Featured News

Tridentine Mass to begin Oct. 3

by Robert Delaney
Of the Michigan Catholic
Published September 24, 2004

DETROIT – Fr. George T. Browne says he feels ready to celebrate the Tridentine Mass, when the weekly celebration of the "Old" Latin Mass begins next Sunday, Oct. 3, at 9:30 a.m., at St. Josaphat Church.

 "I've been studying and I've been reading to make sure I know what I'm doing. I talked to a priest in another diocese who celebrates it with his bishop's permission, and we had a rehearsal a couple of weeks ago," says Fr. Browne, a senior priest who lives in Marine City.

Fr. Browne has celebrated the Tridentine Mass more than a thousand times, having been ordained in 1955, but not since it was superceded by the Novus Ordo Mass in 1969.

Fr. Browne says he was invited earlier this year by Auxiliary Bishop John Quinn to become one of the priests who will celebrate the Tridentine Rite liturgy at the historic church, on East Canfield at the Chrysler Freeway Service Drive in Detroit's Medical Center area.

"I was ordained in those days, and I guess he figured I could go back to it without having to go back to page one," he says.

In all, 12 priests have been trained (or been given a refresher course) in celebrating the Mass, which takes its name from the Council of Trent (1545-63) and was first promulgated in 1570.

Unlike the Novus Ordo Mass, which may be celebrated in Latin or vernacular languages such as English, the Tridentine Rite is celebrated in Latin with the priest's back to the congregation.

Some people opposed the new liturgy when it was introduced in 1969, however, and a few even followed Swiss Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre into schism over the issue. Some others maintained a preference for the Tridentine Mass without disparaging the validity of the new Mass.

A 1984 indult from the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship allowed bishops to authorize the Tridentine liturgy to be celebrated "for pastoral need," and Pope John Paul II has urged bishops to give it a "wide and generous application."

Cardinal Adam Maida announced in July his decision to authorize the weekly Tridentine Mass at St. Josaphat Church beginning this fall. In his letter to priests, he wrote, "Those dioceses which have allowed the Tridentine liturgy have experienced a rebirth of evangelization and outreach to a variety of people, especially those who felt alienated from the Church because of the liturgical renewal of Vatican II."

Fr. Browne says, "My personal hope is that this will be beneficial to the archdiocese and to the people who attend it."

For directions to St. Josaphat Church, call 313-831-1072 or access its Internet site.