here," McNerney said. "It is the ritual - the tradition that people have been a part of for over 1,500 years."

Each week, about 100 people, from as far away as Schoharie County and Stockbridge, Mass., come to be a part of that tradition at noon. At 12:30 p.m. on the first Sunday of the month, when St. Paul's has a high Mass and the Tri-Cities Catholic Chorale comes to join the church in singing the Missa de Angelis, the congregation often doubles.

While some churches, such as St. Mary's in Albany, celebrate a Mass in the Latin language, St. Paul's is the only church in the 14-county Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany that today celebrates the traditional Latin Mass on a weekly basis.

A select few churches within the diocese offer it on a monthly basis.

"You can have the New Rite said in Latin, and it wouldn't have the same attraction to these people," McNerney said. "This Tnidentine Rite, or traditional rite, is a more contemplative approach to prayer"

The New Rite, now the official Mass of the Roman Catholic Church, was promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1970. In an attempt to bring more people to Catholicism and to retain those already in the faith, the official Mass under the Second Vatican Council was at that time translated into English and all the other home languages of the countries where it is celebrated.

Following a succession of Vatican II reforms in the 1960s, 1970 marked the first time ever that Roman Catholic Mass was celebrated in a language other than Latin.

"But the language was not the only change," MeNerney said.

"They wrote three whole new eucharistic prayers that were not at all based on the old liturgy."

Some prayers were deleted, others were added, and several of the rituals changed. "A lot of people were sort of excited about the changes in the beginning - having it in their own language, the new music," McNerny said. "Initially nobody questioned the changes of the council because the church said 'this is the way things are going to be done,' and 'people just went along with it."

Many Catholic priests didn't understand themselves the reasons the changes were being made, according to McNerney. Therefore, they couldn't explain them very well. "And it took a while before people realized some of the things they lost in the process, and part of what made them realize that was liturgical abuse, and there was a lot of liturgical abuse by some of the people. They went further than what the council said was appropriate," he said.

"And in trying to make the church more appealing, some people felt there was a loss of the sacredness," McNerney said.

Nevertheless, churches were forbidden by the Vatican to offer the Tridentine Mass for almost two decades, until enough Catholics expressed a longing for the old Mass, which derives its name from the Council of Trent.

"With moving from the Latin to the vernacular, the vast majority of Catholics were pleased with the change and accepted it. But there are some that didn't feel comfortable and still had a connection to the Latin Mass," explained the Most Rev. Howard Hubbard, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.

"The focus of the new Mass is more community-oriented, whereas the Latin Mass itself didn't involve the community as much. But some feel that by going from the Latin to English, that some of the mystery and sense of transcendence has evaporated now that the service is in the vernacular," Hubbard said.

By the the mid-1980s, Pope John Paul II decided the old Mass should be available for those seeking it and he encouraged bishops to accommodate those Catholics.

"The purpose of the permission was specifically for serving the needs of those Catholics who were raised with the Latin Mass and were having difficulty making the transition," Hubbard said.

But the Pope's encouragement for more Latin Masses has gone only so far. A recent Associated Press story reported about 500 of the nation's 85,000 Catholic parishes - fewer than 1 percent - offer at least one Mass in Latin.

"Many bishops im America were. reluctant to allow the traditional Mass to continue because they felt, I guess, that it was divisive," McNerney explained.

Gaining the blessing of the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese to offer even one local Tridentine Mass was no small task for those who wanted it.

Long before the first traditional Latin Mass was held at St. Paul's on June 20, 1999, a small group of people had been celebrating it privately in Albany Country at St. Michael's Chapel in Glenmont and subse-quently in Selkirk since 1970.

Despite Vatican II reforms, those involved desired to maintain the traditional Mass, according to the 1962 Missale Romanum. The old Mass was important because, in the words of McNerney, they believe "it is more of a perfect expression of Catholic doctrine."

But according to diocese officials at the time, those parishioners and the Mass celebrant were not considered part of the established church because they rejected the authority of the pope and the local bishops.

"The people who go there certainly are not worshiping in the way the Roman Catholic Church would have them worship," said the Rev. Randall Patterson, former vice chancellor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany in a 1990 Daily Gazette story on St. Michael's.

