Stephen Hand on: The Legacy of Pope Benedict's Papacy

While one man's opinion means nothing, I will personally judge the papacy of Cardinal Ratzinger to have been something of a failure if a universal permission for the Tridentine Mass is not granted before he passes; a universal permission that will give the people of God their due in terms of liturgical diversity, and buttress stronger catechesis while flushing out crypto-sedevacantists from among genuine Catholics who simply want their due.

I certainly may be wrong in this but I believe the time will not likely be more propitious than now, under this papacy, to enact such a gesture of legislation which will force the hands of bishops who have, I think, been intimidated by the sight of a kooky traditionalism, where the heresy of private judgement reigns, as opposed to a sane, beautiful, and substantive traditionalism where the ancient Mass is the presupposition of (not a substitute for) the Evangel manifest in justice, peace and good works. ----Stephen Hand

Guest item on: Pope abolishes Christmas pop concert

From correrspondents in Vatican City
August 31, 2006
© The Australian

THE Pope has abolished the Vatican's traditional Christmas concert because he does not share his predecessor's taste for pop music and wants to avoid scandal, the Italian media reported today.

“Pope Ratzinger prefers Mozart and Bach to 'pop' music and thus, after 12 years, the traditional Vatican Christmas concert comes to an end,” the daily La Stampa said.

The annual charity concert, organised since its inception by the Prime Time Promotion events agency, will be transferred to Monaco beginning this year, the paper reported. More...

Stephen Hand on: What the World is Waiting For

I have long said to friends, what the world is waiting for is a community within the Church which makes the Tridentine Mass its presupposition, not its message. A community which makes the Gospel its message and life, the preferential love for the poor, the engagement with the world, the invitation to consider the claims and life of the One who declared Himself to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

When the Tridentine Mass is seen to quietly but powerfully fuel such an 'Evangelical' movement, as its presupposition, not its focus, it will be a Kairos, a moment of grace. The Kerygma of the early Church was the Church's focus, fueled by the Mass, the Kerygma's very presupposition. When the order is sadly reversed, one is not far away from polemics, imbalance and the unseemly disfigurement of the Church's proclamation. Oxygen is the presupposition of Life, it does not swallow up all the spiritual and existential aspects of living itself. ---Stephen Hand

Stephen Hand on: Why the Tridentine Mass Should Become Universal Again?

It is not because I find the new Mass spiritually unfulfilling that I long for a general permission / restoration of the Tridentine Mass in all the parishes of the world for those who desire it. When I attend the Novus Ordo I pray the Mass, just as I do when I attend the Indult mass. I find Jesus in the Novus ordo, come to us as Real Presence, just as I do in the Tridentine Mass. Keeping our eyes on Him is everything. And there is not a word in the "new" Mass which either offends me or troubles me. They are the words of the Church, after all, and presuppose the whole Catholic patrimony. And, especially since the Jubilee year, I have seen improvements in terms of sacred ethos and ambience almost everywhere. Even the simplicity of the new Mass is a plus, not a negative. When we look at HIM, and mortify the temptation to look at the liturgy and others critically, we can gain every grace and lose nothing.

The reason I long for the general return of the Tridentine Mass, however, (without prejudice to the reformed missal of 1970, since so many are content and spiritually whole with the Novus Ordo) is because I think our generation needs more catechesis; and the Tridentine Mass is more explicitly a virtual recapitulation of the whole Catholic faith. One cannot but learn the whole Faith every time a person assists at the Tridentine Mass.

Very many could use this catechesis in our time of relativism, liberalism, and "sound bite" attention spans. Moreover, it is only more consistent with the liturgical diversity which Catholics need not fear, but welcome. ---Stephen Hand