Latin Mass at St. Mark TERMINATED

Father Hopka informed those assisting at Mass last night that the “experiment” of the Novus Ordo Latin Mass at St. Mark will be terminated two weeks from now.  The final Mass, a “High” Mass, will be on Monday, Sept. 23.  There had been warnings that the Mass would be cancelled if attendance (which averaged around 35 or 40 a night, if you count the Schola and two servers) did not improve.  It did not improve.  So, the Mass is cancelled.

I am grateful that we had the opportunity to have this “experiment” play out.  I am grateful to Fr.’s Smith and Hopka at St. Mark for agreeing to offer the Mass at Bishop Farrell’s request. I am grateful to Bishop Farrell for allowing this Mass to exist for 2 1/3 years. And I’m grateful for all who assisted at this Mass over the years, and who, I hope, gained some exposure to the liturgical benefits of the Church’s universal language.

As a sign of this gratitude, I am hoping we can have the Schola lead those assisting at the last Novus Ordo Latin Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in a Te Deum at the conclusion of the Mass.  I should have thought of this earlier, and even now, the idea is not mine.  Another priest suggested this idea to me, for which, I am also grateful, and not a little bit ashamed.

What can I say?  It was quite an experience, this “experiment.”  From the beginning, it was apparent that support for the Mass at St. Mark was diffident, at best.  There was a threat of cancellation before it even began – that’s how I found out about the Mass in the first place!  That’s hardly an auspicious start!

The Mass was little advertised, and was never listed with all the rest of the Masses in the Mass times section at the front of the bulletin.  I would suspect that, even after 2 years of existence, the vast majority of St. Mark parishioners have no idea this Latin Mass is available.  Early on, attendance was quite good, but there was that terribly unfortunate scandal/disagreement over the reception of Holy Communion, from which the Mass simply never recovered.  On top of that, during the period from fall 2011 until well into spring 2012, the Mass was very frequently cancelled, but these cancellations were never listed in the bulletin or website, so people got frustrated never knowing whether the Mass would be on, or off.  You basically had to be at the Mass every week to know what was coming.  I know a number of people who went to St. Mark on Monday night, expecting a Latin Mass, and finding nothing.  It doesn’t take many such occurrences for people to just give up on the whole thing.

So, the Mass struggled along with 35 or 40 people in attendance each night.  And that’s being pretty liberal in my counting.  There were times when there were barely 20 people there.  Thus, the reason we have been told, in the past, for the cancellation: lack of attendance.  As I’ve said here many times, anyone else requesting a Latin Mass, Novus Ordo or TLM, anywhere in the Diocese could now, very possibly, be met with a perfectly justifiable, ready-made excuse not to have one: we tried it, and it failed. No interest.  That doesn’t bode well for liturgical reform in the Diocese of Dallas, I am afraid to say.  Having said that, no one ever said what level of attendance would have kept the Mass going.  Was it 100, 80, 200, 500?!?  And how does this Latin Mass – on a Monday night! – compare with many other daily Masses in the Diocese, in terms of attendance?  I suspect it’s a little on the low side of average.  But that, apparently, was not good enough.  Unless this entire exercise was pre-determined to fail, which I don’t really believe, or maybe, want to believe.

I have to conclude, however, that this Mass has not given a fair reading of the amount of interest that exists in the Diocese for Latin in the Liturgy.  First of all, the Mass was on Monday night, probably the worst time that could have been chosen, outside of making it 2 am on a Tuesday morning or something like that.  Even daily Mass attendees don’t always go to Mass on a Monday, the day after their Sunday Mass. Secondly, as I said, the Mass was never advertised and was basically semi-secret throughout its existence.  Thirdly, I know for a fact that 15-20 people who were assisting at the Mass early on, before all the cancellations, stopped after getting frustrated with showing up and there being no Mass. Even though the Masses have been offered more regularly over the past year or so, once people get frustrated, or out of the habit of coming, I found it’s hard to get them re-energized and re-engaged.

But, even with all that, it’s a minor miracle this Mass occurred at all, given how much institutional opposition that exists against “bad, old” Latin. I do recognize that St. Mark, pastor Fr. Smith, Fr. Hopka, music director Kenton Kravig, the ushers, and others did take a good deal of time out of their normal routines and other duties to make this Mass possible for the time it has existed.  And I am very thankful and grateful for that. But it was apparent at times that even this effort (save for Mr. Kravig, who, I think, really liked this Mass and was fully committed) was conflicted.  I just repeatedly got the sense this Mass did not enjoy wholehearted support from many of those who were involved in making it happen.

And after 2+ years, that’s very much how I feel about this Mass – conflicted.  Long ago, at the third or fourth Mass, when there were still 100+ people a night, we had that terrible row over whether people could be “forced” to receive the Blessed Sacrament from the hands of a lay person.  For traditional Catholics, that is one of the most sensitive subjects possible.  At that time, I made a comment to some folks, and I think it encapsulates the entire “experiment:” you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.  You can’t “force people,” be they laity, priests, servers, whomever, to embrace Latin in the liturgy or more reverent, traditional presentations of the Liturgy if they are not motivated to do so themselves.  That was the fundamental, structural weakness of this “experiment.”

Another conflict for me – had this Mass come along in, say, early 2010, instead of mid-2011, I probably would have been much more excited and committed, myself. But when it came along, I had already been well exposed to the TLM.  And I have to admit, as nice as this Novus Ordo Latin Mass has been, it’s just not the same.  Thus, as the person whose request, I think, originally led to this Mass, I did not have the interest I would have had the timing been a bit different.  By the time this Mass came along, I was already coming to believe there were grave problems with the Novus Ordo that a mere change in language could not alleviate.  I believe that far more, today.

So, for numerous reasons, I am both sad to see this Mass terminated, but also relieved.  For one thing, it will be nice to have Monday nights back. There are also some personal matters I’d rather not discuss yet that have a bearing on what I’m about to say, but, overall, I have over the past year or more felt called or compelled to strive to only assist, within reason, at the TLM.  The Novus Ordo Latin Mass at St. Mark, and the distance involved in reaching the TLM, had kept me from going full on traddy and being TLM-only up to this point.  But with the cancellation of this Mass, and some changes in our personal situation, I think my continued involvement in the Novus Ordo, on a regular basis, is about to end.

In fact, the timing of the termination of this “experimental” Mass, and the change in our personal situation, seems rather Providential to me.  We’ll see.