01:00 AM EST on Saturday, March 6, 2004

BY RICHARD C. DUJARDIN
Journal Religion Writer

PROVIDENCE -- It was, and still is, called the old Latin Mass.

Older Catholics may remember it quite well. It's the Mass replete with phrases such as "Dominus Vobiscum" and the priest reciting the prayers and readings facing the tabernacle and crucifix rather than the people.

A Mass that some Catholics say they are glad to be rid of, since they could never quite get accustomed to hearing everything in Latin. A Mass that other Catholics see as providing a sense of awe, holiness and mystery.

No matter what one's position is on the old Tridentine Mass, one thing is clear: the Mass that many Catholics thought had gone out of existence in the wake of Vatican II has been back, and back for a long time, at Holy Name of Jesus Church on Camp Street on the city's East Side.

"Introibo ad altare Dei. Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam . . . . I will go to the altar of God. The God of my gladness and joy."

While it's true that the Tridentine rite has begun to fade from Catholics' collective memory -- since most younger Catholics weren't even born yet when the rite was replaced -- a small but growing cadre of believers has come on the scene convinced that the Latin Mass is not only good for their own souls, but that it can help others as well.

They were among the more than 500 people who turned out last week for a special celebration of the Latin Mass at Holy Name. Though the traditional rite has been celebrated every Sunday at 11 a.m. for all of the last 10 years, parishioners pulled out all stops for this celebration since it marked the 10th anniversary of the official return of the Tridentine Mass to Rhode Island.

There were the bells and the incense, of course, and the worshipers kneeling at the altar rail to receive communion. But more than that, this was to a liturgy unlike any other celebrated in Rhode Island in at last 40 years: a Pontifical Solemn Mass at the Faldstool, celebrated by Bishop James C. Timlin, the recently retired bishop of Scranton, Pa., and a longtime supporter of the Latin Mass.'

While there had been a traditionalist chapel in Cumberland that began celebrating the Latin Mass in the 1980s without the approval of the bishop, the first authorized Tridentine Rite Mass came when then Bishop Louis E. Gelineau decided to allow Holy Name, which had been celebrating the "new" Mass in Latin to go to the older rite, with the permission of Pope John Paul II. The authorization was continued by Bishop Robert E. Mulvee, who was also present at last week's Mass.

Given the occasion, parish organizers moved to make last week's celebration a two-day event, starting out with a full-day conference on the theme, "Reclaiming Our Catholic Culture," drawing on such speakers as Sister Katherine Maria, prioress of the St. Benedict Center in Still River, Mass., C. Joseph Doyle, executive director of the Massachusetts branch of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights; and the Rev. John T. Zuhlsdorf, a priest currently studying and working in Rome in addition to writing columns for the the Wanderer, a conservative Catholic weekly, on Latin in the liturgy.

Former Lutheran

Coming at a time when so many Catholics find themselves unable to go to a weekly celebration of the Latin Mass, Father Zuhlsdorf said Catholics in Rhode Island who love the Latin Mass should realize how fortunate they are.

"There are Catholics all over the country who would die for what you have here," said the priest, a former Lutheran who converted to Catholicism after attending a course in Latin in Minnesota.

At a banquet after the conference, Bishop Timlin said Catholics have become too much a part of the "secular culture." The only way to bring society, and the church, back on track is "the old-fashioned way, becoming more spiritual persons."

But he acknowledged that such a simple thing as encouraging a return of the Latin Mass is not easy even for a bishop, noting that he initially ran into opposition from his own priests when he first raised the subject of bringing back the Latin Mass. As it was, he said, the opposition vanished when he declared that it was the way it was going to be.

And does the Latin Mass really have a future?

Mark Berado, a Holy Name parishioner and a title examiner from Westerly, points to himself as evidence that one need not be "old" to love the Latin Mass.

"I have no memory of the old Mass," said Berardo, 44, "If you go to the Mass, you'll see young parents with children. They don't have any memory of it either. Yet this is where they come."

Berardo, whose wife, Sandra, is an attorney, said both of them became acquainted with the Mass at Holy Name when they dropped in one day 9 1/2 years ago while searching for a church. They were so impressed they have come back ever since, even after they moved to Westerly.

He says he once heard a priest define a traditional Catholic as one who wants to live his faith "in organic unity with those Catholics who have preceded him into eternity."

That seems to fit the definition of himself and many of the other people he knows at Holy Name where, Berardo observes, Latin Mass attendance has grown from about 60 seven years ago to roughly 135 now.

By way of an aside, he said he thinks filmmaker Mel Gibson, who made the film The Passion of the Christ, is a source of pride for many traditionalists, since Gibson too is a lover of the Latin Mass and appears to have been inspired by it.

On the other hand, the Rev. Kevin Fisette, Holy Name's pastor, said he's tired of hearing Catholics being labeled as liberals, conservatives or traditionists. "The fact is we're all Roman Catholics."

Diverse community

He said it should be understood that Holy Name is a diverse community, and that not everyone attends the Latin Mass. The Saturday Mass at 4 p.m., for example, is attended by older parishioners who prefer the newer rite. So too, he said, the 9 a.m. Sunday Mass, with music by the Holy Name Gospel Choir, is popular with "people of color," while the 12:15 p.m. Mass is popular with people from Liberia and Nigeria.

He says he warns people not to get into the trap of thinking that one particular rite is better than others. True, he said, Latin Masses at Holy Name tend to be reverential, "but let's be honest. When there were Latin Masses everywhere, in some of the Masses there was more mumbling than anything," the priest said. "When I was a kid, all I heard was mumbling."

Since his arrival in the parish seven years ago, Father Fisette has seen increased receptivity to the Latin Mass among priests under 50.

But to be selfish about it, he said, he'd prefer not to see the Tridentine rite in other parishes. Rather, he'd like to see everyone coming to Holy Name.