His Holiness, Pope Francis wrote, in his 2021 letter, Traditionis Custodes, that:

An opportunity offered by St. John Paul II and, with even greater magnanimity, by Benedict XVI, intended to recover the unity of an ecclesial body with diverse liturgical sensibilities, was exploited to widen the gaps, reinforce the divergences, and encourage disagreements that injure the Church, block her path, and expose her to the peril of division.

When the Archdiocese of Washington, DC acted on Traditionis Custodes by limiting the regular use of the Latin or Tridentine mass to three churches and requiring other churches that wish to use the Latin mass to not only apply for permission, but for the priests who wish the celebrate the Latin mass to affirm, in writing, the validity of the Second Vatican Council, better known at Vatican II. In other words, to make a firm statement that would, among other thing, affirm their participation in the unity of the Church.

The Washington Post wrote that this was “spurring anger from church traditionalists.” More recently. In a later article, the Post recorded that, “Many who attend Latin Mass say they value the chance to meditate and contemplate during the long stretches when the priest is speaking quietly in Latin.”

The last quote struck me as I was reading Romano Guardini’s 1931 book, The Spirit of the Liturgy, because Guardini specifically argues that the idea of the mass as a time for individualized contemplation is wrong in a very important. Of course, he did not predict that nearly one hundred years later, the Latin mass would be a tool for division (seeing as how the Latin mass was the rule when he wrote it), but he clearly saw how the liturgy could be misused and misunderstood by making it about individuals and small groups, as the Pope saw happening, rather than as something universal. When writing about the fellowship of the liturgy, he is clear: except in certain, very specific actions, “the liturgy does not say “I,” but “We.”” In fact, the liturgy is a form of renouncement by each congregant of that which “exists merely for itself and excludes others.” He goes on to say, “It is not to serve as a model for the spiritual life of the individual, but for that of a corporate body.”

This, I believe, is why Pope Francis issued the letter: the Latin mass was being misused by certain individuals so as not to benefit the whole body of the Church, but as an exclusionary tool to signify an elect and indulge desires to feel superior to the majority of the Church Body.

The Spirit readily acknowledges independent cases, determined individually and on their merits, but when exceptions become the rule for small groups, the Church suffers from a lack of unity in the spiritual act which both its primary tool for pedagogy and for directing Catholics, as the Body of the Church, towards God, who is our end.

The liturgy is not about the “attitude to be adopted,” but the “form taken by the permanent legislation which will henceforth exercise an enduring influence upon the soul,” a clear call for obedience to Church teachings like Vatican II.

Church shopping is something we can all acknowledge happens in our society and Guardini does not address it in The Spirit. There will always be differences between parishes in culture; one may feel more welcoming than another to young people or parents with children at home or simply feel more like home because it has a particular ethnic or cultural identity, as in our Lady of China parish, here in the District, which offers mass Mandarin and Cantonese, or Saint Augustine, which was founded by emancipated Black Catholics and is still a symbol of the city’s Black Catholic community. But these differences are, ultimately, about making the parishioners feel part of the corporate body of the whole Church and not making a particular group separate from that body, for, “the primary and exclusive aim of the liturgy is not the expression of the individual’s reverence and worship for god,” because “the liturgical entity consists rather the united body of the faithful as such – the Church – a body which infinitely outnumbers the mere congregation.”

Guardini tells us that the entire gathering should take an “active share” in the execution of the liturgy and that everyone attending is “obliged to follow with a certain amount of attention.” Without discounting the possibility that a few attendees at the regular Latin masses that used to occur at seven parishes through the city were fluent in Latin, it can be safely said that most did not. After all, the quote about meditating when the priest was speaking in Latin clearly implies that they listeners were not understanding the words, but engaging in individual meditation while priest spoke, more or less unintelligibly in the background. And I do not accept that having memorized the meaning of repeated phrases or knowing certain words in Latin, as I do, is the equivalent of participating in a liturgy performed in a language in which the majority of the congregation is fluent.

I freely admit that I have attended Tridentine masses on several occasions and enjoyed them very much, but after reading The Spirit of the Liturgy and appreciating the wisdom of Traditionis Custodes, I also see the danger that lies within that appreciation. As someone who sees myself as exceptionally well educated, a person with a particular love of art, symbolism, history, and philosophy, my attendance reinforced feelings of difference, rather than unity. I also fell into the error of “appreciating the Church’s worship merely for the sake of its aesthetic value.”

I also do not believe that anyone in the Archdiocese meant for the Latin mass to represent separation from the body of the church, only that the regular use of it by parish congregations had been corrupted by a few so that it became a symbol of division, exclusion, and even disobedience, however well meaning.

This does not mean I will never attend another one, because there is certainly room for the particular form of personal contemplation it encourages in me and, apparently, in others. But, as Guardini emphasizes, that kind of individualism should remain the exception. So, my rule will be to follow his teachings, supported by the wisdom of Traditionis Custodes, through regular attendance at the standard masses offered at my parish of St. Peter’s on Capitol Hill and to participate in them as a small, but vital part of the corporate body of the Church.