Latin confirmation is outlawed in Vatican modernisation drive
THE first Catholic churches in England have begun scrapping Latin confirmation services amid the Pope’s drive to modernise the Church.
Following a diktat from Rome, English bishops are now cancelling scores of old rite confirmations in favour of the simpler reformed liturgies.
The new guidelines, published last month, ban ordinations and confirmations in the unreformed liturgy and severely restrict other sacraments.
These guidelines will prevent a priest from offering sacraments in the old rite without permission.
As a result, churches in England are cancelling their Latin confirmation services. Joseph Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society, said: “They’re not stopping it because it’s not popular, they’re stopping it because it is popular and that worries them – because it’s not what they’re used to. They’ve spent their lives using the reformed liturgy, and essentially have devoted their lives to pushing a mistake. That’s a painful thing to admit. Young people like traditional Mass, it has perennial value and a more classic style.”
The Latin Mass is a Roman Catholic service celebrated in Ecclesiastical Latin. While the liturgy is in Latin, sermons are given in the local vernacular.
Preparations for around 20 confirmations in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite were scheduled to take place at the Birmingham Oratory this month and more than 40 were expected to be conferred at St James’s Church, Spanish Place, London, in June.
However, all of them have been cancelled after the Responsa ad dubia, published in December by the Congregation for Divine Worship, which suggested old rite liturgies were impermissible.
The crackdown by the Vatican was intended to halt possible divisions within the Church following the growing popularity of the old rite – particularly among young people and families, with one senior official claiming devotion to the Latin Mass had become a movement which was “out of control”.
However, priests who continue to offer Mass in both the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms said the move had alienated many of the faithful, leaving them “bewildered and flummoxed” and failing to grasp why they were being punished.
The Pope has issued warnings about the tendency of neo-traditionalism among younger clergy, telling fellow Jesuits in Africa in 2019: “Have you never seen young priests all stiff in black cassocks and hats in the shape of the planet Saturn on their heads? Behind all the rigid clericalism there are serious problems.”
A spokesman for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said: “Pope Francis is presiding over a reform in the broadest sense. This reform is examining every area of administration and practice.”