San José, Costa Rica, Jul 20, 2021 / 14:01 pm (CNA).
The Costa Rican bishops’ conference on Monday declared that no expression of the liturgy prior to that of 1970 is authorized for use in the country’s eight dioceses.
“From now on the use of the Missale Romanum of 1962 or of any other of the expressions of the liturgy prior to 1970 is not authorized,” the bishops’ conference stated July 19. The bishops added that “no priest is authorized to continue celebrating according to the old liturgy.”
The bishops said that in communion with Pope Francis they have welcomed his motu proprio Traditionis custodes, which establishes restrictions on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.
“As a fruit of the pastoral discernment that we carried out in communion with many other members of the faithful, the bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Costa Rica are convinced that there is no objective justification for using the liturgy prior to the 1970 reform among us.”
“Always in communion with Pope Francis, we have welcomed the Motu Propio ‘Traditionis Custodes’. Each of us has made the corresponding theological-pastoral discernment,” they added.
The bishops stressed that “what the Roman Pontiff has published is the result of a synodal process in which our Costa Rican Bishops’ Conference has also participated.” In addition, the motu proprio “has been reflected upon at the diocesan level” as well as “collegially.”
Regarding their decision, the bishops explained, “we have never had a group of faithful who adhered and continue to adhere with much love and affection to the previous liturgical forms.”
They also argued that “some believed that these old liturgical forms were ‘particularly suitable for them,’” but “in reality they did not have a level of liturgical formation and access to the Latin language that would allow them ‘full, conscious and active participation in liturgical celebrations required by the nature of the liturgy itself.’”
They added that “those who show an affinity for the old forms do not always express their appreciation for ‘the validity and legitimacy of the liturgical reform, the dictates of Vatican II and the Magisterium of the Supreme Pontiffs’”.
The bishops said that seminarians and new priests will have a formation “clearly directed to the appreciation and practice of the liturgy made pristine again by the Second Vatican Council, which is ‘the only expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite’”.
“It is clear that the liturgy reformed by Vatican Council II has all the conditions to elevate the human being and strengthen his spiritual life, while responding in a balanced way to the authentic anthropological and cultural needs of the person praying in our times,” they said.
The Costa Rican bishops noted “that our liturgy, celebrated according to the books promulgated by Saints Paul VI and John Paul II, must be preserved from any element originating from the old forms … In our celebrations, prayers, vestments or rites that were typical of the liturgy prior to the 1970 reform must not be introduced,” they added.
Finally, the Costa Rican bishops prayed for the intercession of the Virgin Mary “so that the believers who live in Costa Rica know how to live and nurture ecclesial communion also through the Liturgy, which must be a ferment and culmination of unity.”
The bishops’ statement is signed by Bishop Jose Manuel Garita Herrera of Ciudad Quesada, president of the conference; Bishop Mario Enrique Quiros Quiros of Cartago, vice president of the conference and president of the national liturgy commission; and Bishop Daniel Francisco Blanco Mendez, auxiliary bishop of San Jose de Costa Rica and secretary general of the conference.
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other government officials held bilateral meetings with Pope Francis and Cardinal Pietro Parolin on July 27, 2022, during the pope’s trip to that country. / Credit: pool VAMP
Denver Newsroom, Oct 27, 2022 / 19:00 pm (CNA).
The Catholic population in Canada has declined by almost 2 million people in the last 10 years, the Canadian census has found in a report that indicates the religiously unaffiliated now outnumber Catholics.
The latest census figures, compiled in 2021, show the Catholic Canadian population has declined to 10.9 million. Catholics now make up about 29.9% of the country’s people. According to the 2011 census, the Catholic population that year was 12.8 million.
Just 53.3% of Canadians, 19.3 million people, now identify as Christian, a decline from 67.3% in 2011 and 77.1% in 2001. Statistics Canada, Canada’s national statistical office, presented the latest figures in an Oct. 26 report.
