The new “Mass of the Ages” film released on YouTube on 19 March – and the third in a trilogy about the Latin Mass – is the most moving yet.
“We want to bring back the human, the true, the real,” says the mother of a French priest. “For everything in life…when we deal with a subject without there being an exchange between people, without a connection by the eyes, the voice, the emotion – we can be misled.”
Valerie d’Aubigny, the speaker, was part of a group of elderly mothers – all of whom have sons who are priests – who took it upon themselves to walk the staggering distance of around 1,500 kilometres from Paris to Rome to plead with Pope Francis personally to show mercy and leniency towards Catholics devoted to the ancient rite of the Mass. The women also delivered over 2,500 letters to the Holy Father from the faithful making the same appeal.
Titled “Guardians of the Tradition” (a direct translation of Pope Francis’ Traditiones Custodes), this third instalment of the “Mass of the Ages” series captures many stories like that of d’Aubigny and the French mothers. It offers a different perspective on who the real guardians of the tradition might be – the ones whose lives and efforts and sufferings are keeping the flame of tradition alive.
While parts one (“Discover the Latin Mass”) and two (“A Perfect Storm”) in the series focus on the devotional merit in the Traditional Latin Mass and the controversy surrounding its ecclesiastical suppression in the 1960s and 70s respectively, this third instalment focuses, as d’Aubigny exhorts, on the human component.
It introduces us to the people and souls – the sisters, brothers, layfolk, priests and bishops – who devote their Christian lives to a love of Jesus Christ as made manifest in the ancient, prayerful and beautiful liturgy of the Church. It movingly showcases their zeal, joy, and burning faith. It puts real flesh and bones on an issue that can otherwise all-too-easily become abstract and conceptual.
Such is the case when the viewer is introduced to the humble family of a Mexican beekeeper, whose wife makes devotional candles from their beeswax – lit before they sit reciting Latin prayers in front of their elegant and meticulously-decorated home altar, or when they sit down to meals following a Latin grace positioned between bottles of Coca Cola on one side and bowls of guacamole on the other. Jesús and Ana Lucia Martinez have driven for over two hours every Sunday to reach their nearest Latin Mass – since their more local traditional parish was shut down. Their devotion highlights the breadth and variety among the souls who are so often penetrated to the core by this ancient religious ritual.
“When I discovered the Traditional Latin Mass, I felt robbed,” says Mrs Martinez, explaining: “We did not know this way of living Catholicism until we came to know the Tridentine Mass.”
The films are something of an apologia for the old liturgy. The liturgical question remains a pressing issue in the Church which a significant number of more middle-of-the-road Catholics are left scratching their head at. Many simply don’t understand why squabbles over different forms of the Mass are something to get so hung up about. These films clarify why, embolden those who already love the old liturgy, and invite those yet unfamiliar with it to come and witness this particular growing corner of the Church where the Latin Mass resides and is both alive and bearing fruit.
“Guardians of Tradition”, like its predecessors, is incredibly well produced, gripping and oftentimes one wonders if the whole cohort of a professional Hollywood studio hasn’t been contracted to record and put the film together. They weren’t. The films are solely a lay-Catholic initiative. Its makers, spearheaded by Cameron O’Hearn in the United States, are merely competent and passionate about what they do. It is cinematically and audibly impressive – even more commendable when you realise this free-to-watch initiative is entirely enabled by the generosity of donors.
The film’s opening is one of the most impressive segments. In case anyone would be liable to think a film about a Catholic liturgy something trivial and frivolous, it sets the scene in a manner that’s likely to render the viewer mute (and uncomfortable). We’re given a jolting and awakening slap in the face through reality – and the gravity of the situation. We’re faced with the evidence, in bleak and visceral scenes, of crumbling churches and the rapid collapse and disappearance of a 2,000-year inheritance.
