Latin Mass Question

[Guest jeezyserraty]

How involved were the laity in the pre-vatican II Latin Mass (what's known as the Extraordinary Form today)?

[cappie]

It all revolves around the idea of "active participation" in the liturgy. Some people maintain that active participation is an invention of the modern liturgy.

 

One of the fundamental principles of the liturgical reform called for by the Second Vatican Council was "active participation" of the faithful in the Church's public worship. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy expresses this in s. 14: "Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that full, conscious, and active participation [participatio actuosa] in liturgical celebration which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy."

 

One of the purposes of the renewal of the sacred liturgy as understood by the Second Vatican Council was to restore a sense of sacred simplicity to the liturgy which included the active and conscious prayer of the faithful united to the divine sacrifice and holy meal.

 

Some fifty years before the Council, Pope St. Pius X had urged: "Do not pray at the Mass, but pray the Mass."  It was Pope St. Pius X who, to no small extent, launched what became known as the liturgical movement in the 20th century. He lowered the age when children could receive First Communion, and, perhaps most importantly, emphasized that Communion was a part of the Mass itself, causing something of a sensation because many Catholics did not go to communion regularly; he did so by urging frequent, indeed daily, communion, even for children, (Denzinger, 2142) contrary to centuries of custom (small 't' tradition) which had diverged from the Tradition of the Church in this regard. The reform emphasized the need to receive Communion within the Mass itself.

 

The Pope-Saint said:

"Since we have very much at heart that the true Christian spirit be revived in all possible ways and that it be maintained among the faithful, it is above all necessary to provide for the holiness and dignity of the sacred places where precisely the faithful gather to draw this spirit at its primary and indispensible source, that is, in active participation in the sacred mysteries and in the public and solemn prayer of the Church" (Acta Sancta Sedis (ASS 36:28 (1904) Such words and actions, encouraging principled liturgical reforms ("revive" "restoration of all things in Christ" and "active participation" ) coming from this great anti-modernist Saint-Pope, served as the catalyst for the ongoing liturgical movement, though not, certainly, for any abuses. In an age of increasing literacy, merely saying ones own prayers in an insulated way at Mass was no longer tolerable. Thus was born a desire to "revive" or "restore" many traditions which had been lost in the course of the centuries. Priests who rushed and mumbled their 15-20 minute Latin Masses---not a rare thing by all accounts---didn't help matters either, and made liturgical reforms all the more urgent and necessary.

 

Various liturgical reforms continued and climaxed before the second Vatican Council with Pope Pius XII's restoration of the Easter Triduum, culminating in the great vigil on Easter night. In the document Mediator Dei, written by Pope Pius XII in 1947.  Pius the XII encourages people to learn how to use the Roman Missal, sing hymns at Mass, and answering prayers in accordance with liturgical law. In the Easter Triduum for example for the first time the instructions said that the ministers AND the faithful would assemble at a certain point. For the first time in the liturgical books the faithful were included in the rubrics.

 

Experiments with the vernacular---which was greatly desired by many Catholics throughout the world---were approved in 1954 and even the ancient practice of the faithful bringing their own altar bread to the altar was restored or revived in various places with approval. The kiss of peace was also an ancient practice which was revived here and there. Altar boys substituting for the responses intended for the faithful were not part of the most ancient Tradition. These restorations were to become the norm after Vatican II.

 

Vatican II did not introduce some new idea on this subject, it simply reiterated what Pius XII had already said.  The active participation of the people includes fulfilling all the actions that their office calls for whether they are in the choir, acolytes or in the congregation.  (Sacrosanctum Concilium 28).   The people are also to be "encouraged top take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes." (Sacrosanctum Concilium 30). Nothing changed between the two documents.

 

So to answer your question it may have been "spotty" in different places in the world but active participation by the laity has been the constant desire of the Church from Pope St Pius X until the present day. What the Second Vatican Council and subsequent documents did was to "popularize" the Mass and through the use of the vernacular make the liturgy "more accessible" to the general Catholic, but a true understanding of the 2 forms of the Mass so that nothing really changed between the documents of Pope Pius XII and the Vatican Council.