Catholicism is still the most popular religious affiliation in all provinces and territories except for Nunavut, the sparse population of which has a large Anglican component.
Quebec is the only majority Catholic province, but Catholic numbers declined “considerably,” Statistics Canada said. In 2011, 74.7% of Quebec residents reported that they were Catholic. The 2021 figures indicate 53.8% of Quebec residents identified as Catholic.
CNA contacted the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Archdiocese of Quebec for comment but did not receive a response by publication.
Among other Christian identities in Canada, the most numerous are the 7.6% of Canadians who identify as Christian without specifying a denomination. This is double the proportion from 2011.
About 3% of Canadians are adherents to the United Church of Canada, a mainline ecclesial community, and another 3% belong to the Anglican Church. Orthodox Christians, Baptists, and Pentecostal and other Charismatic Christians make up the remainder.
Among Christians, only the Orthodox Christian population and the non-specific Christian population grew in the last decade.
Religious practice has also declined. A separate Canada Statistics summary, released in October 2021, said that in 2019 only about 20% of Canadians attended group religious activities at least monthly. This compares to 40% of Canadians who reported the same in 1985. Women were more likely than men to declare a religious affiliation, as were people born in older generations.
The religiously unaffiliated now make up 34.6% of the Canadian population, according to Statistics Canada’s latest report.
Some regions are less affiliated than others. Almost 60% of the people in Yukon are religiously unaffiliated, as are 52% of those in British Columbia.
Non-Christian religious adherents make up 12.1% of Canada’s population.
About 5% of Canadians are Muslim. Their population has doubled in size since 2011. About 2.3% of Canadians are Hindu and 2.1% are Sikh. The Jewish population numbers about 335,000, a slight increase over the last decade, but their proportion of Canadians has declined to 0.9%. They are slightly outnumbered by self-identified Buddhists.
Non-Christian religious adherents disproportionately live in large urban centers and their numbers have increased largely due to immigration. They make up 16.3% of the population in Ontario, with Muslims and Hindus the most populous. About 16.7% of British Columbia residents adhere to non-Christian religions and Canada’s Sikhs have their largest presence there.
Canada’s 1.8-million indigenous people are largely unaffiliated, with 47% reporting no affiliation. About 26.9% identified as Catholic. Only 81,000 people overall, about 0.2 percent of the total Canadian population, reported adhering to a traditional Indigenous spirituality.
Catholic involvement with government-subsidized residential schools for Indigenous Canadians has come under scrutiny in recent decades because of these schools’ efforts to eradicate indigenous culture and assimilate children to the dominant culture. Many of the schools were poorly run and poorly funded, while staff could be negligent or even abusive towards children. Thousands of children died of injury, neglect or diseases like tuberculosis, often at a rate far higher than other children in Canada.
In 2021, reports suggested there were several hundred unmarked graves at two former residential schools. Though the suspected graves have not been exhumed, the reports led to a wave of protests and burnings and vandalism of churches, including churches that still serve Indigenous communities.
The number of hate-based incidents targeting Catholics increased by more than 260% between 2020 and 2021, according to crime figures from Statistics Canada.
Pope Francis visited Canada in 2022 to apologize for Catholics’ role in the residential schools.
In addition to abuse scandals, Canadian law and culture continue to diverge from Catholic belief on abortion, euthanasia, and LGBT issues. There are also disputes over the identity and effectiveness of Catholic schools, some of which are state-funded but supervised by elected lay Catholics, not Church officials. These could be other factors in the decline of Catholic numbers in Canada.
Maureen McKinley milks one of her family’s goats in their backyard with help from three of her children, Madeline (behind), Fiona and Augustine on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021. McKinley and her family own two goats, chickens, a rabbit, and a dog. / Jake Kelly
Denver Newsroom, Aug 10, 2021 / 16:32 pm (CNA).
