A New Wind in the Catholic Church

I remember Vatican II and the excitement surrounding what seemed to be a sea change in the Catholic Church. The Church hierarchy appeared to be charting a new course towards community with the faithful, rather than standing separate and apart as ordained intercessories. However, Benedict XVI appears to have turned back the clock. Sister Joan comments on the reinstatement of the Tridentine Rite (Latin Mass). She gets to the heart of the matter of liturgy and ritual being symbols for how we see ourselves as a church.

This article appeared before the most recent announcement by Benedict confirming Catholicism as the one Church of Christ.

From the text of the statement:

Christ "established here on earth" only one Church and instituted it as a "visible and spiritual community"[5], that from its beginning and throughout the centuries has always existed and will always exist, and in which alone are found all the elements that Christ himself instituted.[6] "This one Church of Christ, which we confess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic […]. This Church, constituted and organised in this world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and the Bishops in communion with him"[7].

Benedict's statement strikes me as a legalistic justification for maintaining a status quo that is likely doomed to die. I fail to see how the Church can continue if it continues to refuse a re-evaluation of its history and purpose in view of current knowledge. It's a little like saying Galileo was wrong and excommunicating him. Eventually the Church had to face the facts about the truth Galileo spoke.

At the same time, I like the Latin Mass precisely because it harkens to the mystery and wonder of creation and the Creator. We are all a part of it, and surely the Latin Rite can be incorporated by changing the language of the Novus Ordo to Latin rather than the vernacular. Incense and bells are used in many places during the current Mass.

There has to be room in faith for the transcendant and the immanent. It is not either/or yet I fear that Benedict, and those cheering these developments, will be only too happy to make it thus. At the same time, I question the political wisdom of a public statement that sets Roman Catholicism over and above all other Christian faiths due to an accident of history. Had Constantine not converted, or James not been thrown to his death from the Temple, we might have had a very different form of Christianity, if we had one at all.

John Shelby Spong, who I have read and greatly admire, would no doubt take issue with Benedict's claims. He has commented on the use of Biblical text to uncritically support beliefs about Jesus. I'll be very interested in what he has to say about all this.