Prompted by an advising priest, the Rev. Jeffrey L'Arche, a group of about 45 of those people wrote a request last March to the chancellor of the diocese of Albany. They requested the diocese approve and establish a public celebration of the Tridentine Mass to be held weekly at a church somewhere in the Capital Region.

"I have attended the Latin Mass all of my life, since I was 6 years old, so I went wherever I could find it," said Albert Mertz of Albany, a member of that group who called themselves the St. Joseph's Association.

Mertz recalled that when the pope first ordered the Mass be changed and translated into the churches' home languages, "I though it was a great thing at the time. But then, I didn't realize what he was doing."

Holy days of obligation - days Catholics are obligated to attend Mass - such as the Feast of Circumcision and All Saints Day - were dropped from the Catholic calendar, he said. The new liturgy did not put as much emphasis on prayers, including the Rosary. And the celebrant began facing the congregation, not the altar, which faced east toward the Holy Land, when he offered up the sacraments.

Communion in the form of bread is distributed to parishioners kneeling in front of the altar in the traditional Mass, while in the new liturgy both bread and wine are distributed while the congregation stands.*

Another change that Mertz and other Tridentine Catholics strongly. opposed was the Vatican II philosophy on attending church.

"It is a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sunday, traditional teaching. tells us" said John Parrot of Delmar, also a member of St. Joseph's and a parishioner of St. Paul's. "But the new teaching tells us it is a serious offense to miss Mass on Sunday."

Because the Tridentine Catholics believe their weekly attendance is imperative, they wanted the diocese to assign a church where the service would be offered each week, not different only once a month.

Ultimately, St. Paul's was selected for the special Mass and and the bishop appointed three priests to serve there: L'Arche, the Rev. Thomas Flanigan, and McNerney, already a priest at St. Paul's for four years.

Ordained under the new liturgy, McNerney didn't speak much Latin and was unfamiliar with many of the rubrics - directions - of the traditional Mass.

While he was apprehensive at first, McNerney eventually agreed to be the chief celebrant of the Mass and diocese liaison.

"I felt it was a ministry to reconcile many people to the church and that because the bishop asked me to do it that I would," he said.

While McNerney has become an advocate for the old Mass, St. Paul's continues to offer the new Mass as well. "We are not here to tear down the bishop or the new Mass," he said.

"We just want people to know that the traditional Mass is available to them here every week."

The Mass at St. Paul's attracts people of all ages, not only those who were raised in the traditional church.

"One of the things that is problematic [in offering the traditional Mass] is sometimes you get people who were born after the 1970s who now say they are spiritually attached to it and you don't know what to make of that," said Bishop Hubbard. "Some people who were raised in the Latin Mass were asking for its restoration, but for those that have never experienced it, it is kind of hard to make that case."

Thirty-year-old Michael McNamara would disagree.

"When I was younger, I went to a Tridentine church in downstate New York. That was at a time when it didn't know it was illegal or illicit," said the St. Paul's parishioner.

After trying several different Roman Catholic churches in the area, the Ballston Spa resident started coming to St. Paul's at the beginning of this year.

And while he enjoys a variety of Catholic services, McNamara said the difference in the traditional Mass is striking.

"Definitely, the sense of reverence and a true sense of tradition is something that attracted me. And, for myself, just the realization of knowing how Mass was celebrated for over 1,000 years in this form."

McNamara is one of many younger Catholics at St. Paul's who feels that way. And McNerney said their feelings should not be discounted because of their generation. And their experiences, he said, make a strong case that the desire for the Latin Mass supercedes nostalgia.

"There is a resurgence, a real interest in this, for all of the reasons I've told you," he said. "Unfortunately, finding a place like St. Paul's is hard . . . unless you are really seeking it." 

Bishop Hubbard said he feels traditional Masses offered in the diocese now are sufficient to serve the Catholics who desire it.

McNerney consideres it a blessing to be an administrator of the Tridentine Mass, even if only to a limited number of people.

"The great thing about the Catholic Church is that we allow this kind of variety," he said. "In school, we learn that we all have different learning styles. Well, I think people have different prayer styles, and different worship styles, and that should be supported, not discouraged."