About 140 people came to the sweetest heart of the Mary Church in Detroit for the traditional Latin Mass in the afternoon after Easter. Incense and organ music waved through the graceful sanctuary, built by Polish Catholics in the late 19th century. It was a beautiful sunny spring afternoon and the lilac was in bloom at the parsonage.
In the banks, however, the mood was uncertain. It was less than three weeks since the new archbishop of Detroit, Edward Weisenburger, priests said that he was planning to drastically reduce the availability of traditional masses in the Archdiocyism this summer, after an edict from 2021 by Paus Franciscus that in the worldwide rite. Backlash mixed on panic followed in some quarters, with one critic calling it a ‘massacre’.
When the pope died on 21 April and the plan threw in doubt again – or at least the critics hope so.
“If the next pope really wanted it, he could get on the first day and fully open access to Latin Mass,” said Kiera Raymond, 18, a student in Michigan who organized a “Latin Massamob” to collect supporters to offer the masses before the limitations kick.
The traditional Latin mass was once just mass, in the same way celebrated by Catholics around the world for centuries to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. The differences are subtle but important for those who are tailored to their meaning.
The priest is confronted with the same direction as the worshipers – that is, away from them, towards the altar – for most of the masses. He immediately places the communion host on the tongue, not in the hand. And yes, the majority of the service is in Latin, not in English or the hundreds of other languages in which the “new mass” is now celebrated all over the world.
More recently, the traditional mass has become an unlikely lightning rod for wider theological and ideological disputes, especially in the American church, with his Strong tension of theological and liturgical conservatism. The supporters of it tend to attend the masses more often and to have a vision for the church that focuses on theological orthodoxy about the openness and modernity of the Francisc era.
Pope Francis referred to the old mass as a division, and some of his other comments punctured traditionalists: his reference to large families who have children “Like rabbits,“His comments to priests to stop wearing”Grandma’s side. “
The traditional mass only represents a piece of Catholic life. But that’s it grow in popularity In many dioceses throughout the country, and especially with young people, including young priests. The Archdiocese of Detroit now has 28 parishes and chapels that offer the traditional mass, according to Alex Start, which maintains a newsletter for local supporters. There are around 500 locations that offer nationally, according to another unofficial list online.
That was the context in which Archbishop Weisenburger announced on 8 April in a large private meeting with Detroit priests that he intended to reduce the availability of traditional mass to four or five locations from July. (One of them, St. Joseph Shrine, already has a maximum of 650 worshipers on a typical Sunday and is brace to receive more after the restrictions are in force.)
When a public recoil broke out after the meeting, Archbishop Weisenburger sent a letter to try to clarify.
“This was not a matter that I had hoped to dive in so close to the start of my own ministry in our Archdiocese,” he wrote and insisted on not having a distraction with priests. He also suggested that the traditional mass itself might be a problem in the church, not because of the liturgy itself, but because of the character of the priests who celebrate it.
Holly Fournier, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese, said that parishes had been given temporary extensions after the limitations of the Pope 2021 on the traditional mass, and those extensions had already been set to expire this summer. The Archbishop “believes that parishes have had enough time to implement the direction of the Holy Father,” she said in an e -mail.
In the banks in churches around the Archdiocese on Sunday after Easter, the mood was obviously waiting.
“People are very scared,” said Lauren Leyva, 33, the organist in St. Edward to the lake, about an hour north of Detroit. She attends the traditional mass with her family, including two young children.
“We prayed for the Pope and his health,” said Mrs. Leyva after the Mass that Sunday. “But we hope something will change.”
Priests who celebrate the traditional mass in Detroit are in a delicate position. Some of them maneuver behind the scenes to preserve the traditional mass in their parishes, or at least in their regions. But few want to be seen as agitators in the tense moment before the limitations are enforced and before a new pope is selected.
“Now things are in the air,” said the Reverend Brian Hurley, who celebrates the traditional mass in his parish in Lapeer, Mich., To a typical congregation of more than 200 people. Many young couples in his parish now ask to celebrate weddings in the old rite. Father Hurley said that priests talk among themselves, and with friendly archbis desk employees, to try access to the traditional mass for as many people as possible.
In St. Edward on the Lake, the Reverend Lee Acervo advised his municipality at 8 o’clock Traditional Mass not to write to the Archbishop, but simply to pray and ‘rely on the Lord’.
Father Acervo, just like several other priests in the diocese, refused to lose traditional mass in July, to talk to a reporter. In a letter to his municipality published in the parish bulletin, he made the effort of the next conclave clear.
“This is a really crucial time in the history of the church,” he wrote. “We have to pray for a holy pope. A holy pope. Not a political pope. Rather a pope who will not endanger the belief to deal with the world. A pope who will teach the faith with clarity and no ambiguity.”
The point was clear to those who had ears to hear. The critics of Francis accused him of sowing confusion, giving conflicting and even conflicting reports about matters such as the doctrine of the church about marriage.
Traditionalists are closing the run -up to the conclave in Rome. They have their favorites, including Cardinal Peter Erdo Van Hungary and Cardinal Robert Sarah from Guinea, the former head of the Liturgy Office of the Vatican and a prominent opponent of Francis.
“It is a personal attack to take this mass from me,” says Anna Graziosi, 79, the president of the parish council at Assumption Grotto on the east side of Detroit. Mrs Graziosi was in the banks at 7:30 am last Monday morning on a traditional mass with around 20 other people.
Mrs Graziosi’s family emigrated from Italy to Detroit when she was 5. She grew up with the Latin mass, before the Second Vatican Council.
For her, the Novus Ordo, or New Order, not only played the holiness of the rite, but also her own attention. Following the prayer book, as the old mass requires, prayer focus demanded.
The new mass was partly designed to involve more worshipers, but Mrs. Graziosi found her mind – and faith – until she sought the Latin mass in her Jeugd Parish, Assumption Grotto.
This week she prays for the soul of Pope Francis, while she prayed in life for him. “I hope for a merciful judgment,” she said.