With five children ages 10 and under to care for, and a pair of goats, a rabbit, chickens and a dog to tend to, Maureen and Matt McKinley rely on a structured routine to keep their busy lives on track.
Chores, nap times, scheduled story hours – they’re all important staples of their day. But the center of the McKinleys’ routine, what focuses their family life and strengthens their Catholic faith, they say, is the Traditional Latin Mass.
Its beauty, reverence, and timelessness connect them to a rich liturgical legacy that dates back centuries.
“This is the Mass that made so many saints throughout time,” observes Maureen, 36, a parishioner at Mater Misericordiæ Catholic Church in Phoenix.
“You know what Mass St. Alphonsus Ligouri, St. Therese, St. Teresa of Avila and St. Augustine were attending? The Traditional Latin Mass,” Maureen says.
“We could have a conversation about it, and we would have all experienced the exact same thing,” she says. “That’s exciting.”
Recent developments in the Catholic Church, however, have curbed some of that excitement. On July 16, Pope Francis released a motu proprio titled Traditiones custodis, or “Guardians of the Tradition”, that has cast doubt on the future of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) – and deeply upset and confused many of its devotees.
Pope Francis’ directive rescinds the freedom Pope Benedict XVI granted to priests 14 years ago to say Masses using the Roman Missal of 1962, the form of liturgy prior to Vatican II, without first seeking their bishop’s approval. Under the new rules, bishops now have the “exclusive competence” to decide where, when, and whether the TLM can be said in their dioceses.
In a letter accompanying the motu proprio, Pope Francis maintains that the faculties granted to priests by his predecessor have been “exploited to widen the gaps, reinforce the divergences, and encourage disagreements that injure the Church, block her path, and expose her to the peril of division.”
Using the word “unity” a total of 15 times in the accompanying letter, the pope suggests that attending the TLM is anything but unifying, going so far as to correlate a strong personal preference for such masses with a rejection of Vatican II.
Weeks later, many admirers of the “extraordinary” form of the Roman rite – the McKinleys among them – are still struggling to wrap their minds and hearts around the pope’s order, and the pointed tone he used to deliver it.
Maureen McKinley says she had never considered herself a “traditionalist Catholic” before. Instead, she says she and her husband have just “always moved toward the most reverent way to worship and the best way to teach our children.”
“It didn’t feel like I became a particular type of Catholic by going to Mater Misericordiæ. But since the motu proprio came out, I feel like I have been categorized, like I was something different, something other than the rest of the Church,” she says.
“It feels like our Holy Father doesn’t understand this whole group of people who love our Lord so much.”
McKinley isn’t alone in feeling this way. Sadness, anger, frustration, and disbelief are some common themes in conversations among those who regularly attend the TLM.
They want to understand and support the Holy Father, but they also see the restriction as unnecessary, especially when plenty of other more pressing issues in the Church abound.
Eric Matthews, another Mater Misericordiæ parishioner, views the new restrictions as an “attack on devout Catholic culture,” citing the beauty that exists across the rites recognized within the Church. There are seven rites recognized in the Catholic Church: Latin, Byzantine, Alexandrian or Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Maronite, and Chaldean.
“It’s the same Mass,” says Matthews, 39, who first discovered the TLM about eight years ago. “It’s just different languages, different cultures, but the people that you have there are there for the right reasons.”
Different paths to the TLM
The pope’s motu proprio directly affects a tiny fraction of U.S. Catholics – perhaps as few as 150,000, or less than 1 percent of some 21 million regular Mass-goers, according to some estimates. According to one crowd-sourced database, only about 700 venues – compared to over 16,700 parishes nationwide – offer the TLM.
Also, since the motu proprio’s release July 16, only a handful of bishops have stopped the TLM in their dioceses. Of those bishops who have made public responses, most are allowing the Masses to continue as before – in some cases because they see no evidence of disunity, and in others because they need more time to study the issue.
