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Under the patronage of St. Tammany
Mark C. N. Sullivan is an editor at a Massachusetts university. He is married and the father of three children. Email
Tuesday, July 01, 2003 The Tablet on the Latin Mass
The writer is not a friendly witness, but lets proponents present their case, which they do well. The last graf is worth noting:
On the face of it, to deny Fr Armand appears churlish and unkind. That is certainly the view of St Bede’s parish priest, Fr Christopher Basden, who feels the Church should be big enough and inclusive enough to keep these traditionalists inside. Were the preference for the old rite to be merely one of taste and style, I could agree, but the liturgy with its rituals have potent meanings that hark back to days gone by. The Tridentine Mass looked and sounded splendid, but it was a blessed relief to go to my usual service the following Sunday.
So the writer, who earlier purports to have had difficulty making heads or tails of the rite, ultimately discerns in the Tridentine "potent meanings" not in accordance with the current Mass and, thus, in need of suppression. Sounds like an admission the Novus Ordo is indeed different from the Old Mass, not only in form but in the messages it is meant to convey.