Tradisjonalister og immobilister

Michael Davies diskuterer i sin bok om messen (s411-12), hvor viktig det er at det som skjer kan sees og høres. Han skiller da tydelig mellom det som sies til de troende, og det soom sies til Gud – og nevner også noe som handler om tradisjonalisters holdning mer generelt:

… An important distinction must be made here between those parts which are addressed to God and those parts which are addressed to the people, and this is one respect in which there was a place for reform. Certain parts of the Mass are intended for the instruction of the people, the Epistle and Gospel are obvious examples. Prior to the Council these were first read in Latin at the altar and then in the vernacular by the priest, facing the people. It would have been a reasonable extension of the reform undertaken by Pope Pius XII had the rubrics-been modified so that the parts of the Mass intended for the instruction of the people could have been read to them directly in the vernacular.

Those who would oppose such a development are not traditionalists but immobilists. An immobilist is opposed to any change simply because it is a change. It is understandable that many traditionalists, rightly horrified by the destruction of the Roman Rite, have developed an immobilist attitude and oppose any change whatsoever. They would thus make no distinction between a change with serious doctrinal implications, such as the abolition of the Offertory Prayers, and one with no such significance, such as the congregation singing the Pater Noster in a Missa Cantata. The Dialogue Mass is an accepted practice among French traditionalists while some English traditionalists look upon it as tantamount to Modernism. Such an attitude plays into the hands of the Modernists as it enables them to fabricate a caricature of the true traditionalist position.

The most reasonable position to adopt as regards the question of audibility, is that those parts of the Mass intended for the instruction of the people should be read directly to them in the vernacular. Those parts of the Mass addressed to God should be said facing the altar and need not be audible or in the vernacular. In this case, a distinction should be made between such prayers as the Gloria, in which the congregation can join, which can be said aloud, and the Canon, which is said by the priest alone in the person of Christ (in persona Christi), and need not be audible. If this principle is accepted the value of a celebration versus populum as an aid to audibility need not arise. …