Though it can appear in the rhythms of weekly parish life that all is plodding along in the Catholic world with relative stability, the truth is Holy Mother Church is in crisis. She is haemorrhaging souls, whilst her traditional heartlands are becoming oblivious to even the most elementary rubrics of the Faith, abandoning God and comfortable in their indifference. The Catechism aptly calls the liturgy the “source and summit of Christian life”. In the 1960s, the Church itself chose to undermine this pillar and foundation of her life – is it any wonder we now we have churches struggling not to completely collapse?
The liturgical question is not unrelated to this problem, as all evidence shows the catastrophe began at the same time the new Mass was being introduced. The film therefore invites the viewer who loves the Church and wishes to see her save souls to not take the issue lightly.
Familiar faces such as the UK’s own Dr Joseph Shaw, head of the Latin Mass Society, and Diane Montagna, a seasoned Vatican correspondent and regular contributor to the Catholic Herald, make an appearance and offer their expertise. As do many of the foremost lions of the traditional Catholic world such as Bishop Athanasius Schneider.
In one particular highlight in the film, we follow Bishop Schneider to the picturesque landscape of Tanzania beneath the graceful aegis of Mount Kilimanjaro, with shots of the nearby giraffes and sheep. Beaming Swahili are joyfully processing in traditional folk dances to a capella music seasoned with Scriptural verses. We witness them kneeling, eagerly and reverently receiving the Eucharist on the tongue – and singing the Sanctus at the top of their lungs. If anyone were to suggest this Mass is something only for the stuffy, antiquated, academic first-world types – reality once again provides a rude awakening.
After the Mass, a number of the congregation are interviewed. Nearly ecstatic, they readily confess they do not understand what the Latin means – but they nonetheless want to. They think it’s very beautiful and struggle to believe that the Faith which produces such magnificence can have anything other than heavenly times ahead.
We are introduced to a cheery and thoughtful African priest: Fr Antonius Mamsery, superior general of the Missionaries of the Holy Cross. Gently chortling to himself, he reveals the story of how many of the parishioners had approached him, asking if they could be given written translations of the Latin in order that they might follow along and understand in the Mass. He agreed and provisionally loaned out various copies of Latin-Swahili translations (due to a lack of paper) only for most to mysteriously go missing anyway and never be returned. His congregation wanted to keep hold of them. Soon, as a video filmed on a mobile phone shows us, an elderly woman of about 90 years old, hunchbacked in her old age, was found singing the Credo (the Latin Nicene Creed) perfectly and without a single error.
Reflecting on the propriety of the Catholic Church having a reserved sacred language for her liturgy across the world, Fr Mamsery suggests it profoundly and mystically brings us all much closer together as brothers and sisters in Christ into the bosom of Holy Mother Church.
“At a former time,” he explains, “when we had the Gregorian chants, it was the same voice: una voce dicentes. Like yesterday – it was the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady. All churches in the world were singing the same voice…Gaudea-a-amus omne-e-es…All! In China, in Argentina, in Germany, in South Africa…One Church. One voice. One prayer!”
The film offers a plethora of different perspectives, insights, and opinions from a wide array of the foremost Catholic theologians and writers, publishers, clerics and media personalities. It is not attempting to hammer home one arbitrary opinion at the expense of all others, but merely portray and exhibit the reality of the burning passion, fidelity, and faith of the souls attached to the Traditional Latin Mass. In this, it does an excellent job.
There is much more one might discuss or describe; suffice to say the film rounds off back with the French mothers distraught at the news that, despite their having met Pope Francis face to face and his receiving their plea, the Vatican has published Cardinal Arthur Roche’s rescript of Traditiones Custodes. This removed permission for bishops to make provisions for Latin Mass parishes within their diocese as they saw fit – entailing a yet further clampdown.
The film leaves us, though, on a theological note of encouragement and the wise words of the venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Christians have always thrived and been strengthened under persecution – ours is a religion born in catastrophe and defeat. The resurrection is always preceded by calvary. We await the resurrection of the Church and the traditional Mass. The seeds of which, as “Guardians of Tradition” so beautifully shows, are already planted and budding forth.
The Catholic Herald was generously given exclusive access to this new film weeks in advance. It released on 19 March and can be viewed by clicking here.
(Photos: screenshots from film.)
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