But for those who feel drawn to the TLM – for differing reasons that have nothing to do with a rejection of Vatican II – it feels as if the ground has shifted under their feet.
Maureen McKinley wants her children to understand the importance of hard work, of which they have no shortage when it comes to their urban farm. After morning prayer, Maureen milks the family’s goats with the help of the children. Madeline (age 10) feeds the bunny; Augustine (7) exercises the dog; John (6) checks for eggs from the chickens; and Michael (4) helps anyone he chooses.
With a noisy clatter in the kitchen, the McKinleys eat breakfast, tidy up their rooms, and begin their daily activities. They break at 11 a.m. to head to daily Mass at Mater Misericordiæ, an apostolate of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP), where they first attended two years ago.
Matt, 34, wanted to know how the early Christians worshipped.
“The funny thing about converts is they’re always wanting more,” says Maureen, who was, at first, a little resistant to the idea of attending the TLM because she didn’t know Latin. “Worship was a big part of his conversion.”
Maureen agreed to follow her husband’s lead, and they continued to attend the TLM. What kept them coming back week after week was the reverence for the Eucharist.
“Matt had a really hard time watching so many people receive communion in the hand at the other parish,” says Maureen. “He says he didn’t want our kids to think that that was the standard. That’s the exception to the rule, not the rule.”
Reverence in worship also drew Elizabeth Sisk to the TLM. A 28-year-old post-anesthesia care unit nurse, she attends both the Novus Ordo, the Mass promulgated by St. Paul VI in 1969, and the extraordinary form in Raleigh, North Carolina, where her parish, the Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, offers the TLM on the first Sunday of the month.
Sisk has noticed recently that more people in her area — especially young people who are converts to Catholicism — are attending both forms of the Mass. While the Novus Ordo is what brought many of them, herself included, to the faith, she feels that the extraordinary form invites them to go deeper.
“We want to do something radical with our lives,” Sisk says. “To be Catholic right now as a young person is a really radical decision. I think the people who choose to be Catholic right now, we’re all in. We don’t want ‘watered-down’ Catholicism.”
With the lack of Christian values in the world today, Sisk desires “something greater,” which she says she can tell is happening in the TLM.
Many TLM parishes saw an increase in attendance during the pandemic, as they were often the only churches open while many others shut their doors or held Masses outside. This struck some as controversial, if not disobedient to the local government. For others, it was a saving grace to have access to the sacraments.
The priests at Erin Hanson’s parish obtained permission from the local bishop to celebrate Mass all day, every day, with 10 parishioners at a time during the height of the COVID pandemic.
“We were being told by the world that church is not necessary,” says Hanson, a 39-year-old mother of three. “Our priest says, ‘No, that’s a lie. Our church is essential. Our salvation is essential. The sacraments are essential.’”
Andy Stevens, 52, came into the Church through the TLM, much to the surprise of his wife, Emma, who had been a practicing Catholic for many years. Andy was “very adamantly not going to become Catholic,” but was happy to help Emma with their children at Mass. It wasn’t until they attended a TLM that Andy began to think differently about the Church.
“He believed that you die and then there is nothing, and he never really spoke to me about becoming a Catholic,” says Emma, 48, who was pregnant with their seventh child at the time.
Andy noticed an intense focus among the worshippers, which he recognized as a “real presence of God” that he didn’t see anywhere else. After the birth of their 7th child, he joined the Church.
All 12 of the Stevens’ children prefer the TLM to the Novus Ordo.
“It’s a Mass of the ages,” says their eldest son, Ryan, 27. “I can feel the veil between heaven and earth palpably thinner.”
A native of Chicago, Adriel Gonzalez, 33, remembers attending the TLM as a child, which he did not particularly like. It was “very long, very boring,” and the people who went to the TLM were “very stiff and they could come off as judgmental” towards his family, he says.
Gonzalez, who also attended Mass in Spanish with his family, didn’t understand the differences among rites, since Chicago was a sort of “salad bowl, ethnically,” he says, and Mass was celebrated in many languages and forms.
