 What Did the Council Command? and The Latin Connection What Did the Council Command? This brings us to the precise points under discussion in this pamphlet, i.e., what the conciliar documents and post-conciliar legislation made mandatory concerning Mass facing the people, redesigning sanctuaries, and moving the tabernacle. We will first examine the legislation of the Council itself. This is found in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum concilium, 4 December 1963). The possibility of Mass being celebrated facing the people is not so much as mentioned anywhere in this document, and so to talk of the practice being introduced as an act of obedience to the Council is either a deliberate lie or denotes culpable ignorance. Similarly, there is not so much as a word hinting that tabernacles should be torn from their place of honor on the high altar, which is what has happened in almost every church in the English-speaking world. The very thought of such an outrage would have horrified most, if not all, bishops. The idea that the ambiguous passages would be used in the way they have been never so much as occurred to the overwhelming majority. The Latin Connection The case of Latin in the liturgy provides a helpful parallel with what has happened in the sanctuary. The intention of the Liturgy Constitution is clear: Latin is to remain the norm but the vernacular can be introduced into parts of the Mass where it is thought pastorally desirable. Most bishops imagined that such exceptions would only be during the first part of the Mass, now usually referred to as the Liturgy of the Word. Xavier Rynne, the ultra-liberal commentator on the Council, concedes that this was the impression the bishops were given. Cardinal Heenan testifies that when the bishops voted for the Liturgy Constitution, they did not foresee "that Latin would virtually disappear from Catholic churches". Archbishop Dwyer remarked: "The very thought of it would have horrified us, but it seemed so far beyond the realm of the possible as to be ridiculous. So we laughed it off." But within a few years a few ambiguous phrases appearing to do no more than allow a limited use of the vernacular in certain parts of the Mass had been utilized to banish Latin from the liturgy throughout the Roman Rite. Emphasis
in bold, that of the Web Master.
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