Anglicans are to welcome traditionalist Roman Catholics who prefer the Mass in Latin. Anglicans will allow the traditional pre-Vatican II Latin Mass in response to Pope Francis, last year, restricting traditional Latin Masses. Archbishop Justin Welby and Pope Francis came to a landmark agreement being promulgated on 1 April, 2022. In a document, Stultus Aprilis, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope have agreed to a pastoral solution to care for conservative Christians who feel threatened and neglected under the current papacy.
Pope Francis reversed one of Pope Benedict XVI’s signature decisions in a major challenge to traditionalist Catholics who immediately decried it as an attack on them and the ancient liturgy. Francis reimposed restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass that Benedict relaxed in 2007. On 16 July 2021, Pope Francis issued Traditionis Custodes, which severely limits the use of the traditional Latin Mass. This was even more intensely restricted by clarifications on 18 December 2021. The new Anglican structure accommodating dejected and ejected Latin Mass lovers will be generally known as “Latin Use Anglicans”. Each of the 38 Anglican provinces has to follow its own regulations to implement the agreement. In the Church of England, this Latin Use group (effectively an Anglican Ordinariate) will be known by the name of F.D. Maurice whose commemoration falls on the date of the agreement. Both the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury agreed to this naming because Maurice, as well as being a profound theologian, was notably a strong worker for social transformation. The new structure, if limited to liturgical predilections, would not receive the support of these two church leaders.
Reversing Pope Benedict’s 2007 Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum was a major blow to Latin-loving, traditional Catholics. Pope Benedict had allowed widespread and liberal use of the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass. Traditional Latin Mass communities are usually thriving, enthusiastic communities, with a good proportion of young people. Rather than letting them drift away from mainline Christianity embittered, this new, unprecedented agreement places them under the umbrella of an episcopally-led church structure. For Anglicanism, also, where a parish is known as a megachurch if the congregation has more than 50 people, or with more than 10% of a congregation under the age of 50 years, the arrival of such Latin-loving communities will reinvigorate Anglican life.
Including people who are not inclusive has been one of the trends and accomplishments in contemporary Anglicanism – with various degrees of success. Those who want the Latin Mass hold to a variety of approaches. This spectrum ranges from accepting Pope Francis as the valid leader of the Church who is making serious mistakes all the way to those who claim that there is no pope currently (sedevacantism). To accommodate as many as possible, in Latin Use Anglicanism, the word “pope” will appear, but the name of the Pope will not be included in rites.
Latin, some will be surprised, is acceptable as a language of liturgy in Anglicanism. Article XXIV Of Speaking in the Congregation in such a Tongue as the people understandeth is clear: “It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the Primitive Church to have public Prayer in the Church, or to minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not understanded of the people.” But great effort to help congregants learn and understand Latin is part of the ongoing life of Latin Use Anglicans. Sermons, of course, will be in English; the readings will be in Latin and in English. Congregants will normally have a diglot booklet. A digital phone app is being developed.
Female priests will not be invited to preside at these Latin Masses. Such discrimination is not unusual within Anglicanism where women would also not be welcome to lead in strongly Evangelical parishes. All episcopal acts, similarly, are to be done by male bishops. In the agreement, women bishops can participate in ordinations and consecrations of clergy who will be assigned to these Latin Use communities, but there must be at least one male bishop fully involved in any such ordinations or consecrations.
Ordinariates are not new to Anglicanism. Canadian Anglicanism has a military ordinariate. Peruvian Anglicanism has an ordinariate for Roman Catholic priests who seek to be Anglican. New Zealand has its Tikanga (cultural streams) structure as well as what it calls “Christian Communities” – for example the Anglican Community of St Mark is a collection of NZ parishes and individuals who would not bless a same-sex marriage but are fully part of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia which allows this practice.
Old Catholics have been in full communion with Anglicans for nearly a century. In the ordination of bishops, Old Catholics have, in that time, been fully part of the Anglican apostolic succession [even including that most protestant end of the Anglican spectrum, Sydney]. As the Vatican accepts the validity of Old Catholic ordinations, this means that the nineteenth-century encyclical Apostolicae Curae (On the nullity of Anglican Orders) no longer applies. The Ordinal used by Anglicans and Old Catholics is essentially the same now as that used by post-Vatican II Roman Catholics. Only a very small part of Catholic Latin-Mass lovers would regard post-Vatican II orders as totally null and void. Those will not find the orders of the new provision acceptable either.
Latin Use Anglicans will use a Latin translation of Divine Worship: The Missal. There is strong precedence for Latin in Anglicanism – a good example is provided in the 1560 Liber Precum Publicarum (Latin Book of Common Prayer). This follows the 1559 English BCP, but there are some changes, making it more like the 1549 BCP or the Latin missals. Individual bishops who, in their province are given jus liturgicum (as Anglican bishops are in New Zealand) can also authorise the traditional Latin Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer – page 299).
Nicely done. It’s still the 31st March here.
This is a very welcome development. The unbounded diversity of global Anglican forums can only nourish (let the reader understand) this pioneering fresh expression of church. Anglican liturgy is indeed to be expressed in understandable tongues, which means that I myself, Latin in forms 3, 4, 5 and 6, will be one of the first to join.
Is this an “April Fool” article?
Fr Bosco – the April Fool story is excellent. Stultus Aprilis!!!
Brilliant! I had such fun forwarding this around as “breaking news” to a few people who could stand to lighten up a bit.
So pleased when people enjoyed it 🙂
Due to be published on 1st April ! You really ought to be serious and I dislike this April Fool’s day joke. I am blocking you .
LOL
But would there be enough Catholics who are critical of the language restrictions to make it worthwhile scheduling Latin masses? Is it good to have a critical mass?
And at the moment I am more concerned to see accommodation being made for disaffected Russian Orthodox members who see the rich language of humour in the Bible being lost in modern times. The most humorless of leaders miss the main messages in Scripture. Not only did Sarah laugh, and Jonah did slapstick, but Jesus’s put-downs of temple leaders and his other humorous language got Him in trouble with the kind of person who thought “by the book” means it is fine for people to go unhealed on the Sabbath. Perhaps it takes the “Church of Or”, that continually has so much fun with the lectionary, to do justice to those messages and speak many a true word in jest?
Thanks, Mark. Did you see my sermon on Jesus the Jewish Jester? Blessings.
Is this satire? Or real? I really can’t tell.
As a ‘catholic Anglican and a latinist I am delighted to hear this and would certainly want to ally myself with this move.
This is an elaborate April Fool’s joke, right?
My friend in Rome, Father Primo Aprile, gave me the heads up on this yesterday: great news!
Great, Andrew!
I laughed so hard at this…. Those who missed that one minute detail would actually think this is real news!
[I will let the pseudonym through moderation this time 🙂 ] What was the “one detail” – I included more than one. Blessings.
stultus aprilis
Is this April’s Fool?
Hahaha, almost had me! It’s very funny. I only realised this was an April’s Fool’s article when I remembered that Anglicans have totally null and void sacraments. Jokes on me! Great piece!
Peter, the article talks about that. Blessings.
Mea culpa. Stultissima sum! I fell for it., though it seemed somewhat improbable Should have known better!
Quite appropriate for the day (4/1)
Congratulations on working as many people as you possibly could ALL the way up!!