Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before he became Pope Benedict XVI, expressed the view that it was a mistake to try to completely suppress the traditional rite. He has suggested that more openness to the rite would restore reverence and show a continuity with the church’s past. It might also bring back Catholics who had always favored the older Mass, he has said. At Holy Name, the attendance at the 11 a.m. Sunday Solemn High Latin Mass has gone from about 125 people as recently as seven years ago to an average of 250 people now from September through June — close to a third of them families with young children and another third older folks who remember the Mass as it once was. Others come for a range of reasons, including curiosity.
One young man who attends the Latin Mass says “I just think it offers more, and spiritually it is much more fulfilling … It goes a lot deeper in many aspects.” Another Latin Mass attendee contrasts the old rite with the new citing that “Unfortunately the words of the regular Mass have been made to sound so ordinary that the prayers almost sound banal. There is nothing special, nothing mysterious about it anymore, and people wonder why should they even come.”
Members of Una Voce, a group who are staunch advocates for the return of the Tridentine rite think the rite will bring more people to the faith. Allen M. Maynard, president of Una Voce, makes the trip to Holy Name every week from North Carver, MA, with his wife, Wendy, and their four children. He believes that if the use becomes more widespread, he said, “people will feel it is a legitimate thing to go to, not just something my crazy neighbors go to.”
For the full story, http://www.projo.com/news/content/latin_mass_8_07-08-07_EF69Q6T.3437769.html