Current Mass links us to Apostles

	Bishop Robert J. Banks

By now you have heard or read that I was not indicted in Boston. You also probably know that the Massachusetts attorney general issued a report that blamed me and other Boston bishops for how we handled, or did not handle, the sex abuse problem there. Finally, you may have read about a national Catholic newspaper demanding that I and the other Boston bishops involved should resign.

As you know, my usual practice during this past year and a half has been to respond as fully as possible to the stories emanating from Boston. I shall refrain this time. Now that Boston has a new Archbishop, I do not want to write or say anything that might possibly make it more difficult for him to deal with the situation there. I shall just repeat that I am very sorry that decisions I made years ago, however well-intentioned, have resulted in so much hurt, especially to victims and their families.

Since the Holy Father has yet to appoint a new bishop for Green Bay, we still have a few more months together. And these next months should be exciting for our Church of Green Bay. Besides welcoming a new bishop, we shall also enter the third phase of our Stewardship Thrust in late October. During late fall, we will also prepare for the first Sunday of Advent when we will put in place some minor, but noticeable, changes in the way we celebrate Mass together. And who knows what other excitement there might be!

In this column, let me give some background for those few changes in the liturgy that you will hear about this fall.

It all started several years ago with the Holy See's decision to update the books priests and bishops use for celebrating Mass. First was a new translation of the Lectionary - the Scripture readings you hear at every Mass. Next was a new edition of the Sacramentary, the book containing the prayers of the Mass. The Latin version was completed years ago, but the English translation has been late in coming. In fact, the authorities are still working on the English translation of most of it.

The Sacramentary begins with a long section on how to celebrate Mass. It is entitled, "General Instruction of the Roman Missal" and is usually referred to by its initials: GIRM. (That is pronounced either with a soft G, as in "germ," or a hard G as in "girl." Take your choice.) The GIRM has been translated into English, so we are able to implement that now. Although it is technically official even now, we need a few months to get everyone aboard and instructed, so we agreed to implement it together on the First Sunday of Advent.

Most of the more than 100 pages of the GIRM repeat what was in the previous General Instruction. The relatively few items that affect the way the average parishioner presently participates in Mass will be explained this fall.

I bring the GIRM up now to comment on a brief section in the Preamble. This section, entitled "A Witness to Unbroken Tradition," stresses that the present Mass is a continuation of the Eucharist as it has been celebrated since the time of the Apostles.

Some Catholics feel very strongly that the only valid Catholic Mass is the one celebrated according to the Missal approved by Pope Pius V in 1570. Some feel so strongly that they will not attend Masses celebrated by me or priests of this Diocese. Some bring in a priest to celebrate the old Mass in Latin, even though that priest has been suspended by his own bishop and does not have my permission to celebrate Mass here.

Logically, such persons would not attend the Masses now celebrated by our Holy Father. (We do have Masses celebrated in Latin, according to the earlier rite, here at St. Joseph Chapel on the diocesan campus, but with permission and by priests who acknowledge that the usual English Mass is absolutely valid.)

The GIRM, approved by our Holy Father, makes the point that our new Mass book brings to fulfillment the missal approved by Pius V. The scholars who helped Pope Pius V prepare his Missal in 1570 relied heavily on a previous missal used by Pope Innocent III almost four centuries before. At that time, they did not have the tools to go further back in the tradition of the Church.

Today, we have the benefit of historical research that has made available the way Mass was celebrated in the first 1,000 years of the Church's existence. So the present Mass preserves not only the essential elements of Pius V's missal, but also incorporates what we have learned from our study of the Mass as celebrated in the 14 centuries before Pius V.

The GIRM also has a section in the Preamble that validates our celebration of the Mass in English and other modern languages. It acknowledges that the Council of Trent, four centuries ago, prohibited celebrating Mass in the vernacular for good reasons, but the GIRM also points out that the Council of Trent wanted the people to be catechized so that they would understand and appreciate what was happening at Mass. At Vatican II, the bishops realized that we no longer had to worry about people thinking the Mass in Latin was invalid, as the "Protestants" taught in the time of Trent, so now it is better to have the Mass celebrated in the vernacular. And haven't we found that to be true!

In summary, the GIRM reminds us that "the Holy Spirit endows the People of God with a marvelous fidelity in preserving the unalterable deposit of faith, even amid a very great variety of prayers and rites."