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At St. Bridget of Kildare Parish in Moodus, CT, as in many other parishes in Roman
Catholic Dioceses in the United States, the ancient Mass of the Catholic
Church, offered in Latin by a priest facing in the same direction as the
people, is being heard by a growing number of Catholics, loyal to both the
Pope and to the local Bishop but personally attached to the traditional
Catholic liturgy. Many of these people, both young and old, are
also discovering for the first time, the transcendental intensity and the
quiet reverence that characterizes the so-called "traditional
Mass", a solemn liturgy of ancient and noble lineage.
The traditional Latin Mass represented almost
1900 years of organic growth in the ancient Christian liturgy. That
liturgy was finally "codified" by St. Pope Pius V in 1570 as part
of his implementation of the disciplinary reforms required by the Council
of Trent (1545-1563). The Latin name for Trent was "Tridentum", and for that reason, the rite is
commonly called the "Tridentine
Mass". During the following 400 years, there were only minor
changes to that "codified" liturgy. However, following
the close of Vatican II in the late 1960s, Pope Paul VI instituted the Novus Ordo Missae, the so-called "New Mass", and, in
1970, the older rite was essentially suppressed. But in 1984, Pope
John Paul II issued the Papal Indult, Quattour
Abhinc Annos,
which permitted the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass under
certain conditions and when specifically permitted by the local bishop.
In 1988, the Pope broadened the permissible celebration of the Tridentine Mass by issuing his Apostolic Letter, Ecclesia
Dei Adflicta, in which he declared that
"respect must be shown everywhere" for the
"rightful aspirations of all the Catholic faithful" who find
themselves "attached to the liturgical and disciplinary forms of the
Latin tradition" and then urged all local bishops to provide a
"wide and generous application" of the permission initially set
forth in the 1984 Indult. After that time, the Tridentine
Mass slowly began to return to the Roman Catholic liturgical scene, not
as a challenge to the prevailing rite, but in order to meet "the
rightful aspirations" of those faithful Catholics who prefer it over the modern rite.
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On
July 7, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued, motu proprio, his Apostolic Letter, Summorum
Pontificum in which he decreed that the Tridentine form of the Roman Rite, as contained in
the typical edition of the Roman Missal promulgated by Bl. John XXIII in 1962, had never been abrogated,
that it comprised the “extraordinary form” of the Roman Rite and that its
use was entirely permissible subject to the guidelines set forth in the
Apostolic Letter. The rules for
the use of the Tridentine form of the Roman
Rite officially took effect on September 14, 2007, the Feast of the Exultation
of the Cross.
In the Diocese of Norwich, Bishop Daniel Reilly
first re-authorized the celebration of the Tridentine
Mass at St. Joseph Church in North Grovenorsdale
in 1990, and appointed the pastor there, Father Gregoire
J. Fluet, to undertake a particular apostolate
to those Roman Catholics who preferred the more ancient rite. The
next Bishop of Norwich, Daniel Hart, re-confirmed that apostolate in
1997. In 1998, the Tridentine Mass
apostolate moved to St. Bridget`s in Moodus, where Father Fluet
is now the pastor. Upon his investiture as the current Bishop of
Norwich, Bishop Michael R. Cote, again re-confirmed the Traditional Mass
apostolate. Most recently, on
August 15, 2007, Bishop Cote, in beginning to implement the provisions of
Summorum Pontificum,
replaced the Diocese’s “Tridentine Mass
Apostolate” with the new “Ecclesia Dei Ministry” for the Diocese of
Norwich and named Father Fluet as the first
Chaplain and Head of that Ministry.
The Tridentine Mass
that is celebrated at St. Bridget`s is usually
a "Low Mass", but a "Missa
Cantata", or sung "High Mass" is celebrated on some
Sundays and feastdays during the liturgical
year, and is sometimes accompanied by a men’s "schola
cantorum" singing the appropriate
Gregorian Chants for that day. All Catholics and any non-Catholics
who might be interested in seeing the ancient Latin Mass are always
welcome at St. Bridget`s. For the Mass Schedule, click here.
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