Thomas Reese, S.J., has written a column at RNS entitled “Why I hate the old Latin Mass: A confession”.
It is presented as satire, even though satire normally requires wit, and confession requires contrition. Reese supplies neither in any detectable quantity.
The conceit of his piece is that a “Penitent” confesses his hatred of the traditional Roman Mass to a priest. Reese proffers a fictional “Penitent”. Coincidentally, the “Penitent” seems to possess opinions, liturgical notions, and grievances rather like those of Reese himself. He even admits to anger and arrogance. This is self-projection disguised as dialogue. Reese supplies the accusations, places them in the “Penitent’s” unrepentant mouth, and then grants himself absolution.
Reese is the “Penitent” (aka R.I.P), who hates the old Mass because it survived his generation’s attempt to bury it, it attracts people without his permission, and it challenges the progressive certainty that history had rendered its final verdict and moved on with the Novus Ordo.
The Jesuit opens his self-projecting confession with:
Penitent: The old Latin Mass is like a zombie. When we went from Latin into English in 1964, we thought it was dead, but it keeps coming back. We thought it would fade away or people would be satisfied with going to a Latin version of the new liturgy. Not so.
Au contraire! The traditional Mass is not the zombie in this dialogue. The zombie is the exhausted liturgical ideology that has been staggering about since the 1970s, still insisting that its enemies are dead.
Continue reading at Fr. Z’s Substack