Dear Parishioners and Friends,

In order to prevent any misunderstanding in the parish, I am writing this brief explanation to you. By now most parishioners know that the Traditional Latin Mass is celebrated at IHM on the first and fourth Sundays of each month. Beginning on Sunday, February 23 , we will have a Traditional Latin Mass every Sunday at 4pm. There will also be a Latin Mass for Ash Wednesday at 5pm. Please note the time change from 5pm to 4pm on the Sundays.

I am asking for your full cooperation in kindly accepting all those who choose to prayerfully assist at the Traditional Latin Mass. The Traditional Latin Mass Society of San Francisco will continue to facilitate these Masses. Our kindness to fellow parishioners and visitors always goes a long way in making our Christian charity known and real. I fully respect the right of Catholics to have this beautiful, solemn, reverent way of celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It’s a good thing. This is also the desire of our Holy Mother, the Church. The celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass in our parish on a regular basis, in addition, has the full support and encouragement of Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, which he has expressed to me personally in writing and verbally at his last visit to the parish in January.

Many are well aware that the first document of the Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium, of December 4, 1963 called for the restoration (instaurare) of the Sacred Liturgy. Sadly, many have never taken time to actually read and study this important document. For example, once someone said to me that this official Vatican II document banned the pipe organ, whereas it explicitly says the exact opposite. Many other examples could be given.

In the United States the first changes in the way Mass was celebrated began on the first Sunday of Advent in 1964. At first changes were made in the rite of the Mass as it was then known. In late 1969 a revised Order of Mass, in a new edition of the Roman Missal, was introduced by order of Pope Saint Paul VI. This was in Latin and then translated into English; and on Palm Sunday in 1970 it was introduced in American churches. At first, it was generally thought that this reform would completely and absolutely replace the rite of the Mass as it had been known before 1969, which had been devoutly and reverently used by Catholics throughout the world for hundreds of years.

Then in the 1980’s the Church began to rethink its position. Pope Saint John Paul II in his Quattuor abhinc annos (1984) and Ecclesia Dei (1988) made clear his mind to facilitate celebrations of the Traditional Latin Mass. Then definitively in decrees published in 2007 and 2011, Pope Benedict XVI, going beyond the regulations of these earlier decrees and replacing them, made it official that the Missal first published by Saint Pius V in 1570 after the Council of Trent was never abrogated. Therefore, the following distinctions are now made: we have two forms of the One Roman Rite; the Extraordinary Form, using the traditional Roman Missal of 1570, last published by Pope Saint John XXIII in 1962 and amended by Pope Benedict XVI; and then what is called the Ordinary

Form, using the Roman Missal first issued in 1969 by Saint Paul VI, now in its third edition published by Saint John Paul II in 2000 and amended by Pope Benedict XVI.

Therefore, it is not acceptable according to the mind of the Church itself to say that the way the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was commonly celebrated before and actually during the Second Vatican Council is suppressed, abrogated, or out of step with the Church in our times. That is not what the liturgical restoration was all about. The Catholic Church prides itself in embracing the new and the old, the nova et vetera. Admittedly, the Extraordinary Form is different from what is commonly practiced now, but for centuries the Catholic Church has always embraced many different rites, or ways, to celebrate the same Eucharistic Sacrifice. In fact, there are 23 different rites in the Catholic Church all under the pope. In recent years, the Church has included the Anglican Roman Rite. For centuries in the Archdiocese of Milan, Italy, there have been two rites that continue to this day – the Roman Rite and the Ambrosian Rite – both of them respected in the same Archdiocese and considered proper, all under the authority of the same Cardinal-Archbishop.

Nevertheless, let me repeat and emphasize the breakthrough, that many still do not get, which advances (develops) the Church’s understanding of matters liturgical: it has been made crystal clear that the Roman Rite is unique from all the other rites in that there is one rite with two forms. Yes, we have one rite of the Mass, but with two forms (Ordinary and Extraordinary) and both forms may be lawfully celebrated by any priest in good standing in any Catholic Church throughout the world. No special indult or permission is required for the Extraordinary Form. That is what the decrees quoted below state precisely to clear up a confusion that had gone on far too long.

The celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the One Roman Rite is guided by two Roman documents referred to above: the Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum (2007) and the Instruction Universae Ecclesiae (2011). Both documents need to be read hand in hand. They have not been abrogated by Pope Francis. They are available online and printed copies are available for those interested at the parish office. The altar missal that the priest is required to use for the Extraordinary Form is the 1962 edition published by Pope Saint John XXIII, which has been reprinted by the Vatican Press in recent years and contains minor revisions by Pope Benedict XVI. The traditional Latin-English hand-missals for the use of the faithful have been reprinted by several publishers. Two of these contain all the Latin and all the English for every day of the year. If you have an old missal with a copyright from 1964 or earlier it should also do. The Ecclesia Dei Commission in Rome under the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith regulates the celebration of the Mass according to the Extraordinary Form.

Another insight that many overlook is that the use of the Extraordinary Form is an ecumenical outreach to Orthodox Christians, who steadfastly maintain a view of the liturgy from apostolic times closer to the Extraordinary Form than to the Ordinary Form. That would also apply to the Eastern rites that are in union with the Pope.

Our regular schedule of Masses will continue as they are now in the Ordinary Form in English. The only change in our schedule is that beginning on March 1, 2020, the First Sunday of Lent, there will be an evening Sunday Mass at 4pm each Sunday, using the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, which must be celebrated in the Latin language though the Scriptures are always repeated in English from the pulpit before the Homily.

Thank you for all you do and for your kind cooperation, as always. Thanks for reading and studying these few lines of clarification.

Yours in the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Fr. Mark G. Mazza, Pastor