He took a step back from faith for some time, he says, noting that he had a “respectability issue” with the Christianity he grew up with. He watched as some of his friends were either thoughtless in the way they practiced their faith, or were “on fire,” but lacked intentionality. When he did come back to the faith, it was through learning about the Church’s intellectual tradition.
He spent time in monasteries and Eastern Catholic parishes with the Divine Liturgy because there was “something so obviously ancient about it.” He decided to stay within the Roman rite with a preference for a reverent Novus Ordo.
When he moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, Gonzalez committed to his neighborhood parish, which had a strong contingent of people who loved tradition in general. The parish instituted a TLM in the fall of 2020, when they started having Mass indoors again after the pandemic.
“If I’m at a Latin Mass, I’m more likely to get a sense that this is a time-honored practice, something that has been honed over the millennia,” he says. “There is clearly a love affair going on here with the Lord that requires this much more elaborate song and dance.”
For Eric Matthews, the TLM feels a little like time travel.
“It could be medieval times, it could be the enlightenment period, it could be the early 1900s, and the experience is going to be so similar,” he says.
“I just feel like that’s that universal timeframe – not just the universal Church in 2021 – but the universal Church in almost any time period. We’re the only church that can claim that.”
What happens now?
The motu proprio caught Adriel Gonzalez’ attention. He sought clarity about whether his participation in the extraordinary form was, in fact, part of a divisive movement, or simply an expression of his faith.
If it was a movement, he wanted no part of it, he says.
“As far as I can tell, the Church considers the extraordinary form and the ordinary form equal and valid,” says Gonzalez. “Ideally, there should be no true difference between going to one or the other, outside of just preference. It shouldn’t constitute a completely different reality within Catholicism.”
With this understanding, Gonzalez says he resonated with some of the reasoning set forth in the motu proprio because it articulated that the celebration of the TLM was never intended to be a movement away from the Novus Ordo or Vatican II. Gonzalez also emphasized that the extraordinary form was never supposed to be a “superior” way of celebrating the Mass.
Gonzalez believes the Lord allowed the growth in the TLM “to help us to recover a love for liturgy, and to ask questions about what worship and liturgy looks like.” He would have preferred if what was good was kept and encouraged, and what was potentially dangerous “coaxed out and called out.”
Erin Hanson, of Mater Misericordiæ, agrees.
“If [Pope Francis] does believe there is division between Novus Ordo and traditional Catholics, I don’t think he did anything to try to fix that division,” she says.
Hanson would like to know who the bishops are that Pope Francis consulted in making this decision, sharing that she doesn’t feel that there is any of the transparency needed for such a major document. If there are divisions, she says, she would like the opportunity to work on them in a different way.
“This isn’t going to be any less divisive if he causes a possible schism,” Hanson says.
According to the motu proprio and the accompanying letter, the TLM is not to be celebrated in diocesan churches or in new churches constructed for the purpose of the TLM, nor should new groups be established by the bishops. Left out of their parish churches, some are worried their only option to attend Mass will be in a recreation center or hotel ballroom.
Eric Matthews hopes that everyone is able to experience the extraordinary form at least once in their life so they can know that this is not about division.
“I can’t imagine someone going to the Latin Mass and saying, ‘This is creating disunity,’” he says. “There’s nothing to be afraid of with the Latin Mass. You’re just going to be surrounding yourself with people that really take it to heart.”
Maureen McKinley was home sick when her husband Matt found out about the motu proprio. He had taken the kids to a neighborhood park, where he ran into some friends who also attend Mater Misericordiæ. They asked if he had heard the news.
“I felt disgust at a document that pretends to say so much while actually saying so little and disregards the Church’s very long and rich tradition of careful legal documents,” Matt McKinley says.
Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix stated that the TLM may continue at Mater Misericordiæ, as well as in chapels, oratories, mission churches, non-parochial churches, and at seven other parishes in the diocese. Participation in the TLM and all of the activities of the parish are so important to the McKinleys that they are willing to move to another state or city should further restrictions be implemented.
For now, their family’s routine continues the same as before.
At the end of their day, the McKinleys pray a family rosary in front of their home altar, which has a Bible at the center, and an icon of Christ and a statue of the Virgin Mary. They eat dinner together, milk the goat again, and take care of their evening animal chores. After night prayer, the kids head off to bed, blessing themselves with holy water from the fonts mounted on the wall before they enter their bedroom.
“The life of the Church springs from this Mass,” Maureen says. “That’s why we’re here—not because the Latin Mass is archaic, but that it’s actually just so alive.”
Lima, Peru, May 10, 2022 / 15:55 pm (CNA).
The Peruvian Congress on Thursday passed Bill 904, which supports the right of parents to educate their children according to their values and principles.The bill wa… […]
5 Comments
Let the Costa Rican Bishops be mindful of the affliction of modernism in the Church. Do they live in a bubble?
I am 80 years old. As a school child I went to the Larin Mass daily and in my twenties. Our Mussles were one side Latin and one side Rnglush. I also took 2 years of Latin in High School. I was taught Latin was a sign of Unity in the Church; that I could go to mass anywhere in the Wirld and say participate. My children 6 never had that rich, binding experience. I never understood why Latin was not made optional- never.! I’m shocked at your lack of Works Community and that Pope Francis approves. I believe this action in 1970 was the first of many divisions which began – then- in The Church! There are little comforts in the Church now and I believe it began in 1970! The good things Charasmatic Renewal were eventually not made available in every Parish!
What are Tou doing to the Church? Look back and tell me about the Sanctity laeft, tell me about the pain of your Parishiners, ?
Kathleen Stringer
A once very devout Catholic!
““in reality they did not have a level of liturgical formation and access to the Latin language that would allow them ‘full, conscious and active participation in liturgical celebrations required by the nature of the liturgy itself.’””
They’ve just condemned the faithful of the Church for over a millennium and around the world, claiming that they didn’t participate “fully” and “consciously” in the Mass. St. Bernadette, sorry, you weren’t participating. Sts. Jacinta and Francisco, neither were you. St. Catherine of Siena, St. Charles Lwanga, forget it.
Let the Costa Rican Bishops be mindful of the affliction of modernism in the Church. Do they live in a bubble?
I am 80 years old. As a school child I went to the Larin Mass daily and in my twenties. Our Mussles were one side Latin and one side Rnglush. I also took 2 years of Latin in High School. I was taught Latin was a sign of Unity in the Church; that I could go to mass anywhere in the Wirld and say participate. My children 6 never had that rich, binding experience. I never understood why Latin was not made optional- never.! I’m shocked at your lack of Works Community and that Pope Francis approves. I believe this action in 1970 was the first of many divisions which began – then- in The Church! There are little comforts in the Church now and I believe it began in 1970! The good things Charasmatic Renewal were eventually not made available in every Parish!
What are Tou doing to the Church? Look back and tell me about the Sanctity laeft, tell me about the pain of your Parishiners, ?
Kathleen Stringer
A once very devout Catholic!
Sadly Costa Rica will soon become an Evangelical country, given that the Church there is lead by hippie Liberation Theology proponents.
““in reality they did not have a level of liturgical formation and access to the Latin language that would allow them ‘full, conscious and active participation in liturgical celebrations required by the nature of the liturgy itself.’””
They’ve just condemned the faithful of the Church for over a millennium and around the world, claiming that they didn’t participate “fully” and “consciously” in the Mass. St. Bernadette, sorry, you weren’t participating. Sts. Jacinta and Francisco, neither were you. St. Catherine of Siena, St. Charles Lwanga, forget it.
Thanks to Johann du Toit for explaining the Costa Rican bishops’ disappointing response.