In an age and society where we prize independence above nearly everything else, shackling the Mass to dead language and strict routine may seem medieval and stodgy. For us, a Mass without participation from the congregation in the music and conduct of the liturgy seems to exclude our very presence in the Sacrament. But Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, the auxiliary Bishop of the diocese of San Diego, wrote the following letter on how restoring the Tridentine Mass can have a positive effect on our faith:
"I think this is the most important point of the entire motu proprio (authorizing the Tridentine mass ritual). I think in some places the quality of liturgy has so degenerated that some people do not understand what Catholic worship is supposed to look like any more. Too often it is so horizontal and community-focused that the sense of the transcendent disappears; an expectation has been created that the liturgy, and the celebrant especially, should be entertaining. I believe that a greater presence and use of the extraordinary form (the Tridentine ritual) will help us recover our authentic tradition within the ordinary form. This would obviously mean a greater use of Latin and Gregorian chant, but it would include other aspects as well--for example, not deviating from the letter and spirit of the rubrics, a restoration of sacred music in general and sacred art and architecture, a greater emphasis on the transcendent, an awareness that the liturgy does not belong to the local community to do with as they will, but is too sacred and far beyond them to 'personalize' it. I would even go so far as to hope that it will help recover reverent behavior and dress on the part of parishioners!... Most importantly, we need to recover a love and appreciation of our Catholic heritage, and the implementation of the motu proprio will, I believe, be one important means for achieving this. However, at the same time, this does not exclude a legitimate diversity, and even inculturation, with the use of the ordinary form...
"There are elements of the development in the ordinary form that can enrich the celebration of the extraordinary form. I am thinking especially of the call of the Second Vatican Council for the lay faithful to learn the Gregorian chants in Latin, and sing them at Mass. I think it would be a big mistake to simply 'go back' to exactly the way things were done before. If we are going to recover and reappreciate our authentic tradition, it means that those who prefer the extraordinary form should be learn (and therefore be taught) the responses in Latin (so they are not said just by the acolyte--this is the old 'dialogue Mass'), and they should learn to sing the parts of the mass in Gregorian chant (while still allowing for some more technically demanding pieces to be done by the choir alone)."
